Over the next few weeks Victoria debated texting Chanyeol. She had put the number in her phone, but didn’t know what to say. Deep down she knew she was lonely and he was nice and that was the only reason she was worried about it. But deep down she was also worried about developing feels for the boy when she was one, convinced he could be a wolfman and two, somewhat infatuated with his twin brother.

The idea of it made her gag. She tried to convince herself that no, she could not and would not like Chanyeol. They were just friends, kind of. Victoria looked up from her writing assignment her mother had sent her. Across the sheet that was supposed to be a translated essay from French to English, she had been doodling Chanyeol’s name without even realizing it.

Okay, so maybe a small crush on Chanyeol wasn’t such a terrible thing. Standing from her desk, Victoria marched across her room and snatched the phone of of her bed. “I mean there’s a simple way to handle this,” she told herself as she scrolled through her contacts. “I’ll just send him a text and ask if he wants to go out to dinner tonight, and if he responds positively then cool and if he doesn’t then I’ll rip this like a bandaid and move on.”

As Victoria sent her message, she thought back to the similar scenario she went through when she first realized her crush on Baekhyun in her freshman year.

Victoria sat across the cafeteria with her legs bouncing beneath the table as she waited. She knew the guy from her English class would come through the right door in the p.e. Uniform like he did every day. She hadn’t caught his name yet, but today was the day. She was going to man up and talk to him.

On cue, he came through he doors with a few other guys around him, they were all laughing and joking around, shoving a much taller guy who had a huge grin on his face. Victoria’s eyes widen as the boy from he class caught her stare and offered a small smile. Dark blush spread across her cheeks, and she quickly looked away. Taking a deep breath, she looked up again to find him still staring at her with the same smile on his face. He had soft dark eyes and cherry hair that stuck to his forehead from sweat, and he was staring right at her.

Her heart raced in her chest as the boy glanced back to his friends and said something before making his way towards her. Victoria felt her heart skip a beat as she looked away. What was he doing? What would she say to him? She could feel her stomach flipping around and when she looked up in a panic and said, “I have the biggest crush on you.”

But as she finished her sentence, no one was there. Victoria looked around and saw the cherry haired boy talking to another girl from their class. Horror rested on her shoulders as she quickly gathered her things and left the cafeteria.

For the rest of high school Victoria never went into the cafeteria again. She could feel the dread in her chest again as she stared down at the text she had sent. To none other than his brother. Victoria turned her phone on loud and set it on her night stand. This wasn’t the first time she had bluntly asked someone out, her boyfriend Travis in her sophomore year went the same way, as did Marcus her junior year.

Victoria remember Marcus well. He was the only reason she met Baekhyun and Chanyeol on a first name basis. Come to think of it, Marcus was probably the reason the twins were concerned for her now. It had been a simple thing a first, she and Marcus got together at the beginning of the year and were basically attached at the hip, but as the year went on, he changed.

Victoria knew she had to end it soon. Marcus was beginning to get more violent and it was becoming hard to hide it from Reese. She had tried to ask him to be more gentle, but that resulted in something less so. She had decided to do it before class, that way she could avoid him the rest of the day.

As she headed into the school, she took a deep breath and made her way towards his locker. She met him there every morning before first period. Victoria turned the corner and saw him leaning against his locker talking to the cherry haired boy he ran track with. He saw the two of them together a lot, but when she asked Marcus if they were friends, he said he couldn’t stand him.

Victoria approached slowly. The cherry boy noticed her before Marcus did. He looked her over, and Victoria subconsciously reached up to cover the bruise under her eye. She had covered it as best she could with makeup that morning, but the more she used the more it hurt and she eventually gave it. The cherry boy glared at her and turned back to Marcus and shoved him into the lockers.

Gasping, Vic rushed up as Marcus punched the cherry boy in the jaw. “I didn’t do anything!” Marcus shouted at the cherry boy.

Spitting blood onto the floor, the cherry boy stood up. A crowd gathered around them now and Victoria was trying to push threw it. “I gave you one order!” She heard someone yell. “Keep your hands off her! Was that so hard!”

“Baekhyun!” Another voice shouted. Someone pushed past Victoria, and she forced her way threw behind him. As she go to the front, a taller boy with black hair was pulled the cherry boy off of Marcus as the principal and some coaches were separating the fight. Victoria caught a glimpse of Marcus’s face to find it covered in blood. Marcus caught her eye and reached out of her. Victoria stuck up her nose at him and turned away into the crowd.

In her third period that day, Vitoria was hiding in the back of the class trying to reapply makeup to her eye. The screech of a chair caught her attention, and she looked up to see the cherry and black haired guy pulling up chairs across from her.

“Are you alright?” The cherry haired boy asked her. His voice was rough and scratchy which matched his busted lip and bruised chin. “Sorry about your boyfriend.”

“Sorry about your face,” Victoria reply, tucking her makeup away. “But please, don’t apologize. I should be the one apologizing. Marcus has a tendency to get rough.”

The black hair boy nodded. “Like your eye?” Victoria looked away. “And I’m sure you’ve got them on your arms at least too. You never take off your jacket even when it’s hot outside. Marcus had it coming, just don’t go back to him.”

“I was actually going to break up with him today,” she whispered. “Why did you shove him anyway?”

The cherry boy shrugged his shoulders. “Isn’t it obvious? He deserved it.” He smiled and Victoria was worried his lip would slit again. “But everyone only gets one, so next time Chanyeol here will fight whoever and I’ll break it up. And then it’s your turn and the cycle will go around, deal?”

With a wide grin, Victoria nodded. “I’m Victoria,” she offered out a hand to each of them.

“Chanyeol, nice to meet you.” The dark haired one smiled at her and shook her hand.

The cherry boy took her hand and gave it a single shake. Victoria felt sparks shoot up her arm at the contact. “Baekhyun.”

Against her will, that crush rushed back to the surface.