“Baekhyun? He’s the short cutie with the eyeliner, right?”

“Yes Minah. For the third time, Baekhyun is ‘the short cutie with the eyeliner’. So is that a yes?”

“Sure! Why not?”

Yurim let out a sigh of relief. She finally got a small group of girls to help her with Baekhyun’s dance gift so now all she had to do was whip up a quick choreography, coordinate outfits, and cut some music together. Ugh. The weight of performing for Baekhyun was not that bad, but knowing that Joonmyun would be there made Yurim frustrated. Something about having Joonmyun there made figuring out a short set very stressful. She could not be too y, not too cute, not too showy…not too anything.

“Quit worrying, Yuu. You’re performing for friends and they won’t care if your dancing is silly or as pro as SNSD.” Kai said as Minah walked back to practice. “Though he probably would appreciate hot pants. I always thought he was a bit of a leg guy.”

“Ew, gross, I do not need to think of Baekhyun and whatever weird es he might have.” Yurim felt a cold shudder run down her back as images of Baekhyun checking out her legs came to mind. “Ew ew ew! Why would you even say that? How would you even know that?!”

“Bro’s intuition?”

“Bro’s intuition? What the heck is that supposed to be?”

“You know…like…mother’s intuition. But between bros…?” Kai shrugged and tripped over his words as he pulled logic out of his . “Not important. Just do something fun and simple. I can’t imagine Baekhyun will be mad at anything you do.”

Yurim nodded, though part of her still worried because Baekhyun was one of her dearest friends. He always had her back and she wanted to make sure he knew how much she appreciated him. “Anywho,” Yurim knew there were other important things on her plate. “How is the whole showcase thing going? You’ve practically taken full reign on that project. Sorry…”

Kai laughed at Yurim’s sudden timid attitude. “Don’t apologize. I told you I could handle it, and I am handling it. You just jump back on board once your grades are back up.”

“Okay, dad.” Yurim stuck her tongue out and made an ugly face at Kai. They jumped back into the group practice and joined in on the blocking session.

*~*~*~*~*

Joonmyun slumped over the living room table and buried his face in his textbook. “I give up!” he exclaims dramatically. “I will never understand the so-called sophisticated nuances of Shakespeare and Goryeo poems. What kind of class covers both of them at the same time?!”

“Your comparative lit class, apparently.” Yixing answered dryly. Joonmyun shot him a glare because that was a rhetorical question you idiot. Yixing contemplated bringing up the fact that you signed up for the class and you had three weeks to drop it but he decided Joonmyun deserved one day out of the year without too many of his teasing and smart aleck comments. “Just focus and you’ll have your essay pounded out in no time.”

Joonmyun grumbled. Kyungsoo and Yixing were both majoring in communications, while Joonmyun was more focused on information technology. Why his university forced everyone to take so many classes outside ones major was a mystery. The only good thing that ever came from these mandatory non-major classes was that in his advanced calculus class he was sitting next to Yixing who was taking a basic level biology class with Kyungsoo at the time. Their friendship happened naturally over late nights and bitter coffee in the library.

A plate of crackers made home on Joonmyun’s Goryeo Poems, Vol II textbook. “Eat. And instead of , write.” Yixing added before going to his room to work on homework of his own.

Joonmyun looked at his sheet of notes and the five lines he had typed out on the computer. He glanced at the clock in the bottom right corner.

9:48 PM.

Joonmyun was in for a long night.

April 27^th

Joonmyun was in for a pretty long month, too.

*~*~*~*~*

Yurim stood in front of the studio mirror, body twisted to the side with a playfully seductive look on her face. It was late in the afternoon, but Yurim was not leaving until she had something finalized and ingrained into her mind so well she would dream about it. “You don’t think this is too much, do you?” she asked Kai as she resolved another turn.

“It looks fine, Yuu. Just do whatever is natural. You’re always better when you just flow with it.” Kai was not even looking up. He was too focused on some new game he got a hold of and was set on finishing it by the next weekend.

She turned off the music and looked Kai in the eye. They exchanged a few words (You’re not even paying attention! You look fine. You’re incorrigible! You don’t even know what that actually means.) before Xiumin walked into the dance studio. “I’m not disturbing anything, am I?”

“No. Kai is just being his stupid unhelpful self.”

“Ah. The normal then.”

“Hey! I am totally helpful. Just not now because I am trying to beat this level.”

Xiumin sends Kai a judging look, but of course Kai is far too absorbed in his game to notice or care. “Everything good down here, Yurim?” Yurim silently nodded, but the creases on her forehead tipped off Xiumin that things were not all rainbows and butterflies. Xiumin offered his help and Yurim gladly accepted it, throwing her own judgmental glares at Kai. Again, they went unnoticed.

“Are you really trying to come up with a new choreography?” Xiumin asked as he set down his things.

Yurim shook her head. “Just a transition piece. I told Seohyeon I was going to recycle one or two of my old pieces and she said it was a good idea.” She walked over to the speakers and played the four-minute song for Xiumin. “There’s a transition at about 1:40 and another at around 2:55. And this is what I have for the first transition.” Yurim rewound the song to give her enough time to get back to the dance floor.

오 오오 예 오. 오오 예 오 너 잘났다 정말!
오 오오 예 오. 오오 예 오 너 잘났어 정말!
Ayo! Stop! Let me put it down another way.

Oh oh oh yeah oh. Oh oh yeah oh You're such a show-off, seriously!
Oh oh oh yeah oh. Oh oh yeah oh You're such a show-off, seriously!

Ayo! Stop! Let me put it down another way.

The electric sounds disappeared immediately, leaving just the boom, boom kka of the bass and snare. Yurim made small and quick movements with her arms and torso. As the kka turned into another boom, leaving only the steady boom boom boom of the bass, Yurim’s dance turned into chest pops and fluid shoulder rolls.

소원을 말해봐
지루한 날들이 넌 지겹지 않니?
평범한 생활에 넌 묻혀버렸니?
이제 그만 깨어나
넌 나의 Superstar, Shining Star, Superstar

Tell me your wish
Aren't you tired of the boring days
Have you become buried by your ordinary life?
Now stop and wake up You are my superstar, shining star, super star

“Yeah. Something like that. The other transition is basically a lean with a really long warp while one person acts to the words. So either me or Soojung.” Yurim pauses the music before it can keep going.

Xiumin watched Yurim again and gave whatever advice came to his head. Xiumin was a bit shy and reserved in general, but Yurim knew that he was quiet so he could properly assess any and all situations before putting in his own thoughts. Xiumin had a knack for visualizing formations as well, which Yurim needed considering she was taking a nine person choreography and using only five people.

“I mean, it looks good. I think you just have to tighten up the moves to the counts.” He says after a few more goes at the choreography.

Yurim nodded in agreement. She decided to do all the cleanup work the next day and start practicing with the girls the day after. “Thank you for the help. I was afraid I’d be stuck with whatever lame advice Kai has. And sorry if I ended up stealing you away from whatever you came here to do.”

Xiumin chuckled because it was so very true, and Kai missed the jab because he was still very much absorbed in his game. “Any time. I was just coming to work on a piece but I’m in no rush to finish it. Want to go grab something for dinner? You look like you could use the break.”

“Sure. Kai, you wanna come get food with us?”

“Yeah, okay…” Kai was still focused on his game, but stood up and grabbed his bag with a free arm while still playing with only his thumb.

“Dinner is on you, right Kai?” Xiumin asked playfully as the trio walked out.

“Yeah, yeah what…HEY!”

*~*~*~*~*

Chanyeol rolled on his couch. His music theory book was haphazardly hanging over his head, and if Chanyeol fell asleep he would be promptly be awoken by said book falling on his face. Frankly, Chanyeol felt no need to study because his entire life has been dedicated to music, but his parents were visiting for the weekend and he had to at least pretend he was being productive.

“Chanyeol, I told you to go to your desk. You’ll focus better.”

“I won’t Mom, trust me.” Chanyeol let out a heavy sigh, remembering that his mother was a nag when it came to his studies. And his eating habits. And his lack of organization. It was nice living on his own now that he was in college, but he did miss home cooked food and hanging out with his sister when they were both in need of ‘mom-and-dad-are-driving-me-crazy-save-me time.

Chanyeol turned to page of his book and groaned. Tritones: the Devil’s Interval. Gross. Chanyeol knew the music theory class would be a cakewalk for him, but he did not expect it to be this freaking boring. Easiest 4.0 ever had to come at some sort of price, he supposed.

His train of thought was interrupted by a deep-voiced selected VIP wouldn’t it be mind-blowingly awesome, now we’re on a rock-rock-rocket, just gotta keep your seatbelt fastened. His phone lit up, as did Chanyeol when he read the caller ID.

“What up, Luhan-hyung?”

“Just wanted to update you that things are all going smoothly on my end. Any news on Yurim?”

“It’s going, I guess. She told me she found some girls, but they still need to practice. I think she forgot about Joonmyun-hyung, or managed to ignore that he would be there. I still need to talk to Baekhyun, but the fact that this is supposed to be a surprise for him makes the whole ‘hey, you’re sharing your birthday party with Yurim’s ex’ talk a bit difficult.”

“He’s blocked the date off at least, right? Like he isn’t going to suddenly tell us he can’t come?”

“’Course. I made sure he blocked that day off so we could hand out long before we roped Yurim in last week. The guest lists have been figured out right?”

Luhan hummed. “So maybe not everything is going smoothly on my end…”

“Hyung…”

“It’s working itself out. It’s just that there are a lot of people on the fence about coming because they know Yurim will be there and Suho and…well you can do the math.” Luhan knew Chanyeol was rolling his eyes at that. “I’ll handle it, just don’t expect things to go exactly how we planned it as far as the guest list goes.”

“Right…I– one sec,“ Luhan heard Chanyeol saying something to someone else. Something about dinner. “Hey, Hyung, I’ll call you back. I have to go help my mom.”

“Don’t poison the food~”

“Screw you.” Luhan laughed as Chanyeol hung up. He wiped a fake tear from his eyes as he got back to the test he was writing. Oh, the joys to being a teaching assistant. He could not wait to grade the tests on Friday night (read: Luhan wanted to go on a date with Sehun, but he had to grade the freshmens’ tests before Monday and God these kids don’t even try to write anything something intelligent these days I am going to kill them all). The test was mostly done, but he had to make a second version incase he had to administer a make-up test.

The good news was that after the tests were finished, he would have a lot of time to make sure the party would go well. He and Chanyeol were already two months deep in this plan, and they were not about to let it fail.

Frankly, Luhan did not mean to be such good friends with Chanyeol. He was pissed off that Chanyeol was convinced he was a girl for almost a week, and that made it hard to ever take Chanyeol seriously about anything. The initial impressions wore off some time down the road, but the damage was done and to this day Luhan would give Chanyeol crap about it. But after learning that Luhan and Chanyeol are both mischievous little (tall, in Chanyeol’s case) meddlers and seeing Suho and Yurim’s breakup, the two became very close. Suho never told Luhan exactly what happened with the breakup, but the fact that Suho was completely not himself was the first hint that Suho needed Yurim. As for Chanyeol, seeing Yurim sobbing and eating ice cream by the pint like every clichéd break up story known to man kind and taking the brunt of her I-hate-Joonmyun rampage was reason enough for him to try and get them back together. Or at least back on speaking terms.

Luhan did feel bad for using Baekhyun’s birthday as an excuse to get Yurim and Suho to consensually be in the same room, but Chanyeol had mentioned that Baekhyun shared their sentiments, just not to the same degree. So in a weird way, should the plan go well, this was kind of Luhan’s birthday gift for Baekhyun. It was a stretch, but Luhan liked to think it was still a valid present.

*~*~*~*~*

It was one thing to make a choreography. It was something completely different – foreign, even – to teach a choreography. Yurim hardly ever taught and though she did help catch people up or give people advice almost every practice, everything was spelled out for her. Someone else put the words in . Now she had to come up with her own words to accompany her actions. It was bad enough that Yurim was not good at public speaking (strike one) and that she rambles when she gets nervous (strike two), but tacking on the self-imposed weight of the performance made her a perfectionist, and perfectionist Yurim was often a mean Yurm (strike three).

Things were going fairly smoothly at least. Yurim had been able to work out practice schedules with the girls, and they all remembered the gist of the choreography so it was mostly like recalling old facts rather than teaching something totally new. Still, Yurim got flustered at little things.

Ayo! GG! Yeah Yeah 시작해 볼까?
어-머! 얘 좀 봐라 얘, 무슨 일이 있었길래 머릴 잘랐대? 응?
어-머! 또 얘 좀 보라고! 머리부터 발끝까지 스타일이 바뀌었어
왜 그랬대? 궁금해 죽겠네 왜 그랬대? 말해 봐봐 좀
 

Ayo! GG! Yeah Yeah Shall we start?
Gosh! Just look at her, what happened that she cut her hair? Huh?
Gosh! Look at her again! She changed her style from head to toe
Why did she do that? I'm dying of curiosity, why did she do that? Please tell me

“Minor change here. You three,” Yurim pointed at Soojung, Eunji, and Yoojung, “come forward and pose like this…and then when we walk up you guys turn like so…” Yurim rotated her body with her arm held out before snapping it down to her side. “Kind of like a door, I guess.”

Ha Ha! Let me introduce myself! Here comes trouble! 따라 해
오 오오 예 오. 오오 예 오 너 잘났어 정말!

Ha Ha! Let me introduce myself! Here comes trouble! Repeat after me! 

Oh oh oh yeah oh. Oh oh yeah oh You're such a show-off, seriously!

“Question!”

“Yes, Minah?

“Is your head like this,” Minah tilted her head down and to the right, “or like this?” she let her head fall back, exposing and clavicles.

“Uh…you uh…one sec.” Yurim quickly did the steps and broke down everything she did. “I do it the second way. I think…”

I got a boy 멋진! I got a boy 착한! I got a boy handsome boy 내 맘 다 가져간
I got a boy 멋진! I got a boy 착한! I got a boy awesome boy 완전 반했나 봐

I got a boy, cool! I got a boy, kind! I got a boy, handsome boy who completely stole my heart

I got a boy, cool! I got a boy, kind! I got a boy, awesome boy, I think I completely fell for him

“You girls got it all? The basis of it?” The other four heads nodded. They were all tired and in need of a nice long nap. “We’ll keep cleaning it up and finalize the formations next time. See you all next week.” Yurim dismissed the girls as she grabbed her things. She declined the invitation to get dinner because she had a pile of homework she had been neglecting and it was all due in the next four or five days. It may have been 9:25PM on a Friday night, but that did not mean it was the weekend, especially when buses ran late and Yurim knew it would take her the better part of the next few days to finish her homework.

On the bus ride home, Yurim took a seat towards the back next to the window. She luckily got on before the bus was too crowded. A few people were forced to stand. Darned having to take a popular bus that ran the most convenient streets.

The bus was running late like she thought so she sent a quick text to Kris. Hopefully he would not worry too much. She tucked her phone away and plugged her headphones in and ran the steps in her head a few more times to make sure she was as solid as she thought. Even now there was an itch to change things, but she knew it would only be problematic if she kept making necessary alterations.

우리 사랑했잖아 제발 날 울리지마
오직 내겐 너 하나뿐야
눈을 감아도 보여 귀를 막아도 들려
제발 날 떠나가지마

We used to love, please don’t make me cry

To me, it’s only you

When I close my eyes, I see you – when I block my ears, I hear you

Please don’t leave me

Yurim stared down at her iPod for a moment, not realizing she accidentally clicked to the next song. She always did like anything by Davichi so she let it keep playing. She quickly put it on loop and mouthed the words to herself as she stared blankly out the windows. The street laps covered the world with an amber glow and silhouettes stalk across building walls.

어두웠던 내 삶에 빛이 되어준 사람 너무나 소중한 사람
하루 지나고 또 지나도 더 그리워져 이 노랠 하는 지금도

The person who became a light in my dark life, such a precious person

A day passes and another passes and I long for you more, even as I sing this song

The bus slowly pulls into a stop. It jerks a bit as the breaks are applied, pulling Yurim from her state of staring. Yurim adjusted herself after nearly falling out of he seat before looking back out the window. A short line of people were waiting for the bus to clear out before boarding themselves.

Her eyes went wide.

Oh hell no…

*~*~*~*~*

Kris looked down at his phone. No new messages yet. He thought Yurim would have texted him by now, but also knew she was busy with practice and homework. That never stopped her before, though, so Yurim must have been really busy.

It was already late, but Kris was caught up in the radio studio working on a huge pile of copy that magically appeared on his desk roughly twenty minutes before Kris planned on going home.

“We have the radio special coming up, and we really need these done by the end of the day.” Was all the lead editor had to say, apologetic look only half convincing. Kris wanted to strangle him, but said lead editor was forced to stay behind, too, so at least Kris had someone else to suffer with.

Being a radio editor was not too bad, but there were the occasional late nights that Kris dreaded. There was lots of paper, words written so closely the characters blend together after the third page, and copious amounts of coffee – about a fourth of which always ended where it did not belong.

Kris’ head was on his desk, with about a fourth of the stack left untouched. At this point, the coffee was hurting more than helping, pages and pens jittering so much Kris could hardly figure what was happening.

It was close to eight o’clock when Kris’ phone buzzed.

From: Babe
I’ll be leaving the studio in an hour. I’ll text you when I get home.

To: Babe
Thanks for letting me know. Get home safe. Love you.

Kris put his phone away even though hit buzzed again. He let it be, knowing it was Yurim texting back her affection. It’s how it always happened: quick texts that ended with “love you, too” and an emote, most likely a heart or smiley face depending on Yurim’s mood.

The text was a nice little break, and Kris found it in himself to get through the rest of the papers just after the clock struck nine. He excused himself and bid his co-workers goodnight as he left the office. It was a strangely windy night and Kris found his jacket was a very nice buffer against the cool air.

On the way home, Kris stopped for dinner. He considered calling Yurim to see if she wanted a ride home, but by now she was likely on the bus, and by the time he got his food and ate it would be close to ten and Yurim would definitely be home by then.

“Hello, sir, may I take you order?”

Kris glanced over the menu before deciding to treat himself to bulgogi and a small order of soup. He offers the menu back to the waiter and is a little surprised at who he sees. “Tao?”

“Uh…yes?” the waiter was looking down and had yet to get a good look at his customer.

“It’s me, Kris.”

“Oh! Hi!” Tao smiled to Kris before darting to the kitchen to give them Kris’ order. Tao returned with a glass of water and sat down across from Kris. “How have you been? I haven’t seen you too much lately.” Tao casually slipped into Chinese. He did not get a lot of chances to use it outside of the house, and it was nice knowing he could talk to someone and no one else would know what they were saying.

“Good, just been working.” Kris said before taking a sip of water. Tao was one of the few people Kris knew well from EXO. Despite being much younger, Tao could actually act very mature. Most people would laugh if you told them that because they knew Tao as a bit of a baby. “Since when did you work here?”

“I needed the money, so Xiumin got me the job. His parents know the owners and they’ve been needing someone to work just this late night shift. Not the best paying job, but you know…” Tao had mentioned to Kris a while back that his family was in a bit of a rut after his dad was hospitalized, and Tao had taken it upon himself to help out with the family financials until his dad was off medication and could properly go back to work. It was still very low-key information, and Kris was quite surprised Tao had told him to begin with, but the two grew close after Yurim introduced them to each other.

They kept talking, even after Kris got his food. Tao excused himself to attend to another patron who ordered something to go, but otherwise the little restaurant was empty.

“…and so I told them to buzz off.”

“Good to hear you didn’t beat them up or anything.” Kris said sarcastically. He momentarily forgot that Tao could, if he wanted to, easily rip apart a giant bull with his bare hands should it think Tao was an easy target.

“Not my fault if I did. He was asking for it.”

Kris snorted at that. He took a glance at his phone. He was a bit worried that Yurim had yet to text him – it was about 9:45 – but he knew the buses had a habit of running late at night.

“Tao, close the front, will you?”

“Yes, boss!” Tao got up to turn off the front lights and flip the ‘open’ sign to ‘closed’. Kris started to clean up himself so that Tao and whoever else was in the back could get home sooner. After paying and clocking out, Kris and Tao left together.

“Need a ride home?” Kris asked as they exited the restaurant. He pointed in the direction of his car.

Tao shook his head and pointed to the bus stop across the street. “I live a little far, but the bus takes me a block from my house. It’s late and I wouldn't want to keep you out.” Tao bid Kris goodnight and ran across the street to take a seat at the bus stop bench. He did not expect Kris to follow him. “What are you-“

“You looked cold.” Kris tossed Tao his jacked. It was still chilly, but the food had warmed Kris up enough that he was fine in his long sleeve top and slacks. Tao, on the other hand, was in a thin t-shirt and jeans and was trying his hardest to stop shivering. Kris refused to take back the jacket until Tao’s bus came, so they sat together and picked up their conversation until Kris got a text.

From: Babe
My bus is running late, but I think I should be home within half an hour. I’ll text you when I get home.

It was a relief to know Yurim was fine. That didn’t mean that Kris was okay with the busses being late. It seemed like trouble waiting to happen. Kris put his phone away and turned his attention back to Tao who seemed to still be cold despite the jacket. It was a little too big and the cold air managed to sneak into the gaps where the jacket did not quite hug Tao’s body. Taking pity on the boy, Kris pulled Tao towards himself and tried to share some body heat with Tao. Tao nuzzled into Kris as he waited for his bus. A few passed by but of course Tao had to take the one bus that ran the least often.

About ten minutes passed before the bus barreled down the street. It was nearly empty, but it was to be expected considering the time. Tao thanked Kris for waiting with him before boarding the bus.

It was not until Kris got in his car he realized “oh, I forgot to get my jacket back from Tao.”

*~*~*~*~*

Joonmyun stretched his arms over his head. He left his home to study at the library.

“Maybe a change of scenery will help you concentrate.”

“’Help’, my , Kyungsoo!” Joonmyun tried reading at the park, but it was too cold for him to do anything. He went to the library, but it was too quiet even with his music on. It was such a pain walking around just finding a place to study and Joonmyun had half a mind to wonder if he would ever find a place to settle down.

He finally made his way to a cafe and managed to get some work done, but there was too much movement around him to do everything he wanted. A few people he knew from school were also there and they managed to distract Joonmyun for about half an hour before they left to do some work of their own.

It was late, and Joonmyun felt bad for occupying a table for so long. He knew the owners were nice and always so sweet to anyone who needed a place to do work, but Joonmyun wasn’t stupid enough to think that him holding a table wasn’t even a bit of a profit loss for the owners.

“Thank you again, Mr. and Mrs. Choi. Sorry again for taking so much time.”

“Oh stop it, Joonmyun. You’re a good kid and we appreciate you tutoring our son when you can. The least we can do is provide a small space for you do your things.” Mrs. Choi said as she wiped down a table. “Get home safe and good luck with your studies!”

Joonmyun waved goodbye as he pulled on his coat and bag and walked out the door before she could shove any freebies into his hands. Mrs. Choi always did dote on him. He appreciated the gestures, but he felt bad about taking advantage of her kindness.

It was only 9:45, but Joonmyun had to take the bus to get home and the stupid 28 never ran on time. He also had to walk a bit to get to his apartment. Add the fact that it was late, and Joonmyun was probably not going to get home until 10:45. With a heavy sigh, Joonmyun adjusted the strap of his book bag and walked down the street to the bus stop. He turned the volume up on his iPod and waited for the bus to arrive.

It was fairly peaceful now that it was so late. Warm lights flooded the street with a dull orange-amber and shadows silently crawled by. He mouthed the words as they came to him. The bus finally came and Joonmyun slid into line to board the bus.

우리 사랑했잖아 제발 날 울리지마
오직 내겐 너 하나뿐야
눈을 감아도 보여 귀를 막아도 들려
제발 날 떠나가지마

We used to love, please don’t make me cry

To me, it’s only you

When I close my eyes, I see you – when I block my ears, I hear you

Please don’t leave me

Joonmyun cringed when the song came on. After breaking up with Yurim, this was the song he kept listening to. It wasn’t on purpose, but for some reason this song kept coming up no matter where he went. He could have changed the song with an easy click of a button, but it’s a three-minute song and listening to a bad memory would not kill him. He paid the fair and quickly took to a standing spot about half way between the front and back.

세상과 너 둘중에 택하라면 하나
내 전불 빼앗아도 너라면 난 좋아
낮이나 밤이나 사랑에 난 목마른 자
널 이젠 잊자 이런 나의 같잖은 다짐이 또 다시 나를 울려 들려

If I were to chose between you and the world
Even if everything is taken away from me, if it’s you, I’m okay
Day or night, I’m thirsty for love
My unseemly promise to forget you makes me cry again, can you hear me?

Joonmyun pulled out his phone when his iPod’s battery died, texting Yixing and Kyungsoo that he was on his way home and asked if they could leave something out for him to heat up, before playing Anipang. Stupid Luhan, getting him addicted to matching the colorful little…whatever they were. How Luhan managed to get some high score in the low 300,00s baffled Joonmyun who struggled to get over 135,00 no matter how many combos he strings together.

For some reason, the song was stuck on loop in his head.

너에게 바라는건 오직 너야
너 없인 아무것도 할수 없는 나야
이 노랠 들으면 제발 너 돌아와 돌아와

The only thing I want from you is you
Without you, I can’t do anything
If you hear this song, please come back, come back

Yurim could not believe Joonmyun was on the bus. He did not live in the same direction as her, did he? Yurim let out a breath she did not realize she was holding after concluding that Joonmyun had yet to see her. She would like to keep it that way.

돌아올것 같아서 다시 올지 몰라서 오늘도 너를 기다려
너는 모르지 넌 모르지 아파하는 날 이 노랠 하는 지금도

You might come back, because you might return, again today, I wait for you
You don’t know, you don’t know how much I’m hurting, even as I sing this song

It should not have been this hard to tear her eyes from Joonmyun’s profile. But damnit, she just could not stop watching his concentrated gaze or the way he bit on his lower lip as his thumb slid across his phone. Maybe because it had been so long. Maybe because some time in the last couple of weeks, Joonmyun had dyed his hair a deep red. Maybe because the stupid song was still playing on loop and the reality was that Yurim was not as over Joonmyun as she would like to believe.

사랑하면 할수록 점점 야위어만 가
오직 내겐 너 하나뿐야
우리 사랑했잖아 제발 날 울리지마
날 두고 떠나가지마

The more I love, the gaunter I get
To me, it’s only you

We use to love, please don’t make me cry

Please don’t leave me

Joonmyun could feel someone watching him, but he was on a bus full of strangers and if college taught him anything about practical life, it was to not draw unwanted attention to yourself and lose it the second you felt it. Joonmyun tried to look as normal as possible and turned his back to the perpetrator. Hopefully not having a face to look at would bore whoever thought him interesting enough to watch. It was a little unsettling to have someone watch him for so long, and he could feel a ripple of fear run down his back.

Yeah uh uh 결국 넌 돌아서 나는 또 막아서
자존심 다 버리고 미친척 널 따라서

Yeah uh uh, in the end, you turn away and you keep me away
I threw away my pride and like a crazy person, I followed you

Yurim saw Joonmyun turn around. She finally convinced her body to stop staring, but her eyes continued to steal glances no matter how hard she tried not to.

Joonmyun could still feel eyes on him, but it was not as intense anymore. The little victories… He saw his stop approaching and made his way up to the door. He thanked the driver as he disembarked. He still felt the eyes following him as he got off the bus.

Joonmyun looked up hoping to find the culprit who was sending shivers down his spine. The bus was still in front of him, but it slowly moved forward.

Suddenly, Joonmyun wished he didn’t look up. Yurim was looking back at him before turning back to stare very intensely at the back of someone’s head.

가슴이 되려 나를 다그치고 말했어
세상에 하나뿐인 널 잃지는 말랬어
나는 또 웃는척 그냥 멀쩡한척
너에게 부르는 마지막 나의 이 노래

But my heart urged me on and told me
Not to lose you, who is the only one in the world
I pretended to smile, pretended to be fine
This is the last song I am singing to you


Yurim felt a knot in her stomach as the bus rolled away.

Joonmyun felt one, too.

제발 날 떠나가지마

Please don’t leave me

------------
a/n

So this took me forever to post up....oops...hope it was worth the wait, though. It probably looks long because of the lyrics but I think it's actually about the same length as the previous chapters, maybe a little shorter. It took me a while to shift feelings between the characters, plus dealing with the feels that led up to this fic being a thing (thank you for the love over there, btw OTL) which equated to a bunch of writers block as far as getting this one done.

Been trying to go more in depth with the characters and the way the think, act, and do things, too. I am not sure how successful I have been with that. Feedback is always nice :)

Also, un-beta'd like always :p

Oh, and if you weren't sure I used 3 different songs in this chapter here.

The first is SNSD's I Got A Boy, followed promptly by 소원을 말해봐 (Tell Me Your Wish). Expect these songs to re-appear in the next chapter, which is why they were so scarecly used here. Shout out to Soshified for the lyrics and translations (Lyrics: 유영진 (Yoo Youngjin) // Translations: SNSDDani, minigiglo, Meehyun @ soshified.com/forums // Romanizations: cedge @ soshified.com/forums)

The third song is 우리 사랑했잖아 (We Were In Love) by Davichi and T-ara. Love this song so much. Got lyrics from koreapopmusic.wordpress and chacha-31.blogspot