All eleven heads immediately craned towards the door as it knocked open. BaekHyun stood before it, respiring heavily as he tried to catch his breath. As soon as his heart rate returned back to its normal pace, he settled down beside Tao and waited for further information from his father.

            Unexpectedly, KyungSoo headed to the front and stood beside Han.

            “I received another vision,” he began. “Kris… I saw Kris.”

            BaekHyun glanced over at Tao to find him looking right back at him in shock.

            “His eyes were flaming red, and he seemed to be charging at something—or someone…” he continued, darting his eyes back and forth in deep thought as he tried to recall more of the image. However he was unable to remember any further, “And that’s all I can really remember. The strange thing is… How is Kris able to be a part of the future if he’s… If he’s not even alive anymore…?”

            “Umma! I’m home!” she hollered as she entered through the front door.

            “Arasso! I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything!”

            April slipped off her shoes and headed straight to her room. She quickly took out her schoolbooks and assignments and dived right into her homework, leaving no time to waste. April hated the bothersome feeling of busying herself with something else knowing that a pile of homework still awaited her. Therefore, the girl always tried to finish her daily tedious assignments before she allowed herself to do any other activities.

            Flipping through her textbook, April found a slightly creased piece of paper stuck between the thin pages. Frowning, she pulled the thing out and came into realization that it was her vocal audition paper. April had been pouring all her concentration and efforts into the maintenance of her busy schedule and had completely neglected the papers—the key to her dreams. She felt her heart crushing in disappointment as soon as her eyes landed on the date. It was already a week over due.

            “Damn it, April” she cursed under her breath as tears began to swell up in her eyes.

            She gripped onto the paper tightly—listening to it crumble loudly into a wrinkled pellet of meaningless words—as she felt her hopes of becoming a vocalist slowly wither away into nothingness.

            “So you’re for sure going right?!” the ecstatic RinA giggled.

            April nodded meekly at her friend and plastered on a smile to keep up with the lively energy and mood of the conversation. However, it was quite difficult, for the thought of the audition papers and what could’ve been of her potentially successful singing career kept lingering in her mind.

            “Okay great! I’ll be inviting a few friends from college, is that okay with you?”

            “Sure. Whatever floats your boat. It is your birthday party after all, haha.”

            “Okay, so it’ll be you, a few of my college friends, and who else… Oh my god, how about BAEKHYUN?!” she squealed excitedly.

            April’s immediately eyes lit up at the sound of the boy’s name. She bashfully looked back down at her tray of food when she realized how terribly embarrassing her reaction was.

             “Should I invite his brothers too?! Ani, ani… I want to us to be alone… Okay, this is good so far,” RinA muttered under her breath as she preciously plotted everything out. “Now, if I personally invited him, I’d definitely get rejected cause we don’t know each other that well… Hmm…”

            April watched as her best friend’s lips curved up into a sly grin as she finished brainstorming the last bits of her clever plan.

            “April, I’m going to need you to do me a favor.”

            After all the halls had finally cleared out, she slightly cleared to catch his attention. BaekHyun quickly turned around and found himself face-to-face to April.

            “Oh hey. What’s up?”

            “Uh, so…” April began hesitantly, unsure of how to ask the boy, “My friend, RinA—her birthday party is going to be held on Friday night. Do you wanna come?” she stuttered sheepishly while mentally cursing at herself for being foolish enough to agree to help out her friend.

            BaekHyun stared at the girl strangely, literally feeling heat waves emitting from the girl’s cheeks as she waited for his response.

            “I’m not too sure yet,” he told her truthfully, “But uh, I’m curious—if it’s her party, why are you inviting me?”

            April squeezed her eyes shut in utter embarrassment.

            “Yah calm the hell down April. You’re asking for RinA, not for yourself, so what are you so nervous for?!” she mentally scolded herself.

            “Uh…Sorry, I am unable to answer that question at the moment. I would like to use the ‘pass’ option please,” she finally said after a terribly futile attempt of thinking of a reasonable answer.

            BaekHyun chuckled at the girl’s quirky response and watched in amusement as she flushed up even more than before.

            “Nice going April. He probably thinks you’re stupid now.”

            Suddenly, at the very corner of his eyes, BaekHyun caught a familiar object dangling out from the girl’s skirt pocket. He soon came into realization that it was the phone charm he had won for her at the carnival a few days back.

            “Hey April, cute phone charm. Where’d ya get it?” he teased and flashed a set of pearly whites at her.

            She looked down at her pocket to find the bunny charm slightly perking out from within the depths of her pockets and promptly shoved it back inside in humiliation.

            Shoving the small invitation card into his palm, April stammered before quickly running off, “Uhm, well if you do decide to go, here’s the information.”

            She could already the loud bass pumping from within the place from where she stood—which was practically half a mile away from the actual destination. April was not the type to go to—let alone enjoy—wild parties like these, but there was no way she was going to miss out on her best friend’s birthday.

            Reluctantly, she pressed on the doorbell a few times and RinA soon emerged from within. In contrast of the y black bodysuit that fit snuggly around her gorgeous curves, she wore a silly party hat with a few glow sticks hanging from her wrists and neck—forming ‘statement’ jewelry pieces.

            “You’re here! Come inside April!” the birthday girl chirped joyfully as she pulled her friend inside.

            The spacious living room that had once been so elegant and high-class was now decked out in colorful party decorations and a large disco ball hung from the ceiling. The only remaining source of light came from the blinding strobe lights that emitted from behind the DJ’s station. A dance floor mat was placed in the position of where RinA’s kitchen table and TV were previously situated. Just by the crazy embellishments, April was already able to predict that she was not going to have a good time. Her reserved personality was not suitable with daring environments like these.

            And like usual, her gut feelings were correct. RinA spent the majority of her time chit-chatting with her older, more mature friends, and completely left April out of the activities—which including drinking and smoking, two of the things April swore she would never get herself into.

            Halfway through the party, the doorbell suddenly rang. The now drunken RinA stumbled over to get it, and to everyone’s surprise, Kang BaekHyun was standing on her doormat.

            “Happy Birthday, RinA,” he greeted quietly as he handed her a gift bag.

            The girl giggled uncontrollably as she invited him in, instantly snaking her arms through his as she led him over to her circle of friends. RinA introduced him to everyone, and seated him down beside her. BaekHyun glanced over at April and lightly smiled, soon receiving one back from her.

            The two sat in a terribly uncomfortable silence, watching as RinA and her college friends played a much more vulgar version of “Truth or Dare.” As soon as the ually related questions arose, BaekHyun quietly pulled April out to the backyard after noticing the disturbed look contained within her eyes.

            Casually grabbing a ladder from the open storage shed, BaekHyun placed it against the building and climbed up onto the roof.

            “Yah, what are you doing?! Get down before you—“

              Before April could finish her sentence, BaekHyun offered her an encouraging hand. Although hesitant at first, she accepted his help up the ladder. She plopped down next to him, and the two gazed at the endless twinkling stars in a surprisingly comfortable aura.

            “Why do you hang out with her?” the boy suddenly asked.       

            “What do you mean?”

            “She parties, she drinks, and she obviously didn’t give a damn about you back there. So why’d you choose her to be your friend?”

            April pondered on the appealing question for a while and realized that she too, didn’t know the answer. But after a while of figuring out how to word her feelings, she finally responded, “I don’t know… I guess I don’t really care about what she does, just as long as she doesn’t force her beliefs down my throat. We could be from two completely different worlds and I’d still befriend her just as long as she treats me the same way I treat her—as silly as that sounds.”

            He peered over at the girl and watched as the bright moonlight hit her face and casted shadows over her alluring face. BaekHyun quickly looked away when she turned over to face him.

            “BaekHyun…” April began. “You’re very intriguing, you know. I’ve never really met anyone like you.”

            He gazed at her with puzzlement evident in his eyes.

            She giggled heartily at his obliviousness but continued, “What I’m trying to say is, you’re mysterious. You’re interesting. I feel like there is a lot more to you that I don’t know about… And I want to know about those things. I-I want to figure you out. I want to know you, on a deeper level, I guess you could say.”

            Unsure of how to reply, BaekHyun simply allowed his soulful eyes to do the job. He admired her, feeling the strange desire to kiss her grow stronger as time passed by.

            As soon as the girl averted her eyes back over to him, he took advantage of the perfect setting to lean in closer. Before she knew it, his soft lips were planted on hers. April felt his warmth embracing her skin—protecting her against the cold night atmosphere.

            BaekHyun broke away, leaving her heart pounding uncontrollably.

            He ended the night with a whisper of three absolutely flawless words, “I like you.”