Chapter 39 || 1ST YEAR

JUST Common Sense was published on September 7th, 2013. Today, September 7th, 2014 is JCS's 1 year anniversary. Thank you everyone who supported this fanfic with much love!

For the past five days, Luhan stayed with Yixing at his place. Non-stop, the two worked all day and night on Yixing’s compositions with Luhan as his arranger. Although Yixing was the only one entering this competition, the fact that Luhan was his arranger, if Yixing were to win the competition, Luhan would get recognition for his work, but the prize wouldn’t be shared with Luhan, in which he was fine with. He just wanted to give a hand to his good friend.

Plus, working on music for the past few days like this pleased Luhan. He would, somehow and for some odd reason, always become bothered at the thought of Soyoung and Taemin. Luhan would text her, or even call her sometimes, just to ask how she’s doing with the other male. He always becomes disappointed when she told him that she was doing fine with Taemin. It only broke him more when she talks about Taemin as if Taemin had been with her for several years already. Just from hearing Soyoung talk about Taemin, he knew that the two have already gotten close. Because he disliked the fact that these things about Soyoung and Taemin bothered him, he was definitely glad he was working on music with Yixing.

The only down thing was the fact that Luhan badly wanted to be at his place because of a certain someone.

“How are the lyrics? Do you think they’re okay?” Yixing questioned as he looked over Luhan’s shoulders. The music sheets that contained lyrics, in which was written by Yixing himself, were in Luhan’s hands. As the arranger, Luhan was to look at it and fix anything he didn’t like about it.

“Lyrics?” Luhan mumbled as he realized he had been spacing out once again that day. “Oh.” He sat up straight and exhaled. Gosh, he was a mess. “Uh, yeah. They’re fine.” He lied. He didn’t even get a chance to read them. Oh lord.

“They are, huh?” Yixing studied his friend’s face. He knew Luhan was just lying. It was clear that Luhan didn’t even glance at them. Usually, there was always a thing or two that Luhan had to say about Yixing’s work. Constructive criticism. He reached forward and took the music sheets back before sitting on the table in front of Luhan. “What’s on your mind?”

“What do you mean?” Luhan reached forward and grabbed the bottle of energy drink before gulping it down.

“If I didn’t know you well, I would’ve been happy if you said my lyrics are fine. I’m actually disappointed right now.” Yixing waved the music sheets in Luhan’s face. “You can’t just tell me that my lyrics are fine without telling me to fix something.”

Luhan refused to look up at his friend. He, too, was disappointed in himself for zoning out when he was supposed to be working hard. “I’m just tired. We’ve been lacking sleep because of this, so I wasn’t able to focus well. I’ll look them over again.” He reached for the music sheets in Yixing’s hand, but before he could, Yixing pulled them back.

“Not until you tell me what’s on your mind.” Yixing swung his legs freely, pushing the music sheets aside. “It’s not really because you’re tired, right?” He glanced at Luhan. “Perhaps, you don’t want to be my arranger anymore? Because if that’s the case, then I’m fine if you don’t want to be my arranger anymore. I think I overworked you too much over the past five days anyways.”

Luhan shook his head. “That’s not it. I don’t mind being your arranger at all, truth. I’m just, honestly, tired.”

“Are you sure?” Although he was slightly suspicious, Yixing didn’t push him any further. “You’re just tired?”

Luhan nodded before making a steal at the music sheets and succeeding. He looked at the papers in his hands. “Yep, I’m just tired, so don’t worry about it. We’re almost done anyways. This is the last song, right? I’ll take a look at it and fix some things here then I’ll come over to check the instrumental to it.”

Yixing gave a smile and nodded. “Alright.” He patted Luhan’s shoulders as he got up. “If you’re tired, you can go sleep at any time.”

Luhan watched Yixing leave to his studio before looking at the music sheets once again. This time, he was going to make sure he gets it done and right. He wanted to go home. He wanted to go so badly. Very badly, because the feeling of missing someone was there, and he wanted to put it at rest. That awful feeling of missing someone.

“You’re such an idiot!” Soyoung laughed as she slapped Taemin’s arm, who was also laughing along with her. “I can’t believe you would say that to your blind date. You should’ve asked for advice from some female friends of yours before going on that blind date.”

“Well, I thought I had it down, okay. I didn’t think girls can be so offended when they get called abnormal. It was just another word for weird.” Taemin laughed it off and drunk his warm coffee. “So, what about you? Experiences on any first dates, or blind dates?”

Soyoung pursed her lips and set own her cup of warm coffee. “Well, there was a time back in freshman year when this guy asked me out. His name was Kim Seokjin. Well, everyone called him Jin, but anyways, he was my senior.”

“Oh really? How much older was he?” Taemin queried as he leaned back on the chair.

“He was just a year older than I was.” Soyoung smiled and kept her hands around the warm cup. “I wasn’t too close with him, but I would talk to him once in a while, mostly because he was in the basketball team, and I was the after school care taker of the team, so we would talk on the days they have practice. I, honestly, had no idea he took such interest in me, so around the end of the year, after basketball practice, Jin was helping me put the balls away. We were just talking about random things, like school work and classes. I didn’t know that he was going to confess to me, so after putting the balls away, I thought he was going to just leave after saying good bye, like how he always does, but he didn’t. He asked me to go get a drink with him, and so I did. We went to a bubble tea shop, and we were sitting down, just talking the casual things. I noticed that he was really nervous about something, because he often stuttered, but I didn’t want to point it out, you know what I mean?” Soyoung gave a light chuckle as Taemin nodded with a grin. “Well, instead of pointing it out, I suddenly blurted out a question asking him why he doesn’t have a girlfriend yet.”

“You seriously did that?” Taemin gawked with widened eyes. “You just led him on right there!” He laughed in which Soyoung agreed.

“If I knew he was going to confess, I wouldn’t have asked!” Soyoung tinted the shade of pink. Even thinking about it today, she was still really touched by Jin.

“Well, then, what happened after you asked that question?”

“Well, for some odd reason, he stopped being nervous,” Soyoung chuckled. “It was really weird. It was like the question was some medicine to him or something, because he seemed to talk with ease after I asked that question.” She paused and thought back to that day. Although she was much in shock with the sudden confession, she was more intrigued by Jin’s words. “I remember him telling me that the reason why he didn’t, yet, have a girlfriend was because he wanted to find the right girl, and that he didn’t believe in getting experiences from past dates, so he never really dated before.”

“So I’m guessing after that, he confessed to you?” Taemin smiled gently and propped his arms on the table.

“He didn’t, actually.” Soyoung glanced at her cup of warm coffee. “He said a lot of things. Instead of confessing, he was telling me a lot of… Wise things, should I say? Well, he said a lot of things that made me think a lot. I think he was trying to test me to see if I was the right girl for him or something.”

“What kind of things did he say?”

Soyoung thought for a bit. “Just, a lot of things. There’s one specific thing that really hooked me when he was speaking though.” She looked up at Taemin with a gentle smile. “There will be times when your destiny doesn’t want to be part of you, so it will push you back to your fate, but just because it pushes you back to your fate doesn’t mean that it’s giving up on you… That’s what he said just a few minutes before he confessed to me.”

“There will be times when your destiny doesn’t want to be part of you, so it will push you back to your fate, but just because it pushes you back to your fate doesn’t mean that it’s giving up on you?” Taemin quoted her slowly. “That’s… a strong saying. Why did he say that to you?”

“Well, I guess he knew I didn’t share mutual feelings with him,” Soyoung sheepishly smiled. To this day, she still felt guilty for rejecting the guy. “After confessing to me and getting rejected, he walked me home. Then he told me I was his destiny for that day. I pushed him back to his fate. That’s what he said.”

“His destiny for that day?” Taemin arched a brow. “Is that guy some shaman or something? He talks so weird with his fate and destiny stuff.”

Soyoung smiled and dismissed his comment about Jin. “He’s someone that believes that fate and destiny needs each other. He’s not fond of the fact that people choose one over the other.”

Taemin nodded, “I see. Well, I guess that’s just him then. He does think smart though.”

She nodded, quietly agreeing with Taemin. In fact, she knew it. Jin was a smart and kind gentleman. She had learned so many things from him throughout her first three years of high school.

“So what do you believe?” Taemin questioned. “Do you believe in fate, or do you believe in destiny? If not, do you believe it like he does, that fate and destiny needs each other to handle a life well?”

The question was rather something that Soyoung wasn’t expecting. It was quite sudden, and she had to admit, she had never thought about it in that aspect before.

“I’ve got to admit, that Jin guy may sound quite abnormal when he talks about that fate and destiny thing, but like him, I think fate and destiny needs each other,” Taemin replied before Soyoung got the chance to answer. “When you think about it, fate and destiny are like your very own parents. Fate is like your mother, and destiny is like your father. When you aren’t giving effort in life, your walk along with your fate because she already has everything in hand for you. You’re just following along, but when you want to put effort and want to go at something you’ve never tried before, you walk along destiny. There are times when you may fail at it, and because he doesn’t want you to get hurt, he will push you back to fate until you have the strength to walk alongside him again. Destiny will always accept what you want to do, but when you don’t have enough strength to do what you want to do, he will gently push you to your fate so that you can regain strength while doing things you were originally comfortable with doing… It makes me wonder if that Jin guy thinks like I do.”

Upon seeing the puzzled expression on Soyoung’s face, he laughed. “Do I make sense right now?” And without letting Soyoung answer, he stood up. “Let’s go back home now. Your neighbor told you to be back by 6PM, and it’s almost time.”

Soyoung blinked before she registered that he was right. Luhan did tell her to be home by 6PM, and it really was almost time to go home. She quickly grabbed her purse and her coat before getting her drink. “I didn’t think time would pass by so fast.”

Taemin just smiled and took empty hand into his, interlacing them. “With me, time always go by fast. I’m just that fun to be around, beautiful.”

And even though he called her that for more than enough now, even though Soyoung was already use to that nickname, she still smiled every time.

Luhan sat on the doorstep of his house, clutching onto his phone. He and Yixing had just got done with composing and rearranging the songs for their competition album. As the arranger, Luhan was done with his work, and it was up to Yixing to put them together and send it in as an entry. Because Luhan’s work was done, he hurried home in hopes that maybe, just maybe, Soyoung and Taemin were going to be home all day.

Sad enough, they weren’t which left Luhan to wait for them in which it had already been two hours that Luhan had waited.

He admitted. He was tired. Dead tired. He was tired to the core of wanting to just knock out right there on the spot, but something inside of him wouldn’t allow him to sleep just now.

Luhan wasn’t someone who’d stay up just for a movie or to hang out with friends. If he was tired, no matter the situation, he’d go to sleep. The only time when he wouldn’t sleep was when he was working on music. If he had something going on in his head, such as a tune, Luhan would work on it until he was satisfied. He’d put lyrics to it and arrange at least a piano or guitar instrumental to it. When it came down to music, if it was something Luhan could work with, he’d do it without sleep.

That explains why he lacked sleep when he was at Yixing’s place to help him. Throughout the whole week, Luhan kept at it continuously, arranging, rearranging until he was satisfied even if it wasn’t his work. The only time he had sleep was when Yixing forced him to go sleep. If Yixing wasn’t there, Luhan would have probably passed out of exhaustion already. Throughout the whole week, he only received ten hours of sleep. That was something Luhan didn’t realize though.

“When will they get back? I told them to come back by 6 PM, but it’s already 8.” Luhan sighed, tapping his finger on his phone. His eyes slowly closed and opened. Though he didn’t say anything, he was quite surprised that he was still awake now when he could be in bed at this moment, sleeping away. “I wonder where they’re at.”

With another long sigh, he chewed gently on the inside of his cheeks, waiting continuously.

He turned his head to the right. No one was in sight. Families were inside the house, probably enjoying a great movie after eating an edible dinner. Cars were parked in the driveways. Younger kids were probably going to bed right now.

He turned his head to the left. It was almost exactly the same, except someone was in sight. Just one person, and it surprised him that there was only person when he was expecting two.

Seeing this, Luhan sprung up, forgetting about the exhaustion in his body. He walked towards the person hastily.

“Where’s Soyoung?” Luhan questioned. Seeing Taemin, walking alone. Usually, Luhan would throw skeptical looks along with stares that could kill, but he was just too tired to do that. Plus, he had to admit, it was too childish to do such things.

“She’s not with me,” Taemin bluntly answered before brushing past Luhan.

“Not with you?” Luhan mumbled, irritated by his obvious response. He turned and snatched Taemin back to face him. “Then where is she? She was supposed to be with you until you leave here, so why isn’t she with you?”

“Chill,” Taemin chuckled as he pulled away from Luhan. “I dropped her off at her friend’s place because they wanted to see her. She’ll be back by 9 or 10PM. Her phone battery died, so she asked me to relay the message to you.”

“Friend? Which friend?” Luhan dismissed the information about her phone. It wasn’t like he was waiting for her to text him anyways.

“That one friend with the blonde spiked hair.” Taemin tried to think of the name in which he seemed to have forgotten already. “Kizo, I think that was his name?”

*Kizo? How can that kid not even remember such a simple name.* Luhan rolled his eyes. “It’s Zico, dimwit.”

Taemin shrugged with a flop-sided smile. “I don’t think that’s something I need to remember.” He slipped his hands into his pocket. “So, do I sit out on her driveway and wait for her like when I first came here, or are you going to let me go into your house?”

*Well, you’re not going to come into my house.* Luhan thought to himself, but sighed in defeat. “Go ahead and go in, but you better not touch anything.” *If he’s a guest of Soyoung’s, then I have to treat him like my guest too. Oh lord. The things I do for you, Soyoung.*

After waiting another 30 minutes for Soyoung, Luhan gave up and returned inside. It was too cold to stay outside anyways.

He took off his shoes and sat beside Taemin, who was continuously switching channels to see if anything good to watch was on. Unfortunately, there wasn’t, so he turned off the TV.

“Why did you turn it off?” Luhan asked and grabbed the remote control from him. “Even if there’s nothing to watch, leave it on. You might miss a special advertisement.” Really, Luhan could care less about advertisements. He knew there was nothing to watch, but he didn’t want the TV off. Having the TV off might result in an awkward silence with Taemin, and that was not something Luhan would want.

“I don’t care about advertisements.” Taemin snatched the remote back. “I want to talk with you anyways.” He turned off the TV once again, and this time, Luhan didn’t turn it back on. Taemin placed the remote controller on the coffee table. He glanced over at Luhan.

“What do we even need to talk about?” Luhan rolled his eyes.

“Soyoung,” Taemin replied shortly. “I have some questions I want to ask you about her.”

“You spent the whole week with her. What more do you need to know about her?” Luhan sounded bitter, and he made it show, but it wasn’t like he was going to say more about it.

“Who is Soyoung to you?” Taemin questioned despite Luhan’s bitter reply. “Other than a neighbor, who is she to you?”

“A friend.” An answer like this was surely obvious. Luhan didn’t bother to speak more.

“She’s more than a friend, isn’t she?” Taemin kept his gaze tight on Luhan.

Luhan tensed.

Just what does that question imply anyways?

“The whole week I spent with Soyoung, I learned a lot of things.” Turning his body to face him, Taemin leaned against the arm of the couch. “I learned a lot of things about you.”

At his words, Luhan immediately turned his head to meet eyes with the other male in the room. “And by that, you mean?”

Taemin gave a slight shrug. “I spent my whole week with Soyoung to learn more about her, which I did learn a lot about, but now I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I realized that the more I learned about her, the more I learned about you. It’s odd, isn’t it? I mean, when you hang out with a girl, you’d want to get to know her more, or at least you’d come to know her more than her friend who you don’t even know.”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to say,” Luhan turned away, breaking eye contact with Taemin. He may say he didn’t know what Taemin meant, but really, Luhan knew. He knew what Taemin’s point was about, and he didn’t want to be confronted about it.

“Should I just get to the point?” Taemin asked. He knew that Luhan was aware of what he was stabbing at. “Soyoung likes you. At least that’s what I think. That’s what I see.”

“You’ve got everything wrong. She doesn’t like me.” Luhan sighed. *Not this again. I had this talk just last week with Baekhyun.* He tightened his jaw and faced Taemin once again. “Look, it may seem like she likes me, but it’s nothing. Really. If you knew how my relationship with Soyoung started out like, you wouldn’t think she likes me. In fact, if you knew, you would know that she doesn’t like me in that way. We both started off bad, and it’s only a miracle how we ended up being friends. To Soyoung, I’m nothing but a friend and her neighbor.”

Taemin examined his tight face. Luhan didn’t seem happy at all to hear this from him, but there was something about Luhan that seemed off. *His words don’t match his eyes.* “Okay, fine then.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “What is Soyoung to you then?”

“My neighbor, and my friend,” Luhan replied without hesitation. “… She’s someone I owe a lot to, and nothing more.”

*Your eyes says otherwise.* Taemin kept his thoughts to himself and nodded. “Okay. So you two are just friends. Is that what you’re trying to say?”

“I’m just a close friend of hers. Get your facts right. Keep that in mind, and don’t confuse our relationship later in the future.” Luhan’s fist loosened, and his voice became weak before he turned away.

“You seem like you had this conversation before,” Taemin pointed out. He couldn’t help but notice how unsettled Luhan’s expression was. It seemed as if he was burdened to have to say such words that he and Soyoung were just friends.

“There are people who thinks like you, and it gets annoying.” Luhan shrugged it off. His last conversation with Baekhyun was about this topic too. In fact, the conversation got deep. Too deep for Luhan’s liking. Because of that conversation that the two never brought up in front of the guys, Baekhyun and Luhan had cut off contact with each other. Even when they had the movie night at Kris’s place, they had no interaction with each other and kept to themselves. They were just glad that the guys didn’t notice.

Taemin finally broke his gaze from Luhan. “If Soyoung were to get married to me, you wouldn’t feel any pain then?”

Luhan froze.

*Married?!* “Don’t talk so rashly. Marriage isn’t something you should speak freely about.” Luhan refused to look over at Taemin.

“Who said I was speaking rashly?” Taemin, too, was serious this time. “I know marriage isn’t something to talk about freely. For me to bring up marriage, I’m serious.”

Luhan whipped his head over to Taemin. “You don’t think I know that you’re joking around, like how you did when we first met?”

“I’m not joking around.” Taemin stared hard right back at Luhan. “I’m serious. The reason for coming here in the first place was to see who the female by the name of Kim Soyoung was.”

And the seriousness in both his voice and expression caused Luhan to still.

There was no way this guy was telling the truth. Soyoung’s parents wouldn’t just put her into some old fashion arranged marriage. Soyoung’s parents were better than that. They wouldn’t force their one and only child to marry someone she didn’t even know. They wouldn’t force their one and only child to marry someone she didn’t… love.

But why was it that this guy, by the name of Lee Taemin, was so serious about the talk of marriage.

“Soyoung was given to me as a choice.” Taemin continued softly, glancing down at his fiddling hands. “I’m currently choosing my lady at hand. You may think arranged marriages are old fashion and too traditional, but my parents don’t think that way. It may seem cliché and drama-like even, but marriage isn’t something my parents consider as important to life. The business about marriage is what they’re focused on, so the fact that they’re currently searching for the perfect daughter of a successful company is only pressuring. Before they can make a final choice and decide on their own, of the women they have chosen for me, I must make the first move and choose for myself… That’s why I came here to see who Kim Soyoung was, and what she’s like.”

Luhan let the information sink in, and even when it did, h couldn’t accept such an answer. There was just no way that Soyoung’s parents would put her in such a situation. “I’m done with your bull ,” he muttered, turning away from Taemin. “Get out.”

“If you don’t grasp onto her, I will be the one to take her hand!” Taemin shouted, angered. He knew very well that marriage wasn’t something to overlook. He knew this very well, so why would he joke about it? In this situation, when Luhan couldn’t accept his truth, he couldn’t help but become angered. He tightened his jaw and lowered his voice. “And I’m not joking. I really will. Out of all the women presented, Soyoung caught my eyes. If anyone out of the women that were chosen, she’s the one I’m willing to spend my life with. Even though it has only been a week that I’ve spent with her, I’ve determined it to be her… So don’t say I stole what was rightfully yours later on and regret… If you don’t step up your game, I’m really going to take her.”

Without letting Luhan speak, Taemin stood up and retreated to the guest room he stayed in the first night he arrived in Seoul, leaving Luhan to sulk alone.

This had to be the most shocking news of the century, and it wasn’t pleasant either.

Soyoung walked up the sidewalk towards her house when she spotted Luhan sitting gloomily in front of her door. The sight of him warmed her, yet, made her worried. It was approaching winter soon, and the nights are very cold these days, so what was Luhan doing sitting outside like this with not even a coat?

She ran up to him before crouching down to examine his face. “What are you doing here?” She questioned with a frown. The dark circle under his eyes were evidence that he didn't get enough sleep.

If Luhan was cold, he didn't show it. He only looked up to meet her eyes. A small smile presented on his face. "You're finally back. You're four hours late."

"Were you waiting?" She felt guilty for showing up so late. If Kyung and Zico hadn't begged her to stay for so long, she would've returned earlier.

"The waiting was nothing. As long as you come back. That's all that matters." His reply was weak, and his eyes were heavily opening and closing. "Taemin's sleeping in the guest room at my house. He's an early sleeper."

"Yeah, I know," Soyoung gave a light laugh. Her laugh only caused him to frown, but even though he frowned, he couldn't help but silently thank Taemin. Because of Taemin, Soyoung was at least smiling and laughing. "He really is an early sleeper for someone who focuses on business." She examined his sad face. *He must be cold.*

With a petite smile, she reached out and placed both hands on his cheeks. "Are my hands warm?"

Luhan was stunned by her action, but he didn't show it. Instead, warmth filled him up, and a smile crept to his face. "Yeah, they're very warm." He placed his cold hands on top of hers. Although he would never admit it out loud, he liked her touch.

On the other hand, Soyoung couldn't help but silently cry. His face, when she placed her hands on him, was ice cold, his complexion was pale, and his hands, when he placed them over hers, were freezing. *He stayed out in the cold just to wait for me.*

"Let's go inside," she turned her hands to hold his. "You're going to freeze to death out here. I'll make you something hot to drink."

They both stood up, and leading him inside, Soyoung's hand never left Luhan's. It was that moment that Luhan knew they were right. Both Taemin and Baekhyun. They were really right, and it took Luhan this long to accept the truth.

Once inside, she left him at the couch to make him something hot to drink.

Once alone, Luhan intruded into Soyoung's room on the second floor. As expected, her room smelled just like her. Her scent that Luhan came to secretly adore. He approached her bedroom drawer and looked at the many things on top of it. *Japanese Cherry Blossom?* He read the lotion bottle. Then he glanced onto the perfume bottle. *So this is the scent she likes and uses... I like it too.* He smiled to himself. Apart from the lotion and perfume bottle, there was a jewelry box, a make-up kit, and other less important everyday tools, such as pens and pencils. Although it may look slightly messy on the drawer, the rest of her bedroom was perfectly fine. Some clothes scattered here and there, and her bed undone, but that didn't mean it was messy. It wasn't necessarily clean, but it wasn't messy either.

He glanced at her walls. Her walls were filled with beautiful paintings and drawings that he was sure it was her originals. Her artworks made the walls unique. It was filled with such thoughts and beautiful colors. It was perfect, and it made his smile widen.

Luhan walked towards her bed and sat on it. It was comfortable. Very comfortable, and now that he was actually on a bed, the fact that his body was tired dawned on him. He, only now, realized how tired he really was, and now that the warmth had hit him, he could feel sleep closing in on him.

"What are you doing in here?!" Soyoung shrieked at her door, with a hot cup of tea in her hands. More than wonders, she was embarrassed. If she had known he was headed here, she would've at least cleaned it first. Now, it was too late. The fact that her room was messy, Luhan now knows.

"Your bed's comfortable," he commented, giving her a smile. He glanced at the hot cup that had steam fuming at the top. "Is that for me?"

Soyoung tinted a shade of red. *He's just saying that because he knows I'm embarrassed right now.* She cleared and approached him. "Yeah," she muttered, handing him the hot tea. "It's just regular green tea. It's the only type I drink, and I didn't think you'd want just plain water. As for coffee, seeing your state, I'm sure you're more than tired of coffee. Yixing told me that you lived off of energy drinks and coffee this whole week."

Luhan gladly took the tea and carefully sipped on it. "I guess you can say that I lived off of those drinks, so yes, I am tired of them. Thanks for being considerate. Green tea is actually my favorite type of tea."

*It's my favorite too.* She smiled, comforted by his words. Soyoung sat on his right. "So, why did you come up here?"

"I realized that I've never really gotten the chance to see your room fully. Well, I didn't get the chance to pay attention to it." Luhan carefully drunk the tea. He had only realized how cold he really was now that warmth is surrounding his body. "I like your room. It's cozy."

"Would you want to sleep here?" she blurted. Although Soyoung would usually regret asking such questions, right now, she didn't regret at all. In fact, she had really meant her question. She could see that Luhan was lacking sleep, and if she would be able to provide him the sleep he needed, she would try her best to provide that sleep.

"Are you serious?" he questioned, quite surprised with her sudden question. It wasn't like Soyoung to just say something so carelessly like that.

Soyoung didn't say a word and only stared at him with a warm gaze. She broke the eye contact and dragged her blanket over his shoulders. "I'm guessing you finally realized how cold you really are now that you're shaking?"

Luhan averted eyes and cleared his throat slightly.

"I'm sorry for making you wait," she apologized with a gloomy smile. "I should've returned earlier with Taemin." At the mention of the male, Luhan saddened. To him, he viewed Taemin as his rival. "Yixing told me that you were really hard working, and that he's sure that he'll win because of your hard work. You must've lost a lot of sleep."

*I did lose a lot of sleep, but for that purpose, it's okay.* Luhan thought to himself. Soyoung reached her left hand up and brushed his hair away from his forehead. He softened. He melted immediately. *Why are you making me feel this way, Soyoung?*

"I'm going to make a warm pot of porridge for you," she suggested as she smiled, pulling her hand away. "I'll be back."

"I'll wait for you," she heard his soft voice as she made her way out of the room. Soyoung only smiled, and didn't turn around.

And when she left the room, Luhan set down the cup of tea before lying down on her bed. It was definitely warm, and like how it looked, it was comfortable.

With a relieved sigh, he closed his eyes. There were so many emotions fighting inside of him at this very moment.

For one, he was confused. As much as Taemin may had been serious about what he had said earlier, Luhan wasn’t sure what to believe. He believed that Soyoung’s parents’ wouldn’t have sold her for business like that, but then he couldn’t seem to deny Taemin’s eye of honesty either.

For two, he was mad. How could Taemin just say it so freely that Soyoung was the one? It was one week. One week wouldn’t determine anything. Taemin needed more time to see if Soyoung really would be the one for him. He couldn’t stand the fact that Taemin was choosing Soyoung for such a path.

For three, he was contented. Despite what Taemin had told him, Luhan was quite happy at this moment. Soyoung was here with him. Luhan was spending time with her. He was in her room. He was happily lying on her bed. Being with her made him happy.

And for four, Luhan was afraid all together. If what Taemin said really was true; if Soyoung were to become Taemin’s bride, Luhan didn’t think he’d be able to handle it. He didn’t want to lose Soyoung for such a reason. Luhan didn’t want to lose Soyoung at all. Period. He, now, accepted the truth about his relationship with Soyoung. Luhan didn’t want her to be another man’s. But even though that may be what he was afraid of, the main reason why he was afraid was way more frightening than her being another man’s bride.

Luhan was genuinely afraid of the truth. Now that he had accepted the truth, he was afraid that it wouldn’t be something anyone can ever accept, especially Soyoung.

Luhan had mentioned earlier to Taemin that the way Soyoung and Luhan started out wasn’t necessarily a nice greeting. That wasn’t the point thought. The point was the fact that Luhan had acknowledged what was really going on between him and Soyoung, and even though it gave him warmth at the thought of it, it scared him.

Luhan liked Soyoung; he acknowledged that fact, but somewhere inside himself, he knew that he couldn’t like her. Knowing what had happened from the beginning, Luhan couldn’t like Soyoung. Fate wouldn’t allow it.

*I like you.* He thought to himself, his eyes still closed and sleep closing in on him. *I really do like you, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to like you. If I tell you that I like you, it’ll ruin us, and I don’t want that… So I’ll just keep it a secret from you. I’ll keep it a secret from everyone. This way, we can remain friends. This way, I’ll be able to keep you close to me without having you worry about what will happen to us.*

And like that, Luhan came to accept the fact that Soyoung really did have his heart. She had his heart in her hands, and he was going to let her take care of it, except, now, he was going to cut off the string that connected him to his heart, so that when Soyoung tried to find whose heart she had in her hands, it wouldn’t lead her to him. He was going to cut off that string, so that when Soyoung try to find the owner of the heart in her hands, she wouldn’t stumble across Luhan.

Luhan was going to give Soyoung his heart, then he was going to hide from her.

*Why do I have to like you so much, Kim Soyoung?* And he fell asleep, walking to dreamland.

“You’re really bogus right now,” Soyoung frowned. “You said you’d tell me after I give you one week of my time, which I did, and now you’re going to leave without telling me the reason why you’re here?”

“I’ll tell you some other time,” Taemin smiled and ruffled her hair. “Maybe when I land in the states, I’ll tell you then, or maybe when I come back to visit. I don’t feel like telling you right now though.”

“When will you come back to Seoul for a visit?” She asked.

Luhan, who stood quietly beside Soyoung, knew that she didn’t want her guest to leave yet. He could tell Soyoung enjoyed Taemin’s company.

“Maybe in a few months?” Taemin stepped closer to her and gave her a hug. A hug that made Luhan turn away from uneasiness. “I’ll contact you soon.”

Soyoung returned the embrace and nodded against his chest. She pulled away and put on a smile. “Have a safe trip back home.”

“I will,” he patted her shoulder and glanced at Luhan, who had his eyes on the floor. “Soyoung, can you give me and Luhan some time to talk? There are some things I want to speak to him about.”

Upon hearing his request, Luhan regretted coming to the airport with them. He shouldn’t have come.

Soyoung, although filled with curiosity, nodded and left the two to the airport’s café shop.

“What I said yesterday must’ve shocked you a lot,” Taemin began. There was no time for smiles anymore. He was serious. “I’ll give you a few days to think about it. When you decide to move towards Soyoung, call me. If I don’t hear a call from you in a week, I’ll take that as my queue to move forward with Soyoung by my side.”

“I don’t want to tell you again, but it seems like I have to.” Luhan’s gaze was strong and filled with hate. “I don’t like Soyoung. I already have someone I like and who I’m waiting for,” he lied.

This new information seemed to have shocked Taemin. His gaze wavered and he went still for a second. He had no clue that Luhan had someone he liked, and hearing this, maybe he was wrong after all. Maybe Luhan really didn’t have feelings for Soyoung. *No, Luhan does like her. He just doesn’t know it yet, and whoever that other girl may be… She’s just Luhan’s excuse.* “Very well then,” Taemin nodded. “If that’s the case, then I won’t bother you about it anymore. I’ll still wait for your call just in case. I’ll take my leave now. Tell Soyoung I said bye.”

And like that, Taemin left for his plane.

“Did he already leave?!” Soyoung came running towards Luhan.

Luhan hummed a yes and turned to go. Soyoung had no choice to follow him with a sigh. “I’m going to miss that guy. He was a fun person.”

Luhan didn’t answer.

“Did you know? I actually met Taemin before” Soyoung smiled, and though back to that day. “It was when we were still in China.”

Luhan kept quiet.

“I didn’t feel well when we were inside the building during the business event, so I came out and bumped into him.” Soyoung crossed her arms and grinned. “During that time, my sight was sort of fuzzy, so I didn’t know it was him, but he recognized me the first night he came. He told me about it.”

Luhan’s fist clenched.

“I really wanted to know why he was here though!” She stressed with a huge sigh. “I’ve called my parents a few times, and they wouldn’t tell me a thing. Why do you think he was here? Did he tell you?”

Luhan’s jaw tightened.

“I’m going to bother him all day long when he lands back in his town,” Soyoung laughed lightly. “Until he tells me, I won’t stop bothering him.”

Luhan’s eyes brimmed with tears.

“… You know, I don’t often tell anyone about it when I have feelings for someone,” Soyoung smiled quietly. “But I think… I think I’m starting to like Taemin. I know it’s only been a week, but I think I’ve developed some type of feelings for him.”

Luhan’s tears fell. He cried.

“Luhan?” Soyoung stared at him in shock. “Are you okay? Why are you crying?” She asked, frantic. “Are you hurting somewhere?”

Luhan didn’t reply, and he cried on. It hurt.

“Luhan.” She stood in front of him as his hands covered his face. “Why are you crying?” She was dying to know. This was the first time seeing him like this. “Are you hurting somewhere? Does your head hurt? Do you have a stomachache?”

It hurt so much.

“Answer me,” She pleaded with concern.

Especially when you hear from the person you like that they like someone else, it hurt.

“Luhan,” she frowned deeply.

He shouldn’t have given her his heart.

“Why are you crying?”

Because now, he couldn’t get it back.

“Do you need to go to the hospital?” She took his hand and held it tightly.

And the worst part about this was the fact that he wasn’t holding her heart.

“Should we go to the hospital?”

The person holding her heart wasn’t him, but Taemin.

“What’s wrong?” Her frown deepened.

And that was what killed Luhan the most.

“Sorry,” he apologized, his crying came to a slow stop and he wiped his face, not being able to look into her eyes. “I had a bad dream, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind, so I got emotional… Let’s go.” He entered the car with Soyoung, and they started home.

“Are you okay now?” She wondered, still sincerely worried.

Taemin was wrong all along.

“Yeah, I’m fine now,” he replied quietly.

“Are you sure?” she kept her eyes on him as he drove.

The person Soyoung liked wasn’t him, but Taemin.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

And that was what hurt Luhan the most.

Author's Note♥:

We lost such a beautiful person on September 2nd. Such a beautiful person was sent to heaven. Heaven received a beautiful soul. May she rest in peace. I give my deepest and most sincere condolences to her family members, to her close friends, to her friends, to the rest of the Ladies' Codes members, and to her agency who helped her grow into such a talented, beautiful singer.

I want to thank her parents, her family, for having such a beautiful soul like her on earth, and raising her with such love that made her to be the kind peron she is. I want to thank her close friends, her friends, for being people she could lean on. I want to thank her Agency for helping her aquire her dreams of becoming a talented singer in front of thousands of fans. I want to thank her members of Ladies' Codes for sticking to her and her dreams, and helping her carry onward.

Now, she has really left us, and she's in a more beautiful place. Eunbi, rest in peace. Where ever you are, you will forever be loved by your fans, your family members, your friends. Where ever you are, you will always be in our hearts. Although it was so sudden that you left us, we'll keep strong for you.

We all may shed tears of sorrow. We all may shed tears of yearning for you. But even if we may shed tears of missing you, we will keep strong for you, so that your walk to heaven will be with ease.

We also lost RiSe on September 6th. My mother once told me, "If you cry, their soul will hear you, and if they hear your cries, it'll be hard for them to cross over, because they'll want to come back and wipe your tears. Their journey to heave will be difficult, because your every teardrops will wet their wings, and it'll make it difficult to for them to move on."

Although my tears are heavy, I only hope that my prayers will help dry their wings so that they'll be able to reach heaven. I hope that they will get endless happiness. Just like EunB, RiSe was a beautiful soul, inside-out. They were both too young. They didn't experience life to their fullest, and they recently just made their dreams. It was too early for them, but if God had wanted them by his side sooner, I hope that he will care for them with love and joy.

RiSe, you're truly a beautiful person. I came to know you at such a difficult time, and now you're gone with the wind. It's definitely heart breaking that you're gone now. I prayed and prayed for your recovery. I did my best, and even so, I couldn't help. My only regret towards you is not doing anything to help but only sit here and pray. You're a true fighter for lasting this long. If there's anything I'm glad about since hearing about the tragic accident, it's the fact that you and EunB are no longer sufferring. You will be remembered as a strong fighter, beautiful person, beautiful idol. You will always be loved and remembered by your family, friends, and fans. May you rest in peace, beautiful one.

I give my deepest and most sincere condoleneces to her family and close ones.

I want to thank her family for raising such an angel like her. I want to thank her friends for making sure she's not lonely and helping her out with life. I want to thank her fans for supporting her dreams to where she has reached them and was continuing forward. I want to thank her agency for allowing her to dream under your care. I want to thank her members for sticking to her with her dreams and helping her achieve her dreams.

We love you, Go Eun Bi & Kwon Ri Se.