"Er, hello, Jonghyun-ssi," Sungmin bowed. What an awkward situation.

"What's with the '-ssi'?" Jonghyun chuckled. "We're already friends, aren't we?"

"Um. Yes?" 

"You are?" Kyuhyun asked uneasily. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Me? Or her?" Jonghyun seemed puzzled. "I didn't know she was the one you'd introduce me to. But I did tell you I met her- remember, I was telling you in History about a cute girl who plays guitar in my MPC class?"

Kyuhyun mentally face-palmed. How could he not realize it was Sungmin with that description? 

"And you?" He turned to Sungmin. "You know I don't like it when you hide things from me."

"Uhm." Sungmin was stuck. She could remind him that Donghae mentioned Jonghyun (albeit exaggeratedly) and cause an extremely awkward situation, or piss Kyuhyun off by saying she tried to hide it. Which she did.

The problem solved itself- in a way that Sungmin kind of hoped wouldn't.

"Oh, is he the one Donghae was talking about at lunch?" Kyuhyun snapped his fingers. "Ah, okay. But still," he gazed sternly at her, "You probably wouldn't have mentioned it to me, and I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for her."

"Yeah." Sungmin agreed flatly. No point in disagreeing now.

"What did she say?" Jonghyun asked, intrigued. 

Crap. This is where we change the course of conversation. Fast. Sungmin thought.

"Oh, nothing really." Sungmin played it off, hoping Kyuhyun would take the hint. "I just told her that I met you, and you're a guitar player, and we're partners for a project."

"Actually, if I remember correctly, what Donghae said was, 'She's totally head over heels after meeting a cute boy!'" Kyuhyun raised his voice to a girly pitch.

Sungmin smacked his arm. "Donghae said that, not me. Can you really trust what Donghae says?"

"I'm flattered that you think I'm cute," Jonghyun teased, his smile never leaving his face. Sungmin smacked him too.

"Don't assume anything," she repeated the words from the beginning of the day. "You're just like Kyu, no wonder you guys are friends."

"So you don't think I'm cute?" Jonghyun sulked, wounded. 

Is he.. flirting? With me? Sungmin realized. 

"Nope. I have no idea what all your screaming fangirls see in you."

"Me either." Kyuhyun wrinkled his nose. He was slightly put off by Jonghyun's obvious flirting, but they were both his friends. And he knew Sungmin was not an 'easy' girl.

"Fine then, I'll just go hang out with all my screaming fangirls," Jonghyun turned away from them. 

"Okay, I'll just go work on the project myself! We'll see who's confused and clueless tomorrow!" Sungmin called after him.

He turned around, walked back, and grabbed Sungmin's wrist. Kyuhyun immediately came after them. "Wait, where are you guys going?"

Sungmin's heart fluttered- from Jonghyun's bold skinship or Kyuhyun's care, she wasn't sure. "Just to the library. Can you tell my mom I'll be home late?"

He stared at her for a moment. "Yeah, sure. Don't be home too late, we have a Calculus test tomorrow and I don't want to be up til morning helping you."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Meh. See you tomorrow!"

Jonghyun pulled her to the parking lot. She spared a last glance at Kyuhyun's retreating form.

"Do you drive?"

"Mhmm." He pulled his keys out, unlocking his vehicle. Nearby, a motorcycle lit up.

"Oh, I was thinking car, but that's.. fine.." She trailed off. He chuckled. "You scared?"

"Yeah." No use in pretending once she got on the road.

"Don't worry." He patted her shoulder. "I'm a careful driver, especially if I have a pretty girl with me."

Sungmin could feel her cheeks flaming. "You better be, I'm too young to have my remains scraped off of the street."

"Wow, I didn't know you were such a morbid person. Seriously. I have never gotten in trouble on the road." He tossed her a helmet.

"Have you gotten in trouble for other stuff, then?" She took it. "Don't you have only one?"

"Maybe." He shrugged. "Yeah, I didn't know I'd be having a guest. You take it, since you're so scared."

She didn't question the matter further. "But you're driving. And I can trust you enough to get us there safely?" She took out her hair-tie and let her black locks fall to her shoulders before putting the helmet on.

"That sounds more like a question than a statement," he laughed. "It's fine. What kind of man would I be if I endangered a girl's life?" He got on the motorcycle, patting the space behind him.

Sungmin hesitantly got on, aware of the close proximity. "Okay," her voice came out muffled under the helmet, "Don't go too fast or anything."

"Relax, I told you I'm careful. You need to wrap your arms around me, by the way." She did so (shyly).

He revved the engine and her breath caught in . "No screaming, by the way. It makes me lose concentration, and.. you know."

"Of course," she squeaked. He pressed the gas and eased out of the parking lot smoothly.

The road, however, was a different story.

Sungmin suppressed the strong urge to make any noises indicating fear, especially screaming. The wind whipped Jonghyun's hair back, and pressed the flaps of his leather jacket against her sides. She found herself holding on tighter.

They pulled up to the library. Jonghyun took his hands off the handles as he kicked a stand out to support the motorcycle. 

"You can let go now," he said. Sungmin quickly took her arms off, after that with her helmet. "That was.."

"Exciting and refreshing?" He ran a hand through his wind-tousled hair.

"Really terrifying."

"You'll get used to it," he assured her. Wait, that means.. that this is happening again?

"I don't know about that, I've lived in the same house all my life and I still get scared when I stand at the top of the stairs and look down."

"Afraid of heights?"

"Just a little."

"I'll make a note of that."

"What about you?"

"Hmm.. I think it'd have to be, quiet?"

She blinked. "Afraid of silence?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Without someone to talk to, or without music.. I think I'd go crazy."

"That makes sense." She looked around. "Maybe we should get out of the parking lot."

"Good idea." He grabbed his backpack that he stored under the seat. "Let's go."

"Ssh!" Sungmin whispered harshly yet again as Jonghyun struggled to keep a straight face. "We're supposed to be doing work!"

"We are!" he protested. He cracked up again as he saw another random doodle on the page. "We're reading the book, aren't we?"

"Reading the book or looking at drawings?" She rolled her eyes, slamming the textbook shut. 

"Ow," he whimpered. "You crushed my hand."

"No, I didn't. Man up and get to work, I have like half an hour before I go home." She texted her dad, telling him the time to pick her up.

"Fine," he sulked. "What song should we do?"

"I don't really know. Should we do a Korean or English one?"

He pondered. "Should we try English? I'm not too bad. Plus we'd get extra points for difficulty."

"Alright, let's look up English solo songs."

"Nuh-uh," he pulled the keyboard away from her, "Duet, remember?"

"No, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Pabo." He flicked her forehead. "Now, let's see." He scrolled through the search results. "Lucky? By Jason Mraz?" (A/N: I like this song a lot, it's cute)

"Oh, I know that one. Didn't Yonghwa-ssi perform it with Jieun (A/N: IU, in case you guys didn't know. And yes, they did actually perform this) for the talent show?"

"Yep, that's the one. Should we give it a try, you know, knock them out of the water?"

"I guess," she agreed hesitantly. 

"Have confidence, I know you'll be great."

"I'll try."

"Try not, do." She gave him a look. "Referencing Star Wars will always help raise self morale."

"Of course, you should try it more often." They printed out the lyrics.

"So, how good are you at reading English?"

Their accents were very heavy. 

"We should give this another try tomorrow. I can call up Kim Kibum to help us out, he's a good dongsaeng of mine."

Jonghyun had a puzzled expression. "Which one?"

"Uh, he has black hair, sometimes wears glasses.. not the one that hangs out with Kim Jonghyun and Lee Jinki all the time."

"Oh, him. Sure, it'd be great if he could help us with pronunciation," he winced. 

She glanced at her phone. On the way, her dad texted back ten minutes ago.

"My dad's probably here now, I'll get going." She gathered her stuff.

Jonghyun stood up. "I'll walk you out."

"It's just to the parking lot, you know."

He shook his head. "Better safe than sorry." She let him do whatever.

Her dad's black car sat in front of the library. She waved to Jonghyun. "See you tomorrow!"

With a smile and a wave, he walked off to his motorcycle. 

"Hey dad," she got in the car, dropping all her stuff, "how was your day at work? Before you ask, my first day at school wasn't bad, I have classes and lunch with the gang-" she was interrupted as she was grabbing her seatbelt.

"Whoa, you know my Chinese isn't that good," Kyuhyun said. (A/N: Sungmin's half Chinese if you recall.) 

Sungmin whipped around. "What are you doing here?"

"Picking you up."

"In my dad's car?"

"My parents aren't home. Your dad took your mom's car."

"You don't even have a license!"

"Think of this as practice."

"Makes me feel all the better."

"Hey now," he said with a stern look, "Would you rather I hadn't picked you up and left you at the library with Jonghyun? Oh wait," he paused, "Yeah, you would. Since you're so head over heels and he's so cute."

She stared at him. "No, if I stayed at the library I'd probably be by myself. He has things to do too."

Shocked that she didn't deny his other statements, he began to yell. "You've only known him for one day and you're already in love?! Min, I thought you were smarter than that, I thought you weren't easy!"

"Calm the down," she grabbed his shoulders. "He's just a friend. He's your friend too. Just because I didn't flat out deny it doesn't mean I confirmed it. We're classmates working on a project, what the hell's so wrong with that?"

He sighed. "You know he's a playboy."

"Yeah."

"You do?"

"How can he flirt that much and not be one?"

"Then why do you hang around him? I thought you hated that type."

"Hate is a strong word. Because he's my partner, and even if he flirts a lot he knows what he's doing when it comes to music. He's not a bad guy either. You should know, he's your friend, isn't he?"

"Yeah, I guess.. you know you're like a sister to me, I just worry about you and Ryeowook sometimes." That was a stab. A sister, huh.

"Well, you're just like Yesung-oppa. Overbearing and overreacting."

He looked embarassed. "I know I get worked up sometimes. But at least it's not like I don't give a , right?"

"Please, give all the s you own," she sighed. "Let's go home."

The drive home was uneventful. They just made conversation about school, meaningless gossip, family.

They pulled up in front of Sungmin's house. "You staying for dinner?"

"Nah. Mom's been going on and on that I spend too much time at your house." He rolled his eyes. Sungmin smiled at the thought of Mrs. Kim nagging Kyuhyun, just like when he was eight and refused to practice clarinet.

"Okay, call me after so we can do Calculus together."

"You mean I work them out while you copy the answers."

"Hey, I help you pass Literature."

"Fair enough." With a careless wave he walked off.

Sungmin walked into the house. Heechul met her at the door. "Kyuhyun drove safely?"

She thought about lines crossed and curbs run-over. "Safely enough."

Heechul looked her over. "Eh, you're in one piece. Dinner's in a few."

"Got it!" She was already halfway up the stairs.

She had just dropped her backpack by her bed when Yesung appeared suddenly and quietly in his mysterious way. "So, tell me about this boy you met at school."

She flopped face-down onto her bed. 

"Ughhh."