The group sat around the rectangular table, not in quiet mode. There was no way they would be in quiet mode when the gathered like this. As usual, Yoomi would sit next to Minsoo, Byunghun next to Minsoo. Yuri would sit in front of Yoomi next to Sina. Changhyun took his place beside Sina. Jonghyun forced Niel to sit in front of Sina, next to Byunghun. He blushed as he did so. Sina was in good mood since what Niel said, and she welcomed Niel to sit in front of her.

Chanhee came about ten minutes later. He brought a paperbag with him. The group stared at the paperbag, they were thinking of something they could share, and it was not in a size of a paperbag. Whatever inside it wasn’t like what they thought of. Chanhee ignored his friend’s stare and sat down next to Yuri. He held the paperbag above the table and flipped it upside down, revealing nine mechanic pencils. All of them looked at Chanhee in disbelief. They were definitely not expecting this. Pencils? What could they do with pencils?

“What the hell, hyung?” Changhyun spoke up.

Chanhee glared at Changhyun. “What?! What do you expect me to buy with those tokens for the nine of us?! It’s not enough! At least give me some tokens if you want something so much.”

Sina giggled. Chanhee was not aiming for the prize. She bet he must have pasted his photo in the bulletin board—complete with his killer wink.

“Well, you can write and draw with mechanic pencil,” Sina said matter-of-factly.

The boys stared at her. She expected them to write something? What would they write? Diary? Songs?

“Don’t look at me like that. You can just keep it if you don’t want to use it. At least, Chanhee tried to give us something.”

Chanhee looked at Sina with a gaze which could melt girls’ heart. “Aww. Sina, you are so kind.”

Niel looked at them quietly, feeling a tint of jealousy in his heart. Sina was always kind to anyone, reaching out to them, all of them. Not only to Changhyun and Jonghyun—whom he envied of, but to everyone. He couldn’t stop himself of being jealous to Chanhee who could freely express his feeling. When would he able to look at Sina with that stare? He sat right in front of her, but he was some kind of invisible to her. How could she unable to see through him? The others did. The others said it was clear enough that he liked her. But she misinterpreted his action with hatred. Did she like someone else? Was that why she ignore him?

Niel looked at his senior. Minsoo would be out of the list. The only options would be Byunghun or Chanhee. Both of them were Sina’s classmates. It could be Byunghun or Chanhee. Who would it be? Or she liked younger boy? Jonghyun or Changhyun? Sina looked like someone who would take care of anybody, so it’s possible if she liked a younger boy. Niel stared at Changhyun, who leaned to Sina comfortably. She was really comfortable with Changhyun’s presence too and acted like a sister to him. They were like siblings rather than lovers. Or maybe Jonghyun? Sina always nagged him for being so concern with his diet, pushing food to him whenever she could. As a friend, she cared about Jonghyun too much. Maybe she hold something in her heart?

“Okay, one person one pencil. If you don’t want to, I will give these to Sina,” threatened Chanhee.

With protests, they took the pencils. Sina only saw one color of red, so she reached out and placed her hand in the red colored one. Just in the same time, Niel’s hand placed right above her hand, in the same pencil she held.

“I want the red one!” both of them said.

When they realized their hands touched, they looked at each other, and blushed. Niel hesitantly pulled his hand. Even though only for a split of second, he could feel her warm hand. This made him blush more.

Sina blushed too, but she didn’t know why. Skinship was not a new thing for her. Changhyun and Jonghyun always did it, either held her hands or hugged her. But she never blushed, and mainly because she thought of them as little brothers. Niel should be like them right? Why was she feeling this way?

The others stared at them, waiting for their reaction. Chanhee totally forgot that Niel once said he liked red. He only thought of Sina when it came to red stuffs. She was obsessed with it. Red bags, red bows, red cellphone skin. But seeing the two of them blushed like this, he guessed it was worth it.

“Noona can have it,” Niel said.

Sina pushed the pencil towards Niel. “No, you can have it. I’ll choose another color.”

Niel pushed it back. “No, how can I take it from you, noona?”

“That is really okay. I can take the black one. There are plenty of them. Chanhee already gave me a lot of things too. See here, he gave me this keychain too.” Sina held a Rilakuma keychain in her bag.

“Yeah, Chanhee hyung always gave noona free things,” said Changhyun, couldn’t stop making remark.

Chanhee glared at Changhyun, “what’s wrong with it? I make a lot of efforts just to take one from the ufo catcher. The effort counts.”

“Yeah, say you, hyung,” Jonghyun added, without looking up from the mirror. He was checking his bang. The dance made his hair kind of a mess, and he was fixing it right now.

“You guys seriously fight over a pencil? Isn’t that sweet?” Yoomi said.

Sina and Niel glared at her. Niel with a don’t-try-to-say-anything-weird while Sina tried to avoid awkward moment which would follow later. She tried to hard to make the two of them felt more comfortable, she wouldn’t let Yoomi ruin it.

Sina turned to Niel “Just accept it, Niel. Please.”

Being stared with such expression, of course he couldn’t say no. She might not doing any aegyo—which he would like to see. But he blushed as he thought this noona was really cute. Quietly he took the pencil.

“Arasseo, noona. I’ll treasure this.”

“Don’t forget that it was from me, Niel,” Chanhee teased.

Niel was just holding the pencil carefully and thought that was the first gift Sina gave him. When Chanhee said so, he wanted to throw the pencil away.

When the food arrived, they became lively again. Foods were distraction for them. Whenever it came to foods, they would come running. They seemed to forget their disappointment towards Chanhee and focused on their foods. Even Jonghyun—who was saying he’s on tight diet for his fat cheeks and Sina and Yoomi kept nagging to him to eat more—eyed Changhyun’s meat (who was eating it happily and he looked like he was on CF or something).

As the others had conversation, Yuri glared at Byunghun who was still busy with a phone in his hand. He rarely did this, but today for some reason, he kept checking for his phone. He only replied one or two times when someone talked to him and mainly focused on his phone, rather than on his foods.

“Byunghun ah, stop staring at your phone and talk with us. It’s impolite to play with your phone in the dinner table,” said Yuri.

The others stole a glance to Yuri and Byunghun as they ate. They were waiting for either Byunghun’s respond or Yuri’s frustrated sigh everytime Yuri attempted to talk to him.

Byunghyun didn’t even look up from his phone, he said, “I talked. You guys talk a lot anyway. It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters. This is the time we get to know each other better by talking or…” Yuri looked at Changhyun and Niel who fought for a meat. “… fighting over a meat. What’s wrong with your phone anyway?”

Now Byunghun looked a nnoyed. He looked up and stared at Yuri with a deep frown. They rarely saw this. Byunghun’s expression ranged from a smile to not-amused face. “It’s none of your business, Yuri.”

His tone angered Yuri. She’s been trying to be friendlier to Byunghun. She had a crush to him since in the first grade. Who wouldn’t fall for Byunghun? He was charming with beautiful pair of eyes and a cute smile in his lips which could melt you. He could rap, dance, compose songs, play musical instruments, and have talent in English. But she learned something that resisted all efforts she would do to get his heart. A girl. There was this particular girl.

 And they were friend alright until at some point Byunghun’s acting like this to her and the other friends. He’s there with them but he’s not there. It seemed the only thing he cared about was something in his phone. It’s been bothering Yuri for a while. The girls always talked about this, but they came to nothing.

Byunghun’s manner of speaking that day finally frustrated Yuri. All hell broke loose.

She frowned as she said, “What’s on your phone anyway? Stalking that girl’s twitter? Face the reality, Byunghun. She won’t come back to you.”

Byunghun banged the table, sending the plates on the air for one or two centimeters. The others looked at Byunghun in surprise and fear. Byunghun might be a bit violent and hit the boys for a couple of times for no reason. But it was just a joke, and he did that with a bright smile on his face. Right now, seeing his angry face, banging the table, it was somewhat scary. But they could see a trace of pain. Whatever Yuri had said, it pained him.

Yuri also knew she was over the line and had spoken too much. She couldn’t help but to regret she said. “I’m…” she started.

“IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. I’m outta here,” he cut her off and rose from his seat. Without other words, he collected his things and walked out.

They froze and just realized what happen when Chanhee rose from his seat. “Ya! Byunghun ah!”

Yuri buried her face in her hands. “What did I just do….?” She grumbled pitifully.

“What did you say that for?” Minsoo said in annoyed tone.

Minsoo successfully said their mind. Niel and Changhyun was loss at words, not knowing what to say that they’re scared they might say something wrong to Yuri.

“Yuri didn’t do that on purpose…” Yoomi mumbled.

“It slipped out of my mouth…”

Sina patted Yuri’s arm in understanding. She could understand her feeling already. Although sometimes Yuri was pretty strict, she was actually soft-hearted. She always felt stuck about Byunghun, not knowing what to do with that particular guy.

“No one’s gonna run after Byunghun hyung?” Jonghyun asked carefully.

“Let’s leave him for now,” Sina answered. She turned to Yuri. “You should try to apologize to him. Don’t worry, Yuri ya. I’ll talk to him….”

The nuance became sour. They shoved their foods to their mouth, although no one’s feeling like eating again. Each of them was busy with their own mind. Yuri couldn’t stop herself from trembling and feeling scared that she might hurt Byunghun and make him hate her.

“Oh… Byunghun hyung hasn’t paid for his food…” Changhyun suddenly spoke.