Summer changed into autumn. It wasn’t as hot as it used to be as the temperature dropped significantly. More students spending time in the rooftop, making the boys constantly changed this practice place to the indoor gym or their club room. Since there is no heater in the club room, at times it could get very cold. Minsoo forced Chanhee to write a proposal for a heater in their club room, which was of course rejected, since the school had finalized their request for a big set of mirror. But it didn’t matter actually. When they danced, they would be drenched in sweat. They would beg for air conditioner than a heater, in the end.

Sina always loved autumn, as the weather would be perfect for everything. It wouldn’t be too cold, neither too hot. But her beautiful autumn slowly crumbled when she stared at a piece of paper she found in her locker. The content didn’t make sense at all no matter how many times she read it.

STAY AWAY FROM NIEL.

“What does it have anything to do with me?” she mumbled.

As she though maybe the sender send it to a wrong person, she crumpled it and pushed it in her pocket. She quickly forgot the black mail as she focused on her discussion with Byunghun about English grammar.

As she tried to forget, the mails kept coming. One every morning, and it got worse. They started making threats and used bad language she told herself not to use. She ignored this, still thinking that they were addressed to a wrong person, or maybe because someone misunderstood her position.

But she could feel something was totally wrong whenever she made eye contact with her juniors and—some same year friends. They were giving her this weird glare. She remembered if this was all about Niel, maybe they were only jealous to her because she was close to Niel. Niel was somewhat popular in school, not only among the juniors, the girls from her year also made some secret fanclub. But no one told her anything or why, so she shrugged it off. If they wanted to say something, they’d better face her directly. Not by sending threats and black mails. She could care less.

It was a cold afternoon after the boys’ Spartan practice, Yoomi dragged Sina and Yuri to tag along with them to a coffee shop near their school. Sina was thinking of avoiding Niel to check if it did something to her black mails. But everytime she tried to, she saw his innocent smile and she wavered. She couldn’t do that. She just couldn’t ignore this young man without any apparent reason.

As usual, the boys were involved in a heated conversation as Minsoo nodded off sleepily in his seat. He always had a habit to doze off for a minute if no one talked to him. And Yoomi was too busy talking with Chanhee about their next plan to the theme park—the ticket, budget, when, and where—to notice Minsoo leaned on her, sleeping.

“Oh, Niel-ah, do you have a girlfriend?” suddenly Sina asked, lifting her gaze from her chocolate.

Niel choked. Sina’s question ultimately threw him off guard—and the others too. Minsoo even opened his sleepy eyes to look at Sina. They were not talking about girlfriend or relationship or whatsoever and Sina’s suddenly asking about it.

“I… I don’t have, noona. Wae?” Niel asked in return, trying his best not to show his feeling.

“Mworago?? Niel hyung has a girlfriend? But I think he likes…”

Jonghyun quickly grabbed his back collar, stopping him right in time, while Niel knocked him off the table. Chanhee smirked seeing this, and Yoomi and Yuri exchanged hopeful look. But Sina was lost in her own world, she noticed nothing.

“Waeyo, noona?” Niel repeated.

“Umm… it was…. I think… uhh… it’s nothing…” she trailed off.