Several days after Sooyeon called Kyuhyun informing the latter that her father has already arrived and thus, was having his “talk” with his wife, Sooyeon’s mother, Kyuhyun spends the days in pure agony as Yoona clings on him endlessly. From the classes which they’re taking together to those which they are not and Yoona would just appear somewhere, bringing Kyuhyun sandwiches or milk, to Kyuhyun’s vacant periods up until his choir practice and basketball practice. If not for Maestro Jang’s strictness when it comes to the choir practice, Yoona would have her way of sitting beside Kyuhyun while the practice is ongoing. Thankful to Maestro Jang, though, not only does he see that Kyuhyun won’t be able to sing with Yoona around, he can also see how uncomfortable Kyuhyun and Jongwoon are when Yoona sat between them. (On the course of the events that happened between them, Kyuhyun and Jongwoon are now sitting together whenever they have their choir practice. Sometimes, Ryeowook will sit with them but because the man has too many fangirls in the choir, Kyuhyun and Jongwoon are most likely to be thrown dark glances whenever they take the sit on either side of Ryeowook. On these occasions, Ryeowook would only smile at his fangirls and explain that he misses Kyuhyun and Jongwoon.) Kyuhyun would then throw an appreciative glance to their maestro whenever Yoona is made to politely leave the choir practice because they are going to practice already. Those two hours of practice are bliss for Kyuhyun and he tries not to think that after those couple of hours, Yoona is back again to ruin his life. In this point of Kyuhyun’s life, he’s not sure if he still wants to protect Sooyeon, if he doesn’t want to hurt Yoona or if he just wants to hole up in his dormitory room.

“Oppa!”

Unsurprisingly, Kyuhyun hears that familiar (and this isn’t Kyuhyun’s choice nor does he want this) voice and in his exact count of five, Yoona is clinging on his arm again, swinging in a way that Kyuhyun supposes girlfriends are supposed to do with their boyfriends. Kyuhyun can only sigh while Jongwoon and Ryeowook exchange glances as Yoona appears suddenly from out of nowhere.

“Are you going to your basketball practice? I’ll come with you,” Yoona says with complete delight.

“Don’t you have class?”

Yoona is about to say something when Ryeowook answers, “No more,” and she realizes that Kyuhyun is looking at and talking to Ryeowook, not to her. It’s only the time when she realizes that she and Kyuhyun aren’t the only people in the world. She turns to look at Ryeowook and then at Jongwoon, then she smiles at them brightly.

“Jongwoon-hyung and I are going to our basketball practice,” Kyuhyun tells Ryeowook. “You want to watch?”

Honestly, Kyuhyun knows that Ryeowook isn’t into basketball. He’s more of a domestic kind of guy and that sounds actually funny for Kyuhyun because it’s like he’s just talking about a pet. To elaborate, Ryeowook is more into little things, like singing and cooking and composing music. He’s not a jock (and not that Kyuhyun and Jongwoon are) even though the number of his fangirls can probably tell that he might be. He only asks Ryeowook that to piss off Yoona and seeing the uneasiness in Yoona’s face before she smiles at Ryeowook and Jongwoon, it means that Kyuhyun is successful. He takes victory over Yoona in little things like this because after that call when Sooyeon told him that Mr. Jung has already arrived, he hasn’t heard from Sooyeon again.

“You kidding me?” Ryeowook asks disbelievingly, chuckling.

“If you want, you can watch,” Kyuhyun answers innocently.

“Nah,” Ryeowook says, shaking his head and probably getting what Kyuhyun is trying to do. “I need to do something.”

It’s expected so Kyuhyun only shrugs, “Okay.”

“See you tomorrow, hyung,” Ryeowook says, turning to Jongwoon and smiling at him.

“Hey, Wookie, you’re going home at the gate near the basketball court, right?” Jongwoon asks.

“Yeah, hyung. What’s up?”

“Let’s walk together,” Jongwoon says, smiling at Ryeowook and completely ignoring that Kyuhyun is glaring at him now. He doesn’t mean anything, really, with that. Maybe, he just doesn’t want to talk together with Kyuhyun while Yoona glues herself on Kyuhyun, almost permanently.

Ryeowook glances at Kyuhyun. Then, he smiles at Jongwoon and says, “Sure, hyung.”

Yoona smiles gratefully at Jongwoon, as if Jongwoon is doing this in her favor. As Ryeowook and Kyuhyun begin to leave, Yoona turns to Kyuhyun again and says, “Let’s go, oppa.” She is about to take a step but Kyuhyun remains on his place.

“How long?”

“Huh?”

“How long are you planning to keep this up?”

Yoona removes her arm that is attached like permanently on Kyuhyun for the past days. She looks at Kyuhyun seriously and slowly asks, “What do you mean?”

Kyuhyun doesn’t know if he’s just had enough or if seeing Jongwoon walk away with Ryeowook became his cue that he’s enough of Yoona’s bulls and if Sooyeon’s father is already with her, then maybe Kyuhyun can be free from Yoona’s graps already. “I don’t like you, Yoona,” Kyuhyun says. “I never had and I never will.”

For a moment, Yoona only stares at Kyuhyun, like she is searching for something in Kyuhyun’s eyes and for a moment there, it almost got Kyuhyun that maybe Yoona isn’t Satan’s daughter, after all, and that maybe Yoona can understand Kyuhyun. But she blankly stares at Kyuhyun and says, “So?”

Kyuhyun loses his cool. “So? Are you hearing yourself? I don’t like you,” he reiterates, loudly, irritably, the toll of pretending every time Yoona clings herself on him that it’s alright taking over him. “Even if you blackmail me, Yoona, I will never like you.”

“You’re so selfish, oppa,” Yoona begins. “The whole university will be disgusted with Sooyeon – not to mention she will be condemned by the society of Korea. If people will know now that Jung Sooyeon is a lesbian, do you think people will still treat her like a princess? Do you think she’ll still have friends when they’re thinking on the back of their minds how disgusting she is?!”

Yoona catches Kyuhyun’s eyes and she knows he’s getting him again. She knows how important of a friend Sooyeon is to Kyuhyun. She’s almost his younger sister. Kyuhyun tries to look away but the weight of Yoona’s stare is engulfing him to her, like he’s being pulled into and he suddenly remembers her promise to Sooyeon’s mother, that he’ll protect Sooyeon no matter what.

“You only have to love me, oppa,” Yoona continues.

Kyuhyun stands frozen there again, not knowing what to do, until Yoona – like a sudden change of mood – clings onto him again and pulls him with her, saying, “Let’s go, oppa! You’ll be late for your basketball practice.”

And Kyuhyun lets himself be dragged away by Yoona, again.

“Say, oppa, you need to kiss me.”

“WHAT?!”

“Because you’ve been a bad boy,” Yoona answers, sticking out her tongue to Kyuhyun.

“WHAT THE ?!”

“Kiss me after your basketball practice, okay?”

“THE ARE YOU SAYING?!”

“You don’t want to ruin Sooyeon’s life now, do you?” Yoona interrupts Kyuhyun’s retaliation with a sudden mention of Sooyeon’s name again, causing Kyuhyun to shut his mouth and question his freaking mind why he didn’t poison Yoona during their dinner nights ago while she leans her head on Kyuhyun’s arms.

Kyuhyun is losing his mind. Fifteenth period is almost over and Yoona is sitting prettily on one of the benches, shouting words of encouragement for the team but mostly for Kyuhyun, much to the entire team’s envy. To Kyuhyun’s ears though, they are nothing but Yoona’s reminder of what she told him to do before arriving at the basketball court. Unlike Maestro Jang, Coach Kang is pretty alright with people whenever they’re having basketball practice. He says moral support is important but if he only knows how that particular girl sitting near him is driving Kyuhyun nuts to the point that he doesn’t catch a throw and it lands directly on his face because Yoona just shouted, “I love you, Kyuhyun-ah!” then, he’ll probably kick Yoona out of the court for ruining his future point guard’s concentration. Kyuhyun knows that pressure always comes when playing but this is different.

“Practice’s over!” Coach Kang announces to Kyuhyun’s horror. “Go home already, drink lots of water and don’t forget our next practice.”

Kyuhyun walks over to Jongwoon and maybe to ask Jongwoon a favor to help him escape Yoona. He isn’t kissing Yoona, not now, not ever. He’ll ask for Sooyeon’s forgiveness all his life for ruining her life but he’s not kissing that girl, Kyuhyun swears. You only kiss someone you love. Kyuhyun’s feelings for Yoona is far from love, very far.

“Hyung.”

“Kyu, hey. Is everything alright?”

But escaping Yoona isn’t that easy. She appears herself beside Kyuhyun in no time and is smiling sweetly at Kyuhyun. “Oppa,” she starts saying, “I believe you have something you need to do, right?”

Kyuhyun only stares at her and if looks can kill, Yoona is vanished from earth now. But looks are far from being murder tools so Yoona remains clinging on Kyuhyun’s arm, waiting for Kyuhyun to make his move while Jongwoon only looks at Kyuhyun, puzzled, wondering what’s wrong with the younger one.

They notice that the entire team is looking at their direction – not to mention those people who stayed with the team’s practice because the love of their lives (who don’t even know they exist, by the way) such as Siwon who has many girls coming after him everytime are practicing. Jongwoon is uncomfortable but Kyuhyun is looking like he seriously wants to kill Yoona so he decides to stay, for Kyuhyun’s sake.

“Kyuhyun, is everything alright?” Jongwoon asks again, looking worriedly over Kyuhyun now because Kyuhyun is turning white, paler than he usually is! His hands are clenched and he is gritting his teeth.

“Oppa,” Yoona looks at Kyuhyun and meets the other’s stare but she remains unaffected. How many times had she gotten that same stare from other people? She’s immune. “Do it.”

Kyuhyun looks miserably one last time to Jongwoon and slowly leans over Yoona.

Yoona closes his eyes and waits for Kyuhyun’s lips to touch hers.

Jongwoon stares at Kyuhyun leaning to kiss Yoona, frozen in place.

The entire basketball court is silent without even knowing why. They are just in their place – even Coach Kang – looking over at Kyuhyun and Yoona, and Jongwoon in the process because he’s with them, not knowing why the hell is Jongwoon frozen in his place and they thought he’s ruining the view of a perfect couple, Kyuhyun and Yoona, the guy planting a kiss on his supportive girlfriend who waited for him and cheered him on his three-period basketball practice.

5…

4…

3…

2…

It must have been fate.

“No, you don’t, .” A hand suddenly pulls Yoona from Kyuhyun, removing her hold from Kyuhyun’s arms and astounding everybody in the basketball court.

Yoona confusedly at first, but then turned angrily looks at the person who pulls him away from Kyuhyun just before Kyuhyun’s lips touch hers. Shocked as she is, she couldn’t say anything.

“Sooyeon?” Kyuhyun approaches Sooyeon, surprised.

“Hi, oppa,” Sooyeon says, waving her hand excitedly.

“What are you doing here?”

“Saving you?” Sooyeon answers Kyuhyun with a smile and then, she secretly glances over to Jongwoon and winks at him.

Karma is the process of giving you back what you gave.

Bad deed begets bad deed, and vice versa.