Girls walking past gaped. Guys walking past widened their eyes. People were beginning to cluster. It wasn’t often a love story started blossoming in the corridors. Usually it was fights or arguments. Love stories weren’t so common; but there still had been quite a few, one of which had resulted in onlookers covering their eyes or looking away.

Ryeowook felt her face couldn’t get any redder. Her heart was beating so fast, so loud; she felt that even Yesung must have been able to hear it. She dropped her eyes from his. She couldn’t look into those eyes any longer. She felt his hand, warm and protecting around hers. If only it could stay in there forever.

"Ryeowook … look at me."

She raised her eyes to his, and her breath caught when she saw the expression on his face. Yesung took a deep breath.

"I – "

"RYEOWOOK!!!"

Like a glass breaking, the spell was broken. Yesung dropped her hand. Ryeowook’s breathing resumed normal, but she couldn’t help but feel a slight tinge of anger as she turned around to see who had been calling her. Yesung might have wanted to confess to her. There were so many things that had been left unsaid between them.

She felt a rush of exasperation as she saw Donghae, but then, ironically, laughter bubbled up in her. She couldn’t explain herself either. Turning away from Yesung, she smiled at Donghae.

"Yeah?"

Donghae raised his eyebrows.

"I interrupted something, didn’t I?" he said, eyeing the dispersing students.

"Nothing important." She didn’t know how it had happened, but her rush of anger was now directed at Yesung. Various thoughts ran through her mind, among them: 'If there was anything he wanted to say, he had three years to say it. Why only now?'; 'I want him to know I’m hard to get. Then maybe he won’t take me for granted.'

Donghae raised his eyebrows. "Looking from Yesung’s expression, I don’t think so."

Ryeowook chanced a glance at Yesung, surprised. She’d never seen him look like that. There was both anger, disappointment, and emotion in his eyes, and the hand she’d been holding just a few seconds ago was hanging limp beside him. She turned away.

Donghae raised both hands as a mock sign of surrender. "Sorry, buddy," he said to Yesung. "Just wanted to tell Ryeowook she didn’t have to pass the message to you already – Mrs. Zhang’s 'talk' to me was shorter than expected. I only saw the back of her head; I didn’t see you."

Yesung gave a short bark of sarcastic laughter. "What’d you do this time?"

Donghae shrugged. "Nothing much." At Yesung’s expression, he changed his tack. “I mean, I was just planning where I could bring Eunhyuk this Friday, then I was listing down restaurants, then I didn’t do my worksheet on logarithms, then Mrs Zhang saw the list, then she confiscated it, then said she wanted to talk to me after class ..." He shook his head.

Ryeowook sighed inwardly. Guys. Angry though she was at Yesung, disappointment still overwhelmed anger. She was a girl after all. She spoke up.

"I’ll go look for Eunhyuk first." Donghae glanced at her.

"Okay. Meet you in the canteen."

Ryeowook turned. As she walked past Yesung, she had to resist the urge to reach out, take his hands again, and tell him to just spill what he wanted to say. Somehow she curbed her desire, and walked on.

Yesung turned as she passed, following her with his eyes, breathing in her scent, watching her disappear into the crowds. When she vanished from sight, somehow he felt like he’d just had his heart broken, though he’d never really managed to say anything.

---

-Thursday morning, form period-

The moment Eunhyuk entered the classroom, Donghae pounced on her.

"ARE YOU GOING?!!!"

Eunhyuk glanced serenely up at him.

"Relax, its no big deal anyway if I don’t go."

"What d'you mean, it’s not a big deal?! It IS a BIG DEAL! Does that mean you’re not going? Or what? Huh? Huh? Tell me!!"

Eunhyuk fended him off as he followed her all the way to her seat. She sat down. He knelt at her table, his arms splayed out across the desktop, doing his puppy-eyed face at her. After a few moments, even Eunhyuk couldn’t resist, and she burst out laughing. Donghae looked gratified. He’d actually got Eunhyuk to laugh!

"Okay, fine, I’ll give you a chance. I’ll go."

"HONEY!!!" He wrapped his arms around her. Eunhyuk flinched slightly – not at his touch, but because half of their classmates were staring at them. And he’d messed up her curls.

She'd known from when he'd asked her that she'd accept. She knew she’d always had a soft spot for him, ever since he’d matured a bit more since starting secondary school. However, she firmly believed in the line: Treat 'em mean to keep 'em keen.

---

A puzzle piece which had been hovering above the barely-completed puzzle dropped back into the box.
A sigh escaped from his lips.

==========================================================================

How is it? Comment pls, I need more.. ENJOY!