The whole day, in between classes, no matter what class she was headed to, Donghae would suddenly pop out of nowhere, blocking her path, to chatter about where they could go on Friday night. Eunhyuk found it all cute and amusing at first, but by fifth period Biology she was getting a tad bit tired of it already. As she threaded her way through crowds of students milling at the lockers, she snapped at Donghae, who had been faithfully tagging her, talking away; "Aren’t you worried you’ll be late for your class?"

Donghae grinned widely. "I have the same fifth period Biology as you on Thursdays, remember? And we’re desk mates too" xD Eunhyuk sighed inwardly. “As long as he didn’t chatter on during the whole class …”

Before they entered the classroom, she warned him "If you say a single word to me during class not related to Biology and our date on Friday will be called off. Understand?" An immense feeling of satisfaction swept through her at the horrified look on Donghae’s face, making her feel rather sadistic yet guilty. He meant well after all.

It did work – Donghae shut up. Oddly, Eunhyuk couldn’t concentrate. Usually Bio classes with him were noisy, entertaining – and easier to understand. Donghae would chatter on and on, his voice hardly blending in with the rest of the class’s, the nasal tone vibrating around the walls. The teacher was a wizened old man into his sixties, and he taught well, despite the fact that one wouldn’t really be able to hear what he was saying, as the rest of the class chit-chatted. The teacher’s retirement was coming next year January, and he saw no reason to raise this blood pressure by yelling at the students to shut up. So it was normal for Donghae to be spouting nonsense beside her. And somehow, it made it easier for her to concentrate, hearing his voice, knowing he was there beside her.

The silence between the two of them was deathly unnatural, made worse with the noise made by the rest of the class. Eunhyuk avoided looking in his direction at all. Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore, and she turned to Donghae, wanting to tell him to talk, just talk on, she wouldn’t care, the more he talked the better –

Donghae had propped his head up on his arm, staring at her, the way she took notes, the way she sniffled and shook her head after a sneeze, the way she bit her lip when she didn’t understand a particular point the teacher was talking about, the way she twirled her pen in her fingers. He picked up his own pen and tried to imitate her, laughing silently at himself and the way his pen kept slipping out of his fingers while she managed to do it so absent-mindedly, so thoughtlessly and so well.

Eunhyuk caught him mid-laugh when she turned. He froze, his mouth fixed in a crooked smile. Eunhyuk’s eyebrows went up. At that moment, the pen Donghae was holding in his fingers slipped out. Because the end was slightly loosened by the frequent dropping, when the pen handed on the table, everything fell apart. The pen shell, the spring, the ink stick, the rubber grip – everything scattered over his Biology book.

The two of them stared at the mess on his book. Then at each other. The ink stick started leaking over his Donghae’s book. Donghae’s mouth dropped open and he picked up the ink stick, trying to salvage his book, his eyes lifted and met Eunhyuk’s …

And they burst out laughing.

Thirty-nine pairs of eyes whipped to them. Even the teacher stopped halfway through the chapter on homeostasis and looked up. Donghae’s deep laughter sounded around the room, added on with Eunhyuk’s high-pitched giggles. At that moment, the bond was formed, rooted into their hearts, for the rest of their lives.

After that day, without words, it was common knowledge that Eunhyuk was Donghae’s girlfriend. It was even better than Donghae had hoped; he’d wanted to ask her to be his girlfriend on Friday’s date anyway.

---

-Monday morning-

Ryeowook was examining closely, to the point where her eyes were nearly cross-eyed, her fingernails. Beside her, sitting stolidly straight and his eyes fixed on the novel they were doing for English book review, was Yesung. The last time he’d turned a page was half an hour ago.

English lessons were done with their form classes, and due to a change of teacher and seating arrangements, Ryeowook was now beside Yesung instead of Eunhyuk. To make things worse, it was a double period. Two hours straight.

Ever since that incident in the school corridor, things had kind of changed between them. An invisible barrier seemed to have risen between them. Every time they spoke, it was stiffly, politely; if, and only if they really had to.

Ryeowook didn’t understand. Though admittedly she was angry at Yesung, she didn’t know why. There was nothing he could’ve done anyway. She’d thought things wouldn’t have changed at all, but she was wrong. The first time she’d seen him since that incident, she’d wanted to smile at him, but the way he avoided her eyes hurt her.

Yesung couldn’t help it. He’d come so close to telling her what he really felt; and just like that, he’d broken off. He’d let go of her hand. He’d disappointed her. Although Donghae had interrupted, although it was technically Donghae’s fault, all he could think of was 'I could’ve said it. I could’ve said it. I could’ve said it. Why didn’t I?' The words went through over and over again in his head, a never-ending cycle … He felt like he’d let her down, that he could never look at her eyes again without guilt.

What made things worse were Donghae and Eunhyuk, they were acting lovey-dovey, and making kissing sounds at each other through the air, and just that morning Yesung had seen them kissing in the locker changing rooms, obviously a repeat of what had happened Friday night.

He couldn’t help but think about what it would have been like if it’d been him and Ryeowook in the locker changing rooms instead …

---

That someone shook this head.
He put his hand into the box of puzzle pieces, stirring them up.
Picking up one random piece, he looked at it.
It showed part of a girl's face,
her laughing mouth,
her sparkling eyes.

-----------------------------

-next Monday, form class period-

The teacher was taking attendance.

Ryeowook propped her head on her hand, eyelids heavy with lack of sleep. She’d lain awake all night, thinking about Yesung, their past, the beautiful memories, his smile, what he could’ve said to her that day in the corridor, why things were like that now – only for the seventh night in a row. She sighed and shifted her position on her seat. It was all his damn fault. What made it worse was that she still loved him.

His black eyes were shuttered, hiding all trace of emotion at all as he stared at the restless girl in front of him, his heart hurting worse with every sigh, every yawn, every drop of her head. Yesung knew he was the cause of all her pain – sooner or later he’d swallow his pride and talk to her – but not now. He couldn’t tell himself why he was procrastinating either.

There was a knock on the classroom door. The teacher put aside the attendance list and went to open the door; Ryeowook took this chance to get some shuteye. She collapsed the hand holding up her head and buried her face into her arms. Eunhyuk looked at her worriedly. Ryeowook had been like this for the past week – she had hoped things would get better over the weekend and despite Donghae’s protests, did not see him for the whole weekend and had plonked herself at Ryeowook’s place for a three day two night stay, during which she tried to cheer her up by taking her out shopping, amusement parks …

They’d had fun, but when they’d come back home and it was time for bed, Eunhyuk noticed that Ryeowook reverted to her broody self.

Eunhyuk sighed inwardly. She’d tried. She turned around and glared at Donghae, who’d been sprawled on this table, playing with her curls. Donghae grinned and yanked lightly. She slapped his fingers. He took her hand.

Yesung tried to avert his eyes, choosing to fix them instead on Ryeowook.

At that moment, the teacher came back into the classroom, with a new transfer student following her. Yesung kicked Ryeowook’s chair. She sat up, startled, realizing that the teacher was back into class, knowing also that Yesung had done that to help her. She turned around to look at him.

Their eyes held, and Ryeowook’s heart beat fast.

The teacher clapped her hands to restore silence, Ryeowook moved her head to face the front reluctantly. Yesung’s eyes darkened.

"We have a new transfer student here from Brunei. His name’s Cho Kyuhyun and I hope all of you will give him a warm welcome." She gestured at the tall boy standing next to her, and Ryeowook saw him for the first time. What attracted her attention was his face, for he was good-looking. He’d obviously worked out before, for she could see muscles.

When she looked up, he was looking straight at her.

He smiled at her. She smiled back.

"Kyuhyun, you can go sit in that empty seat in front of Ryeowook – she’s that longhaired girl there."

---

Yesung had seen Kyuhyun smile at Ryeowook. And he didn’t like it.

---

That someone fidgeted restlessly.
Things were moving way too slow.

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Finally I have sometime to update:) Enjoy and don't forget to comment!