The snail was moving ever so slow. Ryeowook stared. Disgusted yet oddly fascinated, she watched the snail’s progress across her path, scrunching up her face in feminine disgust at the sight of the slimy body wriggling along the cement and the shiny trail of slime it left behind. A voice spoke behind her, and she jumped.

"Surely I’m more interesting than that old snail?" She blew out a sigh at the sight of Kyuhyun, smiling down at her. She managed a watery smile.

"Maybe." She stepped carefully over the trail of slime and walked on. Kyuhyun caught up with her, walking silently at her side. Ryeowook felt relieved that he wasn't talking. She didn’t think she could listen to him talk and not lose patience then.

Ryeowook came to a stop outside her classroom. Kyuhyun stopped too.

"I have a Maths class here," she said pointedly. "Don't you have class too?"

He smiled at her. Then turned and walked off without another word. Ryeowook was finding this weird. He usually talked. A lot. He was unusually quiet today. She didn’t know why.

She took her seat in the classroom. Donghae was in the same class as her. He plunked down in his seat next to her and grinned toothily. A few seconds later, his expression changed to sudden remembrance.

"Oh yeah … I have to remember to pass you this note from Eunhyuk. She’d kill me if I forgot." He grabbed his bag and began rummaging. Ryeowook screwed up her nose as the crumpled papers and books, and occasional broken pencil or pen spilled out. Maybe she could talk to Eunhyuk about making Donghae keep his things in better order. Into her thoughts drifted Yesung and the Geography notes she’d borrowed from him last time, written in his slightly slanted writing, neatly covering two sheets of paper. She’d forgotten to return them. She would go and look for him later today. She felt her heart give an odd jump at the thought of seeing him.

Finally, Donghae triumphantly fished out a small delicately folded note. "I knew it was in here somewhere …"

Ryeowook eyed the note. It was slightly crumpled, and covered in bits of pencil shavings. Donghae noticed the expression and smiled sheepishly, but still shook the note at her. A few pencil shavings drifted down as she took the note. It was written on Eunhyuk's customized scented notepaper, and the smell of her friend's perfume somehow calmed her down. She unfolded it.

'Ryeowook

The first meeting for our Social Studies project is tomorrow. It’s been a week and we haven’t done anything at all. 
“Tomorrow afternoon, is it possible at your place?” I'd ask Donghae to tell you, but he'd forget what he had to say. Tell Yesung and Kyuhyun too.

Eunhyuk'

Ryeowook sighed. She wasn’t looking forward to talking to Kyuhyun. Things had become a bit odd between them recently, now that Yesung was talking to her again.

---

The someone burped and scratched his nose.
Things were getting boring.

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

Ryeowook had her head down, pawing through the contents in her bag, looking for her locker key. Without looking up, she stopped in front of her locker, and rummaged some more. Finally she found it sandwiched between her papers. Giving a sigh of exasperation, she pulled it out. She looked up, and her eyes widened at the sight of Yesung leaning against the locker next to hers.

"You scared me." She dropped her eyes to the keyhole and she tried to get her key in. She didn’t know why her hands were shaking so much. Yesung watched her with mild amusement, his eyes crinkled in a smile. When Ryeowook finally got the key in and opened the door, her face was burning red. She stuffed her books in, then took out Yesung’s notes.

"Here. I forgot to return them to you last time. Sorry." He shrugged and slipped them into his bag. He didn’t care.

Ryeowook was just transferring her papers to the locker when she saw Eunhyuk’s note. She remembered.

"Yesung –" She’d expected him to leave, but he was still there. Waiting for her. He raised one of his eyebrows. A silent question. Ryeowook gritted her teeth. No matter how she practiced in front of the bathroom mirror, she could not raise only one eyebrow. And she hated it that he was being silent too. She was suddenly infuriated.

"Will you quit doing that?" She poked him in his upper arm. Yesung laughed out loud, grabbing her finger.

"Hey. Chill." (:

Ryeowook coloured and pulled her finger out of his grasp. Shuffling and rearranging the books in her locker, she said sideways, "Social Studies. We haven’t done anything yet. Eunhyuk says there’s a meeting tomorrow at …" She drifted off reluctantly.

Yesung nudged her. "At?"

"My place." The corners of his mouth crinkled up some more.

---

It was an awkward procession making their way to Ryeowook’s house. Donghae and Eunhyuk were lagging away behind, absorbed in each other. Ryeowook was in front, flanked on one side by a grumpy Yesung, and on the other side a smirking Kyuhyun.

She couldn’t stand it anymore and stopped short. Both guys put on the brakes and looked at her.

Ryeowook couldn’t believe this. Now she wasn’t only angry at Kyuhyun. Also at Yesung. She hated the way they followed her around and their seeming inability to speak to each other. Fuming, she stalked off. Both caught up.

By the time she reached her front door, she was simmering. She was scrabbling around for her keys, and she saw Yesung and Kyuhyun watching her out of the corner of her eye.

"What?" She snapped. Kyuhyun looked away as if trying not to smile. Yesung gave her a full-on smile and pointed at the floor at her feet, where her keys had fallen but she had been too distracted to notice. She gritted her teeth and bent to pick them up, but Kyuhyun had already picked them up for her. He waved them in front of her nose, making a jangling sound.

Ryeowook counted to ten to try and calm herself down. By the time she got to nine, she felt reasonably sure that she could hold her temper. She glared at Kyuhyun and grabbed her keys. Stuffing them into the lock, she let herself in. The guys followed.

She stomped up the stairs, looking out of the corner of her eye to make sure Yesung or Kyuhyun wasn’t following. They weren’t. She blew out a sigh of relief and slammed her bedroom door shut and locked it.

---

By the time she got back downstairs, Donghae and Eunhyuk had arrived and let themselves in. They were cuddled up together on the sofa having a cushion fight. Yesung was sitting at the piano, randomly plunking out a note or two. Kyuhyun was watching TV.

---

Three hours later, they were only halfway through the project. Ryeowook was so strung out by Yesung and Kyuhyun’s behaviors that she was ready to snap. Counting to ten wasn’t enough anymore. She counted to twenty.

The doorbell rang just as she was at sixteen. Ryeowook sagged with relief. A reason to get out of there. She unfolded her long legs from the armchair she’d been curled up in and trudged off to the door. Without bothering to look through the peephole to check who the visitor was, she opened the door … to an empty doorstep.

Ryeowook blinked.

She narrowed her eyes. This felt familiar. She stuck her head out of the door to look around the doorjamb on the right, when suddenly on the left, somebody pounced on her.

She shrieked before recognizing the face squashed up behind her.

"Sungmin!"

---

He was sorting through the puzzle pieces when suddenly a few pieces flew out of his hands fitted themselves into place in the incomplete puzzle.

It took him a while to register the partial image formed.

He gasped.

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Hope you all like it! Enjoy and Comments please:)