The next few days proved to be hectic. Singing classes got more intense, with Robin realizing that while she was a good singer, so was a lot of other kids. Mrs.Kim had also started emphasizing more and more on preparing for their showcases at the end of the semester. She was starting to freak out a little.

Lessons got tougher in general, Robin was struggling hard to keep up with all the hangul although Baekhyun and Leah has been kind to take turn to tutor her after school. She wouldn’t know what to do without them. Thanks to that, she’s still doing fine for now but there’s no telling whether she could pass those exams and not be kicked out of the school.

With so much going on, she didn’t notice that the end of the third week was approaching. Just like that, she was here for almost a month. By now most of the school students knew her name, her major, her family background and possibly her favourite colour. She’s still not used to hearing strange gossips about her but she’s learned to ignore the stares she gets everywhere she goes. Oh well. Life is such.

School was over but Mrs.Kim wanted Robin to stay back for extra practice. This sent her into excitement because it was something special that not every student got. To be called for extra practice only meant two things, that you were really terrible or you had the potential to do really well. The latter seemed to be the case for Robin. With only an hour for lunch, Robin was rushing back to the dorm to eat and settling down her bags in the room when Baekhyun came back.

“ Hey,” he said. Robin was too busy to even look back.

“ Hi,” she said, taking out of the textbooks in her bags that she didn’t need to bring for the extra lesson. “ Guess what? I got called for extra singing practice with Mrs.Kim!”

“ Whoa, are you doing that badly?,” Baekhyun joked. “ But I could see that coming. What did I tell you? Stop croaking through your notes“

Robin laughed and threw a pillow at him. He caught it and grinned. She caught a glimpse of it. It was cute. Wait. Since when did she find Baekhyun cute?!

“ But hey really, congrats! You’re doing really well,” he redeemed himself and settle his stuffs down on his side of the room.

Then he suddenly recalled. “ Oh and we’re going for a field trip to Busan tomorrow. You packed your stuffs yet? We’re gonna be there for like a couple of nights”

. She forgot about that!

“ I FORGOT ABOUT THAT!” Robin gasped. She looked at her laundry basket that was full of dirty clothes. “ Kill me. I haven’t done any laundry!”

“ You could always go .” Baekhyun teased. “ Or smell like a hobo in your old dirty clothes,”

Robin grunted out loud as she look at her watch. There was no time. She had to go to practice but she also needed to do her laundry. Why couldn’t she just split her body into two to do both things at the same time?!

“ Just go. Don’t worry about it. I’ll do your laundry.” Baekhyun said casually as he grabbed his own laundry basket. He needed to do his anyway. And how hard would it be to wash another basket of clothes?

“ Really? You would do that??” Robin asked, full of gratitude in her voice.

Baekhyun nodded at her, and smiled. Her brown eyes were pretty. He subconsciously stared at her for a few second longer that he should have. Then he shook himself out of it. “ Get lost! You’re running late!”

Robin laughed and skipped towards the door, before reaching the knob she turned around and gave him a salute, “ Thank you Captain Bacon!”

Baekhyun laughed. Robin was beginning to look adorable to him.

And he knew he was in trouble.

--

Within fifteen minutes Baekhyun found himself dragging two baskets into the laundry room. Since it was a weekday afternoon there weren’t much people and that was always a good thing because he didn’t want his underwear to be stolen by the fangirls again. It was sick and greatly inconvenient, it was getting ridiculous that he had to spend so much money buying new underwears all the time.

Whistling, Baekhyun tossed his clothes into the washing machine first. Then when he was done, he began picking up piles of clothes from Robin’s basket and stuffing it in.

Uniform, shorts, pyjamas, skir- the basket flipped. Baekhyun looked up. It was Sehun who accidentally kicked the basket over. Tao and Chanyeol were with him too.

“ Oh . Sorry hyung! “ Sehun and the boys immediately kneeled down and began scooping clothes back into the basket furiously. Baekhyun’s flung into action as he hit their hands away. “ No no no! Don’t !! I’ll kee- but it was too late.

“ What- ” Sehun frowned as he picked up.. Robin’s bra.

“ What is this?” His eyes widened in amusement. Tao and Chanyeol, stopping to look suddenly broke into a hysterical laughter. A few other students nearby turned to look at him.

.

Baekhyun felt a flash of violence coming over him. This seemed like a really impossible scene to explain. He needed to kick on something or flip all the washing machines in the room. Never before in his life, had he felt so embarrassed. And he didn’t know how to deal with it. It was mortifying. And he could feel his brain slowly shutting down.

“ I- uh I-“ baekhyun began weakly. “ It’s um Leah’s. She asked me to do her laundry.”

“ So this is her s size?” Sehun, still squatting, stared at the bra on his hand. Now everybody was staring at the black bra.

Baekhyun looked down. He wasn’t a bra or s expert. But from what it looks like, it’s definitely one hot rack if Robin’s s could really fill up their entire bra cup. He gulped, “ I.. guess”

“ Do you think she’ll go for a younger guy?”, Sehun asked, eyes still fixed on the bra. Then a brief image of robin, not leah hugging sehun came to Baekhyun’s mind. He was horrified and responded to it by smacking Sehun’s head hard. Then he yanked the bra angrily out of Sehun’s hands.  “ No. She’s my cousin you punk!”

“ Ouch! I was kidding!!” Sehun whined as Tao and Chanyeol broke into another round of laughter. Baekhyun quickly gathered the leftover of Robin’s clothes and hurriedly stuffed in all into the washing machine. He wasn’t going to have any more of this awkward moments. Standing up, he began jabbing on the buttons impatiently to get it to wash all these clothes as soon as possible.

Then the worst thing happened. It was as if someone planned it. He heard a familiar whistling tune. The one that undoubtedly, belonged to Leah. Within seconds, she emerged into the laundry room carrying her laundry bag. Baekhyun wanted to shout. All he wanted to do was to be a nice, thoughtful roommate. Did he really deserve this?

“ Hey! I was about to-“ Leah yelped as she sharply dropped her laundry bag and began hopping and hugging her injured leg. The cause of the pain was D.O’s laundry basket which she accidentally kicked. Apparently she didn’t see D.O who just came in as well. Someone really needs to speak to the admin office about expanding this room. D.O turned to glare at Leah with his huge, large, scary eyes. Leah frowned in retaliation. Another heated verbal battle between them was about to start again before Sehun broke it up by asking, “ Hey Leah Noona! What’re you doing here? I thought Baekhyun hyung was doing your laundry?”

. Again.

Usually he wasn’t the type to spin a tale of lies. But in this case he was left with no choice. “ Ah Leah! that’s your second basket right? I told you to give it all to me at once!”

Leah shot him the most confused, distorted, puzzled face that basically gave the game away. He quickly walked up to her and whispered discreetly, “ I’ll explain it later. Just play along.”

“ OH YES! WELL I WANTED TO BUT I FORGOT TO GIVE THE SECOND BASKET TO YOU SO-“ Leah realized she was shouting. She couldn’t lie very well. 

As Leah approached the washing machine next to Baekhyun’s, he began explaining the situation to her. This somehow had a comedic effect on everybody, except him who found this too embarrassing to be funny.

“ So wait- you’re telling me that you, the dirty monkey, is not only doing your own laundry diligently but you’re also doing it for Robin?”

“ I’m not that dirty. You should take that statement back.”

“ Yeah you are! And the point is you’re really nice to Robin. Like extra nice!”

“ She’s my roommate. And she couldn’t do her laundry today! I would do it for you too you know”

“ No you wouldn’t! The closest I’ll ever get is being a part of this lie to cover up for robin’s bra!”

Baekhyun grunted. There was some truth to it. He didn’t even like doing laundry that much. And honestly it was no business of his whether Robin would have fresh clothes to wear for the trip, he’s sure she would have anyway. Why on earth would he volunteer to do it for her? Plus he was subjected to an embarrassing moment because of her too. And amazingly, he couldn’t wait to go back to the room and share this with her, laugh over it and feel better.

“ Just admit it you like her don’t you?” Leah taunted him as she began unloading her clothes into the machine.

“ Do I?”

Leah shrugged. “ That, you’ll have to figure it out yourself”

“ Does she like Luhan or something?”, he asked.

“ Um. It’s more like an eye-candy thing. But now that they’re working together on the project who knows? Maybe it could grow to more especially since he seems interested in her.” Leah challenged him. “ But you would know that. You’re pretty close to him aren’t you?”

Baekhyun pushed Leah’s head lightly. This punk. “ I know what you’re doing. I’m not going to do anything about it because I just like her as a roommate and a really good friend okay?” he insisted.

“ Who do you look forward to seeing everyday?” Leah asked, this time more serious.

He contemplated briefly. No other names could come to mind. It was an easy answer. “.. Her.” Baekhyun sighed and admitted. Maybe Leah was right. Maybe he has some feelings for Robin. Heck, why is Leah always right?

“ And how do you think she feels about you?”

He shrugged. He didn’t know. He really didn’t. All he knew was that Robin would tell him about her days, her stories in London, her childhood. Basically, she tells him a lot of things and he knew it wasn’t easy for her to open up to people. She would listen to whatever he said and laugh whenever he said something funny, or even when he didn’t intend to be. Undeniably he feels a strong connection, like a chemistry between them that makes them relate and flow together naturally. But again, he wouldn’t know if she felt the same or he was the only one feeling it.

“ I think she thinks I’m charming, like the same way she feels about Leonardo Dicaprio.”

Leah rolled her eyes. “ I’m being serious here. If you think you like her then you should at least give it a shot and win her over. And as her bestfriend, I would say you have a pretty good chance. I think she’s pretty fond of you.”

“ In what ways?” He asked. But Leah was no longer looking at him. Instead, her eyes were fixed, and frowning on his washing machine.

“ You didn’t put her bras into the lingerie bags did you?”, she asked, eyes still not moving from the clothes and Robin’s bras that were swirling in the washing machine.

He shook his head. . From that tone, he knew it couldn’t be good news. “ What’s a.. lingerie bag?”

Leah sighed out. “ Oh you idiot. Robin has an OCD and you knew that. If there was like 10% chance of her liking you it’s now gone. You better pray hard that at least half of her bras aren’t spoilt!”

He wasn’t exactly sure what Leah meant by “spoilt” but he knew it must be bad. Surely.. Robin wouldn’t get mad right? At the very most, he could offer to buy her new bras. And aren’t washing machines supposed to be able to wash everything and anything? What’s wrong with putting bras in there and not putting lingerie bags?

Later when the laundry was done, Leah had helped him to assess the damage done. Apparently half of Robin’s bra cup wires came off and he couldn’t see how it was a problem. Couldn’t she just remove the wiring and get on with it? But Leah let out a sigh and gave him one advice before leaving the room, “ you better take her to Victoria’s secret and buy her the prettiest, most expensive bras you can”.

He scratched his head. When he left the room he was feeling pretty good about himself. Walking back to his dorm now, two things were running tirelessly in his mind.

1) I am a bra-ruiner

2) She’s pretty fond of me

--

“ Let me begin by explaining this to you first,” Mrs.Kim smiled at Robin. It always made her feel more relaxed somehow. She really likes Mrs.Kim, she gives out a very reassuring and empowering vibes.

“ as you know there’s a showcase for all the students at the end of every semester. The final one at the end of your last year here is the biggest and most important one. Everyone is required to prepare an item which would be guided by the teachers. However with that being said, there are a few exceptional students that we would like to pay more attention to, nurture them more so that they can reach their full potentials. While they prepare for their items just like every other students, they will be given priority in attention from the teachers for the next 2 years till their final showcase. They will also be performing, or even closing the showcase which is what every student is hoping for. “

Robin nodded. She understood what Mrs.Kim was saying. She tried very hard to contain her excitement, she wanted to shout! Yes! Yes! I’m actually good! Exceptional! Outstanding! Even without being able to read or write hangul!

“ Every arts teacher is allowed to select 3 students to guide. We call them “trainees” and so far, I have narrowed down a few in mind.” She paused, and took a sip of her water. Robin watched her eagerly. Mrs.Kim smiled at her.

“ Now I would like you to sing for me please,” Mrs.Kim requested. This threw Robin off suddenly. She was expecting to hear the good news first. Regardless, she nodded and began singing. She was careful to remember all her techniques and gave it her very best shot. When she’s finished, she was happy that everything went well. The notes and techniques were in place. It was good.

Mrs.Kim smiled again. But it wasn’t the kind of smile people gave you when they were impressed. At once, Robin’s self-esteem and mood took a dip straight down to the ground. She didn’t understand.

“ You see Robin. I have one last spot for a trainee. There’s 4 of you that are all extremely talented which I have considered. I need you to prove it to me that you have the potential to stand out from the rest.” Mrs.Kim finished gently. Immediately Robin searched her brain for who she might be up against. But her head was blocked.

“ How do I do that?” Robin asked. But weren’t her techniques correct and perfect? How else was she going to improve when she was already doing them right?

Mrs Kim laughed. “ Yes surely you’ll wonder.”

“ You see, there are two things that makes one a great singer. One is the execution of the techniques and secondly, the ability to express the emotions of the song. I don’t doubt that you have great control and techniques of singing but what you lack, is a broken heart.”

Robin was confused.

“ When you sing, it lacks emotions. And these can’t come from pretending to feel the emotion behind what the song is trying to convey. You have got to experience it, know it and own it.”
 

Ah, robin think she’s getting it. But still, how is she supposed to know every emotion in the world? Mrs.Kim seemed to sense the helplessness is Robin’s expression.

“ What you need to do is put yourself out there, enjoy life and all the adventures, fun and pain it throws at you! You need to step out of your comfort zone and experience everything you can so that you’ll know what it really feels like.”

Although that sounded easy, Robin knew well in her heart it was going to be difficult for someone so timid and introverted like her. Nevertheless, singing is one thing she love and she could never give up. For this reason she was determine to do anything to improve and be a trainee.