Everyone was horrified at what happened. No one could really explained why and even testing numerous of times on their remaining trip back to school, it was confirmed. Baekhyun mysteriously lost his ability to read and write hangul. On the other hand, Robin had it. Because it was so warped and they all didn’t know how to deal with it or even believe it completely yet, they agreed to keep it a secret between them with the exception of Leah, naturally.

It seemed.. unreal, crazy, strange, impossible. Basically, it was like an alternative universe which Robin had previously thought to exist only in her head. It was the world where she could read Hangul and write efficiently. Classes become easier in an instant, assignments and projects and test would become the least of worries. She could understand and read everything. Technically she should have been jumping in joyful tears right now if only that Baekhyun has taken her place in being a illiterate in hangul. For that she’s never felt so guilty before in her entire life.

The first day being an illierate Baekhyun managed to convince himself this was just a side effect of their weird- head collision. That it was temporary. And he knows that it is temporary, but now, on the fifth day, it feels pretty damn permanent.
 

And discouraging. And hopeless.
     

--

“ I don’t understand! We’ve tried so many things but nothing works!” Robin gasped as she jumped on her bed later that night. “ We’ve collided our heads again so many times that I might have a bruise, we exchanged all our food and drinks, we’ve tied our hands together, we-“ Robin stopped and sat up to peak at what Baekhyun was doing and why he wasn’t responding. Sitting at his own table, he seemed completely engrossed in studying. It was so unlike him because Baekhyun is the genius sort who you never ever see them study but they just do everything so well, like Leah she supposed. In fact for the past couple of months they’ve spent together, Robin’s sure she’s never seen Baekhyun studying so hard. Or on his table that matter, he’s always reading on his bed.

“ What’re you doing?” she ask, craning her neck to see what he was doing.

“ I’m studying hangul,” he mumbled, deep in concentration. “ If American teenage girls can read and understand all the hangul lyrics of SHINee’s songs then I can do it too, how hard can hangul be? I’ve learnt it before.. ”. This made Robin giggled as she fell back on her bed. Suddenly there was a new found respect for Baekhyun. Firstly because even in the worst of times, he’d still have humour and positivity going around. But more importantly, rather than blaming everything on her or others, Baekhyun kept his head focused on solving the issue. And while Robin had been so focused on using silly and stupid methods in a bid to resolve this, such as knocking themselves again, Baekhyun didn’t leave it to chances to solve his problem. It must be hard to know everything, work so hard to learn and master a language and then have it all disappear in one day.. the frustration he must feel learning everything and not understanding.. well she would know. Yet he’s never complained for this past one week. Instead he’s been diligently coming home to study hangul from scratch for hours. Thinking about it only makes her feel worst about herself. It should have been her who had to be staying up every night to study hangul and not spending her time watching tv and lazing away or even practicing on her singing so often when she hardly hear Baekhyun sings anymore. He probably doesn’t have time now.. she wonders whether it’ll affect his singing ability.

Baekhyun cracked his neck and he got up to stretch. He’s been sitting for too long. It’s been five days and he’s managed to get the consonants and half of the vowels memorized. At this rate he might be able to grasp hangul well before finals afterall.

He turned and looked at Robin, who was humming with her eyes closed as she cycled in the air with her pyjamas. It prompted him to chuckle because he thought it was cute. He was still unsure whether it was just an infatuation or whether he really liked her. It was difficult to tell and he didn’t want to make a mistake just because he’s been spending a lot of time with her.

“ How’s your singing coming?” He sat on his bed and picked up his phone.

Robin rolled around and lay on her stomach. “ Awesome! Mrs.Kim said that I’ve been making great progress and you know something about me being able to express emotions better and all, but I still have a long way more so..” she trailed off in a huff. Mrs.Kim did tell her to be more adventurous and experience life, and in her opinion she did have a crazy one in the snow storm. But was that enough?

Baekhyun grinned, still look at this phone. “Oh yeah she did say something about you needing to experience life more,” then he looked up from his phone. “ And there’s a pool party right now in the swimming complex,” he said with a distinct mischief in his eyes that Robin could recognize anyday.

She shook her head and exclaimed, “ No! Omg No!”

“ Why? Come on Robin it’ll be fun! Don’t you wanna know how a school pool party is like?”

She's only been studying here for two months and don’t quite have the confidence for mischief yet, but Baekhyun’s curiosity is infectious.

“ And we can get into trouble. It’s Friday night and it’s 10pm! We’re not supposed to use the swimming complex and much less have a party!”

Baekhyun didn’t seem to want to back down. “ And that’s the point! The seniors throw this party every year. Come on you’ve got to let go and relax, you’re going to miss out on all the fun if you’re gonna be uptight your whole life. Just.. you know.. enjoy! Be crazy for once, and it’s not difficult because I know you’re crazy inside there,”

Robin rolled her eyes. Now she was tempted. It did sound crazy, sure. But what he said has a point. For how long more was she going to be this boring, timid girl?

Baekhyun seemed to sense her giving in. “ But if you don’t want to go that’s fine. Even if this exciting party could give you more life experience that’ll improve your singing and make you a trainee..  and you’d still choose to reject it then I respect that,”

Robin squinted her eyes at him. “ That’s a really cheap shot, Baekhyun”

He grinned. “ I know. Did it work?”

Robin shrugged. “ But what would I wear…”

Baekhyun laughed. “ Just tshirt and shorts, but if you’re in the mood to skinny dip later on I won’t stop you!”

Robin threw a pillow at him playfully and laughed, “ Gross! So so gross you ert!”

When they’ve arrived at the swimming complex later, Robin immediately felt the reward of her decision. In the midst of a quiet night outside, behind the tightly closed doors of the swimming complex was a upbeat, lively and loud party inside. About 100 students were everywhere, dancing to music, drinking all sorts of drinks and fighting to get on gigantic floats in the pool. Robin could spot a few familiar faces and quickly deduced that this was probably an elite party. It seemed like only popular or relevant kids got invited. With the music so loud, she could only be thankful that the swimming complex was all the way at the isolated back corner of the campus. Which explains why no teachers or staffs knew about it, it’d be almost half an hour’s walk from the main academic building.

“ This party is insane!” Robin screamed at Baekhyun through the music. He nodded and smiled. It was warm and gentle.

Within minutes of their arrival, Leah had managed to track them down in the crowd and jumped at them from the back. “ You guys are here!”

She quickly pushed them both forward towards the pool. “ Come on get in! I won’t stand to let you guys go back in these dry clothes.”

In a split second, Robin shuffled back and pulled out both hands in defense. “ Oh no no no, I don’t really wanna do that. I mean.. it’s gross to walk back in wet clothes you guys just.. you know.. have your cousin fun but I’m just gonna hang out here, “ she motioned her surrounding, which was filled with people shuffling around to get into the pool, “ it’s fun here too,”

“ Are you sure? You look bored as hell,” Leah squinted her eyes at Robin and nudged her.

“ Yes! Just go!!” Robin shoo-ed them away and pushed Leah forward. “ I’ll be right here!”

Baekhyun laughed and bent down to pull his shirt off from his back. “ Alright then take this,” he tossed his shirt to Robin and jumped into the pool after Leah. In a second, Robin froze. The sight of Baekhyun’s upper body did weird things to her. Since when did Baekhyun make her heart beat and feel nervous? Her stomach was flipping. It was a combination of his surprising fit and tone upper body which looked strong and hot as well as him actually tossing his shirt to her care as if she’s.. his girlfriend. She was suddenly conscious of nearby jealous glares at her.

Unsure of what to do, Robin decided to roam around the whole swimming complex which wasn’t much really, except the huge Olympic-size swimming pool in the middle and some tables around the sides of the pool with drinks all around. There were seats here and there but were also mostly taken by people and had towels strewn all over them.

After aimlessly wandering for maybe 10 minutes and exchanging awkard hi’s with many familiar faces, Robin was starting to feel more relaxed. The music beat was getting to her and she was just soaking in the fun and exciting ambience. She looked around and watched people playing around, drinking, chatting excitedly, or even making out passionately. She wondered whether Luhan was here. She hasn’t been able to see much of him since the cancelled trip except during classes but there weren’t much opportunities to chat. But that’s okay she supposed, she didn’t want to expect or hope too much if he wasn’t really interested in her. Truthfully she was beginning to think maybe she misunderstood afterall. His friendly intention when she first came in because it’s been two months and he hasn’t showed any more actions to suggest his romantic feelings for her. Their project meetings got postponed and seeing that she’s proficient with hangul now, they could get a lot of things done during lesson time so there wasn’t even a need to meet outside class.

“ Robin!” she heard someone shouting her name. Turning around, she couldn’t seem to find the source.

“ Here Robin!” Again, she turned but this time she spotted Baekhyun calling out to her from the pool. He gestured for her to come over.

“ Could you pass me a towel? I’m gonna go up now,” He said and Robin responded to his request. As she approaches and held on a clean dry towel to him, he reached up, not to hold the towel but her hand. And this skinship made her heart raced again. Because now he was holding her infront of everybody as well and she could feel a few people watching them.

“ What are you doing?! Let go!” she hissed at him. But he looked back at her, eyes different from before. She’s never seen him look at her this way before. It was a way a boy looks like a girl, not a friend looking at another friend. Robin could feel her heart jumping out of her chest, heat radiating out of her face and with a sudden pull, Robin sprawled right into the pool with cold water splashed to cool her face down.

As soon as she recovered back, she’s realized what he’s done. Baekhyun just tricked her to come over so that he could pull her into the pool. Shivering, shocked and confused, Robin walked with difficulty against the resistance of the water towards the wall. She gritted her teeth to fight the cold water, “ Byun Baekhyun, You’re going to p-p-pay fo-rr this”

But Baekhyun only laughed in response, and unexpectedly ruffled her head. A gesture that should really be reserved between a boyfriend and a girlfriend so that it would not confuse people like her. She spun to look at him with a pout. Baekhyun smiled, realizing how cute Robin looked at that moment.

His genuine smile spread across his face, “ Oh come on but you fell in yourself,”

She rolled her eyes. “ You evil.. evil.. little prick,” she splashed water at him.

Then before she could retreat back up, Leah had found her way to them and prevented Robin from going anywhere. Eventually Robin gave up her fight with a light-hearted laugh and decided to just let go and have fun. They were in the waters playing, joking and fighting up to get on the float for another hour. It was well over mid-night when they eventually got back to the dorm. Robin was so happy that she didn’t even notice the time. The feeling was so liberating, she’s never had so much fun before in her life and she really could feel the excitement of her life starting now. She’s definitely glad that Baekhyun convinced her to come. On the lift up to their dorm, Baekhyun stepped close to Robin, she stopped breathing. But instead of saying or doing anything, he just looked at her very intently. Robin wondered why he had to torture her like this. He’s been doing it a lot lately ever since the snow storm incident. Now she feels like she had to re-evaluate her feelings for Luhan.

“W-what?” Robin mumbled nervously, looking away to avoid looking into his eyes.

Baekhyun grinned, wondering how Robin felt about him. Maybe while he’s unsure of his feelings for her, perhaps she knew exactly how she felt about him. But seeing how nervous she was, he decided to not pressure her. Instead, he put a dry towel over her head, and began toweling her hair. Robin looked up with her big, brown innocent eyes.

“ What’re you doing?”, she asked.

“ What does it look like I’m doing?” he chuckled. “ I’m taking care of you so that you don’t fall sick.”