Second week of school got off to a good start.

Robin, in her new found determination to improve her singing has decided to join Baekhyun in the morning jog. She also dragged Leah along in case she was going to be attacked by Baekhyun’s fangirls in a dark corner of the school too. It’s like what they say, prevention is better than cure. Ever since that confrontation with the badass Luhan fangirls, Robin knew better to watch her own back.

“ Do you really have to drag me out this early for a jog?” Leah mumbled senselessly as she walked towards them. It was 5.45am and they were meeting at the bottom of Leah’s dorm building which was about 10 minutes walk from theirs.

“ You could use some exercise yourself you know. It’ll improve your singing too, “ Robin encouraged her as Leah sulked.

“ I do exercise,” Leah replied. “ Once in 2011 I think.”

Robin laughed as she pushed Leah forward to jog. “ But you know I’l need you to protect me from Baekhyun’s fangirls”

Baekhyun turned and shot her a questioning look.

“ Last week a bunch of scary girls confronted me about partnering luhan for a project. It was terrifying honestly. I don’t wanna gain another bunch of enemies.” She said, almost breathelessly as she jogged to keep up.

“ Who were they?” Baekhyun asked. She noted that there was a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“ I don’t know. One of them had short red hair. The other three had long black hair,”

Leah winced. “ It’s hanseol and her minions.”

Robin laughed. Then when she faced forward on her jogging path she almost chocked midway on her saliva. This resulted in her coughing her lungs out like a child. The result was severe. Immediately Baekhyun handed her his waterbottle as Leah pat her back.

“ I’m fine, I’m fine!” Robin motioned a hand as she calmed herself down. Damn Luhan. It’s all because of-

“ Hey guys!” Luhan chirped at them. He looked surprised to see a strange combination of her, leah and baekhyun jogging together.

Robin had previously thought that luhan could not get any more handsome, apparently she thought wrong. Sweaty luhan was even more handsome. Looking up to meet his eyes, Robin managed out a shy smile.

But there is no comfort. Whether he’s aware of it or not, Luhan looks like those men on the Nike advertisments – the ones who, until now, she assumed were airbrushed. Apparently it is possible to wear running shorts and a white top, and look like a rockstar.

By the time Robin recovered and thought of replying him, Luhan had already exchanged a few friendly chats with Baekhyun and had waved goodbye to them as he jogged off.

There he goes..

“ If you stare at him any harder your eyes will roll out of their sockets peeping tom.” Baekhyun shot at her.

Robin rolled her eyes at Baekhyun who was now dodging from her punches to his arms.

Leah laughed. “ You guys are really hitting it off huh?”

Robin scowled. “ Oh please. He wishes.”

But Leah was right, they must be hitting it off, because now when Baekhyun said stuff like that, it made Robin want to laugh, instead of retreating into her reclusive shell and get offended by his jokes. And when Robin gets back to the dorm, Baekhyun pretends to be busy and lets her take a shower first because he knew she’d prefer that. Sometimes when Baekhyun would skip dinner to avoid his fangirls in the dining hall, Robin would bring down some food for him.If Robin wanted to sleep first, which she always would, Baekhyun would dim the lights on his side and switch to listening music through his headphones instead of blasting it out loud. It’s only been 10 days but it seems like they’ve known each other pretty well already.

Monday and Tuesday passed by quickly and surprisingly smoothly, except for the fact that the crazy Luhan fangirls who confronted her were going hysterical on tuesday morning because there were some live frogs in their lockers. Upon closer inspection of the situation, Robin had no doubts that it was Leah’s work in attempt to avenge her. She made a mental note to tell Leah not to do it again. Seeing them screamed made her feel bad, even if they sort of deserved it, she still couldn’t bear to let them suffer like that.

Lessons had been okay, she stole some glances at Luhan who, sometimes would smile back. She sometimes wondered if he does that all the time to every girl. Interaction with Luhan seems lesser as a whole compared to last week. She doesn’t know why either but was reminded that tonight they had a meeting about the project at the library.

After an early dinner with Leah, Robin took a shortcut route to the library and waited at the front steps for Luhan. It was about 7p.m now and she wondered if he’s forgotten. She didn’t have his number or anything so if he didn’t turn up she’d probably have no choice but to sulk and go home.

Five minutes has passed as Robin stared nervously at her watch. Maybe he forgot. Urgh. She should have made an effort to remind him just now during lunch. But she was too busy listening to this new joke that Baekhyun was telling. It was really funny, she couldn’t help it.

“ Hey!”, Robin heard a familiar voice. Turning to her side, she saw Luhan jogging slowly up the steps towards her with his backpack swung over one of his shoulders.

“ Hi!” She smiled nervously.

“ Sorry for being late, I was playing soccer with the boys earlier! “ He said almost breathlessly as he reached the top stepped. Then he looked up at her and smiled. It was devastatingly handsome.

“ Oh it’s alright, I didn’t wait long anyway! “, Robin replied as they began entering the library. Once they’ve found a spot in the study area, panic strucked Robin. She now remembered what she had worried about for almost two weeks.

Oblivious to her anxiety, Luhan had begun taking out his textbooks and notes, all of which made her panic even more.

“ Hey..” Robin began weakly, stopping Luhan from whatever he was doing. He looked up at her, with his eyebrows raised in curiousity. “ Yeah?”

Robin breathed in. “ I have something to tell you.. before we start”
 

Luhan smiled. “ Okay sure,”

Robin buried her face into her palms for a few seconds. Then she exhaled softly and began telling Luhan her awkward illiteracy situation. And clumsily added on how she would volunteer to do the rest of the projects that didn’t require actual writing. After like 10 minutes of nervous explaning, Robin finally finished what she had needed to say.

Looking at Luhan closely, she was nervous. There was no telling what his response could be. Partly because she realized she didn’t know anything about him at all. For almost two weeks now, it felt like she knew him in the same way that she know people on television. She knew the name and his voice. But apart from that, nothing at all.

Luhan considered for a moment, then finally broke into a smile. “ Were you really stressed over that? You shouldn’t be. I’ve been in the same situation before and I took a really long time to learn hangul too, it’s really hard.” He added, “ And yeah, I’ll be more than happy that you wanna take charge of the creative portion. I’m really bad with that stuff anyway,”

Robin blinked. And blinked. Oh wow. That went well.

“ So.. you.. you’re really okay with it?”

“ Yeah, absolutely”

“ And you won’t tell anyone about this right? I mean,” she hushed. Urgh. Frame your words properly woman!

“ I mean its kind of embarrassing for me so I hope you could you know.. not tell anyone about it.” Robin managed out.

Luhan nodded, “ of course. I know exactly how you feel. You’ve got my back.” He smiled.“ I think we’ll get along just fine.“

With that not out of the way, they’d spent the next hour discussing about their projects, what they had to do and Robin felt increasingly better about this whole situation. Perhaps it would work well afterall. She was beyond glad that Luhan would be understanding and even felt happy about having her to do the creative portion instead of writing hangul.

By the time they were done, it was well almost 9p.m. As they left the library, suddenly it had occurred to Robin that she couldn’t go back to the dorm straight. Because then he’d know. She froze on the spot.

“ Not going back? “ Luhan turned around and asked Robin after he noticed that she had stopped walking.

“ Um. I.. uh. I think I left something back there. Why don’t you go ahead? I’ll just go later!” Robin blurted.

“ Oh I’ll go in and help you find it!” he offered.

Robin stretched out both her hands in a stop motion. “ No no no! it’s fine. Don’t ! just.. go!” she tried to chase him away again.

But luhan wasn’t having any of it. Instead, he began walking back into the library. Seemingly left with no choice, Robin pulled his hood, which was not the best thing to do to stop someone, but it’s not like she could grab his arm.

At once Luhan halted and turned around, “ hmm?”

“ Um I just remembered I kept it already!” Robin lied. She felt bad, really bad.

Luhan smiled. “ Oh okay then let’s go back”

“ Um okay bye!” Robin awkwardly waved goodbye, and turned towards the opposite direction of the way back to the dorm. What the heck. She hope she won’t get lost. She’ll just circle around the area and go back after awhile well..

“ Where’re you going? Isn’t the way back here?” Luhan asked, and pointed to the direction towards her dorm.

“ Huh?” Robin was confused.

Then luhan chuckled. “ You didn’t think that I’ll just let you walk back alone did you? It’s late and I’m going to walk you back to your dorm”

Just about every word in that sentence sent her heart racing. But how?

“ I.. live this way?” she pointed to where she was going.

Luhan shook his head and laughed.

“ I know you live in Eleanor hall. “

“ You.. knew?”

Luhan nodded. “ And I know you live next door. So let’s walk back before it gets colder.” He gestured for her to walk over to his direction and smiled.

She broke into cold sweat. How was that possible?

Reluctantly, Robin walked towards him. “ How did you know? I mean don’t misunderstand it’s really a long story of how I ended up rooming in with Baekhyun but yeah.” She felt hopeless now.

And to think she thought the night was going so well. She should have known.

Luhan laughed. “ It’s okay I won’t tell anyone. I saw you coming out from there a couple of times. At first I thought you were going out with Baekhyun or something but then I asked him he said you guys weren’t dating. Then I noticed one time when I was sharing the lift with Baekhyun that your name was on registered as his roommate. So I figured out that probably mistook you to be a boy?”

It was remarkable. Luhan should consider being a detective. Robin smiled. “ Yeah.. pretty much that. But I mean there’s really nothing going on between me and baekhyun. We just share the room like normal roommate and yeah.. “ she stopped because she didn’t want to sound too defensive.

“ You’re one girl with lots of secrets huh? “ Luhan joked as they entered the lift. She nodded. “ Not my intention”

“ Ah, don’t forget to pack your stuffs. We’re going for the field trip to Busan next week.I heard it’s snowing pretty bad over there. Best to bring more warm clothes, ” Luhan reminded her as they approached their floor.

“ Oh yeah I almost forgot all about that!” Robin gasped. “Well alright I’ll see you around then. Goodnight!”  she waved with a smile. The journey back was way too short.

" Thanks for today. I had fun tonight Robin," Luhan replied, eyes warm and sincere. Instantly Robin recognized this look. It was the look when you...like someone. Luhan lips broke into a gentle smile. "I'm really happy when you're around." 

That was all it took to send Robin's heart racing. She wobbled back to her room later on and had to support herself with her arms on the wall. The whole night had felt rather surreal. On one hand, the whole encounter with Luhan had been unbelievable. Was it possible for someone to be so perfect? And more importantly if she wasn't wrong.. he did just hint her that he liked her?

And on another hand, she also felt like one heavy weight of burden was lifted off her. Now there was one problem gone, and at least she was sure Luhan was’t going to hate her for the project.

All her other problems, however, would just have to wait. It’s not like they were going anywhere.

--