After a very loud dinner of Chinese takeaway, Jinri retired to her room. She was dreading returning to classes the next day. But she worked through the rest of her homework, helped D.O. with prepping lunches for those who wanted it, and ended the night with a long, relaxing shower. When she returned from the bathroom, she was surprised to find Kris sitting on her bed.

“Uh, hi,” she said awkwardly, shuffling over to her laundry basket. “I wasn’t expecting visitors this late.” She gave a slight nod towards the digital clock on the night table; it was almost midnight.

“You’re doing okay?” Kris asked, his voice softer than she had ever heard it. He was worried about her. The thought made her crack a small smile.

“Yeah, Kris,” she replied as she ran a brush through her still damp hair. “As good as I could be doing anyway. Are you okay?”

“Ditto,” he said with a slight chuckle. “I heard about what happened on Friday with the, uh, fan club. You shouldn’t worry about them.” It was her turn to smile.

“I’m not bothered by them at all,” she assured him. “They called me out in the middle of the hallway, for goodness sakes. It’s a wonder they even made it out of high school.”

“And I’m glad that you and Chen seemed to have reached an understanding,” he continued, shaking his head at her description of the girls. “He told me that you hugged him.” Jinri paused in brushing her hair for a moment.

“I did,” she said slowly, a grin starting to form. “You sound jealous, Kris. I could give you a hug too if you’d like. No need to be shy.” She started to him with arms open wide and he ducked at the last second, causing her to fall face first onto the bed.

“Sorry,” he said with a smirk. “But I’m not really the hugging type.” Jinri just laughed it off and returned to brushing her hair.

“We’ll have to remedy that at some point,” she joked. “In all seriousness, though. I used to be like Chen. I hated change, hated people trying to get into what little precious happiness I had. But then I realized that trying to fight change was useless. So I stopped fighting. I can’t say my situation improved by leaps and bounds, but some things did get better.”

“I see,” Kris said lamely. “You’re pretty tough for such a small person.”

“Hey! You’re just an ungraceful giant, so don’t go picking on us normal sized people,” Jinri retorted. She had finished brushing her hair and tied it up into a bun. “Now, if you don’t mind, Mr. Jolly Green Giant, I have to sleep.”

“Goodnight, shrimpy,” Kris teased as he rose from the bed and made his way over to the door. “Just give a shout in the morning if you have trouble getting out of bed; I know the height can be a bit-Yah!” he ducked quickly out of the door, narrowly missing a pillow thrown at him.

“Goodnight Kris!”

*

Monday morning found Jinri refreshed. After a delightful breakfast of ham and cheese omelets (courtesy of D.O.) she was alert and ready to go. Once they arrived on campus, she and Kai headed to art.

“You should bring the pieces from last week back home today,” he told her as they worked on that day’s assignment. She peered at him from around her easel.

“So says the guy who rudely commented on it,” she , remembering the incident from when they first spoke to each other. “I’m joking Kai, don’t look so sheepish.”

“You’re in an awfully good mood today aren’t you?” he muttered, earning another teasing giggle from Jinri. “Oh, you should call Taemin, by the way. He asked for you.”

“Did he? Why didn’t he just call, I wonder?” Jinri felt around in her sweater pocket for the cell phone Taemin had gifted her last week. Sure enough, it seemed she had no missed calls. In fact she had no calls whatsoever. She wasn’t exactly Ms. Social Butterfly.

“I’ll call him when we get home,” she decided, returning to her work.

The assignment today was to draw a recent memory. It could be anything – good, bad, happy, painful – but it needed to be recent. Jinri had decided to draw what she remembered of Luhan’s field of stars from Friday night. She was curious about what Kai was drawing.

As if reading her mind, Kai flipped his sketch around. He really is a good artist, Jinri thought to herself. He had drawn a wolf overlooking a lake. Jinri didn’t know if it was him or one of the others, but it was still very peaceful to look at.

“Who is that?” Jinri asked as he returned to his drawing.

“It’s D.O.,” Kai explained quietly, looking around to make no one could overhear. “He has a habit of staring off into space, and it’s always so funny.” Jinri nodded in understanding. D.O. did have a habit of drifting off, and his big eyes looked so owl-like and bizarre. Jinri flipped her own canvas around to show him.

“Luhan showed me this place,” she told him, hoping he would understand what she meant. He smirked and raised an eyebrow at her. “What? Don’t give me that look.”

“What look? I’m not giving you a look, Noona,” he teased. “I knew there was a reason you were wearing his sweater. I didn’t peg you for the pretty-boy type, but I guess you’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” Jinri pulled a face and rolled her eyes at him.

“I don’t like Luhan like that,” she muttered. “He gets enough obsessive love from his fan girls. You too, Houdini.”

“Ah, girls are annoying, aren’t they?” Kai joked. Jinri nodded in agreement.

At the end of class, Jinri gave Kai the drawing’s from last Monday. With a hearty thanks, he disappeared around a corner, leaving Jinri with a few quiet moments to herself as she walked to the class she shared with Lay.

“Rinnie!” She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. She would know that voice anywhere.

Cho Minseok stood not twenty feet away from her, his expression grim.

“What do you want?” She called out, her tone flat. “Come to tell me again what a big mistake I’m making? Spare me, please.” She turned back around and began to walk a little faster; she didn’t want to deal with this right now. Before she knew it, she felt a firm hand on her arm.

“Will you just stop and listen to me for a minute?” Min pleaded. She tore her arm out of his grasp and turned to face him, her eyes full of anger and sadness.

“You have 60 seconds,” she said through gritted teeth. As much as she wanted to walk away at that moment, she could never deal with Min’s sad puppy eyes, and right now was no exception.

“I’m sorry,” he started, and seeing surprise on her face, he pushed on. “I don’t know what happened when you got sick, and I don’t know what’s going on with those guys, but I trust you. Jae is… I don’t know what’s wrong with him, he refuses to tell me anything lately. But I know that you don’t do things without a reason, and I don’t think you’d start doing so now.”

Jinri was