“Suzy,” Chanyeol chased after the girl as she raced out the room. Their classes just ended and Suzy felt like leaving the dreary room more than she usually does.

Maybe it was due to the fact that in the middle of their Asian Literature class, Kai wandered off somewhere, just minutes after Suzy accidently told him off. She was hoping he would come back after a while, or just before classes ended, but he didn’t. Now she felt beads of sweat forming on her forehead, worried about were Kai could have gone, or how she could find him.

Things were racing in her mind. Perhaps, she could look in the library where she first saw him? But what if he wasn’t there? It would be absurd if she asked around for him. That was definitely not an option. Then she began blaming herself again for telling him off…

Her breathing was narrowing when she heard someone calling her name from behind. It took her less than a second to recognize that the voice didn’t belong to Kai and she decided to ignore it.

She pretends not to hear his lanky classmate calling and continued to storm out. He easily caught up with her though, grabbing her by the shoulder from behind and spinning her around to face him.

“I was calling you.” The boy informed him, thinking she might not have heard him. He sees Suzy’s anxious stare and instinctively lets go of her shoulder. “Sorry, did I startle you?”

“Are you okay?” Chanyeol studied her expression. She muttered a soft “Yeah, I’m fine” all the while avoiding the tall boy’s eyes. She looked as if she was looking for something, something lost. Something definitely not there.

“What is it?” she asked in an impatient tone. “Not to sound rude, but I’m in a hurry.”

Chanyeol looked dazed for a while due to Suzy’s reactions. He regained his thoughts in a blink, “The project?”

Without saying anymore, Suzy grabbed a pen and notepad from her bag and rapidly scribbled something on it. She tore of the lilac colored page she just wrote on and gave it to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol eyed the piece of a paper and saw digits on it.

“That’s my number. Contact me about the project later,” Suzy said in a hurried manner. “Right now, I’m really in a hurry.” She bowed in apology. “I’m sorry but I need to go now.”

She doesn’t even wait for Chanyeol’s response before turning around and leaving the half confused boy right there. Chanyeol sees Suzy looking around the halls as she took brisk footsteps away from him. He sighs at the sight and wonders if he and Suzy are going to get along.

His gaze falls upon the piece of paper in his hand. It had nothing but her number on it, scribbled in heavy black ink. He takes his phone out of his pocket and saves Suzy’s number with it. He stares idly at the screen displaying his new contact, Bae Suzy.

At least, it’s something.

Suzy was panting by the time she saw Kai.

She had looked all around the College of Arts and Letters building for him, thinking he would be there since this is where she had here Asian Literature class. The building had a total of 4 floors, she went up and down these floors around 3 times. All the while, she felt her head and heart racing, and she really doubted that climbing up and down stairs was helping her condition. Each time she would peek at a room or glance at a possible place where Kai would be and wouldn’t see him there, she would feel her heart sink a little more. She clenches her fist after she realized that she had checked that room for the third time. She finally gives up and decides to go to their university’s main building, where the library she first found Kai in, was located.

Given her level of anxiety and fatigue, she was thankful she didn’t have to go that far.

Suzy saw Kai outside the College of Arts and Letters’ building. Sitting on a bench. His gaze to the clouds. She suddenly felt a tinge of relief after seeing that. Like a thorn was pulled out of her chest. She clenched on to her chest and felt her heart thump loudly. “What? Were you afraid you wouldn’t see him again?” she mentally asked her heart. “You can calm down now. He’s still there.” She soothed herself, breathing evenly and smiling towards the view she saw. She regained a feeling of composure before approaching Kai on the bench.

She sat beside the boy on the bench. He didn’t notice though, as his stare was still up in the sky.

Suzy takes out her phone to talk to Kai, but she sees an unread message from an unknown number.

I’m sorry for having kept you from what you were doing a while ago. Good luck on that, anyway. Tell me if you need help, or if you’re free to talk about the project. – Park Chanyeol

She scans the message briefly and takes a mental note to text her project partner later. Right now, she glanced up the boy beside her. Like always, he seemed to be spacey, and looking up only emphasized the sharpness of his facial features.

Suzy put the phone to her ear and glanced at Kai, hoping to catch his attention. “Hello, Kai? Are you there?”

She sees the boy’s eyes snap out of their sleepiness and widen a bit. He turns his head towards her direction slowly, he almost gives her smile, but the smile went away faster than it came.

“What’s the matter?” Suzy asks, but of course she knew what it was.

There was silence.

“Kai?”

“Hm?”

She took out her bright blue notebook and showed him the last thing she wrote there. The words he didn’t get to see earlier.

“Look at this,” she instructed as she pointed down the words scribbled there. “You didn’t get to read this earlier, just before you went all sad on me,” she informed him.

Kai’s eyes were quickly directed on the ‘I’m sorry’ on her notebook. He remained silent, as if waiting for Suzy to say more. Instead, Suzy calls his name again.

“Kai?”

“Yeah?”

“Please don’t go wandering off like that ever again.”

Kai kept his glance at her as she let her gaze fall down to the ground. “Please, don’t make me worry like that ever again,” she silently added.

“You were wor –”

“Of course I was!” Suzy yelled in an outburst. She looked at Kai’s eyes and felt some tears welling up in her own. She avoided his glance and wiped her eyes to avoid the tears from flowing. “Why didn’t you just keep looking at the notebook? I didn’t mean to tell you off! I wanted to call your attention half way through the class just to explain, but you know I can’t do that, Kai!”

“You did?” Kai blinked at Suzy’s remarks. Suddenly all his thoughts that were centered on Suzy preferring Park Chanyeol over him became silly to him. She merely did that so that she would avoid answering awkward questions such as“what are you doing” or “who are you talking to”. Or even worse, being judged for having hallucinations, just as her aunt did.

“Then you just walk off like that,” Suzy continues her little rant. “Without even telling me where on earth you were going! Did you know I had to go up and down that building three times before I convinced myself to go look for you in another location?”

“You searched that building three times?” he clarifies, and half chokes seeing how much effort Suzy has put into to look for him.

“YES! THREE FREAKING TIMES,” she repeated, her voice still not going down. “Do you know how hard it was to look for you? I couldn’t even ask around, or call you. It was frustrating. My heart, my head, I felt like everything was going haywire…” her tone gradually dies down until she stops at that.

“I – I didn’t know”, Kai outwardly stuttered, overwhelmed by his emotions. What he wanted to say was ‘I didn’t know you would be that worried about me’, but he felt too happy and surprised and amazed and everything. And sorry. Sorry that he made Suzy worry. He had this urge again. The urge to hug her, to thank her, to comfort her.

“I’m sorry, Suzy,” Kai finally finds his words as Suzy gazes in his eyes. “I’m sorry I made you worry.”

 “Please, Kai. Don’t ever make me feel that way again. Just stay with me. No matter what I do or say,” Suzy’s words had a lot of meaning to it. She didn’t think much before spilling them out. It’s how she felt at the moment. And at the moment, she wanted him by her side.

“Okay,” the boy nodded. And he, he wanted to always stay by her side in the first place.

“I promise,” Kai held a hand up in an oath.

Suzy sniffed before pulling up into a smile. Somehow, Kai always knew what to do to make her happy.

“And Suzy?”

“Mn?”

“Thank you.”

There was silence on Suzy’s part, waiting for Kai to elaborate more.

“Thank you for making me feel like I’m actually missed – well, wanted.”

Suzy smiled. “Well, it isn’t that hard.”

“Yes it is. You’re the only one who can see me, after all.”

“I’m pretty sure those who knew you before miss you Kai.”

Kai scratched the back of his head. “Maybe… But for now, I have to thank the one who shows it first.”

Suzy chuckled. “You’re welcome.”

Kai stood up then, and gestured Suzy to walk with him. “Do you have any classes after this?”

She looks to her watch. “It’s 12:00, lunch time.” She then starts putting her notebook back in her bag and stands up, following Kai.

“Great! We can talk some more!” the glee was evident in the sparkle of Kai’s eyes. “Where are you gonna eat?”

“Just in a cafeteria near the College of Fine Arts.”

“Let me guess, that’s your usual eating place?”

“Of course. Back when I was still a freshman and all.”

“Ah,” Kai nodded his head. It made sense that she would have a ‘spot’ there despite not taking her courses in that department anymore. “Don’t you miss it?”

“Miss what?”

“The College of Fine Arts?”

Suzy sighed and gave out a muffled answer. “Of course I do.”

Suzy found it hard to eat lunch whilst holding the phone against her ear and using chopsticks with the other. She didn’t complain though as she and Kai happily chatted away, despite the noises present in the cafeteria. In a way, she missed having conversations with someone while she was eating.

“How’s that food taste?” Kai curiously asked as he snooped around Suzy’s bowl of spicy seafood noodles.

“Delicious!” Suzy said blissfully after taking a mouthful. “It’s my favorite dish here, you see.”

“Ah,” was the only thing he could say. “I wish I could taste it.”

Suzy pushed him the bowl, as if to offer it to him.

Kai chuckled as he shook his head. He failed in pushing it back to her as it goes through his fingers. “Can’t. Immaterial, remember?”

Suzy takes the bowl back in a hushed tone. “Oops. My bad.”

“Thank you for sharing though. I appreciate the gesture.”

She goes back to slurping noodles when Kai remembers something.

“How did your last class go, by the way?”

“Huh?” Suzy looks up at him. “Boring as always.”

“Even with, you know, weird ears?”

“Weird ears…” Suzy repeated, as if decoding what Kai was saying. “Ah. You mean Chanyeol?”

Kai shrugged. “Who else?”

“He’s nice. I guess.”

“You’re doing a project together?”

Suzy nodded. “We haven’t talked about yet. I was too much in a hurry to find you, you see.”

“Oh,” Kai’s gaze fell to the ground. He felt bad he stood in the way of her academic work, but at the same time happy. Happy that she looked for him before attending to Park Chanyeol.

Still, he apologized. “Sorry about that.”

Suzy waved. “As long as you don’t do it again.”

“What about your project then?”

“I gave him my number. He messaged me a while ago. I just haven’t replied to it yet.”

“Why?”

“Because if I do, I would need to drop this call to make that text,” the corner of Suzy’s eyes looked mischievous. “You wouldn’t like that, now, would you?”

Kai chuckled. “You know me so well.”