They were back at school, and everything had finally reverted back to the usual routine. Nayoung was no longer injured, and had recovered to full health after four weeks of complaining and agonisingly inconvenient three legged adventures. So everything had turned back to normal. No walking her to class, no taking the bus together, no helping her up and down stairs. Lu Han wasn't sure why he was slightly disappointed. 

He was drawn out of his thoughts by the school bell blaring from the speakers. 

"Lu Han hyung." Lay came running toward him as the teacher dismissed the class, situating himself in the seat beside the older male, "Did you manage to finish the last question in the exercise?" 

The Chinese deer glanced down at his still open books, shaking his head tiredly in response, "Nope." 

"Okay good, I'm not the only one." There was a pause as Lay thought about what to do next, "Let's go to the cafeteria, it's lunch time." Lu Han felt the dancer literally haul him from his seat, dragging him out of the classroom by the back of his collar. 

"W-wait. M-my books," Lu Han managed to choke out while he stumbled along the hallway. 

Lay didn't even seem to care, "It's fine your next class is somewhere around there anyway. Come one stop being so slow and hurry up." 

"But-" 

"Hey look who finally decided to show up! LayHan." Chanyeol cut him off mid sentence with the usual deep boisterous voice. 

"LayHan? What the hell is LayHan?" He found himself automatically replying to the giant's statement, already making his way toward their usual table. 

Chanyeol waved enthusiastically and scooted over, making room for the two that had just entered the cafeteria. "Well, I couldn't be bothered saying both of your names, so I just mushed them together," he laughed at his own laziness, "do you know how extra syllables I would have needed?" 

"Lu is just one syllable. It was just one extra syllable ya know." 

Chanyeol immediately came to his own defense, "No it isn't. Lu. Han. Zhang. Yi. Xing. Five syllables, three more than needed." He nodded to himself, satisfied by his horrible justification. 

"But you said LayHan. Lay's one syllable." The dancer helpfully interjected, just trying to get on Chanyeol's nerves. 

There was a moment of silence as the happy virus attempted to find another excuse. They all looked at him with teasing eyes and waited for a response, laughing when all he could think of was 'shut up guys.'

Lu Han turned to his girlfriend, who was sitting across the table from him. He noticed her food was left untouched, and her eyes had been staring down at the table for ages. "Hey Kyungmi? You okay?" 

Kyungmi lifted her gaze to meet his, smiling to reassure him she was fine. She was far from fine. The past few weeks Lu Han had become so distant, he had spent so much time with Nayoung that it was beginning to make her uneasy. And it wasn't the usual obligational type of thing, Kyungmi knew that he no longer hated spending time with her, she would even go as far as saying he wanted to. She was them talking, laughing, even teasing each other, and that was something he didn't even do with her. She was jealous, insecure, all these conflicting emotions inside left her mind in a complete mess. Even the mere possibility that she was losing Lu Han was like a stab through the heart. And it hurt so much it made her want to cry. But she didn't dare tell him that she didn't want to burden him insignificant things. 

Lu Han could tell she was lying to him, but strangely, did not feel compelled to pry further. She never told him these things anyway. There was no point in asking when he knew he wouldn't get an answer. 

The group lapsed into their usual banter, and Lu Han felt himself zone out. His eyes were searching around the cafeteria, looking for a specific girl. The male spotted her on the usual table across the cafeteria from them, her back was turned to him.  He couldn't see her face, but he could almost see the scowl on her features as she listened to her friends gossip that was able to be heard from miles away. 

He could sense the usual aura of cocky contemptuousness that emanated from her whenever she was in school, and he felt an uncomfortable pull on his heart. He hated when she acted like this at school, guarded and cold. He absolutely despised it because he knew that Nayoung was so much more than just the scary school queenka, but that was the only side of her she ever showed anyone. 

Except him. 

The thought left a subtle hint of pride, he was, in a way, glad that she showed a different side to him. It made him feel like he was an important person to her. 

"Eyyy, hyung. What are you staring off into space at?" Sehun moved his head closer, trying to get as close to the field of Lu Han's vision as possible so that he would see what his hyung was seeing as well. 

Lu Han quickly shoved the younger's head away, hoping the maknae hadn't realised that he was looking at Nayoung. "Yah. Get your fat head out of my food." 

Sehun raised an eyebrow up at him, and look so suspicion flickering past his eyes, "Lu Han hyung don't tell me you were-" 

He got cut off by the lunch bell ringing, indicating lunch was over and it was time to head to the next period for class. The male couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped his lips. 

Saved by the bell.

_______

Nayoung could feel her anger bubbling in her chest when she laid eyes on Gayeon. The little wench was laughing with her friends, acting all innocent and guiltless. Just the mere sight of it was enough to make her blood boil. 

Lu Han's words crossed her mind, and the girl clenched a fist to stop herself from just marching over and slapping the other girl across the face. 

She felt her friend nudge her on the shoulder, "Yah, if you're going to stare at her and breathe angrily out of your nostrils why don't you just go over there and teach her a lesson."

Nayoung turned to her friend and glared with icy cold eyes, "Why would I do that?" 

"Well, you usually always do that." 

The queenka turned away, ignoring her friends comment. 

This time, her other friend nudged her, "Bwoya? You're not going to do it? What happened to you? You've changed." The tone in her voice hinted that it wasn't a good thing. 

Truthfully, Nayoung really wanted to slap her, or just inflict some sort of pain as revenge for what Gayeon had done. But she couldn't. She didn't want to disappoint Lu Han, she didn't want him to look at her the way he used to. 

Of course, being the impulsive girl she was, she had let a few snarky comments slip, a couple of sneers and rude laughs, but she was trying. Trying. 

"Geez, you're no fun anymore," they both said in unison before standing up and leaving to go to class. 

________

Chen stole a glance to the side, grinning triumphantly to himself when he noticed Lu han staring into space again. But he knew it wasn't exactly just day dreaming, because he always seemed to look into the direction Nayoung was in. Coincidence? Definitely not. 

He had been like this the whole day, ever since Nayoung had recovered, the Chinese male had been sending flitting glances at her every single waking moment. Chen could tell he was trying to be subtle about it, it obviously wasn't working. The spark of worry that passed his eyes, the subtle smile that graced his lips, the way his eyes seemed to soften, everything was just so blatantly obvious that Chen wondered why no one else had picked it up yet. 

"Hey Lu Han, let's go to class." Chen ran up to his hyung and grabbed his arm, dragging him along to get to their english room. 

"You're not even in my class." 

"But our classes are next to each other. Come on let's-" 

Chen was stopped short by the sound of a muffled sob. Both he and Lu Han looked up to see a small group of girl's huddled around in the corridor, comforting a girl who seemed to be crying. 

"Hey, hey Gayeon-ah. It's okay." One of the girl's cooed. 

"Yeah, just ignore her okay?" 

Chen immediately ran up to the group of girls to see what was wrong, and Lu Han would have done the same, if he hadn't noticed the figure standing a few feet away. Nayoung. 
Lu Han felt as if his feet were glued to the ground, he couldn't bring himself to go after Chen and help Gayeon. He met eyes with the queenka for a fleeting moment, and the girl quickly turned her head away, briskly walking in the opposite direction. He would have been angry, disappointed, but in that brief moment of eye contact he noticed the regret in her eyes, the way they almost said 'I didn't mean to do it'. And when she walked off, the slight bow to her head, the subtle hunch in her shoulders, made it look like she was ashamed. 

He knew he should have followed Chen, to comfort the one that was actually crying. But at that moment, he just wanted to run to Nayoung, to give her a hug, to say that it was okay. She wasn't even the victim, but he still felt so compelled to do it. Lu Han waited until the girls had left before walking up to Chen again. 

"You know, for a while, I thought Nayoung was actually a good person," Chen gave him an almost regretful smile, "guess I was wrong." 

He felt a spark of protective anger, and Lu Han had already began to defend the girl before he knew it. "You are wrong. She is a good person. She's not necessarily nice, but she's a good person." 

Chen raised an eyebrow at his hyung, "you just saw what happened though right?"  

"Yeah I know shes really selfish and mean at times, but there are good points about her too. Jongdae just give her a chance." 

The younger male hid a small smile, "Alright, whatever you say." 

They lapsed into an awkward silence, which Chen then broke with a question. 

"Remember that time when I teased you and said: what if you end up falling in love with her?" His words immediately caught Lu Han's attention. 

The chinese guy nodded apprehensively, "Yeah..?" 

"And you flatly and sternly said it was impossible? What if your actually developing feelings for her?" 

If it was a few months ago, Lu Han would have laughed, brushed it off without a second thought. Completely deny it with confidence. But now, he couldn't bring himself to say no, to say 'that's impossible'. Lu Han bit his lip in deep thought. His mind travelled to Nayoung. 

He pictured her smile at the orphanage, he remembered her childishness, the way she was such a strong person, but frail and fragile at the same time. He thought about the way her eyes would light up with such curiosity, the way she had no femininity at all when she was at home, her messy unkempt hair, baggy clothes, boyish charms. All her qualities, all her traits, her numerous flaws, every little detail. Everything that made Nayoung Nayoung. 

And then a terrifying thought dawned on him. One he had never thought about before, and the thought filled him with such uncertainty that it almost hurt. 

Maybe falling in love with Kang Nayoung wasn't such an impossibility after all. 

__________

Hello all! Sorry if this chapter had heaps of mistakes and whatnot and it didn't flow too well, I was too lazy to edit it XD

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