When her lessons started again, Krystal found herself sitting in a half-empty auditorium with Kai leaning to her side.

“Did you see the photos? I think we turned out just great,” he didn’t let the girl listen to the lecturer.

But Krystal didn’t really feel like listening, after all. “I rocked red hair, didn’t I?” she insisted with a bright smile, never failing to amuse her seating partner.

Kai just simply nodded, not giving any sly response Krystal was expecting.

“Oh wow, Kai, you became sweeter,” she joked, but he somehow didn’t seem offended by it. What happened to him?

“Are you sick or something?” she held her hand up to check his forehead’s heat, but stopped mid-air, feeling somewhat shy out of nowhere. Maybe his glittering eyes made her heart thud.

“Go on, feel my temperature,” Kai pressured, grin forming on his devilishly seductive lips. The girl swayed off the thought of kissing him right there and now. However, she had a character to act accordingly. So turning to her teacher at the front, she dismissed Kai’s presence beside her.

“Let’s go on a date, today.”

Krystal huffed a small sign. She was tempted to accept it, but something bothered her mind to think twice about it.

“Why today? You have other dates to attend tomorrow?”

Kai felt a tad irritated by her opinion about him (even if it was mostly true). “Are you perhaps jealous?” A thought crept to him.

Without even looking, Krystal could imagine the evil smirk on the boy’s features. She simply ignored the question, thinking it would disappear if she didn’t respond.

“So then, today let’s meet at 8 o’clock. I’ll come to pick you up at your place.”

Before the girl could protest though, the teacher, obviously angry at the two, interrupted their little talk.

“Am I bothering you two, Mr. Jongin and Miss Jung? Just like I thought, since he sat beside you, Miss Jung, you became…”

The teacher totally forgot his original topic and got too immersed in preaching kids how to behave in front of elderly people. It almost felt as if the lecturer was teaching ethics than math.

*

“Do you want to grab a latte with me? I’m so tired after these lectures ended,” Krystal complained to her best of the best pals, Jinri. “And Kai being there all the time didn’t help me concentrate, either.”

“Sorry, can’t go anywhere. My manager is driving me to my next photo shoot. He’ll be here any minute now.”

“Aw,” Krystal pouted, “when will I get a manager? I’m tired of taking public transport to every photo shoot. Walking is just as bad.”

Jinri stifled a laugh. “Get on my level and the company might actually think about it,” the girl teased.

Krystal stuck her tongue out as a response.

“Ah, the autumn breeze seems so nice,” Jinri muttered to herself.

Since both of them ended their studies on the same time, the girls met up under a shade of the biggest tree in the campus’ park, resting before going back home.

Jinri noted that Taemin was about to pass the girls and started debating to herself whether to act friendly or ignore him completely. When the boy shortly locked his eyes with Jinri, the girl reacted right away, not giving a crap anymore about how she’s supposed to act after their ‘honesty talk’.

So, she just went for it. “Hi, Taemin,” she said quite loudly, making sure Taemin would definitely hear that.

But the boy kept walking forward right pass Jinri, not giving another glance her direction, acting too immersed in the speech he was giving to his friend beside him. Nobody would’ve bought the ‘didn’t hear’ not only because of loudness Jinri spoke up with, but also because even Taemin’s friend turned to the greeting.

“That was harsh,” Krystal patted her friend’s shoulder. It must’ve cost a lot of bravery for Jinri to initiate a talk after all, which supposedly happened to them.

“I don’t want to dwell on it,” Jinri smiled determinately to her companion. “If he wants it to be like this, then so be it.”

Krystal didn’t need to say anything now. Jinri’s determination was almost inspiring and didn’t need anything else to be said.

When taller girl’s manager arrived the girls spit up, Krystal going straight back home. When she was about to reach her flat’s floor, someone’s loud voice caught her attention.

“! Where are the keys? How does he think I can get in if there’s no key?!”

Intrigued, Krystal followed the voice even more upstairs, finding an unfamiliar figure kicking Luhan’s doors.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she screamed while running to the mysterious man.

The man, surprised by her sudden entrance, was at loss for words.

“That’s it, I’m calling the police,” Krystal took out her phone and started dealing police department’s number, when the boy started screaming again.

“Aish!” he ruffled his hair angrily, scarring the girl out of her wits. “First I come to a locked house, and then somebody threatens me! How can this day get any worse?”

Krystal slowly started backing out from the picture, deleting police number and entering Luhan’s one instead. After only one beep the latter answered the call.

“Hey Krystal, I was just thinking about you,” the young man cheerily revealed. Krystal was slightly concerned about the thought, but let it pass through her ears this time.

“Never mind that, there’s a stranger barging on your doors. If he doesn’t stop any time soon, somebody will surely call the police.”

Luhan gasped, “Get out of here, maybe it’s a robbery!”

The unknown man whatsoever, seem to finally notice the girl talking on the phone, far away from him. He shouted, “Who are you talking to? Is it police?”

The said man shouted so loudly, that even Luhan heard it through the phone. “Get out of there, Krystal!”

However, something else caught the girl’s eyes. There seemed to be a luggage just behind the stranger. She ended the call immediately, interested at the men’s sudden outburst outside Luhan’s home.

“Do you know Luhan?” she slowly came closer to the stranger, shortening the distance between them.

The man’s face lightened for a moment. “Yes, yes! I am his cousin; I was supposed to stay at his place for a few days.”

“What exactly happened here?” Krystal faced the man face to face, not afraid anymore of his behavior.

The young man scratched his head, saying, “I just flew there from USA, my cousin Luhan had to pick me up at the airport. But he didn’t,” the man’s face darkened, “so after waiting for an hour, I found a taxi and drove her myself. I had the address beforehand, but when I got there, the doors were locked and no key to be found.”

“Why didn’t you just call him?”

The man sat on his luggage, tired by this whole mess. “Even my phone betrayed me. The battery ran down,” he was done explaining.

“Wow,” Krystal whistled, “it was an unlucky day for you, it seems.”

“You bet, I’m so tired I can’t even think normally. I’m Oh Sehun by the way.”

“Krystal Jung. Nice meeting you. You’re really good at Korean,” the girl noted.

The so called Sehun chuckled dryly. “I’m a full blood Korean. I just spent a few months at my other cousin’s place in America. It’s just that I came to visit Luhan now, and he’s not here.”

“I’ll call him now,” Krystal assured the man, creating a smile on his tired face.

“Krystal!” Luhan screamed while running up the stairs, his hair messed up by wind pretty badly.

“Oh, no need to do that now,” the girl grinned at Sehun, blocking his face from Luhan.

Luhan heaved out deep breaths that formed of marathon sprinting. “I- You ended the call so abruptly!” he released his concern.

Krystal stood up from her slump beside Sehun and pointed to Luhan.

“It’s your fault! You forgetful boy!”

Luhan furrowed his eyebrows, looking straightly at the girl. “What did I do now?”

“You forgot me!” Sehun cried out, finally getting noticed by his older cousin. “You were supposed to pick me up!” he threw a new tantrum, getting up while murmuring train of curses.

Luhan’s eyes grew bigger every second while his mind processed the information. He forgot Sehun!

“Weren’t you coming next week?”

Sehun laid his disbelieving eyes on the older guy. He opened his mouth, but then closed it again. Dropping tiredly to the ground again, he made out Krystal’s quiet laugh near him.

Luhan reached the door knob and unlocked the door to his home. Sehun took his luggage and went inside, leaving Krystal thinking whether to enter or not.

“I’ll make some tea for you,” Luhan apologetically smiled at his abandoned cousin.

Sehun nodded, barely standing. Then he found the sofa and slumped into pillows. “Aren’t you coming in, Krystal?” he opened one eye and glanced at the girl, standing by the open door.

“Sure!” she grinned closing the door behind her, taking her shoes right away. “Make me some hot chocolate, Lu,” she shouted at the other male, who was busying himself with teacups.

“Understood. Tea and two hot chocolates coming up!”

*

“If it weren’t for you, he would have probably stayed in the hall till late evening,” Luhan rubbed his eyes.

“No,” Krystal disagreed, smiling. “His loud voice got my attention in the first place, so it goes to his strong vocal skills. But don’t you need to return to the café?”

It was already almost eight o’clock, and Krystal found herself lying on Luhan’s sofa with the latter sitting on a carpet by her foot. Sehun was already sound asleep in the guest room.

“It’s too late for that now. Only an hour or so and the café will close. Kris is used to taking care of it by now, anyways.”

“So truthfully speaking, you’re not needed there anymore,” the girl concluded. “If the business is going so well, why don’t you start a new one?” A commercial started and Luhan passed her the remote, and she switched it to some Korean drama. Krystal thought she knew it from somewhere, but couldn’t remember how it was called. It had something to do with bunch of guys and one girl receiving anonymous letters and staying all alone in a private school for a winter vacation. It was a psychological drama, Krystal remembered it more clearly now.

“In fact I can’t,” Luhan looked intently at the screen, trying to get the idea of the clip they are watching, “recently my father found out about my mother sending me money to help improve the café, so she stopped helping. I couldn’t imagine how much of a fuss he made, but I just know that without that extra money, the income isn’t that big for the start anew. Hey, I think I know this drama…”

“That’s unfortunate. But you’ll get your father’s empire anyway, so the café is solely for occupying you in the mean time, huh?”

Luhan managed to glare at the girl, a rare sight to see, coming from him. Krystal stuck out her tongue, teasing. “Joke! I know how much you wished of starting something on your own. It’s all gonna work out, it always does. Oh and do you remember the name of this show?” she pointed at the TV.

“Can’t remember it yet…”

A loud noise interrupted their relaxation. Luhan signed and got up from the ground, opening doors and seeing someone unexpected behind them.

“Is Krystal here?” There stood Kai, all high and mighty, but evidently irritated for having to look for the girl, especially here. Also, Luhan could see big pile of roses behind Kai’s back.

“Krystal~” the older man shouted to the girl sweetly, a smirk slowly appearing on his face.

“What? Don’t interrupt the drama, Lu! The girl is being crazy!” even though she shouted angrily, Krystal got up from her lying position nevertheless and went to see who came.

There, gasping, she saw a gorgeous sight of Kim Jongin standing there dressed nicely in black dress pants and a navy blue, slightly ed shirt with its sleeves rolled up a bit. Then she watched, still mouth agape, as Kai showed a huge bouquet of roses into her open arms, looking irritated as hell, but still blushing from the girl’s reaction.

Then Krystal’s mind finally came to cross the idea of what she looked like right now. She was wearing short pink pajama shorts, long blue sleeveless shirt with a logo on it, her hair being a real mess. She was comfortable with Luhan seeing her like this, but not her date of the night.

“Oh God, I forgot about the date,” she reacted immediately, showing the flowers right back into Kai’s arms. Kai, holding the flowers again, dumbfounded, joined Luhan as both boys watched the Krystal panicking, rushing through Luhan’s place, grabbing her things from everywhere it rolled to.

When she was done picking, she took the flowers again and went outside, to the hall, where Kai stood.

“Sorry Kai, the time flew by,” she nervously smiled. “We should go downstairs to my flat, I’ll hurry up and change into something… more appropriate,” she inspected her partner’s wardrobe choice again. “Bye Lu!”

Luhan crossed his arms, feeling slightly agitated by how nervous Krystal was acting. “Krystal!” he shouted to her as she hurriedly made her way to stairs.

“What?” she immediately turned around to him.

“It’s called White Christmas!”

Krystal thought for a moment what he meant by that, when it hit her. It was the name of the drama they were watching!

Without any further thought, she quickly dashed from frowning Kai’s side towards Luhan, hugged him with bouquet being crushed between them, making both boys wide-eyed at her behavior. Then, as if nothing happened, she quickly returned to her date and ran downstairs, Kai grumpily walking after her.

*

“Hey, is this yours?” Krystal gasped, looking at black sleek Mercedes in front of her building.

“Of course, I don’t rent things,” Kai opened car door for the girl. She gave him to hold her flowers and sat down, waiting for the driver to start the engine.

Kai placed bouquet at the back seat and after a minute, the car drove through dark skied, brightly lit streets of Seoul.

“It’s the first time I’m seeing this car. Do you have a collection or something?”

Kai glanced at the passenger and tried to guess what she meant by that.

“I saw you driving a car only once, but it was a way different one,” she added on.

Kai nodded understandingly to Krystal, remembering the one time he picked her up after her photo shoot some months ago.

Krystal slightly shuddered at the memory and Kai felt that. “I’m sorry I was such an back then,” he apologized.

“You sure were,” she agreed fully, but then eased up from the shudder. “You’re changing right now,” the girl pointed out and looked through her window.

So much time went past since Krystal despised Kai with all her heart. Now it’s totally different. She has come to be fond of his tiny but ultra sweet moments that happen so rarely. She is impressed how sweetly he started their first date, with loads of roses in his hands, dressing charmingly and elegant.

Going with the mood, Krystal changed to a knee long black dress with a small ‘v’ neck cut out. She tried to look as matching to the boy as possible, and his compliments when he saw her made clear she had succeeded. Krystal’s cheeks got rosy all of a sudden.

“Why are you changing, Kai?” she muttered more to herself than for him to hear, basically asking herself the question.

Kai blushed slightly, but Krystal wouldn’t know that, since she wasn’t looking at him at the right moment.

“Where are we going?” the girl looked at the driver, this time talking more loudly.

“You’ll see when we get there,” he smirked and stopped at the red light.

“Oh, I like mysterious,” Krystal chuckled and leaned forwards the boy, mimicking his actions. They shared a prolonged kiss that made the girl’s toes curl in satisfaction. It felt nice, expressing herself more freely to Kai than she ever could have imagined. Maybe this time, it was love after all.

*