September 3^rd

The summer passed by real quick; nobody was ready to start working or studying yet. Perhaps only Krystal Jung was excited about entering university gates as a second year student. She couldn’t wait to see her teachers, busy campus and, of course, to earn her place as the best student in Seoul University. She had a new motivation to study even harder now and it definite was not her parents approval. After many thoughts, she came to conclusion that if Taemin joked about becoming friends, she would become his real true rival. Yeah, she held grudges like that. Her nice opinion about him changed drastically in such a short time. Maybe he just pretends being that nice after all. If he’s anything near Kai’s level, she should ignore him also, just like he ignores her. He wasn’t fit to be her role model, she later decided.

Nevertheless, today is Thursday, first week of new semester. Only today Krystal’s lectures begin, her first period being Psychology, starting at 10:35. It was 9:08, the watch in her phone informed her. So, she was on campus an hour early. Since it was a first week, there were many grumpy seniors, sleepy second years and slightly confused sophomores walking around the campus. Krystal was almost bouncing from happiness; she finally had left her boring quiet home and has a photo shoot later today with Jinri. Their first work together! Now that Krystal thinks, she hasn’t seen her friend yet. And they both had Psychology next too. Maybe she’s attending some lecture right now.

Starting to get bored while sitting on a bench near one of the auditoriums, Krystal took her bag and walked out the university’s grounds. Not knowing where to go, she started walking towards Luhan’s café. It opened last week, later than Luhan had planned. But still, the re-opening was truly grand; many old and new customers were there. After seeing the new waiters, Krystal understood perfectly why Luhan was so confident in his new business. Not like before, this café was full of flower boys-waiters and a few pretty waitresses. Young girls should be swooning over to the café every now and then, Krystal believed. She didn’t really know if the café was so successful like in the first day, because she didn’t have any chance to go there since the opening, but now that she’s outside the building, Krystal’s more than sure it’s popular. If it was around noon, then there would probably be a long line of people, mostly teenage girls, standing outside, waiting for a free table. Even if it’s still early, she could already see a lot of people outside though the windows. She might not even get a table right now, so she might as well go somewhere else. But, since she’s already here, she might as well try. She honestly never thought that Luhan’s café would become such a success. Then again, who wouldn’t want to order something from eye-candy waiters?

Once Krystal stepped through the doors, she immediately noticed Luhan. Surprisingly for her, he was helping out the staff, working as a waiter in a white shirt, black formal pants and wearing a white apron. It looked like the café was really busy, as all the waiters were almost running, going back and forth, getting orders and such. Krystal, still standing in place, smiled at the image. It felt like it is still summer in here. Once Luhan turned around, she waved at him. Luhan smiled back, took a tray to the kitchen and took his apron off.

“It looks busy in here,” Krystal chuckled when Luhan approached her. He rubbed his temples and smiled sheepishly.

“Yeah, it is… Sorry, but right now there’s no table available, Krys.”

“Guessed so. So then, as an apology, give me a free frappuccino?” She nudged his shoulder playfully, winking at Luhan in the process.

“What’s in for me?” He answered right away, getting along with her little game. Krystal then pouted cutely, frowning a bit. She’s better at this game.

“I’m your friend! Yah, do you want to lose a valuable client?” Krystal pointed to herself, just to be clear. He smirked at her act and pushed a strand of her long sleek hair behind her left ear. She didn’t know why, but she felt really hot all of a sudden. She felt like a burning sun, that moment. Luhan noticed her red face and cupped her cheeks with his hands. When she stood there, still frozen, he smiled widely and leaned forward to her burning scarlet face. He really liked her innocent reaction.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do. Your table will be ready in less than a minute. Just don’t tell anyone about this special treatment that you get from me, or you’ll break many young girls’ hearths.” Luhan then straightened his back and glanced a bit to his left. Krystal followed his gaze and saw a big table full of girls, all looking at Luhan and her. Well, probably just Luhan. When the girls noticed his look towards them, they all squealed in delight and one of them even waved and winked at him. Luhan shook his head while laughing and turned his attention back to Krystal. was literally wide open. He chuckled even more and called one of the waiters. After giving instructions to his worker, he went to work again. Krystal couldn’t take her eyes from him the whole time before going to her table. Once seated in her seat, she ordered a cold coffee and waffles. Sitting there alone, doing nothing, was still boring, even with all this noise around her. It was quite pleasant to watch the handsome waiters trying to kindly reject high school girls, when they asked to for their numbers. Seriously, where did Luhan got the guys from? Well, now that she saw the girls that work here, they were not bad either. Probably her childhood friend has good connections.

Noticing Luhan again, Krystal secretly watched him from afar, trying not to be as obvious as possible. She was interested in how Luhan look while being surrounded with his clients. She almost choked on her drink when he, standing beside one pretty girl, patted her head and sat on next to her. He leaned over to the girl, whispering something to her while smiling widely. The girl then looked around puzzled, with a deep blush on her cheeks and ears. What a playboy, Krystal thought. She eyed him for about next twenty minutes, him going around the tables, flirting with all the girls, getting their numbers and probably making arrangements for dates. It was time for her to go. Krystal paid for her meal, looking expectantly at Luhan, but he was too immersed in the conversation he was having with a one high schooler that he didn’t even notice her standing just a few meters away from him. With a deep sign, she went out of the café, going to her first lecture that day.

Once in university’s grounds, Krystal went straight to the auditorium where her Psychology’s lecture was held. The lecture was really boring and she couldn’t concentrate for even a little bit. In the middle of professor’s speech, Krystal took her drawing journal out and started doodling. She painted absent mindedly, memories about summer’s events flowing through her head. Hearing the professor starting a new topic, she got distracted from her thoughts and looked down at her journal. She was painting a face, it seems. It looked way too familiar for her not to sign at the drawing. From all the faces she could have painted, she chose Taemin’s. He was staying in her head for almost a month now, probably in her hearth too. She didn’t know how she felt. She was sure she felt hurt, but was it because she likes him? Like, she talked with him only two times! Yes, she knew him (watched him from afar) since she began her first year in Seoul University, but since they truly met for the first time, she definitely felt a spark. She was always quick to grow a huge crush on someone, but it never felt like this. Maybe all the ex-crushes weren’t true? She would understand her feelings better only if Taemin kept in contact. But even if he did, she was still angry. Krystal might sound immature and really clingy, but she always wanted to be his friend. He always looked to her like perfection. Not only appearance like, but knowledge like also. Not to say that him looking handsome was a big plus too. ‘I’ll get his attention again when I’ll beat him in scores,’ she decided. To do that, she had to learn everything her professor has been talking about for a while, so with a bit of determination, Krystal tried to pay attention to the lecture.

It was hard to admit, but the lecture wasn’t interesting at all, so even with a huge determination, Krystal couldn’t listen to the lecturer for a long time. Finally, the period was over. Next was a dance practice she took as an additional lecture. Krystal gladly went to the other building, where the lesson will begin in fifteen minutes. She knew some girls that took this class, like seniors Luna, Amber and few sophomores from her high school. Krystal didn’t really know any boys that attended the practice. Surprisingly, the dance lesson was not that popular on campus. But, it was only an additional thing between true lectures, so most of students took breaks instead of dancing. Actually, Krystal loved to dance. She and her sister Jessica, along with Luhan, created many dance routines when they were still in America. But Krystal hasn’t danced for a really long time, enrolling in this class for the first time. If the first practice goes well, she might go to it regularly.

“The practice will start in fifteen minutes. You need to sign up these papers for enrollment right now,” said teacher Victoria, beautiful young and tall women who worked as a dance tutor in university since last year. Victoria is a medal-winning gymnastic; she took the job in university in her career’s break.

“Can we just try one lesson and sign up in second one?” Asked one sophomore, Min, and Krystal was glad it wasn’t her who asked the question when Victoria glared at the sophomore. Min shivered under Victoria’s hard stare and looked away. Many others did so too.

“Have you ‘tried’ any other lecture before truly enrolling in it?’ Victoria was clearly furious; Krystal didn’t really get why.

“Well, no…” Min dared to look at Victoria straight in the eyes, only to gush once again. Victoria really knows how to make people feel uncomfortable, Krystal thought.

“Dance is a lesson too.” Victoria closed her eyes and let out a breath when she finally noticed all the scared looks on students’ faces. “And a hard one too. If anyone feels like they don’t want to learn such a magnificent thing like dance, or, maybe, is already afraid of me, you can go out now and never come back. Others sign up the papers and get ready for the lesson.” With that, Victoria turned to the mirror wall and started warm ups.

Only few left the classroom, others stood in place quietly, most of them still deciding whether to go or stay. Krystal was fourth to sign up the documents and start the warm ups afterwards. Glancing at Victoria, Krystal noticed a lot of bruises on the teacher’s body, probably from all the hard practices the teacher ever had. Once the practice started, Krystal could already feel admiration for Victoria, because the teacher knew how to dance and Krystal was excited to learn as much as possible. But only after twenty minutes after, all students felt more than tired, exhausted even. Victoria, understanding how hard it must be for newbies, announced a break.

“I feel like it’s going to be more of a trouble that any other lesson,” Luna whispered to Krystal, eyeing other students sprawled on the ground.

“Tell me about it.” Amber came up to them; she obviously heard Luna’s statement.

“You’re just not used to it, girls. I’m quite happy our teacher is Victoria. She sure can teach us a lot.” Krystal patted Amber’s shoulder with a smug look on her face.

Some students tried to sneak out already, only to be caught by the young teacher. With all her concentration on those unlucky students, she could barely hear the doors opening quietly. But she did. Victoria instantly turned around and was greeted by tall tanned man, smiling sheepishly to her.

“You! The dance lesson has already started. Explain yourself, Kai.” With the name mentioned, Krystal and others also turned towards the intruder. With all the attention he’s getting, Kai now plastered a smirk and walked over to the teacher. He leaned in, whispered something to Victoria’s ear and walked to a bench to place his bag. Krystal saw Victoria’s cheeks heating up, the teacher clearly deep in thoughts. ‘His magic works every time, huh,’ Krystal felt disappointed. She then glanced at Kai, who was so laid back he didn’t notice everyone’s looks towards him. After a minute or so, the practice continued. Now that the hard warm ups were done, all the students had to introduce their style of dancing. Starting with Luna, who chose to show gymnastic moves and ending with Kai, who did popping and something else Krystal didn’t know how to call. He really knew how to dance, students whispered among themselves. His moves were sensual but still strict. ‘How many years has Kai been dancing?’ was the only thing Krystal could think while watching Kai’s relaxed body move in beat with music. He looked like a different person when dancing. His body was flexing, lips pursed, eyes glancing at his feet. Krystal, not noticing it herself, started smiling and Kai saw that. He abruptly stopped and grabbed her hand, making her dance with him. Krystal was literally swept away from the ground, almost screaming at Kai for picking her up on his shoulders. The students around them were amused, seeing the now usual Kai and angry Krystal dancing together. Once the music stopped, Kai placed Krystal on the ground and winked at her in the process. It was almost funny how angry Krystal looked, but seeing Kai’s evil expression it was really understandable. What will others think now? They might think the two are friends or even a couple now!  Krystal could hear some students joking around about them, saying stuff like ‘how compatible they are’ and ‘they look cute together’, along with ‘when did they start dating?’.

When Victoria called the lesson over, Krystal hurriedly took her bottle of water and ran outside. Kai went after her, still smiling deviously. He cached up to her outside her next lesson’s auditorium.

“Wait up!” Kai shouted out to her. Krystal turned to him and rolled her eyes.

“What’s up with that pick up in the practice?!” She shouted back, startling Kai a bit. Of course, he didn’t show it and just laughed out loud.

“Didn’t you like it? All the attention was on us.”

“That’s the problem. And there’s no us, you jackass. Now everyone might misunderstand our… relationship.” Krystal pursed her lips, showing all kinds of annoyance through her expression.

“And what’s our relationship?” Kai was clearly enjoying Krystal’s discomfort.

“There’s none. Actually, you might be my first enemy ever made.”

“Well it’s not that kind of relationship I imagine between us,” he wiggled his brows. “I told you once- I’ll get between you and Taemin.”

“Just stay away from me!”

“Not possible. We’ll see each other every dance lesson. Also, I’ll be around you as much as possible.”

“Don’t you dare…”

“I already took all your classes.” She was almost crying at that point. Krystal couldn’t imagine a nice year of studying with this troublemaker around her all the time. So instead of going to the lesson, she ran away from the laughing Kai once again.

‘Since she’s not going inside,’ Kai eyed the auditorium, ‘I might skip the lesson as well.'

Krystal definitely didn’t expect to run into Taemin near the gates. Yeah, with her running so fast, it was really possible to bump into someone, but for that someone to be Taemin… Straitening himself up from the ground, Taemin helped Krystal to stand up. She nodded her head as if saying ‘thank you’ and calmly walked past him. He eyed her now calm body disappearing in the crowd of people in the street, thinking why did she run in the first place. Her cold behavior towards him was expected, after all. With a sudden image in his head, he started looking for his younger brother.

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Next chapter smells like trouble! *giggles like a six-year-old*

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