Kai was pretty gloomy for the rest of the weekend. It was like there was a storm cloud raining on him. But it wasn’t as if anything had changed, he was without a brother then and was without a brother now.

Minhee seemed to have decided not to talk to Kai during their time together at the library as Kai discovered the following Sunday. There was a newborn awkwardness in the air and the two of them hardly looked at each other.

Minhee was beginning to get under the impression that he didn’t like her very much, so she, in turn, decided that it would be best if she just kept to herself. They didn’t even have much to talk about anyway.

Kai was just plainly not making any effort to get closer to Minhee. It was awkward and to avoid rudeness, Kai didn’t bother saying anything.

As Minhee tried to shelve a book that belonged on a particularly high shelf, she dropped it. Both Kai and Minhee reached down to get it at the same time.

They were both holding the book and staring at each other.

Embarrassed, Kai let go of the book and Minhee began a fresh attempt at shelving it while Kai disappeared into a different aisle.

◌◌◌◌◌

At lunchtime on Monday, Minhee found Ara sitting in the back of the cafeteria, poking at a bowl of rice. With a determined heart, she marched to her table and sat down across from Ara.

Ara stared at her.

Minhee gave her a bright smile and opened her container of noodles.

“Since we both have no one to eat with, we should eat together,” Minhee said cheerfully.

Ara furrowed her eyebrows, “I didn’t ask for your company.”

“Aw, come on! I’m not that boring, you know,” Minhee said.

Ara rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything as she went back to her food. She snuck a glance at Minhee and a strange warmness went through her. She was actually kind of touched that someone had decided to come sit with her at lunch. All of the kids found her cold and rather frightening, but Minhee seemed to disregard all of that.

It felt nice.

◌◌◌◌◌

Minhee, it transpired, was not just a cute, bubbly person was a quiet little nerd. She was actually very intelligent in the classroom and actively participated in class. She had failed to get an answer wrong and, much to Chen and other classmates’ annoyance, was always eager to learn. Her favourite subject was literature and she took an active interest in whatever text that they were reading. History was also one of her favourite subjects, world wars being her fascination.

“In World War II, who were the most common targets of the Nazis in Germany?” asked their teacher.

Minhee’s hand shot up into the air.

“Minhee?”

“Gypsies, disabled people, people following the Jewish faith, Poles, and Communists,” she answered promptly.

“Good girl,” their teacher nodded.

Kai was reminded of himself and Sehun when he saw Minhee answering questions. Though the two of them had fooled around in class a lot, surprising though it may be, they participated in class too.

Kai did answer occasional questions now, but it was a definite decrease in his class participation since he entered high school.

“Know-it-all,” Chen whispered loudly and his friends sniggered. Minhee pretended like she didn’t hear and Ara automatically glared at them.

The class then moved onto literature and Kai’s eyes drooped. This was his least favourite class. He wasn’t very fond of reading or answering questions, but he could analyze something and write an essay like a pro. In their elementary school days, Sehun, who was a talented reader but a poor analyzer and essay-writer, would read the texts and Kai would come up with arguments for their essays. It had been a team effort that got them their good grades in literature.

Now, that had completely fallen apart and Kai was sure wherever Sehun was, he was struggling with literature since analyzing was the hardest part.

Kai was awoken from the nap he had fallen into when Chen threw a rubber ball at the window while the teacher went out to photocopy their homework assignment.

Kai saw no point in going back to sleep since the day was coming to an end so he sat up straight. Stretching his neck to the side, he made eye contact with Minhee and quickly looked away while Minhee turned to Ara.

The day ended and the days after seemed to fly by as well. Before he knew it, Kai was back at the library.

I seriously hate this so much. He thought as he labelled new books in the backroom. A couple of minutes later, Minhee joined him and they quickly finished labelling the books.

“So, er, I’ll take half and you take half?” Minhee asked, trying to decide how they should shelve the books. There was a large stack in front of them.

“Alright,” Kai agreed and he took whatever his arms could carry, which including three quarters of the stack. He walked out of the room and put them on a cart before putting them away.

Minhee finished with her quarter quite faster than Kai and while looking for Hana to get her next job, found Kai still putting his books away.

Mustering up some courage, she walked over to him and asked, “Want some help?”

“I’m fine,” he replied, moving along the aisle and putting another book away.

“I can help,” Minhee said and she snatched some books from the cart. She looked at the books and scurried away to put them where they belonged.

Kai blinked but then continued with his work. When he finished, he looked around for Hana but couldn’t find her. He asked her co-workers where she was but none of them knew either.

“Do you know where Ms. Shin is?” Minhee appeared in front of him as he was leaning against the front desk. Kai shook his head.

“Oh.”

There was an awkward pause as Minhee looked everywhere but at the person in front of her and Kai played with his fingers. Minhee then took a couple of steps to the side to peer into the hallway that had the offices but seeing no sign of Hana, went back to wait by the front desk with Kai again.

They exchanged no more words for a while before Kai decided that since Hana wasn’t here, he could go home. Without saying anything to Minhee, he walked past her and left.

Minhee, who wasn’t comfortable with leaving without telling her boss, stayed put but was glad that the awkward air around her had vanished.

She decided to have another look around the library and smiled softly when she saw little children listening to a story being read to them in the reading corner. She had always loved books, and she especially loved being told a story.

“Minhee!”

Minhee tore her eyes away from the sight and saw Hana coming towards her.

“Sorry, I was out for lunch and lost track of time. Where’s Kai? I wanted to tell you two about this charity event that we’re doing with the community centre,” Hana said.

“Oh, er, he had to go,” Minhee said uncomfortably.

“Ah, I see. No worries, I’ll tell you two next week then, you guys will be working together,” Hana told her. “You can go home now, there’s not much I have for you to do.”

Minhee nodded and after bidding her goodbye, called Luhan to come and pick her up.

◌◌◌◌◌

It was a gloomy, dark Friday and Minhee and Ara were eating lunch in the cafeteria.

“Have you always lived with your grandmother?” Minhee asked. For the past few days, she had become attached to Ara like a leech. Ara, though she had thought Minhee annoying and bothersome at first, had found that Minhee’s company wasn’t all that bad.

Ara became uncomfortable, “No.”

“Oh,” Minhee nodded and sensing that this was a private subject for Ara, changed it.

“What do you do for fun at home?” Minhee asked.

Ara paused, debating whether she should tell Minhee this or not. But Minhee had already revealed that she loved writing and photography along with dozens of other things about herself. Ara supposed telling her something wouldn’t be that bad.

“I do makeup sometimes,” Ara shrugged.

Minhee’s eyes rounded, “Really?”

Ara, now slightly abashed, nodded.

“That’s so cool, I’m hopeless at makeup,” Minhee grinned. “You should do mine one day, I’ve always wanted to learn how to girl myself up but I always fail.”

Ara shrugged again, keen to close this subject too.

At the end of the day, Minhee was told by her brother through a text to meet her at a shop not too far from the school since he would be late picking her up.

As Minhee was walking, the dark clouds began emitting rain and in no time at all, Minhee was soaking wet. She began to run to the shop her brother was to meet her at and was pleased to find him arriving at the same time as her.

“Quickly quickly,” Luhan said as Minhee got into the car. “Aw man, I’m sorry, Minhee. There was a meeting today and it ended late.”

“It’s okay, oppa,” Minhee smiled as put her wet hair behind her ear. She sneezed and shivered as Luhan began driving again.

“! You’re catching a cold,” Luhan panicked, pressing on the gas pedal.

“Calm down, oppa. And don’t go over the speed limit, you’re a cop, remember?”

Luhan lightly smiled and Minhee leaned her head back, hoping she wouldn’t catch a severe cold.

◌◌◌◌◌

The following Sunday, Kai was scanning the books that had been returned when he looked around and saw that Minhee wasn’t with him. I wonder where she went.

 “Kai!” His least favourite voice called. Hana was in front of him, batting her eyelashes and curling a strand of hair behind her ear. “How are you?

“Fine.”

“I wanted to talk to you about a charity event that you and Minhee will be helping me with but Minhee called in sick so, I’ll give you both a call this week,” she told him. Before getting a chance to say something that would annoy Kai, her phone then beeped and she excused herself before leaving him alone again.

Kai quickly finished scanning the books and then moved on to shelving them.

The day ended in uneventfulness and the next morning, Kai was back in school. Minhee did seem to not be well, when Kai saw her he noticed that she looked chilly and had a red, runny nose.

After a boring lecture on the differences in weapons used in the two World Wars, lunch arrived. Kai was walking through the bustling cafeteria where Chen and his friends were fooling around. He accidentally bumped shoulders with him.

“Yo!” Chen said, stopping Kai who had continued walking. “Aren’t you going to apologize?”

“I don’t see a reason for me to apologize.”

Chen snorted, “Look at you, rude jerk. Don’t you have any manners?”

Kai smirked, “Even if I don’t, I’m not about to learn any from you.”

The kids around the two laughed and oooh-ed. Chen turned red as he glared at Kai’ retreating figure, people still snickering at Kai’s comment.

“Kai and Minhee, you two will clean up the classroom today,” their teacher announced at the end of the day, opening Chen’s ears. “Wait, Minhee do you feel alright? Should I have someone else do it?”

Minhee, who did not want to make a fuss, said, “I’m fine, I can do it.”

Their teacher nodded and dismissed the class. Minhee and Kai stayed in their seats, waiting for the class to file out. Chen glanced behind him before leaving the class and Kai stared at him. The two locked eyes but before Kai could pinpoint the look in them, Chen left.

“So, er, should we get cleaning things from the janitor’s room?” Kai asked awkwardly when the room emptied. Minhee nodded and the two of them left their things behind to get cleaning supplies. Kai led them to the janitorial office in silence. He knocked but no one seemed to be there and the door was locked.

“Should I get a janitor?” Minhee asked, sniffling once again.

“Don’t bother,” Kai said, thinking of the annoyance he would receive from ‘CrapCollector.’ “There’s another closet with cleaning supplies on the other side of the school, let’s go there.”

With the absence of any conversation, Kai and Minhee went to the other side of the school that wasn’t visited much by students or staff.

“You get the sprays, I’ll get the mops,” Kai said as they entered the square closet. The door closed behind them with a click but neither of them noticed. On one side were mops, brooms and dustpans while on the other were shelves of chemicals and sprays. The far wall was empty except for a small little window.

Kai was choosing a broom and a mop when Minhee said, “Errrr, Kai?”

He turned around.

“I can’t reach the window cleaner,” she pointed to the window cleaner that was on the top shelf.

“Oh,” Kai walked over and got it for her.

“Thanks,” she said as he put it in her arms that were laden with rags and other things. Kai got a broom, mop and a dustpan while Minhee turned the doorknob to leave.

But it wouldn’t turn.

She jiggled it some more but the door was locked.

“What’s up?” Kai said from behind her.

“The door won’t open,” Minhee bit her lip as she tried to open the door again.

Kai put the things in his arms to the side and reached from behind her to open the door.

But it didn’t.

Their eyes widened at the same time as they looked at each other. Kai then remembered the look on Chen’s face before he left class and knew that Chen had locked the main janitorial office’s door to lock them up in a desolate area of the school.

Great.

Why hello there :)

Busy summers? Me too, kind of. Summer school ended though, woohoo! And I passed with flying colours. (In all honesty, that was the easiest thing I have ever done and I don't think I should feel proud of the mark I got cause it was that easy)

Hope all of you are doing well~! I can't believe it's August, like why is summer going by so fast, I don't want school.

I'm up very late , which is odd for me cuz I'm an early sleeper/waker upper.

Please comment and tell me what you think of the chapter, I'd probbaly update more if I read a comment cause I am lacking motivationfor this fic ;P

Byebye~! Stay healthy!