The longer you are with someone, the tougher it is to part ways.

"Where's Ahyoung?" Jiyoon dragged her duffel bag down to the first floor to find the girl nowhere in sight. When she returned back to her room yesterday night after her long chat with Chanyeol, she wasn't there and it didn't seem like she came into the room the night before.

"Didn't you see her pick up her bag last night?" Suho chewed on his eggs and tomato slowly, savoring its heavenly taste. Kyungsoo's breakfast was still the best afterall. "She left with her butler." 

"Oh." Jiyoon slid into the chair, it was strange that she didn't see her though. 

"Young maste-"

"BYUN BAEKHYUN!" Chanyeol shouted while he charged down the stairs angrily with a flustered maid shadowing his every moves. "I swear if it's you-"

The boys howled in laughter when Chanyeol stood at the dining table with his hands on his hips. Jiyoon stared at Chanyeol's face for a second and almost spluttered the milk out of and she choked, trying to swallow the white liquid down . His face was a mess of black ink; his forehead had a bold XOXO written on it and his cheeks had ugly squiggly words like Pig and Stu64pid on. His lips were drawn fully with red lipsticks making him look like a clown. Sehun  stared at Jiyoon weirdly then spared a single look at Chanyeol before eating his breakfast peacefully. 

"It wasn't me, hahaha!" Baekhyun shouted in denial but burst out laughing as well. "You look really funny!"

Chen chuckled, it was the joke of the day and he was itching to take a photograph of it. "Are you sure you didn't sleep walk and drew it on yourself?" 

"Xiumin hyung was it you?!" Chanyeol wasn't concerned about them laughing and he was bent on finding the culprit for giving him such a scare in the morning when he stared at himself in the mirror this morning.

"My brain doesn't have good ideas like this anymore," Xiumin bit his lips and looked away from Chanyeol, trying to stop himself from laughing. "Next time it'd be me."

"Suho hyung!" Chanyeol whined pleading Suho to do him some justice but he wasn't even looking at Chanyeol but busy pressing on his iPhone. What he didn't know was that Suho's face was growing red from stifling his laughter and he resorted to settling student council matters to calm down.

"I think you should wash your face first." Kyungsoo handed him a wet tissue on the table in an evidently good mood. "You don't want to go around looking like a clown do you?"

"Fine." Chanyeol marched off to the bathroom with the maid trailing after him with a towel ready in her hands.

"Are we going back today?" Jiyoon's mood liftened after having such an emotional roller coaster with Chanyeol's confession last night. But it felt fresh seeing how cheerful and upbeat he was in the early morning and Jiyoon was secretly glad that someone drew on his face though she was sure no one would admit to the act anytime soon.

"Nope. Our next destination is...." Baekhyun smiled sweetly, holding his fork in the air while he pointed to each and every boy sitting at the dining table. His fork went a few quick rounds before it landed on Sehun who looked at the murderous weapon.

"Get that thing away from me if you want to step into my house."

"Swuary." he grinned, removing his fork. "We're going to his house!"

"But you said-" they told her it was only a short 3D2N trip at Chanyeol's vacation house before they returned to the dorm just like how Jiyoon wanted. 

"Change of Plan A." Baekhyun nodded his head not feeling the least guilty for deceiving Jiyoon. "It's another 3d2n at his house before we return to school for the ball."

"Wait what-" Jiyoon blinked, whatever Baekhyun said felt like jargon to her. "Ball?"

"No one told her about the ball?" Suho slipped the phone into his jeans pocket after some time. "EXO High's Summer Ball that will take place in Daffodil."

EXO High had four buildings named after flowers: Aster, Bluebell, Clover and Daffodil. Their lessons mainly took place in Aster while Bluebell was where the clubrooms were located. Clover was another name for their indoor sports hall with gyms, olympic sized pools as well as basketball courts. Lastly, Daffodil was located further away from the three buildings which Jiyoon visited once to send their costumes to the backstage of the theatre.

"Daffodil? You mean where our school theatre is at?"

"It has a huge ballroom." Luhan winked at Jiyoon, feeling excited just at the thought of the long awaited ball. "You'll see."

After Chanyeol returned to the dining table after scrubbing his face red to get rid of all the marks, they quickly finished up their breakfast before getting onto the same black van they came from. 

"Are you angry?" Chanyeol poked her in the ribs, thinking that she must be pissed at them for being tricked over. He pleaded her not to sleep and play games with him on the ride to Sehun's house in Seoul yet Jiyoon ignored him and slept throughout the ride.

"No." Jiyoon's eyes shot open at his deep voice. She wasn't angry because she had a really fun time at Chanyeol's vacation house and if she didn't go, she would never have known about the story being Chanyeol and Ahyoung.

Or Yoora.

Frankly speaking she had quite a mixture of feelings going over to Sehun's after visiting Chanyeol's vacation house and meeting his parents. She wondered if Sehun's parents behaved the same way since Kai admitted his parents were along the same lines as Chanyeol's. Or whether Sehun had a house double or triple the size Chanyeol's vacation house, judging from his prince attitude that literally screamed that he was a rich man's son.

So right now, she wasn't angry.

She was scared. 

Lost in her thoughts, Jiyoon pushed herself off the car seat and followed Chanyeol out of the van blindly, standing up straight even before she left the van.

"Ah!" She crouched down on the cobble driveway, feeling a hard impact on the crown of her head.

"Princess are you okay?" Chanyeol rushed to her side and tried to massage her forehead gently. "Why are you so careless? What if you turn dumb?"

"She's already dumb." Sehun sniggered, stepping out of the van. Every single thing she did clearly labelled her as 'stupid' in his eyes and it never changed since Day 1 when she drove them out of the classroom. It's been four months and thirteen days yet Sehun still remembered that at 8:13 am that morning when they stepped into the classroom only to be sent out.

For the first time.

In his entire life.

He was a petty guy, that he had to admit.

"Jerk." Jiyoon seized the opportunity and stepped on Sehun's white canvas shoes, creating a dirty sole imprint. Sehun's jaw dropped at the girl's daring behaviour and pointed a shaky finger at her.

"You-"

She spun around, pulling the skin under her eyes and blew a raspberry. "Mehrong~~~"

"Yah! Do you think you're going to get away with this? I'm going to make you clean my shoes! All of them!" Sehun shouted after her but she wasn't even listening anymore, linking her arms with Tao and headed straight for the house.

Jiyoon secretly heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that Sehun's home was only a three-storey white concrete house that looked like it was only built recently. It occupied a wide land area and there was an old lady dressed in a green traditional hanbok waiting for them at the door.

"Aigoo, I didn't know Sehunnie is bringing so many friends! We just moved here recently so there isn't much inside."

"Ommonim." Jiyoon bowed politely at the lady with soft wrinkles on her forehead, assuming her to be Sehun's mom. Untrue her expectations, she seemed like a very kind lady.

"Did anyone tell you she's my mom?" Sehun shot at Jiyoon and pushed his bagpack into the old lady's arms, "Mdm Ha, please call me Mr Oh, not Sehunnie. I'm still your employer."

"Leave your shoes and put on the slippers outside! I don't want any dirty footprints on my expensive floor! AND DON'T GO UPSTAIRS WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!"

"I'm Ha Kyungjae, his housekeeper. Our Sehunnie has a really bad temper." the old lady smiled kindly while she gestured them into the house.

"Have you been here?" Jiyoon turned to ask Kyungsoo who pushed their belongings into the house in a cart that he found nearby.

Kyungsoo shook his head. "We decided during dinner last night since we've never been here."

The first thing Jiyoon noticed about the house interior was that it was too clean for it's own good. It uses minimal colors like black and white. 

Wait.

Only black and white.

Literally everything was in black and white. From the light grey walls to the white marble tiles and black bookshelves to the white leather couch. Even the abstract painting hanging on the wall used only these two colors. The only brown Jiyoon saw was the oak stairs that led upstairs and their dining table with a single rose sitting in a vase. Jiyoon thought that OCD must have grown from his family. The house was spotless clean and not a speck of dust was seen. It seemed that there was only the nanny living in such a big house and she wondered how an old, frail lady managed this house all on her own.

"Where are your parents?" Suho asked Sehun who walked down from the stairs, changed into a casual black pants and a long white t-shirt which made him blend in with the house. "We need to greet them."

"Overseas."

"Ah," Suho nodded his head in disappointment. He was looking forward to meet Sehun's parents that he seldom talked about. "That's a pity."

"So-" Chanyeol his lips, his stomach was growling after a small breakfast. "What are we having for lunch?"

"I can cook-" 

"Don't touch my kitchen." Sehun warned, knowing Kyungsoo's bad habits at the back of his hand. "Don't open my refrigerator."

"B-"

"I'll buy lunch out. Any orders?" 

Sehun's sentence surprised them all because it was the first time the maknae actually offered to buy something for them. It was rare, no it didn't happen in a million years. It was exploited with shouts of orders like pizza, bibimbap, hamburger and fries, fried chicken, jjamppong and-

"Churros!"

"Churros?" they chorused, giving weird looks at Lay who shouted that order.

"Next!" Sehun scribbled the order down on his notebook and placed a huge star next to it. Sehun looked up to see that it was Jiyoon and he closed his notebook before Jiyoon said her order.

"You're coming with me."

"Me? Going with you?" Jiyoon repeated in disbelief.

"Yeah," Sehun said, slipping out of his slippers. "You're the hazard amongst us and I don't want you breaking my stairs or drop my expensive vase."

"So you're coming with me." 
 

"I thought your short stubby legs are fast? Why can't you walk faster? We have so much to buy on the list." Sehun grumbled and turned around with hands in his pockets to see Jiyoon trudging slowly after him. It was a s