You could see the girl from your spot in the cafeteria.  She was surrounded by a group of guys that looked like they were in Sungjong’s grade.  The Infinite members that were still in school (Sungjong, Myungsoo, and Sungyeol) had saved you your normal spot next to them, like every other day.

“Hey, you guys,” you whispered, afraid that she might overhear your guys’ conversation.  “Do you know her?”  You nodded your head discreetly in her direction.

Sungyeol replied, “Nope, never made contact.”

Myungsoo also said, “Don’t know her.  Why?”

Sungjong just continued eating his lunch, and you could see a small smirk playing on his lips.

“Yah, Lemon Candy!  Wipe that smirk off your face or I’ll slap it off of you,” you warned.

He didn’t care and just continued eating.

“Aish,” you glared at him.  “What’s the big deal with that girl anyways?”

Sungjong looked at you with a wide grin.  “Nuh-uh, I’m not telling you anything.  We made a deal that you would find out for yourself how ‘nice’ that ‘girl’ is.”

He did it again.  Emphasized those words.  You shook your head disapprovingly.  “Treating a girl like that is really no good.”

Myungsoo piped up, “Wae, what happened?  Did our little Lemon Candy here do something to her?” He smiled slyly.

“I just told that person to back off!  It’s weird how I always feel a presence behind me, and when I look back, it’s that person.  Jinjja…” Sungjong said to defend his pride.

Sungyeol spoke up, “Well, either way, it’s wrong to do whatever you did.  You have to treat everyone with respect, especially the ladies.  That’s why I treat Myungsoo with the most respect around here,” he concluded while swinging an arm around Myungsoo.

“Yah!  I’m not a lady!” Myungsoo protested.

“I know,” Sungyeol agreed.  “But you know how much people ship Myungyeol,” he added as he leaned in to the younger one.

You stood up quickly, not wanting to be present at the Myungyeol scene.  “Ok… I’m gonna go now.” You glanced at Sungjong with a smirk.  “Be prepared to say sorry to her tomorrow, ‘cause I’m going to prove to you that she’s just as nice as she seems.”

He scoffed, “Doubt it.”

You were genuinely getting annoyed by this and rolled your eyes.  “Later, guys,” you said to the three of them.  You were only acknowledged by Sungjong, as the two others were too busy bickering about “Myungyeol”.  You shuddered at the awkward topic.

Swinging your backpack over your shoulder, you headed to where she was sitting with the twelfth grade guys.  Her table wasn’t that far away, and you made it there in a couple of steps.  “Hey, mind if I join?” you asked as you stood at their table.  The guys there all turned to look at you, and for some reason, you felt a bit self-concious.  They eyed you up and down with greedy eyes.  Well this is awkward. 

The girl looked at you and recognition set into her.  “Oh!  We’ve met at the library!  You’re Sungjong’s friend, aren’t you?”

The guys were still staring at you, especially at your legs, which were revealed by your school uniform.  Darn this stupid skirt, you thought as you tried to distract yourself by talking to the girl.  “Oh, yeah, we’ve met.  Can I sit here?” you repeated.  Your eyes were desperate as you tried to avoid the guys’ lusty gazes.

“Yeah, sure!  Go ahead,” she offered.

“Thanks,” you said.  Oh my freaking gosh, thank you for helping me avoid those guys.  You looked at here with sincere gratitude.

She laughed, and it was then that you noticed how gravelly her voice sounded.  I guess that’s one thing that was a turn-off for Sungjong…

Speaking of turn-offs, you could see out of the corner of your eye that the guys were still openly looking at you.  Putting aside the fact that you were supposed to investigate her, you thought of things to do that would divert the guys’ attentions away from you, since it was really getting on your nerves and making you uncomfortable.

You desperately eyed Sungjong, Sungyeol, and Myungsoo for help, but they seemed to not notice the other guys’ stares.  Sungjong’s attention was solely on you and he was still smirking.  Ugh, stop with that smirk already!  The Myungyeol couple was still arguing about their relationship.

You then wound up having to resolve the problem by yourself, since you couldn’t focus on the conversation with the girl if those byuntae guys around you were still staring.  Looking around, you saw nothing that would be of good use to act as a turn-off, until your eyes landed on her lunch.  It was an udon type of dish with sticky orange sauce.  You asked her kindly, “Can I have some of that?”  You pointed to her paper plate.

“Oh this?” she asked.  “Sure, go ahead.”

“Thanks.”  You rolled up the sleeves of your blazer and picked up a strand.  You tilted your head back all the way and dangled the noodle high above your mouth.  You stuck out your tongue and lowered the noodle down into your mouth, slobbering the orange sauce.  Hoping this would make the twelfth grade guys grossed out and lose interest in you, you glanced over curiously. It seemed that they became even more intrigued.  Why me?  You heard snickers and turned to see the three Infinite members trying to hide their laughter.  You glared at them.

Turning back to the girl, you apologized for your strange behavior.  She said that it was fine, and resumed eating.  You decided to change the subject and start a conversation with her.  “So, do you usually hang around here at lunch?”

She swallowed a huge lump of her food before saying in her deep voice, “Oh, yes, I do.  And I hang out with those guys.”  She pointed to the group of twelfth grade guys that were still staring at your guys’ table.

You cringed.  “Oh really?  Well, what do you guys usually do?”

She considered for a moment.  “Well, we usually just sit here and talk about stuff.  There’s nothing to do much, really.  So sometimes we just look at the people who pass by and stuff.”

“Oh, so is that how you became interested in Sungjong?” you asked cautiously.  You didn’t want to invade her privacy that early, but you wanted to escape the guys’ stares as soon as possible.

She was a bit taken back by this, and blushed.  “How did you know?”

You beamed.  “Guessed right, didn’t I?”

She nodded slowly, hiding her face.

She doesn’t seem the least bit mean, how can Sungjong say that about her?  It was then that you realized that this matter should be dealt with right this instance.  It couldn’t be postponed until you gave Sungjong the news tonight.  You stood up abruptly, startling her a bit.  “Well, why don’t you try telling him again?” You asked.  You saw Sungjong flinch out of the corner of your eye when he heard this.

She started waving her hands frantically in an attempt to protest.  “I can’t!  Not after how he turned me down yesterday…”

You sternly took hold of her wrist and said, “It’ll be fine.  This time, you’ve got me as backup.”  You pulled her towards Infinite’s table.  You saw that Sungjong was starting to hastily pack up his things and flee the room.  “Yah!  Lemon Candy, where do you think you’re going?!”

She was starting to pull away, so you gripped harder.  “No, stop trying to leave.  You are not leaving this cafeteria until I get a confession out of Sungjong for you!”

“What?” she asked, her face growing red.

You didn’t repeat yourself and just rolled your eyes.  “Yeah, you heard me.  And YOU BETTER HAVE HEARD ME TOO, LEE SUNGJONG!” You yelled to him.

Sungyeol sat there and protectively covered Myungsoo’s ears to drown out your yelling.  “Haerin-ah, stop yelling, you’re attracting attention.”

“Ah, mianhae,” you apologized.  By now, Sungjong was already halfway out of the room.

The girl snapped her wrist out of your grasp, surprising you at her sudden strength.  However, you disregarded it and asked, “What, why?  We were so close to getting him to confess to you!”

“Thanks for embarrassing me in front of the whole school!” she bellowed at you while tears were her eyes.

This alarmed you.  “Wait, I- I never meant to…I just wanted to show him how great you actually are… ” Her tears started flowing.  “Wait… Don’t cry.”  You pulled her into a hug and felt a powerful push to the point where you stumbled backwards.  She had pushed you into one of the tables, and didn’t even attempt to stop the river of tears running down her face.  Snot was also bubbling out of her nose.

At that moment, you wondered if Sungjong had ever seen her crying like this, and if that was one of the reasons why he rejected her.  You mentally slapped yourself for having such a malicious thought.  Sungjong shouldn’t turn a girl down just because of her appearance.  The girl began to walk back towards her table.  You could hear murmurs from the surrounding students, and although you couldn’t make out what they were talking about, you assumed that it was definitely something about you making her cry.  You’ve never had this much attention on you at once, and it felt really strange.

You started feeling a bit dizzy and stumbled down onto a nearby seat.  Sungyeol and Myungsoo quickly rushed over to you.  “Haerin!  Gwenchana?” You heard Myungsoo ask.

The dizziness didn’t alleviate, but you managed to reassure them with a weak thumbs up.

“She’s not talking,” Sungyeol said with concern building up in his voice.

“You guys, I’m… fine.” You said as your head began spinning.  Am I really this weak?  Suddenly, as quickly as it came, all the pain was gone.  That’s strange.  “Ok, I’m really fine now.” You stood up as proof to the two guys.

Myungsoo breathed a sigh of relief.  “Thank goodness you’re ok.”

You were still shocked at the sudden black-out you had, but put on a reassuring smile.

Sungyeol glared at the girl that had now made it back to her table, crying her eyes out as one of the twelfth grade guys comforted her.  “Who does she think she is?  You were just trying to help and she got all violent.”  He shook his head.  “Are you really all right, Haerin?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”  You couldn’t shake the strength that you felt emanate from her just a few moments ago.

Myungsoo said, “I don’t think you should go near her anymore, Haerin-ah.  She seems a bit violent.  I can see how Sungjong turned her down now.”

You looked at the both of them.  “Do you think she’s ok?  I think she’s crying because of what I did to her.”

Sungyeol brushed off your thought.  “She pushed you that hard, and you still care about her feelings?”

“Well, I don’t see why I shouldn’t care about them.  But anyways, at least I know now what she’s capable of doing, and I’ll try to be cautious around her.  Don’t worry.”

Sungyeol and Myungsoo looked at each other with even more concern than before.  Sungyeol spoke up, “Are you sure, Haerin?  You know we’ll always be there for you if anything goes wrong…”

You decided to joke around a bit to lighten the mood. “No, I thought you would never be there for me.  You guys are too busy with Myungyeol, so now, you rarely have any time with me nor the Infinite members.”   You pretended to pout.

Myungsoo pushed Sungyeol away.  “Eww, no!  I don’t like Sungyeol that way!”

“Aww, but baby, don’t you know how much people ship us together?”

“I don’t care!” Myungsoo whined and ran away.

You laughed along with Sungyeol at their strange behavior.

He stopped laughing and turned serious.  “But really, Haerin.  If something goes wrong, you better shout as loud as you can, and all seven of us will come to the rescue.  Arasso?”

“Ara,” you responded.

“Good.” He ruffled your hair.

The bell rang, indicating the end of the lunch period.

“Ok, let’s go.” Sungyeol did the sibling-like action of hooking an arm protectively around your shoulders as you guys walked out of the cafeteria.

You peeked back to see if the girl was still crying, and saw that she was.  Dang, I really messed up.  I should go apologize.  You made up your mind that you would do so right after school.

“Later,” he said as you guys stopped in front of your class.

You waved to him and saw him disappear around the corner.

Throughout your remaining classes, you thought about an apology to give her.  This was especially difficult for you, since you’ve never had to apologize to a girl before.  You’ve only ever had to say sorry to Sunggyu once for making him cry when you called him “Grandpa Gyu” and Hoya, when you spent too much time playing with Dongwoo and didn’t share with him.

Finally, you just settled on a simple apology to get it over with.  Watching the clock and dreading how the hands spun way too fast, you couldn’t concentrate on the lessons.  Oh well, I’ll teach all this to myself in the library with Woohyun later.

Finally, at exactly 3:05, the final bell rang.  You headed to the front of the school and waited for her to come out.  In the distance, you saw a pack with at least six brawny looking guys striding with angry expressions on their faces.  Who are they? Oh well, it doesn’t concern me.  You just stared straight ahead, hoping the girl would come out quickly so you can get it over with.  Woohyun was probably waiting for you just around the corner.

To your surprise, the six guys stopped right in front of you.  “You’re the one who made Nana cry.”

You straightened up and stopped leaning against the gate.  You recognized the leader as one of the guys at the twelfth grade table.  Shoot.  You tried to regulate your breathing and replied calmly, “Yeah, that’s why I’m here.  I’m going to apo- ”

The guy grabbed you by your backpack straps and slammed you against the gate.  “You know, at first we thought you were cute and that you were really trying to help her.  But then you made her cry.  And if someone makes Nana cry, that person’s gonna pay.”

Eww, get away from me.  Get away from me, you chanted in your head.  You were still disgusted by how these guys looked at you at lunch.  Nonetheless, you defended yourself.  You said, in an agitated tone, “That’s why I’m here.  To apologize to her.”

One of the guys scoffed.  “Apologize, my .  You’re probably here to wait for Sungjong, who you stole from Nana.”

“For your information, I was trying to help them get together, you dimwits.” You said through clenched teeth.  “But it seems like, with what I’m seeing, she already has six monkeys wrapped around her finger.”

“What did you just call us?” the leader boomed.

You didn’t flinch at this, making you seem more confident.  Thank goodness for that, you complimented yourself.  Seriously, this guy didn’t seem the least bit intimidating to you.

“Well, whatever, you’re going down, little girl.”

You were just about to kick him in the leg as he raised his hand to slap you, but your guys’ actions were interrupted with a high-pitched shriek.  He turned his head to the direction of the voice.  You didn’t even have to turn your head to see who that girly scream came from.

The guy began walking to the source of the sound.  “I guess we’ve got the whole cast here to witness this.”  You stood frozen in spot, unsure of what was going to happen next.

“Get away from my girl!”  The owner of the ear-piercing shriek declared.

Aish, Lemon Candy.  What did you get yourself into?