The weeks that followed were a little queer in Baekhyun's opinion. Aya was still the perfect, nice topnotch from the speed class. She and Sehun had become even more inseparable. Baekhyun had a feeling it had something to do with Sehun's fit on that fateful night. The only thing that changed was Aya's openness to Baekhyun.

She was not avoiding him, but unlike before when she had always welcomed him every time he decided to bug her, she was now less tolerant of Baekhyun's playfulness. At times, when Baekhyun dropped by the council room for some chitchat, she barely acknowledged his presence. On top of that, she often answered very curtly. She was smiling still, but Baekhyun knew she was a little miffed deep down.

"Hey, Miss?" Baekhyun turned around to see Aya catching up with a girl from the lower sections. She was beaming like a sunflower. "You dropped your handkerchief."

"Oh, thank you," the girl answered, taking the handkerchief from Aya's hold. She smiled at her. "Thanks, Aya."

"Not a problem," Aya smiled back, more widely.

When the girl had gone and Aya was heading for the locker areas, Baekhyun decided to follow her. Maybe she really was tired and less friendly whenever she was in the council room. Maybe she'd be a lot more congenial in the morning. Now was the perfect time to test that theory.

"Good morning—"

"Holy—"

"Aya!"

"Baek!"

Baekhyun's grin turned wicked. "Oh, baby, trust me. I'm not holy."

"You gave me a heart attack," Aya whined, hauling out books from her locker.

"I get that a lot," Baekhyun seconded. "The repercussions of being a lady killer."

Aya scoffed. "I'm going to class now. See you around."

"Whoa, wait up, darling." Baekhyun caught up. "What's the rush? It's still half an hour before classes start."

"Half an hour left to review the subjects for today, then."

"Your life is boring," Baekhyun noted.

"My life is perfectly fine, Baekhyun. Thank you very much."

Aya attempted to escape him while they journeyed towards their classrooms, but it was no use. The mischievous boy stuck to her like Velcro tape. He didn't stop tailing her even when she was already inside her classroom.

"The first class sure has a lot of nerds," Baekhyun remarked as he took in the pupils silently settled in their seats and immersed in reading. "Ah, save one, of course." He sat on the empty chair before Aya's and waved at the person sitting at the end of the column. "Hi, Sehun. How are you doing?"

Sehun was not listening. He was gazing out the window. Aya saw this and walked towards the inattentive boy. "Good morning, Sehun. How was your sleep?"

"What's he doing here?" Sehun muttered, not looking at her.

Baekhyun could hear them both perfectly, but he pretended not to.

"Just dropping by, I believe," Aya said to him. "Hey, did you finish the assignment? I had a hard time solving item three. Can you teach me how you did yours?"

Sehun rolled his eyes and groggily produced a sheet of paper from his bag. "I don't think I can recall how I did it. You can just study my solution."

No way! Baekhyun howled in his thoughts. Aya was getting answers from Sehun? Aya, the topnotch?

But Aya only pored over the sheet once. Then she returned his paper and scribbled down on her own. Baekhyun was starting to feel out of place, not in a bad way though. Heck, no. If anything, he was feeling out of place because he felt that these people didn't have lives outside of the four corners of the classroom.

"I finally got it," Aya announced to the sleepy boy beside her. "I used a different approach, though, much longer than yours, but I finally got it. Thanks, Sehun."

When he still didn't reply, Aya rose and walked back to her chair.

"Is he intermittently mute or something?" Baekhyun asked, referring to Sehun. “Or deaf?”

"Just keeps to himself," Aya said. "Baek, shouldn't you be reviewing?"

"Don't need it, honey." He scanned the room again. "Are you guys always like this?"

"No," Aya said. "This is actually a light morning for us."

Baekhyun was in disbelief. He was not a terminally irresponsible student, but he didn't think he could get this rigid over his studies.

Well, he thought, there's a reason why they're in the speed class.

When the bell rang, Baekhyun made no move to transfer to his classroom. He wondered whether the person sitting in the chair he was seated in was absent. Should he sit in their class? He probably should, just for curiosity’s sake.

So when the teacher for first period arrived, he immediately stood to greet her and approached her desk to ask for accommodation. He was a little gratified that this teacher didn’t belong to the terrifying category, or else he’d be forced to scuttle away.

“And your point of sitting in is?” She studied his face, genuinely intrigued by his sudden desire to sit in her class.

“We don’t have first period,” he reasoned quite naturally despite not knowing whether or not his first class teacher was actually ditching the class. It happened more than was necessary for the second class anyway, free periods.

“Really?” The teacher’s brows rose. “Are you sure?”

Baekhyun hid his nervous gulp with his adorable eye smile.

“All right, take your seat, Byun Baekhyun.” She turned towards the rest of the class whose eyes were now pinned on their temporary classmate. “Kindly pass your assignments to the front.”

Because the chair Baekhyun had previously settled in was still empty, he decided to just sit there. He grinned at Aya and winked at her look of shock before he faced front. He was already enjoying one of the benefits of be