Kai’s eyes enlarged as he saw Taemin, who only presented him with an innocent look. He didn’t like the position that his friend was in. Although there was absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to have , doing it in the dance room really wasn’t the best place.

Before Kai could even make a move towards Taemin to twist his ear, and rip the girl off of him, she moved her head in a sideways motion to get her long hair out of her face. Kai’s mouth was left hanging open when she locked eyes with him. Not the fact that she was someone that he knew, but a childhood friend who he had lost contact with ever since middle school.

He studied her carefully as she made the first move to leave the awkward position on the floor. Once she stood up and dusted herself, Taemin slowly got up and gave Kai, whose eyes never left Yoonnae, a sheepish smile while rubbing the back of his neck. Kai walked over to her and grabbed her wrist firmly not saying a word to his best friend. He dragged her to the door, an attempt to leave the dance room so they could talk in private, but was stopped in doing so when Kris and Seulhae arrived at the door, blocking his exit route.

Seulhae looked at her boyfriend with a questionable look as her eyes trailed down to his hand, which was holding another being’s hand. She squinted at the person who had the possibility of stealing him away from her. As she suspected it was a trainee, one that she had met a couple of times. They never really talked, only exchanged introductions and bows here and there.

She kept her eyes on the girl that stood behind Kai. Her hands slowly curled into a fist as she tried to keep herself calm, hoping not to do too much damage more than what should be done, before tearing them apart. She didn’t understand how Kai could be so calm about this. They had been dating for years and were inseparable since the moment they decided to become friends.

Seulhae breathed through her nose silently as she prepared herself to walk over to him, but Kris stopped her by grabbing her arm. She turned her head slightly and raised an eyebrow at him. He gently pulled her over to him and forced her to turn her back to Kai as he did. He stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

He leaned his mouth near her ear and whispered, “Don’t do anything you’ll regret later. Trust me. I know that look on his face.”

Seulhae nodded her head slowly as Kris released her. She turned around with her eyes closed, not wanting to look at her boyfriend, and stepped away from the door to allow them to pass. Kai, still emotionless, walked passed them without a word, dragging Yoonnae along. When the door to the dance room closed, she opened her eyes, yet again with a sigh following suit while looking at the ground.

“Well that was uncalled for.” Taemin said to no one in particular.

Seulhae’s eyes shot up as Kris turned his head around to the owner of the voice. They were so engrossed with Kai’s situation that they didn’t even notice that Taemin was in the room, nor did they remember that they were supposed to be looking for Wenxin.

“When did you get here?” Kris asked looking at him with a blank stare.

“I was here all morning.”

Kris always hated Taemin and his simple self. He never said anything more than what was needed to be said. Sometimes Kris even envies him as he was someone who minded his own business and came off as a cool and remarkable person. When Kris attempted to change his personality people noticed right away and said that he was trying way too hard to be cool that he appeared like a show off instead.

“If that’s the case, then you probably know what’s going on between Kai and Yoonnae.” Seulhae said curiously.

“Of course I do. It was my fault that they ended up holding hands.”

She watched him simply put his hands into his pockets without saying anything further to confirm if Kai was cheating on her or two timing with Yoonnae.

“Well…?”

“I think it’d be best if you talk this situation out with him rather than trying to get an answer from me.”

“Awe… come on Minnie! Can’t you just do me this little favor once?”

Seulhae clasped her hands together as she pouted with her bottom lip sticking out. She leaned her head to one side and gave him the puppy eyes while flashing her eyelids a couple of times. Kris gave her a disgusted look and cringe. Aegyo wasn’t something that he really mined as long as it was from someone that he liked. Not that he disliked her or anything. It was strange for him to see such an abusive and tough person resulting to aegyo.

Taemin continued giving her his blank stare. Aegyo never affected him much. Even his best friend had trouble getting him to do things for him.

“Sorry Seulhae. But Yoonnae has grown on me too much. Any future requests that you have involving her will be voided, including this one.”

A one second smile was seen on his face before it disappeared. She let out a sigh of defeat as he went over to the small stereo near the corner to grab his dancing partner’s phone but stopped when he realized that it wasn’t where he last left it.

He looked passed the stereo and his eyes fell upon two little pair of white tennis shoes. His eyes trailed up and that’s when he remembered the little kid that had interrupted his beautiful moment with Yoonnae. He walked over to Wenxin and crouched down to the little kid’s eye level.

“Well well well… who do we have here? What’s your name little one?”

Wenxin stopped sniffing when he heard Taemin’s soft voice. For some odd reason, he didn’t feel threaten when Taemin approached him, rather he felt safe. Without a word, he just stared at Taemin blankly as he understood none of the words that left the older male’s mouth.

“Don’t even try speaking to him. He doesn’t understand anything but Chinese.” Seulhae said as she walked over to Taemin but stopped half way when Wenxin started to whimper.

Taemin stood up from his squatting position and turned his back to Wenxin. He took one step forward towards Seulhae but was forced to stop. He looked down at his right leg due to a heavy weight preventing him from walking any further. To his surprise, the little kid had wrapped his small arms tightly around his leg.

From his perspective, the kid was definitely acting strange. It was like he didn’t even know who Seulhae was nor did he seem to acknowledge Kris as his older brother. He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow not being able to decipher what was going on.

“Don’t look at me. I didn’t do anything. It was all Kris’ fault.” Seulhae accusingly pointed her finger in Kris’ direction.

Taemin gave her a weak smile and nodded his head. He shifted his eyes to Kris who was now running a hand through his hair as he let out a loud sigh. This was more than what he had asked for. As if Kai and Seulhae’s intervention wasn’t bad enough, Taemin just had to hop onto the train too.

“I didn’t do anything. He just won’t shut up.” Kris puffed up his cheeks as he glared at Wenxin.

“Ha! Lair! You...” Seulhae stride in front of Kris and poked his chest hard with her finger, “Yelled at poor little Wenxin and made him run for his life.”

Hearing his name, Wenxin poked his head out from behind Taemin’s legs and looked at Seulhae with inquisitiveness. She was very pretty to him but scary at the same time because of her loud voice, one reason why he didn’t like it when she approached him. He was frightened that she would hurt him in some way unimaginable to him.

“Ow! That’s the third time today that you abused me. Stop it.”

“Like you’re any different! That’s the third time you lied today. You stop it.”

Kris stopped rubbing his chest and closed his eyes as he rubbed his temple in defeat. “Geez! How does Kai even deal with you?”

“For your information, that is something that you do not need to worry about as you happen to be Kris and not Kai.” Seulhae’s smart retort caused Kris to open his eyes and stare at her disbelievingly.

Taemin laughed at her response while she poked Kris’ chest with her finger each time she said a word. Kris closed one eye due to the pain and even stumbled back a bit. Although Taemin wasn’t close to him at all, he knew when a girl was going too far. Even if Kris would never hit a girl, he was still capable of getting angry, and when he was, it wasn’t a pretty sight.

“The day isn’t getting any brighter the more you two lovebirds argue. Do something about this kid. I have to go find Yoonnae’s phone.” Taemin said as he tried to pry Wenxin’s fingers off of him.

“Lovebirds? Tch! Yeah right!” Seulhae said totally ignoring his last two sentences as she turned her back to Kris and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Psh! Like I would want to be your boyfriend.” Kris rolled his eyes in irritation while he walked over to Taemin and grabbed Wenxin’s arm, finally having enough of all this ridiculous happenings.

Wenxin tried to pull his arms away from Kris but failed to do so as he was weaker and smaller than him. All he could do now was cry and scream, but he didn’t. Kris’ face right now was pretty scary, one that he hasn’t seen in a while. It reminded him of his dad, so he just stayed quiet.

***

Kai dragged Yoonnae a couple of feet away from the dance room down the hall. He stopped and placed both hands on her shoulders while pressing her back against the wall. Kai wasn’t too clear about what he was feeling right now. Various emotions were mixed together leaving him with nothing but confusion.

“I don’t… wait… why did you… how is it…” Kai stopped his sentence full of random words as he looked down at the ground.

He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say first as everything he desired to speak out had the same level of importance. Just seeing her right now made millions of old memories replay in his mind from the moment they met until the day that he had left her hanging with no answers of his departure.

“Look…” Yoonnae started as she used her forearms to force his hands off of her shoulders, “If you got something to say… just say it.”

Kai’s arms landed at his sides as he slowly lifted his head up to look at her. Her voice was so neutral that he couldn’t tell if she hated him or not. Whether she did or not, she was still the same girl that he had known, beautiful and cool hearted.

He took in a deep breath as he finally decided what he wanted to say first. “What are you doing here in this S.M. Entertainment building?”

Yoonnae looked away from him as her lips curled into a small smile. She bent her head down a little as she bit her lips to prevent herself from laughing. She couldn’t believe that he had dragged her all the way out here just to ask her that question when he could have done so in the dance room.

“What’s so funny?” He stepped back as he crossed his arms over his chest raising an eyebrow at her.

“You’re still the same Jongin.”

Kai’s poker face immediately came into play when she said his real name. He didn’t like it because those that were not close to him only called him Jongin as those who were close, friends and family, called him Kai and that was absolute. Her calling him that only meant that she no longer knew him as a friend but a stranger.

Yoonnae, not frighten by his poker face as others were, lightly poked his cheek. Kai grabbed her hand and continued to stare at her with those emotionless eyes. At this moment she felt a little bit awkward. It had been years since she had seen him. Six years to be exact. His sudden skinship was more overwhelming to her than hers to him.

“Jongin? Really?”

“It’s been six years Jongin. Six years that we have known each other and six years that we have departed. That max out to zero.” Yoonnae answered pulling her hand away from his.

“Oh come on! Don’t be like that Yoonnae. That’s not fair.”

“Says the guy who left without saying a word.”

Kai groaned as he stood beside her. She was definitely making this harder than it should be. She made no effort to understand him. But as a girl, understanding was much harder as they tend to hold grudges and guys don’t. He leaned his back on the wall and stuck his hands in his pocket while the bottom of his shoe pressed against the wall.

“I wanted to say something, but I was forced against my will to stay quiet about it okay. I couldn’t go around telling people that I was a trainee in S.M. Entertainment. It was a big risk as trainees are to be kept a secret to secure a popular debut.”

He slightly turned his head to look at her hoping to catch some kind of emotion from her face, but she revealed nothing. All she did was gaze at the opposite wall of the one they were leaning on with her hands intertwined behind her back.

“Well I guess I can say the same for you.”

“What?”

***

“Yoogeun-ah…” Mihi said as she pulled a seat next to his.

The little boy had been working on his classwork about shapes and colors that she had just finished teaching him ever since they had left the playground earlier this morning. It was a fairly easy assignment as he was on the third to the last question.

He set his pencil down nervously as his eyes looked everywhere but in his teacher’s direction. When she called his name again, he turned his body around to face her. His eyes landed on her hands which were holding a cellphone, he assumed it was hers.

He knew what she was going to ask but still pretended that he had no idea what she was going to ask him. He didn’t want to give up the headset yet. He hadn’t had the chance to inspect it and use it as he had planned to this morning when Yoonnae had dropped by.

“Did you take Yoonnae-noona’s headset again?”

“Uh~ um…” Yoogeun fidgeted with his fingers as he was lost for words.

He looked up at Mihi for a couple of seconds before looking down at the ground, something he typically did when he was guilty of something. He wasn’t sure what he should say to make his teacher not suspect him. Although he knew that she would never punish him, he didn’t want to admit it. Feeling ashamed was the worst feeling ever, and she was really good at making people feel that way by making them feel guilty.

“A-a-aniyo seo-seo-seonaengnim. I-I-I didn’t steal it. I r-r-really didn’t.”

Mihi nodded and watched as her student turned away fr