Shrugging a bag closer onto ones back while trying not to slip on an ice surface was a feat that was a level too high for Baeri to master. To add to that scene, the girl was already running late for her first class of the day since she had overslept that morning and had to skip breakfast, shower and getting proper to make it.

 

Her brother didn’t care, though.

 

The man had left home early in the morning, long before Baeri had even left dreamland, on some sort of mission that didn’t interest the girl the slightest and yet, Jihoon urged her to meet him as soon as possible. So to her own disappointment in her lacking backbone, the girl made a detour to the cafe her brother was at - checking the time every minute because she felt the uneasy gnawing in her stomach that Mr Lee wouldn’t go easy on her if she arrived late again.

 

Spotting the gray sign that hung above the cafe she needed to be at, Baeri picked up her pace and dashed through the entrance, earning a wild jingle of the bell that hung above the door. She almost bumped into a waiter in her mindless entrance but could skid to an abrupt halt before the impact. “Can I help you?” the young boy asked with an irritated scowl on his face that he tried to veil with a professional smile that cracked under the undoubted fakeness.

 

“I’m sorry,” Baeri quickly apologized and scanned the area around them. “I’m meeting someone,” she muttered, standing on her toes to look over the boy’s shoulder to see more. The waiter, however, took a step to the side to obstruct her view again and folded his arms in front of him. “Reservations only,” he said sternly, the smile long gone, “if you have no identification, I’m afraid I can’t let you–”

 

“Baeri, over here!”

 

The waiter closed his eyes in frustration and was just about to turn around to quieten the loud guest, when Baeri dashed passed the boy towards the owner of the voice. Her expression turned into one of pure frustration when she spotted her brother wearing a far too happy expression. “Couldn’t it wait until dinner?!” she hissed at the man, annoyed that he had to talk to her now of all times whilst she was already late for school. “No, now shush,” Jihoon answered simply and nodded at the seat next to Jackson.

 

Baeri hadn’t noticed him when she arrived at her brother’s table so she had to do a double take before she realized what the situation was. Jackson grinned at her and waved before playfully presenting the empty stool next to him. Baeri frowned at him, scrunching her nose before eying her brother again. “I will shush whenever I feel like it,” she retorted sassily and cocked an equally attitude-filled eyebrow as her brother.

 

“I will hit you,” Jihoon menacingly threatened, gritting his teeth when his sister still didn’t listen to him. The artist had completely forgotten about her being late and threw her bag onto the floor, spreading her arms as to welcome her brother’s threat. “Give me your best shot,” she answered cockily and watched her brother get up from his seat, rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. Jackson gaped at the two and quickly stood up to place himself in between the siblings when he got the feeling that it wouldn’t stay at colorful words. “Guys, we’re in a public place!” he hissed between his lips and eyed the both of them sharply.  

 

“I advise you to keep quiet or I will have to ask you to leave this cafe,” the same waiter from before suddenly interrupted the three, effectively pulling Baeri back to reality. To the three males surprise, she quickly bowed in an attempted apology and took a seat in her earlier appointed seat, waiting patiently for her brother and friend to join her. Still a little confused, Jackson and Jihoon also bowed at the waiter and sat back down in their seats. “Why are you both so violent,” Jackson complained and whacked them both up the head when he knew for sure that the waiter had turned his back to them to leave.

 

Both the Kims whined at the impact and muttered an apology. “Just tell her,” Jackson shook his head and folded his arms in front of him as he eyed Jihoon. “Oh right!” his earlier behavior switched to one of joy, even making him bounce in his seat the slightest. “Mei is coming home next week!” he smiled widely at Baeri and watched how the girl’s pouty face turned into one of overflowing happiness. “Really?!” she exclaimed, smiling widely after her brother nodded frantically in confirmation.

 

“Yeah, so we thought we should throw her a welcome party, since it has almost been three months ago that we last saw her,” Jihoon continued, leaning his lower arms on the table. Baeri nodded in agreement and glanced at Jackson for a moment. “Are you coming as well?” she asked, unwrapping her scarf and ping her jacket because she had gotten a little warmer since she had entered the cafe. Jackson hummed and eyed Jihoon for a moment. “We were thinking of dinner with Shindae, me, Jihoon, Mei and you, of course.”

 

Baeri’s mouth fell at this because she instantly spotted the gaping division in this group. “And be the fifth wheel to your little party?” she scoffed and began zipping her jacket again with a sneer, “I appreciate your undying thoughtfulness but no thanks.”

 

Jackson quickly pulled her back onto her seat with a chuckle, earning a colorful curse from the girl. “Did you really think we would let you join us alone?” he laughed smugly and shook his head. “Didn’t know you would actually think so low of us.”

 

“Can you just get to your point, please?” Baeri sighed as she rolled eyes at Jackson’s scene.

 

“We have another friend that will come with us so he can keep you company,” Jackson grinned and dared to wrap an arm around the girl. “He?” Baeri asked skeptically, eying her brother because she didn’t exactly like where this was headed. Jihoon smiled and cocked his head innocently when he saw the insecurity on his sister’s face. “Don’t worry, we made sure it’s someone you know.”

 

Baeri, however, still didn’t trust the two sneaky men and narrowed her eyes at her brother. It wasn’t like she had much of a choice, though, because it was Mei they were talking about; the girl that protected her whenever her brother was being a jackass again when he found out that the girl had eaten his snacks again; the girl that was as beautiful as a sunflower and made Baeri feel good about herself because she always helped her do her makeup. “Fine,” Baeri eventually sighed defeated and deflated in her seat. Jihoon’s smile widened when he heard this and leaned over the table to high-five Jackson. “Nice!” the man smiled happily and side-hugged the girl. “Shindae will be happy to see you again.”

 

“Same goes for Mei,” Jihoon nodded with a small smile, “she was ecstatic when I told her that I wanted to invite you too. She misses you a lot.”  

 

“Yeah yeah,” Baeri muttered - since she had a feeling that it wasn’t only because her close friend, Jihoon’s girlfriend, wanted to see her - as she struggled to get out of Jackson’s koala-hug. A waitress interrupted their little moment by greeting the three and carefully set two cups on the wooden table top, joint by two plates that carried a croissant and sandwich. Baeri bit down on her lower lip because she hadn’t had anything that morning so seeing this kind of delicious food made water and stomach growl.

 

“Don’t you have a college to attend to?” Jihoon grinned when he saw the dreamy expression his sister wore, and took a sip from his coffee. The younger’s eyes visibly widened when Jihoon mentioned her initial destination, “Oh shoot!”, and jumped from her seat, nearly knocking the table over in her haste. She frantically gathered her things, zipped her jacket and wrapped her scarf around her neck, but she didn’t fail to notice the amused smile her brother wore. This annoying expression instantly reminded her that she was even later because of that boy and without a second thought, she passed the table and quickly swiped the croissant on his plate that was placed in front of him.

 

“Yah! You brat, give that back!” Jihoon yelled after Baeri as she ran to the exit of the cafe. The girl just kept speed walking, again nearly bumping into the waiter from before. “That’s what you get!” she yelled over her shoulder before shooting through the entrance of the small cafe, hearing the faint calls and curses of the waiter echo after her.

 

A deep scowl colored Baeri’s face when she sat on her knees, holding a putty-knife in one hand and a spray bottle with nail polish remover in the other as she bent her head to see the bottom of the classroom desks. “Stupid Jihoon,” she muttered to herself and sprayed some of the pink substance onto a piece of gum before sliding the putty-knife against it to try and remove it. “Idiot Jackson,” she continued to mumble but winced when the piece of gum fell to the floor, joining the rest of pieces she had already removed.

 

Baeri sighed, closing her eyes for a moment, before she threw the knife and bottle on the floor in frustration and scrambled onto her feet. “This isn’t a damn high school!” Baeri complained childishly as she pointed and threw an angry look at the desk that stood in front of the class where her teacher had sat fifteen minutes before. In the end, Baeri had arrived nearly twenty minutes past the time her class started. Mr Lee couldn’t appreciate her being tardy for the nth time that school year so, after a ten-minute long speech on how to tell time, Baeri was assigned to cleaning gum off the tables after class.

 

The girl threw her head back exasperated, the groan echoing through the empty classroom, and stretched her painful fingers a few times, kicking the bottle of remover when she spotted it at her feet. “I should’ve called that idiot fatty to do it for me,” she sneered with a pout and shook her head before walking to her desk to get her things. She threw a last glance into the classroom. “I can finish it later,” she mumbled with a hopeful yet disdainful attitude and sighed yet again before leaving the classroom behind her, and venturing to somewhere better.

 

She didn’t have class until later in the afternoon again so Baeri figured she could continue her art project somewhere to kill time. After visiting a toilet to wash her hands because she still felt disgusted by her earlier ‘punishment’, she frowned when she noticed on what floor she found herself. It had happened a few times already but Baeri really didn’t know how it always happened, just like now when she spotted the familiar sign with the black swirly letters again.

 

 

She pursed her lips, tightened her grip on her bag straps and slid through the hall with a few opened doors. “Might as well use them,” she mumbled to herself because she wanted to sit somewhere quiet for the time being, so an empty hall was always a good location. Passing a few closed rooms, a low booming sound caught her attention. She approached a door when she figured it came from behind it and lifted herself onto her toes to look through the window next to it into the hall. A boy wearing a familiar beanie twirled through the room in an ordered manner, creating a performance of colorful moves.

 

Mark, Baeri thought when she recognized the eyes hiding behind the brown bangs and pressed her hands against the glass that separated the two. Baeri felt a smile tug on her lips when she saw the grace Mark moved himself with; like he was a feather that floated over a surface but kept hovering over it without touching it. It was like various dance styles were mixed into his choreography because, even though Baeri couldn’t hear the music he was using, the shifts in his movements and the way his joints locked at moments and turned sharper were clear evidence of it.

 

The boy hopped before he broke out into the infamous dougie and laughed to himself before he dropped to the floor with heavy breaths. Baeri frowned and chuckled at his switch in behavior because when she scanned the room, she noticed that he was all alone so he was literally laughing to himself. He spread his arms around him and slid them up and down as if he pretended to make a snow angel but then rolled onto his stomach and propped his chin upon his hands, staring at the wall opposite of the mirrored one.

 

Suddenly, the boy looked at the entrance of the room and smiled widely when he spotted Baeri behind the window. He pushed himself onto an elbow whilst he enthusiastically beckoned her with the other. Baeri hesitated for a moment but chose to just wing it for once and slipped through the door into the practice hall, instantly being surrounded by an upbeat song that sounded through the speakers.

 

“Baeri!” Mark’s deep voice bellowed over the music and caught the girl’s attention at once. She shrugged her bag on her back closer as she made hesitant steps towards the male that was rolling on the wooden floor. “I see you’re enjoying yourself quite well, huh?” she laughed when she was close enough and looked around for his bag, which was stationed next to the stereo system. Mark laughed at her comment and moved to stand on his legs again with a low groan. “Excuse you, I was practicing quite seriously.”

 

Baeri scoffed and crossed her arms in front of her. “But of course, that turned into a little clown’s fest of your own?”

 

Mark narrowed his eyes with a lopsided grin on his lips before he gently tapped her nose. “Shut up?”

 

The artist chuckled and shook her head before she shuffled over to the wall without mirrors and sat down, stalling her stuff out as she did. “I’m gonna draw here because there is no quiet spot in this godforsaken building,” Baeri remarked, skillfully forgetting that there were enough empty halls before, and placed her sketchpad on her legs before flipping through it. Mark frowned with a smile when he walked to the stereo system and lowered the sound of the music. “It’s not particularly quiet here either,” he laughed and skipped through a few songs before he found the right one.

 

“I like your music so it’s fine,” Baeri absentmindedly spoke up, resulting in a beaming smile to appear on Mark’s lips when he heard this as he walked to the middle of the room again to continue his practice. “Okay then.”

 

A yawn escaped Baeri’s lips when she felt exhaustion take over after another hour of drawing for her project. The image was coming out nicely but the girl was so concentrated, that she had gone to the extent of even hurting her fingers. She had never done so before because she knew that if she did, she would be out of the running for a minimum of a week so she tried to avoid being too ambitious.

 

But as the saying went, there’s a first time for everything and Baeri experienced this firsthand today.

 

Mark had been glancing at the illustrator as he practiced his choreography and noticed that her face would turn into a painful frown whenever she held her pencil. Something told him that the girl was exerting herself so without any hesitation, the dancer hopped over to Baeri and crouched down next to her. The girl was too occupied with her drawing to notice the boy but when she found the lighting to have dimmed, she looked up and jumped in her seat when she found Mark closer to her than she had expected. “Yah! Personal space!”

 

The dancer grinned at her and, not straightening nor sitting down, walked closer to her as he was still in his crouching position. Baeri laughed at his silliness and playfully skidded away from him but that only made Mark continue his hopping until he was nearly in her lap again. “Really?” Baeri asked with a cocked eyebrow but the smile on her lips told the male that she was joking. Mark hummed in response and showcased his pearly whites like a little kid, which only made Baeri shake her head and laugh more before she continued with her work.  

 

Mark’s music was still playing in the background but he had turned the volume down a little so the girl in the room could concentrate better on her work. Again, when she lifted the pencil from the floor and turned it in her fingers until she had found a comfortable position, her face fell slightly into a grimace. She tried to veil it by pressing her lips together so it wasn’t as noticeable but Mark still saw it and drew a deep breath before holding his hand out in front of her.

 

Long fingers casted shadows over her drawing, obstructing her sight, and made her frown when she looked up. “What?” she asked when she switched her gaze from Mark’s hand to his face with a questioning expression. The male didn’t answer, however, and just shook his hand another time as a signal for her to give hers. Baeri cocked an eyebrow at this but did as he ‘said’ by dropping her pencil into the groove of her sketchbook and placed her hand, palm down, into his.

 

A shudder ran up Baeri’s spine when she felt his warmth spread from the pads of her fingers to the tips of her toes and averted her eyes when she felt her cheeks beginning to flare. Mark smiled at her and held her hand, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles before bringing his other hand in. Slowly, he started to use his thumbs to rub steady circles into the back of Baeri’s hand, making her skin roll over the bones and tendons. Baeri winced at the feeling because it hurt at first but gradually she felt the pain ebb away.

 

“When I was younger and would injure myself again during my acrobatics training, my mom would massage the pain away like this,” Mark spoke softly as he moved his fingers up until he was gently rubbing and kneading Baeri’s wrist. “Of course, she would scold me during it but she also knew that I was a pretty rowdy kid and didn’t know any better.”

 

“Was?” Baeri grinned at the boy playfully and chuckled when he stuck his tongue out with a childish expression. “Anyway,” he continued as he momentarily widened his eyes with a mocking grin, “she never liked to see me in pain and knew that I was oblivious to the fact that if I didn’t treat my injuries right, I would damage my muscles even more.”

 

The girl noticed the small reminiscent smile on Mark’s face and felt one of her own tug on the corners of her lips because it reminded her of her brother, who always helped her when she pulled a muscle during her dancing or was just sore overall. Even though the male could be a pain in the , when it came down to it, he would always be there for her.

 

“So she did what every sweet mother would do, and comforted me through her gentle touch,” Mark continued when he held her hand in one of his and began tugging on her fingers with his other; starting from the base in her palm to the last joint of her finger. The girl winced at the feeling but after every twist and tug, the pain was lessening and even left her feeling rejuvenated for a moment. It was like Mark’s hands worked magic on hers.

 

The dancer eyed Baeri for a moment and bit his lower lip when he reached the last joint in her thumb and turned her hand until her palm was up and started to massage the ball of it, loosening every knot in there. “There were times that her touches didn’t help, though; times that I really messed up and felt like I would never get better,” Mark frowned for a moment when he felt how tight the muscle of her thumb was and pressed his thumb a little firmer until he felt it loosening.

 

“Whenever I felt that way, she used another method to calm me,” he said with a small smile as he looked at her hand when a chuckle left his mouth. “I was surprised at first, to say the least, when she suddenly did it but after a few times, it became a routine and I am still very thankful for her actions and accepted it with open arms.”

 

Hearing his words, Baeri felt herself become curious because he was rather cryptic about the other action she did. “What did she do then?” she asked as she looked up to meet with Mark’s eyes. The latter showed a cheeky grin but it soon molded into a sincere smile. Intuitive, his eyes traveled along Baeri’s features and followed the short bow of her nose down to her philtrum that laid above pinkish lips that were slightly parted, before he bent down and lifted her palm until his lips touched the delicate skin of her wrist.

 

Baeri was startled for a moment as there was no doubt that Mark’s actual lips were touching her skin. The student wasn’t familiar with gestures like this so she could only sit there, blind of what to do with her lips parted in silent confusion. It seemed like ages that Mark stayed like that; with his lips attached to her wrist but Baeri’s mind was sure that the moment only took a few seconds.

 

It was her heart that wished it was longer.

 

Still feeling her heart beating frantically in her chest, Baeri watched how the brown-haired boy straightened with that same coy smile of his that always seemed to grace his perfect lips. “Kisses always helped me,” he spoke softly as he looked into Baeri’s dark eyes and the burning skin of her palm. The girl could only blink blankly at him and didn’t even flinch when another one of his melodic chuckles left his lips. “I hope you’re feeling better now,” he smiled at her before he gently let go of her hand and straightened, stretching his legs before he walked back to the stereo system and turned the music up a little.

 

If Baeri was compared to an animal, a fish would come the closest to her expression right now as her lips were still parted and she tried to form coherent words. W-w-what - Mar- I what?! went through her mind with frantic blinks of her eyes and hesitant glances from her hand to Mark, who had already started practicing again. “He kissed me?!” she hissed under her breath and looked down to her hand which was a little reddened because of the earlier massage. She slowly curled her fingers so she had made a fist and gasped inaudibly when she didn’t feel any pain course through it.

 

A smile tugged onto her lips because Mark, the boy she had practically just met, managed to take her pain away with a single touch. Never had she been touched by a boy like this, let alone kissed but even though the gesture was intimate, his thoughts were pure and warmed her heart to a million degrees until she felt like she was suffocating. Baeri rest her eyes for a moment to savor the feeling of bliss that traveled through her system before she opened them again and picked up her pencil with newfound vigor.

 

Unbeknownst to Baeri, however, the male took subtle glances at her and smiled to himself when he saw her relaxed expression and mentally patted himself on the shoulder because he had taken the first step that would lead them further into their relationship.

 

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