“Hey Qiuyue! Going home?” Luhan asked with a smile. “Mostly, yeah” she replied. “Good. Yixing will drop you home then!” he announced, surprising an unsuspecting Yixing and a blushing Qiuyue. “That’s ok! It’ll be out of his way. Besides I always go home with Baekhyun oppa” Qiuyue said nervously. “Yixing is on his way to Baekhyun’s house. Baekhyun asked you both to go ahead” Luhan said with a nod. “He did?” Yixing asked. Luhan nodded vigorously. Qiuyue raised an eyebrow but was ignored when Luhan ushered the two off on their way.

“I wonder what Baekhyun is upto” Yixing said casually slinging his bag over a shoulder. “Probably fighting with Lin” Qiuyue said with a sigh. “Do they fight a lot?” he asked. “It’s the only thing they do” she replied, shaking her head. “Is it because they like each other secretly?” he asked, his dimpled smile showing and his twinkling with mischief. “No they just like to fight” Qiuyue mumbled shyly, temporarily blinded by the brightness of his smile.

“Such a shame. What about you? Do you have someone you like?” Yixing asked her playfully. “No!” Qiuyue denied. He raised an eyebrow at how quickly she had answered. “So who is the lucky boy? Kris?” he continued. “No! Kris is like a brother to me” Qiuyue laughed. “There really is no one” she told him honestly. Yixing hummed as he walked ahead, going slower than his normal pace to match Qiuyue’s.

“So... will you guys be performing again soon?” Qiuyue asked. “Hopefully. We are looking for places to play at” Yixing told her. “Oh. What about the stage by the park?” she asked. “This week was our last performance there. Some other band is going to take over” Yixing told her. Qiuyue frowned. Where would they play next? “Don’t worry. We can always jam in Baekhyun’s garage” he said with a smile. “But you guys are awesome! You should play in concerts!” Qiuyue protested. Yixing laughed and ruffled her hair. “We will. Sometime in the future” he promised.

Qiuyue blushed at the action. She trailed behind Yixing who kept humming as he walked. He would occasionally stop to admire the view or play with a stray puppy on the street or ask her directions. Qiuyue could swear that at one point when the golden light from the setting sun caught in his hair, he looked like an angel. How could such a perfect man exist?

-x-

“If you sigh one more time then I will... burn that book” Lin threatened. The two of  them were sitting in the library along with Kris, but no one was getting any work done, constantly distracted by Qiuyue’s random sighing. “Let her be Lin, she’s a woman in love” Kris teased, causing Qiuyue to colour up. “I’m not in love!” Qiuyue protested at the same time that Lin said “she is an idiot in love”. “I’m not an idiot either!” she protested again, only to have the siblings give her knowing looks.

“I heard he walked you home yesterday” Kris started. “He was heading to Baekhyun’s house” Qiuyue clarified. “Not really. Baekhyun came over to my house to do a project” Lin spoke up. “So basically it was just the two of you huh?” Kris added on. “Yes. No. Maybe. Why are you asking?” Qiuyue said warily. “I don’t know. Cause it sounded like a nice date” he said with a grin. “Don’t be dumb Yifan” Qiuyue grumbled. “Says the idiot in love” Lin piped up, writing an answer in her notebook. “Yifan can be a regular idiot then” Qiuyue retorted. “Hey!” Kris protested.

A moment of silence reigned as Kris sulked, Qiuyue buried herself in the book and Lin judged the two of them. Her attention was distracted when Luhan entered the library, waving at her as he made his way to them. “So, I heard you captured Yixing’s heart” he started, sitting next to Qiuyue. “I did no such thing” Qiuyue denied. “Did he say something like that?” Lin asked. Even Kris paid attention. “No. But he said he enjoyed the walk and that Qiuyue was really cute” Luhan said with a big grin. “Really?” Qiuyue asked, surprised. “Yup. And then he proceeded to ask me if you were dating Kris, even though you had denied it” Luhan told her.

“Ow!” Kris exclaimed as Lin hit him on the shoulder. “Why are you ing a budding love story?” she asked angrily. “I didn’t do anything” he protested. The librarian yelled at the group to hush and everyone ducked to avoid scolding. “But I told him I didn’t like Kris” Qiuyue whispered. “I know. That’s why I told him that you liked him” Luhan said proudly. Qiuyue’s jaw dropped as Lin high fived Luhan for being the best wingman ever. “You did what?” she asked. “Did he believe it?” Kris asked. “Yup. Smiled and too” Luhan grinned. Lin let out a loud whoop before realizing what she had done.

“Okay that’s it. All of you out of the library! Now!”

-x-

“Okay. Keep calm. Keep calm. He’s just a boy. A very handsome boy but just a boy” Qiuyue recited to herself. She walked into class early, glad to see no one around. “Who’s a handsome boy?” someone from behind asked her, causing her to jump.

“Yixing! You scared me!” she said, breathing deeply to regain her senses again. Out of all the people, she had not expected Yixing to be the one to show up. “Kris told me you liked coming to class early” he said with a smile. “So I thought I could keep you company.” “Oh...” she trailed off. She would strangle Kris later for his supposed “help”. “You should really stop listening to the boys. They say random things” Qiuyue pointed out. “True that. Yesterday Baekhyun called a cat’s funny. Is that a Korean thing cause Chanyeol started laughing” Yixing said, confused. “No. It’s a dumb Baekhyun and Chanyeol thing” Qiuyue said, shaking her head.

Yixing pouted, a little confused at the joke. Qiuyue had the sudden urge to kiss him then but she snapped out of it when he turned towards her. “Your bag looks heavy” he noted, frowning at her book bag. “Oh, it’s cool. It’s just puffed. There’s no actual weight in it” she said, adjusting the strap. Yixing gave her a look before taking the bag from her. “This way, I get you to sit next to me too” he said with a smile, taking her hand too.

Qiuyue turned pink instantly, letting Yixing lead her to the bench at the back. “There you go” he said, setting her bag down on the seat at the left and his on the right. He smiled at her and she smiled back awkwardly. This was not going according to her plan. She meant to spend a total of five minutes alone with Yixing saying hi and bye if really necessary, not fifty sitting right next to each other! The gods really didn’t love her.

People started coming in so Qiuyue sat down next to Yixing. Baekhyun raised an eyebrow when he noticed Qiuyue was not sitting in her usual place. Then he broke into a wide grin when he realized that she was sitting next to Yixing, “her crush”. Qiuyue discreetly glared at him when Yixing wasn’t looking but she knew that Baekhyun knew she had butterflies in her stomach. If only she could survive the class.

She felt something poke her side. She turned to look at a piece of paper that had fallen in her lap. Perplexed at who would be sending her notes in class, she picked it up. “We are playing in a cafe on Saturday. Do you want to come watch? J” Qiuyue’s heart skipped a beat. Was Yixing the one who wrote this? Was this his way of asking her out? It couldn’t be. “okay” she scribbled quickly, adding a smiley to match his and passing it back to him. He read her reply and smiled his angelic dimple smile.

He frowned all of a sudden and wrote something more in the note before passing it back. “Great! Then we can hang around later for a date! ;) ” it read. Qiuyue’s eyes widened. So she hadn’t been wrong. She turned to look at Yixing who was pretending to work out a problem in his notebook but was secretly looking at her to gauge her reaction. She clutched onto the note and nodded, almost imperceptibly. “You’ll come?” Yixing asked, looking up from his book. Qiuyue nodded shyly.

Yixing leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek, causing her to gasp. That unfortunately caught the teacher’s attention. “Zhang Yixing and Li Qiuyue! Is there something you’d like to share with the rest of the class?” the teacher asked sternly. The two of them shook their heads in rhythm. Qiuyue buried her head in her book while the teacher called Yixing to solve the next problem on the board. She touched her cheek where he had kissed her and smiled to herself. Yixing noticed and smiled in the middle of explaining his answer, earning more looks from fellow students and teachers. Qiuyue hid behind her textbook.

Atleast she had a date with her cute piano boy.

-x-