[CONTENTID2]

{ D u p l i c i t y }

Your faces when you're alone,

and the faces that you've shown to others...

are different.

White Christmas

My N a m e Is Hers'

*italicized indicates past,

monologues[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID1]He walks light toward the flight of stairs. The hall is as chaotic as usual but it could not compare with the beats beneath his chest. He narrows his gazes to search for someone.

'Anne, where are you?' he mumbles and sighes sourly.

'She hasn't been talking since last Friday. She didn't go to the library either, I wonder what is wrong with her,'

"Lu, wanna sit beside us?" Jackson offers.

Luhan glances at him, then holds a hand up. "It's ok. We'll talk later," he replies in such a rush and walks away.

Luhan, the ideal prince charming in almost every girl’s heart in Serenity. He’s named as one of the school talented singer, but that is not all, he also won several competitions and thus firmly establishes the fame for himself at the same time proves to the others that he's able to stand alone without relying on his background – his father, Mr Koo, is the co-owner of one of the most promising talent agency in Korea.

The black circles that surround the corner of his eyes were visible even from afar. Some say he’s been staying up till late at night, working his off for the year-end performance as there would be talent agencies from all over Korea would come that day to scout for new talents. One of his acquaintances have leaked his practice video into the school’s website and it became viral on the very next day. Ever since then, people starts to recognize him and the fangirls even sets up an official fan club for him.

Luhan prioritizes hard work above everything else. Outwardly, he’s approachable but he admits in an interview before regarding his thoughts about friend.

'I come across a letter from a fan and she told me I'm not picky in making friends and that she respects me for being so. Then, suddenly I feel the urges to explain it. Inherently, I'm picky about friends so by saying that I'm friendly, it gives me a cold sweat. I'm sorry for disappointing the writer of that letter or anyone else that have the same impression. For me, choosing the right friend is very essential to reach my goal and my goal is to become the best atop of the best.' He said during an interview for the school special edition magazine.

Whenever the topic romance is mentioned to him,

"Some say romance is life while for me, music is my life so if we look at it from the bigger picture, music is my romance." He said coolly.

Albeit he has said it so many times but one of his closest friends once reveals that there’s a minority of the song that he has written is seemingly dedicated for someone. However, no one knows who is that lucky “someone”.

It takes him a while to be able to spot Anne out of the hundreds over students inside the lecture hall. When he catches a glimpse at her, a sour sigh escapes via his mouth. Without sparing a second glance to those that offer a seat for him and anyone else that greets him along the way, he’s heading at her way with stern looks on his face.

Nothing is out of the norm for Anne that morning and as always, one hand over her bangs while the other is flipping the book that she’s reading at. Reading is literally her everything and she’s the librarian both in the school and at their main library in town to satisfy her thirst for reading. Though she appears reserve most of the times but she’s socializing quite all right with her circles of friends be it for assignment-related or performances. The only pitfall is when she’s being compared with the queen of acting in their school – Aennrain.

“Annerain-ssi, may I sit beside you?”

Anne tilts her head at one side and immediately recognizes its Luhan. After she received the confession letter that was meant for Aennrain on last Friday, she drew a line between them – she always did, but this time, it’s different and their relationship would never be the same anymore.

“There’s a lot of other empty space, Luhan-ssi,” she answers while her gazes still on the book she’s reading.

“What’s with her?”

“Why is she talking down to our oppa?”

“That’s rude.”

The whispers from the other students around them reaches her ears. She frowns and reluctantly gives some space for him. Her forehead creases as she does that.

“Annerain-ssi, where is my letter?” He writes on the book that she’s currently reading at.

“Yah, how could you write it with a pen?” she said over her shoulder and shoots a look at him.

Luhan clutches his bag and looking for a pencil but he doesn’t have it. Meanwhile, she’s inching away from him and creating a space that fits for two persons between them.

When he actually manages to borrow a pencil from the fellow at the back, he turns to look at her but she’s already as five metres away from him.

“Yah, are you going to be like this, Anne-ssi?” he tips his head forward and angles his face at her.

She shot a dreadful glare at him with ‘Don’t talk to me’ phrases written all over her face.

“Annerain yah...” His voice softens.

“Its my mistakes, I should’ve made sure that the letter wouldn’t pass to the wrong...” he pauses when he realizes that she’s not even paying attention to his words.

Anne acts grumpily in front of someone she knows, or rather close with. Luhan is her closest friend. They lived in the same building since Anne moved in with her aunt. They share a lot of memories together but not many people know about it because Luhan always said that they should keep their distance in school and it’s better to pretend like a stranger to each other, so that no scandal would arise. Anne complies with him every time, simply because she likes her and trust him a little bit more than others. But, not this time. She couldn’t accept the fact that he likes that girl, Aennrain. Out of anyone, why her?

The lecturer has arrived into the hall and Luhan stops talking to her. He knows her well – she’s doesn’t like to be disturbed during lecture. He knows Anne like the back of his hand, sometimes even better than Anne herself.

It’s windy that morning which is a bad sign for Anne. Her body immune system has been always bad so she'd fall sick very easily. Anne has never expected it hence she didn't bring along her outer coat. During the lecture, Luhan notices that she’s shivering in cold. He knows that she’s the type that easily to catch a flu so he takes off his jacket and put in on her. She didn’t say anything, but he knows that she’s being grateful by not taking it off and returns it immediately to him. Their interactions have caused quiet an uproar amongst the students nearby that watches over them.

 “Are they dating each other?”

“Mwo-yah. I thought Luhan-oppa likes the pretty one...”

The students are whispering amongst themselves and though Luhan seemed cool about it, inside his heart, he’s cursing at those people for making assumptions about them. He’s used to it since he’s always the main interest in their topic, but it’s different for Anne. The reason he wants to keep their friendship just for themselves is because of Anne. Anne is the type that get stress up easily and that is also why she always immerse herself in reading, in which it could distract her from the other’s saying, especially if it’s about her. He turns to look at Anne to comfort her about it, but she’s already taking a nap.

“She never changes. Such a sleepyhead,” His lip's curve up for a smile.

Every now and then, he would steal a glance at her whenever there’s a chance. She looks like a baby when she’s sleeping and he adores that view of her the most. After befriend with her for four years, he notices that Anne tends to change her attitudes according to place and person. One could never tell if she’s portraying her true self because she’s very good in hiding her emotions and he acknowledges that. Nonetheless, after being with her for quite some times, he’s able to recognize her peculiar habits.

Four years ago, when she moves into their building, there’s a rumour going on in their neighbourhood, stating that Anne is an amnesiac girl and she’s an orphan too. Her aunt works as a discovery journalist, it’s rare to see her returns home and sometimes she wouldn’t be at home for months. All those times, Anne is living by her own. She doesn’t go out from the house aside from school, buying groceries and going to the library. There’s a several occasion where she would even spend her night in the main library.

“Hello miss,”

Their first encounter was four years ago in the main library. Luhan wants to inform her that he’s the next person in line to borrow for the book that she was supposed to return on last week. The librarian told him that the girl’s name is Anne and that she’s inside the library at the moment, so he’s practically looking for her in and out only to find her leaning at one corner, sleeping.

“Miss, the-the...” He wants to wake her up but couldn't bring himself for doing that. At last, he’s waiting beside her, watching over her until she wakes up by herself.

Anne dazedly looks at the guy sitting beside her, reading the book that’s supposedly in her hand before she’s dozed off.

Her eyes grow wide at him as she angles her head to him, “Uh, that’s...my book,” she comments, right after she regains her consciousness.

Luhan smiles to her and greets, “Good morning,”

The lectures finished fifteen minutes ago, but the both of them are still inside the hall. He puts on earphones and starts reading while she’s beside him, sleeping soundly with his jacket on top of her.

As much as he hates to be involved in a scandal and for sure after this, certainly there would be a scandal floating around about them, but one thing he wouldn’t have the heart to do is waking her up. It just becomes a habit, whenever she’s sleeping, he would stay beside her and do his stuff until she has awakened from her dreamland. He’s protecting her like what a brother would do to his sister.

Luhan once has a sister, but she has passed away at the age of twelve. A few months after she passes away, Anne has moves into the house above them, which is previously owned by his uncle and both of him and his sister always spend time playing in there. At some point, Anne is like a replacement of his sister. Anne likes reading, and able to doze off just at everywhere but importantly, Anne loves cats.

Four years ago, there’s an incident happened in Marvel’s household, in which their cats have escaped from the house. Three dozens of the cats are wandering around the building and many of them couldn’t survive long and died. Those cats have special bells tagged around their neck, so it has caused quite a stir in their neighbourhood as the cats are making noises day and night with their ringing bells. A few days after that there are no longer ringing sounds heard within the area; some said that the cats are already eaten by dogs and some might wander at the next building up front. One afternoon, when Luhan was back from the school, he caught up with very amusing situation. He’s sure of hearing the bells ringing accompanied with shallow meowing, so he’s tempted to follow it and eventually it led him to the alleyway behind their building.

“I’ll take these off from you, kitty,”

Anne is there with several cats; she’s taking off the bells from their neck and feed them afterwards.

“Your master must’ve liked you very much. This bell is very unique; it even has every name of you guys. Wow.”

Luhan is watching from afar, but he’s able to hear her perfectly. She has a warm side of her that she only portrays it with the cats. 

“I’m so lonely these days. Aunty is not going back for another one week. I wish I could take all of you guys with me, but Marvel wouldn’t like it, ya know. She's afraid of you guys, but well it’s not you guys fault anyway...”

Luhan is enjoying himself watching as she interacts with the cats. She’s there for them, feeding them, talking with them and befriending them. It’s during that moment that he has realized that his girl must’ve been so lonely by herself, so starting from that day; he’d purpos