Carefully I watched Skyler’s face hoping for some kind of reaction from him.  We had just finished dinner and I finally told him about my plane trip.  Usually I prided myself in being able to tell what he was thinking but this time I wasn’t sure if he was jealous or he just wanted to smack me.  After what seemed like ages he pouted, huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you would overreact like you did just now.”  I glanced over at the spilled tray and the still shocked waiter who was now cleaning it up.  Though Skyler and I had apologized profusely I was certain we wouldn’t be allowed back in this restaurant for a while if another slip up occurred. 

“I overreacted because you didn’t tell me!”  Huffing again he stood and walked quickly towards the counter and though I followed at a safe distance I could still hear him grumbling about how unfair and stupid it was. 

“You still would have freaked out.  I mean I go shopping without you once and you almost threw all the clothes out of my closet.”  I reminded him with a small smile.  The memory was still fresh; he had gotten so upset that I used someone else as my fashion consultant that he didn’t talk to me for the rest of the day after throwing a tantrum.  Loved him to pieces but sometimes that boy could be crazy.

After he paid he turned and pointed an accusing finger at me, “That’s completely different that’s your appearance we’re talking about this is about relationships with other people.  You have to tell me or it’s like breaking the best friend code of honor.”

Honestly I had to resist laughing once again with how serious his face was.  He was always preaching about a best friend honor code that had to be followed. Apparently some things were just not acceptable to do as best friends.  Like go shopping alone or not having matching pajamas.  With a small sigh I looped arms with him, “Come on just this once Sky.  I’ve been a good best friend right?”  He nodded, “And it’s not like I told anyone else you’re the first person to know.”

This seemed to appease him a little as we walked back to campus.  “I’m the first? Not even Annabelle knows?” 

“Not even Annabelle.”  All the anger disappeared from his eyes and I couldn’t help but smile at his reaction.  He was constantly competing in a friendly way with Annabelle and anytime I told him something first, which was nine times out of ten, all was forgiven. 

“Okay you’re forgiven but you’re still coming with me to the dance studio after class since you won’t be able to use the recording studio until next week.”  When he mentioned that I couldn’t help but frown a little.  It wasn’t like I didn’t enjoy spending time with Skyler but I wanted to go into the studio and work alone.  My mentor however didn’t trust me yet and wanted to go through everything first before I was left alone with work.  I hated it. 

Waving him off carelessly I nodded, “Yeah sure I figured you would make me come anyway even if I didn’t want to.”

“You’re darn right.”  We finally made it back to campus where the majority of the students were standing in the courtyard or getting ready to leave.  One of the great things about night classes was that there were less people but it came with the tradeoff that you didn’t get out of class until late and you’re exhausted by the time it was over.  Honestly I wasn’t sure how I was going to juggle Lyric Training and Ear Training, Chamber Music Literature class, and my private lessons along with this internship.  All my time had disappeared and I hadn’t even stepped into my second private lesson for the semester.  Shoot me now.  “Oh come on stop with the face you.  You’re going to give yourself frown lines.  You’ve got me to help you out and besides it’s not like you know who is going to be a distraction.”

I could tell that Skyler was annoyed just talking about him.  We were fighting once again and he hadn’t even bothered to reply to any of the messages I sent him today.  He’d probably use the classic ‘oh you know my phone ’ line.  I couldn’t bring myself to care right now.  “Yeah, yeah, go to the studio you.  I’m pretty sure that Kibum is already annoyed that I’m not ten minutes early to help him with his homework.”

“Aish I swear it’s like you’re his or something.”

“Hey he’s got connections.”

“Oh my god I love you so much right now.  Girl you’re like my idol.”  Laughing, we high fived each other, bumped our fists, slapped both of our hands together and snapped our fingers.  While our handshake was odd both of us felt weird whenever we parted without it.

“I know.” Flipping my hair over my shoulder we fell into another round of laughter, seriously I don’t know what I would do without him.  “I’ll see you later my dear husband.”

“I’ll meet you at the fountain at eleven, don’t be late missy!”  Not so gently he pushed me towards my class before running in the other direction to the dance room.  I could already hear his class yelling at him for being almost late.  Adjusting my bag and pulling out my lyrics folder I headed my class humming Yellow Submarine.  I got through the song twice before I reached class only to find that lovely note on the door stating it was cancelled. 

“Well there goes my Chamber Music Literature class too.”  Sometimes I really hated having the same teacher for two classes.  Groaning in frustration I kicked the door, glaring at that little sheet of paper where the class had already scrawled their names.  “They could have freaking told me!  Kibum you’re getting an earful from me!”  Pulling out my phone I was about to call Kibum only to notice the little message icon.  And of course it ended up being a message from Kibum.  “Well blah what the heck am I going to do for two hours?”  Come on Crawford this is what you thrive on, just walk around until you think up something to do. 

Eventually I decided on going to the dining hall to see if Ben was working.  There was no way he was going to be able to avoid me forever.  You would think he would learn that after dating for nearly three years but I guess some boys never learn.  Humming once again I headed to the dining hall and I wasn’t too surprised to find most of the students had left already.  But I could have cared less about them.  Waving to a few I knew I headed straight for the kitchen despite a bust boy’s protest and found Ben on his break. 

I wasn’t sure what made me angrier, the fact he was on break and didn’t have the decency to call or text me or the fact that when he saw me he turned and headed towards the other side of the kitchen.  “Ben!”  Shooting forward I grabbed his wrist, trying to pull him back.  “You could at least let me know you’re alive.  I don’t even know why you’re mad at me in the first place you’re the one that brought me to hang out with your ‘boys’ in the first place.”  As always I spoke to him in English, not just because we were in public but he, for some reason, hated using Korean around me.

He turned and narrowed his eyes in annoyance.  “You didn’t have to embarrass me like that.”

Rolling my eyes I was pulled along a bit as he tried to get a less noticed part of the kitchen.  The big baby was always worried about his appearances and how others viewed his personality.  Sometimes it really got on my nerves.  “Oh please I didn’t do anything.”

He stopped in the corner and tried to tug his wrist out of my grasp.  Good luck with that I know the second I let go you’re just going to shut me out again.  Not this time sir.  “They’re still cracking jokes about it.”

“Well then be a big boy and it up that’s what friends do I don’t see why this is a big deal.”

“It just is okay!  You know I hate when you embarrass me like that.”

“Oh?  So I embarrass you a lot do I?”  When he didn’t speak right away I let his wrist go I honestly felt like I had just been slapped in the face.  “Even after all this time?  Thanks Ben.”  Turing swiftly I headed out of the kitchen and started to pull out my phone to text my tutor if he wanted to do lessons early tonight, only to have Ben grab my arm.

“Come on baby you know I didn’t mean it like that.”

Trying to be strong around him for once I yanked my arm from his grasp and stomped out of the dining hall.  Well that certainly didn’t go as I had expected, sometimes I really wish he would learn to argue without bringing me down maybe then we wouldn’t argue so much.  I walked around for about half an hour to cool off before calling Jae-Sun.

“Let me guess class got cancelled or Ben really pissed you off and you wanna call it an early night.”

Laughing lightly I nodded, forgetting for a moment he couldn’t see me. “How do you know me so well?”

“I’ve been your tutor for three years.  You catch on to a few things.”

Honestly I forgot how long I had known him sometimes.  Since we only met three times a week it seemed like less time than that.  Though my freshman year we did meet a lot outside of class to try and grow more comfortable with each other.  “So are you busy then?”

There was a bit of shuffling on his end which I assumed to be some papers and he was either grading some papers or he was currently working on a song.  “Nah I’m actually in the music room already we can do it there if you’re fine with that.”

Turning to my left I picked up the pace a bit and nearly nodded again.  I really need to get out of that habit.  “Yeah sure I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Great.  Do you have that song we were working on last week?”

“Hold on,” I pulled out my bag and checked one of my three binders, “yeah I’ve got it thanks again for letting me do this early today oppa.”  I was honestly surprised that he wasn’t doing anything else.  Usually he had another person to tutor or he was busy revising lyrics or grading papers for the classes he taught outside of the college.  Maybe he shoved most of them off onto his new assistant?

“No problem I’d like to call it an early night as well I’ve got myself a date tonight.”

Stopping for a second in shock I nearly jumped with excitement.  Jae-Sun hadn’t managed to have time for a date in what seemed like forever when he really deserved it.  Or maybe I was just biased because I had a huge crush on him in my first year?  That was probably it but either way, I couldn’t help but be excited and I knew I would bother him about it the entire time we were working.  “Oh really now?  Who’s the lucky lady?  Isn’t it a bit late though for a date?”

“She’s a doctor.”

“Oh and did you pick her up when you went for your check up?”  It was mean of me but I couldn’t help but laugh as I imagined his annoyed face.  Honestly though, I was excited for him but I loved using my new found ability to without getting in trouble.

“I am so not telling you.”

“But come on that’s not fair you can’t tease me like this!”

“See you soon.”

“Jerk.”  Despite my grumbling I couldn’t help but smile.  He deserved to have the doctor girl, whoever she was.  Well as long as she was nice to my teacher, if not I’d have to attempt to kill someone.  Just before I walked in my phone vibrated again.  Glancing at the caller ID I grimaced to see Ben’s name and refused to pick up the phone.  But when he left a voicemail I motioned for Jae-Sun to give me a second.  I’m sorry baby you know I didn’t mean it like that.  I know you’re probably with Jae-Sun right now and you’re going out with Skyler afterwards.  But please call me I’ll take you out tomorrow I promise.  And just like that I gave in again.  I still had yet to decide if my continual giving in was a bad thing or not.  But in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but wonder.  Did he even care about my internship?