Victoria looks around the cafeteria and her eyes land on Tao. Then they drift to the girl next to him and her mood sours. Jina is clinging to his arm like it's a lifeline, batting her eyes as if there's sand in them, she can also hear her high pitched voice from where she is in the room. She can't understand what she's saying but it's already getting on her nerves. She's never been the jealous type really but now she is.

"Victoria-Unni." Krystal taps her arm. Victoria looks where the girl is pointing and sighs when she sees Alex. 

"What does he want this time?" She almost scowls. She schools her features into her usual mask.

"Tori, what's wrong?" He asks with a concerned look. 

"My name is Victoria, it would be nice if you could remember that." She says lounging back in her chair, "Rather than calling me some nickname that's similar to your girlfriend's name." 

"Couldn't we just start again?" 

"Start what again?" Sulli glares at him.

"This is something that Victoria and I should–" 

"Not exactly, they're my best friends and we know what you want." Victoria says.

"I want you back." He says with a sincerity that she knows is fake but still feels a pang of longing in her heart.

"And you want to be the most popular boy in the school again, then you'll dump Victoria and get together with Jina. After that you'll be known as a bad boy and have been with the same girl twice even after lying to her." Krystal says. They watch Alex pause wondering what to say to that.  

"Well we all know that's the case so you have no more business here. My answer is no by the way and I have no need to pretend that it's a yes. You can leave now." Victoria makes a small shooing gesture before turning away from him. He does leave and she feels a tear roll down her cheek. Why can't he just leave her be? Luna puts an arm around her shoulders.

Tao shakes Jina's hand off him and looks around the room. He sees Alex walking away from Victoria's table and said person is staring at the table with glassy eyes. Luna has an arm around her and she and the group are talking. His fist clenches, after rejecting her he doesn't want to see that broken sadness in Victoria's face. It twists his heart looking at it now. 

He looks at the other guys who nod at him, "Let's go greet them." Kris puts on a smile. They get up and Tao doesn't spare Jina another look. He sees Victoria glance up before she wipes her face and puts on a casual mask with a light smile. It's quite convincing but he can find the flaw in her eyes because he's seen them broken. Any person who hasn't seen her like that would be fooled easily. In the past he would have been one of those people.

"Hey there." Krystal smiles at them. They exchange hellos and the guys sit down with them. Tao looks at Victoria trying to catch her eye but she’s watching Luna tell a story.

When can he ask the other girls about Victoria’s history with Alex? Certainly not while she’s still there. If he’s understood her enough, she might leave soon to study and just be alone. It’s almost expected of her since her ex is back. He’d be doing the same except that he needs to get information to figure out whether or not he should punch Alex in the face.

Victoria sees Alex out of the corner of her eye. She turns her head to see that he’s talking with Jina in a corner. They’re gesturing over to their table every now and then making her smirk a bit. So they are planning something, it’s a good thing Krystal made sure to confirm it by saying it outright. She yawns and then realizes that she needs to get some study time in. She feels a burning gaze on her and turns her head. Tao is staring at her but it’s not a glare. She looks away quickly feeling blood rush to her cheeks.

“I need to study for the test we’ve got coming soon, see you.” She stands and walks to the exit. Tao watches her go. He feels a bit embarrassed that she had caught him staring at her but the one bit of eye contact they had was nice. He’s taken from his thoughts when he sees Alex grab her wrist. His jaw tightens but he feels a small burst of smugness when she pulls away roughly and almost stomps out the cafeteria. He looks to the rest of the group who were also looking at the scene. The guys are confused and the girls concerned.

“I’ve got a question.” Tao says. They look at him slightly surprised that he’s actually talking.

“What is it?” Sulli asks.

“What is Victoria’s history with Alex? In return I’ll tell you about my ex-girlfriend and I.” The girls exchange a look and the guys are staring at him stunned.

“Well, Alex and Victoria got together a while ago. They had been a really cute couple and she was in love with him.” Krystal starts, “Then one day, I think it was April 1^st. He broke up with her telling her that the whole relationship was fake. He had been dared by Jina and her crew to become Victoria’s boyfriend for two months and then he’d be able to become Jina’s boyfriend. Jina kissed him right in front of Victoria and she broke down. She started dating boys because they distracted her and she wanted to find the right guy. She was getting better and some boys lasted longer than most,” she glances at Chen for a moment who has a bit of sadness in his eyes hearing her story.

Tao sighs, he feels really bad for Victoria getting fooled like that, “Well, my ex-girlfriend is Jina. We were together for quite some time and I did almost everything for her. Then coming up to April 1^st she started acting distant towards me. Her crew were sometimes sniggering and pointing at me while they did. I had been walking down the hall when I saw the whole scene with Victoria and Alex but at the time I didn’t know who Victoria or Alex was. Then I saw Jina come in and I was confused until she kissed Alex. I saw that I was really only a temporary boyfriend. Later that day at lunch she came up to me and said she was going to be an exchange student in America with some others. Alex was probably one of them. I called her out on the scene that she had made with Victoria and Alex and broke up with her then.”

“It’s amazing how you two were affected by the same people but didn’t even know it. Well, one thing I take from the situation is that I hate the two.” Krystal glares at them.

“Me too.” Chen says.

“What we think is happening is that they’re now back but we,” Luna gestures to the lot of them, “Have become the most popular in this school. Mostly you and Victoria and those two probably want to get back together with you. Then they’ll break up with you two again and become a couple themselves popular again.”

“I heard them talking so that is almost definitely the case.” Tao nods.

“She’s been really beaten up about the whole thing and Alex has opened up an old wound. Don’t tell her I said this but, she’s extremely fragile now and Alex is playing with her.” Sulli says.

“Fragile how?” Chen asks.

“She’s close to tears most of the time and sometimes her temper is on the edge too.” She replies. Tao sighs running a hand through his hair. He’s really considering punching Alex in the face now, for Victoria much more than Jina because she suffered more than him.

Victoria rubs her eyes as she’s reading her notes. It’s a relief Amber showed her how to properly organize her notes because before that…she could barely make sense of them.

She hears raised voices from the hallway, disturbing my peace and quiet, she grumbles inwardly. Her mood really has sunk since Alex returned, idiot, he’s even worse than Robot Panda. Well, Robot Panda was always better than him so… She rips herself away from the conflicting thoughts about Tao and Alex to focus on the voices.

“I told you I'm not interested in you anymore. Just leave me alone!” It’s a guy shouting. His voice sounds familiar but it’s full of anger making the guy almost a stranger to her.

“But oppa~ I’ve changed really! I don’t like that guy anymore and I realized my mistake. I know you still love me, something like that can't just disappear.” The girl replies. It’s a really high-pitched voice.

“Try me.” The guy replies, “I also don’t believe that you don’t like Alex anymore, yes I know his name. I don’t care about how I still feel except for the fact that I like someone else.”

“Who is it?” She asks annoyed.

“The girl you had Alex set up for a terrible fall, I really wonder if you know her name.”

“Victoria? Are you serious?” Her voice is shrill, even more annoying this time.

“Of course I am, and I'm also serious about the fact that you, Jina, will never come back into my heart.”

Okay first, I am so incredibly sorry for not updating in ages. I just had so many projects on my mind and I can guarantee that a story will be coming. The sad thing is that with these new stories my ideas with other stories just shut down. Thank god not with this one but with other stories like Dangerous Love that I had to mark as complete because I didn't have any more ideas for it. I'll really try to keep updating when I can but what I cannot tell you is when they'll be published. There might be gaps inbetween publishes so I am really really sorry about that in both advance and just for what the stories published on here have lacked in updates. It's the other projects I have going on and then the amount of school work I've had in the past. 

Now with this story, I can tell you that Taotoria's relationship will be taking quite the leap in the next chapters.

Once again I'm really sorry about the lack of updates and I hope you haven't given up on me.