“So, our class representative would be Jiyong since he’s good at writing poetry –“ Before the class president can even end her speech, Yixing raises his hand causing everyone to be curious. Jiyeon raises her eyebrow, and looks at him. “What is it, Lay?”

Yixing awkwardly stands, wondering where he got the courage to raise his hand. He clears his throat, and looks at Jiyeon. “I would like to volunteer for that poetry thingy.” He finally says, as gasps are heard everywhere. They didn’t know that he is interested in something other than science stuff and Seohyun.

Jiyeon notices the awkward situation she is put in right now, and sighs. “Alright then. The competition starts at 3pm, in the St. Gregory Hall. Be sure to be there in time, and I’ll make sure that I’ll hand out the pull-out form to Mrs. Hong.”

Yixing nods at what Jiyeon said, and returns to sitting back on his chair. He receives weird stares especially from his circle of friends, but he just shrugs it off. They are mostly curious on what pushed Yixing to do that, since they know that he isn’t really a man of words.

As the bell rings, Joongki rushes off his seat as he goes to Yixing. Their friends soon followed after, and there is a silence before he finally breaks the ice. “Dude, I didn’t know that you’re into poetry and !” He exclaims. “You should really stop giving us a shock with your weird choices of academic stuff, man.”

He lets a chuckle escape from his lips, as he looks at his friends. He rolls his eyes and stands up, as he leads them towards the school cafeteria. “I joined it mainly to impress Seohyun, okay. I am planning to tell her this lunch so I hope none of you would get in the way.”

“We aren’t even close to your chick, Lay.” Sehun rolls his eyes at his friend’s oveprotectiveness, as Yixing punches his arm lightly.

Well, he actually used Seohyun as a part of his excuse. Another thing on why he joined is that he rarely sees Yoona these days because she’s been busy with the committee stuff, and he atleast wants to say hi to her in the most normal way possible. And all he thinks is that he should join a contest so people will not start rumors just like what they did last time.

“Kyungsoo man, why didn’t I see you during the first two subjects?” Yixing averts the topic, and looks at his friend who is busy picking a meal from the cafeteria menu. “Did you have a soccer practice again?”

Kyungsoo shakes his head, as he takes out his wallet. “Nah, Yoona needed some help while handling the first event so I helped her.” He shrugs and is about to go order when he notices the weird looks he gets from his friends. “Uh, what’s wrong?”

Sehun squints his eyes, as he moves forward to face the latter. “Calling Yoona-ssi with no honorifics, huh.” He smells something fishy from the way Kyungsoo refers to her with so much familiarity, a thing that he rarely does to everyone.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, and smacks Sehun’s forehead using his palm. “I was a copyreader, remember?” His friends seem to be not convinced at his statement, and he grins sheepishly. “Our families are close too, okay? I sometimes come over to her house for family dinners and vice versa.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Yixing quietly says, but his friends are close enough to hear it. “I mean, you could have told me so she could have introduced me to Seohyun earlier! You know, having mutuals and such.” He shrugs, and crosses his arms.

“Didn’t feel the need to.” Kyungsoo shrugs, and crosses his arms as well. Joongki gives him the teasing look, and he chuckles.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you two are suddenly engaged due to family matters.” He jokingly says, as he puts an around his shoulders. “We’re going to be the groomsmen, alright. But I’d be delighted to be your best man.” He playfully winks, earning a smack on the arm from the latter.

“I wouldn’t mind, though.” He smirks and turns his back to order, and his friends ran after him to interrogate him some more. He decides to stay back because he promised that he’ll eat lunch with Seohyun later.

Somehow, he still ponders over the words his friend left. Is he really interested in Yoona?

*

Yixing sits across the latter, as they both exchange some words as they eat. It has been quite a habit for them to eat during lunch, sometimes with her friends and sometimes with his’. Most of the times they are alone, which earned some glances from everyone who’s curious on what their relationship really is.

“I’m going to join the poetry-writing contest later.” He says as he finishes his meal and when looks up to see Seohyun’s expression, he is delighted. This is what he is expecting for. “I’d be more than motivated if I hear a good luck from you.”

Seohyun’s cheeks flushed into crimson red as she hears the teasing tone in his voice. “Alright. Good luck, Yixing. I hope you’ll not get beaten by our class’ very own Namjoon.” She tugs her lips into a smirk, as she sees the smile disappear from his face. She then laughs lightly, as Yixing shyly brushes his hair.

“I didn’t know that everyone takes this competition seriously!” He complains. “I swear, I’m going down.”

Seohyun puts her hand on top of his, as she gives him a small smile. “I know you’ll do fine, Lay. I trust in you.” Her encouragement suddenly makes him feel more than inspired to kick his opponents’ asses, and he finally brings back his proud grin. “That’s the Lay I know!”

“I owe you a date after school.” He playfully winks at her, and she again bursts into another peal of laughter. When the bell rings signaling that there’s less than two minutes before their afternoon classes start, Yixing walks her to her room and bids goodbye and walks on his own.

*

“Please gather everyone up. We need to start at exactly 3:10 pm.” She tells Yura and the younger obeys, as she signals everyone to enter the hall. The students sit on the chairs and patiently wait for the host to stand on stage and officially start the competition.

Yixing glances around and sees people who are famous in writing great pieces. He spots Hoseok from class C, the junior Sunny who’s said to be very great in composing song lyrics, and the freshman Tzuyu. He then looks around to search for the doe-eyed girl, and successfully notices her standing on the stage.

Yoona smiles as she holds the microphone, and looks at the participants. She is glad to see some of her staff members and when she gazes at a particular corner, she is more than shocked to witness that Yixing actually joined. She gives him a small smile and clears , as she starts her short speech.

“You are all here to participate in the annual poem writing competition, and I am more than pleased to see familiar faces here. Do not disappoint me.” She says in monotone voice, which causes everyone to be tensed. Even Yixing feels the authority Yoona holds right at that moment, and he suddenly had second thoughts of joining.

Seeing everyone’s reactions, Yoona then lets out a soft chuckle. “I was kidding.” The participants sigh in relief. “Anyway, I would not hold this any longer. I wish you all the best!” She says as she turns her back to exit the stage. The projector soon displays the prompt they are going to use and the rules and regulations of the competition.

As soon as everyone starts writing, Yoona stands in the corner to observe the contestants. All of them are focused on what they are doing, and she is happy to see that some people share the passion as hers. She has done a lot of poetries and sends them secretly to the daily bulletin, some of them making it to the paper.

“I didn’t know that Lay-ssi is interested in joining these kinds of contests.” She turns to glance at Jonghyun who is standing beside her. “I thought all he did was to impress everyone with his knowledge in science and charm girls.” He snickers, causing Yoona to laugh quietly.

“You sound so butthurt, Jjong.” She teases the latter. “Just because you are behind him in the rankings in Science doesn’t mean that he can’t do anything other than that.” She shrugs, and turns to look at everyone again.

The competition ends soon after, and they didn’t have a hard time choosing the winners. Expectedly, 4-A’s Namjoon wins, as Sunny follows right after him. Unfortunately, Yixing didn’t make it to the top three but is more than impressed that he can really write.

She is on her way back to their classroom to collect her bag, when she sees Yixing standing outside. Thinking that he’s probably waiting for Seohyun, she ignores him and enters the classroom. Her eyebrows furrow after seeing that her friend isn’t around, so she wonders why he is still waiting there.

“Did I win?” Yoona takes a step back, as she looks at Yixing with a shocked expression. Knowing that he probably startled Yoona, he chuckles. “Calm down, it’s just me. I guessed it would be better to ask one of the organizers personally about the results instead of waiting until tomorrow.”

Yoona rolls her eyes and walks, as Yixing follows behind. “You didn’t win, of course. Your opponents are hella good.” She chuckles, teasing Yixing. This time, he walks beside her with an annoyed expression.

“I’m sorry that I am not as good as them.” He sarcastically says. “Besides, I guessed it would be nice for me to join a competition that is definitely out of my league once in awhile.” He shrugs.

Yoona nods and is more than amazed that Yixing is actually open to trying out new things. “Well, not everyone gets it in their first try anyway.” She tilts her head to look at him, and smiles. “Besides, your choice of words isn’t that bad. It’s just that your competitors are better.”

He appreciates the concern behind her voice and comes up with a crazy idea. “Why don’t you try teaching me then, poet Yoona?” He grins widely at her, and looks at her bewildered face.

“Are you serious?” Not in a million years did she imagine teaching the great Yixing. He has always been so mighty and she sees him as a proud person, not wanting any help from anyone especially her.

“Would I be asking for help if I wasn’t?” He means it. He suddenly took interest into writing after trying it out, and wants to learn more about it knowing that it can be helpful in the future too.

“It would be boring.”

“Now with me on it.”

She snickers, and rolls her eyes before nodding. “Fine then.”