Baekhyun waits patiently outside the Art studio for Lay to come out. And when the bell finally rings, he spots Lay, but he also sees someone else. Jihae. He quickly recedes back to a corner, safely hiding himself from her line of sight.

Tuning in to his train of thoughts, he listens to their conversation.

“Why are you in so many of my classes? First Chemistry, then Math and now even Art?” Jihae says.

“It must be fate then.” Lay replies.

But Baekhyun knows that none of that is fate. He had specially arranged Lay’s subjects in such a way that it will nicely coincide with hers, hence the chances of them being in the same class is almost a hundred percent.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Lay says.

He doesn’t know why, but a surge of anger electrifies his veins when he hears Lay’s words. Jihae’s reply does little to calm him down.

“Yea okay, it was nice meeting you.”

Baekhyun comes out from his hiding spot to steal a glance of Jihae walking away. Calm down, he tells himself. The last thing he wants is to have Lay see him in such a state.  

“Hi.” Lay says as he nears Baekhyun. “You were eavesdropping again?” He raises a brow.

“I-I…” His eyes dart around.

“Nah its fine. That’s the reason why you brought me here anyway. Since you can’t read her mind, you need to use mine as a medium to check on hers right?” Lay’s words lack any hint of accusation.

“Yea.” As cunning and selfish as it may sound, it is the truth. Baekhyun is indeed using Lay for his own agenda. “You don’t have to do this you know, I’m not forcing you.” Baekhyun adds on.

“I know.” Lay smiles as he begins walking, headed for the direction of the school’s gate.

“I’m curious,” Baekhyun pauses, then says, “Why did you agree on helping me?”

“You really want to know?”

“Yea.”

“Well it's the only way of repaying you after what you did for me.” Lay says with a smile.

“But that was nothing.”

“You saved my life Baekhyun, and surely my life means more than nothing?”

“You know I don’t mean it that way…” Baekhyun’s hands unknowingly reaches for the back of his neck in awkwardness.

“Yea I do.” Lay lets out a slight giggle, livening the mood completely. Baekhyun can’t help but return the smile, grateful for having someone he can rely on. Because if tables are turned, he is almost certain he’d never give up his entire life just to do a favour for someone else.

Back at his house, Baekhyun slumps into his bed without even bothering to change out of his uniform. Throwing his bag to the floor recklessly, he closes his eyes shut and takes this time to process what has happened today.

“It’s been a long day.” He mumbles aloud.

“Indeed.” A voice echoes from the door. “May I come in?”

Baekhyun tilts his head up to find Lay standing at the entrance. “Sure.” He replies. Lay comfortably makes his way into Baekhyun’s room and takes a sit on his sofa. A blanket of silence overwhelms the atmosphere until Lay finally starts the conversation.

“Jihae…” He mumbles aloud.

Baekhyun shoots upright as though his ears are exceptionally sensitive to her name.

“She’s an interesting girl isn’t she?” Lay continues.

Baekhyun fists automatically roll into a ball as he clings tightly.

“Don’t get angry, I don’t mean it in a bad way or anything.” Baekhyun feels his hands releasing their tension as he allows himself some space to cool down.

“I can tell you’re mad at me, but I’m unsure why.” Lay adds on as he tilts his head away from Baekhyun, but his eyes quickly close in on his after a few seconds. “Care to tell me why?”

“I don’t know it myself.” Baekhyun gives an honest answer. He doesn’t know why every time mentions Jihae, he gets all worked up and agitated, as if he is some sort of threat. He knows better than anyone that Lay would never have any ill intentions, but yet he can’t help but feel uneasy seeing them together, or even thinking about them together.

“You’re jealous.”

Baekhyun remains silent even though his heart wants to protest. But his brain knows fully well that Lay is hundred percent spot on. He is indeed jealous. Of what exactly? He doesn’t know and he doesn’t intend on finding out.

•••••

She can’t stop thinking about him. Lay.

Questions, recollections, thoughts, everything is pouring in her mind, taking away her good night’s rest. She turns to lean on her right side, hoping that that will allow her to fall asleep faster but it doesn’t. It must be the caffeine. She thinks as she pulls herself upright and leans against the wall.  

“Lay…” His name unknowingly slips out from . She recalls what happened during Math class.

“Students, please take out your calculators.” The teacher said.

Jihae rummaged through her bag, desperately trying to find the black object with white buttons.

“I remember putting it in here last night somewhere…”She mumbled to herself as she continued digging further, but to no avail.

She bit her lips and was almost about to raise her hand to inform the teacher when suddenly, a calculator appears on the right hand corner of her table.

“You can use mine.” Lay’s voice startled her for a moment.

“Oh you have an extra?”

But Lay didn’t reply but just smiled at her. She had thought silence meant a ‘yes’, but it wasn’t the case.

“Where is your calculator boy?” The teacher asked when he passed by Lay’s desk.

“I forgot to bring it today.”

“This is not the attitude I am expecting from you, but since it’s your first day here, I’ll close one eye. I do not want to see this happening again is that clear?” The teacher hissed.

“Yes sir.” Lay replied.

“Erm, Mr Lee?” Jihae called out to him. “Actually I—” She had wanted to divulge the truth because she didn’t like being the culprit that caused others to be maligned. But she noticed Lay staring at her, his eyes piercing at her as he mouthed the word ‘no’.

“Yes?” The teacher was getting a little frustrated.

“Oh erm nothing.” Jihae replied.

After the teacher walked away, Jihae immediately asked, “Why did you do that?”

She had expected Lay to probably come up with some ingenious self-centred answer like ‘because I’m nice’ or ‘you owe me a favour now’. But it wasn’t the case at all.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Lay said.

The scene keeps replaying in Jihae’s head and up till now, she still can’t understand why he would do such a thing and give such a weird answer. Everything about that boy was absurd and even though the incident might have been an innocent act of graciousness, Jihae still can’t let it go.

And suddenly a whole new set of questions start penetrating her mind. Who is he? Where did he come from?

In fact both her questions already have their answer. He is Lay and he came from China. Yet, Jihae feels as though none of them have been really answered. She’ll just have to look for the answers herself tomorrow.