There’s something about Lee Hi that makes Sehun feel utterly uncomfortable.

He noticed her grasp on him the first time he had witnessed her perform at one of the school talent shows. She was just a freshman that time. He thought it was quite hilarious for her, a professional singer, to partake in these stupid festivities. Only losers who wanted a second of fame would do such a thing. And Hayi signing up for them made her nothing less in his mind. He would always find himself dumbfounded at how she willingly performed a medley of songs for the fellow students without a fee. She was a singer just like himself who would get paid thousands for such events. Maybe that’s where he found them to be different. He was ‘smarter’ in that way. But despite how much trash he talked about it, he secretly enjoyed everything about the talent shows.

No one would know his secret.

It was that first talent show where she was in her seventh song when midway through the last adlib, Hayi’s voice quivered and fell into a flat note. It was one  in which Sehun had easily pin pointed. But unlike him, the other students noticed nothing but perfection as usual. They neither took in the single tear that spilled from the girl’s eye, that glossed down her cheek for a single second before she professionally wiped it in a swift motion. The female singer dragged on the last note effortlessly, longer, more powerful than ever wherein her hand along the mic shook.

Sehun’s once “disinterested” in the whole thing had become attentive--more than he’d ever expect to be. And at the end, when the howls of the crowd erupted, he remained stoic.

However, it wasn’t because he thought of nothing, but because for an absolute small interval of time, he had witnessed the girl before him, shrivel up. This cape of confidence that Lee Hi had always draped over herself was snatched away and there she now was foiled in defeat.

He wanted nothing more than to cover her. To let her know it’s okay.

Lee Hi bowed with a smile gingerly placed on her lips. It was a fake smile. One that Sehun knew too well because as a fellow idol, he often used it. While others clapped furiously with appreciation, the tall framed kid fell back down into his chair, immersed in watching the girl walk ever so slowly off the stage.

The feeling that burned at the pit of his stomach at that particular moment would always bother the boy. Sehun didn’t know what it was about her, but every damn time she stood in front of him performing then on, he couldn’t help but hold his breath.

And he hated this feeling because he had no damn clue what it meant.



 

Sehun and a group of his friends would spend majority of their time playing a game of date or pass during lunch breaks. It was a jackass game, he would admit, but they meant no harm from it. Besides, imagining a lifestyle of easily dating people was fun for him since being a kpop idol forbid such actions. Being in a group as popular as EXO didn’t help either.

Pass

Pass

Pass

Pass

Sehun’s friends were growing incredibly annoyed by the pop star's pickiness, even questioning if he actually liked girls or not. But it wasn’t his fault. He just had very particular set of traits that he found attractive in the opposite . Sadly, barely anyone fit his description. She needed to be tall, slender, with legs just as lean as her stomach, hair that was neither too straight or curly that would fall right beneath their shoulderblades, a smile that would form a perfect U with eyes that glimmered no matter what time of day.

“So I guess Lee Hi is a pass too huh?” someone asked.

His group of friends snickered in response. To them it was an obvious answer.

The EXO member turned to the direction that his buds had steered to. The petite singer had entered the room. She was the complete opposite of his type and yet he couldn’t look away.

She could barely grab a box of banana milk from the top shelf of the fridge while tippy toeing and she would always remember to grab a cookie. She constantly had her hair messily tied low. And she barely smiled, maybe because there was no one to smile to.

Hayi was somewhat of a loner. It wasn’t as if she had no friends. Because she did. She was quite popular even without the title of being an idol, people adored her no matter what. But what differentiated her from the others that had debut, was that she still chose to stay with herself. She liked it that way. She never intended to box people out, nor did she ever, but the small girl simply found comfort in her own skin. And there was something about that impenetrable stance of hers that made Sehun feel some sort of way.



 

There’s this secret club in SOPA that only idol students know of. It’s basically a club for them to gather and study together. Some used it as an outlet to get a little frisky with one another, to flirt until it actually stirs into a relationship. But that was only for those that had the balls to put their careers on the line to even try. Sehun never really went because honestly, his schedule wouldn’t quite allow to spare a few hours for such things. Besides, he wasn’t failing anything either. So these study group gathering things were somewhat tedious if anything.

Sehun did go once. He tagged alongside Daeun, one of his closest--if not the closest idol friend he had at SOPA. Unlike him, she was doing poorly at one or two subjects. She often would beg him for help, but the poor boy could barely understand what he was saying when he would try to explain. Daeun would eventually get frustrated with how things would go nowhere that she drifted off to others. Sehun would have dipped on out almost immediately if not for the stack of rentable action movies piled along one bookshelf. There’s something about action movies that always got Sehun hyped. Maybe he secretly wanted to be someone as badass as a heroine who could take down a crowd from slick shooting skills or the wrath of one’s first. He loved them all. He was a kid in the candy store looking over titles that he had already watched and those that he wanted to.

Back and forth he skimmed the movies, until a small shadow emerged from the other side. Sehun recognized the short stature and the low tied hair to be non other than Lee Hi’s. She carried with her a set of her own movies which she seemed to be checking out. Aside from the questionable My Little Pony, she had chosen a collective solid few that would gain Sehun’s approval from classics like Leon: The Professional to The Avengers. He was going to tell her that she had good taste, when the other ran off. The little one scurried away with a pile seemingly too big for her small arms to handle, but she was much stronger than she appeared, shifting them to one arm while prompting a halt to help a group of peers that called her way. It was Daeun’s table.

Sehun watched from the cracks of empty slots within the bookshelf. The way she eloquently drew up examples along the blank paper and the reaction she brought upon the others whose faces would instantly seem to comprehend. He’d see her place the ball point pen atop her ear while flipping through the textbook, eyes on a mission full of concentration that could not be broke. His feet dragged off, turning the corner of the bookshelf for a better view. She spoke with such a force that drew one into a realm with