The new year begins. Everyone but Donghae wants to have new beginnings.

“This year I’m going to start a new phase of my life. I’ll find a job and a girlfriend.”

“Hyukjae, you already have one.”

“Hyoyeon hates me now because I can’t recognize her each time I get drunk,” he responds with a pout.

Donghae sighs. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“You sound like you need therapy from a self-help speaker,” Kyuhyun comments. He types something into his computer and flips the screen so that it faces Donghae. The homepage of a famous self-help speaker is on the screen.

Hyukjae laughs and chokes on his burger. Siwon goes back to his coffee.

“You guys don’t understand. I’m in love, guys. I’m in real love. I’m in sweet, divine love.”

“You’re in love – the kind of love where the girl thinks you’re an autistic boy with a stutter.”

“It’s not my fault I get tongue-tied around her!”

“Sooner or later we will all graduate and you will never see her again because she will fly back to America and lead her Broadway life with a chihuahua and a hot Hollywood model as boyfriend-and-would-be-husband.”

The look of horror on Donghae’s face is priceless and Siwon wants to upload it to Twitter.

“So you better act fast and say something before she slips from your grasp like the air you’re trying to catch with your bare hands.”

“You’re scaring me, Kyu.”

“I was born to do that.”

“You guys are not helping.”

“Hey, Siwon and I set you guys up during the party!”

“Well, you guys only helped that one time.”

“You ingrate! You got to send her home!”

“I live next door!”

“She even kissed you on the cheek!”

“Okay, fine, you guys did help a lot.”

What Kyuhyun wants, what Kyuhyun gets.

“The rest is up to you, boy. Confess. It’s not that hard.”

=

During Science class Siwon finds another reason to talk to his lab partner. “Hey, Fany.”

“Yes?”

“You’re friends with Jessica, right?”

Stephanie almost spills the acid in the test tube. “Um, yeah, why?”

“Any way for us to meet again?”

She really spills it this time. “Oh my gosh.”

“Woah, you okay?” Siwon takes her hand and rinses it under the water.

Stephanie feels her heart pump a little too excitedly.

“Yeah, I am. Why do you want to meet Jessica again?”

“She seems nice. We just want to make friends with her.”

Her heart goes cold. “She’s nice, yeah. Wouldn’t be surprised if you guys like her.”

Siwon laughs. “One of us actually does. But you gotta keep it a secret.”

Stephanie is alarmed. “What?”

“It’s Donghae.”

“Oh. Oh. Donghae. Oh.” A sigh of relief comes from her, to Siwon’s obliviousness. “They’re neighbors, right?”

“Yeah. He has a mad crush on her and he doesn’t know how to confess. So we’re thinking we could get her to come to one of our gatherings and we’ll get them to talk or something. Break the ice.”

“Oh. Yeah, sure. No problem. Let me know when and I’ll bring her down.”

“Speaking of that, where does she study?”

“She’s in the international school a few streets down.”

“Wow. International school.”

“Yeah, she’s a full-fledged American.”

“So Donghae’s fallen for an American chick. Good taste, huh.”

“Very.”

=

Siwon is at lunch with Kyuhyun.

“So I kinda talked it out with Fany. She says Jessica will be down anytime.”

“Good, our plan’s working. But you gotta work it out with my schedule.”

“What schedule?”

“I’m tutoring the dwarf in mathematics. Turns out I didn’t notice her because we take different classes for like, every subject. And because she’s a little short.”

“Wow. Looks like you really struck gold.”

“She says she likes geeks, and she called me a hot geek, so yeah, pretty much.”

=

Jungsoo and Hyukjae are walking down the hallway when they see Kyuhyun and another dude fighting.

“You don’t have any proof that I broke your turtle case!”

“It’s called an aquarium! And you were the only one who knocked into me along this hallway!”

“I can use physics to prove to you that it might not have been me!”

“I don’t care! Pay up!”

Jungsoo and Hyukjae inch closer to see a turtle in the dude’s hands. They sigh and step in. “What’s the matter?”

“Tortoise boy accused me of breaking his tortoise aquarium. Now he’s demanding payment.” The genius rolls his eyes at the bespectacled ball of fury standing in front of him, motioning for Jungsoo and Hyukjae to do something, anything, to get rid of him.

“First of all, I have a name, and it’s not ‘tortoise boy’, it’s Jongwoon. Second of all, you’re in the wrong, so you have no right to act this rudely to me!”

The fight is about to escalate to a whole new level as Jongwoon and Kyuhyun ready up with their fighting gear and Jungsoo and Hyukjae can only look on. Siwon comes in to save the day, with Donghae trailing behind him.

“It’s Siwonman!” Hyukjae mimics the scream of a damsel in distress and drags Siwon into the situation. “Hey, bro, I just did a pun and called you Superman. Don’t I deserve a cookie?”

Siwon shoves him away and gets the lowdown on the issue from Jungsoo. He sighs and pats Kyuhyun on the shoulder, then drags him a few steps back.

“Jongwoon, right? How much does the turtle case… aquarium cost? I’ll pay you for the damages. And sorry for the inconvenience caused.”

Kyuhyun does a diva gasp and slaps Siwon up the head. “Dude! You don’t just go down without a fight!”

“I know. I went up gracefully. Now shut up and let me handle this.”

Jongwoon whips out a calculator from nowhere and does some math—Kyuhyun scoffs because he barely touched a calculator since elementary school days—and then he reports the cost to Siwon.

“Alright. Fifty bucks. Here you go. Once again, I apologize.”

Jongwoon smiles. “Thank you, Siwonman.”

“The name’s Siwon,” he corrects, grimacing at Hyukjae.

“I gotta say, you’re much better than the prickly nerd behind you.”

“Hey! Just because I wear glasses?”

“I wear glasses too!”

“Okay, stop, stop, please.”

Jongwoon concedes and bows his polite farewell to Siwon. Everyone claps at Siwon saving the day, with the sole exception of a still sour Kyuhyun.

“You guys better be glad I’m going on a date with Dwarfyeon tonight, or I’ll your souls out of all of you by daybreak.”

“Even the prickly nerd gets a date, and my own neighbor still doesn’t recognize me,” Donghae speaks up, finally.

Siwon and Kyuhyun share a look. “Don’t worry Donghae. Your chance will come. Soon.”

=

“So, Jessica, are you free next week?”

Some random song blares out from Jessica’s earpiece and though it’s an earpiece, Stephanie hears the song way too clearly. Someday Jessica will end up deaf and no one will be surprised, not even the dog from the other side of the world.

So out of goodwill, she frowns and rips the earpiece out of the girl’s ear, eliciting an ungrateful ‘tsk’ from an irritated Jessica.

“Nuh-uh, , you do not tsk me right now. I’ve been asking you the same question thrice and all you manage to answer is a few tunes you’re listening to or some random lyrics.”

“Are you on your period?”

“Are YOU on your period?”

“No.”

“Neither am I.”

“So what were you saying?”

Stephanie facepalms herself. If she could, her palm would go right through her face. “Are you free next week. Are you, or are you not. It’s a yes or no question.”

“Uh… I don’t know…”

“JESSICA.” Stephanie propels herself out of her seat, almost whipping her hand right into the manicurist’s face. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry.”

The manicurist gives a bitter smile before resuming her progress on Stephanie’s nails.

“Okay! Before you kill someone! Yes, yes, I’m free, or at least I should be…”

“YES, OR NO.”

“YES, YES I AM.”

“Good. Meet me at the pizza parlor opposite next week. Friday.”

“Why?”

“It’s a small gathering of friends. Taeyeon and Hyoyeon will be there too.”

“Oh. Sounds cool.”

“Yeah. It will be.”

=

“I managed to secure Jessica next Friday,” Stephanie tells Siwon.

Siwon grins and nods. “Thanks. Donghae would be thrilled.”

Stephanie feels herself being thrilled simply by seeing that glorious, glorious smile on Siwon’s face. She decides to hold onto the nearest locker so she wouldn’t spin and faint in a mess of feels.

“You’ll be joining us, right, Fany?”

“Yes, yes I will.”

“Awesome. I’ll see you around!” He waves and walks away.

Stephanie could only fight this hard not to squeal. She squeals into Hyoyeon, whose unlucky self had to cross paths with Stephanie right now.

“Woah, catch some air, lady. Did you see a bug?”

“No, I saw a silhouette of light…”

“Girl, we’re not in The Last Airbender. Get a grip on yourself. You’re losing it.”

“Can’t you just be happy for me!?”

“No, but we can both be happy for Taeyeon.”

“Why?”

“She’s making progress with the geek.”

“Geek—Kyuhyun?”

“Yeah, him.”

“How about you and Hyukjae?”

“Honestly, if we were on a smooth-sailing ship, I wouldn’t be here letting you squeal into me right now.”

=

Donghae goes home after school, taking light steps as he made his way into his house. He glances casually to the house beside his, and sees a figure sitting on the steps outside.

It’s definitely not Jessica because Jessica would never sit on steps. But it’s a girl alright.

“Hey,” Donghae greets tentatively, as he takes smaller steps to approach her. “Are you okay?”

“By ‘okay’ do you mean if I’m alive and well? If so, yeah, duh.”

“Actually I meant to ask why you were sitting outside the steps of my neighbor’s house, but that works too.”

“Your neighbor’s house? Oh, cool, then you must be my neighbor.”

“No, I mean, you’re outside my neighbor—Wait. Oh.” Donghae has always been a little slow. Today, he broke his own record. “This,” he points at Jessica’s house, “is your house?”

“Yeah. I live here. Or, well, lived here. But now I’m back.”

“You are Jessica’s…?”

“Daughter.”

The look on Donghae’s face was priceless.

“Wow, you really are stupid. I’m her sister, Krystal.” She sticks out a hand.

Donghae shakes it, warily so. “Hi, I’m Donghae.”

After a moment or two, he asks a question. “Why are you outside?”

“Because I’m not inside?” Ba-dum-ching.

“Uh… I mean…”

Krystal scoffs. “No one’s at home. I can’t go in.”

“Well it’s dangerous outside so…”

“Are you going to invite me into your house?”

“If you’d like you can come in but—“

“Then I’ll go.”