The weekend comes to its finale with the start of a new week. It is Monday, and students are pouring into the hallways through narrow entrances. Hyukjae and Siwon are walking together to class.

“So, how’s your weekend?” Hyukjae prompts.

“It was good,” Siwon mumbles, a little detached from the current situation.

“Are you sure?” Hyukjae tries again.

Siwon looks at Hyukjae. His Sunday was more or less a blur, because after church, all he could do was stay home, staring at his Chemistry book, and wondering why he dreamt of Stephanie.

And now, his Monday is going to start with Stephanie, right in Chemistry class.

Siwon grunts a bit, but Hyukjae doesn’t budge. Siwon frowns. “Fine, I’ll tell you. I dreamt of Fany two days ago. I dreamt that we were… Dating.”

“What happened in your dream?”

“We… We were holding hands… There was a sunset of some sort. And… Well…”

“Sounds like something exciting is coming up.”

Siwon sighs. “There was definite… Kissing.”

Hyukjae does a double-take. “Wh—what?” Pause, a beat. “Choi Siwon dreamt of himself making out with another girl?”

“Hyukjae, I don’t think that’s the issue here!”

“What else could be more pressing than you actually having a wet dream?”

“I did not have a wet dream, Hyukjae!”

“Fine, a sensual one.”

“It was not sensual! It was vivid!”

“Okay, suit yourself… Shakespeare!”

Siwon always feels like giving Hyukjae a good right hook to the cheek. He never does, because it is God’s will that he remains calm and composed—

“But, seriously—Siwon dreamt of kissing Fany. That is some groundbreaking news,” Hyukjae mutters to himself.

Scratch that, Siwon would give it to Hyukjae right now. “Hyuk! The point is… I dreamt of Fany. It was Fany. Stephanie. Fany. The girl Kyuhyun likes. The girl whose hopes I dashed the other day after the party.”

“What hopes?”

“Oh, no, you didn’t hear about this, did you.”

“Well, if I did, I’m pretty sure I’d show an inkling of knowing what the hell you’re driving on about.”

Siwon looks up to see a familiar face sprinting up to them. Donghae. “Hey, you guys! Good morning!”

That has to be the chirpiest guy he’s seen all day.

“Your weekend was smashing, huh,” Siwon deadpans.

Donghae gives a cheeky grin. “Smashing, to say the least. A rollercoaster that went all the way to the moon, to say the most.”

Siwon uses Donghae’s arrival as an intervention, and successfully gets Hyukjae’s mind off whatever he mentioned earlier on. “What happened?”

Donghae’s memory rewinds back.

=

“Here’s our answer, Donghae.”

The couple’s joined hands went tighter, and even Krystal was tuned in to watch the grand finale. Papa Jung and Mrs Jung stepped forward, expressions solemn, and put a hand on each of the lovebirds.

“Yes.”

Smiles spread on every face.

“We give our consent to the relationship. Because we have absolutely no right to stop our daughter from being happy—“

Papa Jung was unceremoniously cut off by an ecstatic Mrs Jung, who went forward to give Donghae a huge hug. “We love you, Donghae! You are the best thing that’s ever happened to us!”

Donghae gave a confused eyebrow jerk to Jessica, before turning back to Mrs Jung, who was still asphyxiating him. “Uh… Thank you?”

“No, thank YOU! You cannot imagine how happy I am right now!”

“I thought you were going to be angry…”

“Angry?” Mrs Jung let go of Donghae and gave him the world’s most incredulous eyeballing. “You must be nuts! You can only be the best thing that Jessica can date—“

Papa Jung cleared his throat. “Person, honey. Not a thing.”

“Whatever! Donghae, you have to be the sweetest thing we’ve ever known. If Jessica continued on with all those hot football guys at school, we don’t know what we could possibly do to her! It is absolutely amazing that her new boyfriend is you, and, oh, jolly gosh! If only you guys could get married—“

Papa Jung cleared his throat, again. “Honey! Haste makes waste!”

Donghae and Jessica went red in the face, and then giggled when they made eye contact.

Truthfully, Donghae wouldn’t mind at all.

Mrs Jung continued on in her rampant celebrations as Donghae and Jessica linked hands once again, behind their backs. Then they turned to Krystal.

Krystal grinned and shot winks at the two. After all, they did have to thank her for being their Cupid.

Papa Jung kept the rabid Mrs Jung in his grip, and turned to the young couple. “Basically, what we’d love to say is that… It is wonderful to know you, Donghae, are a man who isn’t afraid to fight for her. All the past scumbags she was with—“

“Dad! Language!”

“Oh, alright, fine! All the past idiots she’d taken a liking to were all interested in the fun and joy, and never the rough and tough. That is why our hearts really felt for the two of you when you came back to fight for her, with her. And that is why we have absolutely zero qualms with leaving her in your hands.”

Mrs Jung calmed down after Krystal fed her a mouthful of milk. She turned back. “And that’s why, with the frequency of our business trips getting higher, we would love it if you could take care of Jessica!”

Donghae smiled. “That is absolutely no problem for me, Mrs Jung. I’ll take care of Krystal, too.”

=

“Earth to Donghae!”

Donghae snaps back to reality to find Siwon and Hyukjae staring at him, bewilderment obvious on their faces. “What?”

“That’s what we should be asking, Hae. You zoned out with that stupid smile on your face. So what happened?”

“Oh, uh… I’ll tell you guys some other time!”

=

Jongwoon, Yuri and Kyuhyun make their ways in together, the latter being squished in the middle by the other two, as if being guarded.

“Guys, I know I’m holding something really grandeur in my hands, but there’s no reason for the two of you to act like my bodyguards.”

“We’re not going to let whatever you created get destroyed.”

“And, the sooner you dispose of it into your lady’s hands, the sooner we’ll leave you alone.”

=

Stephanie walks in with Taeyeon trailing behind her. The petite one still has on a face of misted confusion. Stephanie does all she can to prevent Taeyeon knocking into others in the hallway. “Tae, come on, sober up.”

Clearly, Taeyeon didn’t take the news about Kangin very well.

In Stephanie’s memory, when she first reached this foreign country, she knew that Kangin was her next-door neighbor, who was slated to migrate in a while. She hadn’t seen a lot of him, just the occasional bypassing when in the neighborhood. She had zero clue about Taeyeon and Kangin ever knowing one another.

Now, she has a million questions to be answered, but Taeyeon can’t. With her catatonic state and all, it’s going to be a miracle if she even speaks at all.

=

Siwon and Stephanie sit beside each other in lab class, again, as usual. Siwon thinks that forgetting his dream would be a piece of cake, until she walks in and fills up the empty seat next to him.

“Hey,” he ventures.

“Hey,” she responds.

Neither of the greetings is a chirpy one, but at least they’re talking now, right?

“You…” Siwon doesn’t really think about what he wants to say, and he just starts talking. Mainly because all he wants to do is to talk to her, but clearly, it isn’t going too well.

Stephanie clears . “If you’re going to ask me about  my personal life, which I doubt you were going to anyway, it’s going very well. Nothing with Kyu, nothing with any guy. But what I’m trying to say is that…” She turns, now making direct eye contact with him. They stay like that for a moment or two, until she pulls away and points her chin in the direction of the whiteboard at the front of place. “The mid-years are coming, and I really want to do well, so we should just focus on our studies.”

Siwon hears the underlying meaning in her words.

She just doesn’t want to talk to him anymore.

So he nods, and goes back to the lesson.

He doesn’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

=

At lunch, things happen.

=

Jungsoo makes a beeline to get Taeyeon out and away from the cafeteria. They need to talk, and they need to talk fast.

“I know it’s coming as a shock to you,” Jungsoo says, balancing panting and talking all at once as he limps with all his might to a secluded corner of the school. “But you have to say something, and tell us what’s wrong.”

Taeyeon remains quiet, still getting dragged by Jungsoo.

Suddenly, they stop, and Jungsoo tumbles into the stairwell with Taeyeon behind him. “Alright, here works. Go. Talk. Say anything you want.”

Taeyeon sits down feebly on the steps, and Jungsoo joins her beside. He starts to regret this decision, but he knows – he has to do it. He has to make her spill the beans before she goes nuts. “Taeyeon, please… Please just talk.”

“Call me Taengoo,” she starts, all of a sudden, sending him into a mode of surprise.

“But you… You don’t like that.”

“Just call me that, please.”

“…Taengoo.”

“Again.”

“Taengoo.”

“Again.”

“Taengoo…”

And that’s how Taeyeon’s memories are triggered.

=

When Taeyeon was just a small little girl who could barely reach her mother’s waist, she didn’t know how it felt like to have someone special in your heart.

Everyone was one and the same. She hadn’t been much of a social butterfly, so she didn’t have many friends to call her own. Perhaps that was the reason why she saw everyone in black and white.

Then she met two boys who were playing by the lakeside, throwing pebbles in to see whose got further. They saw her staring, and wordlessly, she was invited to join. So she did.

Middle school was a journey she got through with those two boys by her side. Kangin and Jungsoo. Jungsoo was the same, still a joker who loved to annoy girls (though now he prefers to charm them – and fail). But Kangin… Kangin wasn’t like him. She wasn’t sure about Kangin now, but she knew that Kangin was the polar opposite of Jungsoo.

Kangin was a warm person. Literally so because his hands were never cold, not even in the winter season, and Taeyeon had taken to being hugged by him in the coldest days of winter, just to seek some warmth. Figuratively so because he was the one who made Taeyeon feel like she belonged, in a big circle of people known as ‘classmates’ in school.

In short, Kangin was the warmest person Taeyeon has ever met.

Kangin made Taeyeon feel many things, many things she hadn’t ever felt before in her life. Like the little adrenaline rush when he pushed her high on the swing, and the little explosion in her chest when he’d gone to the dangerous edges of the lake just to grab a flower for her.

And soon, Taeyeon didn’t see everyone in black and white anymore. She saw a tint of red, and she only saw that in Kangin.

Kangin became Taeyeon’s special someone.

=

Taeyeon hadn’t banked on how upset she’d be when Kangin, her special someone, announced his imminent departure. She was so upset, she couldn’t eat or sleep for days, and she couldn’t even cry.

After watching some show at home, while cooped up in her house due to sadness, she got an epiphany. She had to tell Kangin about whatever she felt, or whatever he made her feel, whichever worked, before he left.

On the day of Kangin’s departure a party was thrown. He was quite the popular boy, she knew, and despite him being best friends with Taeyeon and Jungsoo, he had a huge social circle in general where many thought him to be a close friend.

During the party, Taeyeon sought on a pranking Jungsoo to locate Kangin amidst the crowd. They went on circles around the school hall, where the party was held, just to find their mutual friend.

They were close to giving up (or, at least, Jungsoo was) when they reached an abandoned stairwell at the far end of the school hallway. Taeyeon froze.

Till today, she wished she hadn’t. She wished that she could’ve taken one step lesser or one step more, so no matter what, she wouldn’t have had to listen to that.

It was Kangin, giving another girl a confession, where he poured his heart out and admitted that no other girl had been as significant as her in his life.

Taeyeon realized that Kangin was her special somebody, but also that this thing didn’t work both ways.

=

“I’m guessing that you didn’t know how I felt at all, after we reached the stairwell that day.”

Jungsoo adjusts himself. “You’re wrong. I did.”

Taeyeon looks up at him. “You did?”

“I saw your face,” he explains. “I’m not stupid.”

“Which means… You already know why I’m acting like this?”

“I can’t say I do. Taeyeon… You’re not the easiest person to understand. Amidst your smiles and laughter and the occasional stupidity, you’re quite the enigma.”

“Maybe if I was easier to understand, he wouldn’t have shut off his eyes on me.”

“Tae—“

“It’s that feeling of loss, you know. It’s that very feeling that gets me hard in the gut, and sends me into this downward spiral. It’s like I’m speeding down a staircase, but I miss one step and I go tumbling down. I can’t reach the railings and I can’t reach anything for support. I just go down. Down, down, down… And it hurts more and more.

“Back in the days when I thought that he was my special someone, and that I was his as well… I hadn’t thought about how stupid I was. I just thought that this thing was exclusive. Clearly… It wasn’t.

“This exclusiveness is something I’ve always wanted but could never get. Not even now. I really should’ve remained as a loner who didn’t even know what a special somebody was.

“I’m tired. I don’t want to open my heart up anymore. It was easier when I saw the world in black and white.”

Jungsoo looks at her, and takes her hand in his. She puts her head on his shoulder.

He kind of understands her now.

=

Stephanie couldn’t find Taeyeon anywhere at lunch. She starts to panic, and starts to plan a route to bolt out of the cafeteria, but gets held back by an eager beaver called Kyuhyun.

“Wait, Fany!”

Stephanie looks at him and stops in her tracks momentarily, not even having the slightest intention to stop completely. “Is something wrong?”

“I, uh… I have something to give you.”

Stephanie would protest, but she gets shut up by a box of chocolates that he shoves into her face. A heart-shaped box of chocolates.

“And something to say to you,” he adds.

She looks up at him, a wobbling beginning to take over all control she has over her legs.

“I like you.”

=

Taeyeon smiles. “It’s like every time I like someone it just doesn’t end in my favor.”

“Tell me about it,” Jungsoo replies.

“No way, you’re quite the charmer yourself,” she continues.

“I don’t know how you see me, but just in case you didn’t realize it, my relationships are very one-sided.”

He laughs a bit, and then she laughs, and they laugh together in the end.

“Misery does love company,” she concludes after a while.

He looks at her.

“Right after I realized I stood zero chance with Kyuhyun… Kangin’s coming back. That’s… A little too much rejection for me to take all at once.”

He gets it.

Both boys personify that deep, hollow gut feeling – rejection – she feels.

And she doesn’t like it.

=

The whole cafeteria looks at them, now the spotlighted figures. Stephanie recalls Taeyeon’s warning of something happening. She knows now that she should’ve spoken to Kyuhyun earlier.

She feels this helplessness bubbling deep within her, though she tries to convince herself that when there’s a will, there’s a way. It suddenly feels like Chemistry finals, where she just cannot figure out the answer, and she thinks that sorting out her stationery would help. It didn’t, and neither does her fidgeting her toes within her shoes.

How exactly is Stephanie going to get out of this situation?

=

“When you called me Taengoo, do you know why I got riled up?”

“Everything came to your head at once. That’s my best guess.”

“Good one.” Pause. “And… Also because that name was something special. Kangin gave it to me. It just… Brought back memories of him, at the worst time possible. I just got through a whole thing with Kyuhyun not too long ago. It just… Snowballed.”

Her voice cracks at the final word, and Jungsoo is tempted to hug her, and assure her that all will be fine in time. Heck, he wants to speed up time just for her to be okay again.

Then he realizes that he still has something else to clear up. “Taeyeon…”

“Yes?”

“…nothing.”

=

Siwon focuses on his salad, as if the very act could block out what the whole cafeteria is now staring at. That scene in the middle, where Kyuhyun stopped Stephanie a minute ago, whipping out that damned romantic gift.

He didn’t want to look.

He still doesn’t want to.

Whatever happened to the well wishes he had for Kyuhyun and Stephanie sometime ago?

=

“Your shoulder kind of feels like my pillow,” Taeyeon comments.

Jungsoo chuckles. “Is that a compliment?”

“Why shouldn’t it be one?”

“Because you’re trying to say that my arm is flabby. With fats.”

“When did you care about that?”

“When a girl points it out to me.”

“You actually see me as a girl?” She pulls her head off his shoulder and looks at him. “I thought I was your brother, or something.”

“I prefer male brothers,” he jokes. “And male sisters, too.”

She laughs a bit. He smiles, this time a real, heartfelt one from the bottom of his heart. “I take it that you’re all better now?”

She nods. “I am. Just needed to talk about it. Thank you,” she emphasizes on ‘you’, “for making me talk.”

He shrugs. “Thank you,” he does the same, “for injuring my toe.”

“Toenail!”

They both laugh.

=

“Fany.”

Stephanie is hauled back into reality from her train of thoughts by the gentle call of Kyuhyun. She looks at him and remembers that she still has a minefield to get herself out of. “Yes?” she chokes out.

“I… I like you, Fany. Are you… Or aren’t you… Going to say something?”

“Um,” she chokes out again.

Kyuhyun can almost make out Stephanie’s feeble retort. She doesn’t know what to say! So he decides to make this easier for her.

“I just… Need to know your answer to this. Will you give me a chance and accept this confession?”

She stares. Now she only has two answers to choose from. Yes, or no.

She would much rather have zero answers than these two.