“Taeyeon?”

She whips around. It is Kangin who calls out. “Kangin?” She gives him a wave. “What are you doing here in the mall?”

“Doing some after school shopping. You?”

“Same,” she responds. Heechul joins them in a moment, and Taeyeon gets it. “Ah, you’re shopping with Heechul, huh.”

Kangin gives a shrug. “Couldn’t possibly let him come alone, right?”

Heechul tugs on Kangin’s arm. “Hey, we should go take a look at that,” he says, gesturing to a huge stack of fluffy soft toys.

Taeyeon sees nowhere better to go, given that she was already done with her shopping, and decides to follow them. Kangin seems almost glad to see her coming along. Heechul tears himself away from Kangin as soon as the soft toys were close enough to touch, and Kangin exhales in relief. He turns to Taeyeon. “So, we haven’t really talked since I came back, huh.”

Taeyeon gives a helpless smile. “You’re quite the popular one; it was hard trying to catch you.”

“Well, now you’ve caught me. I, too, have been wanting to talk to you, actually.”

“Oh? What about?”

“About…”

Heechul’s shrill voice cuts their train of thoughts. They turn to see Heechul quarrelling with a little girl about the last soft toy on the shelf.

“Oh, good god,” Kangin mumbles, and rushes into the battlefield.

=

Siwon sits awkwardly at the top of the table, gazing at the four people he is surrounded by.

Hyoyeon and Hyukjae are seated beside each other, while Yuri and Jongwoon took the seats opposite. Siwon is the only one without a partner, but he relished the joy of having his fish and chips accompany him through lunch. Or at least until he finishes it.

He digs in, trying not to focus on the awkwardness. But when Hyukjae starts to dig in, he sees the way Hyoyeon follows suit and he reels back a little in surprise.

Hyukjae is basically smothering the burger with his face. Hyoyeon follows suit.

On the other hand, Yuri and Jongwoon are busy cutting their burgers into smaller pieces. Their lithe and smooth gestures contrasted a little too drastically with Hyoyeon and Hyukjae’s, and Siwon grimaces. He puts down his fork and knife and looks between the two couples.

“Is this like a thing or something?” Siwon starts.

The other four stop what they are doing and look up. “What do you mean?” Jongwoon asks.

“Like, like… Couples eating the same way, practically mirroring each other—is this a thing? Because—because it’s mighty awkward for me to sit here with no one mirroring my consumption style!”

The four start laughing and Siwon sinks deeper into his abyss of misery, almost touching the fish with his nose.

“You’re envious,” the foursome chants, just as his brain announced to his heart.

=

Donghae and Jessica sit in muted tension, on opposite ends of the room. Jessica is on her bed, curled up in a fetal position, while Donghae is leaning against the doorframe, staring at her.

They have been in silence since half an hour ago, when she made her way back up the staircase and into her room. Donghae followed, after a bout of hesitation, mainly because Krystal had given him a hard push.

It has been a half-hour, and finally Donghae decides to speak up.

“Jessica,” he calls out gently. She stirs a bit but doesn’t budge, and stays in her fetal position.

“Are you okay?” he continues, now taking the liberty to take a step or two forward. The distance minimizes but it doesn’t feel that way. She still feels as though she is in a different world to him. Like they used to be before they started to go out together.

Jessica still doesn’t respond. This is when Donghae decides to go all out. He approaches her, this time bravely, and sits on her bed.

“I don’t know what happened, and I’m kind of scared right now, but I just want you to be okay. If you’re not okay, tell me what happened. I’ll fix it, I’ll do anything, I just want you to be okay—“

“Do you mean that?”

It takes a while for him to remember what he said, so he could find the statement that Jessica is talking about. “About doing anything? Of course, Jessica. If it’s for you, I’ll do anything—“

“Then let’s break up.”

=

Kangin hands a cup of orange juice to Taeyeon, who reclines onto the bench. Heechul is somewhere around them, looking at clothes in the huge sale. “So we’ve got some time before Heechul decides to come back,” Kangin announces. “You said you wanted to talk to me?”

Taeyeon sips on her juice. “Yeah, I did.”

Kangin sips on his juice. “What about?”

“Uh… Basically, about how you’ve been and stuff, I guess.”

“You sure you don’t want to talk about how I became Youngwoon?”

“That’s part of it too, right?”

Kangin laughs a bit. “Alright, here goes. I went to the States and changed my name because my mom decided I should use the name that she wanted to bestow upon me before birth. Over there, I didn’t have friends. Then I met Heechul and Yoona. And I guess that’s generally how things went for me.”

The look on Taeyeon’s face indicates to Kangin that there is more she wants to know.

“Is there something else you wanted to ask me about?” he enquires.

Taeyeon looks away, into her juice, and decides to do it. “About… About you and Heechul, I guess…”

Kangin laughs a bit again. “What did you want to ask about? If we were together?”

Taeyeon looks at him. The nonchalance in his voice causes her to arch a brow. “It’s more of when… or how you became gay, actually.”

Kangin looks at her this time, no laughter included. “What are you talking about, Taengoo?

“I’ve been gay right from the start.”

=

Siwon separates from the two couples, still stuck in his abyss of misery and all things nasty because of his singlehood.

He is on his way home when his phone rings.

Kyuhyun is calling.

=

“What do you mean… You’ve been gay from the start? You’re not—I saw you confess to that girl on the last day of school!”

“That was… That was a ploy, Taengoo. It was an act I put up for you.”

“But… But why?”

“Because I knew you liked me.”

“So you had to break my heart?”

“Because I knew I would never see you in that way! I don’t want you to hang around waiting for some guy who would never like you when there’s a better guy right there and you don’t see him—“

“What better guy?!”

“Jungsoo! Park Jungsoo! You should thank me! Isn’t everything working out perfectly for you right now? You’re with Jungsoo—“

“I’m not—wait, what?”

=

“Kyuhyun? What’s up?”

“Hey, buddy. I’m, uh… I’m just calling to ask you to do something for me.”

“What is it?”

“Go for her.”

=

Jungsoo and Kangin are playing on the swings when a girl passes them by, treading the sidelines of the playground. Jungsoo sees her first.

“Wow…” he marvels.

Kangin turns in his direction and sees the girl. “Wow what?”

Jungsoo looks at him excitedly. “Let’s play with her!”

“What?”

“Don’t you notice her? She’s always passing by the playground but she never plays! We should ask her to play with us, right?”

“Oh… Does someone have a crush on her…”

“No, Kangin! Girls give me cooties! I’m just saying…” Jungsoo sulks and turns to walk away.

Kangin comes back five minutes later with the girl in tow. This brings a smile onto Jungsoo’s face.

She is Taeyeon.

=

Siwon stops walking. He thinks he stops breathing for a second or two as well.

“Kyu…”

“Do me this favor, Choi Siwon. Do me this favor and do this for yourself. Go for her.”

“I—“

“I don’t want to hear anything else. I just want to hear you say yes.”

“Cho Kyuhyun, I—“

“Yes. Or no. Just say it. Please.”

=

“Jungsoo was the one who noticed you first. He was the one who suggested bringing you along to play with us.”

“Not… Not you?”

“No. I just did the execution of events because he never dared to.”

“I…”

“Jungsoo’s never dared to do many things, Taengoo. Most of what you’ve seen me do… They’re Jungsoo, they’re all Jungsoo. Not me.”

Taeyeon looks up at Kangin. She feels going dry. “Then Taengoo… This nickname…”

=

Taeyeon almost destroys her sandcastle when the boys arrive, messing up her hair in the process to announce their arrivals. She glares at them playfully and stands up to say hi. “Finally here, eh?”

“Sorry, Taengoo!” Jungsoo sticks his tongue out and makes a funny face.

“What’s Taengoo?” Taeyeon’s snarky expression switches into one of confusion.

Kangin laughs. “It’s your new nickname! Adorable, isn’t it? Jungsoo came up—“

Jungsoo nudges Kangin, unseen by Taeyeon.

“—with the comment that this nickname fits you so well.”

“You’re giving me a nickname?” Taeyeon latches herself onto Kangin for a hug. “Thank you!”

She is delighted to know that she is no longer just Taeyeon, but Taengoo as well.

=

Kangin turns to face her, to look her straight in the eye. “He gave it to you. Not me.”

=

“Yes.”

=

Jessica shuts her eyes. She is tired.

It has been a lifetime since he last moved, or talked, in any way at all.

“You should go.”

She looks at the clock. It is nearing seven in the evening. Just as the hour hand hits seven, Donghae stands up.

“Jessica Jung,” he calls out.

=

Taeyeon has just reached home after a long, thoughtful walk back from the mall.

She stops short when she spots a familiar silhouette loitering by her gates. One look is all it takes for her to recognize that this familiar silhouette belonged to the man in question.

“Jungsoo?”

He looks up, sees her, and struggles a bit to get out from his leaning position. He hobbles over to her.

“Why are you walking so oddly?”

Jungsoo bites his lower lip. “I, uh, I ran here.”

“Why? Did something happen?”

“No, nothing happened, I just…”

She hides her momentary bout of relief under an irritated sigh. “Stop beating around the bush, you idiot. Spit it, whatever it is you want to say.”

“I—I read your essay.”

Taeyeon looks up, now alerted. “You—what?”

The look on Jungsoo’s face as he turns away and refuses to make eye contact with her tells her that, more or less, she’s already gotten the full picture pieced out in her head. She raises a hand and lays it on his arm, giving him a hard whack across the elbow.

“You became that old stickler’s slave just to help me get Fany out of detention?!”

He cradles his arm in mute surprise. “How did you—“

“Good god, does everyone think I’m stupid or something…”

She retreats to leaning onto the gates, taking the empty space beside him. She sighs, looks away and sighs again.

“…but perhaps… I really am stupid.”

“Did something happen on your end?”

“Yes,” Taeyeon answers, as candidly as possible. She looks at him. “Kangin happened.”

Jungsoo chokes on the saliva he was trying to swallow. “Wh—“

“He told me everything.”

Now Jungsoo has nothing to say, and nothing to do, except gasp for air and grip onto something for support.

“That day in the stairwell… That’s what you wanted to tell me, wasn’t it. Taengoo, the name.”

It’s not a question because she already knows the answer.

It takes Jungsoo an eternity to finally be able to say something in response.

“Yes.”

=

Kyuhyun hangs up. He composes himself for a second or two, and heads back into the detention room.

Stephanie is having a staring battle between her and the bag of food he brought in earlier on. She pops up in surprise when the door clicks open. She stands up slowly, and shakily.

“Kyuhyun…”

He smiles. “Instead of me listening to you… How about you listen to me?”

She blinks, once or twice, maybe even thrice, and nods.

He holds out his hand, poised for a handshake. “Let’s break up.”

=

“Jessica Jung,” Donghae calls out, now for the second time.

She makes no sign of response. So he decides to turn on his heels and go.

“Goodnight,” he says. It is the last thing he says before he goes.