Kyuhyun watches as the one with the chiseled features and sharp eyes held his most distressed face ever for the entirety of the day.

“Look, maybe if you—“

Siwon, once handsome and attractive and now haggard and fatigued, shakes his head. “I brought this onto myself. Maybe she’s right. Maybe this is sympathy—“

Kyuhyun wrenches the fork out of Siwon’s hand and holds it dangerously close to his beautiful face. “I swear, doubt yourself one more time and I’ll do so many things to you with this fork you can’t even imagine.”

Siwon’s expression doesn’t change much, but he does alter his words. “Alright, this isn’t sympathy. But maybe everything just falls into place this way—maybe I really lost my chance. I mean, I don’t think I’m lucky enough to have so many second chances given to me.”

Kyuhyun frowns, puts the fork down, and turns Siwon’s face in Stephanie’s direction, just a few tables away in the massive cafeteria. “You, mark my words.”

Siwon looks at her side view and feels all sorts of inexplicable emotions.

“Even a cat has nine lives, Siwon. You could give up now, but what if the next try was all it took to succeed?”

=

Stephanie hangs up after the short and terse phone call to Jessica, which consisted of mainly a ‘Hey, are you free today? I need to talk—‘ and a ‘Not today, Fany, sorry.’

Taeyeon notices the way Stephanie’s face darkens and points her spoon at the cellphone she just put down. “Who’s that?”

“Jessica.”

“Oh. Then why the glum face?”

“I wanted to go talk to her today, maybe get a manicure or something. But she just cut me off and rejected me like—“

“… Like she wasn’t free?”

“Well… Yeah.”

“Well… Maybe she really wasn’t?”

“But she’s always free for me.”

Taeyeon could hear the pouty lips forming on Stephanie’s face, so without even looking up from her salad, she tsk’s the girl and purses her lips. “You’re so self-centred, man… I heard Donghae isn’t in school today. Maybe the two of them are out on a date. Like, y’know, they both arranged to give school a miss today so they could hang out together…”

Hyukjae, who just arrived at the table to drop Hyoyeon off before heading to his own, heard them mention his best friend’s name and did a double-take. “Donghae? I called him earlier and he sounded pretty sick. I think he’s resting at home. Or, at least, that’s what I believe him to be doing…”

Taeyeon looks at Stephanie, who already seems to be contemplating something. “Maybe I’ll just go visit Jessica at her home, see if she’s in or something.”

“Do you really need to see her this desperately?”

“Well, no…”

Stephanie is about to answer Taeyeon when she sees Siwon approaching out of nowhere.

“I mean, yes. Yes, I do. I very much do. My next lesson’s starting soon so I’ll just get going now.”

Stephanie lifts her tray up and makes a beeline for the tray return area, and she hears Taeyeon merrily greeting Siwon while she makes her escape from the cafeteria.

=

“Anytime you want to talk—“

“For God’s sake, Soojung,” Jessica deadpans. “You’ve said that about thirty-seven times in the past two hours.”

Krystal stands akimbo by the edge of her bed. “Oh, have I? Okay, I’ll see if my words actually got through that thick skull of yours. How about you recite—“

“Anytime you want to talk, big sis, I’m right here. If that’s not enough, version two goes like this: Anytime you want to talk, Jessica, I’m available for you. Version three goes like—“

“Alright, alright, alright, I get it.” Krystal is about to clear off the Jenga set from Jessica’s bed – a game she never knew anyone could play with such a deadened expression throughout – when she decides that this will not do. “But really, anytime you want to talk—“

“I will, when I want to. When I need to. And that’s number thirty-eight.”

Krystal stares as Jessica flops down onto her mattress and lifts the covers above her face, successfully obscuring her from the piercing gaze of the younger girl.

She sighs.
 

=

Stephanie rings the doorbell of Jessica’s home. After a moment or two, she hears Krystal scurrying down the staircase. “Just a minute,” the younger girl calls out.

The door finally opens after a few minutes and Krystal gives a big smile to Stephanie. “Hi, Fany!”

“Hi, Krystal. I’m here to look for your sister, is she around?”

“Oh, she’s… Actually still in school, working on some project or something. Seems pretty important, so I don’t know when she’ll be home.”

“Oh. So that’s why she hung up on me so fast earlier on.”

“Is anything the problem, though? I can get her to contact you later at night—“

“I, um, actually need to talk to her about something… Pretty urgently.”

“Okay, I’ll let her know you’re looking for her!”

“By the way, Krystal – are you sure she’s not out on a date with Donghae?”

“What? Why—why—why would that be the case…”

“Donghae didn’t show up in school today, either, so I thought… Just maybe, y’know?”

“… Oh. Well… Whatever it is… Jessica did seem pretty caught up on her studies so… I don’t… Think they went on a date.”

“Oh. Then I guess Donghae really isn’t feeling well…”

“Yeah, maybe! If you see him, do send him my regards!”

“But isn’t he just next door—“

“I, uh, rarely get out of the house. Alright, I shouldn’t take up too much of your time! Bye, Stephanie!”

The door closes on her and Stephanie is left reeling in the amount of information she has to take in.

=

Taeyeon places her meticulously thought of order for a sundae, quickly throwing the burden of deciding fast to Jungsoo. The ice cream shop waitress stares while Jungsoo frantically burrows through page after page of ice cream flavours.

 “Hey, you ain’t got all day,” Taeyeon murmurs.

Jungsoo shoots her a look and closes the menu. “A chocolate sundae, thank you.”

Taeyeon gives the waitress a grateful smile and turns back to him. He has on a questioning look and it is enough to get her talking.

“What? Why are you giving me that look?”

“What you said earlier, about starting. What was that about?”

“About starting somewhere?”

“Yes.” He glances away, then back at her. “Wait, no. About… Us. About us starting.”

“What’s so hard to understand about that?”

“Like… Everything?”

“Do you really need me to spell it out for you?”

“If it helps with me understanding, then yes.”

“It sure doesn’t help you gain a better impression in my eyes.”

“Why would I need to gain a better—“

They share a look.

“Hang on, Kim Taeyeon.” He freezes, then leans in just the slightest bit to look straight into her eyes. “Just where are you going with this?”

She leans in just the same, and grins. “Where do you think I’m going with this?”

“Are you… Wooing me?”

“No, not really.”

“Then are you making me woo you?”

“Not that either.”

“Then what the hell?”
 

Their sundaes arrive and the waitress places the two dishes on the table, nicely separating the two apart. He never takes his eyes off her and she never stops grinning.

The waitress leaves and the two resume their tense exchange. Taeyeon scoops a bit of ice cream into and smiles at him again.

“Stop being cryptic here, miss. I’m no Alan Turing, I don’t decipher codes the way he does.”

“You could be one-half of the Dumb and Dumber duo and still be able to get what I’m saying.”

He stares at her, feeling mentally exhausted from all that she was putting him through. Then he pushes his sundae away from him and prepares to get up to go. “I’m not staying if you’re not going to make sense—“

“I’m making up for lost time.”

She pushes his sundae back to where it was, as if making a gesture for him not to go. “Or rather, we are making up for lost time.”

Then both their minds flash back to what happened the night before, and it all becomes clear as day.

“If, let’s say, you had the courage to come clean to me a little earlier, and I had the strength to live my life for myself and not be led by my erratic emotions as much, then… Maybe we wouldn’t have gone in circles just to be led back to where it all began. The truth is out in the open, and what’s clearer to me right now, more than anything else, is that we spent way too much time away from the reality we were both subconsciously escaping. I know I ought to seek your permission first, but I just really, really wanted us to make up for lost time, starting right now.”

The tense exchange sees the tensions peaking, but it all comes down to dust when he exhales hesitantly.

“Okay.”

“What?”

“I said, okay.”

“No, I heard you.” Her eyes become slits and she leans in again, albeit this time menacingly. “You gave a heartfelt speech the night before and I gave a much better response than a mere—“

“I meant: okay, I give you my permission.”

She doesn’t seem to be registering his words, so he sighs and leans in, to level with her. “I also meant: okay, let’s do this.”

She appears frozen in her seat. He tilts his head and scrutinizes her face, and reaches over to pick up her hand from her side.

“This is a pretty lame first date, don’t you think?”

He scrambles out a fifty from his pocket and throws it on the table. “The gentleman has paid, and now he will bring his lady to a much better first date.” He gets up and pulls her along.

Halfway out the door, she finally melts into the reality she was escaping from. A big smile appears on her face and she stops being pulled along by him, quickly joining him at his side so they could finally walk together, in the same step.

=

Stephanie stands by Jessica’s front door and stares for a moment or two. Then her eyes flicker over to the house next door, and she edges quietly over.

Feeling uneasy for some unknown reason, she knocks on Donghae’s door and awaits his response.