Snap!

Taemin looked down at the camera, observing the photo before showing it to the three girls who posed against the green screen. They squealed, delighted to see how well he took the photos. As he gave them simple instructions on how to retrieve their photos, he noticed a pair of eyes staring daggers into his back. He gave the girls a quick smile.

"Would you excuse me?" he said politely. "I think there's someone who needs to talk to me…"

The girls giggled and walked away. Taemin whirled around and saw Byunghun standing behind Daehyun, who awkwardly stood near Taemin.

"What do you want, Byunghun?" Taemin asked.

"Wow, hurtful," Byunghun said jokingly.

"Byunghun, don't you have your shift?"

"I'm taking an early break, but this fellow has a question," Byunghun said, pushing Daehyun to the front. 

"Hello, Daehyun," Taemin said, greeting him with a half-annoyed look and a half-okay smile.

"Sorry to bother you," Daehyun murmured.

"Well, you're in our class, so I don't really mind," Taemin said. "What's up?"

"Um… I don't really know how to put this," Daehyun mumbled.

"Breaking up," Byunghun said, jumping to the main topic. "How do you deal with breaking up?"

Taemin blinked his eyes and stared at Byunghun for a long time. Then, he let out a small laugh before looking back down at his camera.

"I don't know," Taemin said blankly. "You just sort of deal with it. Why?"

"I mean, you're the only one who broke up with someone in our group—"

"Dasom broke up with someone several times."

"Okay, but none of that was real love," Byunghun said in his defense. "Daehyun here just confessed to Eunji a few days ago."

"So I heard," Taemin said. "Congratulations, Daehyun."

"Unfortunately, this guy didn't get a response and I told him that there's a high chance that he's going to be rejected at this rate," Byunghun said, patting Daehyun's shoulder.

"Well, you don't know that," the student council president said.

"I'm just trying to tell him to be prepared for the worse."

"D-Did you, by any chance, here anything from Eunji?" Daehyun asked him quietly.

"No, not exactly. I've been hearing from Dasom that she's still thinking about it," Taemin said. "Jieun told me that she's avoiding you on purpose, though."

Daehyun's heart sank. "Damn it. Looks like I'm really getting rejected."

Taemin gave him a sympathetic gaze before hearing his phone ring. He fished out the device from his pocket and checked the caller. He let out a heavy sigh before pressing the "Cancel" button and shoving his phone back into his pocket. Byunghun and Daehyun stared at him, shocked to see that he didn't pick up his phone.

"Who was it?" Byunghun asked slowly. If anything, he knew that Taemin wasn't the kind of person to purposely hang up on someone.

Taemin forced a smile. "No one important."

Could it be Soojung? Byunghun wondered. Nah, that wouldn't be the case. Those two are part of the student council. He wouldn't hang up just because they broke up.

The phone rang again. Taemin looked at it again, hung up, then shoved it back into his pocket. Byunghun stared at him a blank look.

"Same person?" Byunghun asked.

"Yeah," Taemin said, pressing his lips together. He forced another heavy smile. "She's a bit annoying."

Hyeri bit her bottom lip before looking down at her phone. She knew that he was hanging up on purpose. She sighed to herself and hopelessly dropped her phone back into her bag. She looked around the hallway, feeling lost in the new surrounding. Knowing that Soojung's school was holding their autumn festival, Hyeri snuck out of her own school just to catch a glimpse of Taemin. Since Soojung and Taemin broke up, she was hardly able to see her crush, and Soojung didn't seem to be doing much to help her out.

She stopped her tracks when she saw a familiar girl walking in the crowd. Without a second thought, she rushed over and grabbed ahold of the girl's wrist, forcing her to twist around and face her. Hyeri's face beamed in delight when she recognized Dasom.

"Y-You're Taemin's friend, right?" Hyeri stuttered.

Dasom examined her for a bit then snapped her fingers. "Oh! I remember you! I gave you Taemin's number!"

Her cheeks turned cherry red. "Y-Yes! Do you know where I can find Taemin?"

"I'd love to help you, but I can't. I need to find my classmate first," Dasom said. She looked around. "Uh…Oh! Junhee! Junhee!"

She dragged Hyeri towards a different girl. Junhee looked around and spotted Dasom running after her. She grimaced for a second, but stood still to hear what Dasom had to say.

"Aren't you supposed to be attending your booth?" Junhee asked.

"What about you?" Dasom asked.

"I'm on a break with him," Junhee said, pointing at Chanyeol, who towered over the girls.

"You still don't have plans on dating me?" Dasom asked flirtatiously.

"I'm not interested," he replied.

"Tch. I'm not interested, either," Dasom replied. "Oh, yeah! Since you two are on your break, will you mind showing this precious girl to Taemin's class?"

Junhee glanced at Hyeri, who started acting bashful and nervous. Then, she looked back at Dasom.

"Please don't tell me that you're playing match-maker," Junhee said.

"I'm…not," Dasom said, looking away. "I just think that since this girl already has a crush on Taemin, she can maybe lift up his precious spirit."

"Dasom—"

"Look, I'm in a rush. Just take this girl to Taemin, okay?" Dasom said, pushing Hyeri onto Junhee.

"Dasom, wait!"

"Sorry! I'll buy you food when we go home!" Dasom exclaimed apologetically. She turned around and started running away, screaming Byunghun's name.

Hyeri awkwardly glanced at Junhee and Chanyeol. She paused for a minute, trying to figure out the two's relationship.

"Are you two dating?" Hyeri asked them quietly.

Both of them blushed.

"N-No!" Junhee quickly denied.

"Why would I d-date this idiot?" Chanyeol asked, faking a laugh while messing up her hair on purpose.

Junhee groaned and started to swat away his hand. "I know, I know! I know I'm stupid and I know that you like Jieun! Stop messing my hair!"

Chanyeol stopped laughing. He made a deep frown before dropping his hands to his side.

"Um, Junhee?" he started quietly. "We, um, need to talk about that…"

"Come on," Junhee said to Hyeri, ignoring Chanyeol. "I'll take you to Taemin's class. If I remember correctly, then he should still be taking pictures." She took a quick glance at Hyeri. "What was your name again…?"

"Hyeri," she said. "Lee Hyeri."

"Right. You're that girl who confessed to Taemin," Junhee said.

Hyeri turned bright red. "Y-Yes…"

"Honestly, I don't like you."

Hyeri stopped acting shy. She stared at Junhee's back, who refused to even look at her. Chanyeol widened his eyes, completely shocked over Junhee's cold and blunt words. He tried to light up the mood by laughing and playfully nudging Junhee's arm, but Junhee stood tall and firm with her words.

"Why don't you like me…?" Hyeri asked quietly.

"I just don't like you," Junhee said. "Dasom likes you because you praised her when you first met, but I don't fall for that." She eyed her. "Besides, what are you doing meeting up with Taemin instead of your best friend? What business do you have with the guy who broke up with your best friend? Shouldn't you be by your friend's side right now?"

Hyeri only looked down at her feet. "I-I am. I'm helping Soojung right now. I-I'm setting her up with other guys—"

"Do you think another guy is something she needs after breaking up with one?" Junhee asked. "I don't know a thing about love, but I know a thing or two about friendship." She stopped in front of a long line. "By the way, here we are. You'll need to go through this line before seeing him."

Hyeri bit her bottom lip as she stared at the line. It would take ages for her to see Taemin, especially with the rate the line was going. She sighed softly to herself before turning to Junhee. However, when she turned around, Junhee and Chanyeol were already gone.

She gets on my nerve, Hyeri thought, shivering a bit. She stood in line, but impatiently looked at it every second she had.

"Hye…ri?"

Hyeri widened her eyes. She turned around and saw Soojung standing next to her with a few of her own classmates.

"Soojung," Hyeri said quickly, "hi."

"What are you doing here?" Soojung asked. "I didn't say anything about how our school was hosting the festival—" She stopped herself when she saw that Hyeri was in the line to Taemin's class. "Are you here to see…Taemin?"

"Yeah," Hyeri said, nodding her head. She wiped her sweaty hands against her pants. "Um, you didn't really make an appointment with me and Taemin, so I figured that I had to take action on my own."

"I-I would've helped!" Soojung exclaimed. "I was just busy…"

"Too busy to set me up with my crush?" Hyeri asked.

"Hyeri, no, it's not like that."

"I know he's your ex-boyfriend, Soojung, but he's also single."

"Y-Yeah, I know, but—"

"What? Does it feel wrong?" Hyeri inquired. She watched Soojung stiffen. "So you think it's wrong, huh?"

"It's just really weird," Soojung blurted. "Don't you think it's weird? Even if it's a little bit?"

"But I really like him," Hyeri said.

Soojung looked around, noticing that people were starting to stare. She pressed her lips together before grabbing Hyeri's wrist.

"Come on. Come with me," Soojung said.

"Why?" Hyeri asked. "Are you purposely trying to make it so that I don't see Taemin?"

"That's not it. I just feel like we should properly talk it out—"

"Taemin, I told you to take pictures of Hyunwoo for me! What were you doing?"

The two girls looked up. Their hearts skipped a beat when they saw Taemin being dragged out by Jieun and Byunghun. He looked annoyed, but not bothered enough to get rid of them. He lifted his head to look for some way to distract the two. He stopped to stare at Soojung, then noticed that she was with Hyeri.

"Taemin! Lee Taemin!" Jieun shouted, trying to call for him. She looked at his direction and spotted Soojung and Hyeri. She sighed and looked at Byunghun. "How long do you think he's going to stare at her?"

"I say we tickle him to find out."

"He's not ticklish."

"Yes he is."

"I tickled him before. He showed no reaction."

"That's because you didn't tickle him in the right place," Byunghun said. 

"Look, I don't even care about tickling him," Jieun said. "All I want is for him to give me any photos he took of Hyunwoo."

"He didn't take any. I was with him the whole time."

"Wouldn't Dasom get mad?"

"Probably," Byunghun said, shrugging his shoulder. He tapped on Taemin's shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Taemin, Jieun and I are going to go."

"Wait, but my photos—"

"Huh? Sure, sure," Taemin murmured. He glanced behind him. "Actually, I'll go with you guys."

"Don't you want to talk to those two?" Byunghun asked. "They seem to want to talk to you."

"No, I don't have anything to say to them," Taemin said. He started to push the two away from the girls. "Come on, let's go—"

"W-Wait! Taemin!" Hyeri shouted, running out of the line.

"Hyeri, stop! Wait!" Soojung yelled, chasing after her.

"Run, run, run!" Taemin hissed, pushing Byunghun and Jieun towards the front.

"Taemin, you should really think this through!" Jieun hollered as all five starting darting down the halls.

"Why?" Taemin asked. "I'm not going…to deal…with…those two! They're only…going to make…my life…worse!"

"That's not what I meant!" Jieun exclaimed. She grabbed Taemin's hand and pulled him into an empty classroom. "You at running!"

Taemin stopped when he finally realized what Jieun was saying. He started panting hard and dropped his hands on his knees. Byunghun and Jieun stopped running, hardly breathless.

"Why…" Taemin wheezed. "…are you guys…so athletic…?"

"Well, I'm part of the basketball team," Byunghun said. "I need to be an athlete."

"Chasing Hyunwoo requires a lot of energy, too," Jieun said.

"That's unnecessary."

"It's totally necessary!"

"Anyways, those girls are here," Byunghun told Taemin. 

Taemin widened his eyes and looked up, where he saw Hyeri and Soojung right in front of him. He groaned and covered his eyes, praying that he was only seeing things.

"Look, Hyeri. Taemin's tired. I'll set you up on another day to talk so let's just go for now," Soojung said, grabbing Hyeri's wrist.

"And never see him again?" Hyeri asked, glaring at her friend. "Soojung, I know you're preventing me from seeing him. I know that you don't like it."

"Okay, but can we talk about this in private?" Soojung pleaded. "You're bothering him and you're embarrassing me!"

"Can you stop calling me, too?" Taemin added. "I've been telling you a million times, I don't want to meet up with you!"

Oh, Byunghun thought. So that's why Taemin has been hanging up on that caller.

"I have something to say in person," Hyeri stated, "and you never gave me the chance to say it!"

"Whatever it is, I really don't want to hear it right now," Taemin said.

"See? Come on, Hyeri," Soojung said, trying to forcefully pull her away. "Let's leave—"

"I love you!" Hyeri blurted. Her cheeks turned bright red and her eyes shimmered under the lights. 

Taemin's heart stopped. His skin turned to a ghostly white color as goosebumps started to trickle down his arm. His brown orbs looked at Soojung, who widened her eyes, shocked and speechless.

Of all the people in this world, Taemin thought, I didn't want Soojung to hear any of that.

"I love you," Hyeri whimpered. She pulled away from Soojung's grasp and threw Taemin a hug. "I fell in love with you at first sight. I don't really know how close you were to Soojung, and I don't know if this is wrong or not, but I really love you! I'm hoping that you can see me in a different light…"

Taemin looked at Soojung, giving her one look that said everything he wanted to tell her: Don't move.

Soojung slowly backed away, and Taemin tried to step closer. However, Hyeri squeezed her arms around his skinny waste, preventing him from moving.

"I-I-I must be interrupting things," Soojung murmured, turning pale. She started to cringe. "I-I'm sorry…"

With that, she ran out of the classroom with Taemin calling her name. Taemin quickly pried Hyeri's hands away from him, but she grabbed onto the back of his shirt, frantically tugging him away from reaching the door.

"Not right now, Hyeri!" Taemin said, raising his voice. He shot her a cruel glare, which caused her to step away from him. Then, he sped down the hall, hoping to find Soojung.

Hyeri bit her bottom lip. Her eyes started to water and she quietly began to sob. She squatted down and covered her face with her arms, trying to suppress her cries.

Byunghun glanced at Jieun. "Who knew that Taemin would be a babe-magnet?"

Jieun rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Lee Byunghun."