A/N: Your author is sorry for the delayed update. Mian :(

“What are we doing here?” She hissed as soon as they were out of his parents’ earshot.

“To show you that I’m sincerely saying sorry for what I said.” He didn’t have to tell her that she was the passport to get reunited with his favorite motorcycle.

“You didn’t even tell me we are meeting your family!” She wanted to throw a fit but it was totally out of character so she tried to remain calm even if every fiber of her body wanted to scream blue murder.

“You’ve already met my mom so what difference does it make?” He held her hand and pulled her gently to a hallway. “I’ll show you something.” He opened a door closest to his right and it revealed a medium-sized dance studio. She looked at him in question. “The former owner had this and I still didn’t know what to do with it.”

All sides of the room were covered in mirrors. Support bars were fixed along the length of the rectangular room. One step inside and Joonmyeon could tell that the floor was sprung beneath the vinyl. It was designed to absorb impact of intensive dance exercise without hurting the dancer. A state-of-the-art sound system was connected to speakers strategically placed around the room.

“It’s. . .nice.” Her father offered to build one for her before but she refused. Not having a studio at home was her only excuse to leave the house for an extended period of time. She can be alone and she can get lost in her own world.

“It is, isn’t it? The broker told me it had acoustic foam so you can be here all day without disturbing anyone. There was a piano here, too, but I had it moved to the den. You can use this anytime you want.”

Joonmyeon was speechless for a while. She didn’t even know what to feel. “W-Why would I do that?”

“Don’t you want to let go of yourself sometimes? Like what you did for your audition? I bet you can’t do that at home. Or in your dance school.” Joonmyeon didn’t know if Yifan can read minds. All of their employees were hired by her mother. Some of them even came from his mother’s ancestral house and were employed by Hankyung’s family for years. They knew her mother for the longest time and even if they don’t say it out loud, she knew they can’t help but compare. Her mother was never an ugly duckling. She’d always been a swan. And Joonmyeon took more from her father. Not that Siwon was bad looking—far from that—but she always wished she had the innate grace and elegance of her mother.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She schooled a passive expression.

“Besides, you’re going to stay a lot and I don’t want you to get behind on your rehearsal.” He said it so casually like it was the most natural thing to say.

“I better help your mom with dinner.” She said instead. She was about to leave the studio when Yifan caught her arm to stop her.

“You can’t keep running away. You know you want this, too, so why don’t we cut to the chase and be happy?” He was getting impatient and he was trying to question himself if going out of his way for a girl was worth it but deep inside he knew it wasn’t about the bet anymore.

“Is this what you say to all the women you’ve dated?” She countered. Though Yifan had been attentive and everything she imagined her first boyfriend would be, she can’t help but be skeptic. She knew him for only a few days and he already gained quite a reputation in school.

“There you go again. Assuming things. To tell you the truth, I never dated anyone. But I won’t be a hypocrite and say that I didn’t take advantage of women’s offers before. But those women knew the score from the beginning.”

“Are you saying that I should be flattered?” She scoffed. “Should I be comforted that you’re being brutally honest with me? What if one day you wake up and you realize that I’m no different from those women?” She didn’t know why the knowledge of Yifan’s past conquests had to hurt. They’re not even together. Yet. Surely, she didn’t think that Yifan remained chaste with his dashing good looks and social status, right? Not when women throw themselves at his feet.  

“Then let’s do everything to make it work. Why think so far to the future? Why not seize the day and be happy? Joonmyeon, you’re seventeen not seventy. Loosen up a little, will you?” She can sense that he was becoming frustrated by the second. If his furrowed brows had anything to say. “Hey,” He held both of her hands. “Throw caution to the wind just for once, okay?” His thumbs were caressing the back of her hands slowly and she didn’t know any warmer gesture.

For the longest time, she was just looking at him straight in the eye, not saying anything. “I loathe latecomers and I hate liars more than anyone so remember that. Also, I don’t want you flirting with other girls. And let Baekhyun-seonsaeng carry her own stuff!” She pursed her lips.

“Of course—wait, what? Does this mean that we’re officially—chincha?” His smile widened, gums showing and Joonmyeon thought he looked like a dork beaming like that. She ducked her head to hide her blushing cheeks. “You really are my girl now?”

“Don’t make me say it!”

Yifan was genuinely happy. It was hard to explain because it was just a bet, right? He was never the one to willingly commit to a relationship. Truthfully, Joonmyeon was no different from girls he got involved with before. She was snotty, a snob and was definitely conceited. At least that’s what she was to other people. But from the few times that she was with him, he saw snippets of what the real person was. And his desire to really get to know that person was so strong that he knew that even if the bet didn’t exist, it wouldn’t take him too long to take notice.

******************************************

The news of Joonmyeon and Yifan dating spread like wildfire.

Some members of Joonmyeon’s fan club even shed tears for their lost chance. To compete with Wu Yifan was futile anyway. Pictures of Joonmyeon shopping with Ella came out, too, and people started to speculate that they’ve been engaged for a long time. That Joonmyeon really was the reason why Yifan was sent to Korea.

Suddenly, they’re SM High School’s official Royal Couple.

“Why wasn’t I informed about this?!” It was Kyungsoo’s turn to break Joonmyeon’s eardrums. She cornered Joonmyeon just outside the Student Council office. Imagine her shock when she came to school one day and everybody was talking about her best friend and the new transfer student.

“I meant to tell you but you were busy with Kim Jongin!” Joonmyeon pouted. Kyungsoo nearly had a heart attack. Kim Joonmyeon never pouts. Who is this person and what did she do to Joonmyeon?

“And you can’t text me or send me a pigeon or something?!” She shrieked.

“I’m telling you now so what’s the big deal?”

“What’s the big deal? You’re asking what the big deal was?! Seriously, how long have you known this guy? The last time I checked you wanted to bury him alive and now you’re dating him?” Kyungsoo sighed in exasperation. “Tell me honestly, did your parents force you?” Kyungsoo’s tone was a lot lower this time. In their world, business mergers disguising as marriages weren’t uncommon. If her parents weren’t friends with Jongin’s for the longest time and if only Jongin’s family didn’t own oil rigs all over Asia, she doubted if they’d even be together.

“What? No. Of course not. They don’t even know it yet.” But Heechul won’t be able to keep it from Siwon. They didn’t even call her to ask so maybe they just didn’t care. Same old, same old.

“Do you love him?” Did she? Wasn’t it too early to call it as such?

“I don’t know. Maybe? He’s really good to me though. And I’ve met his parents.”

“Right. You’ve been hanging out with his mom, huh?”

“I didn’t even know it was her! Yixing-seonsaeng asked me to give her a tour around Seoul. She’s the main sponsor for the school museum. And then when she was done shopping, she called him to send me home.” She skipped the part that that meeting ended up in misunderstanding resulting to her skipping school for the first time in years.

“Just be careful, okay? I just thought that you could wait it out a bit, you know?” Jongin courted her for two years even if they’ve known each other since they were kids. “Guys treasure the relationship if they worked hard for it.”

“Are you saying that I’m easy?”

“That’s not what I meant! Just get to know him well and don’t rush into things.” She was really worried about her friend. She might look tough on the outside but she really was as fragile as her mom’s fine china collection. Yifan was her first boyfriend and all that she can do was pray that he’ll really be good to her.

Joonmyeon chuckled. It was nice seeing Kyungsoo like this. Because it was usually her job to nag and fret and be paranoid. “Stop worrying, okay? I can handle it.”

********************************************

Exhausted, Luhan went up to his room the moment he arrived from soccer practice. The stress of his senior year and captainship of the school’s soccer team was doubled by Minseok’s new part-time job. She had to leave right after school and all of her free periods were spent catching up with homework. They only see each other literally in classes they had together. They already had a huge fight the other day because he insisted that he’ll take care of everything—that she didn’t have to work. He explained time and time again that he only wanted the best for her. He felt that she should just concentrate in her studies more so that they were in their senior year. But Minseok insisted that she can’t rely on him all the time.

In rare occasion that he was able to join her for lunch in the library no less, he caught sight of a few forms lodged in between thick Calculus textbooks. He didn’t want to think that Minseok was trying to hide from him but she got really flustered when he asked him about it.

Their plan was to go to the same college. With Minseok’s grades, she’ll be able to land any school she fancied. And to be able to study in an Ivy League school was one of their dreams. They already received acceptance letters from both Princeton and Brown Universities. Minseok even got a full scholarship for the latter. Luhan was willing to compromise. He’d give up his promising collegiate soccer career for the sake of being together. Brown didn’t prioritize sports as much as Princeton did but he thought all of it won’t matter anyway if he’s not with Minseok.

And to see her filling out forms for local colleges thrown him out of his axis.

“What the is this?”

“Luhan…”

“Care to explain why you’re suddenly interested in going to Seoul-dae? Didn’t we already have plans?”

“Those are just forms and I’m not even—“ Minseok was not able to finish what she was about to say before Luhan was high tailing out of the library, purposely knocking chairs off loudly along the way and the librarian hissing for him to keep quiet.