[CONTENTID1]Sublime Praline[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2] A Selection of Chocolate-Boys by gaksitalGaksital [/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3] (A/N: For all you Changzyfans, here is their moment ;D)

Suzy was surprised at how good a team she and Chanyeol made. He waited for her every morning while Heechul dropped her off. The latter's presence grew on her like an invading fungus. Her fear of him was slowly subsiding. Since Zitao was among them too, Heechul wasn't as intimidating.

As Wednesday arrived, herself and Chanyeol had distributed so many pamphlets, and Chanyeol took pleasure in bullying the Bok Choy mascots. He was terribly adept at it. Suzy was afraid of ending up in his black book. She wondered if she did the right thing in recruiting him.

Chanyeol sat beside her in a biology lecture that Wednesday. The dark patches under his droopy eyes were hard to miss. He drummed his fingers against the desk, humming to himself before turning to face her.

"I've been thinking," he uttered, resting one elbow on the desk, and leaning his head against that hand.

Suzy cocked her head to the side, and blinked. "Yes?"

"The fresher's ball is coming up," he elucidated, and her insides froze into icicles. "We should bombard the place with Kimchi fliers."

The idea sounded tempting but there was a surreptitious gleam in his rheumy eyes. His voice was laced with hidden intentions yet his smile revealed his inner thoughts. He waited there, not daring to break eye contact her.

She was the first to look away. She coughed back the knot of anxiety in and gazed anywhere but at Chanyeol.

"I don't know if I'm going yet." It was a half-lie. She knew that once her mission in introducing Sungyeol to Nana succeeded, she would be forced to attend the ball.

Chanyeol clicked his tongue against the roof his mouth. He raised a supercilious brow and propped up straight again.

"Do you remember when I said I expect more than just free food?" he reminded her.

Suzy's face tensed as Sungyeol's warning resonated in all the chambers of her mind. She bit her bottom lip and fidgeted with a pen in her fingers.

"Yes, so?" she croaked.

"Well, I'm asking you out to the ball. I'd like it if you go with me," Chanyeol explained boldly.

"I-I can't!" She hurriedly blurted. Her face burned and she had to fan herself with paper.

Chanyeol furrowed his brows. "Why?"

"Just because..."

"You're not giving me a reason? Am I too ugly for you?" Pain flitted across his dark eyes and Suzy's heart twisted inside her chest.

"It's not that," she mumbled in shame.

"Then what?"

"Sungyeol said you want to use me!" She clasped her hands over but the damage had been done. The words spilled out into the open before she could snatch them back.

Chanyeol's lips curled into an insidious frown. He reclined back into his seat. His eyes emitted sparks of fire. His jaw clenched.

"Sungyeol? I should have known that b******d was behind this. Is that what he said?" he demanded, with noxious venom in his words.

Suzy her chapped lips. She stared at her hands and nodded slowly. A solemn guilt ate away at her conscience. It felt wrong that she dragged Sungyeol in the midst of their conversation.

Chanyeol's grimace vanished. He replaced it with an indolent smile. "I wouldn't hang out with Sungyeol. He's two-faced." The antipathy he held for Sungyeol had never been so salient. Suzy wondered if she misjudged their friendship.

"Huh?"

"He dates dongsaengs and dumps them like no tomorrow. If I were you, I'd be careful. I don't expect you to accept my offer. I'll give you a week to think over it. If you care about your reputation, then stay away from Sungyeol." He used his pencil as a cushion and closed his lids. "If you excuse me, I'm going to sleep. When you've made up your mind: call me, babe."

His words reverberated in her mind, while the rattle of sleep shook his breath. Suzy mewled in frustration. Her head throbbed when she tried to make sense of Chanyeol's words. She hated herself for hurting him.

The new information about Sungyeol blared at her like a giant, red danger sign. This was bad news for Nana. If Sungyeol truly was a player, a perpetual skirt chaser, then it was Suzy's duty to protect her friend.

However, Nana's mettlesome will was unbendable. If she liked someone, she would go to extreme ends to be with them. It was a pity that she was still in bed with a scorching fever. Otherwise, Suzy would have informed her of Chanyeol's warning.

The same miasma of doubt clouded her vision. Which Yeol told the truth and which Yeol was the liar?

-

When six o’clock reached, Suzy reluctantly trekked through the deserted corridors of the science building. There was a forlorn aura emanating through all the corridors, like a lonely bird singing a mournful melody. Her heart succumbed to the loneliness, and the dim lighting only increased her sour mood. It was so empty, so devoid of voices and laughter. She hated how a void interlaced throughout the halls and rooms.

She wondered where Changmin wanted to meet her. He didn’t specify it, and she couldn’t remember where his office was located. She decided to walk towards the main offices and larger laboratories in hopes of bumping into him.

Her heart raced with shredding dread. Her mind screamed at her to turn back. She was afraid of the young lecturer-- realisation only dawned her now. Changmin didn’t carry Heechul’s contemptuous idiosyncrasy. Oh no, he was like the Boogie-Man that hid inside children’s closets, waiting for them to come by, so he could devour them whole.

The cogitation was ridiculous, and Suzy knew her friends would be teasing her for even treading down that track. How could someone she only met once-- and that was by accident-- be so intimidating, and cause her so much discomfort?

A voice broke the palpitating silence. It startled her first, but it was soft and melodious, like drops of honey gleaming in the sunlight. She then realised that someone was singing and playing a piano not too far away. The tunes off the keys intertwined, caressing the hollows of the walls before bouncing off them to reach the ears of their admirers.

“Oh, I know this lady, baby

Only I know

Only those who love her can know

Even her tears--”

The song made her knees tremble, and her head to swoon. It was so beautiful, and the voice-- the voice was like a siren, calling the wayward sailors to their destruction. She was that sailor right now, trapped in a melodious bewitchment, and her ship sailed towards the trap. She would die to see the face who sang with such a euphonious voice, and the fingers that made love on the piano.

“I feel childishly proud

My expression becomes like an idiot

Please laugh only with me, oh She~ She~

I want to be your last

You’re my heaven

Only one in the world, oh She~ She~”

Her face was taken over by a wide smile, and she sank into a chair, her mind dizzy with delightful thoughts. The words were more than just spoken emotions, they were imbued with pure love, one that a girl would only find in a book of fairytales. How she longed to envelope herself in the security of these words; how she wished to disappear inside a book where worries about Bok Choy, K