[CONTENTID1]50 Flavours of Royal Praline[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]A SELECTION OF CHOCOLATE BOYS[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

The exam hall was large yet suffocating. At the rows upon rows of desks, with people reading their notes in the corners, and students chatting about possible questions, Suzy shivered with apprehension. Her insides twisted into knots. She felt the bile rise up . Worse still, Krystal was there, already in her designated seat.

Their eyes met for a brief moment in time but Suzy quickly looked away.

Myungsoo pushed his bag into one of the lockers behind the locker. He had an unusual scent-- one of nutmeg and cinnamon. It was strangely comforting to her. She wondered how she never caught a whiff of it before. Perhaps she was too busy getting intoxicated by Sungyeol’s scent than to care about those around her.

“Good luck,” he muttered before he too sauntered into the space ahead.

Suzy swallowed the vile taste in . Her vision splotched with dots; she grew dizzy with hysteria. Someone called her name, breaking the sleepy spell over her.

She glanced back to find Changmin entering the exam center. He gave a crooked grin and she could do was gawk at him. She rarely ever saw him smile. There was that time in the cave where he laughed at her for her explanation of predictability and spontaneity.

Changmin grew to surprise her more and more. He and Woobin were actively searching for a way to contact Himchan’s parents. Perhaps underneath that cold, ascetic exterior lied a warm heart that was gentle and kind. Changmin, unlike Myungsoo, was never sarcastic. He was generally blunt and brutally honest. Myungsoo would play around with his words but Changmin never talked in riddles.

She wondered if this why she found Changmin’s presence as warm as drinking hot chocolate. He represented a pillar of strength for her, and he was almost her friend-- almost.

Again, Krystal’s eyes tasered a hole through her head. She knew that Krystal was battling with her own morales. Suzy was afraid if her ex-friend was judging her. Krystal’s gaze kept darting between her and Changmin. It was obvious that the girl was mesmerised by how well they got on, ever since Sungyeol’s accident. Suzy tried to ignore the goosebumps that pricked at her skin.

“Changmin-nim,” she said, “What brings you here?”

“I came to wish you luck.” His voice was still solemn; his expression unfathomable. “You’ll need it.”

Suzy frowned at him. “I studied for this.”

Sort of. The nerves in her tummy kept jolting and she was afraid that this sensation would rise to her head, and eliminate all the information that she stored there last night. Already, a pall surrounded the facts and she struggled to try and recall all those definitions she attempted to learn off.

“I’ll be surprised if you manage to scrape a pass,” Changmin continued in the same serious voice.

Suzy wanted to punch him for his honesty. She wondered how pretty his face look with a broken nose and blood over his chin. It’s not like she hasn’t seen him with such casualties before, not when she once saw Taekwoon beat him to a pulp back at the graveyard. Despite hating each other ever since, the two men were far more similar than they appeared. Both had straight postures, one demanded authority while the other evoked dominance.

“Just focus on the question, okay?” He perked a brow. “Your ineptitude at concentrating apprehends me.”

“Ineptitude?” It was Suzy’s turn to raise a brow.

He crossed his arms across his chest. “Yes. Don’t daydream during the exam. This isn’t another tutorial. It’s the real experience.”

“I’ll be fine, Changmin-nim,” Suzy reassured. And I don't daydrem-- she wanted to add.

He gave her that brilliant, crooked smile again, and she admired the straight, pearly shine off his teeth. His mouth stretched wide on the small face. She wondered how it was possible, a man who spoke little but smiled as he said a thousand words.

He was gone, and she lumbered to her seat. People were now sitting in the exam. Soon, the invigilators began handing out the papers. Suzy’s heart became frenetic. It drummed against her ribcage until she found it hard listen to the instructions. She never even heard the invigilator giving permission. It wasn’t until pencils began scratching and chairs squeaking and flatulence, that Suzy was reminded the exam had started.

She flipped over the first page, and her heart sank. The first question demanded the definition of anaphase, and also asked a diagram of the cell at that particular stage. She chewed at the end of her pen and forced her mind to remember her colourful notes. It was a shame that her poor memory only remembered Changmin slurping down over eight pot of noodles in her dad’s restaurant.

Come to think of it, she wanted to know how he maintained his abs if he degusts so much food daily. Surely there must have been a secret place inside his penthouse where he burned up all those calories? In any case, she wouldn’t mind attending another one of his concerts to see him tear his shirt again…

That revelation seemed like ages ago. Suzy blushed at the thought. It was wrong of her to imagine her tutor shirtless, but a little bit of indulgence was not a sin. A dreamy smile encased her lips as she allowed her mind to sink back into the memory of the shirt-tearing performance.

She had to admit-- Changmin had the best abs she had ever seen in her real life. Oh wait! She also Jaejoong shirtless too-- back when he was drunk. Giggles rippled in and she had to place her palms over to stop her giddiness. The person next to her sent her a weird look so she returned her attention back to the paper.

Anaphase...anaphase...who cared about anaphase? She’d much rather prefer sunshine, rainbows and ponies. Suzy imagined a world where clouds never existed and the day was eternal. Stalks of grass hustled in the wind. In the midst of this tranquility, she lied down and enjoyed the warmth of the sun.

As she glanced to her left, she heard the neighs of horses stroll by-- only, they were not horses at all. They had horns and wings, some sort of hybrids between unicorns and pegasuses. Riding the largest unicorn/pegasus chimera was Changmin, followed by his bandmates, Jaehyun and Kyungsoo.

Suzy got to her feet, the maiden of the woods, garbed in a shimmering green dress that twinkled brighter than than stars. There were rings of daisies on her crown and there were stalks of lilies coiling around her wrists. Changmin gifted her with his brilliant, lop-sided grin, holding a hand out for her.

“Sunshine, and rainbows,” Suzy sang.

“And ponies,” he finished.

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