to jihyorunner ♥ (sorry i made a mistake! T.T)

"What are you doing here?" Sehun asks out of annoyance and confusion "It's only the second day of class and you're making me miss out on my classes already... annoying"

"Ya! You should be practicing with the rest of us back at the company! You little punk-" shouted Kai, charging towards a brightly-dressed Sehun in his yellow SOPA uniform "You should be rehearsing the choreography with us-"

"I know, I know! Okay, okay fine!" Sehun raises both hands up as he went on to rant about how he was allowed to attend school today before rehearsals "You should know this, hyuuuung! She was your teacher too... she'd fail me if I don't attend the first week of school..."

Standing on the main building's roof top, the two continued to bicker but seeing a moping Sehun amused Kai as he patted his shoulder and laughed, "I know... Just make sure you'll go straight to rehearsals after school"

"Of course, I'd do that" Sehun replies with a smug smile on his face and then proceeded to ask why Kai was there in the first place, "you're going off about me missing practice, when you're here doing god-knows-what"

"I'm not going to rehearsals today" Kai went on to tell Sehun to keep his wherabouts a secret when he goes to the company later in the evening but assures him that he'll be there by the time of Sehun's arrival.

"I understand" Sehun says without questioning further, he simply agrees to Kai with a worried look in his eyes.

As the afternoon turned darker, their shadows grew longer with the spring breeze blowing through their hair but Sehun couldn't keep Kai company anymore, he had to return to class. "Are you staying here, hyung?" he asks with his hand on the metal door

"I think so..."

DING-DONG-DING

Lee Hayi-ssi, my parents and older siblings all are rooting for the other contestant to win but I'm seriously hoping you do. Fighting! ♥

Park Jimin has a better voice than you. You should train harder.

You don't sing very wel- 

"Ugh seriously..." Hayi grunts to herself as she collects all the post-its left on her locker after the bell rang "How are they so quick to leave these?"

It's been a rough first two days for her in high school, the sudden amount of attention that has poured over her has had her wanting to hide behind her bag. Almost everyone who has come up to talk to her had nothing else to say or ask about aside from the singing competition she was in right now - even some of the teachers. 

"They'll eventually get used to you... Hang in there" Hayi's mom had told her this morning after her reluctance to go to school "Doesn't Suzy go to your school? There are lots of famous kids there and they're just fine, you'll be fine too"

"Hang in there" Hayi whispered to herself as she peels off the last post-it on her locker and throws them in the garbage can - after sorting out and keeping the good ones of course.

"Ya! Where'd you think you're going?" a high-pitched voice shouted after Hayi, as she neared the classroom door. Turning around, Hayi saw that it was one of her snarky-looking classmate who just happened to be the temporary class president as well "You can't go home until you finish cleaning up"

Hayi tried to tell her that she wasn't scheduled to be one of the cleaners for the day but the other girl shot her down and said, "So, you think you're so great now huh? You haven't even won yet... Let's just see how many people would still vote for you once they knew how lazy and proud you are - tsk"

"But Mingyeong, Hayi-ssi isn't really supposed to be a cleaner today-" said another girl who was holding a broom

"And so? We're short of one person... Shouldn't she at least help us out?" sneered the first girl with her arms across her chest "Omo- omo- is she really that precious to be asked to help?"

"It's not that... There's not much to clean-up anyways, we cou-"

"It's okay... How can I help you?" Hayi said as she walked towards them, meeting the eyes and smiling at Je-min, the girl with the broom.

"That's more like it" Min-gyeong commented as she tried to keep her haughty stance "Why don't you dust these off for us?" she continues as she handed Hayi the erasers from the chalkboard, which Hayi silently got and started dusting off by clapping together with her hands extended out of a window. Seeing this the fox-faced Min-gyeong shouted at her, telling her to go dust it off elsewhere "you're gonna make my skin break-out!" but when Hayi moved outside, she still followed her and said "Are you really that inconsiderate? There are other people still here... plus, you never know - someone may have asthma and you are doing that here. You better just go up and do that at the rooftop!"

Again, without saying a word, Hayi just followed her and made her way to the rooftop which was a couple of staircases up from where she was.

"You are better than her, Hayi-yang. Just let it slide... Be the bigger person here" Hayi mumbled to herself repeatedly as she passed by a few senior classrooms that were still filled with students having their extra-lecture classes, "in a couple of years, I'll be out of here too"

Upon reaching the rooftop, Hayi took a few seconds to catch her breath as she triep to repeat her chant-of-encouragement in her mind "Why is this place so damn high?"

"WHAT?!????" Hayi gasps seeing Min-gyeong dragging Je-min across the school yard to the gates with their bags in hand "She left me alone?!"

Looking down on them, with her hands trembling in anger, Hayi contemplated on whether she should shout after her or chase her down there or just throw the eraser in her hands to head but she figured nothing would do much of a difference towards a person like her so she decided to stay.

"That bully of a witch... I doubt anyone likes her in class" she says in irritation, clapping the dust-filled erasers together as far away from her face as her arms would stretch "I bet the other girl left because she couldn't stand that witch"

"Ya!" someone shouted and suddenly, Kai appeared from a corner coughing hard from all the chalkdust that blew to his direction "What the hell-?"

"Ah... I'm sorry, I didn't think anyone was there..." Hayi bowed automatically like a folder "I'm really sorry"

"Tsk... And I'm wearing black..." he grunts, wiping away the chalkdust off of his jacket 

"I'm really sorry. Really, really..."

"Oh, heol- are you- nah, it can't be- but-" taking a step closer to her, Kai observes her and figured she looked awfully familiar but he wasn't quite sure if it was really her, "Are you perhaps, Lee Hayi-ssi from K-Pop Star?"

"Yes" she replies with a slight bow of her head, blushing

"Heol! What are you doing here?" 

"Excuse me?" 

"Oh. I'm sorry, I mean do you go to school here? At SOPA?" Kai fumbled over his own words but was quick to realize how stupid the question was, given the fact that she was in uniform so he then added "I went to high school here too. Hahahaha... I didn't know you went to school here too, you must be new?"

"Yes, I'm a freshman" by this time Hayi too looked onto Kai with much curiousity, he seemed like a face she's seen before "I'm sorry to ask but are you from SM?"

"Huh? How'd you know? No, no, no... I mean, yes I am" his cheeks grew red

"I've seen the teasers" Hayi confessed without being able to meet his eyes "...You look cooler in person"

"Thank you" Kai couldn't help but grin "You too, you look prettier in person"

"Ah-- Thank you" 

An awkward silence befell the two to which Kai desperately tried to overcome by asking her "Why were you talking about a witch in class?"

Hayi tried to explain her situation, but still sugar-coating some facts for the sake of Min-gyeong. What's the use of bad-mouthing an already evil person to a stranger? She immediately regreted trying to change their topic by asking him why he was there when his debut was just a few days away, she could see something terribly sad in his face. The cool breeze brought about by dusk was the only thing that was heard on the rooftop for a minute or two before Kai answered by saying, "It's scary... Everything's becoming real all of a sudden and it's honestly getting scarier by the day"

Hayi looked onto him with no reply but none was needed because he continued on, "Debuting's something I've dreamt of for a long time now and now that it's here, it's really terrifying... I guess, you would know what I mean, right? You sing live every Sunday in front of millions, doesn't it scare you?"

"Of course it does..." she replies as they both looked onto the beautiful myriad of colors brought about by the sunset "but don't you love singing? Or perhaps dancing? Either way, performing on stage is definitely the best. It's definitely terrifying but you'll get over it for sure... You seem like an awesome dancer from those teasers, I'm pretty sure many will fall for you"

"Heh" Kai left out a sly smile "Do you really think so?"

"I'll bet on it"

"Alright then..." he says, walking forward "I'll take your word for it"

"My word?" she laughed

"Yes, what better encouragement than from the winner of K-Pop Star to keep me going" he smiles at her 

"Eyy~ but I'm no winner yet..." Hayi shrugs her off

"Don't be like that... You should have a brighter mindset" 

"So should I just take your word as an encouragement from an SM Artist then?"

Kai laughs at embarrassment but agrees with her, by the end of their conversation the two had made a pinky promise to each other to do the best that they could in the future. Kai even chimed that he would be voting for her in the days to come "...Go to SM, okay?" he tells her as they locked in their promises

"I can't promise that" Hayi smiles at him "But I will debut no matter what, you would be my sunbae by then... Be a sunbae I can look up to, okay?"

"Alright..." he smiles back 

Just as Hayi opened the metal door to go down, Sehun suddenly came barging in with his bag in arm. He looks at Hayi with a shocked look but politely bows to her, and she to him.

"Was that- Is that-?" Sehun tried to ask but couldn't seem to say the words

"Ya, Sehun-ah! I think we should head to practice now..." Kai says, grinning wide and placing his arms on Sehun's shoulders "Let's make EXO daebak!"