Not a lot of people keep track of the days but I do. And from my count, it’s been exactly three days since Baekhyun came to my house. Three days since I embarrassed myself wholly in front of him. Three days since I have agreed to ruin my life.

I managed to have one last conversation with Ms. Byun about the venue—just to clarify some things. I don’t want to look as if I don’t know what I’m doing but in all honesty, I kind of don’t. Also, I asked Ms. Byun—Unnie—if having Baekhyun work with me is a good idea. I think back to the words Ms. Byun said and resist the urge to roll my eyes.

“Don’t worry; Baekhyun will do fine. At times he can be quite a handful but I assure you, he’ll help you out.”

She said this with absolute sincerity that I almost believed her words. But then I think back to the few times we’ve seen each other and I frown.

From what I’ve seen, he’s one hell of a talker—and a tease. There’s something about him that makes me want to go to a corner in hopes that he’ll stop bothering me. He also makes me want to cover my face because he says the most absurd of things sometimes and it actually makes me blush.

I stare at the book in front of me and sigh quietly. He also hasn’t contacted me since and I’m guessing that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. Anyway, I shouldn’t even be thinking as to why he’s not contacting me. It’s not like I need him with me.

I take a sip from the cup of coffee I’ve ordered and grin softly. I’ve been in Cello’s since ten in the morning which is actually their opening time. I was waiting outside the café, holding my bag tightly while waiting for the shop to open. When the staff saw me standing outside, shivering a bit, they immediately let me in even though they haven’t properly prepared the place yet. I know it must have been weird to see a girl standing outside the café, staring longingly at the doors just so she can go inside and study. I know that there’s a library for that but you can’t drink coffee inside the library. And that’s why I’m here.

I let out another sigh and frown at the problem. Exactly how do you do this? I groan loud enough for one of the employees to turn and look at me. I catch her eye and offer a small apologetic smile before going back to my book. These things should come naturally to me but thanks to this added stress of planning, it feels as if I’ll never accomplish anything.

My brain feels as if it’s being torn apart because one part wants to concentrate on my academics while another wants to focus on wedding planning and honestly, I’m not sure if I can handle both at the same time. I bite my lip hard as I stare at my book. I already knew that planning a wedding at the same time trying to balance my studies would be difficult but did I resist? No, because I thought that this was the only way to get my parents to stop pestering me about the planning business. Well, it is the only way so I guess this added stress is just one, big, bonus.

Jeez, what have I gotten myself into?

I take another sip from my drink and move on to the next problem since I can’t figure out the last one. I start solving when I hear a muffled, buzzing sound. Puzzled, I look up from my book and scan the table wondering where it’s coming from.

I hear someone clear their throat and I look up to see one of the workers point at the vacant seat beside me. I raise an eyebrow but nonetheless look at what she’s pointing at.

It was my phone.

I close my eyes and internally groan because of course it’s my phone. I mouth my ‘thanks’ and pick it up, wondering who decided to contact me at this time of the day.

Oh Jiyoung: Where are you?

I furrow my brows at this. Jiyoung rarely texts me. She prefers calling people instead of sending them a message since it’s quicker that way. I type in my reply before placing my phone on the table and not on the chair beside me. I redirect my attention back to my math book and continue scribbling down my solution. Another text comes in and I immediately check it.

Oh Jiyoung: Ah, I see. Do you want to eat lunch with us? I would have called you about this but I’m stuck with people who are constantly talking to me. It’s difficult to keep up.

Well that explains things. I tell her that, as much as I want to eat with them, I have to study. This is true though. I have this intense need inside of me to catch up on all my academics so that I’ll have room later on to do the wedding planning.

Her reply comes almost instantly and I smile at the thought that maybe she’s messaging me so that the people around her will stop talking to her.

Oh Jiyoung: Hmmm, alright. By the way, you still owe me a full explanation as to what happened last Saturday. See you!

At this message I bite the inside of my cheek and shiver involuntarily. Saturday. The day that brought about many troubles. As Jiyoung said, I haven’t given her a proper explanation as to what happened that day. After I dropped the call on her, I called her hours later and told her that someone came over and it was a hell of a surprise. She didn’t believe me when I told her it was nothing and so she’s still waiting for my full explanation as to what actually happened. I cringe at the thought of recounting the memories but I feel that I need to at least tell her why I was rude and abrupt at ending the call.

My eyes linger on her message for a little while longer before I place it back on the table. I run a hand through my hair and twirl the pencil in my hands. The numbers are starting to make sense to me but some of the concepts are still hazy. I take a deep breath before solving again. I’m pretty much in the zone when I feel something vibrate. I look up from my work and notice the same employee looking at my phone. I let out an awkward smile and reach for it. This time around, I didn’t get a message. It was a call. And not from Jiyoung, but from Sora.

Crap.

I don’t know why but there’s always a small part of me that gets anxious whenever Sora tries to contact me through the phone. It feels as if she’ll drag me to one of her crazy antics or she’ll suggest something so out of this world that it will take some time for me to fully comprehend as to why she even thought of it in the first place.

With slightly shaking hands, I accept the call and press my phone firmly to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Dohyun! Lunch with us?”

I stop solving and let out a sigh. “I can’t. I have to study.”

I can hear footsteps in the background and I wonder if she’s walking or something.

“Well, that’s no fun.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, it’s not.”

“So that’s why you should eat lunch with us! It’s definitely better than sitting around studying.”

I roll my eyes at her comment. I know that eating lunch with them is infinitely ten times better than solving math problems but like I said, I have to study.

“Maybe next time.”

“Next time my , you’re not thinking of drinking coffee all day and survive right?”

I widen my eyes and cough for a bit. “Uh, no?”

“Right and this is exactly why you should eat lunch with us.”

I hear the shop’s bells ring meaning that a new customer entered. I look up and I almost drop my phone. There, standing by the entrance, is Ahn Sora herself. She has a sly grin playing on her lips and I know right then and there that I won’t be getting out of this easily.

I purse my lips and drop the call. Sora makes her way to where I’m sitting and offers me a bright smile. I cringe inwardly because one, Sora rarely gives sunny smiles and two; her smile is just the calm before the storm.

She slides in the seat in front of me and clasps her hands together in front of her.

“So,” she starts, eyeing my book as well as the scratch papers littered around me. “Lunch?”

My eyes dart from Sora to my math book and immediately, my face scrunches up.

“No.”

Her face falls slightly. She crosses her arms and leans forward. “Come on, Dohyun. Give yourself a break and, I don’t know, eat.”

I groan again which might be the umpteenth time that day. “I’ll eat later just not with you guys. So please, can I just study for a little bit more?”

Sora scoffs and shakes her head. “If I leave, you’ll end up not eating lunch. And you might even skip dinner. We all know how you are with stress. You don’t eat. Well, except for cake but that’s not considered a good and healthy meal.”

“I eat, for your information. Also, cake is cake. I like it. And how the hell did you know I was here anyway?” I found it weird how Sora knew exactly where I was when we were just talking on the phone. I didn’t tell anyone where I was unless—

I gasp and Sora rolls her eyes. “Jiyoung,” I say and the only reply I get is her smiling devilishly at me.

“Knew it,” I grumble, leaning back on my seat and glaring openly at my math book. “You were with her, weren’t you? That’s why you know.”

“Pretty much.”

“But why didn’t she call me? If she was with you, I’m quite sure she wouldn’t have any trouble talking to me while you’re around.”

Sora raises an eyebrow at me as if I just spewed nonsense before realization dawns. “Ah,” she begins and turns to look at the tables around her. “We were with other people.”

I narrow my eyes at this and pry further. “Other people?”

Sora won’t meet my gaze but after a few seconds, she faces me and nods her head. “Other people.”

I roll my eyes, deciding that this isn’t worth it. “Friends of yours?”

“I guess you could say that.”

I roll my eyes and leave it at that. Sensing that Sora’s not going to leave anytime soon, I resume studying and ignore her presence. My hand was already scribbling the next problem down when Sora quickly snatches the pencil from my hand. She sends me a sour look before tucking the pencil away in her bag.

“No, Dohyun. You are going to eat lunch with us and that’s that.”

I stare at her agape and shake my head. “First of all, you’re talking to me as if I’m a kid and second, I still have some more pencils so that’s not going to stop me from studying.”

Sora groans. “I really don’t want to do this but, you leave me no choice.”

Before I knew it, Sora grabs all my stuff—books, papers, everything—stands up, and leaves. I sit there stunned, staring at the now clean table in front of me before looking at Sora who’s standing outside the store with a smug look on her face.

“Oh my god,” I mutter before scrambling out of my seat and grabbing all my belongings. I hastily exit the shop; the staff’s ‘thank you’ and ‘come again’ falling on deaf ears. I can feel my cheeks growing warmer and warmer as I approach Sora because hell, what she did was rude.

“What the actual , Sora.”

Sora makes a face and shakes her head. “Language, dear.”

“Just so you know, that was rude,” I say before grabbing my stuff from her arms and shoving them in my bag.

“I told you, I didn’t want to do it but you left me no choice.”

I glare at her. “You could have left me alone.”

“And I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

I bite my lip and glower at her some more. “I really hate you.”

Sora shrugs before looping her arm around mine. “I know but that will change once we get some food in your system.” She pulls me closer to her—probably to make sure that I don’t run off any second—and gives me another bright smile.

“Now, shall we?”

&&

This whole predicament reminded me of the time Jongdae dragged me out of school to eat someplace nice. However, the only difference was that I became willing later on. This time, I’m not willing. At all.

Sora kept a firm grip on me the whole time. A firm grip around my arm. Either way, it was a bother when you had to squirm your way out. Sora expected this though because she only sighed and shook her head.

“Why can’t you just let go of me?” I whine, staring pointedly at her arm around mine.

Sora greets some of the students we pass by, oblivious to the stress she’s putting on me. I chew on my bottom lip and heave a sigh. As I said, I’m not willing to go and eat with her however; it’s becoming a chore to fight my way out of this.

“More like, why can’t you just agree and eat?”

I roll my eyes and shrug. We fall into silence and it feels a bit uncomfortable since Sora, being the friend that she is, is quite a talker. I’m still annoyed at her for forcefully dragging me out of Cello’s but I decided not to dwell on it. I don’t want to spend the rest of my day in a bad mood.

I take a peek at her and see that she’s texting someone on her phone.

“Who’s that?”

Sora looks up briefly at me before shrugging. “Jiyoung.”

“Can you tell her that I need help?”

She scrunches up her face and rolls her eyes. “Help with what?”

“Getting away from you.”

“Ha, ha. Good one.”

I groan and proceed to slump as Sora leads me to wherever we’re going. She doesn’t say anything about her conversation with Jiyoung, even though I’m kind of curious as to what they’re talking about. After a while, she tucks in her phone inside her bag and turns to me.

“So,” she starts, eyeing me with a curious look. “Baekhyun?”

And there it is. I should have expected this conversation sooner though. I figured she gave me time to collect my thoughts over the past few days. From Jiyoung’s words, Sora seemed really interested as to how I met him. And as to how I even managed to interact with him. I don’t know much about Baekhyun but I’m quite sure Sora has the answers for that.

“Oh,” I reply, “You finally asked.”

She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. “Jiyoung told me to calm down. As if I can calm down when the fact that my friend actually interacted with Byun Baekhyun! That in itself is one miracle.”

I scrunch my nose at her words. Why is she making a big deal out of Baekhyun? And how does Sora even know Baekhyun?

“How do you even know him?” I ask. The curiosity was getting the better of me. As far as I know, I never even knew a person named Byun Baekhyun up until he came to my house declaring that he’s the brother of the bride-to-be. So, how come a person such as Sora know of him?

Sora gives me a bewildered look. “He’s practically one of the cutest guys around here.”

“Ah, I see.”

I shouldn’t be surprised. Sora likes to keep track of who’s cute in the campus so I guess that’s one of the reasons why she knows him. We continue walking, basking in comfortable silence when my feet comes to a halt.

One of the cutest guys around here?

I pull on Sora’s arm and she stops. She gives me a confused look while I stare deep into her eyes and ask: “Are you trying to tell me that Byun Baekhyun studies here? In this campus? In our school?”

Her eyes grace over me up and down before she slowly nods her head.

“Yeah, I thought you knew that? We’ve seen him quite a few times actually—“

“No, we haven’t!” I screech.  I pause and correct myself. “Well, I haven’t.”

What the hell. Baekhyun’s here the whole time? That can’t be. I mean, I barely see him around and no, the fact that he studies here means that it’s a good thing and a bad thing. Good because if ever I need to talk to him about planning, he’s just around the corner. Bad because if I don’t want to talk to him—or even see him—he’s just around the corner.

Holy crap.

“You’re looking a little pale. Are you okay?”

I glance at Sora and she’s giving me a weird look. She still doesn’t know how I met Baekhyun. Heck, she doesn’t even know that he’s part of the reason why I’m stressing out.

“Just p-peachy,” I stutter.

She gives me a doubtful look but I simply wave her concern away. “Really, I add, “I’m fine.”

So far from the truth but if it means she’ll stop looking at me worriedly, then yes, I am fine.

She scoffs but doesn’t press any further.

“So, Baekhyun?”

I blanch. My head still can’t wrap itself around the idea that Baekhyun is so reachable yet so far and honestly I’m not sure if I should be happy about this or not. I bite my lip and shrug. I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, not when I look like I’m ready to run away. Far, far, away.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Later?”

“Yes, Sora. Later.”

She and eyebrow, not believing me. I groan and jut out my pinky. She looks at it skeptically before giving me another onceover. She sighs and wraps her pinky around mine.

“Later it is.”

I nod my head. I take one good look around me and notice that at the very least, we’re still inside the campus. I don’t want to keep thinking about this new found information. I really didn’t expect that he’d be a student in this school. I mean, I figured he was a student but a student in this school? Never.

“So where are we eating?” I ask, trying to push the thought to the back of my head.

Sora goes back to her phone and gives me an excited smile. “The Open Shack!”

I wrinkle my nose. “The Open Shack?” I have no idea that a place like that even existed. A few months have passed since I’ve started studying here but it’s obvious how I’m still unaware of the different places around campus.

“Yeah! It’s not that well known among the freshmen—“

“You mean us.”

“—but the place is usually packed with upperclassmen. They like the outdoor feel of the place since it’s technically outdoors.”

I roll my eyes at her explanation. Maybe that’s why it’s called ‘The Open Shack.’ We pass by more buildings and realize that we’re nearing the music department. My eyes linger on its iron gates, marveling at the details of the musical notes that sprawl all over the bars. I’ve never been inside of the music building and honestly, I only knew about the place because I passed by it once—when Jongdae begged me to go with him so that he can get something real quick inside the building. My lips quirk up at the memory, remembering how winded up he looked while holding a bunch of musical sheets right after leaving the building.

“Earth to Dohyun, why are you smiling?”

I pause and bring my hands to my cheeks. I was smiling? I glance at Sora and see the playful smirk on her face. Immediately, I drop my hands and scowl at her.

“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not what it is,” I say, finding her expression a little disturbing.

She giggles but nods nonetheless. “Oo-kay,” she sings, batting her lashes at me before sauntering away. I roll my eyes at her and follow her figure.

We leave the music building behind and after a few more minutes of me walking around aimlessly and blindly following Sora, we reach a small shack—literally, it’s a shack—partly hidden by one of the art buildings in the area. From the outside, a person can already see that it’s bustling with people. But then again, there’s also a swarm of people outside the shack, sitting down and eating the food they served. I stand there rooted in my spot and marvel at to how a small place like this can garner a whole lot of people.

Sora continues to walk ahead of me while I stay there unmoving, simply gazing at the wonderful exterior of the place. It looks absolutely cozy from its green vines wrapping themselves around the walls of the shack as well as its veranda to the soft looking, plushy chairs that matches with the tables outside. My eyes wander to the customers outside and as if on cue, they land on a person I know.

“Jiyoung,” I mumble. Her hair is slicked into place as always and her cheeks give off a rosy glow. She’s holding a book and I’m guessing it’s one of her assigned readings for the day. I avert my gaze from her and start looking around for Sora since she basically went ahead while I stayed behind. I see her blonde hair among the crowd eating outside and I let out a soft sigh. She should really try looking back every once in a while.

I quickly make my way to the shack finding the place more and more welcoming. The ambiance seems so homey with everyone chattering in lively spirits despite the cold weather. Also, judging from the sweet/savory aroma of the food, this place offers nothing but the best dishes. My stomach grumbles and I instinctively place a hand on top of it to quiet it down. Maybe it was a good idea for Sora to drag me out of Cello’s.

As I approach Jiyoung’s table I notice how she’s narrowing her eyes at Sora.

“What do you mean you lost her?”

I chuckle softly to myself before walking up to them. Jiyoung’s still giving Sora a look of disbelief but it quickly changes into a look of surprise when she sees me. Sora notices the change too and turns around. Relief floods her face and she immediately loops her arm around mine.

“See? Lost and found! Stop getting so worried about it, Jiyoung.”

Jiyoung rolls her eyes but nods nonetheless. “Okay then.” She pats the seat next to her and I make my way next to her. I notice that we’re sitting at a table meant for six. I furrow my brows and look at Sora and Jiyoung.

“Who else are we eating with?”

Sora smirks while Jiyoung simply shrugs. “Some friends of yours.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Friends of mine?”

And right on cue, I hear the beat of the drums. “Wha—“ I start before I see the simple black platform in the middle of veranda.

A drum set sits in the middle of the platform and a couple of microphone stands litter the stage. I shouldn’t be surprised that someone’s going to perform but then again I am because one, it’s lunchtime. Shouldn’t performances be reserved for dinnertime? Two, it’s almost winter. Is this really a good idea? They’re going to die because of the cold. Three,  I see Jongdae strapping up his guitar and his eyes meet mine and he gives me this humongous grin that can swallow up the whole world. Four, Chaneyeol—the guy I met at the party—is the one hitting the drums who’s giving the crowd a nice beat to follow too. And five, the last reason why I’m surprised is the fact that I definitely know the person standing behind the microphone, whose eyes are twinkling with excitement and whose grin is sweet enough to infect the whole crowd.

“Good afternoon, we’re The Beagles and we hope you enjoy our set.”

The music starts and I’m thrown into a somewhat blissful abyss of songs and melodies. I blink and look at Sora who’s giving me a megawatt grin and at Jiyoung who’s giggling softly.

My brain’s practically chanting he’s here, he’s here, he’s here and it takes everything in me not to bury my head in my hands and wonder why I have to face him today.

The two of them look at me expectantly, gauging my reaction. They want me to say something—anything—so I say the first thing that’s on my mind.

“Bagels.”

A/N:

Tbh this is kinda meh huhu :( Not much action going on in this chapter but there will be in the next... ((at least I hope you guys can call it action *hides*)) Thank you for reading as well as for the lovely comments hehe <3 Finals are done so hopefully I get to update more. Until next time!

P.S. Still can't get over lightsaber. And Baekhyun. Mostly Baekhyun. FML.