"So are you doing anything this weekend?" Kai asked me when our last class let out on Friday.

"Yes, actually," I answered as I got ready to leave. "I'm hanging out with my friend. Are you doing anything?"

"Yeah, I have some family stuff going on," he answered. "So you're hanging out with another friend? You sound popular."

"No, it's the same friend. I'm supposed to be meeting her new boyfriend tomorrow."

"Is this one of those things where you have to approve of him?" Kai asked jokingly as we walked out into the hallway.

"No, I trust Ga In's choices," I said, "He just goes to the same school as my sister and we were originally just going with her to lunch. She's got a test coming up and is studying like crazy so we're supposed to make sure she gets some time away from the library so she doesn't overload herself, and one thing just lead to another."

"Ah, is this the same friend I saw you with at the book store?" he asked, innocently.

My heart sank for a moment, the old familiar dread creeping back in that he liked Ga In more than me, but that was completely rediculous. I scolded myself for a second for thinking so foolishly before answering him.

"Yeah. Same girl. Her name's Ga In."

"Ga In," he said, testing out the name. "And do I get to meet Ga In?"

"Do you want to?" I asked, suprised. While I understood her wanting to meet him, it hadn't occured to me that he might want to meet her. Strange as that might sound with my knee jerk reaction to thinking he liked Ga In over me, when I would calm my fears down and reenter the real world, the idea of him wanting to meet her even though he liked me hadn't crossed my mind. Even thinking about it now, I wasn't sure why he would want to.

"Well, you're meeting her boyfriend," he reasoned. "Doesn't that mean she'd want to meet me since I'm your boyfriend?" At this point a smirk appeared on his face. "Or am I just some boy you see on the side, someone to play with until you find someone else?"

"What?" I almost gasped the word as I was so taken aback by this statement. My face flared up at the insinuation and I stopped walking. It took my brain a second to realize he was teasing, but I was still embarrassed, especially by my reaction. It didn't help when he started laughing at me.

The laughing thing was bad because I was already embarrassed by my actions, and him laughing at me over it only made me feel more embarrassed. Another thing about him laughing is that I realized I hadn't seen him laugh, not like that, anyways. Yeah, there was some laughter before, especially during lunch because the guys we sit with are pretty entertaining, but I'd never seen him laughing so hard he was crying a little, his eyes screwed shut as he clutched his stomache. It was adorable. I felt my heart beating faster, my mind barely registering it, though, as I just kept watching him.

I understood now why he had reacted the way he did when he saw me laughing when I was talking to Lay. Seeing him laugh so hard was precious, and the thought of him doing that with some other girl was, suprisingly, upsetting to me. As irrational as it was, I wanted it to be something only I saw, something just between the two of us. 

"I was just kidding!" he managed to get out after he calmed down a bit. 

I was confused for a second, having actually forgotten why he was laughing in the first place. My face reddened again, not from what he was talking about, but because I had been that affected from just seeing him laugh. I was being silly.

"I'm sorry, but your reaction was so cute, though," he said after regaining full composure.

"Yeah, well," I said as I started back down the hallway and making it out the front doors by the time he caught back up to me, my face still a bit warm.

"Are you mad?" he asked as he followed me. "I really didn't mean for that. How about to make it up to you I walk you home?"

"Isn't that what you've been wanting?" I asked back. He'd asked a couple of times over the week, but I was still too nervous to allow that. Obviously, he didn't seem discouraged by this. In fact, he had been so determined to make it happen that he had apprently told the other guys not to expect him to be available unless he told them otherwise, just in case I caved. It was the reason none of the guys had come up to us as we walked out of the school. They were supposed to go on with whatever it is they had planned, and if I didn't want Kai to walk me home then he would catch up with them.

"Well then, I'll carry your bag for you." He smiled down at me as he said this while we walked out the front doors of the school. He had to look down at me because the top of my head only barely cleared his shoulders.

I looked back up at him, planning on saying no, but I got a better look at that smile and immediately thought about just a few seconds ago when he was laughing, and I found myself agreeing.

"Really?" He practically exclaimed, far more excited than I thought he should be, especially considering he had to carry my bag and today it was even heavier than usual (I had brought three reading books to school today since I was about to finish one and didn't know which of the other two I'd want to read next.) "I didn't think you'd agree. But I'm glad you did," he tacked on, seeming to realize how that might sound, smiling even wider.

Stupid smile.

"Here," he said, holding his hand out, waiting for me to give him my bag. I pulled it off my shoulders and gave it to him, letting him grab onto the strap so he could carry it the same way Lay had the other day. "Wow, why is it so heavy?"

"Books," I answered simply, feeling I didn't really need to elaborate as I began heading towards my home.

"Of course," he said walking beside me.

We continued walking, me doing most of the talking this time as he asked me about what books I had in my bag, and what I had thought of the one I had just finished. By the time I had finished explaining it, we had walked most of the way back to my place. I fell silent at the end of my description, suddenly becoming nervous by how close he was to my home. I felt so guilty not tell my parents, but it still felt like something they wouldn't be happy about. The whole point of me socializing was to make friends, not get a boyfriend. While I felt like Kyungsoo and I were actually becoming friends, he was the only other person I had made an effort with besides Kai. I have barely spoken to Baekhyun and Chanyeol, not at all to Tao, and I'm pretty sure Sehun doesn't like me. Why, I'm not sure, but he just acts like it. Not that he's mean to me or anything, he's just very much not as friendly as the others.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I suddenly felt something warm touching my hand. I glanced down in suprise, and realized it was Kai's fingers. He had brushed them against the back of my hand while we were walking. My mind immediately dismissed it as an accident of walking too closely, but the next second he had slipped his hand around mine, grabbing hold of it. I glanced up at him and noticed he was watching me. I immediately turned to face forward again, feeling the heat beginning to creep up again.

"What is it with you and holding my hand?" I couldn't help asking, sort of grumbling it.

"It's what couples do," he answered simply.

I could hear in his tone that he wasn't teasing me, but my heart was starting to beat faster and I wanted this to just be a comfortable walk home. I didn't look at his face to check if he really was being serious or I had just heard him wrong, I was too embarrassed to look at him or allow him to see my face. Instead, I just went with the assumption that he was teasing me, like he usually does.

"Do you want to hold my hand because you sincerely want to, or just because it's what couples are supposed to do?" I asked, not bitterly, trying to sound teasing myself.

"Well," he began, "I'd rather put my arm around your shoulder, but I didn't think you'd be comfortable with that. But this is a good alternative."

My face flamed up at that.

"See," he said, and this time I could hear the smirk in his voice.

I turned to him to give him a look and saw that while he did have a small smirk on, his eyes were serious. The smirk slipped from his face after a second.

"I want you to know, I wasn't teasing you about that, though. I don't want you to be confused on that," he added, squeazing my hand.

I looked away again, my heart beating so hard and my nerves erratic. I glanced around us, trying to look at anything but him until I had calmed down. I stopped walking after a few more steps and let go of his hand, holding mine out towards my bag.

"Are you upset?" he asked, looking genuinely worried.

I shook my head, saying;

"No, this is where I live."

"Oh," was all he said as he handed me back my bag.

"Thank you," I practically mumbled as I pulled my bag onto my shoulders, staring at the ground between us, not sure what else to say, or if I was supposed to say good bye, or anything at all.

I saw him take a step toward me, and I instinctivly looked up at him. He stopped right in front of me, and leaned forward just a bit so his face was about a foot from mine. I felt my cheeks heat up even more, not at all sure what he was doing. My heart was thundering around in my chest, my stomach was pulled tight, and my brain shot into overdrive before it crashed and went blank. He stayed like that for a moment before smiling and pulling back, seemingly satisfied with whatever had just happened.

"I'll see you later, Soo Young," he said before turning and walking away, leaving me standing in front of my family's apartment building, stunned.

What in the world was that?

I stood there for a few more seconds while he walked away. As he turned a corner, he glanced back at me. I didn't keep looking at him long enough to see his expression, instead turning to rush into the building. I stood in the entrance before going up to my home, though, wanting to calm myself before seeing my mom. I was sure I looked like a trainwreck, and my emotions were definitely not helping with that image. I had to reel them back in and put them away until I could think about this all later. If I didn't get upstairs soon, my mom would probably wonder where I am, or I could run into Jin Ri and have to explain why I was standing around down here.

That spurred me into action and I walked over to the elevator, forcing myself to do so calmy. I hoped pretending like nothing had happened would help me to believe so, if only for long enough to get through dinner and socializing with my family until I could think it over.

Because, seriously, what in the world? 

I had no idea what he had really done, why he did it, or he had apparently learned from it. Or, even worse, why I was so affected. I had never been one to be comfortable with close proximity, but I had never reacted so strongly before. What was wrong with me?