Sera was skipping down the halls of SM the next day like any other day, but she was in a happier mood.

She had graduated, she was finally away from the hell that everyone else called school. Nothing in her knowledge could bring her mood down, not even Sehun at that time could seem to put her down, though he hadn’t spoken to her since that night.

“Sera!” A voice called.

She spun around. “Hey, Henry!”

“Where were you yesterday?”

“I was out, with some friends,” she answered. She still couldn’t bring herself to call Myungsoo her boyfriend.

“I was going to say this yesterday, but can I talk to you for a few minutes?”

“Of course!” She answered happily, letting him take her to one side before he spoke.

“Uh, this is a little hard for me to say, but…” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I like you, quite a lot actually.”

Her entire body froze, unable to speak. It all made sense now: the coincidence of seeing her everyday, always being concerned for her, the entire aura of him when he was around her; it was all because of this.

She began apologising immediately. She must’ve given the wrong impression; she didn’t have any romantic feelings for him whatsoever, everything she felt was purely friendship, even sibling feelings. “Henry, I-” She was cut off. He’d leaned forwards and pressed their lips together before she’d said the third word as he tried to hold her waist and pull her close. Harshly, she shoved him off; it was all wrong. It all felt wrong.

Her breathing was heavy as she tried to form a coherent sentence. “You can’t just-”

“What, in God’s name, are you doing to my sister?!”

Chanyeol was storming down the corridor, eyes fixated on Henry as the latter simply widened his eyes. Nearer and nearer her brother came and Sera watched in horror as Chanyeol hit the older male straight in the jaw, causing him to lose his balance and fall as the Exo member stood above him, glaring and ready to deliver another blow.

“Chanyeol! Stop, don’t. It’s fine. I-I understand!” She said desperately.

“Nobody touches my little sister,” he said as he hugged her tight. “Except Myungsoo, but not in front of me,” she felt him grin against her, before he turned serious again as he turned his eyes to the guy on the floor, clutching his jaw. “You don’t touch my sister, got it?”

Henry nodded quickly, and Sera got a short glimpse of his jaw. To her, it didn’t look bad, just a little red and swollen.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” she gasped as her sibling led her away from the scene.

“He can’t just kiss you and get away with it! You didn’t want to do it, and he didn’t even let you finish your sentence! And you have a-a, uh, boyfriend.” He said the last word hesitantly, as if it made him uncomfortable to say, which it probably did: she was his sister after all. But that didn’t answer the question of why she felt uncomfortable when he said it too.

Nonetheless, after his explanation, she understood his point from where he was standing as they entered the practice room and walked over to Baekhyun and Chen.

“What’s wrong with you two?” Baekhyun asked, referring to Sera’s flustered face and Chanyeol’s fuming one.

“That bastard confessed to her. Then kissed her, and she didn’t even want it!”

“Uh, who are we talking about here?”

“Henry Lau,” Sera answered.

“Oh my god. Chanyeol, what did you do?”

“Hit him in the jaw,” he answered grumpily, half regretting his actions.

“Which you need to apologise for,” she added. “What Henry did was wrong, but I don’t think he deserves a swollen face for it.”

“I’ll apologise next time I see him. But in all fairness, he shouldn’t have kissed my sister. Especially when she has a boyfriend.”

She flinched at the word. There it was again, boyfriend.

“I’m going to talk to Kris, I’ll speak to you all later.”

The three nodded and watched him go, and once out of hearing distance, Baekhyun and Chen started with their questions.

“So, you already told him about L?” Baekhyun inquired.

“Yeah, he was fine with it. But I think that’s because he’s known him since I was nine and he was twelve,” she explained. “I feel so bad for Henry though.”
 

“If you were my sister, I think I’d probably hit him as well if I’m honest,” Chen admitted.

“I can never face him again, like ever. I don’t even get why he’d like me, is he stupid?”

“Well, probably not. You’re pretty, polite, likeable, and you speak English like him, right? How could he not like you,” he answered. “I meant it in a sibling way,” he added.

“Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

“Better not say things like that in front of Chanyeol though. He thought we had a thing going on,” she laughed, rechecking that Chanyeol was on the other side of the room when she’d said it as Chen spluttered at the statement.

“He really thought that?”

“Yep.”

“Wow.”

“I know.”

“When did he say this?”

“Yesterday after you all left. He said he would approve of it. So, Jongdae, if you’re interested, my brother won’t kill you,” she teased, nudging him with her elbow and raising her eyebrow.

Both boys burst out laughing with her until Chanyeol returned to them, when they all quickly made an excuse.

“Baekhyun told a joke,” she quickly answered.

“Ah, was it the one about the Muffins?” Chanyeol inquired.

“Uh, yeah?”

“That’s a funny one,” he concluded, as Suho called them over for one final practice.

When everything was done and everyone began packing up, she heard Baekhyun call Chanyeol over to him from the other side of the room.

“Yeol!”

“Yeah, Baek?”

“I’m helping Sera out with her singing some more, so I’ll bring her home again.”

The girl widened her eyes at this. She thought the ‘singing lessons’ had ended when she stopped speaking to Sehun, despite what Baekhyun had said about her having the lessons for real.

Chanyeol looked between Sera and Baekhyun suspiciously before finding nothing valuable to him and shrugging it off, leaving with a goodbye to the boy and a see you later to the girl.

Once pretty much all the members had left, she turned to Baekhyun. “Why did you do that?”

“Singing lessons. You wanted them remember?”

“I thought they ended when I stopped talking to him,” she said through her teeth.

Baekhyun shrugged. “Obviously not, or you wouldn’t be here. I just need to go get something, I’ll be back in a minute,” he said, gone before she could even say ‘okay’.

Sighing a little, she leaned herself on the wall and entertained herself with a random game on her phone, until a voice interrupted her.

“What was Chanyeol-hyung angry about when he walked in?”

She looked up and locked eyes with Sehun, who looked all in all ready to leave, but had stopped to ask the question.

A slight scoff escaped when she wondered why a guy like him would even care, but she told him anyway. “I-I had an encounter with Henry?”

Sehun furrowed his brows. “What kind of encounter?”

“He-He confessed and k-kissed me,” she answered, hesitant and nervous to say it for herself.

She swore she saw Sehun’s lips form into a tight line and his eyes turn angry once she’d said what she’d said. “But everything’s sorted now, nothing to worry about,” she added.

“What did you do? Did you push him off?” It sounded more like a demand of an answer rather than a question.

“Of course I pushed him off! Why? Do you think I’m like that? Dating one person and kissing another?”

“O-Of course not! That’s not what I meant and you know it. I was just-”

“Totally. Why would you even ask? Do I seem like that type of person?”

“Jesus Christ, calm down. Look, I didn’t mean to imply that, I’m sorry.”

She sighed. “It-It’s okay. I’m sorry for lashing out. Everything’s just stressful,” she admitted.

“I understand,” he answered. “I know we’ve just apologised and that’s like a first time ever for us, but can we talk about something?”

Thinking for a moment beforehand, she nodded hesitantly.

“About, what happened…”

“Sehun. I’m serious, just forget it. It never happened. I think you regret it, right? Well so did I. I shouldn’t have kissed you back and I’m sorry for that, but let’s just forget it. Okay?”

Sehun’s lips moved around, trying to find words to say before he finally settled on one. “Okay.”

Nodding, she turned to leave the room. She wouldn’t tell anyone that one of the last things she said to him was a lie.

Baekhyun was in the hallway when she exited the room, and he looked up at her in surprise.

She was pleading with him when she said her words.

“Please can you take me home?”