Xiumin was a small kid for his age. He had friends that were taller than him by twenty, thirty centimeters, sometimes more. It always made him feel a little bit shy around them, like he didn’t deserve to be one of the older, ‘cool’ kids. But his friends – his ‘cool’ friends – always said that he’s cute and he’s like their gang’s mascot, so he didn’t think about it much. And his parents always told him he’s gonna grow taller, anyways, so he wasn’t worried.

Until Min came along.

Min was a year older than him. He’d see her in the corridors, before the lessons, since her class always had the lectures in a room next to theirs. She had the prettiest eyes Xiumin has ever seen, and she always had her hair done in all sorts of different hairstyles. Xiumin was curious what kind of hairstyle she’d have the next day.

He liked to just look at her from afar and admire her eyes and hairstyles in silence, but Min’s best friend didn’t, as it turned out.

“Stop staring at her every lunch break,” she said one day, crossing her arms on her chest protectively. She wasn’t as pretty as Min, and her hair was boring, straight and neat. “It’s creepy! We don’t like you.”

 “But you don’t know me,” Xiumin replied. “How can you dislike me if you don’t know me?”

The girl seemed to think about his words. The she nodded. “Okay, you’re right. I can’t. But it wouldn’t work out anyways.”

“What wouldn’t work out?”

“You can’t go out with Min!”

“Why not?”

“She can’t possibly date a guy that’s shorter than her, duh!”

Xiumin’s world pretty much crumbled down that day. Nothing seemed nice anymore. He didn’t even want to be that stupid gang mascot; everything was useless and pointless, because he was short.

A few weeks passed by, during which Xiumin pointedly ignored Min no matter where he went. He still hung out with his gang, but demanded not being called their mascot. They didn’t seem too happy about that development.

“Tell you what,” one of his cool friends said. “If you defeat Min in arm wrestling, we’ll stop calling you our mascot.”

Xiumin gaped at him. Min was known in their school for winning every possible arm wrestling match ever.

“But—that’s unfair!” he said. “She’s older than me, and stronger than all of you—“

“So you want to be our mascot, then? I thought you didn’t want that anymore?”

Xiumin glared at the guy. A few people from their group laughed.

“He looks like an angry hamster,” he heard them say.

“Okay!” he shouted. “I will arm-wrestle with her!”

And so he stomped away and went to Min’s classroom, the whole gang and the half of his own class following shortly after, whispering, joking and giggling. Xiumin stood in front of Min’s desk and the girl looked a bit startled when he slapped a hand onto the surface. She looked at him in disbelief.

“Eh?” she grunted.

That was the first time she looked him in the eyes, and the first thing she ever said to him.

“Wrestle with me,” he said, flushing deep red.

“Look at his cheeks, oh my God,” someone laughed. Xiumin felt his face getting even hotter. Min looked up at him, unsure.

“Um…okay,” she said. Xiumin nodded, grabbed a chair from someone’s desk, and put it on the other side of Min’s desk. They were sitting on the opposite sides now, facing each other, closer than Xiumin has ever been to her. Her eyes looked even cuter up close. And she was wearing ladybug hairclips.

“Okay, I’ll be the judge!” his cool older friend said, standing on their side as they put their elbows on the top of the desk. Xiumin took a deep breath before touching Min’s hand; he was a bit scared. Min was very strong. What if he loses? They’re gonna call him Mascot forever. And knowing his luck, everyone will laugh at him. Even if Min has defeated every single boy from school, he’d still be the one made fun of.

He swallowed hard.

“Ready?” his cool friend asked. “Three, two, one… Go!”

They started wrestling. Min was honestly so strong; Xiumin felt his biceps scream. He was only eight!

“He’s so red, look at him!”

“I can’t believe he decided to do it, he doesn’t stand a chance!”

Tears welled in his eyes. Min gasped suddenly.

And just then, her arm became less tense. He started winning, his arm slowly but surely pining Min’s arm onto the desk; the girl grunted and flinched.

“Oh nooo,” she moaned, moving her feet under the desk in annoyance.

And then Xiumin won by slamming her hand onto the desk.

The whole classroom erupted in sudden screams and congratulations, but also gasps of shock and giggles of madness.

Xiumin was never called Mascot ever again. Nobody wanted to try him at arm wrestling, and they also stopped asking Min about that.

It was raining one day and Min was waiting in front of the school, probably looking around for her parents. Xiumin stood next to her.

“You let me win, didn’t you?” he asked. Min looked at him, raising his brows.

“Eh?” she muttered.

*

“Look what I've got,” Min says, leaning over Xiumin’s shoulder. He’s typing away on his laptop but he focuses on the photo his girlfriend is showing to him. He smiles at it, happy as ever.

The photo was taken on the first day of summer. Xiumin has a bloody nose and a bruise on his cheek, and half of his face is swollen, but he’s grinning happily, holding his arm up in a peace sign. Next to him stands Min, taller than him, crying. She’s holding a baseball bat.

“God,” Xiumin gasps, taking the photo away from Min’s hands to look closer at it. “It was when I beat up the guy that cut off your hair with scissors, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Min says, smiling softly. She hugs him from behind, her arms loose on his shoulders and around his neck as they both stare at the picture. “I was so moved I didn’t know what to do. So I cried; obviously.”

Xiumin hums. He gives her the photo. Min kisses his cheek as she straightens up and heads to the bedroom.

“Hey.” Xiumin says. She stops abruptly and looks at him curiously. “You want to arm wrestle?”

Min raises her brows. “Eh?”

hey almond chocolate cakes

So life has been pretty hectic lately. School is a nuisance and I just had lots of exams preparing us for our final exams in May and so on and I'm sorry if I've been less active lately, or my replies have gotten shorter, or I haven't talk to you in a while. I'm hoping that as soon as Christmas break comes, it'll get a bit less stressful. Also, I'm preparing something you've been looking forward to in the RWW universe for this Christmas. It starts with chapter 32. 

Thanks for supporting me all this time <3 Also, a few people asked me about a Q&A session. So I thought I could do it this Christmas if enough questions flew in XD So if you have any questions for the Q&A, I guess go for it? And leave them in the comments :D Love you!