Jonghyun looked down at the pen in his hands, smooth and cold in his fingers as it glided comfortably in total contrast with his mental state.

He knew that he was told to wait by his love constructor to wait for the small talk to start and never to initiate it at any cost but he would be honest. The silence was suffocating him. It was one of those silences where you could hear the awkwardness floating around in the atmosphere, but no one had the courage to point it out.

"So."

Jonghyun's eyes flaunted to Taeyeon's sleeve that she was grasping slightly. Whether it was due to awkwardness or shyness (Jonghyun preferred the later), only God and Ji Eun would know.

"What nice weather."

Jonghyun accidentally let a snort escape his mouth at the cliché and sudden small-talk starter, cringing at the amount of awkwardness that followed it. He looked at Taeyeon, wondering how her expression would look like. Their eyes met and both cracked into a wide smile leading into a small fit of laughter.

"I'm really sorry; I didn't know what to say." Taeyeon managed out of laughs, "It sounds stupid now that I've said it but I was just trying to make everything better."

"Well at least we're talking." Jonghyun consoled, laughing loudly, his heart giving off beats of happiness.

Sunbae starting the conversation. Check.

"Honestly I should've said or asked something else." Taeyeon held up her hands in defeat, shaking her head.

"Like what?"

"Like, I don't know."

"Like anything you're curious about?" Jonghyun smiled, throwing bait for his love interest to take. He prayed that she wouldn't find it too obvious or creepy, hands clasping together.

"About who?" Taeyeon raised a brow, her eyes saying that she fully knew well who.

"Me." Jonghyun teased, smiling.

Taeyeon giggled at Jonghyun's attitude. Jonghyun swore he could feel the good atmosphere, the slightly flirty way Taeyeon was now behaving. Wasn't it a good sign that she wasn't pushing Jonghyun away of his approach? Wasn't it a super good sign she was playing along?

Jonghyun let his smile smooth down to a small grin, trusting himself enough to walk closer to Taeyeon.

"Hm... Anything I'm curious about..." Taeyeon scrunched her nose and frowned in thought, unconsciously stepping closer to the road.

"Careful." Jonghyun interrupted, habitually placing his hand around Taeyeon's shoulder and pulling her closer to him.

Taeyeon looked up in slight surprise and her head fell, a shy smile creeping onto her face.

"Uh, um." Taeyeon let out a small giggle, "Here's one thing I'm curious about. Are you always like this?"

Sunbae being curious about me. Check.

"Like what?" Jonghyun let his soft grip relax and his hand was stuffed into a pocket.

"Like a gentleman." Taeyeon's eyes darted from the road to the younger boy's hand.

Jonghyun blinked in realization and his face grew hot. It took him a second to forget about his "mission" and notice that he had just initiated close skin ship with his crush without feeling like he was going to die.

"O-Oh! Oh, sorry." He laughed, "I was just you know, cause the road is dangerous." He shrugged, looking away and placing his free hand against the back of his neck. "It's a sort of habit I guess. My older sister was always a klutz so I was trained from childhood to be more considerate to people. Especially through actions."

"That proves it." Taeyeon smiled, eyes twinkling, "You know what they say though, manners can't be learned."

"What can I say?" Jonghyun shrugged arrogantly, "That's why the girls love me."

"I can see why they do." Taeyeon stifled a snort, "Your princely manners and kid like humor."

"I do not have kid like humor." Jonghyun scoffed in offense, "You must be confusing me with Onew."

"Oh trust me; you have no idea how difficult it gets to stop him from blasting out puns to the tennis newbies." Taeyeon swiveled around, eyes wide. Jonghyun saw the desperation in her eyes, already able to imagine the torture Onew had put her through.

"Let me guess." Jonghyun cleared his throat and plastered on a toothy grin, something very similar to Onew.

Taeyeon burst into laughter at the new found talent.

"Do you know what you have to practice before you play tennis?" Jonghyun raised his hands in excitement, perfectly imitating Onew's manner before a horrible joke was told.

"I already know, I already know the answer." Taeyeon pointed weakly at Jonghyun in mid wheeze, "He's used this before!"

"You should practice... Nine-nis."

Taeyeon nodded in full empathy, her shoulders shaking up and down in silent laughter.

"You'll also get disqualified from the club if you miss the ball ten times." Jonghyun grinned, still doing his best to imitate his friend, "If you do that, it'll become a ten-miss."

"Stop! Stop!" Taeyeon shook her head, "It's so horrible!"

Jonghyun snickered along, his face relaxing to become himself, his Onew-soul dissipating into the air.

The laughter died down and Jonghyun quickly saw the conversation was beginning too, so he quickly opened his mouth with anything that came to his poor mind.

"So, what are you doing this weekend?"

"Are you busy this weekend?"

The two stopped, both astonished and amused at the similarity in phrases and urgency to save the dying conversation.

"You go first." Jonghyun said, even though he had clearly and plainly heard what his crush had said.

"I was just wondering, if..." Taeyeon smiled and brushed a stray hair behind her ears, "If you had free time this weekend."

Jonghyun let himself do a small mental ceremony, a mini version of himself jumping around and fist pumping at the large amount of progress he had ever since he signed up with his love consultant. He almost forgot to play hard to get his mouth already forming a happy 'Yes'.

"...Probably not." Jonghyun glanced at Taeyeon looking for any signs of disappointment.

So far, he couldn't tell. Jonghyun took the opportunity to follow Ji Eun's advice, or rather, order.

"I wish I had free time." At least this time he wasn't completely lying, "I'm pretty sure I might be busy."

"Oh." Taeyeon said, "What a pity."

Jonghyun stopped himself from getting too many expectations out of the small phrase. He couldn't deny that his heart felt like flying and his brain felt like mush. He fought all urge to just blurt out his undying love for sunbae, but he stopped since he still couldn't tell whether his sunbae was just being considerate or if she really felt like she had missed out on something.

"Why you ask?" Jonghyun leaned over, grumbling when the setting sun's harsh orange glare shone onto his eyes mercilessly.

Taeyeon looked over and giggled, eyes softening to half circles.

"I was just wondering if we could have, I don't know, hung out." Taeyeon shrugged, feeling the need to honestly answer.

"We?" Jonghyun's eyes perked up, the edges of his lips curling into a cheeky grin when Taeyeon noticed it and playfully rolled her eyes in quick response.

"We as in Onew, Key, and Ji Eun." Taeyeon clarified, lifting a finger for each name.

"Oh."

This time Jonghyun was disappointed and he shrugged, "I don't know their plans. Pretty sure Key will be studying his off for the tests though. I don't know why he's that stressed over beating Ji Eun though, he always gets over 90s or high 80s."

"Wow, really?" Taeyeon eyes widened, "I've always heard that he got just average scores."

"Nah," Jonghyun shook his head, "That was him in high school. He got rejected by this girl he really liked."

Jonghyun looked up into the air, trying to remember his high school days and the day Key came huffing and puffing to him like a mad man.

"Apparently, we were too quick to judge looks and the girl who we all thought was a nice and smart girl was obnoxious and arrogant. The only thing good about her, was her face if I'm to be completely blunt." Jonghyun smirked as he remembered the girl with perfect skin and perfect grades as old annoyance bit at his legs.

"Oh, what did she look like?" Taeyeon's voice lowered.

"Eh well, she was the typical cute girl Key likes. Not my type though." Jonghyun glanced at Taeyeon's reaction to his words and continued when her face wasn't viewable from his angle, "She had round eyes and was smaller than most girls. She was super smart too. Like, 1st in the school for every exam for every quarter."

"Like Ji Eun." Taeyeon chuckled, "So? Why was she obnoxious and arrogant?"

"Oh, right. She was super rude when she rejected Key." Jonghyun rolled his eyes, "She didn't even do any cliché pity-phrase and just straight up said that she was rejecting him because he wasn't smart enough."

Taeyeon swiveled over, her expression exasperated as if she was the one in the story.

Jonghyun smiled at her reaction and continued, "So Key, broken-hearted high school Key, came home and decided that he was going to take her place of being the school genius to prove her wrong and that she was being stupid."

"But he's in Seoul University, one of the best, and he's still got that strong revenge thing going on?" Taeyeon blinked in astonishment and almost admiration.

"Nah, now it's more of just a winning thing to him. It makes him feel better than people he said." Jonghyun laughed.

"Oh, wow." Taeyeon's worried expression fizzled into laughter, both satisfied with the happy end.

"Wait!" Taeyeon clapped, "What about that girl, what happened?"

"Hm?" Jonghyun tilted his head.

"Key must've gotten first place if he's in Seoul University, but what about that girl? Is she in this school right now?" The sunbae frantically searched her mind for any people that she could relate to the girl in the story but eventually groaned out of frustration.

"Nope." Jonghyun began to explain, "It turns out she got asked out not soon after by a boy who was in 3rd or 2nd place in the school. She accepted him and they began to go out. But they broke up and I think it ended pretty badly, no, horribly, so neither of them applied to Seoul University, thinking the other would go."

"Hatred over Brains." Taeyeon concluded, "Well that's ironic. They both made a stupid choice for a smart place."

"Key usually says that he dodged a bullet but I'm most positive that he still is concerned for the girl. Just because he's a nice guy." Jonghyun smiled.

"And yet, this nice guy is staying at home, studying. Is that why he doesn't have a girlfriend?" Taeyeon laughed, turning a corner.

"Partially. Also now he's very careful in choosing the girls he likes. I think ever since then he's been avoiding petite girls. Maybe he has short girls trauma." Jonghyun snickered.

"Jonghyun!" Taeyeon laughed, hitting the hoobae's shoulder lightly.

"Do you have a boyfriend sunbae?" Jonghyun smiled, ears popping wide for an answer.

Taeyeon sighed, shaking her head.

"I've been single my entire life. How ridiculous is that?"

"You're just hard to approach."

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment." Taeyeon eyed Jonghyun, a teasing smile resting on her lips.

"It is!" Jonghyun chortled, "I'm saying that you're just kind of too high up on the status for guys to just easily ask you out."

"What guys!" Taeyeon threw her hands up.

"Guys like me-" Jonghyun stopped mid-laugh and froze when Taeyeon slowly turned around with a confused smile.

Both couldn't say a word as they the silence fill with passing cars and the sound of leaves teasing them in the wind.

"You have to admit it’s kind of hard flirting playfully with you for me." Jonghyun began, "All the other dudes won't get that we're just friends."

He wanted to run back to Ji Eun and report his failures for a chance of the God of Love to fix him and never turn him on again.

"Just friends." Taeyeon repeated and turned her back towards Jonghyun.

As Taeyeon didn't notice Jonghyun almost dying, he too didn't see his goddess going red, blushing.

Taeyeon tried to push down her growing smile but it didn't work, her hoobae's words floating and appearing over and over in her head as she tried each time to shut it down.

Knock it off Taeyeon! He's just saying that with no feelings. That's just who he is. Why are you getting flustered?

She shook her head, convincing herself with a final thought, and took in a deep breath.

"There's my bus stop." Taeyeon muttered, her words holding onto the air as if they were on strings made of ice.

"Oh, oh! Yeah." Jonghyun threw on a wide, embarrassed smile and trotted next to Taeyeon.

"So, no free time huh?" Taeyeon asked once more, ignoring the hope in her heart.

"Probably not." Jonghyun shook his mind of his own thoughts and instead tried stuffing them with Ji Eun's advice and repeated them over and over.

"Well. When you do, tell me! Then we can all get together on..." Taeyeon pondered, "On Sunday to finish our studying and maybe even go out to buy Ji Eun's book."

Jonghyun let out a sharp exhale and nodded, "Well at least we know how happy one genius will be."

Taeyeon laughed softly, pulling out her bus card out of her purse and stepping to the edge of the sidewalk.

"If you have anything you need help for, just tell me."

"You should talk about how you have plans this weekend and how you're not available. Also how you have a crush on someone."

Jonghyun blinked.

How you have a crush on someone.

Crush on someone.

Crush

He almost winced noticeably, realizing that he had all the time from the university to the bus stop to drop hints that he had a light interest in someone. The fact that Ji Eun would realize that Jonghyun had not done as she had said, and that he had more than enough time to give clues to Taeyeon, scared him more than his own mother.

"Sunbae!" Jonghyun called out, his mouth again moving faster than his brain.

The goddess looked back from her shoulder, her foot resting on the top step of the bus, card ready in hand, hovering over the device. Taeyeon smiled and raised her eyebrows in response.

A response that was too quick and too natural, only further employed Jonghyun to just say whatever was on his mind. It didn’t help that the bus door was slowly closing as Jonghyun’s words stumbled out of his mouth like pebbles.

"I have a crush on Ji Eun. Please help me.”