The rain sounds like a sweet music.

Her house is a good one hour travel away from school which is always a bad news to Luhan. She hates waking up early and having 8am class is like being slapped in the face twice with a fly swatter.

The good news is that the bus stop is miraculously just across her school; Luhan nearly kneeled down the dirty road to sing gospels. It saves so much of her time.

Luhan dropped the plastic bag containing a dressed chicken she bought hastily in a nearby supermarket for her laboratory practice. She sits just across a yawning Baekhyun and an uninterested Kris, both of her classmates already wearing their chef’s polo for today’s class. “Who’s dead?” she quipped, sliding her bag on top of the table and picks the plastic bag to place it beside her things. “You both look like someone who attended an overly dramatic burial.”

Baekhyun snorted, crossing his arms around his chest. The upper button of his uniform left unlatched and Luhan poked his side and chided about proper wearing of uniform, “Kyungsoo’s breathing fire against my neck. Do you know how it when that midget bosses me around? He’s a centimeter shorter than me!”

‘Height doesn’t dictate things, stupid.’ Luhan wants to voice out but keeps silent as she watches the two.

“Dude’s got all the rights, he’s a teacher after all.” Kris relaxes on his seat. Luhan sighs, every Friday’s dilemma was Baekhyun’s apparent hate for the Culinary professor. She doesn’t know why he hates him so much but she does have some unproven hypothesis. “Besides, you’re flirting with his assistant instead of cutting Julienne slice with the right measurement. ‘Cher will really go ballistic, stupid.” Kris continued.

Luhan ignored Baekhyun’s string of curses as he launches his fist to smack Kris’s shoulder but was too short to reach the yawning blonde. She didn’t laugh even when Baekhyun fell on his seat as he tries to actually hit Kris and the latter chortled at the small guy’s misfortunes. Luhan is busy scanning the noisy canteen for one particular person—

“You’re classmates are already in the Kitchen. You might want to run for your life, Lu.” Joonmyeon pulled the seat beside her and settled himself. Luhan whistled and pinched Joonmyeon’s thighs before smiling brightly, “That’s why I’m looking for you!” Luhan beams.

Joonmyeon scrunched his forehead.

“I need you to tell ‘Cher that I’m running late because of traffic and I’ll probably attend the last session of his practicum. Don’t worry, it will be a batch by batch performance and I need you to play innocent and put me in the last group.” Luhan exclaimed, matching her speech with funny hand gestures.

Joonmyeon chuckles softly before ruffling Luhan’s hair which made the latter groan about having an hour to actually style her unruly hair only to be ruined by Joonmyeon. “Okay,” the older said and Luhan swatted his hand away. “I’m also making a short trip to the canteen. Want anything in particular?”

“Combo meal B!” Kris and Baekhyun yells, Joonmyeon shakes his head and laughed. He glances at the smiling Luhan and raises a brow. “Same as them, oppa.” Luhan chirps.

-

It didn’t take Luhan a full minute to finish cutting the dressed chicken into eight portions as what her professor discussed last Tuesday. Kyungsoo checked her work and smiled brightly at her before writing her grades on his record book. Luhan got a full grade.

As soon as her batch finishes cutting chicken, washing the utensils and cleaning the working areas, they all went out of the Kitchen except for Luhan. They planned to cook the chicken she bought for lunch, she even asked for Kyungsoo’s permission.

“Just don’t set the Kitchen on fire, okay?” Kyungsoo smiles those heart shaped smile that Luhan adores before slanting his eyes to someone beside Luhan who is looking so pissed and all. “I know someone who forgets the burner open, might want to restrict that person from touching any equipment here.”

Baekhyun spluttered death threats against the professor as soon as he exits the room. “Did you see that, guys? Did you ing see how he humiliated me?! I wasn’t even doing anything!”

“Wasn’t doing anything yet, Baek. The keyword.” Luhan jokes.

“He wasn’t even pertaining to you.” Kris rolls his sleeves up. Joonmyeon did the same, “Kris’ right. ‘Cher didn’t say any Baekhyun, heard nothing.” he shrugged.

As if on cue, the door creaks open, “If I’m Kyungsoo-ssi, I’ll probably slap your face with that cast-iron pan twice to remove all the stupidity from your brain.” Jongin walks with his long legs briskly to the working station and places his bag just beside their things. “Hey guys!” he chirped.

“Got assaulted by Heechul? You look like some gay dude you.” Kris says, making his way to the pantry to get the utensils. Joonmyeon followed him to help. Baekhyun also trailed behind them but went for the second door to get the knife and bowls.

Jongin sighs and heaves out an airy laugh, “Professor Heechul asked me for help in exchange of extra grades but all I did in his office was sit and watch him sing off tune.”

Luhan rubbed the chicken with salt before washing it with water to remove unwanted taste. She placed the chicken back on the stainless bowl and washed her hands with hand soap, a thing she learned in her sanitation class, and rolled the sleeves of her uniform up to avoid it from getting wet. “If you ask Professor Heechul to give you high grades even if you don’t attend his class, he’ll probably give you twice of what you asked.”

Jongin reaches to clip back some of Luhan’s falling bangs. Luhan muttered a soft thank you. He then moved to the pantry to get the ingredients. “I don’t want to someone’s for grades, Luhan.” he joked as soon as he come back to settle the ingredients with Baekhyun.

Baekhyun stands beside him with a knife to start dicing the onion. “Jongin here is a straight dude, Luhan. Just the two of them are gays—“ Baekhyun motions his thumb to the pantry before inhaling sharply, “Wait a minute—what’s taking them so long to get the wok and stockpot?”

“Boyfriends,” Jongin and Luhan chuckles at the same time.

Maybe some dirty thoughts plagued Baekhyun’s mind and had him blushing, the tips of his ears burning red and she’s damn sure Baekhyun is thinking of something—rather someone. Luhan hope her woman’s intuition is a hundred percent right.

“I’ll grill the chicken, you make the sauce.” Jongin nudges her side. Luhan looks up to him and blinks twice. “O-oh, yeah. No problem.” She turns her back and walks empty handed towards the heavy burner only to head back to the working station, pouting.

Jongin was rubbing salt and pepper to the chicken when Luhan appears beside him. He raises a brow, “Forgot something?”

Luhan juts her lips more, making it cuter and irresistible because Jongin is a er for cute things. “I’m afraid of the burner… feels like it’s gonna explode.” Luhan pulls the station drawer to pull two towels and an apron. She tossed the towels to Baekhyun and wrapped the apron around her waist. “Can you…?” she motioned the rows of heavy burner at the side.

Jongin catches her eyes for a few second and sighs. He walks to the burner and clicked it open, producing high fire. Jongin twisted the knob a few down to lower it to his desired fire. Luhan clapped her hands and thanked him. Just in time, Kris appeared behind her with the stockpot half filled with water. “Linguine or spaghetti?” he asks Luhan before adding oil and a pinch of salt to the water.

“Linguine!” Baekhyun yells, knife pacing fast as he chops the garlic. They already studied Basic Culinary, except for Luhan, and know a lot about foods. Luhan on the other hand just started her year as an irregular student. Most of her classes includes advance second year so she regularly meets the gang except for two subjects which she takes with two freshmen class. If not for Joonmyeon, Luhan would’ve been a lost sheep in the campus—she knows no one.

“Got it!”

It’s fun; Friday is a fun day for her. Minus the fact that she’s staying until 7:30pm for their late night Food and Beverages class, Luhan enjoys being with her new friends—although some might think wrongly of her for being the only girl in the group. She doesn’t mind, boys are more trustworthy and a lot more into the friend zone than girls. (Luhan hates whinny es.)

Joonmyeon first approached her after class when she’s finding for a place to eat back in the mall. He smiled those angelic smiles and had Luhan trailing behind him. There was Kris, Baekhyun, and Jongin eating finger foods at the food court and then they started hanging out.

She fits in just right.

Kris is Joonmyeon’s special someone, Luhan literally choked over her chicken at KFC after hearing the news. She looked at Baekhyun who shrugs, ‘It’s true, look under the table and they’re being chummy.’ he said and Luhan really bent down to catch one naughty hand caressing someone’s inner thigh. She bumped her head against the table and swore to never listen to Baekhyun again.

Jongin, on the other hand, is the quiet type. Luhan finds him mysterious. He smiles a lot and god, does he look so adorable. Jongin often reminds Luhan of her past crush in high school, Lee Taemin. They awfully look similar, except for that tan skin and manlier complexion. No wonder their professor, Kim Heechul, has hots for Jongin. He’s handsome. A period mark after and nothing follows.

“Stir fry the veggies then mix the pasta.” Joonmyeon scans the cookbook. Luhan shakes the pan before tossing the vegetables. She repeats it three times in a medium fire before adding the pasta. Kris quips about the seasoning, less salt, and the herbs should be added before plating. Luhan picks up the chopsticks to stir the pasta better.

Jongin serves them his chicken teriyaki, sauce courtesy of Luhan of course. He slides the plated food against the smooth metal working station towards Kris. Baekhyun pouts about not being able to do the pasta—Kyungsoo strictly forbids him from using the gas range without his supervision. He really wants to do the pasta, it being his specialty. “If you just behave like a good kid then ‘Cher could’ve considered allowing you cook without him watching over you.” Jongin grabs tissue to wipe the excess sauce from the side of the plate, sanitation of course. “You almost had us all killed last year when you did the flambé.” He remembers the big red fire in Baekhyun’s pan last semester. He shivers in horror.

“That midget didn’t mention the amount of rum I need to use!”

Kris tosses him the dirty tissue Jongin used, “Then what does common sense mean? You used too much alcohol in your dish.” Joonmyeon shakes in laughter. “Kris’ right, too much alcohol will cause big fire. ‘Cher discussed about it in Basic Culinary. Baekhyun must probably be drifting off to wonderland during our class.” he leans against Kris’ chest and the blond smiled, pinching Joonmyeon’s small nose.

“I am perfectly awake!”

Baekhyun continues to banter with Kris with his side losing more as he argues. Joonmyeon snuggles to Kris, he’s cuddly like that.

Luhan turns the burner knob off. The fire sizzles for a second before going off. She huffs and gently drops the chopstick on the saucer. Something touches her forehead and she saw Jongin leaning closer, dabbing the sweat off of her skin with tissue. “I can do it myself,” she softly pushes Jongin’s hand away and pouted. Jongin tilts his head a bit and smiles at her, continuing to wipe off her sweat with a new set of tissue. She stays obedient, Jongin gave her a stern look when she tried to stop him again. The smile appears again and Luhan puffs air to her bangs.

Luhan catches Jongin’s eyes for a good two seconds as soon as he finished before turning to Baekhyun who’s currently whining about being bullied. “I think they’re hungry.” She muttered.

Jongin slants his eyes and nods, “Yeah,” he breathes out, “Let’s eat?” his eyes crinkles and Luhan thinks stars really do twinkle.

She thinks he’s so much nicer than Taemin.

Jongin moves back with the pasta and Luhan continues to stare.

-

Luhan feels the air gently hitting her skin. She closes her eyes as the gentle breeze blows her hair, it feels so cool and nice.

She blinks her eyes open and saw Jongin leaning against the railings. He was looking at her, “You left,” Jongin stated.

“It’s hot inside the Kitchen. I don’t want to spoil my uniform with so much sweat. I didn’t bring any extra.” she tugged the neckline of her chef’s polo and takes a whiff before deciding. Jongin nodded, looking away. “Why are you here?” Luhan gulps and bites her lower lip. She don’t talk much with Jongin, she feels awkward even though they’re in the same group of friends.

—maybe because he looks like Taemin and sets her heart in fast pace, she doesn’t know.

“Kris and Joonmyeon,” he chuckles cutely. He gives Luhan a knowing look, silently telling her the things the two of them might be doing inside.

“Baekhyun?” Luhan asks, moving to lean her back against the metal railing. She turns to Jongin, “Where’s Baekhyun?”

Jongin suddenly laughs, eyes forming into crescents. Luhan couldn’t stop her eyes from staring at his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as deep voice rumbles from his chest. Luhan frowns a bit, Jongin shakes his head while laughing. “Hey, why are you laughing? What’s funny?”

“Nothing,”

“Jongin.” Luhan smacks his shoulder. She feels her chest constricting. She might have crossed the invisible line dividing the two of them. They’re not really close… not really friends… not really. They only belong to the same group of friends. Sure, they interact with each other, Luhan catches Jongin looking at her, Jongin catches her doing the same. No talk. Jongin leans to brush her bangs away from her face or sometimes play with the tips of her hair, Luhan plays with the sling of his bag and pulls his sleeves when they walk side by side. They don’t talk much but does things worth more than exchanging words.

His laugh sounds like chimes blown by the wind.

Maybe Luhan likes him because he looks like Taemin.

Maybe Jongin likes her too.

Maybe she’s reading it wrong.

Who knows?

Luhan pinches his cheek before running inside the Kitchen to save her heart. Jongin runs his fingers to where Luhan had touched him.

Who knows.

-

“Hello, superstar.” Yixing greets Luhan. The brown haired Chinese taps Yixing’s arm and patted the empty mono-block chair beside her. Yixing takes the seat and immediately slings an arm around Luhan’s shoulder. She’s used to his antics, being touchy feely and all.

“Cutting class again? You have Psychology, right?” Luhan moves the bottle of coke to Yixing, urging him to take a sip. He grabs the bottle and downs the drink. “Yeah, but I'm not in the mood to listen about brains and human behavior.”

Luhan hits his head with her knuckles. “You’ll flank the class!” she growls, hitting Yixing for the second time. “I heard you also ditched Western Cuisine earlier. Don’t lie, Joonmyeon didn’t see you in class.” Joonmyeon and the others are ahead of her in the Culinary program. Luhan’s just starting her HRM degree in this semester.

Yixing is one of their friends who often attend school. He claims that his girlfriend is a lot more time-worthy than attending classes. Luhan scolded him every time he ditches class but Yixing is stubborn to put her naggings in mind. He says he can pass the exams without attending lousy lectures.

“It’s already four, Psycho finishes at four. Kris and the others might be arriving here any minute now—hey! They’re here.” Luhan face palms when Yixing winks at her. He gets up to greet their friends, howling in laughter when Kris slaps the back of his head but didn’t refuse doing their bro handshake.

“Bored?” Luhan bends down to rest her forehead against the table. Maybe she did that to avoid Jongin’s stare or maybe to hide her face. Why is he even looking at her? Is there something wrong with her face? Luhan sometimes wants to ask Jongin.

“Yeah,” Luhan’s voice comes out raspy. She cleared .

Jongin hums, as he settled his bag on the table, just beside Luhan’s. Joonmyeon was pulled to the canteen to buy them food, leaving Luhan alone with Jongin. “They’re buying something to eat.”

She slants her head to the side to look at the other male. Her locks messy against her face but she has no plans to make some effort to brush it away. “I’m not hungry.”

Jongin hums again, resting his arms against the table. It touches Luhan’s. The latter gulps. Then he’s reached to swipe Luhan’s bangs away from her eyes like he always does. It feels awkward. It feels like something is dipping in her stomach whenever Jongin’s fingers subtly touch her face. He is a boy, Luhan is a girl, both of them single but they aren’t friends.

The sling of Jongin’s bad hangs by the table and Luhan finds it interesting. She leans to play with it, Jongin still has his eyes trained on her. “You’re not gonna eat?” she asks softly, eyes shyly peeking at Jongin.

“Nope, not hungry.” He slides his hand back to hold the sling which Luhan plays, tugging it up to capture her hand. “You hurt your finger,” he caught a sight of a burn glowing purplish against Luhan’s white complexion. “You didn’t tell me.”

Luhan sits up, snatching her hand back as she stretches her arms. Luhan suddenly misses the warmth but dismisses the thought fast. She yawns unattractively and moves to face Jongin. “It doesn’t matter. It’s just a small wound, nothing serious, not death threatening either.”

The other male was about to say something but Baekhyun hollers nearby with some nasty joke as he walks towards their table. Luhan throws him a smile and chatted about Kyungsoo just to piss Baekhyun. She wants to change the atmosphere and probably distract herself. She doesn’t like what she’s feeling right now. It’s weird.

Jongin remained silent throughout the break.

-

The lecture finishes over time, 7:54pm.

Joonmyeon and Kris bid goodbye as soon as they left the lecture hall. “I need to buy something in the market.” Joonmyeon smiles apologetic at her. Luhan waives a hand, telling him that she’s okay.

She’s not.

Not when she’s soaking wet under the rain. She doesn’t have an umbrella and god she hates herself for not buying one for times like this. Her bus stop’s a good five minute walk from their building. It’s already late and there’s no student around to hitch for a ride. Luhan groans, her phone is drained dead because Yixing played a lot of Asphalt 8: Airborne from it.

A hand tugs her from her mental cursing.

Jongin raises his umbrella. “Let’s go.”

Luhan stares at him. She bites her lips. Damn, now she’s thinking that what’s happening is like a scene ripped out from an overly clichéd shoujou manga. But this is real life. No plots, no story lines, nothing.

Just Jongin holding out his umbrella for her.

“Let’s go, Luhan.” he calls her name, which is very rare. They don’t call each other’s names. They aren’t friends, they aren’t something, but they have this line that divides them from being strangers yet Jongin is acting so weird… yet Luhan is acting weird herself.

The rain pours hard. The street lights glow and makes the droplets twinkle in yellow, orange and red. The street is empty and their shoes are soaked with water.

Luhan’s shoulder bumps with Jongin’s chest, his arm comfortably slung around her shoulders. They are walking in silence but Luhan enjoys the serenity.

The rain pours hard and it sounds like sweet music.

A very nice background as Jongin walks Luhan to her bus stop.

It’s funny… both of them has nothing to say but it feels like their hearts are talking in harmony—beating equally fast with the same tempo.

Luhan feels warm against Jongin. She looks up to him, blinking her eyes when he looks down at her. He tightens his hold around her. Luhan feels numb inside, Jongin makes her feel cold and hot and fluttery.

-

Luhan has a long time crush. She likes Lee Taemin so much. That was in the past.

Luhan is probably in love. Maybe, sort of, she doesn’t know but Kim Jongin makes her feel that way.

“Bye,” he bid his farewell, waiving his hand before turning back to walk a separate way.

“Bye,” Luhan says.

The rain doesn’t stop.

Luhan prays for Monday to come already. She misses Jongin.

--
i just can't get over it. i don't know. am i assuming things? nah. but kailu.
ps: seonbae if you're reading this. what about this kind of subtlety? or should i make it more subtle? im halfway done btw. <3