Bonus chapter:

Luhan

Luhan lost everything he had.

At least it felt like he did. He was lying on his bed, reading a book to get his mind off of things and fade into a different reality that wasn’t his. It wasn’t quite working. He could still remember the feeling. It felt like Jinah ripped open his chest and left him to die. The same girl he had given his whole heart to. He loved her like he didn’t know how to do anything else.

It was ironic that she made him feel like the luckiest guy in the world before, but yet at that moment he felt that the whole world turned its back on him and told him his happiness was coming from a lie.

It was all a lie.

He recalled all the moments they shared, all the tight embraces and the sweet kisses. It was all a lie, he repeated to himself.

Tossing his book away, Luhan gave up on it. He had been reading the same lines for the hundredth time. Getting up, he left his room for food. When was the last time he ate a full meal?

“There you are.” Sehun was in the kitchen with Chanyeol and Yixing.

Without looking at them, Luhan stared at the food Sehun had for dinner the night before.

“We were talking about going laser tagging. Wanna come?”

Realizing he didn’t have much of an appetite, Luhan settled for a bag of chips in the pantry instead. “No,” he said to answer them, ripping the bag open.

“Why not?” Chanyeol was protesting.

“Hey… What’s wrong?” Sehun was the first one to put together his actions from the past few days. He sensed something was bothering him but didn’t bother bringing it up because Luhan never liked to talk about those kind of things. But now Sehun was realizing that Luhan wasn’t actually eating very well and trapping himself inside his room. There was something serious happening.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Luhan said, his voice sounding robotic. Correction: Everything was wrong.

Sehun raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. “I heard you called in sick at work today. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

But he wasn’t.

“Why do you look so grumpy then?” Yixing joked. “Want me to have to call Jinah so she can bring you real food?”

Luhan felt something kick inside him. “Just don’t. Don’t bother.” Like he shouldn’t have bothered with Jinah. He shouldn’t have fallen so hard for her. He wouldn’t have been hurting so bad.

“Wait, are you two fighting?” Chanyeol brought up.

Yixing was shaking his head. “No they’re not! The most they’ve fought about was who deserves to eat the last piece of pizza. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

Luhan turned around to head for his room. Everywhere he went, he couldn’t seem to escape Jinah. He couldn't stand it if his friends were bringing her up every two seconds. He made up his mind that he hated her. For making him want to hit his head hard enough until he could forget everything. For wishing he could sleep a night where he didn’t have to dream about her. But the worst was this little voice in his head telling him that he could never truly hate the girl.

“Luhan! Why don’t you come with us later? You’ll feel better. Just call her after to make up or something.”

“I said no.” Luhan slammed his door behind him.

-----

“Every time you told me you loved me, was that just part of the bet?”

“No, no. Of course not. I meant it each time I said it. I can’t just say something like that and not mean it. I’m sorry. I’m just so sorry. Everything I said today was the truth. If you don’t believe me, I wouldn’t know how else to say it.”

-----

“How’s she doing?”

Junmyeon stared back at Luhan. “How is who doing?”

He rolled his eyes. “You know who.”

“Why can’t you even say her name? Jeez.”

“I asked you a question—”

Junmyeon held his hands up in defense. “Okay, okay. She’s doing good, I think. She’s been coming to school.”

“That’s good.” Luhan nodded his head to himself, staring at the table’s surface. He was about to start his shift at the library when he found Junmyeon studying alone. Usually, he was with Jinah. A part of him had hoped to see her soon after she confronted him at the cafe that one night where she explained everything to him. She wasn’t lying. At least not about her feelings. Luhan felt his whole world turn upside down again. He was amazed one girl could do that to him.

“So you two aren’t fighting anymore?” Junmyeon asked, curiously inching closer to him.

Luhan was idly spinning the ring with his thumb. “Well, she came to talk to me three days ago during my closing shift at Coffee Republic. We talked and… she explained the whole thing.”

“What’s it about anyway?”

He shook his head at Junmyeon. “It’s a long story.”

“Okay well, why don’t you call her then?”

“Not yet.”

“What do you mean not yet? You said it yourself. It’s been three days.”

Luhan ruffled his hair in frustration. “I just can’t. Not yet.”

“If I was her, I’d be pretty mad that you didn’t call me after we just made up,” Junmyeon said knowingly, using that same voice when he was telling people uninteresting facts.

Luhan looked to his side, biting his lip. “We didn’t exactly make up yet. I said I would think about it.”

“But you’re not all pouty and gloomy. There isn’t a raincloud hanging above you anymore,” Junmyeon pointed out. “Doesn’t that mean whatever you’re fighting about is over?”

“It’s… complicated.” He stood when the clock on his phone screen told him that he was going to start work in a minute.

Junmyeon leaned back on his seat and crossed his arms. “I’m just saying, Luhan. If I were her, I would be assuming the worst right now.”

Luhan sighed and stepped back away from the shelves to inspect his work for a second. He had been working all morning to sort the bags on the shelves with the ones on special clearance being in the middle row. Something about the middle row being the first row customers looked at. He could barely remember the meeting they had that morning before he started work.

“Jansport… Jansport,” he was muttering to himself.

It would have been a lot easier to move everything accordingly, but instead his co-worker Jaebum was busy doing everything else except work. As if it was because he was internally killing him, he heard Jaebum speak.

“Hey, Luhan? Do you know where the Rimowa bags are?”

He felt something in his head throb. Luhan was ready to turn and tell Jaebum that maybe if he used his eyes, he would be able to find the bag he was looking for…

But when he turned instead, his eyes landed on Jinah.

They met eyes at once. He felt his heart drum against his ribcage and there was probably something in his throat because he was taking too long to answer. For a moment, Luhan considered that he was just seeing her face on someone else.

“I saw it by the left,” he said when he realized Jaebum had still been waiting for an answer.

“Great. He can help you with that bag while I go finish up some other things.” Jaebum went away to sit by a corner and play with his phone or something. It was normal for him to leave the work up to Luhan.

He felt his palms get sweaty the moment he realized Jaebum had left him with Jinah. It was definitely her. He couldn’t deny. Only Jinah could make him feel like some little kid who was having his first crush on a girl.  Luhan was nervous. He hadn’t been like that around her since they had their first date and he had felt heat crawl up to his face while he watched Jinah approach her apartment’s gate. He had been waiting with shaky hands that evening.

Figuring tha