Yoomin's POV

"Em, weren't you guys supposed to be behind us?" Ryeowook snickered.

SungMin placed a hand on the back of his nape and grinned.

"We got lost?" He suggested, the smile never leaving his face.

"Don't leave the group ever again. What if we didn't realize you were missing and left without you? What if.." Miss Ukiro rambled on the endless possibilities of us disappearing while I shuffled quickly to the group. Ryeowook smiled sneakily, raising his eyebrows and nodding knowingly. I didn't even turn around to wait for Sungmin, I don't want to give my classmates more reasons to tease us.

SungMin must have stayed at the tree for a while more, because Miss Ukiro impatiently cleared .

"Lee SungMin?" She hollered, her shrill voice piercing the air. I turned around to look at what was happening.

"Yes, ma'am I'm coming." He let go of the carving knife, dropping it back down onto the table and rushed beside me,  his left hand intertwined with my right as I tried my hardest to stop myself from flushing.

"Looks like we stayed away a bit too long." He said, his tone light and teasing, as he leaned down to whisper into my ears.

"You and your great idea of a one-on-one tour. Look what it landed us into." I hissed as he and I followed the group. As much as I wanted to pull away, I couldn't. I don't dare to.

Yah! Yoomin don't tell me you...!

No! His hands are warm that's why I can't bear to pull away. My hands will freeze at the very moment I let go.

Yeah...that must be it.

I looked up at him and watched as a smile played on his lips. Something was playing in his mind and it was definitely making him laugh. He suddenly noticed that I was watching him and tried to bite his lips to stop himself from smiling.

"What?" he demanded, looking like he wanted to laugh but forced a frown into his face.

"Nothing," I said looking straight and refusing to look at him.

We continued following the group as Ms Ukiro babbled on about the technology the Japanese used to make this certain plant grow even in winter.

And Sungmin never let go.

.

Eunhyuk's POV

"Please take a seat, Mr Lee," said Seonhee's father as he directed me to sit opposite him in his study.

I pulled the seat cautiously and sat down when he has already taken his place. It's just polite to do so.

"So, Mr Lee," Seonhee's father addressed as he raised a black mug to his lips from the table.

"Em, you can just call me Eunhyuk," I muttered, looking down on my lap, feeling the awkwardness in the gloomy study.

"Sir," I added. Must remain polite.

I slowly lifted my head to look around the room. The walls were filled with books after books lining the bookshelves that reached from the floor up to the ceiling. The table infront of me was made of a heavy mahogany wood, polished to look shiny and sleek. At the corner of the table, there laid a stack of papers of what look like long essays, probably from his students. On his table, was a photo frame, of himself, his wife, Seonhee and her sister. Seonhee looked the same upto now as she did when she was very young. In the picture, she was wearing a yellow summer dress, grinning at the camera, while her hair was tied in tiny braids with the ends ending with some beads.  Her face hardly changed except for the accentuated cheek bones she now have when the baby fats of her childhood was shed. I could clearly recall when she pouted and puffed her cheeks when she begged me to let her buy the brown huge teddy bear at a carnival we attended at her sister's school. She looked exactly just like the girl in the picture.

I'd like to see her in a yellow summer dress one day, her hair falling on her shoulder softly as we both run around in the beach, splashing water on each other while I wrestle her onto the sand, our clothes soaked wet, laughing and not caring about a single thing as the waves crash against us both as I lay her in the sand. I will lean over her, smiling, happy and contented despite the painful sands digging into my elbows as I supported myself up. I would push her hair away from her face and lean down to kiss those li-

"Mr Lee, did you hear me?"

I was jerked back to present, back into the dark gloomy study of Seonhee's father.

"Em, yes, sir," I replied smiling sheepishly unable to quite look him in the eye because of the things I was imagining with his daughter. Unforgivable I would be in his eyes.

"So as I have mentioned, my wife and I are very concerned over Seonhee's grades. She had never had grades as poor as she got today-"

"But didn't she got a 3.1..?" I cut, wondering, unable to control myself. Careful there, I need to be polite.

"She was a 3.7 scorer, Mr Lee," he replied pointedly.

I bit my lips, that is a drastic drop indeed. I was speechless and mainly nodded away through out the rest of the 'discussion'.

I was hearing only certain parts, catching a few phrases here and there.

"...we wish for her to enter the university...with her grades hovering like that...we're her parents we want the best for her...if you consider maybe you'd stay away..."

My head turned up to look at Seonhee's father immediately, my eyes looking at him for the first time today. I searched his eyes for any hint of humour but it was empty except for the look of heavy seriousness in his eyes.

"Sorry sir?"

"If you consider, maybe you'd stay away," he repeated. His face straight with no amount of humour.

"Think about it," he said as he stood up and motioned for me to do the same.

"Think for her," he said as he ushered me out of his study.