Months passed and school got more and more interesting for Sori. Her school days would always be filled with laughter and joy; something she was still getting used to. Her arm is now fully recovered from the burns, which makes the guys less cautious. Jang Minah and her friends kept bothering her from time to time, but she wasn’t affected by any of it. And the guys would always pop out of nowhere whenever it happens.

 

 Sori’s black and white days were finally streaming in color little by little. The guys have been trying to peel her layers piece by piece, but it seems harder than they thought it would be. The only person that she would sometimes openly talk to is Hansol. And that’s only when she’s in a very good mood. But she did smile more than she used to, which is more than enough for the 13 boys. 

---

The bell rang 20 minutes ago and she’s still not here. Hansol thought to himself as he anxiously waits for any sign of Sori entering the classroom.

 

The other boys were also thinking the same thing, but they weren’t as worried as him. Hansol thought of possibilities to why she wasn’t here and every one of them came to conclusion that she was either sick or in pain; both drove him pretty insane.

 

Meanwhile, Sori was laying on her bed contemplating whether or not she should go to school. She woke up later than usual and knew that she would receive consequences for coming in late. But if she didn’t, her apartment will be filled with overly worried boys who wouldn’t believe that she didn’t go to school because she didn’t feel like it.

 

So Sori had no other choice and took a quick shower. She put on her school uniform, grabbed her things, wrote a ‘sick’ letter, and went on her way.

 

“I wonder why we’ve never asked for her phone number. It would be easier to find out whether she’s okay or not if we could contact her,” Hoshi said as the class was taking their 5 minute break.

 

“Don’t you have her phone number?” Jeonghan asked Hansol.

 

“Nope.”

 

“Oh come on hyung. You’re the closest to her! How can you not have her phone number,” Dino whined.

 

“Yeah. You guys are probably dating right now with your secretive ‘English’ talk sessions,” Seungkwan said in a teasing manner.

 

“It’s not my fault she grew up in the US. I found out she was fluent in English when I saw her perfect English essay paper.” Hansol replied, trying to dodge Seungkwan’s accusation.

 

“Thanks for complimenting my essay Hansol,” Sori said as she suddenly popped out of nowhere and sat on her seat.

 

Everyone’s eyes turned to her as she gave them an airy smile.

 

“…You’re here. We thought you weren’t coming to school,” Seungcheol said in shock.

 

“I didn’t want 13 boys to bang on my door at 4pm,” she relied.

 

“Bang my . We would’ve kicked your door down the minute we get there,” Joshua joked, earning chuckled from the boys.

 

The bell rang, signaling that class was about to begin. The math teacher came in and started his lesson.

 

“What did you get for coming in late?” Hansol asked.

 

“Nothing,” she replied. 

 

“You didn’t get any consequences? Really??”

 

“I gave them a sick letter. The usual ‘diarrhea’ case.”

 

Hansol cheekily smiled at his smart friend.

 

“You little cheat. Your parents don’t even live with you. How did they even sign it?”

 

“It’s called forgery Hansol. Learn it,” she replied, earning a nod of approval from him.

 

“Ms. Dae, Mr. Chwe. Do you have something to share with the class?” the teacher asked as everyone’s attention turned towards them.

 

“She didn’t understand the problem sir. I just had to explain it for her,” Hansol replied with his usual happy smile.

 

“Well you can come up here and explain it to the class because I’m pretty sure they don’t understand it as well.”

 

Sori mouthed a ‘stupid’ at him while the other boys shook their heads in disappointment.

Hansol confidently stood up and walked towards the board. In a matter of seconds, he answered the problem correctly and headed back to his seat.

 

“Surprised?” He asked Sori while lifting her chin up to close her gaping mouth.

 

“Not really. That was an easy problem,” she replied.

 

“Try doing it then,” he dared.

 

“I don’t want to.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because you win and I’m bad at math.” 

 

He chuckled at her adorableness.

 

“That’s why you should be awake in class rather than dozing off to dreamland.” 

 

Sori could only roll her eyes at him as she put her head on the table.

---

“I’m starving, oh my god.” Mingyu said as he pulled Wonwoo to the cafeteria line.

 

Sori was about to sit beside Joshua when she got pulled by Hoshi to another table.

 

“We need to figure out that music project thing. The teacher wants our proposal by the start of class,” Seungcheol said as Sori confusedly sat down.

 

“Let’s just compose a song. We have the vocals and the rap.” Seungkwan confidently said.

 

“Woozi has the composing skills though. We’re only good with making lyrics,” Hansol replied.

 

“How about dance? I’m pretty good at choreographing,” Hoshi said.

 

“How about we just make a performance?” Seungcheol suggested.

 

“We’re not kpop idols,” Sori replied.

 

“Apparently, we have to be for this project.” Hoshi said.

 

“Can’t we just fail this? It’s not going to help us with our major,” Sori said.

“It’s going to help us with ours! We’re all taking music related majors,” Hoshi replied.

 

“Hansol’s not. He’s taking math as his major,” Sori teased.

 

“Ha ha. What are you even planning on taking?” Hansol asked her.

 

“Either early childhood education or medicine,” she replied.

 

“Those are two very different things,” Seungkwan said.

 

Sori replied with a shrug.

 

“Let’s talk about university majors later. Right now, we need to figure out what we want to do.” Seungcheol said sternly.

 

“Just do an acoustic cover of something. Add our own lyrics to it. It’s easy.” Seungkwan replied.

 

“That sounds simple. Just clear vocals and rap,” Hansol added.

 

“Then it’s settled. We’ll do an acoustic rendition/remake of a song.” Seungcheol said, ecstatic that they finally have something.

 

On the other hand, Sori wasn’t too excited about their plan.

---

“We’re getting the day off tomorrow so that makes it a 3 day weekend. The guys are planning to visit their parents,” Hansol said as he and Sori walked towards the bus.

 

“And you’re not?” she asked.

 

“Nope. My parents are visiting my mom’s mom in Florida. They took my little sister with them too,” he replied.

 

“Good luck being alone for 3 days,” Sori teased.

 

“I’m not going to be alone. I have you,” he cheekily replied.

 

“Again with the grease.”

 

“I’ve told you plenty of times that I’m a man of feelings and emotions.”

 

“And I’ve reminded you plenty of times that I don’t like grease.” 

“But you like cheeseburgers.”

 

Sori rolled her eyes as Hansol broke into a fit of giggles. 

 

“By the way, can I borrow your phone?” he asked as she handed him her phone.

 

Hansol saved his phone number and called his phone before giving her back the phone.

 

“I’m gonna be lonely these 3 days, so I need to be able to talk to someone.”

 

“You do know that you literally live across me.”

 

“What if I’m in the middle of peeing and I get lonely?”

 

Sori let out a dry laugh as they both got off the bus.

 

“And who knows if you need me or I get worried about you. You’ll just need to press my name and I’ll be on the other line happy to talk.”

 

Sori could feel the warmth in his voice. That warmth really touched her because no one has ever really showed their concern towards her other than her parents.

 

They finally reached their apartment doors as both took out their keys.

 

“See you later. If you get too lazy to knock on my door, just remember you’ve got my number,” he said with a wink before entering his room.

 

That guy is impossible she thought to herself before entering her own room.