The afternoon after their physical educations class, Jongin and Baekhyun decided to spend their late lunch outside the school’s garden, spending the remaining minutes of their break in peaceful silence as they ate.

While Baekhyun sketched random doodles at the back of his notebook, Jongin was struggling to form English sentences now that he’s trying to answer one of his English Lit book’s exercises. He was itching to ask Baekhyun to teach him, but then again it would be futile of his best friend to seeing as he wasn't exactly the best student around when it came to the said subject. And so he was left to suffer miserably on his own while his best friend yawned without a care in the world.

Eventually, their silence was broken when Baekhyun all of a sudden yelped and fell down from his seat, effectively startling Jongin. The other boy became alarmed, but no sooner did all thoughts of concern drift away at the sight of the stupid, love-struck smile on Baekhyun’s face. He traced the direction of his best friend's eyes and there, he spotted a familiar figure of a student—an upperclassman both he and Baekhyun knew too well; Do Kyungsoo.

“Get up, Baekkie.” Jongin sighed resignedly with a shake of his head. Baekhyun looked like he’s up in a cloud nine of his own as he rose up to his full height and practically hauled his away from the bench to greet his favorite senior. Jongin swore he could almost see his best friend’s eyes molding into hearts.

“Hyung!” Baekhyun yelled, barrelling into Kyungsoo hard and giving him a huge embrace—an action he only ever did when it came to the older male. Jongin bit back a grin at the transition of Kyungsoo’s face from nonchalance to utter surprise.

Without giving Kyungsoo much of a reaction time he all but latched himself onto the taller’s arm, in a way a koala would to a tree branch. Jongin could only shake his head again. Baekhyun was and always had been smitten with only one guy and that was Do Kyungsoo.

Though many times Kyungsoo had indirectly rejected Baekhyun’s not-so-subtle advances toward him, Baekhyun was as blind as a bat to comprehend that the older guy saw him as nothing more than a younger brother he never had.

The way Baekhyun smiled so exuberantly up at Kyungsoo suddenly dished out an unwanted memory from the pit of Jongin’s mind. That’s exactly what he looked like that fateful day he confessed to Sehun with all the courage he had mustered. Frankly, he was too naïve back then to clutch onto the hope that he even had a small smidgeon of chance. Kyungsoo was, in a way, just like Sehun. Both were indifferent and enigmatic in their own right but that was where their similarities ended.

Jongin snapped out of his short trance just in time as Baekhyun tugged a compliant Kyungsoo toward their table. Baekhyun looked simply ecstatic like always when around his crush, and Jongin was glad that the usual scowl on Kyungsoo’s face was nowhere to be found today.

“Hello, Kyungsoo hyung!” came Jongin’s charming greeting, matched with a wide smile. The older returned the gesture, albeit more handsomely.

“Afternoon, kiddo.” Kyungsoo greeted back.

Jongin’s eyes lit up like he just realized something. Taking the still chilly can of soda from his part of the table, he offered it to Kyungsoo, and the latter was grateful to accept it. He was about to buy one, that’s why he was out on the quadrangle. He sat down beside a whining Baekhyun and the younger clung onto his arm again.

“Hyung, how's your day so far?” Baekhyun inquired excitedly. Kyungsoo unlatched the can’s lid and drank before saying anything and the lone action nearly made Baekhyun drool. Jongin stifled a giggle.

“Nothing out of ordinary,” Kyungsoo answered. “You didn’t attend practice the other day. Need I remind you that you've got two more sessions with me and Jongdae?”

Baekhyun’s excitement faltered a little and his smile deflated. “Well, you see, something came up at home so I wasn’t able to. But don’t worry, I’ll avoid further absences from now on!”

Another rare smile passed across Kyungsoo's usually blank face and he nodded in satisfaction. "Good."

For starters, Do Kyungsoo was the main definition of a mysterious bad boy—from an outsider’s perspective, that was. He's the band leader of EXO, the pride of Glee Club and also one of their school’s best tennis players. As a self-proclaimed number one fan of his, Baekhyun often followed Kyungsoo wherever he went and had also registered himself as a member of Glee Club and the tennis team.

“What are you guys doing here?” Kyungsoo inquired out of curiosity, sparing the notebooks scattered across the table a glance.

“Studying. Chilling. The sun is great!” Baekhyun’s so stupidly in love, Jongin wanted to bang his head on the table. Kyungsoo let out a chuckle and sipped on his drink again, deciding to lounge together with them.

Kyungsoo was never ashamed to hang out with the likes of thirteen-year-old boys because he didn’t give much of a flying rat’s about anything. Aside from that, Jongin and Baekhyun were the only middle-schoolers (students in general) apart from Kyungsoo’s bandmates that the latter was close with, so they have the privilege of sitting together with one of the supposed campus heartthrobs.

While in the midst of talking about music-related stuff, a group of seniors passed by near their vicinity. Jongin was unaware of himself staring, especially after he caught sight of two painfully familiar guys within that group.

The spiteful glare was automatically present on Sehun’s face and it could be seen even from afar, but what Jongin's surprised of was the fact that it wasn’t directed at him but rather at Kyungsoo, who seemed to have felt it as well and in turn shot him an equally dirty look.

What's more strange was that it wasn't only Sehun who was looking at him menacingly. Chanyeol also appeared to be quite vexed upon seeing Kyungsoo and it made Jongin wonder.

Why were they glaring at each other? Were they enemies? Was there any sort of misunderstanding between them? Weird…

When Sehun’s eyes darted over to Jongin’s direction, the younger ducked his head low, avoiding the other’s eyes. Not even a mere minute had passed before Kyungsoo abruptly stood up, gently pulling away from Baekhyun’s already loose hold. Even the latter had taken note of the palpable tension Sehun’s group was emitting.

“I have to go," Kyungsoo announced in a terse manner, sending the two younger teens a stiff smile before casually strolling away from their table with a face void of any expression. The heat of Sehun's eyes on Jongin when his group passed by was almost too vivid to ignore and he tried so hard not to lift his eyes up, waiting for the hostile upperclassmen to completely disappear from the area. And when they did, Jongin released the breath he didn’t know he was actually holding.

“What was that all about?” Baekhyun blinked, looking bothered. “Your fiancé looked like a demon just now.”

“So was your crush,” Jongin countered back with a silly smile. Baekhyun’s love-struck expression returned to his face in an instant. A