No.1 Sunhi:

Hey! How are you feeling today?

Nari:

I’m feeling a bit better.

No.1 Sunhi:

That’s alright! Nothing special happened on Friday anyway.

Nari:

Okay.

No.1 Sunhi:

I checked your locker btw. Found another letter.

Nari:

I told you to stop looking for those…

Nari closed her phone and placed it in her pocket, picking up another set of cutlery to place on the table.

That’s right, she hadn’t gone to school after that fateful Thursday. The same night, her body had burst into a fever and she barely made it to her bed after dinner without fainting. Chanyeol made a huge fuss over her, sitting by her bed with a wet towel and extra pain killers for most of the night. Every time she looked at him, her head grew even hotter and she was ashamed to admit she was glad her mother came to take him away at eleven o’clock.

The day after wasn’t much better for her health and she successfully managed to avoid humans until Sunday. After enough days rest, she’d felt well enough to venture downstairs to help her parents set up the restaurant like she normally did. The usual part-timers – Yixing, Yifan, Minseok, Junmyeon and Luhan – had all been informed of her illness and kept an incredibly safe distance. Their university exams were approaching and none of them wanted to take the risk this time.

Nari walked over to grab more cutlery for the table and felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She took it out momentarily before slipping it back in quickly when she saw it was from Sehun.

It was an understatement to say she’d been avoiding him. She hadn’t opened a single one of the numerous texts he’d sent each day. He dropped by every afternoon to check if she was feeling okay but, her parents quickly sent him away. They still didn’t know why but as soon as she started crying trying to explain it to them, they gave in. And today was no different when he came that morning begging to see her. It pained her to watch him argue outside the restaurant with her parents from her window. But she could never bring herself to walk down the stairs to see him.

As she placed the last few knives down along the table, Nari heard someone walk into the room. She looked up to see her brother waltzing in and her eyes widened when she saw the people walking beside him.

“Hey, Nari! Are you almost done?” Chanyeol asked as he gave her a quick hug.

Her hands shook as he pulled away from her. She managed a small nod as she put down the last knife.

“We’ve come to take you to the movies. Let’s go!” he exclaimed, taking her hand.

Her heart pumped hard against her chest as he pulled her out of the room. Her words fell apart as she tried many times to reject his offer. Before she knew it, he had grabbed her bag and they were walking along the main street with Baekhyun and Jongdae on either side.

Nari thought it would’ve been easy to avoid Baekhyun. The only time she was forced to see him was lunch and Thursday afternoons. It wasn’t hard to find another place to eat and she could always ask Kyungsoo to walk her home instead if Chanyeol was worried. But, she’d forgotten how keen Chanyeol was to make them all friends. Something she didn’t think she could be with them. That was a big mistake.

Her whole body was as stiff as wood. Keeping her eyes forward at all costs, she tried to ignore the fact that Baekhyun had decided to walk next to her. She could see h