“Let me tell you a cliché love story. The captain of the baseball team and the leader of the cheerleaders start dating, they will be prom king and queen, get married after graduation and live happily ever after.”

Tiffany’s happy chirping filled their canteen table three metres radius. The other girls listened just as carefully as they counted their calories and all eyes were focused on one particular person. Her long hazelnut brown hair caressed her heart-shaped face that seemed pale under the artificial lights from above. Her petite figure was seated gracefully on the uncomfortable metal chair in the middle of the circle. She didn’t look up from her lunch, just shrugged.

“Well, it’s indeed cliché,” she agreed nonchalantly, still munching on her Hawaiian salad. The group of cheerleaders whined at their leader’s clear disinterest.

“So…” Yoona singsonged with sparkling eyes and dragged out the syllable to emphasise the question. “Aren’t you interested in Byun?”

“Why would I be?” Taeyeon snorted but her gaze drifted to the opposite table of the canteen where the baseball players gathered together alongside with the mentioned guy.

The infamous Byun Baekhyun who was SM High’s biggest heartbreaker with his cheesy pick-up lines and outgoing attitude. He was said to be player yet he always rejected casual offers with the excuse that he had something important to do on Friday nights after games. Nobody knew the real reason why but there were already rumours going around. Not like Taeyeon cared… or at least, showed to care.

“Well, why not? He's handsome, popular and smart, too.” Sunny sighed in adoration, resting her chin on her hands as she stared shamelessly at the guys over the room. Sooyoung grimaced at that.

“Haven't you heard about his reputation? He's quite picky,” the tall girl made a face at that until she caught the bitter expression on Taeyeon’s face and she quickly added: “Not that anyone would reject our kid leader but…”

“But it's our senior year,” the wild red haired, lively girl whined as if it was the most urgent matter when she interrupted the sentence and pouted sadly while finishing her train of thoughts. “We should get boyfriends before uni.”

“Don't worry about me then, worry about yourselves,” Taeyeon encouraged her kindly to mind her own business instead of her and prick a piece of ananas on her fork. “Has anyone got a Valentine's Day date yet?”

The silence was disappointing. If even the cheerleader squad couldn’t get boys for this western holiday then who? What was with the guys these days? What was with handmade invitations, creative confessions and cute picnics? Taeyeon missed the romance of old times and teenage books.

“Well, Jongin called me to have a coffee together,” Yoona replied bashfully after all and the other girls cooed.

“Aww a coffee date, so lucky!”

Of course, they wanted to know everything and they were so lost in their own little world, nobody caught Baekhyun’s intense stare on them.

After her last Biology prep class for the day, Taeyeon had nothing more to do than grabbing her stuff from the locker and going home since nobody asked her out yet. It wasn’t that she hated being lonely on the couple's’ day, it was more like she hoped that a certain someone would take advantage of this opportunity.

Her disappointment didn’t last long because as soon as she opened the metal door of her locker, something fell out. To be exact, it was a pretty, light pink envelope and a white paper inside with a short message scribbled upon it: Meet me at the field at 5pm. No name, no signature. That was all yet it was enough to make her smile. Because it seemed she had a Valentine after all.

Luckily, she still had enough time to fix her makeup before she had to go but the minutes passed even slower as the time approached. It felt infinitely long until she stepped onto the cold ground of the baseball field. (Of course, there were several other pitches around but she had a feeling it would be the right one.) There was nobody around this late outside of the school in this cold of February. Taeyeon almost feared some stupid prank pulled by a few reckless freshmen until she saw that there was a heart made of lilac scented candles in the second base's centre. As soon as she reached them, quiet music played from the old speakers. The melody was familiar as it was an expert from her favourite musical and she couldn’t help but stare dumbfounded at the awe-inspiring event. It was everything she had ever dreamed about and more.

“Guess who!” Two strong arms caressed her middle pulling her into a hug. Taeyeon let herself get lost in the familiar warmth and citrus scent as she leaned into the other’s chest.

“Hm... Jongdae?” she asked in a teasing voice but apparently the mentioned guy’s best friend wasn’t as amused as her and didn’t appreciate her humour.

“Ya!” He snapped at her and let his hands fall back to his sides. It gave a chance for Taeyeon to turn in his arms to face him with childlike enthusiasm.

“Hi Baek!” She greeted him with a genuine smile and tiptoed a little so she could kiss him lightly on the lips. She still couldn’t get used to this excitement that left a tingling feeling on her skin. Along with a soothing press on her heart and those pretty butterflies still made mischiefs in her stomach. Even after months, it felt like a dream.

This small affectionate gesture was enough to melt even the mighty Byun Baekhyun and he dropped the offended facade. The captain smiled into the kiss as he bent down and pulled his girlfriend even closer in the middle of the candles.

The baseball field was full of their memories. Just like that iconic incident when she managed to break Baekhyun’s nose last year. The story got a totally different colour by now. Some said he angered the cheerleaders by banning them from using the field during practice hours and Taeyeon punched him to beat some sense into him. Others said he was too busy with checking her out so the impact of a collision with another player who did a homerun surprised him. Only the present cheerleaders and baseball players knew what happened for real. It was nothing more than a ball that rolled away and Taeyeon threw it back.

“Hey Cap, catch it!”

Well, Baekhyun didn’t catch it (shame on him) and the ball hit him straight on the face. The nurse had already left the school so Taeyeon took the responsibility to patch him up because she felt guilty. It took half an hour to stop the bleeding alone but at least, she kept him company. That’s how it started: their secret little rendezvous and late night calls.

They agreed to keep it for themselves for a while, at least till the end of the season because it would have only complicated things. Still, it didn’t stop them from reckless outdoor dates. And somehow, thanks to the kindness of Fortuna, they hadn’t got caught…yet because it was only the matter of time.

“Happy Valentine’s day, babe!” Baekhyun whispered into her ears sensually and she hid her blushing face into his neck. He nuzzled his nose into her soft hair and Taeyeon cutely chuckled at that.

“You prepared all this? Just for me?” she asked bashfully looking at the jaw-dropping scenery and her heart swelled with love for this cheeky boy who claimed not to be romantic but here he was.

“You deserve it. If you let me, I’d serenade you in front of the whole school so that everyone knows you’re mine,” he says boldly and even though Taeyeon knows he didn’t mean it in a bad way, his words left a bitter taste in . After all, between the two, it was her who said they should keep it low and suddenly the thought of getting caught scared her again.

“But what if someone sees us?” she whispered gripping on his arms and stared at him with big doe eyes. She looked like an angel in disguise yet the fear in her eyes stabbed a knife in the baseball player’s chest. It was full of emotions he couldn’t display and he felt like a walking bomb that would explode from all the things he tried to hide for so long.

“Then what? Let them see. Didn’t we wait enough?” he wondered aloud because no matter how much he enjoyed sneaking around during the last six month but he reached his limit.

He wanted to hold her hand in the hallways, ha wanted to throw kisses in her direction during games, he wanted to lift her up and kiss her like nothing else mattered in front of everyone after another homerun. He wanted to experience the real couple things with her and not just those secret ones behind closed doors. It shouldn’t have made a difference because he knew well she loved him but a childish, possessive part of him wanted to show her off. It irritated him whenever guys flirted with her or called her insulting things behind her back and he couldn’t even fight them because that would have risked their sweet little secret. However, Taeyeon said that she wasn’t ready for publicity, at least not like this when the whole school knew them and half of the girls swooned over him. He didn’t want to hear those ‘i told you so’s either.

“It isn’t a good timing, Baek,” she pleaded lightly, trying to stop the argument in advance but Baekhyun had already furrowed his eyebrows and his gaze turned boiling hot with frustration.

“Then when is it? We’re almost graduating. What are we waiting for?”

Fear rushed through Taeyeon and goosebumps decorated her soft skin. Yes, it was her who wanted to keep their relationship hidden but she had never told him the real reason why.

“Perhaps… are you ashamed of me?” he asked bluntly and alarmed which caught her off guard.

“What? No! Of course not,” she protested right away because it couldn’t even be farther from the truth. She bit her lower lip before the words started spilling from . “I just... you know how much I can’t stand when they talk about me behind my back. And you have so many fangirls all over the school. I…”

She knew she was mumbling no matter how hard she tried to collect her thoughts. Her mind was already working overtime and her hand couldn’t stop slightly shaking. Baekhyun sighed earnestly and took her hand in his gently.

“Hey, baby, I thought we’ve already passed this. It’s you whom I care for. Don't worry about the others,” he whispers to her searching for her beautiful starry eyes as he pressed a kiss on her knuckles one by one.

“I know, it’s just... it’s so cliché... you know.” Taeyeon blushed at the pleasant, tingling feeling and her voice was barely above a sigh. “The cheerleader and the captain. It’s like a stupid B-grade Hollywood movie where nobody really expects the high school dream couple to last.”

“You’re afraid we will drift apart if they knew?” the boy raised an eyebrow in question. He found the reasoning ridiculous and cute at the same time. “And not if they didn't? That doesn't make any sense.”

Insecurity scarred her heart and Taeyeon wanted to pull her hand away but the baseball player didn’t let go. He knew very well that how self-conscious she could be and her popularity didn’t help at those dark, dark times.

“I just want to hold your hand in public, walk you to class, have lunch together with our friends... Don’t you want that? Don’t you want to try?”

He kissed the inside of her palm affectionately. His finger intertwined with hers, his thumb was rubbing her delicate skin softly as a breeze of a spring day would. He just wanted her to look at him in the eyes so she could see how serious he was about all this: them. With his free hand, he tilted her chin up and at the moment their gaze met the world stopped. There was no more cold winter, only the warmth of each other. They weren’t the leader of the cheerleaders and the captain of the baseball team but only Kim Taeyeon and Byun Baekhyun. Two young souls so in love.

‘I… I do. Maybe,’ Taeyeon admitted sheepishly and her boyfriend kissed the frown away from happily. People said change wasn’t definitely a bad thing and Baekhyun prayed they’d better be right.

Their first Valentine’s Day turned out pretty well in the end.

Even if they had company they didn’t know about. Somewhere near around the benches two silhouettes moved.

“What are you...”

“I just left my jacket on the bench,” the shorter girl hushed away the other impatiently, still solemnly focused on the field instead of the bleachers.

“Then why aren’t you...” her teammate tried to speak up once again but Sunny shushed her right away.

“They’re kissing,” she stated matter-of-factly that left Tiffany speechless for a moment.

“Who? Oh… I knew it!”

In less than 24 hours Taeyeon found out that she wasn’t against cliché love stories at all as long as she had Baekhyun.