You exited the stairs happily and headed towards the break room that following Monday. Another brown bag hanging on the doorknob propelled you over to it. When a few students exited the cafeteria, you greeted them with a troubled smile while you shielded the bag with your body, trying to hide it from view as they walked by.

As soon as you opened the break room door, you were greeted by the four red roses that you had forgotten about. They were now in full bloom and staring back at you with life. Even the air seemed to have appeared pink and rose-colored making you rub your eyes in response. As you closed the door behind you, you exhaled a defeated sigh and walked over to place the new glittered brown bag on the table. When you finally worked up the nerve to look inside, more roses lay bundled together with a beautiful red bow.

“What is going on?” you scolded to yourself as you pulled the stash of roses out. Again, a letter sat between two rose stems and you yanked it out to read. Of course, it was just like the one before. All that was on it was the question: Is 8 enough?

“No,” you answered, “there are 13 girls in the fan café. How am I supposed to deliver this?? You are one rose short,”

After placing the letter and roses onto the table, you rolled your eyes and crossed your arms. Then oddly, the 8 written on the note brought Minghao into your head. The memory of him was like a breath of fresh air; or more like a breath of bliss. Could it be Minghao who had dropped off these flowers? Was this a thank you for your moral support last Thursday?

You pondered to yourself as you headed into the cafeteria to search for another empty cup. After scouting a tall glass cup by the cafeteria sink, you walked it into the back room to fill it with water. On your way out you bumped into a student who was holding onto an empty food tray.

“Oh I’m so sorry.”

“It’s ok, no worries,” he replied with a smile while brushing the droplets of water that spilled on his wrist.  

“Hey,” Hoshi greeted, shifting your attention to him who was standing by the coffee machine. His Pledis uniform had an odd power. It had returned the Hoshi you were familiar with back to you. The one who had taken you to dinner at Fahrenheit was long gone and lost in his dark eyes.

“Oh hey Hoshi…”

He watched your eyes dart nervously before you rushed your way out of the cafeteria; almost as if you were running away from him.

As soon as the cafeteria door separated you from Hoshi, you exhaled. For a moment there, you were afraid that the Hoshi that made your heart race would reappear.

You closed the door to the breakroom and began to untie the roses from its bundle. As you began to open a sack of flower food, your eye caught a sticky note on the ground by the door.

You placed the flower food down and walked over to pick it up. Oddly enough, the sticky note had been addressed to you.

Let’s meet up at 7 at the rooftop. I have a gift for you ~Seungkwan

You read the note over and over as if some magical hidden words would appear. You stared at it with scrunched brows, pondering over the words Seungkwan wrote. Then slowly, your eyes shifted over to the roses. Were the roses from Seungkwan?

As you exited out of the breakroom a few girls rushed passed you in a hurry. They squealed in excitement while pushing their way into the stairwell. A few girls stopped by the windows across from you and yelped with delight. You joined them by the windows to see a crowd of girls bunched around the fountain in the courtyard below. The huddling of girls reminded you of ants crowding around a piece of food on a hot summer day.

Your phone vibrated and you pulled it out to see a message from Joshua.

I hope to see you out in the courtyard.

You shut your phone off and stared out at the crowd, searching for Joshua. And then you made a face because there wasn’t a single guy out there.

On the bottom floor, you pushed the door open and slowly walked towards the group of girls clustered around the fountain. You hesitantly approached a girl, “Sorry…if you don’t mind me asking, what’s going on out here?”

She didn’t seem to want to talk to you but your janitor outfit saved the day. “Someone will be performing so we’re here for that,”

A few guitar strings vibrated and your eyes darted, skimming the crowd.

Suddenly the crowd expanded, shoving and forc