The moment Aera and her mother parted ways, her new hair elastic, a white one since her other one was still with Baekhyun, was now on her wrist. Her top button was undone and her tie was slightly lowered. She couldn't bring herself to bring it down further. Staring at her reflection in the smudge-filled mirror kindled this weird feeling in her stomach. She combed through her hair wistfully. How could something so simple make her feel so free?

Leaving the toilet was hard, but enduring all these stares and whispers proved to be a harder thing to do. It was annoying, almost as annoying as when a mosquito flies near your ear when you're about to sleep. She felt like an animal in a zoo. Ignoring the entire student body, she went straight to class, and lo and behold, even more judgmental stares.

"Hey, Aera," the girl to her left greeted. "You look different today."

"Yeah," was all she said before she tuned her out and waited for the class to begin.

Her history teacher, Mr Kim, was surprised to see his favourite student not being prim and proper for once, but surprisingly didn't comment on it.

Why was Aera disappointed?

Turning in her seat subtly, the sight of an empty seat greeted her. It honestly only mattered if he saw her.

And where on earth did he run off to? He was not supposed to skip classes!

Class after class, she started to question why none of the teachers has outwardly objected to her change in appearance. Did they really not care?

Baekhyun only decided to show up during lunch. She spotted him leaning against a locker talking to a girl as he did his thing- lie and charm. When he caught her staring, he seemed to have a total change in character as his face transformed from flirty to genuine delight. She didn’t want to admit it, even to herself, but that sight made her feel warm all over. Mentally slapping herself, she focused on the girl who was left all alone. The glare she gave Aera was filled with so much contempt that it was actually quite humorous.

As much as she didn't want to crack the monotonous front, she couldn't help smiling as the girl stomped away looking like an overdramatic buffoon.

Baekhyun was strolling towards her with conviction while he twirled his tie between his fingers, but faltered in his steps after seeing the sudden smile. He knew it wasn't directed at him but it didn’t stop him from being a bit dumbfounded.

Stopping two steps in front of her, he gave her a once-over. While he did that, she thought about how she should really teach him a lesson about how rude and disgusting he was being with his naughty eyes.

"Looking good, sweet cheeks." He even gave her a thumbs up and a wink. He playfully picked up a few strands of her hair and then tossed them aside. Aera didn't bother to slap his hands away because it did nothing but waste her energy.

Deciding to do the same thing to him (because she was starting to become a hypocrite), she assessed him from his shoes up to his hair which earned her a short laugh from the boy. Spotting the missing item, she pointed to the area above the school emblem. "Where's your nametag?"

He waved her off sluggishly. "I don't know, but it doesn't matter anyway since everyone knows me." She couldn't even argue because yes, everyone did know him.

"But it doesn't hurt to wear it, no?" Making a display of tugging at her nametag. Baekhyun's eyes followed her action but he only innocently blinked at her, pretending he didn’t hear what she just said.

“Wow, you're incredibly stubborn." She made sure she sounded more sarcastically amazed by him than usual.

Without missing a beat and in the exact same tone, he barked back. "And you're incredibly bossy."

You cannot win against Byun Baekhyun.

Aera was so focused on her work that she didn't even feel the nudge behind her. Baekhyun only let out a silent scoff before using a pencil to poke her on her back. Seeing her jump in her seat in shock, he smiled in victory.

He watched her head turn towards the teacher's desk before she turned in her seat, a heavy frown greeting him. "Skip the next class," he whispered as softly as he could. Aera promptly shook her head to which Baekhyun responded with a lazy