Kyuhyun sighed, looking into the bathroom mirror one last time she rearranged her uniform and headed back to her bedroom. She had just spend 15 minutes applying as much foundation as she could get away with for school, anything to make her skin look better. So what if it was an all girls school? She wanted to look her best. Originally it had been to impress the gaggle of boys that were found at the gate each morning and evening, but she soon realised she wasn’t particularly fond of them and was much more interested in what the other girls thought she looked.

 

Not that how she looked mattered when she was already forty minutes late for the bus. It probably didn’t help that she had decided to level up on a computer game before even considering getting changed out of her pyjamas. Though being on time didn’t matter, Kyuhyun could miss a whole week of school and still get the highest test scores afterwards - something her friends never stopped complaining about. School to Kyuhyun was a waste of time, just something to amuse her while she waited for university. She sighed again, picking up her book bag. At least it was Friday.

 

Walking to the stairs Kyuhyun started shouting as loud as she could, “Mum, can you take me to school? I’ve missed the bus!” Even though she was still walking down the stairs she could feel her mother glaring at her through the wall.


“Kyu sweety, come here…” Kyuhyun was led over to the window. “What is that pole right there?”
 

“The bus stop.”
 

“And how many metres would you say that is from our door?”

 

“About six.”

 

“So, how exactly could you have missed the bus?”

 

“Sheer determination?” Kyuhyun turned to smile at her mother, who was trying very hard not to laugh.

 

“Go and get in the car,” her mother sighed in defeat. Kyuhyun had learnt at a very young age the power her sense of humour had over her. Her dad had left when she was very small, her mother had only been young herself, having Kyuhyun at 18, and it had resulted in them being more like best friends than mother and daughter at times. It was different, but Kyuhyun loved it and wouldn't change it for anything.

 

“Mum, does the CD player have to be that loud?” Kyuhyun tried to turn it down, only resulting in her mum turning the embarrassing music up and singing along twice as loud. It wouldn’t be so bad if the windows weren’t rolled right down. She was surprisingly grateful when they arrived at school, even though she was about 10 minutes late in spite of the lift. Her mum finally turned down the music.

 

“How are you getting home?”

“No idea.”

“Ok, have fun, call me if you need me.”

 

Typical really, Kyuhyun thought, her mum was never too bothered where she was as long as she had fun and told her everything about it. She hitched her bag over her shoulder and walked through the gates, ignoring the prefects glaring at her for daring to be late. They didn’t even bother asking her name to be written down, she was late often enough that they knew it.


 

She got into her tutor room 15 minutes later than she should, lucky for her their teacher appeared to be late, so she slid into her seat next to Jaejoong. “You are late. Again.”


“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Kyuhyun took this moment to look over at her friend, who had apparently decided to cut all her hair off. “What exactly happened to your head?”

 

“You don’t like it?” Jaejoong sulked, running her fingers through the now-short hair and making Kyuhyun laugh.
 

“Sure I do, idiot.” Jaejoong glared at her from under a very heavy fringe “Jae, it really suits you.” Jaejoong smiled at that, and it was all true, Kyuhyun thought with a twinge of jealousy. She always was of Jaejoong. They had been in the same class since they were children, and whilst Kyuhyun had grown up to be awkward, anti-social and in her own opinion, rather plain looking, Jaejoong was comfortable, outgoing and stunning. This had gotten Jaejoong into the ‘popular’ crowd, meaning her pick of any boy she wanted.

 

Jaejoong opened to say something to Kyuhyun but was stopped as their teacher ran into the room, tie over his shoulder and blazer hanging off one arm. He quickly began to take the register and Jaejoong whispered to Kyuhyun that they could talk later.
 

 

 

Kyuhyuns morning had been thoroughly boring. She had fell asleep in her Math class, only to be nudged awake by Eeteuk when she was asked a question, which she got right before going back to sleep. She had played computer games under the desk in Chemistry class, and the teacher was so busy trying to figure out just how Donghae had managed to set the front desk on fire from two metres away that she didn’t get caught. During history she had drawn a rather beautiful tree onto Sungmin’s book.

 

Sungmin and Kyuhyun headed to lunch a little late - Kyuhyun had been yelled at by the teacher for not paying attention, being told the usual things about wasting her potential and how she was a smart girl; she really was getting rather tired of hearing the same things over again. They headed over to their usual tables, two large tables pushed to one side in the corner. Eeteuk was already sat down talking to Ryeowook, Sungmin scoffed at the sight and sat on Ryeowook’s other side in an attempt to take her attention away. Sungmin and Eeteuk had fallen out over a boy named Kangin about 6 months earlier; Eeteuk had ended up with him, and Sungmin took every petty opportunity to start an argument with Eeteuk. This week, apparently, Eeteuk had stood on Sungmin’s foot and not apologised. Kyuhyun tended to ignore them. Donghae was also sat at the table, texting who Kyuhyun could only guess was Eunhyuk, Donghae’s girlfriend at university.

 

Donghae smiled at Kyuhyun when she sat next to her - a smile that still made Kyuhyun's heart skip a little. Up until a few months back Kyuhyun had liked Donghae, for almost a year to be exact, and although near enough everyone else knew about it she had never got up the courage to tell her and then they had met Eunhyuk when shopping and Kyuhyun had missed her chance. She had been bitter before, but seeing Donghae so happy made her happy, and it was hard not to like Eunhyuk who was always trying so hard to make the others like her.

 

“How’s Eunhyuk?” she asked. Donghae smiled again. It was obvious nobody had taken an interest recently

 

“She’s fine, had a lot of essays to write so I’ve not seen much of her,” she went back to texting and Kyuhyun took this time to take her DS out of her bag and load up a game.

 

Jaejoong walked past and gave Kyuhyun a sandwich before heading to her friends. Kyuhyun didn’t even bother looking at who it was, more often than not she was too engrossed in a game to remember to eat and Jaejoong took it on herself to provide food. Kyuhyun was just about to defeat a boss when she was distracted by Heechul plopping herself down next to Kyuhyun and loudly declaring:

 

“I'M IN LOVE!”

 

The little scream Kyuhyun made at losing was lost amongst everyone else’s unsurprised groan. Heechul was in love with someone new on a regular basis. The groan went ignored as Heechul started waving a picture about of some boy that was quite obviously not Jungmo.

 

“What happened to Jungmo?” Kyuhyun asked, leaning over to Donghae. Clearly she had missed something. Donghae’s eyes widened.

 

“Don’t you pay attention? Jay happened to Jungmo!”

 

Kyuhyun thought about this for a second before she had to ask “Ok… so who's Jay and what happened to him?”

 

Donghae was obviously trying not to laugh. “Jay is Heechul’s soul mate apparently, and what happened to him… he wouldn’t leave his wife” Kyuhyun choked on the drink she had been in the process of stealing.

 

“WIFE? How did… you know what, I don’t want to know.” Heechul was still waving the picture about to Kyuhyun's right. “… and his name is Hankyung - he’s from China, and he’s so gorgeous and he’s really strong and isn’t he perfect?” Everyone nodded in agreement, it was easier just to let Heechul get this out of her system.

 

“So, Kyuhyun…” Kyuhyun looked up to see Eeteuk and Ryeowook looking at her “We were wondering, when are you going to tell that Chinese friend of yours, Zhou Mi isn’t it?”

 

Kyuhyun nodded, and then looked confused. “Tell her what?”

 

“That you are in love with her” Ryeowook said this as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, and Kyuhyun paled. She hadn’t told anyone. She opened to ask how they knew, but Eeteuk answered before she could “You are kind of obvious, Kyu… talk about her a lot, and it's always good things, and interesting conversations you’ve had, and cute things she's said…”

 

“Do you think she knows..?” Kyuhyun was worried, and kind of wished someone other than Heechul had answered.

 

“Well… if she doesn’t, she’s not as smart as you keep telling us she is.”

 

Kyuhyun sank in her chair, head hitting the table. Crap.