“Who. Is. That?” Alice and Lime asked. Tao, Lu Han and Se Hun greeted Chen as if they were old bodies.

“That’s Chen”, I answered. ”My friend.”

“He is hot”, Alice’s eyes were twinkling. I knew what she had in her mind.

“Yes he’s hot”, I agreed. “But he’s also off limit.” Lime and Alice frowned.

“Why?”

“Because I like him”, I answered and headed straight to Chen. “Chen.”

“Missed me?” He asked and I linked my arm to his. When we entered the lunch room, I knew already what to expect. “They stare at people here a lot don’t they?”

“That’s because you’re fresh meat”, I took a tray for the two of us. “What do you want?”

After taking our share, we all sat down at our usual table. I was enjoying my food while talking to Chen and noticed the guys were staring at us.

“Remember when I used to be the one receiving all the attention from her?” Tao said bitterly. “You don’t even look at me twice anymore.” I winked at him.

“Which class did you get in Chen?” Lu Han asked.

“4a”, Chen answered.

 “You've got a thing for smart men don’t you, Ji Eun?” Se Hun commented. I scrunched my face at him.

“Did you meet Kai yet?” Tao asked.

“We met this morning”, Chen answered. “He is actually really nice. He helped me a lot today.” Everyone around the table stopped eating.

“Kai did what?” We asked in unison.

“He showed me around school”, Chen looked doubtfully at us. I was in disbelief. Kai? Kai had helped Chen? “Why?”

“It’s weird”, Lu Han said. “That guy is like the devil.”

“Well that’s cause you have a crush on his girlfriend”, Tao whispered. Lu Han pinched his arm.

“She’s not his girlfriend”, Lu Han clarified to Chen.

“I know the story”, Chen said.

“You told him?” Tao asked. I nodded. Chen and I had become so close we knew everything we needed to know about each other.

“Welcome to the crew then”, Se Hun suddenly said. “But just so you know our class is one of the dumbest class in the school and I understand if someone as smart as you do not want to spoil your reputation.”

“I don’t care about that”, Chen had this serious look on his face. “As long as I like you I’ll hang with you.”

“You’re so cool”, Lime whispered. When we looked at her, she cleared and looked at her nails making us laugh.

After school, Chen took me back home on his bike. Min Ho wasn’t there yet so he decided to wait. We entered my room without closing the door, in case Min Ho would look for us and also in case we went ahead of ourselves and someone opened the door at an inappropriate time.

“Your school is really awesome”, Chen said.

“Really?” I asked. ”The students there like to put their noses in others businesses.”

“I noticed that”, he lied down on my bed. “But I’m used to it so whatever.”

“Shall I put on some music?” I my computer. “I’m a little bored. By the way don’t you have rehearsals?”

“I’m free from rehearsals this week since my group is debuting soon”, he said.

“You’re debuting?” I put on some calm music. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was planning on it”, his eyes shone as he stood up and grabbed my hand. He pulled me towards him and we slow danced. 

“So you’re going to be a star now”, I said. “Congratulations.”

“Yeah”, he looked away for a few seconds. “You know what I miss? Your hair. I loved playing with it before.”

“You said this haircut looked good on me!” I gasped.

“It does look good”, he nodded.

“Really?” I narrowed my eyes. “Why do I have a feeling you’re trying to be nice?” I pulled away from him.

“I’m not”, he said. “I’m being honest.” Without warning him, I pinched his cheeks and his mouthed formed the letter O.

“Promise? Or I’ll pinch you harder.”

“You’re pusching me in a very awkwars poshishion”, he said. I started laughing. “I will promishe when your hair gows back.” I let go of his cheeks and rubbed them for him.

“See?” I said. ”You weren’t being honest.” Chen held my right hand with his left hand as we continued dancing. His eyes where fixated on my lips. Eventually he gave me a quick peck. As I felt he was pulling back, I quickly reacted by gently biting on to his lower lip so he wouldn’t move and slid in my tongue. We kissed and kissed until we had to catch our breaths and then we kissed some more.

“I’m home!” When we heard Min Ho's voice coming from the stairs, we quickly let go of each other. When Min Ho finally entered the room, we awkwardly stood there with smiles on our faces. “Shall we start?” Chen and I followed little Min Ho to his room. The boys the Wii and started playing a boxing game that was quite entertaining although I had no idea how to play it. I was sitting on the couch and laughing at them when they did funny things. 

Chen taught Min Ho some tricks and they then put on a golf game which I really wanted to play. Personally I found Golf to be the world’s most boring game but it was fun to play on the Wii even when I at it. When it was my turn to play, the boys continouslly laughed at me because I kept missing the ball no matter what I did.

“You’re really bad at this aren’t you?” Chen took the golf control away and played in my place. He scored two times without any effort and I had no idea how he did it.                          

“This is so unfair”, I watched Min Ho play. He also scored two times. “This is unlike me to say, but I’m really jealous right now. I want to win too.”                     

I tried again when it was my turn, but failed and handed the controller to Chen. At the same time Kai entered the room. 

”Min Ho i-”, he gave us a confused expression as he looked at what we were doing. “Chen? I thought you were going to the study room with the rest of the class."

“Nah”, Chen shook his head. “I don’t really like studying that much.”

“Me neither”, I agreed. Kai ignored me.

”What book was it you needed help with?” Kai asked Min Ho meanwhile I was staring at him, because I was not okay with him ignoring me just like that. I was the one who was supposed to ignore him. Not him, but me.

”It’s this one”, Min Ho handed Kai a book and continued playing, I sneered at Kai who sat down on the couch next to me and hid his face behind the book Min Ho had handed him. When I noticed Chen looking at me, I quickly ignored Kai and focused on what Min Ho was doing. It was soon my turn to play. I tried really hard and managed to hit the ball, but it flew towards a tree. Chen and Min Ho started laughing again.

“This is not fun at all”, I said. “You guys just wait and see when we do something I’m good at. I’m going to laugh so hard, you’re going to cry.”                                        

“Let me help”, Chen offered. “You need to stand right”, he said. “Face the wall.” I did as he said. “Your legs need to be apart.” I pulled my legs apart. “Good. Now you need to hold the golf controller with both hands in front of you.” I did as I was told and looked at him.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Try swinging with it”, he said. I swung with the golf controller but he was not satisfied. “You have to do it like this.” Chen stood behind me. He was so close I could feel his warmth as he put his arms around me and his hands grabbed hold of my hands. He helped me swing the controller and it actually succeeded. I hit the ball in the right direction. 

“Yes”, I cheered. “I did it.” I was ready to kick some . “Don’t let go.” 

“Don’t forget your hips”, he placed his hands on my hips and led me into a better swing. I felt my body heat up. Chen was making me feel all sorts of things and I wanted him closer. I wanted his lips on mine and his hand- Oh god, I had to stop. This was not good at all.

“Why is your face so red, noona?” Min Ho asked something he shouldn’t have. I glared at him angrily (the others couldn’t see) and he backed away.

“Is it hot in here?” Chen laughed, making things worse. He knew exactly what he was doing. “Do you want to take off your jacket?”

“Shut up”, I said but he kept laughing without letting go of my waist. “You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you? You know how I get every time you…” I heaved out a breath. “Let’s focus on the game.”

“But”, Chen leaned closer to me. His mouth was close to my ear. “This is way more fun than the game.” I  started laughing at how hard he was trying to mess with me on purpose.

“Stooop”, I whined. “You would have been on the ground by now if I was holding a real golf club.”

“I would like to see you try”, he said. Before I was able to even try, he lift me up. I almost fell but he managed to hold me tightly.

“Chen!” I called.

“You’re scared?” He smiled. If there was one thing Chen was, it was playful. I was never able to stay mad at him whenever he did one of his things on me. I didn’t know why, maybe it was due to his cute dimples and beautiful eyes, but I just couldn’t. 

“Min Ho ah? Have you ever seen Ji Eun scared? Her eyes become so big it looks like they’re going to pop out. And her ears move by themselves too.” Min Ho, Chen and I laughed so much I wondered how Chen could still lift me up.

“What are you guys laughing about?” Mrs. Kim entered the room.

“Noona”, Min Ho answered. I heard a slam and saw Kai had put down Min Ho’s book and stood up.

“Where are you going?” Mrs. Kim asked him.

“I have things to do”, he answered. I put my arms around Chen so he could hold me more comfortably. I had forgotten Kai was even in the room. I told you Chen made me forget about him easily didn’t I?

“What’s wrong with him?” Mrs. Kim wondered when Kai left the room. When no one answered she let it go. “I made cookies.”                 

Two weeks later                                                                                                                                                    I woke in the middle of the night by a nightmare. I had just dreamed about losing my father and was unable to fall back asleep. Instead I grabbed my phone and saw I had missed messages from Chen and Lime. I went downstairs and made myself some hot chocolate while quickly answering each. I then put a lot of whip cream and marshmallow on my drink and went to the mini living room to enjoy the view of the window. Although it was late, some people would walk by from time to time. The view was so lovely with the light that came from nearby buildings and the stars shone bright in the sky. Unfortunately, the moon was nowhere to be seen.  

“Why are you sitting here so late?” I was startled by the sudden question and almost spilled the hot chocolate on myself. Kai who had startled me, for the thousandth time, sat down next to me.

“You scared me”, I said to him and positioned myself back to the way I was sitting. After taking a sip of the drink I remembered his question. “Why do you ask? Is it forbidden to sit here?” His hand went up to my hair. I pulled my head back so he would be out of reach. Kai’s hand stood in mid-air for a few seconds before he let it drop.

“I like it,” he said. "It suits you." I scoffed. Was he kidding? After being back me for about two weeks he had barely spoken to me and neither had I to him but it was now that he decided to comment on my hair? I would have been fine had the comment come two weeks ago when he'd first seen it but now? Wow, Kai. He really made me speechless. 

Pissed off, I just took my phone and checked if I had gotten any messages..

“Did I do something wrong?” He asked after a moment of me ignoring him. “You’ve been mad at me since I came back.” A smirk quickly surfaced on my lips as I looked at him. I was deciding whether I even should answer him at all. In the end I did.

“You’re asking me if you did something wrong?” I asked. “Are you seriously telling me that you don’t know why I’m acting this way?”

“I wouldn’t be asking if I did, would I?” He asked. I took a deep breath to calm down.

“After everything that happened”, I began. ”After everything I told you, you kissed me.” My phone bipped but I ignored it. “You kissed me and then you laughed in my face and told me it was to shut me up. And as if that wasn’t hurtful enough, you disappeared to France and didn't even think to call and ask how I was doing once.” I looked at him and waited for him to answer, for him to try and defend himself. But there was nothing. ”You have my number. You could have even sent me a text. You could have told Min Ho or your mom or your dad to greet. Just one simple how are you would have made me happy.” I shook my head. ”How could you just leave me hanging like that all summer after what you did? How can you even come back, sit here and act like you did nothing wrong?”

“So”, he began, ”You’re angry because I kissed you? Ji Eun, it was just a kiss. I told you why I did it. There was nothing more to it so why are you overthinking it?” I felt my heart break into pieces when I heard his harsh words. My lips were already trembling and my eyes where watery. What he said nade it ten times worse. Somewhere deep down I had hoped. Even though he had given the reason for kissing me, I had hoped there was more to it than just that.

“You’re an ”, I said. “That kiss might not have meant anything to you, but it did for me. You knew how much I liked you and you took advantage of that for your own benefit. Is that really the kind of person you are? Do you go around kissing people who like you without caring of the consequences or the hurt you give to them?”

“No”, he answered. “I’m not like this to everyone.”

”Then why are you like this to me?” I asked. I heard someone coming down the stairs but I didn’t care. I needed to hear his answer. “Do you enjoy watching me suffer? Do you enjoy watching me cry because of you? Is that what you’re saying cause I feel like you do.”

“Kai?” The person standing at the stairs was no one other than Mrs. Kim. “Why are you guys s-?” I avoided to look at her knowing my face was a sobbing mess. When she figured out how serious things were, she left. “Okay. I will leave you guys. Goodnight.” Once I knew she wasn’t there, I cleared my throat and wiped away the tears that where threatening to shed. I emptied my hot cocoa cup quickly.

“I’m going to bed”, I said.

“I don’t get you”, Kai said at the same time. “Why didn’t you just call me? If you wanted to talk to me, you could have called.”

“You still don’t get it, do you?” I said and got up. ”You’re the one who ed up by kissing me. You’re the one who should have called out of decency. Not me.” I left him sitting there and once I got into the room I curled up under my blankets. Yes, I was a pathetic girl who liked someone who was way out of her league and now I looked even more pathetic when I was crying over him like this. But I couldn’t help it. It was as if him hurting me made me like him even more.