“Can I just say how much I loathe university classes?” Mina actually leaned down on the table she, Sehun, and Kai were occupying and moaned out loud. The two boys simultaneously winced at the sound, but said nothing. “Can I just show how much the classes are whispering for me to hurt myself by the ugliness they radiate?”

She was such a bad student, she believed, and she didn’t understand how the principal hadn’t revoked her scholarship yet. Sure, she’s great with sculpting and building things, and sure, her mathematics skills are superb, but she failed a few of her tests before and she partied way too much for a scholarship student to do. Maybe she needed to lay down being the person she currently is and start to think about falling back into her old studying routine to save her scholarship before it shatters. However, for now, she was just going to whine about it. It felt great, though, that she had two friends to nag with.

“Are you doing poetry?” Sehun quickly asked, blinking his small eyes and trying to hide a growing smirk. “Because you at it.”

“Where did that idea come from? Poetry? Really?” Mina blinked her eyes confusedly, staring up at his face without bothering to lift her head from the table.

“She’s right, Sehun,” came Kai’s response, his voice a bit muffled due to the strawberry milkshake he was slurping. Mina guided her offended eyes toward him. “We all know Mina’s not very.. eloquent or artistic at all.”

(Eloquent? Sure, maybe she truly wasn’t with her street slang, but artistic? She damn was! Did Kai not know creating buildings, shops, and homes is artistic? What was his definition of artistic?)

“Thank you, Jongin— wait, what the heck?” She roared, sitting straight in her seat and pointing a finger at him. He bit on an amused smile. “Are you insulting me? What happened to my sweet Jongin? You’ve been corrupted.”

“I agree,” Sehun ignored her. “She’s bad at a lot of things to be honest. The only thing she’s good at is being evasive.”

“Evasive?” She said loudly, looking away from Kai’s face to Sehuns', a blotch of confusion painting her delicate face. Sehun nodded, a gleam of something in his eyes. He stared at her as if he had her all figured out, she wondered now why the heck she decided to sit with him in her lunch break. 

“Yeah, like what you’re doing right now.” Sehun said in a fake posh sound, pretending to be a wise turtle or something. “You’re and groaning about university classes when you’re a top scholar which only means you’re trying to distract us from the Junmyeon issue.”

It was magnificent how only now Sehun was acknowledging her scholar status and underlining her smart-ness, or something, when he’d rather drink bleach than admit she’s smart, even smarter than him. However, his seriousness didn’t thaw her armor of steel, and so she glared. 

“I’m gonna tell Suho you think he’s an issue.”

“See? Evasive.” He snickered, amused of himself and what he came up with. 

“I’m not trying to be evasive,” she rolled her eyes at him. “I simply think there’s nothing more to talk about. We’ve discussed everything already and Suho told you everything too. What’s more to say?”

When she and Suho sat everyone down after Minseok’s fine words, they told the boys about their bond. They weren’t sure of it, or Suho wasn’t sure of it since it wasn’t as consistent as Baekhyun and Jongdae’s, but it has always been with him. He told them that it might be the cause for their triggered emotions, Mina’s crush and his unconditional love for her, or it could be the opposite: their feelings triggered the bond. Whatever it was, Suho explained that their bond was what made the others’s bond happen, which didn’t make Baekhyun and Jongdae happy. He told them that to infiltrate between a pack — she didn’t particularly like the word ‘infiltrate’ — she had to go through the Alpha first, which made their bonds easier — he had pointed at Baekhyun and Jongdae when explaining — or that’s what he thinks anyway. He wasn’t quite sure, and so he said he’d have to do more research and talk to his parents too. All of the boys agreed to talk to their parents for more information as well.

Minseok did not look happy. Oh boy. Mina thought he’d just stand up and leave all together. Baekhyun and Jongdae didn’t like what they heard either, especially when Suho hinted that their relationship with her couldn’t have happened if her relationship with him happened first. They didn’t feel very much appreciated or important, which is why she kissed them goodbye when they left to boast their dampened mood. 

“Nothing much,” Sehun said carelessly, smirking. “But it’s surprising how resolute and good you are with accepting this situation. Knowing you, I thought you’d have at least a dozen public meltdowns.”

Geez. Is that what he thinks of her? A brazen, crazy who’s into public meltdowns?

“I agree,” soft and gentle Kai agreed, nodding his head. He looked serious when she stared at him in offense, and so she didn’t get mad at him for agreeing, knowing he meant something else. “You’re strangely put together. Like, too unlike you.” 

He wasn’t very eloquent either, it seemed. Mina fought off a snicker. 

“I’ve gone through a damn meltdown with Jongdae before,” she started with a roll of her eyes. “And I may have slapped Baekhyun as well. There’s no need for another meltdown. I think those are enough.” She didn’t notice herself fiddling with the cloth of the table.

“Or maybe because you secretly enjoy being with Suho Hyung now.” Sehun snickered again, noticing the nervous gesture she did with the table cloth and the sour scowl on her face, not liking the subject at all. 

She decided to stop talking like she was telling a joke and maybe grows herself a damn spine. Not like she lacked one or anything, but maybe she needed a bigger one, one made of steel. She let out a long, agonizing sigh, and at the prospect of hearing it, Sehun blinked his eyes, while Kai’s eyes only widened a fraction. 

“To tell you the truth,” she began. “Suho and I have had feelings for two years now, so the truth of a pre-bond doesn’t seem all that serious to me. I’ve already been harboring feelings for him and I don’t mind a bond which already existed. With Jongdae or Baekhyun, it’s different because there weren’t any feelings at the beginning and they were just my friends, and the bonds were sudden. That’s why it took more for me to accept it then than now.”

“It makes sense, I guess.” Sehun said after a clear of his throat, composing himself. Honestly, despite his ill-mannered intentions of before and his fire-burning sarcasm, he seemed to be quite stable and... mature, if she so dared to say. She shook the thought of that and focused on what Kai had to say next. 

“Wow, Mina, that’s so mature of you.”

“Not having a meltdown? Thanks, I thought I was already mature.” She snorted in disbelief, but a smile was already forming her scowl-y mouth. 

“No you aren’t.” They simultaneously said, harmonized in a freakish, werewolfy way. She grimaced, both for the creepiness of the whole scene, and their bored response. 

“Jeez, thanks. I feel your damn love.”

Sehun just snickered, while Kai allowed a small smile to grace his face. They finally — finally — concentrated on eating their orders instead of bothering Mina about her life. Sure, the cafeteria’s food isn’t the best in the world, resembling Baekhyun and Jongdae’s cafeteria’s food, but she was too hungry to care, not to mention the whole conversation with Sehun and Kai was draining. She ate her hamburger with dissatisfaction, because it tasted bland. Her coke tasted bland, which is weird because how the hell can coke taste bland? Whatever, she was just glad she was eating; Sehun and Kai were silent.

Until she remembered Sehun’s crush.

Instantly, her eyes shifted into giant, red hearts, and she placed her hamburger down and clicked her fingers in front of his face, interrupting his mellow conversation with Kai. 

“Sehun, when will I ever see your crush?”

“The heck?” Sehun spluttered in surprise and confusion, wondering where she brought this subject from. Then, a faint dust of bright red doused his ears. Sehun was incapable with blushing, but colored ears was closer to that. It was a delight watching Sehun show such a lively expression, even if he was murderous after them. She placed a hand over and tried to hide her smile through it. Kai stared between the two curiously.

“What, you thought I’d forget, ha! Nice shot,” she snickered. She couldn’t help it, she was just mean like that and seeing Sehun’s ears become even redder was a nice change of scenery. “Now, show me where she is. I wanna see your nasty taste in girls since you’ve never really dated before.”

“I can’t say it,” Sehun shook his head quickly, almost too quickly. “Nope, I can’t say her name.”

“Why not?” Mina now frowned, confused of such a blatant no. It wasn’t like he was too shy to show them who she was, right? Sure, maybe he was shy but not enough to elicit such a bad no. “I’m curious to know of this mystery girl that thawed your cold heart.”

“I can’t do it,” Sehun groaned aloud, the red in his cheeks going down to his neck. “It’s embarrassing.”

Okay. So maybe he totally was shy, and the scene was too comedic and funny for Mina to let slide. So she went closer to Kai and clung to his arm, playfully smacking him there with a big grin.

“Aww, Jongin, he’s shy!”

“Shut up!” Sehun all but growled, reaching forward to smack her square in the forehead. She continued to grin. “I’m not shy! I’m embarrassed, there’s a difference,” then, he calmed down, realizing that making a deal out of it would probably only prompt her to be an to him. So, he decided to come clean. “Plus, I don’t really have a crush on her.”

That made Mina slightly pause, confusion replacing her previous excitement. 

“What? Why? I mean what?”

“It’s just... kind of like an admiration of sorts?” He rolled his eyes again when he saw her so focused on his speech, more out of embarrassment than anything really. Kai beside him listened silently. “She’s in my business class and she’s damn smart. She aces her tests and her projects and she beat down a few men’s egos by having one heck of a comeback,” he paused, thinking of a proper way to say this, and then settled with. “I just.. I aspire to be like her.”

Mina, ever so slowly and deliberately, began blinking her eyes, looking at Kai with fake stupefaction while closing and opening . She was just messing with Sehun, but there was a part of her that was really taken aback with the honest words exiting the boy’s lips. Sehun wasn’t exactly the nicest person out there and he definitely wasn’t a person who compliments anyone at all, not even his own family. It was a bit strange hearing his soft tone too, and Mina’s surprise was only half fake. Still, the look on her face made Sehun bristle like an angry cat hurriedly and he shot her a venomous glare instantly. 

“This is why I didn’t want to talk about her! Look at your damn faces, you’re staring at me like I’m the most peculiar on the planet!”

Right, even Kai couldn’t believe himself and stared at Sehun like he was a lunatic. 

Mina leaned over to whisper to Kai theatrically, “He is the same Sehun we’ve known throughout high school and Uni, right? His body hasn’t been secretly copied or invaded by human-like aliens, right?”

Kai merely chuckled, knowing she was just being her playful self, whereas Sehun continued to glare, having heard every single one of her words.

“You’re a ing and this is why we’re not best friends.”

“We kinda are though.” She stated in a casual voice, holding her burger again and taking a bite. 

“No, you’re Jongdae and Baekhyun Hyung’s best friend,” Sehun stated back intelligently. “You and I are just casual friends.”

“First of all, what the heck is casual friends?” She started, frowning. “That’s not even a real term. Second of all, I can’t be Baekhyun and Jongdae’s best friend if I’m already their girlfriend.”

“Wow, you’re right,” Kai said before Sehun could add a nasty comment, blinking his sleepy eyes at her in something akin to... pride? “You’re taking this polyamory relationship better than I thought.” 

She merely gave him a sweet smile he wasn’t able to return so fully, so he settled with a small one. 

“The point is,” Sehun rolled his eyes, again. “You’re a damn and I don’t share things with you for this exact reason.”

“You kinda don’t share anything with anyone though, so clearly the issue is in you, not me.”

“Whatever. Shut up. I don't wanna talk about her.” He grumbled, looking down at his food. He was kinda cute like that, curled around himself, ears red, and lips pouty. She found herself quickly melting into a puddle and waved her hands in front of her. 

“Sorry, sorry! I’ll shut up! I’ll be good! I promise!”

He just snorted and continued to grumble under his breath. The red in his ears and neck slowly easing away. They were about to fall into another steady rhythm of lazy conversation and ty food when they suddenly heard the thuds of footsteps getting closer to them. Whoever it was was jogging towards them, and Sehun and Kai rolled their eyes. This gesture of theirs made his presence known before he was even there and when she looked back to whoever was approaching, her eyes twinkled.

“Mina!” Baekhyun exclaimed, coming to a close stop in front of their table and shooting her a smile. Then, as if remembering she wasn’t the only one around, turned to give Sehun and Kai a smile too. 

“Oh. Baek,” she instantly stood up to—what? To do what? Maybe greet him first. She didn’t know, she just felt like standing up, her body moving on autopilot. “Why are you here?” She continued with a clear of . 

“Come give me a kiss first.” Baekhyun promptly pouted his lips for a kiss and the two boy around simultaneously groaned aloud — which resembled a frightened shriek — and scratched their chairs back. The sound of their chairs grinding on the ground collected the attention of the students around and they all saw her as she leaned over and kissed him. 

Mina thought the boy would settle with only a peck since, well, they were not in a private place, but she released a surprised moan when the boy all but deepened the kiss, his arms taking their residence around her narrow hips.

“Ew, just ew.” Sehun muttered, pretending to throw up, while Kai only stared curiously at them as they kissed. The sound of Sehun’s not so gentle gag made Baekhyun break the kiss, but he didn’t release Mina and placed his forehead on hers, curling his lips into a gentle smile.

“Hey.” Baekhyun said, panting due to both his previous jog and the mind-blowing public kiss. So he was a PDA person, she wasn’t sure if she was even surprised. 

“We already kinda greeted each other, Baek.” She muttered playfully, sneaking her arms around his neck in the same tightness of his arms around her waist. Sehun released another groan at that and the two heard a sound of a thud after that where his forehead met the table. They didn’t even shift their attention away from each other.

Baekhyun blinked brown, chocolate like and devour worthy eyes and she grew absolutely still, a sudden desire to kiss his eyes pillowing up her body, she gulped. Baekhyun, who seemed oblivious, said. “We have? Well, whatever, I’m still happy to see you.” He beamed in a grossly, completely none-Baekhyun way, leaning down to nuzzle his nose with hers. She found herself growing awfully flustered as she tried to push her nose away with a girlish whine of protest coming solely from her shyness. 

“Ew, just ew.” It was Kai’s time to say, repeating Sehun’s statement, and Baekhyun pulled his face away from trying to nuzzle her to fake