The Spring Week started with the blooming of the cherry blossoms. Flowers that did not unfortunately blossom in Baekhyun’s heart, not that year anyway.

“What’s up with you, dude?”, Chanyeol asked as they got settled with their hamburgers in the cafeteria. It was almost 6:00 in the evening and they had just taken a break from their duties for the second day, as they hadn’t been able to catch lunch earlier. The dance performances were still in full swing, they could hear the songs blaring in auditorium even from a distance.

“Nothing”, Baekhyun shrugged. Chanyeol gave him a look before turning back to his food, not pressing further. Baekhyun didn’t even feel thankful for it anymore. He knew that his friends knew what was going on, they were just trying to be considerate by pretending they didn’t notice Baekhyun’s hair were turning white with how anxious he was about the play tomorrow.

But sitting there after the long day he’d had, Baekhyun felt no nerves, just plain numbness. What was coming was coming and there was nothing he could do about it. And there was something, rather someone, that was going too.

She was. Time was running out of his hands, as their final semester exams were right after the spring week, time that would take her away forever and there wasn’t a single thing he could do about it.

_

Taeyeon turned behind the curtain, giving Minseok a smile as he went in for his scene with Baekhyun and Minho. It was the second last scene of the play, Minho playing Hermia’s father would agree to her and Lysander’s union in the scene and the following scene would show a happy dance ending with Demetrius wedding Helena and Lysander marrying Hermia.

These were the last few days of her university life, and she would always remember that Wednesday as one of the most difficult of them, and for very different reasons. The stress was starting to take a toll on her and today it had reached its peak. It had been so damn hard for her to keep up the professional façade when the lines between what was reality and what mere acting kept blurring. She was tired of constantly trying to read Baekhyun’s eyes, her traitor heart looking for true emotion in them even though she knew it was all acting. They hadn’t said one extra word to each other in days, Baekhyun always acted so distant, and despite wanting to, she hadn’t been able to build up the courage to break the silence on her part.

But she had felt it there. The emotion, the longing, everything she had once seen so clearly in his eyes when they were saying the much repeated lines, that somehow always felt new coming from him. Or was she really so blinded by her hopes that she was failing to see reality for what it was? It couldn’t be. She wasn’t that much of a fool. Or was she?

She was miserable, her mind going haywire with questions, confusions and truths. And she wished it to end.

The curtain fell, and as they always did, everyone got into action. Since her and Kim Soeun’s scene had ended earlier, they had been able to change into their costumes for the final scene and now Baekhyun and Minseok were hurriedly trying to change into theirs.

She looked away. Since the scenes changed in such a short time, they didn’t have time to go backstage into their allotted rooms to get changed into new clothes and had to do it around, and they had sort of become insensitive to these things, since no one had time to be interested in one another in the hurry they were in.

But this time since she’d had a few minutes to herself, she felt more self-conscious thinking about him changing a few feet from her than she had in the past hour the play had been underway. He came and stood beside her, the musky scent telling her he was near before her eyes did and she tried looking at him from the corner of her eye.

He looked dashing, she admitted for the first time that day, she hadn’t been able to appreciate how he had been looking in the frenzy. His now brown hair were sleekly styled and he had donned on a Victorian style jacket for the last scene in which they had to dance, similar to the frock dress she had on. His gaze flitted to her, and she hurriedly looked away, her face burning at having been caught in the act.

The narrator finished, and soon as the cue sounded, they took their positions. They were to go around the stage in a waltz before ending back at the center again. Minseok and Soeun went first, Baekhyun and her following soon after and she lost herself in the rhythm of it, the piano and violin in the back ground making for a harmonizing melody. The lifts went smoothly, she felt like she was flying, something that echoed in the audience’s cheers.

She hadn’t even realized her eyes had been closed the whole time, until she finally opened them when Baekhyun made her twirl at the end, as they came to a halt in front of each other.

Her heart started drumming soon as her eyes met with his warm ones. There might have been loud cheers, standing ovations and claps, but she barely heard any of it.

The curtain fell and she knew she should take her hands out of his warm ones and get backstage but she couldn’t. She stood there with bated breath, bewitched under his stare.

He inched closer, and maybe her head froze a little more because she didn’t step back. His earnest expression was mirrored in her’s and she lost sense of her surroundings. Her senses peaked as his hand gently started caressing her cheek, his thumb drawing circles, and she wondered if she was dreaming.

“Tell me to stop”, The pain and longing on his face reflected in his whisper and she knew she should do as she was being told. She should tell him to stop and back away before it was too late. But –

“I don’t want to”, She found her voice in her reply.

And when his lips finally met her’s, carrying in them all the affection and ache, she realized she’d never stopped loving him.

_

Seungwan was at the beach, taking in the salty air and the sun that late morning, when Kyungsoo came to tell her. She had taken to coming to the seaside for the past few days before going back to the apartment to lunch. She no longer ate at the restaurant she used to frequent, since she’d only taken enough money from Kyungsoo’s wallet to buy any necessities, not a penny more.

Eating food that he cooked was no longer embarrassing, because she did not see the point in wasting it because of her ego, the guy was going to annoyingly keep cooking for her anyway. Her episode at breakfast a few days prior had shamed her enough. So she silently took whatever was laid out every day in a plate and went to her room to eat, Kyungsoo eating at his usual place in front of the TV.

When she was told of them being allowed to go back at last, she didn’t feel as relieved as she should have. It was probably because she’d gotten used to it, the several days she’s spent here weren’t all in pain. She still vividly remembered all of the times she’d spent walking the side of the market to the library, and then to the Italian restaurant she’d loved so much. Impromptu as her first visit to this country was, she had still in a way come to like it. To breathe in sea air, the warm weather, and….Kyungsoo. With all that had conspired between them, she should be happy that it was at last the end of all her misery.

She wasn’t going to see him much now, and after their exams were over, maybe not ever.

 A silence hung in her heart, as did between them, on their way. It was natural to feel like this right? She’d liked him, loved him, for so long. Now that the end was here, it was natural to long for him. Especially as the hope in her heart had never fully died down, not even when his wedding had been hours away. But she would eventually move on from it. Eventually everything would be fine.

As the plane took off for home, she looked down at the sea spread below. She would return back here one day, even if just to eat at that restaurant. Maybe her heart wouldn’t thud as achingly then.