Minyoung stared at her cellphone, gnawing her lip worriedly.

Mei had yet to respond to any of her frantic texts, sent in rapid flurry after receiving Sehun’s rather ominous text.

Seeing that her friend had yet to reply, she returned to the said message, staring at the characters, a strange feeling growing in her chest.

Talk to Mei.

That’s all the message said and yet, it conveyed a sense of concern, of… of care, despite the abruptness. Sort of like Sehun himself.

Her lips twisted into a pout.

She’d taken the day off to distance herself from the entire thing. She’d meant it when she’d said she would respect Sehun’s choice; if he felt that way about Mei, she wouldn’t come between them. But that didn’t mean that her feelings magically went away.

No, they festered, just like they’d festered for the entire school year right before she’d confettisioned on him.

She’d let Mei’s teasing go to her head, subconsciously started believing her delusional belief that Oh Sehun had a crush on her, Minyoung. The thought was so ridiculous, now that she thought about it. Who would he look at a shy nerd like her when Mei was right there? She wouldn’t look at herself, why would anyone else?  

So yeah, she’d taken the day off to throw herself a one-man pity party, complete with ice-cream and emotional movies, to let herself have a good cry before she went back to keeping up the strong front for Mei and Sehun.

And yet, the issue had found her even in the safety of her own room.

This was the first time Sehun had directly texted her.

She knew, from Mei, that Sehun asked about her but he’d never taken the initiative to text her directly. And she’d taken his lead, sending messages for him to Mei.

Honestly, it made her feel like crap that the one time he did text her, it was about Mei. And Minyoung hated that she was being so petty because gosh darn it, Mei was her best friend.

She sighed, lip wobbling. She’d had too much ice cream already and she’d marathoned the saddest movies she had in her collection, so she was already quite sentimental.

She sniffed, tears blurring her vision.

God, she hoped Mei was okay. Shaking her head, she wiped her eyes and pulled up the messenger again. Mei still hadn’t responded to any of her texts.

Minyoung dialed her number and waited. After so many rings, Minyoung was about to hang-up when Mei finally answered.

‘’Lo?’ she said, sounding nasal.

Minyoung’s stomach dropped. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked worriedly. ‘I’ve been texting you but you weren’t responding and I was getting worried… is everything alright? Are you hurt?’

‘M fine,’ Mei mumbled in response, but thankfully she didn’t sound like she was in pain. More like she’d been crying. ‘Just… Min…’

‘I’m here,’ she responded, pressing the phone closer to her ear.

Mei sniffed. ‘I…’

‘Mei, sweetheart…’ Minyoung tried to stay the alarm rising inside her. Mei burst out into loud sobs, her words getting warbled and completely lost.

There was some shuffling and then another, deeper voice spoke into her ear. ‘Hello? Mei isn’t up to talking right now, so perhaps you can call later?’

‘Who’s this?’ Minyoung asked. That didn’t sound like either Luhan or Sehun.

‘Uh, this is Baekhyun.’

‘Who?’

‘Baekhyun, from the drama club.’

‘What’s wrong with Mei? What did you do?’ Minyoung demanded, getting up to put on her shoes. Her pity party be damned, she wasn’t leaving her friend in the hands of some ert.

‘I didn’t do anything!’ he protested. ‘I was just trying to talk to her!’

‘Leave her alone, you ert!’ Minyoung shrilled, rushing out of the room. Her mother had left for work, so she would have to walk to school or take the bus. But she’d make do.

‘Where’s Sehun? Or Luhan? Why are you with her?’ she demanded as she marched.

‘First of all, I’ll have you know that I am not a ert. I only came after Mei because she was obviously upset.’

‘Why was she upset?’

Mei wailed loudly in the background and Minyoung realized that Baekhyun had the loudspeaker.

‘… yeah, I don’t think she’s ready to talk about it just yet.’

Worse case scenarios ran through her head. What could’ve happened to upset Mei so much? She hadn’t been like this since the last time when she’d…

‘Baekhyun, can you please give the phone to Mei?’

‘Um… I can hold it close to her ear?’ he asked.

‘Okay.’

‘Hold on…’ She could hear him talking to Mei in a soothing voice. ‘Your friend wants to speak to you…’

Mei only sniffed in response. That was good enough. ‘Mei, dear… what’s the code?’

There was silence before Mei softly replied, ‘Red.’

……………………………………

 Sehun had no idea what had happened.

He’d been attempting to get rid of the student council president, who’d been trying to convince him to talk about his emotions. Sehun would rather stick pins in his own eyes, so he was – understandably – trying to ditch the guy who couldn’t take a hint despite having the reputation of being super-smart.

He was also wondering where the hell Mei had disappeared. He had a sneaking suspicion that she’d deliberately carded him off to the prez, knowing the guy would stick to him like glue.

So of course, he’d started marching away as fast as he could, hoping his long strides would discourage the man from following him. But man, was the guy stubborn. He’d persisted, almost jogging to keep up with him and Sehun had been getting desperate when he’d seen Mei disappear in a corridor.

He’d all but run up the stairs only the catch the tail end of an obvious confettision. By the time he’d gotten there, Mei had already dashed off, surprisingly fast, and he’d stayed because obviously, his presence wouldn’t be helpful.

Still, he’d been worried, so after seeing the dramatics guy – the one who’d once acted with Mei – running after her, he’d taken the peek inside, curious as to what, or rather who, had caused this.

The answer should’ve been obvious.

Luhan was lying with his head down, dissolving into tears, eying the pile of confetti with something akin to sorrow. The other guy, the one who always looked like he was dreaming – or high – patted his head soothingly.

For a moment, Sehun worried that his presence might be unwelcome. It was, in most places, and Luhan… well, the guy hadn’t been overtly hostile since that incident but Sehun had no delusions. He was the last person Luhan would want to see right now.

But of course, Suho thought it was the perfect opportunity for the two to bond.

‘You both confettisioned on Mei,’ he explained patiently to the wide-eyed soccer star, who looked like he might break out into tears again. ‘And from what Lay explained to me, she confettisioned on Baekhyun, so… it must be hard.’

Sehun frowned at that. ‘Why would it be hard?’