“There she is,” Sehun whispered excitedly under his breath.

“Don't look, don't look!” he scolded Jongin, who was being way too obvious, practically staring at her.

Naturally, she was so gorgeous that it was hard to take your eyes off her, that he understood better than anyone, but blatantly staring at her was not going to do him any favors.

“Dude... That's not a girl...” Jongin was looking at him as if he had lost his mind.

“Not you too!” he sighed in frustration.

It was just not that good of a disguise. Sure, it would do nicely for Halloween, but she wasn't fooling anyone with her long, silky locks and perfect, delicate figure. Or apparently, she was fooling everyone. Everyone except him.

“Are you blind?” he complained, determined to make Jongin see the light.

“Are you attracted to 'him'?” he cleverly asked, using air quotes for 'him', since she was so obviously a 'her'.

“Mm.. no. Not really.”

Jongin shrugged.

“See!” he exclaimed triumphantly, surprising even himself with his elegant powers of persuasion.

“Not sure that proves anything...”

Jongin tried to poke holes in the intricately woven blanket of proof he had presented to him, not knowing that it was completely bulletproof.

“Are you attracted to me?” he asked bluntly.

It was a dirty trick, but Jongin had brought it upon himself.

“Ehhh...” Jongin's eyes tripled in size, nothing but air coming out of his petrified lungs.

“I rest my case,” he said smugly, not waiting for the shock to subside, taking advantage of Jongin's silence.

“Whatever rocks your boat, man.”

Jongin shook his head, giving up in the face of his obviously superior debating skills.

“Ooh! She's coming over here. Go away!” he pushed Jongin away.

“Woah, have you been working out?” he tried squeezing the rock that had replaced Jongin's squishy bicep.

Jongin blushed.

He wasn't sure muscles were going to help Jongin much with his supernatural problem, but they couldn't hurt. Ah, he looked down at his scrawny arms and sighed. Jongin was always one step ahead of him. It was how it had always been, and probably how it was always going to be.

Hmm. As a sidekick, he could actually use some muscles, since he had no powers to lean on. He had to start working out too. He decided to start right away. Tonight. There was no time like the present. Muscles could also come in handy with wooing his little miss Goldilocks, he thought, the butterflies in his stomach agreeing wholeheartedly.

“You're not going to introduce her to me?”

Jongin looked hurt on purpose, trying to make him feel guilty for wanting to get rid of him.

“I thought we were best friends?”

Oh no. Not the puppy eyes. And they were moist with hurt. Damn, Jongin was a good actor.

“Go! I don't want to risk her falling for you!” he insisted, pushing him away, but softer than before.

“Okay, alright, I'm going. I'm going. Just don't be weird.”

Jongin gave him an encouraging wink.

“When have I ever been weird?!” he objected as Jongin made himself scarce just in time.

His princess was almost here. He tried to think of something cool to say, something to make her stop and notice him, but his brain was on strike.

Instead of flying past him with silently loud, sparkly sass, like the fairy princess she was, she stopped right in front of him. His heart instantly turned into an African tribal drum. He could feel all the blood in his body rush to his cheeks. He tried to will it to disperse, but his cheeks just got hotter and hotter, like he had a hot pack in each cheek.

“Hey,” she said softly, almost shyly.

He looked around, not believing that she was actually talking to him.

“I came to say sorry yesterday, but you were gone,” she said uncharacteristically awkwardly.

It was so cute that Sehun was having the hardest time trying not to giggle in front of her. Her awkwardness gave him courage.

“Make it up to me,” he demanded boldly, raising one of his eyebrows playfully.

He was taking Jongin's advice, faking confidence.

“Uh, how?” she looked really taken aback, her stance changing from shy to wary.

“Have lunch with me.”

He smiled sweetly, praying she would say yes.

“Em.. okay?” she said, making it sound more like a question rather than an answer. But he was willing to take whatever he could get.

“No, not the canteen. I've got a headache, too many people,” he said when she started heading to the school cafeteria, dramatically holding his head like he was terminally ill and peering his eyes theatrically.

“Then... where? It's not like we have choices,” she noted, her expression stuck between confusion and intrigue.

“Classroom picnic!” he exclaimed cheerfully.

“What?” she giggled.

It was the most beautiful sound, it tickled his gut.

“Come with me.”

He wanted to do the whole grab her wrist and pull her away with him like a manly lead in a TV drama, but he chickened out and just nodded in the direction they were going.

“Give me five minutes.”

He grinned as he left her in an empty classroom. He ran out of there, full-blown panicking, calling Jongin in desperation.

“I need help. Now!”

He didn't know how they did it, but in eight minutes they managed to put together a proper picnic basket, or a picnic backpack if you will. Thanking Jongin with the biggest smile in the world, he ran back to the classroom, hoping against hope that she would still be there.

He opened the door to the classroom, slowly. He found himself wishing with all his might that she would still be there, even closing his eyes for a short moment, just in case opening them again would make her magically appear.

Whether there was magic involved or not, she was there. She was really there. He felt as if he had won multiple lotteries simultaneously. She looked up as he entered, her eyes soft and approachable.

His heart jumped.

“Thanks for waiting.”

He smiled a little too widely. Not wasting any of their precious time together, he dove into the backpack and fished out a white table cloth they had borrowed from the cafeteria storage room. Borrowed might be an overstatement, but it wasn't stealing if he was going to bring it right back.

Attempting coolness, he swung the cloth really high, trying to make it fly over the table in one elegant movement. The cloth had other ideas. Falling in love with him midway, it changed directions and attacked him with a big cloth-hug, making him look like a cheap ghost.

Not smooth at all. Anti-smooth, even. But then he heard it. The sound that in an instant became his favorite sound in the universe. She was laughing. It was such a cute sound, that his pet butterflies, that had taken up permanent residence in his gut, completely lost it. Doubling in numbers, their flutter was so chaotic and ticklish that he could barely stand up straight, let alone concentrate. And he needed to concentrate if he was going to charm her socks off.

After that initial hiccup, or ghost-up, things went relatively smoothly. She seemed to really appreciate the trouble he had gone to in order to conjure up this romantic classroom picnic. And the conversation was actually flowing, they talked and talked. He joked, she laughed. She joked and he completely missed the point, and she laughed. Every time the sound of her laughter reached his heart, it buried little seeds of affection in it. He could feel himself fall deeper and deeper in love with her as those seeds took root in his heart. All he wanted was the chance to water them regularly until they grew strong and blossomed.

“Oh, wait! I still haven't introduced myself.” she giggled heartily.

“I'm Baekhyun. Ah, just call me Baek.”

Baek Hyuna. Hyuna was so obviously a girl's name. He would have thought she would have adopted a fake boy's name to maintain her cover. She was even cockier than he had originally thought. He was impressed. It was weird to call her only by her last name, but with a girly name like Hyuna, he understood why she used Baek as her nickname. And it actually suited her, since it meant white and her skin was white as milk.

“That's a beautiful name. I'm Sehun.” he introduced himself.

“Yeah, I know,” she simply said.

How did she know?

“I saw your nametag at the hospital,” she answered his silent question. Or had he asked it out loud? He wasn't sure anymore.

He couldn't believe it. She had not only gone out of her way to check his nametag but also remembered his name! He had a chance, a real one.

The lunch break went by in the blink of an eye, the sound of the bell robbing them of more time together. As Baek stood up, Sehun's hand discreetly disappeared into the front compartment of his backpack. He was nervous, but he knew he had to act fast. It was now or never.

“Go on a date with me,” he said as his hand conjured up a tiny bouquet of flowers, as if by magic.

“No!” Baek spouted back at him immediately, without giving it a second thought.

She looked quite taken aback.

“Why?” he asked, not getting it.

They had had an amazing time. And there was no one going to tell him they lacked chemistry, they could have lit up a ten-story building with the electricity in the air between them.

“I'm not gay,” her expression hardened, and just like that, the person he had spent lunch with disappeared. She was replaced by the intense ice queen he had met in the hallway.

“And stop chasing me around school, I don't want the entire student body thinking I am.”

Ah. He finally got it. It wasn't that she didn't like him. Being seen with him was jeopardizing her cover.

“Don't worry, your secret is safe with me,” he whispered as they exited the classroom, sending her a knowing wink.

“Huh?” she reacted as if she didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

Man, she was a good actress.

He sent her an enthusiastic wave goodbye, determined to find a way for them to be together.