Noeul learns a lot of things about Sehun. He likes to get up really early. She could hear his heavy footsteps at the brink of dawn. The sounds of his shower raining onto the polished stone tiles.

She also learns that he likes to drink coffee. It was usually coffee brewed in his inexpensive coffee pot. He didn’t like adding anything.

His fashion is understated, nothing too out of the ordinary and comfortably remaining within the shades of monotone.

When he came out of the hallway, Sehun immediately notices her hunched over on his couch.

“Did I wake you?” He asks gently.

Noeul smiles, trying to rid the sleep out of her body. “No, I was already up.”

Sehun frowns, turning to eye the door to her room. He turns back, meeting her eyes. “You sure? You can go back to bed in my room.”

“I...” Noeul is hesitant. “I’m not sure. I don’t want to intrude on your space.”

He makes a face. “You’re perfectly fine, Noeul. In fact, let me just make this abundantly clear: everything in this place is yours. You don’t have to ask. This is your home as much as it’s mine, and I’m not sure if this is too soon—but, I do plan to eventually adopt you.” Sehun sheepishly rubs the nape of his neck. “If you’ll let me.”

Noeul doesn’t really know how to feel about all of this. It wasn’t simply a matter of time. She just didn’t know how to deal with emotional attachments. Separate from Baekhyun, Sehun was his own person with his own beliefs.

What if he regretted taking her in one day? She didn’t want him to be bound to her by papers.

He sees the reluctance in her expression and takes a step back. “Okay, too soon. Sorry, Jun’s always going on about me forgetting my boundaries and whatnot. We can revisit this whenever you’re ready.”

Noeul nods, letting herself feel relieved. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. Maybe what she needed was time. “I think I’ll take you up on that offer,” she announces.

Sehun gives her a reassuring smile as she heads to his room. Noeul, surprisingly, falls back to sleep with ease.

When she wakes again, the sun has risen high up in the sky. Stretching her arms, she exits his room only to see chaos ensue.

“Get your ings hand off my ,” Baekhyun snaps, glaring his menacing eyes at Luhan who doesn’t bat an eyelash.

Instead, he quirks, “maybe you should take your own advice for once. You were touching me all night.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Oh, please! If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve kicked your all the way to hell.”

“Bold of you to assume that I wouldn’t have dragged you with me, bacon bits,” Luhan retaliates, taking an ironic bite of the bacon in his hand that he had stolen from Baekhyun.

Junmyeon’s eyes dart between the two boys. Sehun exchanges a look with his brother. “Lucky bastard.” She hears him mutter under his breath. “Okay,” he declares, finally building enough patience to intervene. “Both of you take a deep breath.”

But Baekhyun and Luhan are in the middle of another lover’s quarrel.

“You’re so ugly,” Baekhyun comments.

Luhan laughs. “I might be crippled, but I have a bigger than you.”

Baekhyun’s face burns red with anger as he sputters, “how do you even know that, creep?”

Luhan’s mouth twists into a fox-like snark. “Don’t leave the bathroom door wide open when you’re showering, shrimpy.”

Baekhyun bellows out an incredulous laugh, dropping his fork. “Say that again after you wake up tomorrow. You might just find yourself missing an organ.”

“Say your funny words, man.”

“Boys.” Junmyeon alarms, silencing everyone—even the sound of the birds chirping. That man can be terrifying.

His face is scary when he shoots both of them a cautionary glare.

They all notice Noeul approaching, and the silence is even louder.

But Luhan exists, and even if she hadn’t seen it all, he was the loudest in the room. “Good morning, princessa. I was starting to think something killed you.”

Noeul immediately knows what he’s referring to, and she responds by rolling her eyes. “Good morning to you too. I’m surprised you’re not pregnant considering how close you two were last night.”

Baekhyun lets out an offended gasp. “Not you too!”

Luhan giggles, acting as if he’d been hiding a secret. “What can I say? It’s almost like my reproductive organs are intelligently selective. I refuse to bear any children that resemble him.” Luhan shoots an accusatory look in the direction of a scowling Baekhyun.

Junmyeon clears his throat, displaying his level of invincibility to Luhan’s antics. “Won’t you join us for breakfast?”

Noeul takes the only open seat, coincidentally next to Baekhyun. Her body leans into him just a little, and he rescinds by equally pressing into her. She smiles to herself, but it doesn’t fly past Luhan.

He makes an exaggerated display of throwing up to which Sehun elbows him.

“Aside from es,” Sehun breaks the silence. “How about we head to your cabin for Thanksgiving break?”

Junmyeon nods, and the stern look in his eyes begins to dissipate. “Good idea. Maybe getting away is good for you kids.” His words sound more like threats than inviting.

“I’m not going,” Baekhyun determines. “I refuse to ride in a car with him.” He points an incriminating finger at Luhan who bats his eyelashes innocently.

Meanwhile, Noeul pats her boyfriend’s back as if to encourage him, “let’s act like grown-ups today, okay?”

Luhan coughs out a laugh as Baekhyun glares, and Noeul pretends not to hear her boyfriend’s childish grumbles.

For the rest of the morning, Noeul feels as if someone has groomed the garden in her chest. Long gone are the weeds. For the first time, she’s able to describe this feeling as happiness.

###

The last year of high school can seem like it’s the most relaxed, but don’t let that fool you. Senior year is meticulously known for being hectic. After homecoming, it’s a whirlwind of stress. Seventeen and eighteen-year-olds alike attempt to take the SAT or ACT for the last time before college deadlines roll around.

Then, there’s early action and regular decision. Though, only the really confident attempt early action—or there’s always those seniors who do it out of vanity. To boast that they’ve gotten into their dream school. But it isn’t always like that. Noeul commends early applicants.

As November flies by, her life becomes busier as she gathers her extracurriculars, begs her favorite teachers for a shining letter of recommendation, and somehow crowd the last four years of her high school career into Common App.

She’d only recently discovered that her boyfriend had been a player on their soccer team—varsity no less. He bragged to her that he’d been the youngest player to play center mid when he was a sophomore. He kind of bullied her into admitting that she’d never been to a school game in the last four years.

With Baekhyun attending practice every day after school, Noeul and Baekhyun naturally spent more time apart focusing on school. Luckily for him, he’d been able to quit his job at the diner at the haste of Junmyeon who insisted that the boy was simply too busy to balance a healthy work-life on top of being a student-athlete.

It hadn’t bothered Noeul, though as they were seen less and less together—with the exception of her dragging Luhan to Baekhyun’s soccer games, there were rumors astray. Rumors about them having a bad breakup.

Luhan liked to anger Baekhyun often by referring to himself as Noeul’s surrogate boyfriend.

“God, it’s so ing cold,” Luhan comments, his teeth chattering incessantly.

Noeul chuckles, “that’s what you get for wearing a cardigan.”

Luhan rolls his eyes. “Beauty is pain, darling. Besides! If we’d stayed in like I suggested, I wouldn’t have to freeze my ball sacks off.”

Her attention returns to the soccer field illuminated by the floodlights around them. She exhales slowly, watching the air fog up. “Shh—“ Noeul stands suddenly, clapping. “He has the ball!” She harmlessly punches Luhan’s arms in excitement.

At the sight of Baekhyun driving the ball toward the away team’s goal net, Luhan’s voice blends in with the crowd. “Come on, bacon bits!”

Baekhyun steadily gets closer to the fifty-yard line, but when he passes it, avoiding the right and left defenders, the cheers grow deafeningly loud. Noeul feels her heart squeeze together as she watches him aim a kick toward the goal.

And when he does, the ball ricochets off of the left goalpost, missing the goalie by a foot when it slams into the nets.

Noeul jumps, chanting his name with everyone else. Momentarily, almost scarily, she watches how his eyes search the bleachers until they land on hers. When he sees her, his expression mirrors her exactly. Her heart speeds, time slowing around them.

The cheering fades until all she can hear is the sound of her heart reminding her that what she feels is unlike anything she’d ever felt.

For a few minutes, her entire periphery is filled with him. And Noeul does something that she would otherwise have never done. She takes that leap of faith.

When the match ends, their team wins over the opposing team 3-1. Noeul drags Luhan down the ramp to meet her boyfriend who is currently being celebrated by his teammates and his coach.

Luhan reaches out to touch her shoulders, signaling for her to leave him. “Go get him, tiger.”

Noeul’s slow walk broadens into a sprint when Baekhyun begins to run toward her. When they reach each other, she jumps into his arms, letting him catch her. Her laugh fueled by adrenaline echoes in the field and is silenced when he kisses her. She cups both of his cheeks, deepening their kiss.

He breaks their kiss, and she rests her forehead against his, circling her arms around his neck. “Hi,” he murmurs, lowering his voice only for her to hear.

Noeul grins adoringly. “You did great out there.”

Baekhyun’s smile is gorgeous—so full of genuine happiness. “Thank you for coming to my game today.”

“Luhan says congrats,” she informs.

He wrinkles his nose. “Moment. Ruined.”

“Yeah, right. Admit it—you love him.”

“Ugh, as if!” Baekhyun emulates Cher’s infamous lines in Clueless to make her laugh, and he succeeds.

Luhan finally wheels up to them, adding, “also from the wise words of Cher Horowitz, ‘you are a snob and a half.’”

“You try carrying a soccer game, and perhaps, you’ll at least be somewhat near my level.”

Luhan smirks, “Bye—literally the same energy as YoU HaVeN't KnoWN thE tRIumPhs and DeFeats, the EpiC hIghS and LoWs Of HiGh ScHoOL FOotBAll.”

Baekhyun retorts, “who invited you?”

“Your girlfriend. You can at least try to use that brain of yours, meathead.”

“You speak big words for someone who can’t take the heat—“

Noeul pushes an arm over his chest in exasperation. “Go meet up with your team, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun turns to see his coach eyeing him with expectation. He sighs, ignoring Luhan when the latter obnoxiously makes kissy faces. “I’ll try to sneak over later!” He jogs backward, waving bye to the two of them.

When he’s gone, Noeul says, “play nice, Lu.”

Luhan responds lazily, “yeah, yeah. Let’s go to my place. I stole Dad’s credit card. We can order Chinese takeout.”

Coincidentally, it’d also been one of Baekhyun’s favorite foods. Noeul’s lip twitches. She had nothing to worry about after all.

Though their lives had become more hectic, Noeul wouldn’t trade anything for the little moments between the two of them.

Sometimes, he would stop by her place after practice, and Noeul would often be asleep. Lately, she had been taking naps after school, and he would join her, snuggling right beside her as if it was as natural as breathing.

She’d wake up groggy but very much aware of his presence. Because of practice, there was always the faint smell of grass and sweat but her absolute favorite? It was always right after he showered. He smelled like mint leaves.

After their brief nap, they’d be up and about, making conversation about their day. She’d ask him about practice, and he’d ask her about Ms. Soto. Then, she would tell him about all sorts of things. Whether it was about the shy freshman who tried to shoot his shot at her today or Luhan’s antics.

Baekhyun would listen in all the same ways. The corner of his lips was always gently upturned, and when she asked what because of the strange, endearing expression he held, he would always just shrug, offering her a mysterious smile.

Then, they’d somehow always find themselves on top of each other. Whether it be her straddling him as he sat upright or him lying on her back as she lie stomach-down on the floor occupied by either homework or a book.

“Have you started on your essay?” Noeul asks him one day out of the blue.

Baekhyun was mindlessly scrolling through his phone, and without missing a beat, he casually answers, “no.”

“Aren’t you worried?”

“Not really.”

She hums, envying his nonchalance. Noeul would rather time stop because she loved the way things were going now. She didn’t want to think about the future because thinking about it meant she had to finally deal with her shortcomings.

Noeul knew it was wrong to keep her disorder from him, but she didn’t know how to break it to him. What if he left her? That wasn’t even the worse scenario she had in mind. She’d imagined telling him in hundred of ways, but each outcome played out the same way.

The look of hurt and betrayal. Their relationship ending up in ruins. Noeul was most definitely a coward, but she made a promise to herself. She would tell him before they received their college acceptance letters.