The slow momentum of her legs resume. She yawns largely and puts her hand all over her face to cover , squishing it like cotton. Her feet are creaking against the rough ground, and she has a slightest impulse to straighten her back so she can walk like a classy lady (like all the damn time she knows she’s being stared at like a creep), but her laptop bag is super heavy; she’d rather just lug herself like a very fat woman instead. 

She lifts her head upon reaching the bus’s waiting shed, and her eyes instantly collide with the round, mischievous eyes of Chanyeol. Her eyes widen, and she instantly straightens her body up to resemble a sharp, elegant pencil. Her eyes flicker sideways, and she sees Baekhyun hunched over, standing beside Chanyeol so he could lean his cheek on the taller’s shoulder, exhaustion very clear in his face. However, something strange happens when he sees her. His face practically lights up as if seeing a trophy, and he straightens entirely so he no longer is leaning against Chanyeol. She thinks it’s strange because no one seems to like that she’s in their vicinity, their eyes instantly flashing with irritation whenever she invades their space. To see someone.. Baekhyun, nevertheless... light up like a Christmas tree in a non-religious family.. it winds up giving her a strange hurricane in her belly. She decides she does not like the unusualness of it.

He is not afraid to shoot her one of his smiles, too, the ones where his lips are a little lopsided so it appears as if he’s smirking; the ones where he looks beautifully dangerous. She readies herself.

“Ooh, look who’s here,” Baekhyun says teasingly for no reason whatsoever. “I didn’t even know you take the bus. A little short on money?”

She pretends to be looking for a place she can stand on (the bench is full) where she doesn’t have to stand next to them, but unfortunately the spot next to Chanyeol is the only available spot under the shade. She hates the sun more than people, so, naturally, she her pride in and scuffle there. Chanyeol and Baekhyun notice her awkwardly shuffling her feet on the ground to get closer to the former in the slowest pace possible without accidentally stepping over their personal space. For some reason, watching her was amusing to the pair. She was amusing. 

Baekhyun reaches over Chanyeol’s body to constantly poke her on the shoulder blade once positioned besides them. “Huh, huh? You didn’t answer me, Miss cannibal. You’re taking the bus like the rest of this sad, poor society? And I thought with such a pride, you’d at least have a fortune to support it.”

She’s not at all surprised by the nickname. She smacks his fingers away, accidentally brushing against Chanyeol’s chest in the process. The tall one merely clears his throat, whereas Baekhyun snickers, forcefully pushing his finger back to her shoulder and avoiding her claws. Eventually she grabs his fingers in a steel grip, shooting him the coldest glare she can manage, and he simply smiles sweetly back.

“Yah,” she begins, knowing that it’s this simple phrase that she hates the most that would irritate him, “Are you mentally deranged? Are you okay in the head? What, Miss cannibal? Alright, I knew that considering you’re living together, you’d share things between one another, but can you not call me that? I wouldn’t want my name to coexist with such dumb nickname. Can you also stop pestering me? I know you can’t help it because you’re a pest and it’s in your nature, but maybe you can try? I can help you by pointing to the other direction of where I’m walking every time we accidentally meet, this way you’ll understand the meaning of not wanting to hang around with you. If you’d prefer, I can accompany it with a middle finger or a glare? I’m very good at it, want to see?” She fixes the straps of her laptop bag and her lunch boxes on her shoulders so she can pull two middle fingers up. She can hear the people close enough from them gasp and cover their mouths, but she only focuses on Baekhyun, her glare now shifting into an expression of death-like calm, a dare in her eyes for him to do something in retaliation.

Baekhyun’s eyes are wide, but surprisingly he doesn’t push her middle fingers down at all, “There it is, your potty, disgusting mouth. Just, what is wrong with you?”

She puts a manicured hand over her chest exaggeratedly. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m a perfectly healthy young woman, physically and psychologically,” she leans over to him, narrowing her eyes (she doesn’t miss Chanyeol flinching at the sudden proximity to him), “But like, what’s wrong with you? Why do you drop the walls between two strangers so easily? If I was a jerk, and you should bet your that I am not, I could easily break those pretty fingers of yours. I’m a delicate woman, however, and I dislike using violence, so I’ll leave you with a warning. Don’t touch me again, you hear?”

Baekhyun looks smug. “I’m a black belt in Hapkido, so I’d say you won’t be able to break my fingers because I’ll break yours first.”

She surprises him by smiling sarcastically, “Do you want to bet on that?”

Chanyeol stops being a frigid refrigerator when he sees that they’re starting to fight in the middle of the street and are attracting attention. He takes the same step he took back forward, stands in between them, and with his large hands pushes their faces away from one another; away, away, so their eyes couldn’t spew venom to each other anymore.

“Stop this, you morons. Why can’t you have a normal conversation?” He sighs, like some sort of an old wizard tired of his own wisdom. He turns to Baekhyun, who’s eyes are slits, and is trying to peer at her past Chanyeol’s body, “You can’t threaten people with your martial arts skills, that’s a low blow for the honor and pride of martial arts, especially when such threat is directed to young women.” He turns to her, who’s crossing her arms over her chest and is looking away from them, biting a scowl away. “And you, don’t you hate being talked to informally? Maybe you shouldn’t talk to people in the same manner you detest? And if you hate being violent, why do you mention it so much? Nobody likes people who contradict themselves a lot.”

She whips her head towards him, and for the first time since meeting them, she finally shoots him a glare. “Do you think I parade around begging people to like me? I like who I am. So, them, and you too.”

Chanyeol stares at her with lips parted, and they both hear Baekhyun scoffing - they ignore him - so Chanyeol quickly shakes his head to pull himself from his momentary stupefaction. He brings down that large hand of his and pats her on the head, gently, “Calm down, honey. Stop telling people to off. Are you angry all the time?”

She, however, is frozen. Did he.. did he just put his hand on her head to pet her down like some ing animal? If there’s one thing that she genuinely detest, it’s condescension, especially from men. Still, somehow... there’s an unusual acceleration to her heartbeats, going up and down at the actual ruggedness of Chanyeol’s large hand atop her hair, and her neck is buzzing with heat. When has she been petted - although disgusting yet surprisingly welcome - over the head like she’s someone that matter such elicitation of affection? Sure, Chanyeol probably doesn’t even mean it in a way that’s gentle on purpose, and is only doing it to ensure she stays a bit far from his friend. But still.. a hand on her head...

Chanyeol calls her name upon her frozen, frigid standing, and her blank eyes. Baekhyun curiously peeks at her from beside him, confused on her sudden, pending silence. When she hears her name being called, she zones back on the materialistic world, and looks up at the hand over her head. “Chanyeol..”

“Yes?”

She zooms her harsh, golden eyes on his face, and the usual coldness that shows on her face whenever she peers at people is gone. There’s only a blank, deadly look, a look he’s very attuned to. A familiar, chilling look; and the absolute nothingness there terrifies him. “Take your hand off of my head, please.”

Chanyeol pull his hand away so quickly he might as well be burned. He feels as if he somehow overstepped some boundary, despite her not verbally affirming anything. But that reaction of hers. That hasn’t been a normal reaction from her usual annoying but harmless rebuts. This one seemed like a threat, and Chanyeol’s not scared, god no, but.. it’s a puzzling little thing, to see a woman of her miniature statue, have such large presence.

Baekhyun, who doesn’t seem to understand what just transpired, opens his mouth cheerfully. “You have the ability to say please? I’m astonished! With a rotten mouth like yours, the least I thought you’re capable of is poisonous speech hidden by your fake polite persona!”

She doesn’t hesitate. She stomps over to his side, her heeled boots clicking on the ground harshly, and kicks him. Baekhyun doesn’t receive any chance to even flee or hide, before her leg connects with his shin. She stands back with a smile, as she watches him jump around,  yelling. She catches Chanyeol shaking his head at her perpetually from her peripheral view, but she just shrugs innocently.

Perhaps she is a little violent. Just a little. 

-

She pauses in front of the entrance to the canteen upon her eyes zeroing on Chanyeol and Baekhyun sitting right on the middle of the large student assembly. They aren’t eating or anything, they’re not even holding bags of lunch boxes from home like she is, but still, something pulls her to a stop. 

While she normally just pummels her way through the student body, it’s unexpected for anything to entirely put her in a sudden stop, and so she easily attracts attention from people peering at the entrance waiting for friends as she just.. stands there, staring at the two boys confusedly. Why she’s surprised to see them in the canteen even when knowing they’re part of the university just like her is unknown. Why she’s in need to dramatically stop in front of the doors and stare at them is also unknown. She tilts her head sideways, wondering why they’re just sitting and not eating. She looks down at her nicely packed lunch boxes curiously, then back at him. She doesn’t have anyone to cook for her so she prepares her food early; she wonders if they, too, have no one to cook for them. An unnecessary ache goes off in her chest.

They’re sitting close to one another, Chanyeol hovering over the smaller guy. They’re wearing leather jackets, their legs entrapped inside tight, washed blue jeans, and hairs styled to perfection. Baekhyun’s stud lip ring glints like gold even from this distance, and the absolute contradiction to his dark black hair makes him ethereal. Chanyeol’s hair is artificially brown, but it’s so thick and curly that it softens his magnificent body built. He’s holding his phone and is leaning backwards on his chair, two legs of the chair not touching the ground. His phone is apparently very big, but his large hands make it seem minuscule. There are all kinds of silver, gold and black rings adorning his fingers, lines of black manicure on his nails. She tilts her head to the other side, are his nails professionally made? She grumbles jealously.

A soft, round body suddenly jumps over her back, making her buckle forward. She releases a large ‘oof’, and then straightens her back with the new added weight, her eyes going back to observe the two intriguing men.

“Hey, Sam, what did I say about climbing on my back?” She says irritatingly, even though she’s collecting Sami’s legs so they are secured around her hips. “I’m a very fragile person, do you think I’m capable of carrying your weight?”

“But it is fun!” Sami squeals in her ears, wiggling around and making her weight heavier to keep. “And you can carry my weight! You’ve been doing it for two years now.”

“It’s not by my choice, I’ll tell you that.”

Sami falls down from her friend’s back with a pout. “You’re mean to me all of the time.”

“Isn’t that in my personality though? To be mean to everyone?”

Sam loops their arms together, beaming, regardless of whether her friend was being rude to her or not. It’s not in her personality to hold grudges, especially not to her. “I’m not everyone though,” she pauses, a little insecure. “Am.. I?”

She palms her face and pushes her away, smirking, and Sami allows herself to release the giggle that she’s been holding on to even though she’s being pushed around. She loops her arm over hers once again, following the direction her eyes are looking at. Upon witnessing her seeing the two boys that surprisingly have been in her life for the past couple of days, her optimistic beam dims, and she tilts her head, wondering why her friend found the need to pause in the middle of her strides just to look at them.

“What are you looking at?” Sami asks, even though she has seen what she is looking at. 

She squints her eyes at them, Baekhyun putt