The upcoming few days are... unusual, to say the least. She’s not sure what to call these days or if she should even give them a name, and she’s certainly not sure why she’s been playing along with them. 

She’s been in Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s table all the time. At first, she wasn’t intending to harass them more than she already did when she brought them food — a move she now understood opened her up to a bunch of vulnerabilities that she rather kept locked away — but Chanyeol did say the next time was on him, no matter if she believed in that or not. So she was a whole lot of surprised when he came to get her from the library where she had been hiding — a hand wrapped around her wrist — to drag her back to the cafeteria. Baekhyun was miserably sulking there, shooting puppy, hungry looks at the bags of McDonalds on the table.

“Really, Mac?” She had insultingly said, glaring at them and subconsciously squeezing herself in a seat in front of Baekhyun, whose eyes had turned wide and happy upon her arrival. She told herself it was because they could finally eat rather than her actual presence. It was easier to digest the idea of people hating her than the idea of people who don’t.

“You work in McDonalds, right? I thought we like it!” Chanyeol exclaimed offendedly. She tried to ignore — with every beat of her heart — how he had said we instead of you.

“No, I eat it all the time so I think I have a gas reaction against it now. My stomach sees french fries and plastic cheese, and then goes into eviction mode right away. I do not like it at all!”

She remembered groaning and flopping her face on the table, but she also remembered them angrily pouting at her for flicking their foreheads. Whatever it was, those burgers were not her cup of tea. She worked — and is still working — for over three years in McDonalds, and usually ended up with takeovers to last her a lifetime. She had enough of the smell of crisped chicken and soiled breadcrumbs, damn it!

Nevertheless, she forced herself to eat with them, the actual sight of their bright cartoonish eyes and the ridiculous twinkle in them as they gobbled their burgers was satisfying enough, and she found herself biting on her own burger with a content smile.

Then, she found herself cooking extra food for them the next day, even though they hadn’t agreed for a third meetup. Somehow, looking at the greasy burgers and the fat fries had sent her a wave of old-age sadness, one she had used to tremble against whenever she forced herself to buy junk food with money she needed for other essentials (like rent). For some reason, she found herself succumbing to the desire of cooking healthy food the next morning, actually having to wake up ridiculously early so she could prepare more fresh side dishes and bake them cupcakes as treats.

The face they had pulled upon presenting them with the food was priceless. She could probably say she would never ever forget it, and could savor it for the rest of her pathetic existence.

So, they fell into a mutual cycle. Chanyeol would whip up something oily from any restaurant he deemed acceptable, and she’d whip out actual food from her home, going through an entire euphoric reaction as she glimpsed at the happy faces of the two starved boys.

She’d thought conversations would at least be awkward, considering their different intellectual level — they weren’t actually stupid, and they could battle her on her childish conspiracy theories and her love for black holes — but it wasn’t at all. She liked comparing them to her remarkable achievements in university, that was a fact, and it worked as a way of pushing forward her last iron walls. It was a certain defense mechanism she acquired through the years. Dumb down those around you enough so you fail to see them as humans. It had worked pretty well for her in running away from relationships, but the boys made things harder for her. People tend to drift off from those that insult them; Chanyeol and Baekhyun, however, did not shy away from giving her the same treatment. Baekhyun even evolved into flicking her on her nose whenever she became too self-absorbed. It was alarming how easily she got used to that intimacy. 

This sudden acquired party was not a delight to the rest of the university students. Two of their scariest forces coming along together to create this faction-like solidarity... it was terrifying. Her in the most. At least the two bad boys smiled every once in a while to a face they recognized, fondled those they had mutual interest in, and were otherwise open to aimless chatter if a student was brave enough to encage them in, regardless of their numerous bad accessories and the terrifying grimaces they shoot those they disapprove of. Her, on the other hand, is a force to be reckoned with. She rarely does favors to others; she rarely smiles at people goofily, and when she does smile, it‘s disconcerting and cruel. She looks at people like she’s scrutinizing them, and not in a good way, either. She sheds people of all their layers with a single look, and makes them feel uncomfortable in her presence. She isn’t openly violent like Chanyeol and Baekhyun, and is usually polite enough in group projects or in situations where speech is required; but still, she gives people enough chills to make her seem unapproachable, enticingly beautiful from the outside but a shell of terror on the inside.

Them coming together? The stares never stopped following them, and after the third day, they both stopped paying attention to them. 

Someone shoves an angry tray right next to hers, and she stops animatedly explaining her awe of the universe so she can look at the intruder. Chanyeol and Baekhyun neutralize their bored faces at her endless mantras to look at the brave solider as well, the carelessness that they usually have around her steeling into stoic facial expressions.

“Sami?” She calls in surprise in the midst of choking on her own kimchi soup by the sudden presence of the girl. Chanyeol and Baekhyun merely raise judgmental eyebrows at the unwanted ‘friend’.

Sami says nothing. She fixes her position in the chair so her skirt is tucked generously under her bottom, and crosses her ankles like a posh, aristocratic woman. She starts eating from her cafeteria food, or attempting to in the deathly silence that the occupant of the table has left her in. However, she doesn’t say why she’s here, and she definitely doesn’t say anything about that radiating anger of hers, either.

She knows that Sami is best left alone until she cools off when she’s angry, so, albeit awkwardly, returns to her food without a word. She looks at the boys to gauge their expressions, and they’re looking at Sami like she has personally offended them. In one hand, people can’t shove themselves in their circle (and their cafeteria chairs!) with no prior acknowledgement or anything to indicate an acquaintance-ship; in the other hand, they remember this girl as their friend’s friend, and they don’t particularly like her. 

She instantly catches to their dislike, and tries to mouth things for them to catch, like leave her alone or stop staring at her like disabled dummies, but they don’t bother giving her a chance to scold them as they never once lift their eyes from Sami.

“I know who you are.” Baekhyun says, or declares, darkly, his eyes narrowed in displeasure. She can’t help but have a flashback of a show or a movie she had seen ages ago. Trust him to shove in the theatrics on Sami’s face. 

Sami gives him a mere disinterested look, and she knows that she’s trying to hold herself from glaring. It’s a strange sight to see: Sami holding on to her anger and frustration.

“I don’t particularly find it amusing that people barge into our table unannounced,” Baekhyun continues upon her ignorance. He pushes his food aside so he can lean against the table, his heavily-lidded eyes with makeup narrowing dangerously. “It’s very rude. You’re not a rude girl, right?”

“This comes from you?” Sami finally falls into the temptation of glaring at him. He allows himself to smirk, something he’s been holding on to so his gorgeous friend doesn’t blow on him. It’s just that seeing Sami’s armor crack.. it’s a sweet satisfaction, and he can’t help himself.

“You wouldn’t happen to be one of those know-it-all girls as well, hmm? Because that would be a total turn off,” he puts his chin on his knuckles — pretty, pretty knuckles — and sighs in this miserable, ancient way. “I’ve seen you around campus with all that good girl glory of yours, laughing at other pretty people and parading around your modest clothes. You aren’t exactly the type to shove yourself in places where fences have nails that scratch on skin, so I don’t understand why you’re sitting here.”

She knows that Sami’s the type to burst into tears amongst her quiet anger, so she can’t help but resent the boys as they act irrationally towards her. Or just Baekhyun, as Chanyeol watches with no real expression on his face. 

She clicks her tongue at Baekhyun like he’s her petulant child, “Girls don’t act a certain way to elicit dumb male approval. You’ve not just honestly characterized her based on her clothes and the people she’s going out with, have you? What did we say about this narrow-minded viewpoint, Baekhyun, huh?”

He pouts at her, and it’s so fake yet dark she feels shudders play like instrument on her body. “How else would I judge her if not by the company she keeps? You can’t keep telling me I’m narrow minded when you fail to acknowledge other certain criteria to know a person. You’re a smart girl, you know how wolves of the same skin take covens together? Birds of feathers flock together? What’s to say she’s not going with people because they’re similar to her?” He sees her glaring still, so he relents. “Don’t get angry on me now, I was only saying she’s a goodie goodie; therefore hanging around other goodie goodie people. That’s not a bad thing, right?”

“Now, now, Baekhyun, play nice.” Chanyeol smirks at Sami, his eyes glinting, and she can’t help but believe they do not intend to be nice at all, and all that bullcrap about good crowds is to insult Sami, for whatever reason.

“You say it in a way where your good sounds bad,” she mocks him; her eyes iron-like and deadly. “Besides, I hang out with her. Does that make me a goodie, too?” She wonders.

Baekhyun grins like a starved wolf, his fangs flashing in their diamond glory. “But you’re a good goodie, the type I’d like to double check before talking to.”

She rolls her eyes at him. “Your compliments do not raise my self-worth. I already have a mountain of that. Now, stop talking.”

He shuts up. He doesn’t exactly give two s about Sami. He shuts up because of her; because of her death rays; because of her meek yet dangerous persona; because regardless of the careless nature he possess, be cares about her opinions of him. If she wants him to stop talking, he will. 

It’s Chanyeol’s turn to take the lead, cautious and calm, wondering why Sami’s letting all of this conversation go on without intervention despite the haughty gleam in her eyes at the prospect of a smart mouth ready to defend her. 

“Exactly why did you decide to sit here?”

Sami looks at him. Truthfully speaking, she had been terrified about the prospect of sitting with them and having to go through these vague yet expressively violent eyes of theirs, but the pull of her friend had made her braver. She had been neglecting their cafeteria time in order to sit with these two.. these two.. honestly, she doesn’t know what adjective to use. They’re too multidimensional for her to box in a single adjective. Nevertheless, she misses her friend a lot, and she doesn’t care if she’s scared of them, or if she gives her time outside university. She doesn’t like that the intimacy of shared food has transferred to boys who are, to her, unworthy of it. 

She looks away from Chanyeol’s challenging eyes and to her friend, trying to plaster a sweet smile on her face but ending up harboring a meek one. Halfhearted. “I missed you! We rarely hang out around lunch time!” She shoves her chopsticks to her tray of food and begins collecting some of the side dishes. “I miss your food, too. God, the cafeteria cooks food, and I like your garlic sauce. They only have Korean stuff here. You don’t sit with me anymore. We used to share food all the time.”

There’s a clear indication under Sami’s words as she eats from her friend’s food, pouting sadly, but none of the people seated in the table say anything to touch it. She sighs, “So you basically miss me for my package.”

She knows her words mean something else, something suggestive, and she intends for it to be this way, but she feels weirdly enamored when she hears Chanyeol and Baekhyun choke on nothing. Sami’s face turns a pale pink, her cheeks so round and flushed she might as well resemble two squished cotton candies.

“No! Don’t say that!” Sami puts her chopsticks down and clutches her arm, dragging it towards her chest possessively. She shoots a grudging look towards the observing boys. “You’re Just always hanging out with those people,” she says those people like she’s spiting venom. She quickly returns to pathetic crooning. “Can’t you go back to how things were before? Can’t you come back to our table?”

“You mean with your misogynistic, simple minded friends?” 

She pouts more. “You don’t have to come for them, but for me.”

She takes a look at the boys, and they’re looking at Sami with boredom, wanting her out of their table right away. She doesn’t even know what she wants from them anyway. For them to give her a hint of what to say? Like hell is she going to let anyone decide for her. Still, the look is unintentional; desperate, but they don’t pull their cunning eyes off of Sami for a second to apprehend her. 

“You force your friend to stay with people she’s uncomfortable with because you want to mooch off her food?” Baekhyun says sassily. 

She and Chanyeol glare at him, but Chanyeol’s eyes are laced with amusement she very much does not feel. 

Sami turns to Baekhyun angrily. “We’ve been sitting together for a few years before you guys shoved yourselves in her way. She can put people in their place. That’s what she’s capable of doing best. You’d think she would stay there if she’s as uncomfortable as you make her sound?” She turns to her friend before they can say anything, once again tugging at her arm towards her, whining. “Can we please go back to how things were? Why do you have to hang out with them? You said you don’t know them and you showed particular annoyance regarding them, so why do you sit with them? Do you not care about what people say about you guys?”

“Since when have you known me as a person who gives two about people’s opinions of me?” She says, but pretty much everyone ignores her. 

“Now this I gotta know, what do they say about us?” Chanyeol rubs his chin curiously.

Sami wants to roll her eyes at him sassily but the way he’s so intently looking at her makes her nervous. “That you’re dangerous. That you’re bad news. That you’re secretly engaging in underground activities,” she shrugs, but it’s clear in the shaking fingers of hers that she’s scared. “That you’re simply just a rotten company to keep. You can’t exactly blame me for wanting her to have a better person to hang out with.”

Chanyeol smirks approvingly. “Because we look different from the outside?”

“Didn’t your friend just comment about judging people by their outer appearance? I don’t understand what you want me to do. I’d judge anyone who looks terrifying from the outside. I don’t have to find you appealing.” Sami challenges.

“Touché.” Chanyeol continues to smirk, but she knows that he’s growing annoyed under all that pretense. 

Sami turns to her friend, “Can we move back to our table, please?”

Suddenly, she’s under the scrutinizing eyes of everyone. It’s hard to make a decision; and it’s exotic. It’s not the good kind of strange, but new and preposterous regard