It was Wednesday. The second day of the week Kai wouldn’t have to worry about his locker getting smeared on. Thanks to Taemin’s message, the students had stopped bullying him at university. But there was still something annoying about it all. Kai had put a clothespin on his nose because just like on Monday and Tuesday already, today Taemin had placed a package of raw oysters into his locker once again. Now that the students were finally no longer of a bother, the senior became unbearably more annoying than before. He meant it. He would continue until Kai gave up. The sun-kissed boy carefully took the package out of his locker and threw it away once again. Chanyeol laughed at the sight of his friend having to struggle with his most disliked food. Kyungsoo smiled lightly and shook his head. He still endeavored to behave as if he never went through heartbreak, but he gave his all to be a good friend. Exactly like Jonghyun had said, Kyungsoo needed to take a step back to see the better things that were set for him. The boy could tell Kai about his feelings for him, but he worried that their friendship would end or break into pieces. It could change everything between them. He simply did not want to put it at risk. Kyungsoo preferably let his feelings for his friend stay buried in the song he had composed with Jonghyun. Yup, it was for the better this way.

“Why did you do that?” he asked their goofy friend, “Poor Kai, senior Taemin won’t stop anytime soon…”

Chanyeol kept laughing and admitted that he did not expect the senior to keep doing this. Kai sighed and came back to his locker to put away his books from the earlier courses.

“Seriously, I hate him so much.” the sun-kissed boy added, “Why is he not admitting it? I know that he likes me.”

Chanyeol shrugged with a pout and leaned on his own locker. Kyungsoo tightened his grip on the loop of his bag and tried to ignore his words. He silently waited for the other two to get ready for arts. This was the only course where all of them were together. Chen and Xiumin were most likely waiting for them in the auditorium. Baekhyun and Sehun approached the three in the hallway. Chanyeol instantly pushed himself off the locker and put his arm around Baekhyun’s shoulder. He tousled through his hair and made his friend curse him. Sehun stood still next to Kyungsoo and briefly exchanged glances with him. The blank-faced student kept their secret like the dead would and his heartbroken friend was grateful for that. Sehun lightly smiled at him to make him feel eased about the matter. He then frowned and walked to the other boys.

“Yah.” Sehun scolded Chanyeol and grabbed his arm to make him let go of his roommate, “Stop annoying him.”

Baekhyun thanked him and frowned at their playful friend. Chanyeol sulked and put his hands into his deep pockets. Kyungsoo and Kai laughed at them. It was always the same among the three students. Their athletic friend was clingy with Sehun’s roommate and the latter was totally protective over his best friend. Baekhyun and Chanyeol used to be in the music club together, but at some point they stopped attending it. First, Baekhyun changed his activity to aikido. Chanyeol had continued to take classes and additionally had persuaded Kyungsoo to accompany him, but after a while he left for sports too and entered the football team. Sehun was the only one not attending any club activities. He preferred to go home or studied for his other courses. The university was not as easy to deal with as high-school. Sometimes Sehun would watch Chanyeol’s matches and trainings, at other times he would observe Baekhyun doing aikido and since Monday he had started to go to the music room and listen to Kyungsoo play the piano. He loved to hear the beautiful melodies and while his friend composed, Sehun did his homework and studies at a desk in the far back of the music room. Maybe it was not about him listening to Kyungsoo play, maybe he merely wanted to be there for him.

꧁༺ ༻꧂

As Kai was done changing his books, someone suddenly slammed the lid shut in front of his nose.

“Ugh!” Kai suddenly shrieked and pulled back his hands.

The others turned around and looked at him and that is when they noticed the seniors. Taemin had closed Kai’s locker harshly and his forearm rested on its lid.

“Why don’t you accept my gift?” Taemin asked and leaned closer to the sun-kissed boy to whisper into his ear, “I’ll not stop until you give up.”

Kai grabbed his bag from the ground and frowned at the senior. Taemin would not step back, instead he kept looking into Kai’s eyes with a dreamy expression. The sun-kissed boy was like hypnotized for a moment, but he shook his head and took a step back. Taemin straightened himself and smirked at him.

“Aren’t you late for your courses?” Jonghyun asked the juniors with a gentle voice.

He gave them the opportunity to escape Taemin. Kyungsoo greeted him with a bow. Sehun ignored him, he was focused on the other senior who was annoying his friend.

“Yeollie?” Minho suddenly called the boy, “I’ll see you at the match on Friday. Don’t mess up.”

Chanyeol nodded in silence. He knew that he had to apologize to the senior about his disrespectful behavior. He definitely would do so, because he actually liked Minho as a friend, and he had not meant to yell at the senior the other day. He was too stressed because of Kyungsoo. But everything was good now.

“I’ll see you in the afternoon.” Taemin added and flicked Kai’s forehead, “Don’t dare skipping the tutoring.”

Kai flinched to the flick and hissed. The seniors walked away, and the juniors hurried to their arts course. Luckily the professor had not entered yet. Chen and Xiumin waved at them to make them notice the two. The group of friends walked to the row in the far middle and got seated next to each other. Kai and Kyungsoo put on their glasses to see the board down the rows across the auditorium. They had both not put in their contacts but would always carry glasses with them for courses like this. And