The week had passed quite quickly. Taemin had put a small package of doughnuts in Kai’s locker every single day, and each time the sun-kissed student threw it away. The notes in the packages were also scrunched up and dumped, without being read. Kai started to totally ignore the senior’s attempts of gaining his attention and trust. Taemin had realized quick that Kai did not mean it when he had said that they could stay friends the other day. The junior had lied to him about it, so that the handsome player would leave him alone. Finally, it was Friday. A lot of students were missing on this day again. Since the seniors had threatened them, the times of Baekhyun and Chanyeol being bullied became less day by day. Their lockers were still smeared on, sometimes their books were brought up to the rooftop or hid somewhere in the entire faculty building. But the exposed couple endured it all. As long as they had each other, nothing would bring them down.

“Yah! Aren’t we going to the arcade tonight?” Chanyeol asked his friends, pulled the loops of his sports bag up and leaned on his locker with a sulky expression.

Kai closed his locker and shook his head. He told them that he needed to help his sister at Kamong since she had organized a small party. Kyungsoo shook his head as well, since he had promised Kai that he would help them at the café. Chanyeol pouted a little disappointed, but then he shrugged and accepted their declines. They went to the gym all together, to attend the gathering with the seniors.

In the gym the seniors were all lined up, like they had done after the spring break, when the tutoring program had started. The juniors gathered in the center of the gym in several rows and bowed in all respect. The beautiful senior Taeyeon flipped the pages of her notebook as she checked the attendance of the juniors who were participating in the tutoring program. Since it was Friday, a lot of them were missing. She sighed a little frustrated about the issue with skipping students on the last day of the week, but there was nothing she could do about it. She had tried a lot of things to motivate them to not miss out on Fridays, but there were seniors too, who skipped this particular day. There was nothing she could do about it.

“Welcome to the second gathering everyone!” she greeted her juniors with the sweetest voice, the voice of an angel, and continued with a cute smile, “A lot of our seniors handed in the reports of your progresses, and I’m positively surprised that it’s mostly very good and remarkable reports that we’ve received so far.”

Kai sighed in despair. He had not once attended the tutoring with the handsome player. The first and only time they had met, they had fooled around because of their stupid challenge. They had nothing to report on. Kyungsoo looked at his friend with a worried expression. He hated to see Kai suffer like this, because the senior would not want to step down, so that Kai could get a new tutor.

“There is one junior among you all that has increased his skills a lot in the last few weeks.” Taeyeon added all proudly and pointed at Kyungsoo, “Do Kyungsoo, congratulations, your efforts are paying off! You’ll be sponsored by the university for free courses in the upcoming year, if you keep it up like this.”

She clapped and all the other seniors joined her cheer for the junior. Kyungsoo blushed and gulped nervously. Jonghyun smiled at him proudly from across the gym hall. Minho winked at the junior. Taemin’s eyes were fixed on the ground. He was not in the mood to lift his head the slightest, nor did he clap for Kyungsoo. Kai and Chanyeol smiled at their small friend all proud and happy for his achievements.

“Now to the junior with the lowest progress...” Taeyeon added and briefly glanced at Taemin first, then she pointed at Kai, who stood right beside Kyungsoo, “Kim Jongin... I don’t know what the issue is with your tutoring, but there is not a single report on it. If you’re having struggles with your senior or the other way around, you should better talk it all out or change your team, otherwise, you might both get a bad mark in your certificates...”

She seemed worried about the junior and nodded with a ‘you can talk to me anytime’-expression. Kai lowered his head, while his friends pitied him. Chanyeol put his hand on Kai’s shoulder, in an attempt to make him feel a little better. Kyungsoo frowned at the reckless senior, who had lifted his chin to look at the sun-kissed student for a short moment. Minho shook his head and Jonghyun sighed. Then Taeyeon handed out some papers to them, about the tutoring she was given by all the professors that checked the reports which the assigned seniors had handed in. Students who got no papers back, like Kai, were basically noted with bad remarks.

꧁༺ ༻꧂

When the gathering was over, some students got together outside the gym and talked about it. A few left to go to their club activities, some went home. Chanyeol bumped his fist on Kai’s upper arm and patted Kyungsoo’s shoulder, then he went back to the gym to get ready for his training. When he entered the dressing room, he heard some weird noises. He could not tell what it was. He took careful and silent steps as he approached the direction where the weird noises came from. Then suddenly the size of his eyes doubled, his jaw dropped and his breath caught. He covered his mouth to not make a single sound to the shocking sight he had witnessed, and he immediately hid behind the lockers in the dressing room, not to be noticed. He was shocked to see the charismatic senior kissing someone else. Smooching with Donghae. The captain of the football team.

꧁༺ ༻꧂

Kyungsoo and Kai ate their meals together. They had talked it all out the prior day, and Kai had told his friend that he could not return his feelings yet, because of obvious reasons that included the handsome player. Kyungsoo surprisingly took it well. He knew that there was someone else in the heart of the sun-kissed student, and therefore he did not want his friend to get together with him. They both were aware of each other’s feelings now, and they still got along well. Kyungsoo felt a lot better now that Kai knew about his interest in him.

“I’ve to go to the tutoring now.” Kyungsoo said and took his plate to put it back in the storage for the dirty dishes that would be collected by the cleaning workers of the faculty, “I’ll see you later at the café!”

Kai nodded with a cute smile. He no longer wore the mask. The bruise on his lip was nearly entirely healed. He watched his friend leave and then picked up his plate and put it in t