Even after two whole years of knowing Byun Baekhyun, of course knowing him from afar, Hiah was yet to understand him. 

Yes, She hated him and it was as obvious as daylight that he also hated her just as much. Yes, they were branded enemies in the whole school. Yes, they'd be on each other's throats given any opportunity. 

Yet, standing before her locker and staring at the small note that was obviously left by the boy himself, Hiah couldn't decipher what Byun Baekhyun actually was.

'Wishing you good luck.......'  the note read.

 Why was he wishing her luck on their exam day? Did he not consider her his competition anymore?Did he not want her to embarrass herself by failing so that he could top? Did he not want to make her lose anymore? 

Well, not that she'd been a constant loser for the past two year. Between her and Baekhyun, there'd been a constant fight to rank top. Last time, it was Hiah who topped the exams. 

Just when a very tiny subtle smile tried to secretly climb up on her chewing lips, the note accidentally slipped from her fingertips. While huffing and carrying the note back from the ground, Hiah noticed that the other side of the note wasn't blank like anyone would expect, she just hadn't noticed it earlier.

'Because luck doesn't always favor the no-brainers!'

That unnecessary subtle smile immediately fell off her lips. Did he just mean that she'd secured the highest marks last time just out of sheer luck? She didn't have the brains?  "I hope he slips off the stairs and breaks his arrogant !" She grumbled, ears and nose fuming, her palm busy crumpling his stupid note that he'd somehow sneak into her locker. How did he always get time to do something to irritate her no matter how busy the time would be, was the question that she never got any viable answer to. 

The girl stomped her way towards the exam hall, already having a bad feeling about the exam as her mood had gotten too spoiled at this early morning, all thanks to that infuriating Byun Jerk-Hyun. 

If her morning wasn't ruined enough already, then stumbling into the very boy himself had just filled all the remaining gaps.

"Hey, Hi, did you get my note?" He gave her a wide grin - which never brought any good news to her, and asked her looking ing innocent. And he wouldn't stop calling her name like that as if he's her bestest friend, would he? Was her name so big that he had to cut the second half of it and call her just 'Hi'?

"Of course, I did!" Hiah fluttered her eyes sarcastically, giving him an obvious mocking smile. "Do you think your stupid note can cause any changes in my superb exam prep?" She proudly retorted, jabbing her finger onto his chest - he had annoyingly gotten a few inches taller than her, so she had to actually crane her neck to be face to face with him now. Damn Byun Baekhyun.

Baekhyun also looked down at her with a mischievous smirk, pushing her forehead with his pointer finger as a reciprocation, "I don't even need to do anything to harm your scores. You yourself are enough to do that." He replied coolly, as if it was a basic science. Of course, ticking the girl standing - almost tiptoeing before him.

"Why don't you two just kiss already?" Came another voice, almost as annoying as Baekhyun's. The only difference was, it was one of Baekhyun's long term friends in school, Jongdae. Baekhyun found this cheeky male last year when Jongdae had transferred to their school, and hadn't let him go until now. Being a close friend of Baekhyun's, Jongdae usually took it as an open invitation to leave uninvited comments whenever it related to her and Baekhyun. To be honest, his comments were even more obnoxious than Baekhyun's.

Hiah made a face, almost scaring the two guys to think that she'd literally throw up then and there. "I'd rather kiss a horse's than kiss this jackass!" Rolling her eyes at the two males' overreacting as they had taken one huge step backwards from her in the fear of getting showered with her vomit, she exclaimed with utmost seriousness.

"Geez, girl! He's not that bad!" Jongdae snickered but tried to provide his glaring friend a bit of support.

"Girls die to kiss me!" Baekhyun crossed his arms over his chest in a defensive mode and scoffed at the girl. 

"Yeah, yeah, that's why you didn't even have your first kiss yet!" Hiah scoffed back, walking past the males while purposely pushing Byun Baekhyun by her elbow in the process. Okay, it wasn't any confidential information about him. She knew this information because if anyone had the chance to seal a kiss with the campus heartthrob Byun Baekhyun, then it already would've been spread to the whole vicinity.

"Y-Yah! I'm just saving it for someone special!" She heard Baekhyun protest from behind. Though she didn't give him any reaction or reply. He'd already wasted her many precious minutes, so she'd rather sit on her designated seat and try to gather all her focus. She'd definitely have to do well in today's exam, otherwise her ego would be pathetically bruised.

By the time there was only twenty minutes left before the ending bell to ring and indicate the exam time to be finished, Hiah had a satisfactory smile on her face. She was on the very last question, very satisfied with how she had answered everything accurately.  'Byun Baekhyun, you little numbskull! I'll show you who the real winner is!'  She inwardly giggled and thought to herself, already envisioning his sour face when the results would come out.

However, in between her victorious thoughts, a little disturbance interrupted her speed of writing. She glanced down underneath, finding a crumpled piece of paper near her shoes - it had fallen near her feet out of nowhere. Not thinking anything about it other than it being random trash, she'd kicked the crumpled paper ball randomly. 

Though Hiah froze the moment a teacher picked up the piece of paper and called for her name, coldly. 

Mrs. Hwang, their course teacher, hastily snatched her answer sheet away to check something. "Three answers are exactly the same as this! How dare you, Kang Hiah!" The older woman looked like she'd rip Hiah's hair out by the way she was glaring her down. The teacher didn't have any special attachment to the female students in the first place - she just adored Byun Baekhyun and any good looking guy. So, finding a female student as the suspicion of cheating in the exam was probably the most devilishly enjoyable to that woman.

 Hiah couldn't believe her bulging eyes. It was actually a cheat note. And the teacher had definitely seen her kicking that away. And of course, her answers would be the same as the cheat note since she'd learned the answer from their book by heart. Her fingers started trembling as she stood up while Mrs. Hwang scanned the crumpled paper more than twice. "I can't believe it, Kang Hiah! How could you cheat in an exam!" The teacher spoke exasperatedly, looking albeit shocked since Hiah was one of the best students.

"No, Mrs. Hwang! I swear, I didn't do it!" Hiah frantically shook her head and denied the accusation immediately. When she looked at the piece of light pink paper in the teacher's grasp once more, her heart stopped beating for a second. Something struck her, connecting some dots.

This paper looked exactly the same as the smaller note Baekhyun had left in her locker this morning. 

She turned around to see Baekhyun a few seats away from her, he was writing his answers without being even a bit distracted whereas the whole class had stopped doing anything and just stared at the scene of Kang Hiah getting caught while cheating in the exam. 'Does that mean, he…'  Loud sirens of anger and betrayal rang in her ears loudly. She couldn't believe he'd stoop so low just to win their undeclared challenge. 

"I saw you kicking the note off with my own eyes! You still have the audacity to lie to me? Get out of here, your answer sheet is disqualified." The woman didn't even let Hiah a second to express her innocence, she wrote down a big 'Disqualified for cheating' on the topsheet of her script, leaving no space for the girl to do anything else.

Her eyes were burning with the continuous tears of disbelief and betrayal as she ran out of the exam hall. Why was she even feeling betrayed in the first place? It's not like Baekhyun was her friend or something. In fact, Baekhyun was her obvious enemy. So why was it feeling like a hard pill to swallow to believe that Baekhyun had pulled off such a horrendous act?

She ran to her favorite spot, the small garden of their school, where students rarely went. She usually used this place to have some peaceful moments away from Byun Baekhyun. She was glad that he hadn't discovered her hiding spot yet. Anyway, right now, she didn't want to think about that absolute . She buried her face in her palms and wailed with audible sniffles for God knows how long. 

"Get up!" 

Hiah snapped her head up at the source of the familiar voice. None other than Byun Baekhyun, the very culprit behind her current devastated state. How the hell did he find her? She was certain he didn't know this place of hers.

"Kang Hiah, I said get up!" The boy sighed through his nostrils and pulled the girl up by her elbow. 

Her hands went to the guy's collars right away. "How could you do this to me? What did I ever do to you?" She yelled at him, salty waters unwantedly dripping from her eyes.

"What? What are you talking about?" Baekhyun gave her an innocently confused face.

Hiah let out an incredulous laughter. "Are you ing kidding me? At least be brave enough to accept that you've framed me with the cheat note, you !" She screamed at his face. "And now you're here to laugh at me for being the loser, aren't you?"

"Wha- are you ing dumb? I didn't do it!" Baekhyun immediately denied the accusation. It boiled her blood even more.

Hiah couldn't tolerate it anymore. She couldn't tolerate him anymore. Blind with her fury, she landed a harsh slap on her arch enemy. 

She heard Jongdae's dramatic gasp as the guy had also joined them just now. She had definitely heard the sound her palm had made when it touched Baekhyun's cheek. But her ears were still ringing at the sound of her handwork.  "I hate you, Byun Baekhyun! You are the worst human being ever! I feel so stupid of myself that I even thought we could ever be friends! You don't deserve to be my friend in any way!"

Baekhyun stood still with his palm lingering around the spot where he'd just gotten slapped. Eyes glaring down at the sobbing girl in front of him.

"What the hell, Hiah? He isn't here to laugh at you. He's come to tell you that the Principal is looking for you!" Jongdae was finally over the shock of the moment and got himself together, shoving himself in between the two to avoid any future commotion. 

"P-Principal?" Hiah's mouth gaped at the mention of their strict Principal, Mr. Shin. Was he going to suspend her from the school? Or worst case, was he going to call her parents? Her mother would kill her! 

"Yes, Principal! You should hurry up. Or he'll get mad." Jongdae sighed and nodded. The guy rolled his eyes when his best friend gestured him to follow behind a trembling Hiah who was making her way towards the Principal's office. He rushed to hold the girl by her elbow when she was about to stumble onto nothing but the plain ground. "Let me accompany you to Mr. Shin's office." He grumbled at the girl when she gave him a look, he was still mad at her for slapping Baekhyun. 

Twenty minutes later, the two of them walked out of the Principal's office. Hiah had actually subconsciously clutched onto Jongdae and literally begged him with her eyes to stay with her even if he was the best friend of her best enemy. She was just too scared, and she needed to hold onto something. The girl had a grimace on her face as they walked.

"You know, I know Baekhyun and I are kinda s to you sometimes- okay, most of the time!"  Jongdae changed his wordings upon receiving a small glare from the silent girl. "That's uhh not the point! What I wanted to say is, yes, I always pass comments on you and Baekhyun. And…he kinda disturbs you for silly things. But that's the fact. It's always silly, it's nothing serious like ruining your exam or something. So, your assumption about him framing you is wrong." He continued to explain as they subconsciously made their way towards the garden.

"But the page of the cheat was the same as the note he had left in my locker this morning." Hiah countered back with her observation.

Jongdae rolled his eyes. "Do you think Baekhyun owns a notepad which has pink pages?" The guy asked sassily, indicating that pink wasn't the color for boys. "He randomly tore the vacant part of a random love letter he'd received! He did it in front of me, so I know!" 

Hiah gaped at Jongdae. "Does that….does that mean it was done by the same girl who gave Baekhyun the love letter?" She concluded immediately.

"Could be. I can't be hundred percent sure. I mean, it's not like there's only one piece of that pinky notepad out there in the whole city!" The boy shrugged, a small smirk forming on his lips within seconds, dismissing his current serious aura, "But maybe it is one of his fangirls. They must be jealous of you since all of his attention is yours!" 

Hiah scoffed as loudly as she could at that. "Why am I even talking with you!" She stomped away from the guy, but not far away, he'd caught up with her within seconds.

"Hey! I'm not done talking yet! What I really wanted to tell you, that Baekhyun... isn't as bad as you think! In fact, when the whole class was gossiping about you and some were happy that your answer script was disqualified after you ran away from there, it was Baekhyun who stood up to protest on behalf of you." Jongdae sighed and continued to explain when it looked like Hiah wouldn't slam his face into the nearest wall. "He was the one pointing out the fact that you're a brilliant student and you can't cheat in the exam, that you don't need to cheat. Mrs. Hwang wasn't taking him seriously at first, she kept believing that you had indeed cheated. So, Baekhyun went to the principal, claiming that you were being wronged. That you should be given a chance to prove your innocence. It was him who gave the idea that they should ask you questions from the test, and if you answer them accurately then that would mean that you didn't cheat." 

Hiah's mouth went dry hearing all these. Instant guilt and regret rose up to . She couldn't even deny that these were truths because Mr. Shin and Mrs. Hwang had indeed asked her some questions from the question paper back in Mr. Shin's office. And after being satisfied with her answers, they apologized to her for causing her such mental havoc, they even let her complete the answer to the last question that she couldn't finish writing. 

So, Baekhyun did all these, for her? The Byun Baekhyun? Her core enemy?

"And he'd kill me if he knows that I'm telling you this, but he actually left his answer script incomplete to do all these for you." 

Hiah blinked up at her enemy's friend. He looked genuine, so there's no way he was lying. Baekhyun sacrificed perfecting his answer script just to bring justice to her? What kind of sugary daydream was she having right now?

They'd reached the garden with Hiah being numb and mum altogether. Jongdae also remained silent beside her, perhaps giving her time to let all the information sink into her system. It was also surprising that he was so easy to talk to when he wasn't being annoying. This was actually the highest amount of minutes she'd ever spoken to anyone at school aside from talking when she'd be doing any project or assignment with anyone. 

 Reaching there, they found the spot empty. Baekhyun was gone.

Everything aside, Hiah earnestly wanted to apologize for earlier. She had never been physically violent to anyone - except for her younger sister when they'd have cat fights at home regarding anything and everything, also except for the times when she attempted to make Byun Baekhyun go bald. So the urge was dire. 

                                               _____

Next day, Hiah couldn't find Baekhyun during the first three periods. The guilt was eating her up and she was dying to soothe it down by apologizing to him. She'd even gathered her courage to go to Jongdae and asked him, but the boy also didn't know about Baekhyun's whereabouts. 

Why was he skipping school? He never skipped. She couldn't h