It’s my fault.

It’s not yours. He had no right to say that you control his life when you gave him the life you’re supposedly controlling.

It’s still my fault. I should have never opened his laptop.

You were saving the Earth. What is so wrong about saving the big Earth?

I should have never asked him about it.

He should have told you about it.

I should have never asked.

Why are you worrying about things you shouldn’t have done when you’ve done them?

... you’re right.

Right. So now you better answer Sohyun. She’s been calling you for the past few minutes.

“ ... Kyumi! Yah, Jang Kyumi!”

Sohyun waves her hand frantically in front of Kyumi’s blank face, trying to get a reaction from the latter. She heaves a small sigh of relief when finally Kyumi blinks, and with equally blank eyes, mutters out an unintelligible, empty sounding sound.

“You okay?”

Kyumi nods, before resting her head on her arms, closing her eyes. The silence is making Sohyun anxious.

Not to mention that Luhan is watching the both of them.

“Kyumi... upset?” Luhan tries, but when he fails, he looks worriedly towards Sohyun sitting beside him.

“Jongup again?”

Sohyun’s try hits the target straight on bull’s eye. Kyumi’s eyes suddenly snap open and there is a sudden fiery aura surrounding her.

“Jongup again. Jongup again. It’s always Jongup, isn’t it? Isn’t it so funny how it’s always Jongup?”

“I was just asking!”

“Well, thanks for asking.”

“I am worried about you—”

“Rather than worrying about me, why don’t you go worry about yourself?” Kyumi suddenly stands, both hands on the table. “Worry about the stupidity between you and Kim Himchan before you come and worry about me and Jongup!”

Kyumi pushes herself off the table before storming off in the other direction, leaving behind two dazed people.

“... what?” Sohyun finally chokes out, “stupidity? You don’t even know what’s behind all that stupidity!”

And Luhan is helpless when Sohyun buries her head in her arms. A few seconds later, when her shoulders start heaving irregularly, the only thing Luhan can do is to put his arms around her shoulders and pat her back.

“What happened here?”

Luhan’s eyes widen when he sees a all-too-familiar girl slide into the seat beside Sohyun.

“Sohyun? What happened? What did you do?”

Feeling an accusatory gaze rest on him, Luhan panics. “Bu shi! Not me!”

Shin Hyorin’s steely gaze softens as she the younger girl’s hair rhythmically. “Need me to find Daehyun? Or Youngjae?”

“No!” Sohyun buries her head further down into her arms. “T-This is so embarrassing...”

Then she stands up, her head lowered. “I’m going to find Kyumi. And apologise to her. Y-Yeah...”

And when she leaves, leaving behind Hyorin and Luhan, the steely, accusatory gaze comes back.

“You,” Hyorin accuses, “no matter how cute and lovable you look, tell me what happened.”

Luhan gulps.

 

__________________

“Just how many cute Chinese guys does she know?”

Bang Yongguk grumbles silently to himself, slightly disheartened at the scene in front of him. Just a few moments ago, he was going to go get a drink when he spots a certain someone talking to a guy.

A cute guy.

A cute Chinese guy.

Does she really like Chinese people more than Korean...?

I sound so racist right now. But we’re all Asians.

“Are you sure you’re not her boyfriend?”

A cool, calm voice asks the question, but it scares the living nightlights out of Yongguk. The latter puts one hand over his heart, breathing out of his mouth, preventing himself from yelling.

“Why do you keep haunting me, you Chinese guy?”

The guy smiles. “As a matter of fact, I’m Korean, I just moved to China. And I have a name, it’s Siwan.”

“Well, nice to meet you too, Siwan.” Yongguk replies darkly.

“Nice to meet you, Hyorin’s boyfriend,” Siwan smiles again.

The phrase catches Yongguk off guard. “What?”

“Don’t think I didn’t see you follow us around all the time,” Siwan grins, before walking off coolly, hands in his pockets.

“What?” Yongguk blurts out again.

 

__________________

A subtle pout appears on a certain young, Chinese student as she circles two names with a bright red marker.

郑大贤*
金素妍*

A malicious smile appears on the seemingly harmless and innocent face of the young woman.

She pulls out her phone, her matchmaking idea placing a permanent smile on her face as she texts her victims.

 

__________________

The bell hanging on the glass door of the café chimes, signalling the arrival of a new customer.

“Welcome to BTD café!” the soft, gentle voice of one of the workers call out and Soyeon gives a small nod in response to the greeting.

Her eyes widens in shock when she spots a more-than-familiar guy sitting at one of the window seats, resting his chin on his hand, looking thoroughly bored. To reconfirm her location, Soyeon whips out her phone and scans the newest text.

 

From: Song Qian (Victoria)
To: Soyeon

Let’s meet at BTD café! It’s a nice place! I have things to tell you too and yeap, first table by the window!
 

First table by the window.

By the first table by the window seats someone called Jung Daehyun.

She feels that something is wrong, it can’t be exactly a coincidence.

But somehow, she walks over to that table. And when Daehyun looks up, his face mirrors the look of shock she has had on the first time she spots him sitting there.

“So, you’re here too?” She asks casually, careful not to set off anything.

“Yeah,” he replies, before looking back out of the window. “Victoria asked me to come.”

“Funny, she asked me to come too.”

“What?”

Soyeon spots the expression on Daehyun’s face falling rapidly and before she can conjure up a reply, a female waitress comes over to them.

“Would you like to order anything?” She asks sweetly, hugging her tray, and Soyeon recognises her as the one who welcomes the new customers. “We have a couple special today, if you’d like to order now...?”

“What do you want?” Daehyun suddenly asks, looking at Soyeon. “I’ll pay.”

“Chorong-ah, there is a special order for this table,” a deep, husky voice suddenly cuts in, before lowering the tray he is holding on one arm to the table. “One BTD special couple set and you don’t even have to pay because someone else paid!”

He smiles at both Daehyun and Soyeon for a moment, before dragging the waitress called Chorong away.

“Didn’t I tell you not to serve male customers?!”

“Then you get to serve the female customers, you stupid tree?”

Daehyun ignores the scuffle between the two workers of the café. “I can already guess who paid,” he mutters darkly.

“Victoria,” both of them say at the same time.

And then they stare at the magnificent feast of a couple set, wondering how are they going to finish it.

The mood is lowered when Soyeon can’t help but notice Daehyun’s darkening face.

“Let’s just go,” she suggests, but Daehyun stops her.

“It’s a waste of food.”

“We can just takeaway, can’t we?”

 

__________________

They both end up strolling at the park, Daehyun swinging the bags of food absentmindedly as he walks down the path, kicking at the small rocks which roll down the paved road.

Suddenly he stops, dropping all the food, before making a rectangular shape with his fingers and positions it against the sun.

Soyeon stops and squints up along with him through his little rectangle.

Then Daehyun drops his arms, picks up the bags, and continues walking at a pace faster than what Soyeon can manage.

“You haven’t got your camera back?”

“No.”

“It’s against the school rules to confiscate something that long...” she says softly.

“The teacher will only give it to me if I perform.”

“Then why don’t you...?”

“Perform?” Daehyun completes her sentence, before laughing darkly. “Look, I’m not a circus monkey. I wasn’t born to perform and I won’t.”

“Then your camera...?”

“Why do you care? You’re not the one who lost the camera. See you.” Daehyun abruptly ends the conversation, before walking off in the complete opposite direction.

He still blames me for the camera...

________________________________________________