“It’s too bad you won’t be here if we do have the exchange programme in China,” Luhan frowns, ruffling up Sohyun’s hair. “Ke ai.”

“What does that mean?” Sohyun asks, her face curious.

“It means,” Luhan suddenly leans in, “be mine.”

Sohyun’s eyes widen in shock, and Luhan laughs.

“I’m kidding!”

“You might want to say goodbye to your guides, though,” Sohyun smiles faintly before pointing at somewhere far away. “Kyumi and... her friend are waiting for you.”

“You like Himchan.”

“No! No I don’t!”

“Himchan likes you,” Luhan continues his short sentence assaults. Sohyun’s face darkens.

“No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t even know me. Go and say bye to your guides now. Bye!”

A smile of amusement lingers on Luhan’s face as he shakes his head in defeat, walking away.

Meanwhile, not very far from Luhan, another two students are bidding farewell... of sorts to each other.

Yongguk wishes that he can have something, just something, so that he can wipe the confident smile off Siwan’s face. Maybe a dirty dishcloth will do the job.

“Jiayou!” Siwan grins at him, patting his shoulder before walking off, then breaking into a short run to catch up with the other Chinese student, which he recognises as the one who has talked to Hyorin before, leaving the hall together with him.

What does that mean...?

He watches as Siwan breaks away from his friend, before smiling at another female Chinese student, who seems to be signalling him to do something. Then suddenly, Siwan starts running again, but then he bumps into another student who quickly steadies himself while grabbing the girl in front of him. A small smirk appears on Yongguk’s face when he spots the Chinese female raise her hands in a thumbs up.

These Chinese people are really interesting...

“Yongguk!”

He turns around to see Hyorin smiling and waving at him.

“Let’s go get ice cream!”

 

__________________

“Here, I got presents for you guys!”

Victoria proceeds to her bag, rummaging the contents to find her gift for her guides in Korea. A small, mischevious smile escapes her lips when she feels the cool, metal chain of necklaces brush against her fingers.

Pulling it out, she declares, “matching necklaces!”

From her fingers dangle two metal necklaces, an infinity charm dangling from each of the chains. One of the infinity signs is gold while the other is silver in colour. Victoria grins as she passes the gold-coloured one to Daehyun and the silver one to Soyeon.

“Do you have one too?” Daehyun asks, his eyes scanning for a similar necklace around Victoria’s neck.

“No! What are you looking at? They’re couple necklaces, so why should I have one?”

“Couple...?” Soyeon repeats, her eyes widening.

“Er, it was cheaper coming in a pair! Yeap! Ahahaha,” Victoria quickly improvises, covering up her lies with a somewhat convincing laughter.

“You guys better wear it, okay? Don’t make me waste my money on you,” she grins, before zipping up her bag.

Daehyun smiles back at her, before lifting his arms to fix the necklace around his neck. Lifting the little infinity charm upwards towards Victoria’s direction, he adds, “thanks.”

“Shouldn’t you help Soyeonnie wear hers too...?” Victoria adds on before folding her arms in front of her, her smile spreading.

Soyeon feels the cool metal chain sliding off her fingers and before she even realises what is happening, she feels a certain comforting warmth behind her.

“Your hair,” someone whispers, and it takes her a few seconds to react.

She can feel, somehow, his breath on her neck and it is taking everything for Soyeon to just not squirm away or die of a heart attack.

And then, that certain warmth bangs into her, and out of instinct Daehyun has his arms around her shoulders to steady both himself and Soyeon.

“Dui bu qi! I’m... sorry!” A Chinese student apologises before running off in the other direction.

None of them notice Victoria’s subtle thumbs-up to that student.

“Am I disturbing you guys? Well then I guess this is goodbye! See you guys someday! Bye~”

And Victoria makes her less than subtle attempt to escape with a mischievous grin hanging off her lips.

I had fun matchmaking you guys.

 

________________________________________________

“Something bothering you?”

Junhong asks the question as he leans against the thick tree bark, squinting slightly as the sun’s rays blast mercilessly down on him. Somehow, he bumped into Sohyun in the school garden a few minutes ago. Sohyun hums in reply, before turning towards him with a smile.

“Something bothering you?” She asks back, and Junhong frowns.

“I think Yongguk hyung likes someone,” he admits, cheeks puffing out a little as he blows air out of his mouth.

“Are you planning to tell him?”

“Nope,” Junhong’s expression falls slightly, eyes downcast. “If I tell Yongguk hyung that I like him, what will happen? I’m scared that he won’t talk to me again. Who am I to stop him from liking other people? Besides hyung thinks I like you.”

Sohyun sighs. “So what are you going to do now?”

“Let’s act as a couple for hyung.”

“What?” First Luhan, now you, who next?

A mischievous glint shines in Junhong’s eyes. “Maybe if we do that hyung will get jealous and confess earlier.”

“I’m glad the old Junhong is back but it’s going to be hard for you. And me.”

“Let’s just do it,” Junhong grins anyway, shaking Sohyun’s arm lightly. “Let’s prank hyung and Hyorin noona.”

“No.”

“You know it won’t be real anyway! Since I don’t like girls. And you say Hyorin noona likes hyung. So if hyung thought I was brave enough to confess, he should be brave too! Don’t you want to matchmake them? It was your idea anyway—”

Sohyun sighs. “Fine. But only in front of them. Only till Yongguk gets his bravery.”

“Okay.”

An awkward silence hangs in the air.

“What do you major in?”

It is such an abrupt question that Sohyun doesn’t catch it on the first try. She squints her eyes against the sunlight and tries to ask Junhong again what his question is.

When Junhong repeats his question, a faint smile appears on her face. “Why do you want to know?”

“No, I’m just curious,” Junhong tilts his head. “What faculty are you in?”

Sohyun smiles a little, tugging at the strings on her jacket hood. “Modern rock. Or other people might call it alternative rock.”

Junhong’s eyes widen as he takes in the image of the not-so-tall, but not exactly very short girl. He cannot imagine her grabbing a microphone still on its stand and—

“I don’t do screamo rock,” Sohyun suddenly laughs, breaking the silence. “I do the instruments. Like the bass, the drums.”

“Oh,” Junhong ends simply, nodding his head slowly. It doesn’t stop Jung Sohyun though, she goes on with a small smile on her face.

“I don’t exactly do the electric guitar as often as I play my bass. The bass gives you a steady, rooted feeling. It’s there, you can hardly hear it but it’s there... part of the backstage crew supporting the shining star.”

“Do you sing?” Junhong blurts out. It has always been on his mind, surely someone like Sohyun with brothers like Daehyun and Youngjae must possess an angelic voice, too.

“Sing? Me?” Sohyun laughs again, pointing at herself. “No way. Daehyun oppa took all the singing genes and kept it all to himself. If I ever sing, it might be a human disaster.”

“It can’t be that bad!” Junhong puffs out, voice filling with disbelief.

“When I say it’s bad, believe me that it’s bad.”

“Liar,” Junhong sticks his tongue out, before poking the younger girl, who screams at the sudden stab to her waist.

“Yah! Choi Junhong!”

Unbeknownst to the duo, a certain lone figure stands not so far away from them, eyes hardening.

Kim Himchan clenches his fist, crumpling the sheet music that he is holding as he walks away.

 

__________________

Kim Himchan, you need to chill.

Himchan buries his head into the depths of the thick book that he has randomly grabbed when he first enters the library. The book manages to hide his face, and he takes in the musky smell of the pages.

It’s your own fault, anyway.

You were the one that let her go.

It was your own fault.
 

__________________

Double u double u double u dot google dot com.

Kyumi types out the search engine website on her browser, her fingers lingering above the keyboard for a few moments before typing in her search words.

Kim Jongup.

 

__________________

Yet another day when both Daehyun and Sohyun are not home yet. Youngjae is used to such loneliness; the duo always stay in school till it is quite late since there is nothing to do at home anyway.

Somehow, Youngjae decides to check the diary again.

It sits innocently on Sohyun’s display shelf, but something tells Youngjae that someone has moved it before. Of course, it may just be Sohyun but his fingers reach out for that book anyway.

He flips to the last entry.

And he almost dies of shock when he spots a reply to his message.

Inked in, with blue gel pen and the ink still looking fresh, are another three words.

‘You really sorry?’