Lunch comes around, I get a text telling me to come outside by the tree near the soccer field.

 

I let out a gasp and jump out of my seat, almost bumping into Lynn who’s just come back from grabbing both our lunches from the cubby locker in the back of the room, “Let’s go. Sihyun said he brought his guitar today.” I say excitedly.

 

“What?! Where is he?!”

 

“Tree by the football(soccer) field. Go!” I shout, grabbing my lunch bag and turning her around to rush out of the room.

 

We both speed walk across the hallway, until we get outside where we start jogging towards the football field, laughing loudly at the hair that’s flying into our faces.

 

“Hey~” I greet Sihyun when we reach the tree, plopping down on the cement box that the tree is planted on, “What are you going to play for us today?”

 

“I learned that new FT Island song.” He announces.

 

“Well, let’s hear it then!” Lynn urges him.

 

“Okay, okay.” He laughs, throwing the guitar strap over his shoulder. When he starts strumming the first few notes, I just stare at his fingers plucking at the strings. But a few seconds into it, I start nodding my head along with it as he starts singing.

 

*Insert FT Island’s ‘Severely’ here

 

He’s got a nice voice. It’s a little more relaxing and calming than Hongki’s for this ballad, so it fits a little better, in my opinion.

 

I decide to join him for the big pre-hook and he lets me sing the chorus on my own. He provides some subvocals and backup for me. But when the second verse comes along, he takes it on his own again. When the next pre-hook comes, Lynn, Sihyun, and I all sing it together, along with the chorus.

 

We let Sihyun take the bridge and show off the guitar solo, and he gestures for Lynn to take the soft hook before the last chorus, which we all sing together again.

 

Sihyun plays the last couple of chords and Lynn and I erupt into applause, wooping for him, “Whoo~ That was hot! I liked it. Nice job, nice job.” I pat him on the back, smiling proudly.

 

“That was good.” A voice comments as well. I look up and see Kai, Tao, Sehun, Luhan, and two more of the EXO members that I don’t know coming near us, “You guys sounded good together.” Kai smiles at us.

 

“Yeah, that was good!” one of the unknown members agrees.

 

“Thank you.” Sihyun laughs, “Coming from idols, that means something.”

 

“Did you need something?” I ask, directing my gaze mostly at Kai.

 

“No, we were just going to play some basketball,” Unknown Member #2 says, “But you guys distracted us a little.” He laughs.

 

“Are you going to stay here during the whole lunch period?” Sehun asks, and I swear Lynn’s smile grows bigger when he speaks.

 

“Yeah, we probably are.” She answers.

 

“Oh, then would you mind watching our stuff while we play?” he asks, directing his question to her.

 

“Yeah… If you want. I don’t really think it’s going to go anywhere though.” Lynn says.

 

“Yeah, well… you know fans. Sometimes….” Kai starts.

 

“Oh yeah, totally. We understand. You can leave it with us.” Sihyun says.

 

“Thanks, man.” Kai smiles as he and several of the other members start pulling off their jackets.

 

“Yeah, no problem.” He says, “I wonder what we can take and sell to zealous fan girls from here.” Sihyun jokes, eyeing Tao’s jacket as he throws it on the side of the cement box we’re sitting on.

 

A couple of the guys laugh before heading off to the court. I can’t help but eye Luhan as he runs off towards the court, dribbling the ball with him. He’s so cute.

 

Turning back to face my front, I see Kai taking off his school shirt as well, leaving only his black wifebeater on to show his muscles that are all too familiar to me. “Thanks Jae.” He smiles at me, setting down his shirt on top of his jacket next to me before running off to the court with the others.

 

“Thanks guys. We appreciate it.” Sehun says. He’s also taken off his school shirt, but he has a light gray t-shirt on underneath.

 

When they’re all on the court, Lynn lets out a sigh-slash-groan before collapsing on Sihyun’s shoulder, “Oh my god. Did you hear Sehun’s voice? I can die happily now.”

 

“Whoo~ Rim-ah! When did you and Kai get so close that he’s calling you Jae now?” he nudges me.

 

“When he came to me and asked me to feel up on his abs yesterday.” I taunt sarcastically. It’s an exaggerated truth, but Sihyun takes it as a joke anyway.

 

“Whoa~” he plays along, “What were you doing then?” he laughs.

 

“Oh my god, you should have seen them in class today.” Lynn gushes, “Kai came up to her, recognizing her and everything from the spa house yesterday and he didn’t hesitate at all to help her with math homework even though they just got back today.”

 

“Lynn!” I shout. She promised not to tell anyone.

 

“What? So he actually came to your uncle’s spa place? And he let you touch and rub and feel all up on Kai’s body?” he laughs, cracking up.

 

“Shut up! You saw how he was the one trying to interact with me. Obviously I did a good job.” I say smugly.

 

“Whoa~ So that’s how you seduce men now, huh?” he jokes.

 

“Whatever.” I scoff, deciding to change the subject, “Come on, let’s hear one more before we eat.”

 

“Oh! Yeah! You remember that Demi Lovato song I sent you guys? I learned the acoustic version, so let’s try it!” he says, pulling out some music sheets with the lyrics to Demi Lovato’s ‘Give Your Heart a Break’.

 

“No… I don’t know how to sing in English.” Lynn says.

 

“Then just sing backup.” Sihyun laughs, handing her a copy, “Rim, you do it.”

 

I hold up the music sheets for him to look at the notes while I read the lyrics, “Okay, let’s do it.”

 

*Play this

 

He starts playing the first chords and I dive into it.

 

“The day I first met you,

You told you’d never fall in love

But now that I get you,

I know fear is what it really was”

 

Going on, Sihyun messes up a couple chords, and I mess up a couple words. But overall, we sound pretty good, especially with Lynn’s backup.

 

I don’t know what brings me to look over at the basketball courts when the bridge comes around, but a couple of the EXO guys are watching and listening to us as I sing.

 

“When your lips are on my lips,

And our hearts beat as one…”

 

But I turn back to music sheets prepare for the high note that I know is coming up.

 

“But you slip out of my finger tips,

Every time you Ru~n”

 

I can hear their supportive cheers and claps when I complete my high note, and I throw them an appreciative smile before I continue singing the song with Lynn.

 

When we finish, we clap and applaud ourselves, and our EXO audience joins in as well. I give them a thumbs up of appreciation and Kai returns it before they continue their game.

 

“Whoo! That was awesome. How about you guys sing something with me for the talent show?” Sihyun asks.

 

“Talent show?” Lynn and I say together before exchanging glances. Then we both start throwing out rejections and refusals, avoiding the subject by grabbing for our lunches to start eating.

 

 

***

 

 

I guess you can say Kai and I have become friends now. I mean, in the past several weeks, he’s been helping me with math and I’ve been helping him with English and Japanese. He sparks up conversations with me during our free time sometimes. He and a couple of the other EXO members have joined me, Lynn, and Sihyun for lunch a couple of times.

 

Yeah, I guess we should be considered friends at this point. I’ve kind of befriended some of the other members too. Oh my god, you wouldn’t believe the fan girls though. It’s a good thing there’s so many of them to stand as witness if a chance ever comes for us to be attacked in the hallway or something.

 

Lynn’s taken this opportunity to get closer to her ‘man’, Sehun. I guess he knows her well enough to remember her name for a couple of years. And Sihyun’s befriended most of them too. He’s told me and Lynn stories about their conversations and how he thinks some of the members are interested in us.

 

“Get real.” I scoff, throwing the side dishes from my lunch into the large plastic lunch container Sihyun brought for bibimbap.

 

“I’m serious! A couple of them asked me if I was going out with either of you two one day.” He says, throwing his seaweed and kimchi into the extra large lunch box as well.

 

“Which guys?” Lynn asks, obviously hoping Sehun would be an answer.

 

“Uhm, it was in the locker room, so like 5 of them were there. Luhan, Baekhyun, Sehun, Kai, and Xiu Min. I forget who brought it up.”

 

“I bet it was Kai~” Lynn teases me in a singsong voice.

 

“They must just think you’re a pimp.” I offer Sihyun, ignoring Lynn as I dump my rice into the mixture, “Since you’re always surrounded by girls instead of guy friends.”

 

“Well, I am pretty hot stuff now, aren’t I?” Sihyun shrugs cockily, making both me and Lynn exchange a glance and snort.

 

“Oh my god, totally. You’re an absolute babe magnet.” Lynn says.

 

“Total hottie.” I agree sarcastically.

 

“You totally had me swooning that time you stole my rubber duck and splashed water in my face during out bubble baths together. Don’t believe our moms when they say I was crying because soap got in my eyes.” She jokes.

 

“Whoa, so you do have some game then, Hyun-ah.” A deep voice laughs.

 

Sure enough, Kai is standing there with an amused smile on his face, Sehun and Suho by his side.

 

“Oh my god!” Lynn gasps, hiding her face in her hands, “…Just… Just give it to me. How much of it did you hear and how bad was it…?” she mumbles through her hands.

 

“Uhm… starting from the rubber ducky and being together in a bubble bath.” Suho laughs, joining us on the grass at the edge of the football field. “We won’t hold it against you.” He pats Lynn’s back as she continues to hide her still blushing face.

 

“Is that bibimbap?” Kai asks excitedly, plopping down on the grass next to me, “Can I join too?”

 

“I don’t know. Does your diet let you guys eat this stuff?” I ask, stirring the contents of the container with my spoon.

 

“We can cheat a little.” Kai smiles mischievously, getting out his lunch box, “Just today. We’ll work it off later.”

 

“Whoa, you’ve got guts bro.” Sehun laughs from his place between Kai and Suho.

 

“Are you going to do it with me or what?” Kai laughs, dumping his vegetables and small portion of rice into the mixture.

 

“Okay, alright.” Sehun laughs, taking out his lunch box.

 

“Oh! Me too!” Suho says, dumping his lunch in as well.

 

Five minutes and lots of stirring later, we’ve all grabbed some bibimbap and are eating from our respective lunch boxes. There’s still half of a container left for us to have second servings.

 

“Oh my god… Can I eat this forever?” Suho sighs as he chews.

 

“I like the meat.” Sehun says, “Whose is it?”

 

“Lynn made it.” Sihyun answers.

 

“You can cook this well? By yourself?” he asks, impressed.

 

“Does it blow your mind?” she jokes, subtly flirting by leaning towards him before moving back.

 

“It does!” Suho praises, “We should eat with you guys more.” He smiles.

 

“I don’t know. If you eat all the food she makes, you’ll get pretty fat… I mean, just look at her. She’s like an elephant.” Sihyun jokes.

 

Lynn retorts by punching him in the arm, “Like you eat my food any less than I do. Judging by how often you came to my house to eat before and now, if I’m an elephant, then you’re a whale!”

 

As they continue to come up with more witty comebacks for their argument, Kai nudges me with his elbow, “Hey.”

 

“Hm?” I ask, looking up from my bibimbap.

 

“We’re on cleanup duty together this week right?” he asks.

 

“Ugh… Thanks for reminding me.” I groan, “The thought of patting chalk erasers together makes me choke already. What I’d give to have been in a room with a dry-erase board.” I sigh, digging into the large container for my second serving.

 

Kai digs in for his second serving after me, but he picks up a chunk of egg and places it in my lunch box. He just offers me a smile when I look at him questioningly.

 

I pick up the egg with my spoon and place it in his lunch box instead, “Here, you have it. You need protein to clean that room today.”

 

“So do you.” He replies, holding up the egg in his spoon up to my mouth.

 

“What do you think you’re doing?” I ask.

 

“Eat it.” he smiles gently.

 

“Are you allergic to egg or something?”

 

“Come on Jae-ah. Just eat it. Open up.” He chuckles.

 

“Aw, come on Rim-ah.” Sihyun urges as well, “Can’t you see that Kai trying to be cute? Just eat it.” he pushes my head towards Kai’s spoon.

 

Hearing Sihyun’s words, the others break out into chortles while Kai hides his laugh behind his hand cutely. But he holds the spoon up to my mouth nonetheless.

 

I let out a sigh, but I eat the egg from his spoon anyway. The others start clapping and cheering sarcastically, and I roll my eyes in response.

 

When I’ve finished chewing, I pick up a piece of meat and egg from the container and place it in Kai’s lunch box, “Protein.” I say.

 

Looking up, I see Suho hiding a smile as he chews, and Sehun and Lynn silently chuckling as well.

 

“What are you laughing at?” I retort, digging into the container for another piece of meat and placing it in Suho’s lunch box, “You need protein too.”

 

Another piece for Sehun, “And you.”

 

Another for Lynn, “And you.”

 

“You know, this is why I like 2PM better. I don’t feel the need to feed them because they don’t always seem so underweight and malnourished.”

 

“Excuse me?” Kai laughs dumbfoundedly.

 

“And they have nicer muscles too.” I continue to taunt mercilessly.

 

“Excuse me?” Suho says with the same dumbfounded expression.

 

“Have you seen my abs?” Kai challenges, daring to lift his shirt to reveal the abdomen that I’ve already personally seen.

 

“And they’re so bold too. Shy guys are cute but you can just smell their charisma from a mile away.”

 

When Kai switches his expression to a threatening one that makes it look like he’s going to do something, I start scooting back and shouting, “I’m kidding! I’m just kidding! I didn’t mean it!” as I put my lunch box and spoon down and stand up to start running away.

 

“Go!” Suho shouts, dropping his box too and joining Kai in the chase.

 

“NO! NO! I SWEAR I didn’t mean it!” I shout as I sprint across the football field.

 

“You’ll regret it too!” Kai shouts after me, getting closer.

 

“I take it back! Ah!” I just manage to dodge the both of them. I start running in a zigzag formation in order to lose them more easily. Every time they come close to me, I let out a scream when I just miss them.

 

This continues until the end-of-lunch bell rings. But they don’t stop coming after me. I highly doubt I’ll be able to finish my lunch now. But there’s no way I’m slowing down to let these guys catch me.

 

It’s too bad that I trip over something and end up rolling a couple times along the grass. The chasers are running up to help me now, worried shouts coming from them.

 

“Jaerim!” Suho shouts.

 

“Jae! Jae-ah! Are you alright?” Kai shouts next to him.

 

When they kneel down to see if I’m okay, I shoot up and throw an arm around each of them, “I didn’t mean it, okay?! It was just a joke, see? Let’s just hug it out, yeah? Like best friends, let’s kiss and make up, huh?” I say, hugging them to me.

 

“Like best friends?” Kai laughs.

 

“Okay, you can kiss me while you make up with Kai.” Suho proposes, laughing.

 

“What?!” Kai shouts, pulling away.

 

“What?!” I shout desperately, letting go of Suho as well. I start fake sobbing from exasperation and push them to the ground before jumping up and running off again. And of course, they follow along in the chase.

 

“Lynn!” I shout to catch her attention, “Get my stuff for me, please?” I hold my hands together pleadingly as I run past her, Sihyun, and Sehun who are still laughing at us, “Thanks you! Love you!” I shout before running off towards the girls’ bathroom in the building.

 

~~~*~~~

A/N: I just... really like Demi Lovato .____.

But you guys have heard about the EXO-K debut on Mnet on April 12 right? isn't that Sehun's birthday? Time to spazz~