The next day was the first Friday of the school year. Minah left her home that morning with Joon. They walked together to the university. Joon was gushing about the contemporary dance class he was taking along with Cheondoong.

“It’s so much fun! I never thought dancing could be so fun, but this is just so fun!” he exclaimed. Minah chuckled as she listened to him. “You don’t understand how much fun that class is, Minah!”

“I think I do. I mean, you said the word ‘fun’ four times,” she responded. Joon grinned and practically skipped ahead of her. It seemed as if he was more excited for a course that didn’t have anything to do with his major rather than be excited for a course that did have something to do with it.

“Dance, I wanna dance,” Joon chanted. While he was frolicking, he did not notice the boy walking in front of him; his shoulders slouched as if he was trying to make himself smaller. When the boy heard Joon approaching him, he smirked beneath his mask.

“Ya-oof!” Joon yelped as he crashed into the boy and they both fell to the ground. Minah’s eyes widened as she scurried over to the pair.

“Are you alright?” she asked, helping Joon up then reaching out to help up the boy. Her eyes lit up in recognition as she smiled at the boy. “Jaesun-ssi. I’m sorry about my friend. He can be a little ditzy sometimes.”

Jaesun stared at her hand for a moment before getting up on his own. He bowed to Minah and Joon before running off. A frown appeared on Minah’s face as she stared after him.

“Did you know that boy?” Joon asked, tilting his head to one side.

“Yeah, I do. He’s in my psychology class,” Minah replied. She continued gazing down the street even though he had already disappeared from sight. She couldn’t help but wonder if that was how she acted too back then; afraid of touching other people, independent even during tough situations.

“He makes me think of you from before, you know. Since he was wearing that mask and all,” Joon said.

“I know, that’s why I wanna befriend him. To save him like how you guys saved me before,” Minah responded, smiling softly at Joon. He beamed back at her, holding his hand out to her. She slipped her hand in his and the two childhood friends made their way to school.

They were greeted at the gates by Seungho and Mir. They both appeared to be a little restless. Minah noticed how Seungho was shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Mir was pacing around in small circles, his facial expressions changing endlessly. One moment, he was grinning like an idiot and the next he was frowning deeply.

“Is there something wrong with you two today? Why are you acting like that?” Minah asked once she was standing beside them. Mir stopped his pacing and stared at her for a moment, an unreadable expression in his eyes. He blinked then smiled widely.

“Nope, nothing wrong with me today. Not at all,” he replied. Mir thought it best to bide his time until he had a private moment with Minah before asking her on his planned date next Friday. He wanted it to be as personal as possible so Minah might be able to understand and sense his strong feelings for her.

“Okay then,” Minah said. She glanced at Seungho who gave her a reassuring smile.

“I’m fine too,” he said simply.

“Oh, Cheondoong the idol is busy today. Probably preparing for his next album. That guy has like fifty albums, I swear,” Mir muttered. He pretended to resent and scorn his friend but in reality he was proud of Cheondoong’s accomplishments and work.

And so, the second day of college commenced quite normally for the group of friends.

---

When it was time for lunch, Seungho found that he was going to get there first just like last year. He waited patiently for the others to arrive, meanwhile thinking hard on what he should say to Minah. Confessing your love for someone was not something to be taken lightly after all. And besides, he had given himself plenty of time to think about it so he wanted to use every second to its fullest value.

Meanwhile, Minah left her English classroom and headed in the opposite direction of the giant oak tree. She was hoping to find Jaesun walking through the hallways and invite him to have lunch with them.

As she walked around aimlessly, she was beginning to lose the hope of ever finding him until she nearly ran into him. They both jumped in fright, Minah looking more surprised and Jaesun merely blinking.

“Oh, Jaesun-ssi. I was looking for you,” she said.  Jaesun didn’t say a word as he stared at her. The look in his eyes told her that he was waiting for her to tell him why. “I was wondering if you would like to eat lunch with me and my friends.”

Jaesun blinked in surprise at her offer. Minah watched his reaction closely, suddenly realizing the unique, neutral gray color of his eyes. After the short flicker of shock, his eyes returned to their almost emotionless look. She couldn’t tell whether he was happy or not. Finally, Jaesun nodded slowly, accepting her offer.

“Great, follow me. We decided to have lunch under the large oak tree,” she said, leading the way. Jaesun trailed along behind her, keeping his eyes on the ground but occasionally stealing glances at the back of her head. Minah didn’t understand why she began to feel nervous. Maybe it was because she could feel him gazing at her from time to time, his gray eyes boring a hole through her head with his hard look.

The trip back to the oak tree seemed longer than it should have. The dead silence between the pair walking through the halls could have attributed to the dragging feeling, or Minah could have taken a wrong turn. In Minah’s mind, it was most likely the latter. She was still uncertain of the school’s layout, having trouble finding her way to her classes sometimes.

Minah’s assumption was right. She soon found that they were walking in a hallway she was unfamiliar with. Even the look of the halls was completely different from the design that she had seen before. Instead of pristine, almost hospital-like hallways, the pair was walking in an older part of the campus. The halls could have been classified as ancient, if not for the security cameras placed strategically so that no area of the hall would be spared from its sight.

Feeling embarrassed, Minah stubbornly pursued her current path. She hoped that the hall would circuit back to a more familiar setting. However, she was forced to stop when Jaesun timidly placed a hand on her shoulder. Thoroughly surprised, Minah turned around and faced him.

“I know how to get to the tree from here,” he mumbled. Minah could barely understand because of it, along with the fact that his voice was muffled due to the mask. But, she did indeed understand him.

“Oh, okay. You can lead the way then,” she responded, flushing slightly. After their short detour, the two of them finally made it to the oak tree with thirty minutes left to have their lunches. When they arrived, Mir jumped up in his own excitement mixed with worry.

“Where were you? What took you so long to get here?” he shouted in a volume that was unnecessarily loud. Joon flinched and grumbled angrily about his eardrums nearly being shattered.

“I just…got lost.” Minah stared down at the ground when she responded, her cheeks pink from embarrassment. Mir slapped a hand over his mouth to hide his laughter but failed miserably. A burst of laughter came out and he fell backwards off the bench. This caused Joon, Seungho and Minah to explode with laughter at him.

“Ah, !” Mir yelled. He got up and rubbed his sore bottom, glaring at the others. Seungho stopped laughing, but not because of Mir’s glare. His eyes had landed on the boy standing beside Minah. When Jaesun noticed Seungho scrutinizing him, he straightened up. Seungho blinked as Jaesun seemed to grow in height by merely standing straight. He towered over Minah, looking to be a little taller than Seungho himself.

“Minah, who’s that?” Joon bluntly asked, pointing at Jaesun. Minah glowered at him, slapping his hand away.

“It’s rude to point at people. And this is Do Jaesun. He’s a classmate of mine. We have psychology together,” she replied.

Jaesun bowed in a 90^o angle. The others glanced at one another and slightly bowed back.

“He’s really polite, isn’t he?” Mir whispered to Joon who nodded in agreement. “Seems too stiff. Hey, loosen up man!” Mir walked over to Jaesun and clapped a hand on his back. The boy’s eyes widened and he straightened up, standing rigidly.

“Mir, don’t do that!” Minah snapped at him. He shrugged and sat back down to continue eating his lunch. His eyes were still on Minah however, seeming to sparkle with a secret he only knew. Minah watched him warily, noticing the almost mischievous look. Then, she shook it off and turned to Jaesun.

“Sorry about that, let’s sit down and eat,” she said. Minah headed over to an open spot and sat down. Jaesun shuffled towards her, glancing around nervously. Minah patted the space beside her and he carefully sat down.

Seungho’s eyes were still on Jaesun however and he regarded the boy carefully. There was no doubt that he could see the similarity between him and the past Minah. Noticing this made more sense to him as to why Minah would befriend him.

She noticed it too. That they’re alike. She doesn’t want him to live his life like that, like how she did.

He felt a sort of pride in Minah for doing so. He believed that she had progressed so much from the past, becoming a person who reached out to others rather than curling into a shell.

Another thing that came to mind was the little bit of Byunghee that Seungho could see in Minah. The way she was quiet and gentle whenever she spoke to Jaesun was strikingly similar to the way Byunghee had acted towards Minah.

Seungho was broken from his thoughts when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Mir had stood up abruptly, keeping an intense gaze on Minah. By now, everyone else had noticed Mir and looked up at him. Joon cocked his head to the side, watching Mir curiously.

“What is it?” Joon asked with his mouth full of bread. Minah lightly flicked his forehead and scolded him for speaking with his mouth full. “Ow, geez. You nag too much.”

She was about to retort when Mir grabbed her by the wrist and tugged her to her feet. “M-Mir? What are you doing?” she nearly shouted at the top of her lungs but caught herself, settling for a half-shout, half-speaking volume.

“Follow me,” he said abruptly. Before she could protest, Mir practically dragged her with him.

“Wait, Mir. What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Seungho said, his eyes narrowed slightly. Mir smirked, merely waving at them before leaving. Minah struggled to break from his strong grip, but to no avail.

Sighing, Seungho knew there was no way to stop Mir once he was determined to do something. There was a slight uneasy feeling in his heart but he let it slide, trusting his friend not to do anything to the girl they both loved.

“Yah, Mir! Where are we going?” Minah finally dropped her former reservations and yelled freely at Mir once they were out of earshot from the others. She hoped that Jaesun would not hold some sort of resentment for her leaving him alone with people he had just met.

A silence fell over the two when Mir didn’t respond to her. She glared at him but kept quiet for the moment, waiting to see exactly what he was up to. Mir’s grip on her wrist loosened, but only by a little. A strong urge to hold her hand washed over him but Mir fought against it. He didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.

Opening a door, Mir led Minah up a flight of stairs and they emerged on the rooftop. It was still slightly chilly out since spring hadn’t yet arrived. The pair walked over till they were standing nearly in the center. Finally, Mir let go of Minah’s wrist, allowing it to fall at her side.

She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow skeptically at him. “So, what are we doing on the roof?”

Mir didn’t know it would be so hard and nerve wracking to say a few sentences. He could feel himself on the brink of freezing or stuttering like an idiot. Closing his eyes for a second, he took a deep breath.

“I was just wondering if maybe you sorta kinda wanted to go around town with me next Friday,” he asked all in one breath. When he opened his eyes, he saw Minah staring at him with an unreadable look in her eyes.

Is that a good thing…or a bad thing?

“You mean, all five of us right? You, me, Joon, Cheondoong, and Seungho?” she asked.

“No, just…just the two of us,” Mir responded in a nearly inaudible voice. Minah gazed at him with a sorrowful look in her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I’m busy next Friday working on a psychology project with Jaesun. Why don’t you invite Joon instead? And the others. I’m sure you four can have some guy bonding time. I mean, it’d be pretty boring with just you and me anyways, right?” she attempted to speak to him lightheartedly. She truly believed that the look of utter disappointment that crossed Mir’s face was only because they couldn’t hang out that day. She merely thought he was hoping to spend time as friends. His true intentions for inviting her out that day were unknown to her.

Before Mir could say anything else, Minah glanced at the time on her phone. Her eyes widened when she realized it was time to head to her next class.

“I have to go now. I’m really sorry. We can go out another time, right?” she said before smiling softly and scurrying away.

Now, Mir was left standing on the roof all alone.

“But, next Friday is supposed to be a special day for me, my birthday. And on that special day, I wanted to be able to tell you…I love you,” he whispered to the air.

 ---

I am soooo sorry for not updating in a while. School's just been hectic. Thanks so much for reading :)

*bows deeply and hits head on table like Luhan XD*

Oh, and I'm posting this because it's funny. Crazy MBLAQ maknae line haha XD