Thursday finally arrived; I don’t think I’ve ever studied as hard as I did for this damn chemistry quiz. I had tricked myself into thinking that I was doing this to get a good grade; this was just another, ordinary test. I was definitely not doing this for Kris, and I definitely didn’t want to think any longer about our bet that we had made eons ago.

We spaced ourselves out inside the classroom and Kris walked around handing out papers. I could see him moving closer and closer towards me and I held my breath, afraid of making any sound to draw attention to myself. As he walked over to my desk, he placed the test paper in front of me and muttered a soft, “Good Luck.” I was glad I was holding my breath because if I wasn’t, I would’ve probably let out a squeak or another high pitched sound which would’ve made Kris think I still liked him or was interested in him, and that was definitely not the case…

Kris walked back to the front of the classroom and wrote the start and finish times for the quiz before saying we could start. I flipped over the page and quickly read through the paper before letting a quick sigh of relief. I had studied everything on the paper and was sure I’d be able to do well. The forty-five minutes passed slowly as I was already done in the first twenty minutes and had also checked my paper three times. I looked over to my left and saw Kai silently hitting his head on the table which made me frown slightly; poor thing could hardly concentrate on anything what with his and Suho’s relationship slightly faltering. To my right, Sehun was scribbling furiously with his tongue slightly out in solid concentration. My eyes panned to the front of the room and I looked at the clock and decided there was still time to have a quick nap on my table before the end of the exam.

I was awoken suddenly by a paper ball thrown to my head by Kai. I rubbed my eyes as he pointed to the clock, signalling that it was the end of the exam. I nodded and mouthed a thank you.

Kris started coming around again to collect the exam papers and I stealthily dragged both Kai and Sehun out of the room before he could reach us; I still didn’t know where he stood with me.

“So, how’d you guys go?” I asked cheerfully.

Kai rolled his eyes, “Shut-up happy virus, we all know who’s getting full marks..”

Sehun clucked his tongue, “Ehhh, don’t be like that Kai! Chanyeollie worked really hard for this test and he deserves the full marks! If you don’t get full marks you can only blame yourself!”

Kai grunted, “Yeah, whatever..”

I frowned in confusion, it seemed that Kai hadn’t told Sehun about his problems with Suho, why else would Sehun be saying those things?

“Anywho, I’m going to meet Luhan now, do you guys want to come grab lunch with us?” Sehun smiled.

I looked over to Kai and he slightly shook his head.

“Ah that’s okay Sehunnie, we’ll see you later, enjoy your lunch!” I smiled back.

“Alright, bye guys!” He waved before running off.  

I looked over to Kai and cautiously asked, “Hey, how come you didn’t tell Sehun about you and Suho?”

Kai bit his lip nervously before sighing, “Yeah uh we don’t really discuss our relationships…”

“What?! But you guys are best friends!”

“Yeah, well, he knows how I feel about Luhan so he never brings him up in conversation and I guess I just felt weird if I talked about my relationship if he didn’t…”

“Okay that…sorta makes sense..I guess.” I pondered.

There was a slight lull in conversation before Kai asked, “So uh..did you end up finding out why Suho was acting so weird?”

Crap.

Okay, lie Park Chanyeol, lie your little heart out.

“Oh yeah uh nah he’s fine!! He’s just a bit stressed with his uh you know that uh project thing he has due…”

“Oh, the chemical engineering group project?”

Oh thank god there was an actual project.

“YEAH! THAT ONE! Yeah uh, his group’s not really doing anything so he’s kinda stressing out about it. It’s due next Monday though so he should be fine in about a week.”

“Hmm, okay…but it’s still weird that he didn’t say any of this to me...”

“I’m sure he’s only been able to focus on this damn project this past week, I’m sure it’s nothing personal! Now calm down Kai and let’s go grab something to eat I’m starving!”

Kai hesitated before nodding slightly, “Okay, I believe you Channie, and thank you for doing this for me! Let’s go eat, my shout!”

“WOOOHOOO! Thanks Kai!” I hollered before running outside the building.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Kai ended up taking me to a cute café near uni. It was all going well, we ordered their lunch special which came with free drinks and were just about to grab a table with the big couches until we heard our names being called out.

“Kai! Chanyeol! Over here!”

We turned our heads to see an enthusiastic Sehun waving us over. I looked at Kai before sighing, “Come on, we have no choice.”

We walked over with our orders and sat next to Sehun and Luhan.

“Hey guys, pretty cool place huh?” I smiled.

Luhan merely nodded and continued eating his burger.

“Don’t mind him, he’s just feeling a little under the weather.” Sehun said calmly.

Lunch was an awkward affair. Luhan refused to speak, Kai hardly uttered a word and I was drawing a blank on conversation topics. I decided to excuse myself to go to the bathroom but Luhan decided to tag along as well. The walk over was silent until he coughed.

“So uh I take it you’ve heard what Kai and Suho have said about me.”

I decided to feign surprise, “W-what? What are you talking about Luhan?”

Luhan frowned, “Oh cut the crap Chanyeol. Kai and Suho have been trying to mess with us for months now. And I bet you anything they’ve convinced you to believe their story about how horrible a person I am.”

I paused nervously, unsure of what to say.

Luhan scoffed at my silence, “Okay whatever, but just so you know, that’s only half the story. You don’t know anything about me Park Chanyeol.”

As he was about to walk away I pulled him back and shoved him towards the wall.

“Well fine, tell me about yourself then Luhan. Because from what I’ve heard, you’re right, you are a horrible person.”

Luhan glared at me for a few seconds before speaking, “Fine. Just put yourself in my shoes, just for a minute. Imagine, living the past eighteen years of your life, watching your mother slowly deteriorate as she battles cancer. Imagine, not being able to do anything to help her feel better, to convince her to continue living.. So what could I do? We needed money for the hospital bills, the treatments, the medication. As the oldest son in the family I did what anyone else would do, I got the money.”

I took a step back in surprise; I definitely did not expect that to come out of Luhan’s mouth.

“So wait uh okay uh I take it the others don’t know about this..?”

Luhan snorted, “Like I’d tell them anything about my personal life.”

I frowned, “But Sehun..why are you with…oh..”

It hit me after eyeing the crappy Casio watch on his left hand instead of the gold Rolex Sehun got him last month.

“You trade in everything Sehun buys you to get the money.” I stated.

Luhan’s face fell slightly and nodded.

I bit my lip in hesitation, I didn’t know what to say. It’s not like I could blame him, if my umma fell sick, I don’t even know the lengths I would go to to make her feel better. But to drag down Sehun with him in this scheme..that was wrong.

“Fine, you’re not a gold-digger. But that still doesn’t excuse you for sleeping around!” I hissed.

Luhan’s eyes slowly welled up and he pointed at Sehun, “Do you see that? Do you see how utterly perfect he is? How generous, how kind, how caring, how beautiful he is? Now look at me, I’m pathetic, broken and an all-round appalling person. I could never let myself fall for someone like that, I’m not worthy of him…”

I felt anger bubble up inside me, “You say that he’s perfect and that you’re not worthy of him, yet every single day that you’re with him, is only proof of how terrible a person you really are. I get it Luhan, I get that you need to help your mother. But not like this; doing this is only hurting everyone around you.”

“There isn’t any other way Chanyeol..”

“You’re so full of crap Luhan, you took the easy way out and you know it. Have you heard of a job? Yeah, that’s what normal, decent human beings do in order to get money. You did not have to lure a poor, unsuspecting person like Sehun into your stupid scheme. I swear to god if I wasn’t restricted by the stupid friendship rules of Kai and Sehun I would punch your face so hard right now you’d feel my fist in your brain.”

I shook my head in disgust and began making my way towards the bathroom when Luhan suddenly pulled my arm back.

“Please Chanyeol,” Luhan said with tears running down his cheek, “You have to help me. I never wanted to hurt Sehun I swear, things just happened and….if I could take it all back I would…”

I looked into Luhan’s eyes for a few seconds before spotting his sincerity and I reluctantly nodded, “Fine, I’ll help you but in no way does this mean I forgive you for doing this to Sehun.”

Luhan hugged me tightly, “Thank you Chanyeol, thank you so much.”

I pushed him back slightly, “Yeah yeah this doesn’t make us friends or anything, I just want Sehun to be happy and the only way I can do that is to get you out of his life.”

Luhan nodded furiously, “No no I agree, help me find a well paying job and I’ll be out of Sehun’s life in a split second.”

I held my finger up, “But you are under no circumstances allowed to break his heart, do you understand?”

Luhan sighed and nodded again, “I understand.”

“Okay then, I’ll talk to you later and we can look for jobs around the city. And for god’s sake stop sleeping around! Your only focus right now is to make Sehun happy, so you better start cleaning your act up or I won’t help you.”

Luhan shook my hand firmly, “Yes, of course, definitely.”

I let go of his hand and we walked into the bathroom together.

When I walked back to our table Kai eyed me worriedly but I patted his shoulder in reassurance.

“Well, it’s been fun Sehunnie, but I gotta go now so I’ll see both you guys next Monday when we get our chem quiz back!” I said whilst picking up my bag.

“Oh okay, I’ll see you then Chanyeollie!” Sehun smiled.