"Do you honestly think Minhyun's okay?" T.O.P was walking down the hallway after school with Baekhyun, trying desperately to understand what had happened that lunch that morning. "I don't want him hurt by the populars...especially not GD..." The two had been thinking about the entire situation all throughout school, making it impossible to focus.

"Yes, T.O.P. We all know what happened with GD." Baekhyun spoke loudly to his friend as they passed countless students talking about Winter Break, which was only a few days away. Baekhyun re-adjusted his backpack and tried to lighten the mood a little. "He's just a douche with really nice hair."

"So he's pretty much just a copy of me?" T.O.P laughed nervously, trying to cover up his concern for his friend as he always did, his face mimicking what it looked like when he had brought Sohee back to the group. Nervous eyes, darting back and forth. Stiff limbs. A twitch in his right eyebrow.

"Pretty much." Baekhyun laughed also.

"...Wonderful, honey, thank you."

Baekhyun grabbed T.O.P's hand and the two of them kept on walking. They were both concerned, as any good friends would be. They passed by Jessica and Hyuna and GD, who were all talking about hanging out that day. GD and T.O.P held uncomfortable eye contact as the groups walked next to each other. The whole sequence seemed to go almost in slow motion as the two boys looked over at three of the populars. Hyuna made a sort of "humph!" noise and GD returned his attention to her. Jessica looked back after they went on down the hall, her heels clicking on the ground like clock hands. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. She assesed both T.O.P and Baekhyun, who were still holding hands and were standing very close to each other.

She grabbed her phone out of her Coach bag to text Gyuri.

Sohee was standing down the hall inside her classroom. Everyone had left, the teacher was also gone. She was alone, staring at herself in the one full length mirror the teacher so happened to have. Sohee was in a miniskirt and sweater, with her hair in messy pigtails. She ran her fingers along one of the desks, tracing out the name on it that was there from her class before. Sohee hesitated a bit, drawing her fingers back and looking at herself in the mirror again. It was times like these when she could remember the time before she knew her current friends.

"Oh my gosh, did you see what Sohee was wearing today?"

"Yeah. She's such a fat loser. Who would want to be friends with her?"

"Sohee's the ugliest person I know."

"I know, right? She's disgusting."

The voices of the populars were inside of her head again. Always ridiculing her and what she wore and who she was. Sohee tried to smile, but ended up letting a few tears slip. She stood there at the desk, the voices and their taunts and insults growing louder and louder in her head.

"What a weirdo!"

"I can't believe she hasn't kissed anyone yet!"

"But she's so ugly, no one would ever kiss her!"

"Haha yeah, she's so stupid!"

Some more tears welled up in Sohee's eyes. She could practically see the three girls talking about her in the girls' bathroom while doing their makeup. Sohee had heard everything of their conversation. Their laughter, especially. It rang in her ears, making the voices louder. Sohee stood looking at herself, crying softly as she did when T.O.P had found her. Except she didn't want any more drama, she didn't want T.O.P to take her in his arms for once because of CL liking him. She didn't want to be set up with Minhyun to any extent whatsoever, it just felt wrong.

To be with T.O.P felt right.

Minhyun...not as much.

Sohee hadn't thought about her fake liking Minhyun until right then, when she realized she had to be truthful to her friends. She wasn't any more interested in being Minhyun's girlfriend than giving up T.O.P, even for CL's sake. It was Sohee's turn to get what she wanted.

 Even though she couldn't help to cry, remembering that it would never happen.

So Sohee kept on crying. People shuffled by in the hallways, not noticing her. They never noticed her. She stopped crying when she thought that everyone was out of the school. Then Sohee sat down in the desk that was marked with her name, and sobbed harder. She didn't want to see her friends and face T.O.P or even Minhyun. She would be reminded of what her final decision was.

And that was to give up. 

Sohee knew she wasn't going to get T.O.P to like her. Minhyun, with his strange behaivor, would probably never talk to any of them again to be friends with the populars. Sohee had done the same to her original friend group, who never really liked her anyway. No one ever really liked her...

That thought made her cry harder. Sohee could feel her life tearing apart at the seams. And no one came to the classroom door.

She had secretly hoped someone would, but no one did. So she packed up her things and, after drying the tears on her shirt, went outside the class.

The only thing she hadn't been aware of was Minhyun, who had caught a glimpse of her crying when he said goodbye to his stepsister and her friends, and decided to stay and watch her cry. He had wanted to step in and comfort her, he really had. But Minhyun knew that she didn't need to see him at the time, and she really wanted to see T.O.P. But T.O.P had been gone for awhile, and he knew that all he could do was provide a good friendship and never stray from the friend group as much as Gyuri wanted him to. Well, getting GD's number certainly didn't want to make him stay in the populars, especially when Hyuna probably didn't know that her boyfriend was gay.

So he decided to stay silent, wishing he had the strength to go in and comfort his friend.

"M-M-Minhyun...?! What the hell are you doing here?!" Sohee almost screamed running in to Minhyun who was right outside the door. "Are you...stalking me or something?!" She pushed right past him, starting to cry again, and ran down the empty hallway.

Minhyun ran right after Sohee, catching up to her easily. He grabbed a hold of her shoulders, turning her around and seeing what a mess she was. "I know you're not okay. And that bothers me." Sohee didn't respond, she just kept on crying silently, trying to keep her eyes off of Minhyun. He lifted her head to make eye contact with her. "I am going to do something very rash right now. ...Sohee, you are beautiful and Gyuri cannot take that away from you. All she is is jealous of how loved you are. You look fine. You are not fat. You aren't weird. You have so many friends. I like you, Sohee. I do. CL and Nicole and Baekhyun all like you. And T.O.P loves you. You don't see how he talks about you. He really cares about you. And I do too."

Sohee was silent for a second, and she started to cry harder. "Why do I have any reason to believe that?" She tried to escape Minhyun's grip, but he wasn't letting her go any time soon. The next second later, Minhyun had leaned in and kissed her, and Sohee was kissing him back. It was a simple kiss on Minhyun's part, only sightly surprising Sohee but definitely making her feel better.

"That's the reason why. Because I'm sure T.O.P would have loved to kiss you like I just did." Sohee's heart froze competely at Minhyun's words, and she leaned in to kiss his cheek one more time.

"And I'm sure Nicole would have wanted to kiss you, too." The two of them hugged tightly, and Sohee started to cry again, but now of happiness and no longer of loneliness. If there was one thing Sohee knew for sure, it was that Minhyun would never leave her side, no matter what stupid, crazy things she decided to do next. And Minhyun felt the exact same way, inspired by his own actions and words to approach Nicole and confess to her. Maybe.

But in that moment, they were focused on each other's happiness. Sohee was completely content with staying hugging Minhyun, and being with him. She didn't want to leave the position she was in, and he didn't want to, either. For the moment, the two were happy. And that was what mattered, that they had at least one person they knew they could rely on. It was then that Sohee could feel Minhyun's tears streaming down his face and going into her hair. She pulled back from the hug, and Minhyun laughed and cried at the same time, trying to spit out some words. She kissed Minhyun again, shutting him up.

It was a little while before Minhyun pulled back, confused. "This means nothing, right? We both like other people. We aren't dating."

"I know." Sohee responded, sighing. As much as she would like to date Minhyun, she knew that she had to wait for T.O.P. But she leaned in again, for the last time, and whispered into Minhyun's ear, "I love you, Minhyun."

He sighed. "You are making this so difficult for me." He paused right before kissing her. "I love you too, Sohee. Now let's just get this over with so we can get back to our lives as friends."

And the two kissed again, knowing that it would probably be their last. Minhyun grabbed Sohee's hand and walked her outside. No one was in the building or even on the school grounds in the cold weather, so they decided to walk home together without speaking, but with so many more things to say. They reached the street where Minhyun had to depart from Sohee, and they held each other's gaze for a good while in silence, both starting to cry without saying a word or breaking the eye contact.

Minhyun started to speak, but Sohee grabbed his other hand, squeezed, and then they slowly let go as they departed.