"You have class with him next, don't you?" Xiumin asked. 
 

"Yup, I have Chemistry with him."

"Hell yeah, you do," Lay cheesily budded in. 

"I'm going to try really hard to forget that really lame comment you made," Kris said, scowling in distaste. 

I really wished that the guys didn't tell me that they were so sure that Baekhyun liked me; especially since he was in my next two classes and I just happened to sit next to him in both of them. Fortunately when I got to my seat he only smiled at me so I didn't have to worry about having a conversation with him.
 

"I know it's only the second day of school, but we'll be jumping into our very first lab today," Mr. Cho said. "It shouldn't be too hard for you all. I've placed a compound of chemicals at each lab station and all you have to do is run some tests and identify what's in your compound. You and your lab partner have till the end of the week to turn this in. Remember our safety rules and good luck," he said, sitting down behind his desk. 
 

I glanced down at the test tube filled with a clear liquid. The assignment didn't seem too hard at all. The hard part really was trying not to act awkward around some who supposedly liked me. As I was about to start testing the compound, safety goggles were placed over my eyes.
 

"Safety first," Baekhyun said with a cheeky smile on his face. "Wouldn't want your eyes to dissipate out of your pretty little face, now would we?" He was flirting with me. The ever so popular city boy was flirting with me. Maybe the guys' suspicions were right. But it was okay; a girl could easily get used to this. 
 

I playfully rolled my eyes and proceeded with the lab. "I work kind of fast. Hope you can keep up with me Mr. Safety." 
 

He chuckled. "I like going fast." His straightforward tone made his comment seem like a ual innuendo or maybe I just had my mind focused on the wrong things. I decided to leave the conversation off then and there in case I accidentally slipped something out and made things more awkward than they needed to be. 
 

Things seemed to be going fine and we were able to get a lot of work done. That was until Baekhyun did something stupid. 
 

"Oh my god," I heard Baekhyun say in panic as I wrote down a few of the components we had found in our test tube. "Um, I think we should call the teacher over."
 

"What are you talking about? We're doing fine," I said, lifting my eyes from the paper only to see Baekhyun nervously staring down at his chemical soaked shirt. "Uh, I think you should probably take your shirt off," I said a little too blatantly. 
 

He looked up from his shirt and stared at me with bewilderment written on his face. "Aren't we moving a little too fast?" he asked as one side of his lip curved up into a side smirk. 
 

I felt heat rise to my face and my heart beat pick up rapidly, but I somehow managed to squeeze out a witty reply. "I thought you liked going fast."
 

"Now's really not the time you two," Mr. Cho said from behind me as more heat rose to my face. I probably looked like a tomato. "But yes, she's right. You should probably take your shirt off if you don't want your skin to fry off." Baekhyun's eyes widened and he didn't hesitate quickly removing his shirt. I noticed a fairly large scar running down the middle of his chest. I never remembered hearing him get into any accidents, but then again I've never really heard much anything about him. I tried not to linger my eyes on his bare torso for too long, but my hormones got the best of me. But the whole class was staring, so why couldn't I? "You're lucky I didn't put any strong acids or corrosives in any of the solutions."
 

"So my skin won't burn off?" Baekhyun hopefully asked as the bell rung. The rest of the class filed out of the room as I took it upon myself to stay with him since he was in my next class anyways. 
 

"No, it still will; just a little slower," Mr. Cho said, handing him a damp towel. "Wipe the area thoroughly and you should be alright. Here's a spare shirt. Please be careful next time," he said walking back to his desk. 
 

"You're an idiot," I said as Baekhyun placed the new shirt over his head. 
 

"Only sometimes," he said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. "Thanks for waiting though," he said as we walked out the door. It felt a little surreal walking to my next class with Baekhyun. So many people waved and nodded at him as I quietly walked beside him and I could overhear people wondering out loud who I was to him. 
 

"Are you normally so clumsy?" I asked trying to distract myself from the stares I was receiving. 
 

"Not really. I think it's just because we have chemistry together." Did I here that correctly? He thinks we have chemistry? I could practically hear Lay's lame 'Hell yeah' echoing in my mind. It was obvious we had the class, Chemistry, together, so why else would he have said that? Before I could really respond, one of his friends came up to him as we walked into class asking about the whole chemical incident.
 

* * *
 

"Okay, you guys were right," I blurted out as soon as I met them at the front of the school. 
 

"Aren't we always?" Chen pompously said. 

"Don't make me prove that statement wrong." Although they were my best friends, their presumptions were usually wrong and their advice wasn't always the best. "Let's not remember the time when you ruined a potential relationship because you guys told me to act stupid and raise the hem of my skirt up." 

In 9th grade I had the biggest crush on this guy in the 10th grade. He sat next to me in my science class and to try and get him to notice me the guys suggested that I change my image and pretend to be a brainless bimbo. I showed up to school one day with my skirt raised a few inches and red lipstick on only to be sent straight to the dean's office for inappropriate alteration to the school uniform. And it just so happened that the boy who I was crushing on ended up falling for a straight "A" student that spent most of her time in the library.

"Uh, no need to reminisce on all the times we were wrong. Because I'm sure there were a lot," Kris said rubbing the back of his neck. 

"Anyways, in 6th period, I heard Baekhyun spilled some chemical on himself and had to take off his shirt during class," Luhan piped in. 

"Geez, you two are so intimate after just a day," Xiumin added. 

I rolled my eyes and lightly punched him in the arm. "We are nowhere near intimate with each other. Although I don't want to bring back Lay's stupid, cliché joke-"

"Hey!" Lay interrupted. 

I sighed at him before continuing, "He was totally flirting with me and he said that we had chemistry together." 

"What exactly is the problem with that?" Tao asked. 

"I-I don't know..." I pondered the thought for a bit. "Isn't it a bit strange that a guy like him would like me?" 

"Just because you've never had a boyfriend and you're not like other girls at school doesn't mean that you should rule yourself out so easily. Besides, Baekhyun's never really dated anyone from our knowledge, so it's not like we can exactly pinpoint the kinds of girls he likes," Luhan said. 

"Or if he even likes girls at all," Chen callowly added. 

"Don't cower away from him just because he may seem intimidating. It's obvious that the two of you are interested in each other, so just see how things go," Kris said with a supportive pat on the shoulder. 

* * *
 

A knock on my door woke me up from my nap. I squinted at the door to see it cracked open with someone's head peeking through. It looked like a guy's head so it definitely wasn't my grandmother. I assumed it was just one of the guys just stopping by to bug me. 
 

"Go away. You know not to interrupt my nap time," I croaked flipping over onto my stomach and sinking my face into my pillow. 
 

"Oh sorry, I didn't know you were sleeping." My eyes widened when I heard Baekhyun's voice. What was he doing here? 
 

"Why are you here?" I asked, hastily sitting up and rubbing my eyes. 
 

"I was walking to the bus stop from Kyungsoo's house and I almost walked right past yours, but I decided to be spontaneous," he said, stepping into my room.
 

"Spontaneous?" 
 

"I'm taking you on a date." I raised my eyebrows in suspicion and tried to keep my cool, but the butterflies inside of me fluttered much faster than I was able to handle. 
 

"Where?" 
 

"I don't know. I told you I'm being spontaneous. I already asked your grandma for permission. Now come on," he said reaching down and grabbing my hand. I stared down at our interlaced hands as he dragged me out of my house. Before completely leaving, I broke out of my daze. 
 

"Wait, I just woke up. I probably look horrible!"
 

With his hand on the doorknob, he turned to face me. "You look beautiful." I felt my cheeks burn red and smiled bashfully. His compliment immediately shut me up. It wasn't often that I received compliments from someone that wasn't a drunken old man.
 

Speaking of the guys, they all just happened to be sitting out on Xiumin's porch when we were walking by. It was one thing to be walking around with Baekhyun, but he was dragging me by the hand. All of them stared at us with an overly pleased look on their faces as I ducked my head down, trying to hide the rising blush on my face. 
 

"You're not embarrassed of me, are you?" Baekhyun asked after a few silent minutes of walking.
 

I lifted my head up and realized that he had taken me to the park just across the street from the school. "A park? Isn't this a bit cliché?" 
 

"So you are embarrassed to be with me?" he asked removing his hand from my own. A cold breeze replaced the warm feeling his hand offered and I couldn't help but long for his touch again. 
 

"What? No- I- Of course not," I reassured. 
 

"Then why did you hide your face from your friends earlier?" he asked with an upset look appearing on his face.
 

Wanting to quickly relieve the situation, I spoke without thinking. "It's just that they always tease me about having a crush on you..." 
 

A smug smirk appeared on his face and I instantly regretted my decision to open my mouth. "Do you?" 
 

"W-what?" I nervously asked even though I knew what exactly he meant. 
 

"Do you have a crush on me?" He asked taking a step closer, shortening the gap between us. I opened my mouth to respond, but I didn't exactly know how to. He stood across from me and waited patiently for a response, but it never came. He muttered a "Hm" before slipping his hand back into mine and pulling me away. Although I wasn't pleased with how I handled the whole situation, it felt good to have his hand in mine again. Something in the back of mind was warning me that I was getting too attached too soon, but all of this was so new to me that I didn't really care. 
 

We aimlessly wandered around for a bit before Baekhyun stopped at a bench. We both sat down as he pulled his hand away from mine and the empty, longing feeling returned. 
 

"Yes, this is very much cliché," he said, breaking the silence and folding his hands neatly in his lap. 
 

"Do you always answer questions later than they are asked?" I asked as I studied the profile of his face. His strong jaw line notably contrasted his soft features. Although there was a small smile on his lips, his eyes said otherwise. There was a tinge of sadness and what almost seemed like anxiety. Before I could look further into it, he turned his head and met eyes with me. 
 

"Are you enjoying the view?" I quickly shifted my eyes away and stared straight ahead at the few people lingering around the park as if to discount the fact that I was staring at him. I felt his eyes linger on myself for a while until he slowly returned his vision ahead of him. "Do you like people watching?" 
 

"I do more than just people watch," I said placing my eye on a girl jogging by. 
 

"What do you mean by that?" 

"It's kind of a habit of mine to read people... You see that girl jogging?" I saw him nod in the corner of my eye. "Do you notice how she's not listening to music? And how her shorts are awfully short? And how her hair is in a high ponytail?" He nodded once again. "She used to be extremely overweight and insecure a few years ago. She used to be bullied for her weight when she was in school. She failed all of her classes and didn't graduate so to prove that she could do something with herself, she took to losing weight. Now that she's finally done it, I've noticed that she has picked up a few quirks. She doesn't listen to music because she likes hearing remarks made about her as she runs around town. She shows off her legs for obvious reasons and her high ponytail is because the way it swings around while she runs makes her feel feminine." 

I looked away from the girl and back to Baekhyun. He kept his eyes on the girl but his mouth fell slightly open. "How can you just infer all of those things by looking at her?" 

"Practice. And I do have quite an extensive knowledge of everyone here. It's really simple actually."

"How is any of that simple? Do someone else!" he pleaded with eager eyes. 

I sighed and shifted my eyes around looking for my next target. "There," I said pointing to a boy walking his dog. "That's your friend isn't it?" 

"Yes, that's Kai." 

"His undone hair doesn't necessarily suggest laziness, but instead, simple-mindedness. This can also be proven by his choice of plain jeans and a t-shirt. His hand in his pocket suggests that he is carefree, but the way the dog leash is wrapped around his hands tightly proves otherwise. And judging by the agility and preciseness of his steps I think he might be a dancer, but that's just a guess." 

I turned back to Baekhyun to see him with a dumbfounded look on his face. "You nailed him right on the head. How did you even know that he dances just by the way he walks? He's never told anyone outside of his friends that he dances..." I shrugged my shoulders and watched as he turned something over in his mind. "Do you ever think that people don't want to be read? There are reasons people keep things to themselves, you know."

"Yes, of course, but there are people out there that I can't seem to get a read on at all..." I said, undoubtedly referring to him. 

"Can you get a read on me?" he asked as he turned his body to face me, propping his arm onto the backrest of the bench and leaning onto his hand. I looked at him with somber eyes before shaking my head no. "Why not?"
 

"I have knowledge of everyone here. I don't really know anything about you to be quite honest."
 

"Does it scare you?" 
 

"You don't really strike me as someone that could possibly harm me, but then again I wouldn't really know because you seem to be able to hide your feelings well. But I guess I can infer that something traumatic had to have happened to you for you to be this way, right?" 
 

He suddenly stood up and said, "I have to go." before scurrying off into the distance. I would have chased after him, but it was obvious he didn't want to be followed. I had said something that bothered him. Could I have possibly hit the nail on the head of himself? What was he so afraid of?

"I would be careful around him if I were you," a voice said behind me causing me to jump. I looked behind me and saw Kai sitting on the bench with his dog lying on the floor beside him. 

"What are you talking about?" I asked, turning to face him. 

"He'll get you to be really close to him, but just know that the feelings will never be returned."