|Chapter Seven|

Jong-in found him hunching over the little pond, throwing rocks into the rippled waters, heavily disturbing the innocent koi fish that reside in the body of water. He found him pouting to himself, on his lonesome, out in the open courtyard. And despite that more people have begun to arrive, and were beginning to give him surreal and bewildered stares, he didn't care. He found himself feeling utterly humiliated in front of Mone, in front of his hyungs, and in front of his dongsaengs. He didn't expect that the pain in his back would become so insufferable that he would collapse like that.
To him, it felt as if he snapped a nerve, which forced him to the ground; like he couldn't fight it. At first, he planned on keeping his injury a secret, but somehow, Mone caught him red-handed, and flat out during one of their sessions. After that, he figured it was just her, not like it mattered -- she was a nobody, who would she tell?
But then he collapsed, and was forced to endure the pain, and the embarassment of having to be tendered to and taken care of by Mone, and in front of his kingka peers.

He didn't know why, but to be caught in a situation like that was too humiliating and condescending to tolerate.

"Yah."

He flinched at the sickly familiar voice. He figured they sent out Chanyeol to go look for him, since he was the only one out of all twelve of his EXO members to always know where he is. "Don't you think you should at least thank that girl for helping you out? If it weren't for that big- brain of hers, you could be aimlessly spending unnecessary hospital fees right now," Chanyeol chided. His deep voice resounded into Jong-in's numb ears. "Just because she's not in our department.. don't treat her as if she's some kind of alien."

"Araseo," Jong-in sighed.

"If you know, then go do something about it, because she genuinely thinks she was the one who's wronged you!" Chanyeol scolded in a deep scowl. He lifted Jong-in from his position, hands tight on Jong-in's firm bicep. "You go find her, because she stormed out of that studio, looking for you, looking to apologize for something she didn't do wrong. You find her and you apologize to her, araseo?"
Jong-in casted a dark look upon his brunette hyung, nodding understandingly. "Araseo."
"And don't forget to thank her, Kai."

"...Araseo." Jong-in let out an exhausted breath, searching the campus grounds up and down, left and right in hopes of easily spotting her. But that wasn't going to happen. This campus map was a labryinth. "Aish, this girl," he muttered, searching all the classrooms and hallways. He blinked around aimlessly, a lazy step in his long gait. "Where is she?"

Jong-in scratched his head, looking around. He was in the east wing by now, and still not signs of the genius.

"Yah, to walk out like that without even saying thanks? Do you know how that makes a girl feel?"

Found her.

Mone approached Jong-in coldly, eyeing him with expectant eyes. "I wanted to-"
"Andwae," Jong-in cut in rudely. "Mianhe," he told her. "I shouldn't have walked out like that."
"Then why did you?" she demanded.

Jong-in clicked his tongue. "Yah-"
"This is how you're going to treat me?" Mone scoffed. "Not only did I tend to your careless wounds, but I'm also helping you raise your grade on a daily basis, and you storm out on me? Now you're scolding me, too? Aish, jincha," she sneered.
Jong-in mirrored her scowl, running an agitated hand through his dark black fluffs of hair. Suddenly, he forgot he was supposed to be sincere with her.  "You're impossible you know that?"
"I'm impossible?" Mone gasped. "At least you apologized. But if it weren't for Chanyeol-oppa, you probably wouldn't have," she jeered, brushing past him.

Jong-in gripped her hand, before she could walk off, and before he even knew it, he had her facing him, eyes stern. Jong-in couldn't process his movement thoroughly enough to comprehend why he chose to stop her. But now that he had, he was utterly speechless. "Mone-ah-"
"What," she barked. "I have to be formal with you, but you can drop your honorifics with me?"

She huffed, "Fantastic." She yanked her hand out of his tight grasp, throwing his wrist down back to his side. "I'll see you after school today."
"Mone-"
"Later, Kai-shii."

During lunch period, Jong-in couldn't help but flinch with every step he took. Whatever Mone put on his back, it was wearing off, much to his misfortune; he didn't like that he didn't know what she used on him. He didn't like that he didn't know how to care for himself or for his own injuries; he hated that he now knew he was going to have to depend on Mone for these kinds of things. But if he was going to be frank with himself, it wasn't like she was completely intolerable. Her company was nice, since she didn't fawn or gawk over him like most of his fan girls -- like most of the female population at SEPI.

He was walking past B2ST's usual table, when he caught sight of Kikwang. He smirked to himself, figuring that this was the guy he caught Mone staring at just days ago. He took a seat right behind their table at his usual seat. The realization dawned on him that Jong-in was at the one spot that could easily overhear other's conversations, whether it was B2ST's usual gossip behind him, SNSD's typical fangirling to his left, or MBLAQ's ordinary brawls to his right.

Suddenly figuring this, hearing Mone's name escape Kikwang's lips, the young boy's ears perked up immediately. He fought his instincts to turn around and inquire the sudden topic change -- they were just talking about Yoona and Seohyun from the table over just moments ago, he recalled.

He ignored Chanyeol's expecting glare, and Lu Han's friendly greeting. He disregarded Baekhyun's wave and paid no mind to Xiumin's acknowledging nod. Jong-in was solely intent on finding out why the kingka group behind him suddenly began to mention Kang Mone.

"She's cute," he heard Doojoon remark wittily. "But is she your type?"
Kikwang laughed. "Hyung -- I haven't had a toy to play with since my last break-up with Sulli. That was a pretty committed relationship, too," KIkwang sighed. "I should at least get used to fooling around again before seriously putting myself back into the game!"
The entire table flooded with mock laughter and teasing whoops.
Jong-in felt himself grip his utensils tightly, feeling his knuckles whitening. SuHo's voice tried to break him from his intent trance. "Yo, Kai? You alright, man?"

He continued to listen on, shrugging off his hyung.

"Kang Mone may be cute, but she's also a nerd.. do you really think she's going to be stupid enough to fall for your lure?" It was their maknae Dongwoon this time.
Jong-in could already hear the smirk in Yoseob's voice. "Please," the blonde retorted. "Kikwang-ah's got all the moves. Whether it's a nerd, a police-woman, or even a toddler, he can win the girl over."
Jong-in clenched his jaw tight, to refrain himself from flipping over the table. Were they seriously having this kind of conversation?

Kikwang's scoff caught Jong-in's attention finally. "I'm getting rusty at this. Kang Mone's just the perfect practice toy. She does.. have the hots for me anyways."
"Oh, does she?" Junhyung suddenly seemed to be engrossed in the mindless conversation.
"Please," Kikwang snorted. "Does she seriously think I don't notice the way she stares at me? If she wasn't so attractive, I would've thought she was kinda creepy."
"So it's Mone for sure?" Hyungseung inquired.

"I'm gonna set up a date with her tonight and just not show. If tomorrow, she's upset, I'm going to assume my charms worked and that she actually bothered going. Then, we'll know for sure that I've still got my charismatic charm tricks," Kikwang chuckled.

"And you're definitely sure?" Hyunseung repeated.

Jong-in figured Kikwang nodded, since the topic was dropped, and their conversation was steered into a different direction. "Whoa, Kai.. you're looking pale, what's up?"
Jong-in simply shook his head, pushing his tray away from him. "I lost my appetite."
"Is your back alright?"

The young dancer simply ignored Chen's inquiry and stared ahead of him, at the hardwood furniture, gritting his teeth angrily. Should I tell her?

I owe her one, don't I? Jong-in contemplated it. He decided, finally, that she's going to tell him about it anyways, so that's when he'll let her in on their sick prank. She's got to believe him... right? She had to, he tried to convince himself. She had to believe him. Who am I to care anyways? he thought curiously to himself.

Who am I to care?

Mone was in the library at a lonesome table, typing furiously away on her laptop, working on her term paper. There was 45 minutes left of the lunch hour, and she was sure she could at least just finish up her main argument. The library was nearly empty, except for some of her peers from the academic department scattered across the tables, all minding their own studying business. It was fairly quiet, until the entrace doors to the library sounded, slamming against the hinges loudly. That was when numerous whispers broke out amongst the students that were gathered within the bookshelves. Curious as to see why her silence was suddenly disturbed, Mone looked up to the front door only to have her breath hitch in .

The black-haired male stood there, looking around cluelessly, like he was looking for someone. And when her eyes met his, he suddenly broke out into an amiable grin, jogging over to her table; the whispers didn't die down, but were incensed instead. Kikwang his plump lips, setting himself beside her conspiciously. "Mone-shii.. Kang Mone-shii?"
Mone nodded slowly, trying to restrain herself from openly fangirling right there and then. Kikwang's eyes twinkled mischieviously, sending a jolt of nervousness through her system. Her hands lay frozen on her keyboard, and she couldn't find the voice to speak.

"O-oh.. Kikwang-goon-"
"Oppa is fine," he interjected with a wide beam.
"D-de?"

Kikwang's beam fell into a cocky smirk, something that Mone found extremely attractive. It must've been his symmetrical face that caught her eye; she didn't know, but to Mone, Kikwang was just hot.

"You can just call me oppa," he told her.

Mone nodded, feeling extremely flustered. Figuring he wasn't going to say anything else, she lifted her hands from her laptop, and rested them gently in her lap, playing with the hem of her skirt nervously. "Oppa.." she tested slightly, feeling the title smoothly off her tongue as if she was destined to call ihm that, "Can I help you?"
Kikwang was now bashfully smiling, scratching the top of his head. "Well.. you see.. is-is it true that Kai's grades have really improved?"
Mone nodded silently, urging Kikwang to keep talking. His voice wasn't too low, but it wasn't too high -- it was in that perfect range that got Mone's blood to stir every time he opened his mouth. "Well, you see," he mumbled quietly, "my chemistry grade isn't looking too good.. and uh..yeah."
"Are you.. asking me to help you with that? Like.. to tutor you?" Mone's eyebrows flew up to her hairline with astonishment.

"Well, only if you're not too busy," Kikwang demurred lightly. He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, shooting his attention elsewhere, to avoid Mone's penetrating gaze. Mone stared at him incredulously, chewing her bottom lip unsure of how to reply. Was this going to get her closer to him? Could this possibly be the start of something?

"S-sure," she replied, not even knowing what was coming out of herself. Kikwang grins at this, a bit too cheerfully in her opinion and thanks her excitedly.. but then his expression sort of fell, striking a worrisome atmosphere.
"However," he began,"I can't really study peacefully at school, with all the fangirls, and whatnot," he timidly explained, chewing the inside of his cheek. "Could we maybe... meet somewhere else? A local cafe? I really like this place, Boba Time, if you've heard of it."

Mone thoughtfully blinks before nodded. "Mm, I've heard of it."
"So can we meet there?"
Mone nods shortly, still feeling that fire in her heart dancing inside of her. She had to do whatever it is she could to refrain herself from breaking out into a congratulatory dance number for herself.
Kikwang shoots her that grin of his that made her knees wobbly, a devious glint shining in his pupils. "Can we meet today? I actually have practice today, so.. maybe we could meet at the cafe around 6 PM tonight?"

Mone nods in agreement, unable to comprehend any words to reply.

Kikwang smirked softly, "It's a date then!"

And he was out of the library faster than the roadrunner could catch up to him. Mone scratched her head, blinking curiously at her laptop screen as if it would provide her with some kind of prophecy for her to follow.

Date?!