It was only 5pm, yet the sky was already dark and all the city lights were beaming.  A young student was walking down the streets of Seoul with her hands gripping tightly on all of her shopping bags, as the cold air brushed past her and made her short black hair flutter.

Her phone rang abruptly and she stopped by a bench, putting her bags down and answering the call. “Hello.”

“Lee. Ji. Eun. I’m with Sanghyun oppa.” Her best friend’s voice sounded through the receiver, “What are you doing?”

“I’m on my way home.” She replied, looking at her bags, “I was shopping for the Christmas Ball.”

“Ehhh! Already? That’s still a week from now!” Her friend whined.

“It’s ONLY a week from now.” She responded, “I still have to set up and finalize the plan.”

“You free tomorrow?”

“I have to finish buying the supplies with Taemin and start working on the decorations.”

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The curtains suddenly opened and light flared on his eyes as a groan escaped his throat. Based on how sore he was and how bright the sun outside was, he inferred that it was already around noon.

“Dongho! What the- I told you to clean your room!”

“Hyung… Calm down. I’ll clean it later…” Dongho, a young deep red haired boy, said lying lazily on his bed.

“How can you sleep in this room? It smells so bad!” A larger man scolded with his hand over his forehead. “Why do I have to babysit you?!”

“Soohyun hyung, its cause my parents love you.” He replied with a cute face. “Let’s just let it slide, I won’t die because of a dirty room! Right hyung? Right? Right?”

Soohyun sighed and put his hand down. “Dongho, clean your room. I’ll help you. If you clean it well, we can go to the mall.”

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“Unnie you’re late!” Jieun said to her best friend before scolding Sanghyun, “Oppa! It’s already 1! Poor Taemin’s probably been waiting for us the whole time!”

Sanghyun bit his lip, and pointed to her best friend “It’s because Miss Sohee here decided to wake up late.”

“UNNIE! Really?” Jieun yelled.

“Ok I get it! I’m sorry! Don’t gang up on me!” Her best friend, Sohee, growled.

“We’re not ganging up on you!” Sanghyun squeezed Sohee’s puffy cheeks. “Anyways, we need to get a move on or poor little Taemin will get sad.”

••••♦♦♥♥♥♦♦••••

By the time they had reached the mall, it was already 1:30pm. A boy with wavy brown hair sat on a bench by the entrance, looking at his phone. Jieun told Sanghyun and Sohee to wait at the corner while she ran up to the boy. Once she was in front of him, his head shot up at her and a smile flashed.

“I thought you were going to ditch me…” He spoke while she was trying to catch her breath, “but I knew Jieun noona wouldn’t do such a thing without warning.”

“I’m so sorry Taeminnie! And I know it’s really bad that I’m late and going to ask you but…” Jieun said pointing behind her, “Can they come too?”

Taemin looked over shoulders to find Sanghyun and Sohee looking at him with smiles. His mouth opened and a forced smile came out. Sanghyun caught it and whispered to Sohee, “He likes her.”

Taemin looked at Jieun, who was unaware of Taemin’s dislike of the situation, and replied to her coolly “Noona of course they can. If you want them then we can have them with us. Why bother asking me? You know I’ll say yes to anything you ask.”

Jieun smiled at him and called her friends over. “So where should we go first?”

“We need to go to the advertising place to print the flyers out, and then we need to go check on the order for the food.”

“Let’s go eat first~♫” Sanghyun sang, prancing up to them, arm in arm with Sohee.

Jieun laughed at them, “People are going to confuse you for a couple if you do that.”

Sanghyun let go of Sohee’s arm and blushed, while Sohee smiled and replied, “That would never happen.”

Dongho and Soohyun were sitting at a table in a food court.

“Dongho you’re room was gross.” Soohyun whined, “What’s with all the food on the floor! Disgusting! I would die if I stayed there for a night.”

Dongho glared at him, “It’s not that dirty.”

Soohyun sighed and scanned the area around them then  stopped when he spotted a small group of kids, “Hey Dongho, aren’t they your classmates?”

Dongho turned to see what Soohyun was looking at, “Really? I only know Taemin from them…”

“You don’t know the others?”

“No idea.”

“You’re stupid.”

“It’s not my fault! Do you expect me to know everyone from school?”

“Call them over. I wanna meet them.”

Dongho moaned, not wanting to call them over, but Soohyun hit him and gave him a glower, so he turned and called them over.

The group turned and walked towards Dongho, sitting on the seats next to him.

“Hey Dongho, Hey hyung.” Taemin smiled at them brightly.

Soohyun smiled at him, “Hey Taemin. Why don’t you introduce you’re friends.”

“Oh. Ok. This is Jieun noona, Sohee noona, and Sanghyun hyung.” He replied, motioning towards the small group next to him.

Soohyun smiled and nodded in acknowledgement at them, “I’m Soohyun, this is Dongho.”

They chatted and ate their food, but Dongho’s eyes were glued on Jieun and Taemin noticed, “Stop staring at Noona, is it the first time you’ve seen her?”

Dongho turned to Taemin surprised, “Yes it is. Am I supposed to know her or something?

“I would think so, since she’s the student council president, one of the smartest students in our school, the head of the music club, and the manager of OUR basketball team!”

Dongho sat up straighter and tilted his head in confusion, “We have a basketball manager?”

Taemin sighed and shook his head. He noticed Jieun staring at them with huge eyes surprised by their argument about why Dongho should know her. “Noona, just ignore him. He lives his life oblivious of his surroundings.”

Jieun let out a small laugh before she looked at her watch and realized it was already 3pm. “Soohyun oppa, Dongho, it was nice meeting you, but it’s already 3 and we have to go. See you at school tomorrow.”

Dongho watched them walk away and mumbled, “She’s not that special.”

Swiftly, Jieun turned around and smiled at him, waving goodbye.

Dongho’s eyes widened before his hands fell to his hands as he started to think, “That was weird. She’s weird… Aish. That’s so weird…”

“She’s so cute.” Soohyun said, shaking Dongho out of his thought.

“Mmm..” Dongho replied nodding his head slightly.

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