Kai drove like a maniac, ignoring the speed limits and weaving in and out of passing cars that drove carefully and below the speed limit. Krystal smiled and rested her head against Kai’s back; she’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy the wind whipping against her head and making her hair fly everywhere. Perhaps it was the sense of freedom that the motorbike gave that made the ride so enjoyable.

“Why did you ask me to give you a ride?” Kai asked unexpectedly, interrupting the silence of the ride. Krystal didn’t answer and closed her eyes, relishing the coolness of the air. “You haven’t spoken to me since, well a while and suddenly asking me for a ride is quite unexpected.” Kai mused and the previous silence descended into an awkward atmosphere.

Kai’s words lingered in the air and the words ‘well, a while’ echoed in Krystal’s head. She knew what he meant; she had cruelly ignored him ever since she abruptly broke off their relationship and asking him for a ride was too underserving for her. But to be frank, she didn’t exactly know why Kai gave her a ride; perhaps it was because he was being nice, or maybe because he still had lingering feelings for her.

“We’re here.” Kai said shortly, stopping in front of Krystal’s apartment. Krystal slid off the motorbike, and faced Kai. She flashed him a familiar smile and walked to her apartment building, she turned around; Kai was sitting on his motorbike staring at Krystal. A smirk flickered on her lips and she waved at him before entering the building.

Her smirk disappeared and she sighed deeply in the building

~~

It was barely 30 minutes after school and Sehun didn’t wish to go home so soon, so he rummaged in his pocket for his phone. He tapped his phone and called Luhan.

“Hello?” Luhan answered, the background filled with roars of laughter and shouting. Sehun ignored the sounds and cleared his throat.

“Hi, it’s me Sehun.” Sehun muttered and Luhan delightedly started blabbing about something to Sehun but Sehun didn’t really want to hear it. So he merely muttered several agreements and quickly plunged on before Luhan could interrupt him. “Hey do you want to hang out somewhere? With the others of course” Sehun added.

“Sure” Luhan said excitedly. “In fact, I was going to invite you earlier but I forgot; we’re already at the park playing soccer.” Sehun felt a pang of annoyance at not being included in their little outing; he always hated being excluded which unfortunately was what happened to most of his high school life. 

“I’ll be there.” Sehun said, annoyance clearly heard in his tone but Sehun doubted Luhan picked up considering he was so self-absorbed. He tapped the end button of the phone and walked to his car, feeling a sense of urgency rush through him.
~~

“You clearly cheated! That was foul!” Baekhyun yelled, gesturing wildly towards a grinning Lay who looked innocently at Suho.  Sehun made his way towards them and waved at them; Xiumin caught sight of him and waved back at him. The others looked to where Xiumin was waving and they waved to him too. 

“Hey.” Sehun greeted them, they smiled back. “Can I join in the soccer game?” Sehun asked, and the others shrugged. He took it as a yes.

“I want him on my team!” Lay immediately called out and Sehun shrugged, he didn’t mind. “Hey Sehun come here,” Lay told him and Sehun was confused but went over to Lay. “Hey I heard some rumours but I’m not sure if it was true.” Lay said grinning. “Is it true you’re two timing Krystal and Sulli?” Lay asked.

Sehun froze in shock. What?

“Because I heard you kissed Sulli at Xiumin’s party and then you and Krystal did something today at school.” Lay laughed. “If you did, you’ve won my respect for life man; dating two of the hottest girls in our school, man you are one amazing guy.” Lay grinned.

Sehun stared at the soccer ball in the middle of the field. Should he deny it the lies? Or pretend it was true so his reputation would soar… Sehun didn’t answer as the whistle blew and the soccer ball was kicked by Baekhyun.

Sehun ran towards the ball, his thoughts all jumbled so all he could process was ‘get the ball’, he dodged Luhan and kicked the ball away from Baekhyun. Baekhyun groaned and ran after Sehun, why was he even playing soccer? He hated soccer.
Sehun continued running and kicking the ball fiercely, straight towards the goalie; Kyungsoo but he didn’t see Xiumin catching up and finally, Xiumin slide tackled him and Sehun fell on the floor groaning in pain.

“Yikes! Sorry!” Xiumin yelled, running over to Sehun. Sehun closed his eyes and brought his hands to his face, covering it. Sehun got up, wincing. The whistle blew and Suho ran over, looking anxious.

“That was definitely a foul.” Suho scowled at Xiumin and Xiumin grinned sheepishly towards Sehun but he ignored it. “Sehun you get a free kick.” Suho pointed to Sehun and blew the whistle.

Sehun walked slowly towards the ball and Kyungsoo grudgingly got out of the way for Sehun to kick the ball. He considered for a moment and kicked the ball with immense strength. The ball flew in between the goalposts and his team let out a reasonably loud cheer.

“Hey Lay,” Sehun began and Lay cocked his head. “You know what you said?” Sehun continued. “Well it’s true.”

~~

Sehun walked through the hallways and a lot of male students stared at him in amazement and somewhat admiration. Sehun didn’t even feel surprised one bit and felt a smirk creeping up on his face. He knew they were all talking about him, and admiring him; admiring the fact that Sehun had made such a conquest.

However, the girls were looking at him differently. Some gave him looks of disgust and even hate but some girls gave him a smile surprisingly. Sehun barely supressed his smirk as he swaggered through the hallways.
A group of girls approached him and Sehun realised with shock, they were Sulli and Krystal’s friends but neither of them was among the girls.

“Oh Sehun you pig.” One of the girls said in disgust; it was girl in her class; Suzy. She walked closer to Sehun, her eyes shooting daggers at him. “You complete arse.” Suzy said quietly but there was still a large amount of venom in her words. Sehun blinked, caught off guard. He had been expecting it but somehow it still hurt.

“Wow Suzy leave him alone,” Luhan came over and slung an arm around his shoulder. “Sehun’s pretty cool.” Luhan gave a smirk to Sehun but Sehun didn’t return it. He was suddenly seized by guilt and wondered how his foolish actions would burden both Krystal and Sulli. Sehun bowed down his head and turned away from Suzy, his previous arrogant manner disappearing.

He attempted to ignore the looks of disgust that most girls gave him while he walked to his locker, and he was hit by a sense of déjà vu.  Wasn’t this situation similar to his past experience when he was still getting bullied? Except maybe this time he deserved it. Sehun opened his locker and shoved his books in it.

The bell rang and Sehun hurried to class, hoping that class would distract him from his dangerous thoughts. He arrived at his seat and glanced around instinctively for Krystal but once everyone else arrived including Suzy, Sehun accepted Krystal wasn’t here. He frowned, was Krystal avoiding him on purpose?

“Wow that guy,” Someone muttered behind him but Sehun heard it clearly. “Krystal must be easy if she’d date that guy, so you think she’ll date me too? She must be a massive .” A series of snickers were heard behind him and Sehun felt his temper flare. He slammed his palms on his table and rose out of his chair swiftly, upsetting the chair behind him but he didn’t care.

“Krystal would never date someone like you!” Sehun spat angrily, turning around to face his classmates. His fist was clenched tightly. “And she is not easy or a !” Sehun yelled at the smirking students.

“Oh yeah?” The person who said those insults smirked. “Then why’d she date you?” He said with a cocky smirk. If Sehun wasn’t so angry, he’d probably see the truth behind those words but instead he settled for the alternative; he slammed his fist into his cocky face.
~~

Sehun walked up to the rooftop, his face bruised from the fighting and his shoulders hunched in a miserable state. The fight had barely lasted a few minutes due to the teacher intervening before the fight got serious but nonetheless, Sehun had suffered a bruise jaw and eye.
Sehun pushed the door open and the wind blew into his face, temporarily relieving his pain for a few seconds. Sehun closed his eyes, relishing the wind and when he opened his eyes, he found Krystal sitting on the edge of the rooftop. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised; Krystal had told him that she always went there whenever she felt stressed.

Sehun made his way and sat down on the edge with her. Krystal tensed and glanced at him but relaxed when she realised it was only Sehun.  

“Are you going to jump?” The question came out of Sehun’s mouth and somehow it sounded immature and childish. Krystal didn’t answer for a few minutes and Sehun glumly thought she was ignoring him for his stupidness.

“Every day,” Krystal began abruptly. “I come here and sit here. I always ask myself, am I going to jump? And I spend hours literally wondering what would happen if I jumped, and wherever I should jump. But in the end, I don’t. So I guess that answers your question.”

Sehun stared at Krystal. The sun’s dying rays was caught in her hair and for a second, he lost his breath as he was captivated by her beauty. “Are you angry at me? Are you angry at the fact I said I two timed you and Sulli so I could be more popular?” Sehun blurted out without thinking. Krystal sighed.

“You know Sehun, the reason why I chose to date you was because I thought you were different, I thought you weren’t like the rest of them.” Krystal said tonelessly and Sehun looked away, shamefaced. “I thought you weren’t a self-absorbed jerk who was obsessed with popularity and shallow things.”

As harsh as Krystal’s words were, he knew she was right. He had become like the rest of them in a matter of weeks? He had become a mirror of those who had hated before. “I’m still who I’m underneath.” Sehun said suddenly.  “I know, I’m a shallow jerk but underneath I’m still who I was.” Realising he sounded confusing he continued. “When you and I dated, I basically threw anyway everything I had so I could fit in. I lied I liked soccer, I lied I watch football, I lied about my identity and I basically gave my identity to them, but there’s one thing I haven’t given to them; the real me, the real me who loathes soccer and football.”

“I don’t understand.” Krystal interjected. “Your identity and the real you are the same thing. You’ve betrayed yourself to them.” Krystal’s cutting words made Sehun wince.

“No.” Sehun replied. “But the important thing is; I have no feelings for Sulli and I have not cheated on you with her because she kissed me. I didn’t kiss her.” Sehun hurried on before Krystal would say anything. “But I don’t really see why you’re mad..” Sehun mumbled. “You don’t even like me.” His shoulders sunk in despair.

“Do you like me?” Krystal asked bluntly and once again, Sehun was surprised by her straightforward manner. Sehun considered this question for a second.

“I think this would answer the question.” Sehun replied before leaning in and kissing her.

~~