After some time had passed, Changhyun, Jonghyun and I went to the cafeteria for lunch. I decided to be brave and try some new things, so my tray was pretty full. The boys were messing around, bumped into me, and made me drop my water bottle. 

“You always seem to be dropping things, don’t you?” a voice behind me said. 

As I looked up, I could feel the heat of all my blood rushing to my face. It’s the boy from the airport. He remembers me. He remembers me dropping my pads… I didn’t even notice Chanhee standing beside him. 

Chanhee pouted and said, “I don’t get it. Byunghyun is blonde, and handsome, but you don’t ignore him.” Immediately, I switched from being embarrassed to annoyed. 

I faked a smile and said, “The difference is: he’s not a conceited idiot who thinks he can swoon any girl off of her feet. If you’ll excuse me, I need to eat. Bye-bye.”

Daniel came up behind me and said, “Hey, wait up!”

I snapped, “I told you leave me alo–Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought you were someone else.”

“It’s okay,” he said as he patted my arm.  

“So, this isn’t considered ual, is it?” I asked just for clarification.

Jonghyun smirked and mumbled, “It could be.”

“Anyway!” Daniel yelled to save himself from further embarrassment. “I’m sitting over there. After you!”

“After you,” Changhyun mocked. “Wait! She doesn’t want to sit with all those girls who don’t even like her.”

“Most of them aren’t here today,” Daniel said. “They all slept over at someone’s house and got sick. Yuji is the only one who showed up, and I doubt there’d be any problems with her.”

“I hope not,” he said wrinkling his eyebrows. 

Yuji was very nice, and the three of us actually had a nice casual conversation. She told me that she and Daniel were both second years. At some point during our conversation, Daniel noticed me, from across the table, struggling at picking up rice with my chopsticks.

“Do you want a fork?” he asked. 

“No, it’s alright. I’m fine,” I said. 

“Oh, you probably just didn’t see them. I’ll get you one.” He got up before I could stop him. 

“You know he likes you right?” Yuji stated right out of thin air.

“What?!” I said almost choking on my drink and made her giggle. 

“Daniel is very shy and doesn’t usually make friends outside of his little circle.”

“But, he hangs out with all of you guys. That’s more than I have.” 

“Only Sunmi and I are technically his friends. Well… He and I were pretty close a couple years ago. Soon, I met Sunmi and we all became friends.  Then, she started getting a little popularity when she dated this guy named Chanhee for only like a week. She also made some younger friends who treat her like a queen, so she bosses them around. When she tries to boss me or Daniel, I have to put her back into her place. Even for him sometimes because he’s too nice to do anything about it. I guess over the years he put himself into a shell because he didn’t know who to trust. I really don’t blame him. But, yeah, he seems pretty persistent to be around you, though. And he always wants to do so much for you.”

“But, isn’t he just being nice? I mean maybe he’s just learning to open up..?”

“Sure. But, he’s nicer to you than he ever has been for anyone else.”

Suddenly, Daniel came and sat next to me and said, “They didn’t have forks out today. So, I went and asked the lunch lady if she had any behind the counter. She said no and told me to ask the next lady. Luckily she had some, but they were still wrapped up inside a box. Sorry for taking up so much of your time, but here is your fork.”

I saw ignored Yuji’s smile, sighed, and said, “You really didn’t have to do all of this for me.” I noticed that Daniel’s food was awkwardly sitting on the other side of the table, which meant he changed seats to sit next to me. “Now you barely have any time to eat,” I said as I slid his food over to him. 

“I’m not really that hungry, but okay. I’ll eat because you told me to.” That lie made Yuji start raising her eyebrows repetitively at me, completely unnoticed by Daniel.

When lunch was over, they both walked me back to class. Daniel lingered awkwardly, so I wondered if he wanted another hug. I didn’t say anything. I just looked at him, waiting for him to say something. I got the impression that he was doing the same. From behind, Yuji put her hands in front of her face in the shape of a heart. Inside the heart were here puckered lips, encouraging me to do something dumb, which I ignored.

As soon as he opened his mouth and was about to say something, the door flung open and hit him. 

“Class is starting soon!” Changhyun so rudely interrupted. “Oh, my bad, Danny! Can I call you Danny?”

I was so annoyed, so I brushed passed him and stormed inside. Everyone else just shook their heads and walked away.