Taemin watches the two beasts devour on chow mein, kung-pao chicken, egg rolls, fried rice and sweet-and-sour pork in disgust as he takes a sip of his now cold green tea.

“Who is he?”

Park Chanyeol lifts his head from his plate of chow mein and asks Taemin, eyeing Jongin on his opposite side.

“Why do you care?”

Jongin answers before Taemin could open his mouth. Chanyeol wipes his oily lips with a napkin and smirks.

“Why do you care that I care?”

The electricity shooting from both ends spark over their table and Taemin stands up, ignoring the two yelling his name as he heads back towards the school. Jongin and Chanyeol have been on guard towards each other but Taemin thinks that they’re kind of alike. Maybe that’s why he didn’t feel so awkward when he first met Chanyeol; the tall fit stature and the sporty impression had reminded him of Jongin. Taemin predicts that they’ll become good friends in the future.

Because Taemin knows that he can’t be one. He has been friends with Jongin for ten years but Taemin knows that he’s substantially very different from Jongin. Jongin was raised in a regular happy family while Taemin... well, while Taemin grew up with some issues, he thinks bitterly. He’s going to enjoy his days with Jongin just until they graduate, for graduation and going off to different colleges will eventually separate them. Whatever the case may be, Taemin is a burden to Jongin and he hates himself for it.  

The cafeteria is still noisy with students enjoying the last minutes of their lunch time. Taemin picks up a chocolate milk, pops the straw in and starts when he comes across Sulli. She glances at Taemin and Taemin notices the band-aid on her forehead. She stares at Taemin’s chocolate milk instead of what regular people do when they come face to face with an acquaintance, like smile or wave or say hi for instance. Taemin speaks first, unable to adapt to Sulli’s odd way interacting with the world.

“…Would you like one?”

She nods. Taemin pays for another chocolate milk and hands it to her with the straw popped in. They walk outside the cafeteria together, both on their straw.

“How’s your forehead? Must’ve hurt a lot.”
“It’s okay now. Just bruised a bit. Want to see?”
“…Uh, no. …But you fell kind of harsh in front of someone you like.”
“So?”
“…So are you okay?”
“What do you mean?”

There was no way Taemin could converse with this girl like a normal human being. He gives up and Sulli stops chewing on the straw and lifts her head.

“Can I ask you who Jongin is going out with?”

Taemin hesitates for an answer, because... because well, no one is. Taemin suddenly is confused as to why he lied to Sulli in the morning. Before Taemin could come up with something clever, the girl laughs, varying from her mindless expression for the very first time.

“He’s not going out with anyone, is he.”

Taemin tries really hard to keep a straight face. But Sulli's smile calls cold wind to whip around his body.

“…Why do you think that?”
“You like him, don’t you?”
“What?!!!!!”
“You like Jongin.”
“…W, what are you saying!?”
“You like Jongin.”
“…I didn’t ask you to repeat yourself, I meant that that you’re out of your mind…”
“It’s alright, I think it’s possible.”
“No it’s not alright, what the hell are you saying? We’re just friends.”
“Friends? I guess you could put it that way…”
“Would you stop!?”
“Well anyways, I’m not going to give up on him.”

Sulli declares and she slurps the last bit of her chocolate milk. Taemin feels like his brain has been smashed into grains of sand by an iron hammer and is being blown out of his head as he watches Sulli drift back to her mindless se