“There're a lot of things about girls,” I said as we walked down the street, side by side. “And it's too much for me to tell you. We’re just going to settle on the basics of wooing one, that is, the small things that girls like when a guy does it.”

Baekhyun nodded obediently like a student, hanging onto my every word. It’s true that I didn’t plan on disclosing every secret of the female mind to Baekhyun; I knew I would be breaking some sort of girl code, and I also knew that it would all end up becoming too confusing to him. I was just planning on sharing some little pointers, moves that he could pick and elaborate by himself when he tried them.

“I’m not speaking for all girls when I say this,” I continued, “but almost all the girls I know like a guy who’s a gentleman.”

Baekhyun furrowed his brows. “Like what? Catching her when she falls?”

I snorted. “No. That only happens in dramas. Most of us aren’t that clumsy. It’s something really basic, like letting a girl have the turn when you’re queuing up for something.”

“What if there’s a whole line of girls behind me?”

I rolled my eyes. “Common sense, Baek. I’m teaching you how to win Soojin’s heart, not get made by some of the female population for being too nice. Just do it for her, like at vending machines or in the cafeteria line or something.”

Baekhyun nodded. I supposed he was taking notes in his head.

“Second thing that’s really gentlemanly...” I said as we reached the cafe we were headed to. I reached for the knob, but the door already opened from the inside. An extremely cute guy with fair skin and a sweet smile held it open for us on his way out.

“Thanks Joonmyun,” I said, giving him a grateful smile.

“Anytime,” Joonmyun said as he gave me a quick salute and a wave at Baekhyun.

“Is opening doors for her,” I said, continuing my sentence once the door jingled shut.

“You know,” Baekhyun said lightly, “he opens doors for anyone, guy or girl, old or young.”

“Exactly why there’re so many girls in school pining to get his attention.”

Baekhyun shrugged. “True that.”                                                     

We found an empty table and pulled out the chairs. A waiter came by soon enough, holding a pen and paper. Baekhyun ordered black coffee and I chose a soothing cup of chamomile tea.

“Anything else?” Baekhyun asked once the waiter left.

“You also have to be charming. The gentleman thing does indeed relate to personal charm, but what I’m talking about now relates to your speech.”

 “You mean I have to be good at sweet-talking? Like him?” He pointed towards a dark-haired boy we both knew on the other side of the cafe, smiling and flashing winks at the waitress delivering his drink.

 “No. That’s being flirty,” I said flatly. “You know what? Let’s just never use Kim Jongin as an example. He is after all, notorious for being the school player.”

“He does get a lot of girls,” Baekhyun pointed out.

“Yeah, all the air-headed ones. From what I can see about Soojin, she’s level-headed and reasonable, and reasonable girls don’t get involved with guys like him.”

The waiter arrived then, setting our drinks in front of us. When he left, Baekhyun waved his hand. “Carry on.”

“I mean charming as in being a good-listener and giving the right comments. Compliment her, but at the right place and the right time. Try and show actual interest when she talks, and if you can’t at least act like it.” I gave him a look at the last one.

“What?” he asked with a clueless look to his eyes. “I can do that.”

I sighed. “For Soojin’s sake I hope you can. Sometimes, when I talk to you, it’s either I’m talking to a wall or you pretend to be asleep.”

Baekhyun chuckled. “Sometimes Yoo, the things you talk about holds very little interest to a guy.”

“However boring the topic is, you’d have to listen to her if you want to get good points with her as a good boyfriend material,” I pointed out.

The waiter arrived at our side again, this time, with another cup. We blinked up at him.

“I’m sorry, we didn’t order this,” I said, pointing to the cup he set next to me.

“It’s on the house,” he said with a wink. “For one of our most frequent customers. I hope you like hot chocolate. It’s a special recipe.”

“Thanks... Minseok-ssi,” I said, reading the name off his tag.

Minseok flashed me a smile and turned and left.

“Gee, where’s mine?” Baekhyun said flatly to his departing back. “I come here often too.” He turned and gave me a dark look. “You’re not going to say anything?”

“What’s there to say? He’s giving me a free drink,” I said as I happily sipped the drink.

Baekhyun snorted. “He was so flirting with you.”

“Come on,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I do go here pretty frequently. It’s only a matter time before they decide to give some sort of appreciation for my loyalty. And besides, look at me. Why on earth would he want to flirt with a plain girl like me?”

Baekhyun stared at me with a mysterious look in his eyes. He cocked his head and sighed, shaking his head. He smirked and leaned forwards. “I’m looking at you now and all I can say is that you have a little bit of something here.”

He gestured at the corner of his lip. I followed his instructions and rubbed my lip.

“Wrong side,” he said. “Never mind. Let me.” He grabbed the napkin and reached across the table, pulling my hand away.

“By the way,” he said, leaning closer and gently dabbing my face. “You’re wrong. I do listen. You just don’t know that I am.”

Since my involvement in the operation had now been reduced from Baekhyun’s secret agent to his love coach, I could only watch as a bystander as he attempted to woo Soojin.

All in all, it was sweet, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t amusing as well. I had never seen Baekhyun try so hard, try so desperately to win a girl’s heart. As I wandered around the school campus to my class, the gym and the cafeteria, I’d see him with Soojin sometimes, talking and walking together. Sometimes, he’d see me and flash a quick smile. I’d give him a thumbs up to encourage him.

I noticed the way he took extra care of her, paid her more attention. He always looked at her in a way that I had never seen him look at other girls. Although I knew he tried to hide it the best he could, I saw the gentle softness in his eyes, the shimmer of amazement would involuntarily surface when he let his guard down. I could only smile for him.

These days, I had been seeing Luhan around more often. Perhaps I had developed extra awareness for him ever since the day I acknowledged the crush I had on him, but it seemed as if my eyes could track him anywhere if he was within my field of vision.

I saw him walking to class in the morning, climbing the steps to the senior’s floor. I saw him at the cafeteria, ordering food while playfully joshing around with his friends. I saw him laughing in the courtyard, that dazzling smile holding me in place even from afar.  

I noticed a lot of things about him, like how he seemed to prefer soda over coke, and that he always ran his fingers through his hair when he was nervous. A lot of people hung out with him, and many of them admired him. He was in the soccer team and was close to a freshman named Oh Sehun, who he hung out with often. 

I think I had reached the severity where Luhan was the only one I saw even in a crowd of thousands. 

I was idly sitting on the banister of the steps that led to the main doors one day, watching Luhan behind the book that I was pretending to read. He looked happy and cheerful, one hand carelessly slipped in the pocket of his pants as he leaned forwards to listen to his friend. My eyes travelled back to the book, to the blur of words arranged neatly on the pages. I read a few sentences before I slowly lifted my gaze, hoping to catch a glimpse of Luhan again.

Instead, I got a full view of a white cotton shirt with the name ‘Byun Baekhyun’ pinned on the chest.

I let my gaze wander up until I reached his face. He was squinting down at me, his figure casting a shadow over me.

“Hey, what are you doing here?”

“Reading,” I replied, holding the book up for him to see, pretending as if it was the only thing that I had been doing.

“Under the sun?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yes. Is that a crime?”

He shook his head. “I really don’t get you. Anyway, I have to talk to you, and I am not going to do it while my back gets burned.”

He gestured for me to follow him, and reluctantly, I got up. I cast another quick glance at Luhan’s direction and saw that the spot he had occupied –under the shady tree next to the courtyard –was empty. Gone home, probably. Well, seeing that I had nothing to lose, I followed Baekhyun.

“Is this about Soojin?” I asked once we had settled in the music room.

Today wasn’t one of their practice days, so we could lock the door and talk without the fear of being interrupted by Baekhyun’s loud, boisterous friend. The blinds were half open, letting in a stream of the afternoon sun that pooled onto the worn red carpet. The ticking clock on the wall indicated that it was well past twenty minutes since the final bell had rung.

“Not walking her home today?” I continued, taking his silence as a yes.

“She’s getting picked up. Her parents are taking her for a visit to her aunt since tomorrow’s a weekend. She said she’ll see me on Sunday,” he replied, absently leaning forwards and plucking the strings of the guitar leaning against its stand.

There was a note to his voice, a happy note. I leaned back, satisfied. “I take it that my advice worked.”

Baekhyun finally let the full grin spread on his face. “It did.”

I laughed and leaned forward, not able to hide the excitement in my voice. “Well, come on. I’m listening.”

“I did the door thing. She seemed surprised at first, but then... pleased. I talked to her every chance I got since the past few days, as you probably know. At first, she asked about you a lot, but I think she got used to seeing me.”

I narrowed my eyes playfully at him. “There’s more. Tell.”

“Well today, when I bumped into her at her locker this morning. I told her she looked nice, pretty. I think she blushed.”

Well, Baekhyun himself was blushing. I grinned and punched him on the shoulder. “I can’t believe you’re such a fast learner. You aren’t always so quick on the uptake in class.”

“Yah!” Baekhyun said indignantly, before looping an arm around my neck and pulling me towards him to give me a noogie.

“Hey, let go!” I yelled, struggling to get out of his grip. My cheek was pressed against his shirt, and I could smell the cologne he always wore.

Baekhyun and I had been in close proximity before, especially when we were playing jokes. I was used to having him suddenly throw his arms around me or tickle me, but this time a strange feeling, the sensation of feeling myself suddenly going breathless, froze me in place.

Too close, a voice inside my head said, he’s way too close.

I came to my senses and clawed out of his grip. I glared up at him, smacking him on the arm while he tilted his head back and laughed.

“I could kill you Baek,” I said.

“But you won’t,” he said with a grin. “So, are we up for tomorrow?”

“What’s up tomorrow?”

“Lessons of course. I need more guidance from the expert, Kim Yoora, before I get into the playing field on Sunday.”

“Still not confident enough to go after her on your own?” I asked with a smirk.

“I’ll put down my pride this time and admit that I need all the help I can get,” he said sincerely.

“Alright. Fine. Same cafe tomorrow morning.”

Author's note:

Another chapter updated. I have finally decided that this story will be my main focus for the time being, at least until it's half way completed. I won't be updating my other stories as often but I will try to write a chapter or two now and then. Back to this story, I'll be updating it every weekend, as long as I don't have other priorities. 

Thanks for reading! Subscribers and commenters are greatly loved and appreciated.