And so, Operation Get Baekhyun His Girl commenced.

I was standing in the middle of the cafeteria, balancing my tray with my hands as I panned my gaze around its vast expanse. Like every other lunch period, it was as crowded as ever, and, thanks to Baekhyun’s impressive altitude in the art of persuasion, we had gotten out of class early with the excuse of my being unwell. He wanted to brief me on the information he gathered about Soojin; apparently, his social network extended far enough that he was able to gather a sufficient amount of information on the girl.

For example, he knew where she lived and that she worked for her mother at a bookstore after school. He knew that she rode the bus every morning and reaches school exactly ten minutes before the bell would ring, not to mention that she always stopped by a bakery for some fresh muffins on her way home.

It was scary on how much he knew about her in the span of a week, and I wondered if this kind of data gathering could be considered as professional stalking. He must really like this girl.

I finally spotted her on the other side of the cafeteria, head bent as she sipped some of the soup they served as today’s special menu. According to Baekhyun, her usual posse of friends had other things to attend to today than accompany her for her lunch; one apparently was absent because of a sick grandmother, the other two had special credit assignments that needed to be finished.

Like I said, his data gathering skills were impressive to the point of scary.

The plan was that I joined her at the table. From then on, I was supposed to initiate the conversation and then virtually act nice to her so that I could accomplish the first step of trying to befriend her.

I sighed and tossed my head to keep my hair from dropping onto my eyes. Baekhyun had decided to leave me to this alone since it would seem suspicious for me to spend lunch with some girl that I don’t even have classes with instead of the guy who I sat with for years now.

I began to cross the threshold, keeping my eyes on her as I walked. She didn’t seem to notice I was coming, and was absently munching on her garlic bread while watching a few kids from the table to her left, absorbed in what they were saying.

She jumped when she realised I was looming over her.

I gave her the friendliest and the sweetest smile I could muster and said, in an unbelievably fake-friendly voice, “Hey, do you mind if I sit here?”

She blinked at me, but proceeded to nod and take her bag from the empty chair next to her. “Yeah, of course.”

“Sorry to bother you,” I said as I set my tray down. “But my friend... he’s sorta unavailable and I didn’t want to eat lunch alone so...”

She smiled at me. “No. No, it’s no problem. My friends had other things to do too. I wasn’t really very eager to spend lunch alone either.”

My lips stretched into a genuine smile; she seemed like she was a nice girl. Suitable for Baekhyun. “My name is Kim Yoora,” I told her.

“Jung Soojin. Nice to meet you.”

And that was how I accomplished the start of my mission, which later became the pivotal move to proceed with Baekhyun’s consecutive plans.

“She’s okay, a decent girl,” I said during the status report that Baekhyun had forced me into giving. He was not satisfied that he couldn’t witness for himself the success or failure of his plan.

“Did she say anything? Like about a guy that she might have a crush on?” he said, his eyes sparkling eagerly. His mood had lifted considerably since I appeared inside the music room that we had designated as our meeting place

“Woah, slow down,” I said, knocking him with the tambourine I was absently playing with while I talked. “You just don’t ask things like that to the person you just met.”

Baekhyun pouted and slumped down into his seat, placing his elbow on the guitar he had on his lap to prop his chin up with his hand. “I just want to know if I have competition.”

“I’m doing the best I can,” I said with a huff. “You can’t expect us to be best friends forever when we’ve just met. And besides,” I held the tambourine up threateningly to his face, “you’re lucky I’m even doing this at all.”

“I’m always lucky because I have you,” he said with a cheesy grin and a wink. He laughed and flinched when I made another motion to hit him with the tambourine.

“So...” Baekhyun said, trailing off.

“So what?”

“Do you think she’s good, I mean... you know... is she, uh –”

“ –the right one for you?” I said, finishing him off. While Baekhyun had no trouble saying cheesy lines sometimes, he struggled when trying to express his deepest thoughts and feelings. “Well... I don’t know her yet, but I’m going to say that so far, she made a pretty good impression on me.”

“So, does that mean...”

“I approve? Sorta. Yes.”

Baekhyun’s face eased into a wide, happy smile and he reached out to ruffle my hair. “Thanks. This means a lot to me.”

I batted his hand away playfully and jabbed him on the shoulder. I expected him to tug my hair or pinch my cheeks after that but when I looked up, I found that he was smiling, a glazed look in his eyes as he softly gazed at me.

Our little moment was interrupted when the door flew open. A boy with auburn hair and side swept bangs bounded in, carrying a guitar case that had multiple colourful  stickers advertising vacation spots like Hawaii and Bali and one gold and orange sticker of a burning flame. He looked incessantly happily, his loud, booming voice resounding throughout the room as he greeted us.

Introducing Baekhyun’s friend and jam partner, Park Chanyeol.

“Hey, Chanyeol,” I said, rising from my seat and taking his arrival as my cue to leave.

Chanyeol’s gaze shifted between the two of us and he furrowed his eyebrows together. His tie was loose, hanging down from his neck like a badly-fastened dog collar. The collar of his shirt was turned up and the top buttons had been undone, revealing the silver phoenix necklace he wore that hung just below his throat.

“Am I interrupting something?” he asked.

“No, no,” Baekhyun said quickly. “Nothing at all.”

My gaze shifted towards Baekhyun for a while. Did Chanyeol know of his current infatuation towards Jung Soojin and his plan to use me as his wingman to win her heart? Judging by his quick denial towards Chanyeol’s innocent question that had been spoken purely out of curiosity (and perhaps suspicion), I’d say no.

“You guys enjoy yourselves,” I said breezily as I grabbed the jacket I had draped over the back of my chair. I tossed the tambourine towards Baekhyun and he caught it easily. “I’m heading home.”

Baekhyun nodded and gave me small wave and a quick smile. Chanyeol flashed me one of his toothy smiles on my way out and then proceeded to take the seat I had vacated. As I closed the door, I heard them discuss melodies and chords and pluck a few guitar strings as they decided which song they should play.

I hitched my bag up higher on my shoulder and walked, wondering what on earth was Baekhyun cooking up in his head now that he –or rather, I –had taken the first step.

Author's note: Hey guys! Just want to thank all of for reading my stories. To the people who have commented, thanks a bunch. I loved reading your comments. Anyway, please read and subscribe. 

Luhan will appear in the next chapter. I promise :)