{ EIGHT }

“It’s Tao’s birthday on Thursday. Can you come?” Jongdae asked.

Joori blushed. She wasn’t all that close with Tao, but she was flattered that Jongdae had even asked. She nodded. “I’ll try to make it.” She was definitely going to go, but she didn’t want to sound too eager.

“Great, I’ll text you the details!” He held up his phone in the air as a gesture.

She giddily skipped to the café where she was to meet Baekhyun for lunch. She had been alternating days between him and her friends for the past two weeks, and it was his turn today. Baekjoo and Minhee had started getting suspicious about her always having plans. She still hung out with them after classes sometimes, but it used to be a daily thing.

“Someone’s happy,” Baekhyun said, noticing her prancing through the door. He rarely saw her smile, but today she even had a small skip to her step.

She nodded with a small smile. “Jongdae invited me to Tao’s birthday party.”

He didn’t understand why that made her so happy, but it was nice to see her smile. He was starting to understand why Chanyeol had liked it so much.
“You really like Jongdae, huh?” He asked curiously. He wondered what Jongdae had over Chanyeol. Chanyeol was taller, just as good looking, and was probably funnier. The only thing Jongdae had was popularity.

“I don’t really like him,” she denied. “I’m interested.” She pushed her hair behind her ear.

He chuckled. He knew that’s what girls said when they didn’t want to admit they had a crush on a guy.

She frowned – he was laughing at her. So she decided to quickly change the subject. “So, tell me about Chanyeol.”

While he began to talk, she ate her sandwich.
She thought at first it would be strange to hear Baekhyun just talk and talk about Chanyeol, but it was kind of like storytime. Baekhyun spoke really excitedly and his movements were so animated that it wasn’t boring.

“He was called Happy Virus because all he did was smile all the time!” Baekhyun stretched his lips with his fingers.

“Like you?” She asked. He seemed to be smiling whenever she saw him.

“No, even more,” he replied, his eyes lighting up. “And we used to go to Hongdae all the time to listen to the underground bands. Once Chanyeol had to fill in for a drummer for a random band because the dude never showed! He’s really good at a lot of instruments. In high school, he was in his own little band. It’s a shame no one noticed how talented he was.”

“You did,” she murmured.

“I meant, like, girls…” He chuckled. “Chanyeol never had a girlfriend before. He was such a great guy, but no one seemed to notice. And he’s so tall and pretty good looking too…”

She felt the gloomy aura start to return. She didn’t know what to say because she had never noticed Chanyeol either.

“He was so nice. He would always tell me about the things he would do for his girlfriend if he ever got one. He wanted to rent out a restaurant, cook her dinner, and go on long walks.” Baekhyun sighed. “But girls are