The next morning during registration, the teacher gathered everyone's attention, "Everyone listen up! So the teachers have all decided that the students in this year are to be split up into groups of 6. There will be a mixture of knowledge and specialities within the groups and there will be a new task every now and then. The main aim of this is so that the students learn to share their ideas and through doing so help develop other students' work. It's also used to create more diverse social groups since everyone tends to stay in their own friendship groups. There will be a teacher in charge of every group and these classes will only last for one month - take it as a test to see if it's effective." 

Miss Chae waved about some sheets of paper with long lists of the names of the students and which classes they had been assigned to, so everyone crowded around to look - all except Sehun, who remained in his seat, looking clearly unbothered. Eunsung, being one of the last students to see the sheet, scanned her eyes down the list for her name - her teacher was Mr Park. Glancing in Sehun's direction who was now looking out the window, she unknowingly looked for the boy's name out of curiosity.

Oh Sehun  -  Mr Park

As she returned to her seat, she wondered what to do from there on. Sehun didn't seem to be too fond of her and yet she still felt the need to help him - both personally and for the sake of this so called new class. At that moment, Luhan's words flashed back through her mind: "I'm not asking you to back off but just to try and fix it." Except the sad thing was, Eunsung didn't know what it was she needed to fix.

After registration, Eunsung went in search for her new classmates and room. She had wondered several times whether or not to offer to walk with Sehun but remembering the irritated expression on his face the other day when she bumped into him, she chose not to. Perhaps he didn't enjoy her company, she had thought and thinking of that being the sole reason hurt her feelings. After all, she had only wanted to help him, not to cause even more trouble.

Heaving a sigh, she entered the specific classroom and recognised Haera and Zelo, who were conversing before Zelo called her name upon seeing her. There were also two other boys present whom she hadn't seen before. 

"Wow what a coincidence that we're together!" Zelo exclaimed as he stood up to greet Eunsung.

"Right?" Haera laughed. Not really knowing what to say back, Eunsung merely nodded politely. She wanted to know the other people's names too but before she could even ask, Mr Park strolled in and settled his items down on the desk in the centre of the room.

"Okay I want everyone to sit down around this table - pull your chairs in a circle," he ordered and the students complied, "A couple of icebreakers first - I want everyone to introduce themselves and since there are only six of you--"

"I'm sorry I'm late sir," Sehun announced as he gripped onto the single strap of his backpack with his right hand. All the heads in the class swivelled around to have a good look at the latecomer. The two boys who Eunsung didn't recognise smiled upon seeing him; Haera looked rather impressed and Zelo's lips were drawn in a thin line. 

"That's fine - Sehun right?" Mr Park waved his hand dismissing the matter and the latter nodded, "Come and join us." Sehun grabbed a chair and sat beside one of the other boys, who gave him a small nudge. 

"Anyway as I was saying, let's get you all comfortable with one another. So first of all, let's start with short introductions. We'll start on my left and it'll go around clockwise. I'll begin then - I'm Mr Park as many of you may know and I'll be guiding you for the rest of this month." He nodded at Haera beside him.

"I'm Haera, a senior, and I guess I know everyone here so I look forward to seeing how this works out," she laughed.

"Zelo - I like dancing a lot so in any cases, if I ever go missing, I'll be found in the dance studio."

"Hello I'm Eunsung..." the girl paused before looking around the circle at everyone's faces, "...to be honest, I don't know what I can say here - I don't have much talent in one specific area. I guess I just... if there was one thing that I had to choose within myself that I liked, it would have to be the need to help others. I don't know why, I just like to, so if anyone needs a hand with something, I'll be more than happy to help."

Sehun's ears perked up upon hearing the word 'help' and for a brief millisecond, he almost believed that such a thing could be given to someone like him. Why did he still even have hope that he could be helped? His case was beyond that now. Broken objects could eventually be glued together but in the end, the object itself would never be the same as the original. 

"Uhh I'm Kris... I can speak Chinese and English so if anyone needs help with English homework, come find me I guess?"

"Kai - I dance. Be it dawn or dusk, I'll be practicing. I don't like being disturbed whilst practice though so don't come and find me during those hours," he said with a dead straight face before breaking out into a smile, "I'm only kidding."

And as Eunsung had already guessed, the final person's words were only, "I'm Sehun."

Mr Park leaned back in his chair, "Would you care to expand Sehun?"

"What about sir? What would you like me to talk about? There's honestly nothing really interesting."

After hearing this response, Mr Park took a sip of his coffee before setting it down on the table, "Your fears. Tell us about a fear of yours."

"I..." he started, not wanting to share this personal piece of information at all. It was uncomfortable enough having it gnawing at the back of his mind. Not knowing what made him do so, he managed to state, all the while staring directly at Mr Park, "Loss. I'm afraid of losing things." Eunsung looked up at Sehun after hearing this response. Loss...

"Alright now that those introductions are finished, I think we should start on the first task before it gets past noon," Mr Park flipped past a few plastic wallets in his folder and stopped at one, "I don't think you know much about these group arrangements so I'll just give a quick brief for now. Basically, the teachers want the students to understand and get it drilled into their heads that you're all one group - you must learn to help each other out and support each other. Trust and teamwork will play their roles in this. With the upcoming exams rolling in, other schools are competing for the best scores. Of course, our school wants to do the best just like other schools do. So we've decided as an incentive, the students' scores in each group will be added together and an average will be calculated - the group with the highest average will be allowed to go to the end of term's trip free of charge. As you can see, it's hoped that this method will be successful."

"So basically you guys are bribing us into study?" Kai pointed out while folding his arms behind his head while Kris snorted.

"When you put it like that, it makes us sound bad but yes," Mr Park laughed, "It's a rather good incentive in my opinion. Anymore questions?"

"You didn't mention the first task," Zelo said, clicking his fingers as he remembered.

Mr Park nodded, "Ah yes, I almost forgot. Today we start to build the teamwork. I have no clue who is comfortable with who in this group so one more icebreaker to get us more comfortable: we're going to the woods. I have some pairs sorted out based on people that I think don't hang out together often - it'll be nice to break the line between awkwardness and comfort. So in pairs, you'll be given a map, a tent, water and a torch. The idea is to get to the other side where there's an X marked on the map by tomorrow morning at 9am."

"What happens if we don't?" Haera asked, "Are there any consequences?"

"Good question - the last group to return, if they don't return in the given time slot, will cause the whole group to be on clean up duty in the kitchen for one week. You're all competing with other groups if you haven't noticed yet. But anyway enough with the talk, let's get these pairs sorted out so that we can start. Kris with Haera; Kai with Zelo; Eunsung with Sehun."

Upon reaching the site, Mr Park handed out the maps and showed them the distinct X marked on it before retreating to get back into the minibus, stating that he was going to drive to the other side and would meet everyone there in the morning. 

"I'm gonna take this route," Kai grumbled, kicking a stone whilst doing so - obviously not happy with the fact that he was going to be stuck with Zelo for the night.

"Oppa let's take this route," Haera pointed to the left and Kris nodded before following her, even offering to carry her bag although the girl declined.

"Sehun? Can we-" she started but the other ignored her completely and had already begun to walk without her. She sighed and looked down at her shoes - she was clear of one thing: he definitely hated her. Looking down at the map again, she noticed that Sehun was walking in the wrong direction - the X was north but he was heading north east. 

"Sehun!" she called out to him, "You're going the wrong way!" The boy snapped his head around to face the girl and noticed the map in her hand so he snatched it from her and had a good look at it himself. When he realised he was meant to be heading north, he walked away, once again. Having enough of being ignored and not understanding why Sehun despised her so, she tried to power walk as much as she could to catch up with the boy. One thing was for sure - this was definitely not teamwork or trust.

Finally catching up to him just as Sehun finished looking for the next part of their journey, Eunsung grabbed a hold of the end of his jumper sleeve, "Sehun, wait. I know... I know you must hate me right now and even though I have no idea what it is about me that's annoying you enough to make you ignore me, I want to know. If you don't tell me what I'm doing wrong, I can't stop it. If you don't tell me anything, I can't help you."

"There's nothing," he gritted through his teeth before snatching his hand back and shoving it in his pocket. And although Sehun walked away, he heard the girl's next words clearly, "I'm sorry for annoying you... I just wanted to help."

For the rest of the journey, Eunsung didn't try and grab Sehun's shirt and stop to talk to him. She didn't want him to feel like she was suffocating him with her presence so she simply left a five step gap behind him. On the other hand, Sehun felt a twinge of guilt eat away at him for being so awfully harsh on her - he didn't mean to but it just came out like that. He didn't know why but he really didn't like it that she was so happy and eager to help him when all he did was be grumpy and mean. Maybe he just didn't like happy people in general. 

The sun began to set and the colours of the sky swirled into a dark blue - night was drawing in. Eunsung rummaged in her backpack for the only torch that was given to the pair and flicked it on. It was a good light source for a while but soon enough, it was difficult to walk with just a dimly lit torch with only a thin beam of light. 

Finally choosing to speak to him for once in the past few hours of walking, Eunsung scarcely whispered, "Can we just call it a day and end here?" Sehun didn't answer but continued walking and the girl sighed - obviously he wasn't going to stop just for her. But surely enough, he stopped upon seeing a patch of flat land and took off his rucksack to pull out the tent. Instantly realising that the latter was only trying to find a suitable place to build the tent, she grabbed the poles and attached them to the material for the tent. The least she could do right now was to assist him in building it. After a while, they managed to get up a rather sturdy tent and laid out their sleeping bags. Just as Eunsung placed the dim torch on the side of her sleeping bag, Sehun unexpectedly spoke,

"Is that favour still available right now?"

Blinking twice to confirm that he indeed spoke and most importantly, spoke to her, she said, "Yeah, want to use it now?"

"Find the rest of the path. I'm really tired. Wake me up when you're done," he told her, zipping up his coat to shield himself from the cold. 

"Wait what? But it's dark and I-"

"You said I could count on you, no? Don't tell me you're also one of those people who don't keep their word because truthfully speaking, I really hate those kinds of people."

Tears threatening to fall, with the utmost determination to prove to Sehun that no, she was not simply 'one of those people' she stated, "Fine then, I'll do it."