I'd title this chapter CHANYEOL THE GIANT D but that's kind of rude.

We.

A person could describe a lot of things with the word ‘we.’ We are classmates. We are related. We met each other in high school. We are best friends.

We need to change that.

Chanyeol leans forward, hands in pockets, eyes bright with intent. He stops when our faces are a hands breadth apart. I in a huge breath and then tightly close my lips. I don’t know what to do. Do I say something? Should I shut my eyes? I start doing just that, but then I feel his finger press my mouth.

“Save it,” he whispers, his voice deep, his breath scattering across the surface of my lips, “For somebody special.” He steps back and pulls my breath away with him.

I inhale a huge gust of air, and then I yell, “You are such an idiot.”

“What?” He asks with honest confusion. “Is it bad advice?”

“Save it for somebody special? You’re special. Aren’t you somebody?” I’ve confessed, but in the most roundabout way. I don’t know if he understands the hidden implication until the light in his eyes and the set of his jaw change.

“But it has to be somebody you actually like, Junah. Not in a friend way, but in a you-give-me-butterflies way.”

You do give me butterflies, Chanyeol. You make my heart beat at a rate I didn’t even know was possible. You deprive me of oxygen each and every time you are near me. And I like you.

Why can’t I bring myself to tell him that?

“Never mind,” I chuckle nervously. “I’m going back to my room. I’ll see you later. Let me know if Suho – well, I’m sure he’ll contact us. Bye.” I hurry to my dorm before he can see my face crumble. When I arrive at my room, I jump on top of my bed and hide my face beneath my measly stack of two pillows.

“Are you okay?”

I look up from beneath the pillows to see Bora reading a textbook on the desk.

“I’m angry that I got woken up so early by Chanyeol.”

“Go back to bed, then,” she suggests.

“Yeah. I will.” Pulling the blanket around me, I comfort myself in the embrace of my familiar bed until my anger turns into drowsiness, and I fall asleep.

-----

When I wake up, Bora is listening to music on her iPod while surfing the internet. My phone tells me it’s twelve o’ clock, which means I napped for two hours, a time I did not intend to meet. Oversleeping always makes me cranky. I push myself onto my elbows.

“You’re awake,” Bora observes. She pulls out one ear bud and asks, “You want to go eat?”

I rub my eyes. “Yeah – actually, I think I ate already.”

“When?”

“This morning.”

“You went to the cafeteria?”

I yawn. “Remember when I said that Chanyeol woke me up? It was for breakfast.”

“Oh,” she says knowingly. “What for? A date?”

“He’s pissed me off today, so don’t even say that,” I glare. “We went to help this guy with his problems.”

“Maybe you should fix your own problems first before helping other people with theirs.”

“I swear my problems have accumulated since I started helping Chanyeol with matching people up,” I say. “It started with that girl from Winter Ball. Then Nam. And now this. Everybody is so messed up right now. Nam is insane, you know you are too, but you’re suppressing it,” I point, and Bora rolls her eyes, “Chanyeol is dense, and I’m delirious. I’m delirious! And apparently I’m the stupid one.”

“Did something happen?”

“Yes,” I furiously exclaim. “Chanyeol happened. Whatever. It doesn’t matter.” I pick at a corner of my blanket while I ask, “Have you talked to Nam?”

“Yeah,” she says. “I was texting him earlier. He says he feels better about it. And that if Seya had someone else she liked, then it’s his fault for not seeing it.”

“Why is it that the people who get hurt blame themselves?”

Bora replies, “Because it’s easier to get mad at yourself rather than someone you really care about.”

I pull a thread on my blanket, and it comes right off. “So Nam’s over it?”

“Not completely, but more than I thought he would be.”

I smile. “Are you going to strike?”

Bora gives me an annoyed face. “I don’t want to seem like that girl who stood there waiting for a guy to stand up from a heartbreak. I don’t really know. I’ll keep it to myself for now. I’m just used to guys I like not liking me, so, whatever.”

“What if he says he likes you? Are you g