His words resounded in his head as he stared on the blank ceiling above him. He could only see shadows of the window grilles as casted by the moonlight.

“Let’s…go back to our friendship the way it was before,” He rolled sideways towards the wall.

He does not know if he could do it, to get the ‘old friendship’ back. ‘What’s hard about it?’ he thought. It was not as if it was their first time being close to each other like this.

They were living on the same street for four years, only three houses separated them. He would always see her everyday going to school, occasional family dinners and gatherings, or when he just felt like disturbing her. What so hard about it? Maybe it was because she stopped dropping by at his house since their sophomore year in high school, or she stopped walking with him towards the bus stop to go to school, or when she totally avoided him.

He thought about it as he tried to catch his sleep. ‘Now, we’re just a wall apart,’ he whispered to himself as he closed in eyes, entering a deep slumber.

~*~

 Kai opened the door. The fresh morning breeze entered the opened window pane. The white curtains danced with the wind. And there she was trying to curl up as the wind passed by her. Kai looked at her. It was his first time seeing her sleeping. Kai didn’t know what to do, how to pull her from her peaceful dreams.

Suddenly, he thought of something. He went on the empty space of her bed. She scratched her neck as he softly blew in her ear. Kai left out a small chuckle seeing Seyoon’s irritated sleeping face. It was his first time seeing her eyebrows as it furiously. He took a deep breath as he exhaled a loud voice in her ear, “Seyoon-ah, wake up!” Kai quickly ran downstairs not letting Seyoon know who startled her in her sleep.

As they walked towards the bus stop, Kai noticed that Seyoon didn’t speak a word since she woke up. Normally, she would greet him ‘good morning’ or gave a morning smile. But today, she was just walking with an emotionless face.

They were there, waiting for the bus without a word or anything. Kai, feeling uncomfortable with the silence, looked at Seyoon and playfully poked her cheek. ‘Chanyeol never failed in making her smile when he did this,’ he thought. Seyoon didn’t move or shrug a bit. Kai did it again the second time, still no movements. Before he even tried poking her for the third time, she looked at her with an angry looked on her face. This time, Kai felt frozen in place. It was the first time he saw her like that, except of course just this morning. But he never thought it was scarier when she was awake.

They went to school, into their classroom and yet she was still in the same state this morning. When they had their lunch, she was just there staring at her food. Baekhyun, who was sitting beside Kai, whispered in his ear, “What happened to her? Is she in bad mood?”

Kai just shrugged his shoulder telling Baekhyun, he didn’t know. Chanyeol, who was sitting beside Seyoon, looked at Kai and Baekhyun at the opposite side, moving his lips without letting a sound, ‘What’s wrong?’ Kai and Baekhyun just shrugged their shoulders. Even Kyungsoo and Sehun just stared at her.

Chanyeol lifted his hand with his finger pointing towards Seyoon direction. Before he even poked her cheek, Kai stopped his hand signaling that he shouldn’t do that. Chanyeol mouthed the word, ‘Why?’ Kai lifted his arms and made an ‘x’ sign.

Before all of them finished their food, Seyoon already left. That time, the four boys looked at Kai. “What?” he asked.

“You were with her since this morning, what did you do to her?” asked Kyungsoo.

“I don’t know. I didn’t do anything.”

“How about yesterday?” asked Sehun. Kai just swayed his head.

“It is impossible that she would be like that without any reasons,” said Baekhyun.

“Think about it Kai. There must be something that you’ve done that caused her to act that way,” said Chanyeol.

Kai kept thinking and thinking until their classes had ended. They separated ways without Seyoon even waving goodbye at them. She just walked towards the bus stop, leaving Kai.

“Ah Seyoon-ah, seeing her like that. Someone must have done something terrible to her,” said Chanyeol.

Chanyeol’s words rang a bell in Kai’s memories. ‘Terrible…’ he thought. That’s when he remembered of what happened that morning, how he startled Seyoon while she was sleeping, how he shouted at her when she was lying peacefully in her bed. That’s when Kai thought that Seyoon was not really gentle kitten but ferocious tiger. That is if someone distract their peacefulness, they would turn into beasts.  

Kai felt guilty for what he did. His simple prank turned into a huge problem. He never thought that her mood would turn bad because of him.

As Seyoon get herself ready to sleep, her phone suddenly rang. She drew the phone close to her ear then suddenly she heard a familiar voice.

“Smile though your heart is aching♪

Smile even though it’s breaking♪

When there are clouds in the sky♪

You’ll get by♪”

Then she heard a sound coming from the window as if someone was hitting it with small rocks. She lifter her window pane and looked at the standing silhouette just below her window. It was Kai talking to his phone. No, he was singing.

“Light up your face with gladness, ♪

Hide every trace of sadness. ♪

Although a tear may be ever so near♪

That’s the time you must keep on trying♪

Smile, what’s the use of crying. ♪

You’ll find that life is still worthwhile♪

If you just…smile. ♪”

Seyoon returned to her bed without ending the call from Kai. “Seyoon-ah, I’m sorry.” Seyoon didn’t say a word, just kept listening to Kai’s voice. “I will never disturb you when you’re sleeping. I’ll never wake you up in a naughty way. Just please smile like you used to. Please?”

Seyoon let out a chuckle then ended the call without saying a word to Kai.

“Hmm? Hello?” Suddenly, drops of rain started to pour little by little. “What happened?” Kai looked at his phone as the droplets slide on the screen. All of sudden, he heard Seyoon calling her.

“Kai!” Kai looked up and saw an umbrella falling to him. He caught it and looked up at Seyoon. “Thank you!” she shouted.

From Kai’s view, all he could see is Seyoon’s dark silhouette. But he could see in the corner of her face, a hint of smile. Seyoon looked at Kai as he waved goodbye, with his other hand holding the umbrella he gave her. She woke up terribly and she would sleep peacefully, she thought.

~*~

 Kai scratched his face as he felt someone poking his cheeks. And he could feel something falling on his face, ‘Droplets? Rain?’ He opened his eyes to see what it could be.

“Wake up!” Chanyeol looked at him. Their faces closed to each other, only to be separated by the sandwich Chanyeol was eating.

“Yah! Why are you here? How did you get here? How did you get inside the house?”

“Relax. Seyoon let me in. What are still doing there? Get up. I woke up early to go here.”

“What? You what?” Kai laughed at him. “You woke up early? On your own? Without Baekhyun throwing pillow at your face? That’s weird.”

“Whatever! Just go and get dress so you can have breakfast. And we can go to school together.”

When Chanyeol and Kai went out of his room, Seyoon was already prepared to go to school. “I made breakfast,” she said to him still avoiding eye contact.

“Thanks,” Kai said in a small voice.

Chanyeol looked at the awkwardness of the two. Chanyeol grabbed the sandwich and shoved it on Kai’s mouth. He put his arms around Kai and Seyoon’s shoulders, “Ready? Let’s go!” as they went to school together.

anyway, the song that Kai sang was Smile by Charlie Chaplin. It's one of my favorite songs.

i hope you like this chapter as much as I wanted to hear Kai singing to me through the phone...hehe ^_^!