This is a long long chapter so I just decided to divide it into more or less three updates. This is an ultimate post-valentine update that I was supposed to upload last week but wasn't able to because I didn't finish it yet. So enjoy it now than never!

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One week and Seyoon couldn’t believe she was surviving all of it. They still seldom talked. Actually, they never talked, not even once except for those times when she had to call him for dinner. He was always staying inside his room or when he’s not there, she was the one who was in her room. They never talked when they were having dinner. The chores were automatically divided. When she would cook, Kai would wash the dishes. They cleaned their own room and washed their own clothes. During the weekend, they would go to their own homes. But her parents said that she should restrain herself from going back home except when there would be special occasions so she would get used to it. Sometimes, Seyoon would just feel thankful that their friends would visit them. Even though the house would become messy or noisy, it helped get rid of the boredom and the silence they felt inside.

What happened to the ‘getting our old friendship back’? She didn’t know. Maybe he was not ready, or they were not ready yet or maybe because they never really tried to break that barrier between them. It was pathetic she knew, but she also didn’t know what to do.

---

When it’s time to cook dinner, Seyoon looked at the cupboard, there was something missing. Out of all of the things their parents would forget to buy, it was ‘gochujang’. ‘How would I cook the bibimbap if there’s no gochujang?’ she thought. ‘Maybe I should just go to the nearest convenience store.’

Seyoon looked at Kai’s closed door. It seemed quiet. ‘Should I tell him that I’ll go out or not,’ she thought as she stared at his room door. She let out a deep sigh before she knocked. He opened the door just enough for his head to peek.

“We have no gochujang. I’ll just go to the convenience store to buy it.”

He opened his door wide and step out a little. “Do you want me to accompany you? It’s getting dark outside.”

“No, I could handle myself,” she said to him while trying to force that little smile on her lips.

“Okay,” he nodded. “Do you want me to chop the vegetables then?” he asked her with a face saying I-should-help-sometimes-even-though-I-don’t-want-to.

‘You? Chopping vegetables? Since when have you hold the knife to cook?’ she asked herself. Even though, she doesn’t trust his chopping skills, she felt guilty turning his help down. “Sure. The vegetables are already washed. Just peel them PROPERLY and chop,” she said to him while forcing another visible smile.

After that, Seyoon went to walk to the nearest convenience store. Well, it was just three blocks away. It was already dark when she got there. After buying the gochujang, she brought ice cream. She wondered if she should buy one for Kai but decided not to. Anyway, it would just melt even before she reached the house. When she was walking down the street, someone’s arm wrapped around her shoulder. To her surprise, she dropped the ice cream that she was holding. She turned around to see who it was.

“You!”

---

It’s already been an hour since she left. He already finished chopping the vegetables and preparing the beef. Kai couldn’t help himself but peek on the clock from time to time. He knew that although she looked tough now, she was not physically capable of protecting herself. ‘I should have accompanied her to the convenience store,’ he thought to himself. He kept walking back and forth.

“Should I call her or not?” Kai couldn’t get hold of himself. He went to his room to get his phone. When he dialed her number, he heard a ringing sound coming from Seyoon’s room. “Damn, why did she leave without her phone?”

When he was about to go out and look for her, the door suddenly opened. “Seyoon-ah~!” Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo entered.

“Oh, what’s with that face? You don’t want us here?” Baekhyun said as he gave Kai a headlock.

“Stop it! Did you see Seyoon outside?”

“No? Why? Where is she?” Kyungsoo asked.

Chanyeol immediately went to Seyoon’s room. “She’s not here. And her phone…”

“I should go out and find her,” said Kai. Just when he was about to turn the knob, the door suddenly opened. Seyoon entered.

“Is that Seyoon?” said Chanyeol as he ran outside her room to see who it was.

“Where have you been? What took you so long?” Kai looked at her, concerned. Seyoon looked at him and turned her head to point out the people she was with the whole time.

“Wow, so it is true that you are living with him,” a familiar voice entered the house. Kai looked at the three silhouettes behind Seyoon. When they entered the house, he was surprised to see the three people whom he had never seen for a long time and never thought he would see again. He does not know if he should call them friends. After all, their first meeting was not something as friendly to consider.

 

~*~

Sehun entered the cafeteria with eyes as scary as hawk’s. Baekhyun and Kai were busily talking about a PC game they recently discovered. And Seyoon was busily eating the lunch that Kai’s mother prepared for her. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo, who noticed Sehun’s presence, swallowed their fear as he came closer. They knew that among the five of them, the silent one was the scariest.

“Kai, I want to talk to you,” said Sehun as he got near Kai without sitting on the chair beside him.

“What is it about? I’m kind of busy here. Just talk, I’ll listen,” he said as he continued looking at his laptop with Baekhyun.

“Can you give me a minute? This is important.”

“Just say it. I am playing, you see.” He still had his eyes on the game.

Sehun took a deep breath. “Okay. Why did you turn down the invitation for the dance competition in the upcoming school festival?”

“Uhh…I don’t know. I just don’t feel like competing, that’s all.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? We’re part of the same team,” said Sehun who was keeping his anger inside knowing that Seyoon was there with them and they’re currently in the cafeteria where there were students that might be watching.

//A/N:* sitting arrangement is like this: Sehun, Kai, and Baekhyun (together on one side) and across them are Seyoon, Chanyeol, and Kyungsoo*//

“AH!” Kai shouted as his character died in the game. “Look, do we have to talk about this now? We can talk about this later? Besides, it’s lunchtime. Let just talk after class.” Kai stood up, grabbed his laptop and bag. “Come on Seyoon,” he grabbed Seyoon, who was already finished eating. “Help me. I forgot to do my homework for the next class.”

“Huh?” Seyoon stood up with her hand still held by Kai. “I’ll just see you on our next class,” she said as she waved at the boys left on the table.

Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun looked at Sehun who was obviously mad but still managed to stay calm.

“Ah…here Sehun, we brought you bread and milk,” Baekhyun handed Sehun the food they saved for him.

“What’s the problem anyway? What’s the competition all about?” asked Kyungsoo.

Sehun sat beside Baekhyun as he grabbed the bread and the milk. “There will be a dance competition for the school festival.”

“Ah…about that? I’ve heard that two of the possible judges would be Yunho of TVXQ and Eunhyuk of SJ. And there’s a possibility that some SME representatives would be there,” said Baekhyun.

“Really?!?” said Chanyeol. “Then what’s the problem?”

“Kai turned down the invitation without saying anything to me.”

“What?!? Kai?!? Turning down a dance challenge?!? Unbelievable!” said Chanyeol.

“That’s what I thought too. That’s why I was trying to ask him why. But he just went away, just like now.”

While they were talking, they heard some girls screaming as they stared on the laptop of one of their classmates.

Chanyeol and Kyungsoo turned their head to see what it was and listened to the girls’ conversation.

 

“Kya! Look at them, they are so cute!” one of the girls squealed in excitement.

“I know right. I even bought extra memory for my camera because I can’t stop taking pictures of them.”

“Can I copy those?” one of the girls asked.

“I don’t know. I worked hard for this,” said the owner of the laptop.

“Alright, just to let you know that I just got their class schedule…” the girl boasted.

“What?!? Ok, you can copy these. Just let me have a copy of their schedule.”

“Me too!” the other girls screamed.

 

Chanyeol and Kyungsoo looked at each other in confusion.

“What is that about?” asked Baekhyun. Chanyeol just shrugged his shoulder.

“Maybe some idol fangirling,” said Chanyeol.

“Hmm, whatever,” said Baekhyun.

“By the way, have you heard that there will be exchange students coming to our school?” said Kyungsoo.

“Really? From where?” asked Baekhyun.

“I don’t know. They say it was from our sister school.”

“Ohh…” said Chanyeol who looked at Sehun, who was still thinking about Kai and the dance competition.

---

“Kai? Kai?” Seyoon kept repeating as she was trying to catch the attention of Kai, who was staring at the window.

“Uhm?” Kai snapped from his absent-mindedness.

“You said you need help on our homework.”

“Ah…about that…”

“But we don’t have homework for our next class,” said Seyoon.

“I’m sorry,” he said to her.

“Are you avoiding Sehun?”

“Me? No! Of course not. Why would I avoid him?” Seyoon looked at Kai who was obviously not telling the truth.

“If you have any problem, you can share it with me. I can help you,” said Seyoon. Kai looked at her lenient smile for which he fell for a lot of times. But no matter how kind Seyoon looked like, he doesn’t want to share his problems with her.

“No, I’m okay,” he said as he went back to his desk.

After a while, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, and Sehun went back to their classroom. Seyoon looked at Kai who was avoiding having eye contact with Sehun. The two were very silent as they finished the last half of today’s classes.

---

“Who want to have some ddeokbokki?!” asked Chanyeol.

“I’ll pass. I’ll just see you tomorrow,” said Kai as he was waving his hand with his back facing them. Sehun grabbed his bag.

“You said we’ll talk about the competition after class. Let’s talk about it now,” said Sehun.

“What do you want to talk about?”

Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol, and Seyoon looked at them nervously as they felt the tension between the two.

“Why did you turn down the competition?” Sehun asked calmly.

“Like I said earlier, I just don’t feel like competing.”

“Then at least, you should tell me about it. Not that I found out about it from our other group members. And you’re not like the Kai that I know. You never turned down a competition before especially as big as this one. Do you even know how important this is?”

Kai stared silently on the floor. “What do you want me to do then?”

“Just tell me why you don’t want to compete? It’s not like you just felt not competing. That’s unreasonable.”

“If you don’t want to believe then don’t believe in me. That’s my reason, nothing else.” With that, Kai let go of Sehun’s hand which grabbed his bag and walked away.

“Is it because of the new students?” Sehun shouted. Kai suddenly stopped from walking. Sehun went near him. “Is it because of the new students? I heard they are also competing.”

“I don’t know get what you mean.”

“I heard that they are members of last year’s national dance champion. Is it because of them that you turned down the competition?”

Kai turned around to face Sehun and grabbed his collar. “So what are you trying to say huh? That I turned it down because I am afraid of them?!?!” Kai said angrily to Sehun.

“Then why don’t you tell me the real reason? Are you afraid that we will lose? Don’t feel like competing? That’s not the reason the real Kai would give me. This is our opportunity to show them what we’ve got. Don’t you understand?”

Chanyeol looked at Seyoon who was obviously worried for them but can’t do anything. They just stood there as Kai and Sehun continued their argument.

“Okay. Alright.” Kai let go of Sehun. “Join the competition then…without me,” he said as he hurriedly left. Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo approached Sehun while Seyoon ran to catch Kai.

“The new students are competing for the dance competition?” asked Chanyeol. Sehun nodded at him.

“Then why would Kai be afraid of them? I knew Kai. He would always want strong competitors,” said Kyungsoo.

“I don’t know. Maybe because one of them is…”

~*~

 

 

 

 

 

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