“Luhan,” Seyoon gritted her teeth, barely uttered Luhan’s name. When she opened the ‘thank you gift’ that Luhan gave her, she found two different sized boxes. The first one contained a Chinese hair stick; at the end of it were wings and a dangling crystal. Under it was a note that said, “The first time I saw you, you had a long beautiful hair so I planned to give this to you before I left to China after the exchange program, but I wasn’t able to see you back then so I thought, now is the time. Even though you have a shorter hair now, I still hope you’ll be able to use it. Don’t worry, no matter what length your hair is, I still love it.”

Seyoon studied the hair stick and she tried to tie her hair with it, but it was to short that the hair stick couldn’t hold it in. She sighed just by the thought of her former long hair. But she had to cut it anyway because it just reminded her of the summer that she didn’t want to remember.

And then under the hair stick box was a bigger box. When she opened it, that’s when her teeth started to grit and uttered Luhan’s name. Inside of it was a lunchbox and another note that said, “I’m hoping to taste the food that you make someday…” After that ellipsis, she could imagine Luhan with a big grin plastered on his face, “…or maybe tomorrow,” followed by a huge smiley. So he had given her another request she couldn’t escape, she thought.

How could Luhan affect her in two distinct ways? One was his ability to piss her in all sorts of direction that if only she could, she would punch him in the face already. The other was his ability to make her feel better despite his playfully annoying personality. It was weird she thought and either way, she knew she had found a new friend.

But who’s weirder, and putting Luhan aside, was Kai. After their joined escapade to the amusement park, after he sent Krystal off, after Seyoon waved goodbye to Luhan, when they walked together, just the two of them, she heard him talk to her. But not in a forced, minimal talk, but rather in a lengthy conversation until they got home and went into their separate rooms.

And the way he talked to her, it was as if she was talking to the Kai from two years ago. That kind of Kai with a friendly and brotherly tone. She remembered how he talked to her, talking about the rides they had, how Luhan looked pathetic riding the roller coaster, and they laughed. Yes, they laughed together talking about Luhan.  And then he thanked her for acting normal and not telling Luhan about him and Krystal.

Then, before they separated, he told her that he was happy for her and Luhan and their new found friendship. And that she could ask Kai any time if she needed help or advice. And that she shouldn’t mind him or the arranged marriage if she wanted to take a step further into her relationship with Luhan. And that…once she closed the door of her room, that made her sobbed. Burying her face to the pillow so that little sound or better, no sound could be heard beyond the walls enclosing her. So maybe it was over now…

And she only found her composure again when she opened Luhan’s gift. And she fell asleep thinking of what food she could make Luhan, with tears threatening to fall from the corners of her eyes.

---

The next morning, Seyoon woke up earlier as planned and started preparing breakfast for Kai and lunch for Luhan. She was thinking if she should make one for Kai but then she thought that maybe Krystal would already make one for him and that’s not her business anymore. And then after an hour, she heard Kai’s door opened and him coming out, smiling at her and greeted her. She replied back of course with a smile too.

Everything still felt so weird. Seyoon thought that he would just talk to her that night and the next morning would to turn to the usual silence they had. But it’s not. He started talking to her again.

“You seemed to prepare a lot of food today,” Kai told her.

Seyoon nodded. “Uh…I thought I’ll make lunch for Luhan, but it is just to thank him for yesterday,” she said, nervously smiling.

“Oh,” he muttered with an emotionless face and then she saw Kai smiled again, and started eating the breakfast she made.

And she found the consequent mornings like that. They were talking a little casual now. He even started talking to her at school but only when he would join their lunch which became scarce for some reason, but maybe because he would want to spent more time with Krystal, she thought. And Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Sehun, and Kyungsoo were surprised at first but nevertheless, they were happy.

Though, she still found it weird on his side. It was as if the happiness, the smiles he was showing her were all lies. But then she thought, there was no reason for him to lie to her or to force himself to talk to her because he could stop anytime and return to what they used to. But he still continued. And then she thought that maybe it was good after all. And if moving on would result to this, then she would.

---

“Seyoon-ah~!”

Seyoon’s ears cringed knowing the source of that annoying voice. “Yah, I told you that you shouldn’t call my name from afar with that tone because you’re gathering everyone’s attention,” she told Luhan.

Chanyeol looked at Luhan as he sat beside him. Good thing, he was able to sit beside Seyoon every time they had lunch so Luhan won’t have the opportunity to sit beside her. “Ahh, the vending machine inside the cafeteria is not working. If only someone could buy the drinks for us. Aren’t you thirsty Seyoon?” he said. Seyoon nodded at him.

“I’ll go!” Luhan enthusiastically stood up.

“Hey! You still don’t know our choice of drinks,” Xiumin exclaimed.

“I already know yours, and yours, and yours,” he said pointing to them one by one. “I don’t know what’s yours,” he said pointing to Sehun.

“Orange,” he said in a low voice.

“Alright! I’ll be back,” he said before he enthusiastically left.

“You’re not planning to date him, right?” Chanyeol asked Seyoon.

“Hey, give our friend a chance,” said Lay.

“Ahh…I still don’t know,” Seyoon replied. Well, she really still didn’t know if she would take their relationship a step further. After all, she didn’t realized that moving on would be this hard and time consuming. And the more that Kai talked to her like usual, the more her old memories of him would come back.

---

“Aish! That tall boy got me. If only I knew that the only working vending machine was this far, I wouldn’t have volunteered. What an idiot? What a nice-looking idiot?” Luhan said. What was even harder, he thought, was to carry all the cans with his two bare hands. There were eight cans and he didn’t know how to carry them all so he decided to put some in his pockets, and some in his hands.

Just when he was walking carefully, someone bumped into him, causing one can to burst on the floor.

“Oh my! Sorry,” the other person said to him.

“Aish! You should look where you’re going to. Look what have you done. That’s my girlfriend’s juice,” he said to the person. When he looked up, he saw a man unfamiliar to him.

“Sorry,” he said again. “I’ll just replace the other one.”

“Ahjussi, do you even know that this is the last can of that flavor from that one-and-only working vending machine?!” he said.

‘Ahjussi?’ the man thought. Even though that label somehow irritate him, he still stayed calm. After all, that’s not the only reason he should be mad at him. This kid was treating him like he was someone younger. He smiled at Luhan and said, “But, you can have another flavor. I’ll just replace one with another flavor.”

“No need. She doesn’t like other flavors. Next time, just look where you’re going, ahjussi.” Luhan said, leaving the man behind.

 “Ah…” he tried to get Luhan’s attention. “Do you know where the cafeteria is?” he asked him but it seemed like Luhan didn’t have any plan to turn his head and face him. Instead, he just continued walking. “Alright.”

---

After class, Seyoon was waiting outside the school gate to wait for Kyungsoo, Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Sehun as she invited them to have dinner with her and Kai later. She was looking left and right to look for them when someone covered her eyes.

“Guess who?” that someone asked her. Just with that man’s voice, she already knew who he was. Then, a huge smile plastered on her face.