Seyoon was taken aback by the sudden pull that brought her to one of the dark empty rooms. Before she could even shout for help, there was a large hand the covered .

“Sshh…” she heard a familiar deep baritone voice. She knew that voice perfectly well. Well, everyone in their school knew who owned that deep voice since he was the only one who has it. The man let go of his hand covering but he still managed to hold Seyoon tightly on her wrist.

That made Seyoon turned around and had a glance of the person she expected to see.

“Chanyeol?” she asked.

Chanyeol lifted his one finger to cover Seyoon’s lips, telling her to turn down her voice into minimal volume.

“What are you doing?” she whispered, almost voicelessly saying the last words.

“Let’s just wait here for a while,” Chanyeol whispered back. But his deep voice still made it almost audible. He brought Seyoon behind him while he took a peek through the window and see if the girl was still there.

“What are—”

“She’s gone,” Chanyeol said in his normal voice as he heaved a sigh. He turned around to face Seyoon. “Yah!” he shouted at Seyoon.

Seyoon gasped and her eyes grew wide in surprised by Chanyeol’s sudden change of tone. All of these years, she was already used to hear Chanyeol’s deep voice but it was the first time that she heard him shout to her. “Why?” she asked nervously.

Chanyeol took another sigh, realizing that he shocked Seyoon with his loud voice. “Sorry, but what are you trying to do? You’re planning to confront her without asking someone for backup. I don’t even know that you already know that she was the one—”

“Wait. I can’t understand what you’re trying to say. I was just on my way to my locker when I saw that girl. She was trying to return something to me. What—what are you saying?” Seyoon asked confusedly.

“You,” Chanyeol swallowed hard before speaking again, “You don’t know anything?” he asked.

Seyoon shrugged. “Ah…what is it that I supposed to know?”

Chanyeol had his head hung low, facepalming. “I thought you already know.”

“What should I know? Besides,” Seyoon stopped and went near Chanyeol whose palm was still stuck on his face. “Yah!” she shouted to his ears. Chanyeol was surprised, almost stumbling backwards and hitting one of the desks.

“Wha—what is that? Why are you shouting at me?” he asked frantically.

Seyoon hit Chanyeol’s shoulder, giving him punches which of course weren’t really causing any pain but enough to make Chanyeol realized Seyoon’s frustrations about him. “You were avoiding me for days and then you’d just dragged me here and then shouted at me and then telling me things I don’t know. Pabo ya?!” Seyoon burst.

Now it was Chanyeol who was surprised. Neither he had heard nor seen Seyoon burst in anger before. “So—sorry. I’m sorry. It’s just that—”

“Why? Why are you avoiding me? You just don’t know how much I miss you these past few days. Every time I tried to talk to you, you’d look somewhere else or talk to Sehun. And then, you’d never sit beside me during lunch. You never greet—”

Chanyeol stared at her wide-eyed. “You miss me? Seyoon, you said you miss me? Aigoo!” Seyoon suddenly felt Chanyeol’s long arms encircling her. And since she was lacking height compared to the giant in front of her, her feet were lifted a few inches in the air.

Seyoon chuckled by Chanyeol’s sudden action. “Yes, I miss you but please don’t squeeze me too much. I can’t—breathe…”

“Sorry. Are you alright? I’m sorry. I actually miss you too,” Chanyeol said, lowering his head in embarrassment.

“Now, I believe you have a lot of explaining to do.” Chanyeol looked at Seyoon and gave her a nod.

---

“Where’s Seyoon?” Luhan asked as soon as he saw the empty seat where Seyoon usually sit during lunch.

“She said she’ll just put some things in her locker,” Kyungsoo replied.

“Where’s Chanyeol?” Baekhyun asked Sehun. Sehun shrugged because Chanyeol never said anything when he left the classroom a while ago.

“He seems in a hurry when he left. He never says anything to us before he left,” said Sehun.

Suddenly, Baekhyun, Sehun, and Kyungsoo turned their heads to an unexpected person going near their table.

“Kai? What brought you here?” asked Luhan. Kai just looked at him and shrugged.

“Where’s Seyoon?” he looked at Kyungsoo and Sehun.

“She said she’ll just put some things in her locker. But she will be back,” said Kyungsoo.

“Alright. But how long has she been gone?” he asked. Ever since the incident yesterday and Kai’s discovery of the mysterious note and Seyoon’s English book, he couldn’t help but think of the possible not-so-good things that could happen in the future.

“About twelve minutes ago,” Sehun tilted his head to the side and shrugged.

“Twelve minutes…that’s long enough. She should be here earlier than that,” Kai said.

All of the boys looked at him especially Luhan. They were quite confused on why Kai sounded really concern of Seyoon’s whereabouts.

“Why are you looking for Seyoon anyway?” asked Luhan.

“Oh nothing. I just want to ask something. Well, maybe I’ll just have my lunch here until she comes back. Am I still invited here?”

“Of course!” Kyungsoo replied enthusiastically.

“You can seat here,” said Sehun as he offered the empty seat beside him.

“Long time no lunch together buddy,” said Baekhyun. Lay and Xiumin just smiled at Kai as he sat down.

Suddenly, Baekhyun heard his phone’s alert tone. “Oh, I guess Seyoon will not be joining us for lunch. Chanyeol said that he and Seyoon will eat lunch together,” Baekhyun announced.

“What?” Luhan pouted.

Kai just nodded.

“It’s time to settle things,” Baekhyun texted Chanyeol.

---

“Sorry. It’s just that when I saw you dragging Luhan somewhere and rumors started to spread that you two were already…I mean, I thought you two are already dating and—”

“What?!” Seyoon laughed loudly and Chanyeol couldn’t help but stare at her eyes turning into thin crescents. “Of course we’re not! Ahh Chanyeol, what are you thinking?”

“That’s why I am sorry alright. Well, I really felt guilty when I didn’t greet you properly that morning and it was even harder when I chose Sehun as my project partner. Seyoon, you didn’t know what I’ve been through. I lied when I said that he was the best project partner. He’s the worst,” Chanyeol cried.

Seyoon couldn’t help but smile. It’s been a while since she talked with Chanyeol like this and she really missed these kinds of moments with him, his whining, his cute complains, and behind his deep voice and tall height was his childish attitude which Seyoon find the most interesting.

 “Anyway, so I decided to skip lunch that day to think of ways on how to approach you and apologize. I was on my way to your locker when I saw this girl and she was putting something in your locker.”

Seyoon recalled that day and that was the day when she first received that note and it was also the first day when she found out that someone has grudge on her.

“I thought you knew her so I just observed her before she go. Well, I—” Seyoon noticed Chanyeol’s face blushing. “I actually wrote a sorry letter for you and also decided to put it in your locker. When I opened it, I saw the note and—”

“You read it?” Seyoon asked.

“I really didn’t mean to…Sorry,” Chanyeol lowered his head.

“It’s okay. It’s nothing compared to the help you’ve given me this week,” said Seyoon. Chanyeol looked at her with a questioning face but never said anything. “So?” Seyoon continued.

“Huh? What ‘so’?”

“So, where’s the letter you wrote for me? I never see it.”

“Well, about that…I decided not to put it.”

“Why?”

“I decided to find out who that girl is…”

“And you decided not to talk to me for the whole week?” Chanyeol felt the anger in Seyoon’s tone but he just ignored it and continued.

“It’s like this. I actually asked Baekhyun for help and he told me that—”

“I knew it," Seyoon thought as she already she also find Baekhyun weird lately. "Ok, go on.”

“He told me that I should use this avoiding-Seyoon-for-the-meantime scheme so I could freely observe the girl without you noticing what I’m up to. Besides, I noticed that you stayed silent after finding that note. I just thought that you don’t want anyone of us to know about it so I decided not to tell you that I know about it.”

Seyoon stayed speechless for a while. After all this time, she thought that she was alone in this battle but without her knowing, two of her friends were there for her and Chanyeol even sacrifice a week of not talking to her just to find out who the anonymous note sender was. ‘I am not alone after all,’ she thought.

“I actually have a lot of things to tell you especially about those chairs,” Chanyeol stayed silent and looked at Seyoon for a moment.

“So it was done by the same person? She was also targeting my friends?” Seyoon asked.

Chanyeol swayed his head. “For the first question, it was actually yes. It was done by the same person. For the second…”

“What? Tell me.”

“Actually, she was only targeting you.”

Seyoon looked at Chanyeol wide-eyed. “What do you mean? But Sehun’s and Lay’s chairs were—”

“I actually did that. The first chair, the one you found in the bushes, I actually did that. After cleaning the desk and the classroom, I already left the room. But I found out that I left one of my book so I went back and when I went inside…”

“My chair was gone?” Chanyeol nodded.

“I remembered that I put everything back into place but yours was really not there. When I looked outside, I found it lying on the bushes. I went down to get it but I found out that some of the screws were loosely untightened. So I exchanged it with Lay’s chair…” Chanyeol heard Seyoon sighed heavily. “I’m sorry. Anyway, Baekhyun came and I told him about it and said to me that I should bring another chair downstairs. He told me that if that girl would find out that someone was helping you, she might be cautious and we will not be able to know her identity. So Baekhyun and I brought Lay’s chair, the one that is perfectly fixed, and we put it on the same spot where I found your desk.”

"On the bushes.." Chanyeol nodded again. “So the one that Sehun and I carried back to our room was Lay’s chair and the one that Xiumin sat on and was broken was my original chair…” Chanyeol nodded. “Yah! Do you even know the risk of what you’ve done? Do you know that Sehun and the rest of the class thought that it was you who did that?!” Seyoon asked angrily.

“Sorry, I’m really sorry,” Chanyeol lowered his head as he apologized. Seyoon took a deep breath and patted Chanyeol’s back.

“Sorry. I never meant to yell. And thanks for that but I really felt sorry for Lay, well Xiumin was the one who got hurt so I felt sorry for the two.”

Chanyeol would never say to Seyoon that he really chose to exchange Seyoon’s chair with Lay’s because he noticed that the two were getting close lately. He wouldn’t say that to Seyoon because she would just get angrier to him if she found out.

“Anyway, then there was the desk smudged with blank ink…”

“Let me guess. That’s my chair that you exchanged with Sehun’s.”

Chanyeol nodded again. “I went earlier that day because I thought that she might do something unwanted again.”

“And you saw the chair but she wrote something in it, I guess.”

“Well, not only that. I actually saw her on act as she wrote something on your desk.” Chanyeol heard Seyoon sighed again.

“What did she write?”

“Something…ahh…”

“What?”

“Something similar to the note except that the ‘him’ was exchanged with a name.”

“Whose name?” Seyoon asked monotonously and looked directly to Chanyeol’s eyes which made Chanyeol gulped in fear.

“Lu—Luhan” Chanyeol mumbled.

“Luhan?” Seyoon shouldn’t be surprise because she already guessed from the start that there was a possibility that it had something to do with her and Luhan. But ever since Luhan told her last time that he talked to his ‘fangirls’ about them, she already dropped the possibility that the incidents were related to him. And yet, Chanyeol already said to her about this. “So it was about Luhan…”

“Sorry if I am saying all of these to you just now. If only I said it earlier…”

“No. Like I said, you’ve done a lot for me. You don’t have to apologize. Do you think I don’t know that the English book I found in my locker was yours?”

Chanyeol looked at Seyoon, mouth gaping. “I thought you don’t—”

“Well, it doesn’t have a name and any notes in it so I really thought it was Luhan’s but then I found that almost unreadable name at the back of the book.”

“I don’t remember writing my name on that book.”

“You don’t but you put your nickname that only Baekhyun and I knew. Am I right, Park Do-bi?!”

Chanyeol gasped. Now, he remembered. He actually wrote in small letters the nickname that Baekhyun used to call him when they were young. Unfortunately for him, Seyoon found out about it when Baekhyun accidentally showed her their childhood pictures. “So you knew that it was me?” Chanyeol somehow couldn’t help but smile, or rather, grin after finding out that his effort wouldn’t remain unknown to Seyoon.

“And the umbrella that Baekhyun lend me, it was yours, right?” Seyoon asked him.

“How did you know?”

“The giraffe pattern. That’s the umbrella that your mother gave you last year on your birthday. Am I right?”

“Wah, Seyoon…” Seyoon looked at Chanyeol with a questioning face. “You really know a lot about me. You truly are a real friend,” said Chanyeol with a tone that was in between crying and happiness.

“No, Chanyeol. You are. You are a real, real, true friend. I don’t think I’ll ever find someone like you. Thank you,” said Seyoon as he gave Chanyeol a hug. Chanyeol was surprised but still find it as an opportunity to hug Seyoon back.

“Yah, you’re squeezing me again,” mumbled Seyoon in between Chanyeol encircling hug.

“Sorry.”

“Yah, what are you two doing?” suddenly they heard a voice entering the classroom they were in.

“Kai?” they asked in unison.

“I thought you’ll be having lunch with this giant. But you’re not eating anything and instead I saw you two hugging,” said Kai rather coldly.

“Why? I just miss Seyoon,” said Chanyeol, pouting.

“Miss? But you’re seeing each other every day,” Kai asked obliviously.

“It’s a long story. By the way, why are you here?” asked Seyoon.

“Ah…nothing. I just want to see if you’re okay…” Kai said while averting his gaze somewhere.

Seyoon smiled at him. “Don’t worry. I am okay. Chanyeol is here,” she said.

Chanyeol and Seyoon exchange smiles which made Kai snort at the corner. “Alright. Wait, does Chanyeol know…?”

Seyoon nodded.

“Wait, Kai also knows…?”

Seyoon nodded again.

“I thought I am the hero here,” Chanyeol mumbled, almost inaudible that only he could hear.

“What did you say?” asked Kai.

“Nothing. Hmpf,” he replied with slight annoyance.

“So, do you have any idea who's doing all of that to Seyoon?” asked Kai. Both he and Seyoon looked at Chanyeol.

“It was the girl in front of your locker a while ago. It was Ji Eun, Luhan’s fanclub president,” Chanyeol announced.