No One’s POV

Zico looked at the clock. “Oh, wow, is that the time already?” he asked.

Kasumi looked up and saw that it was four-thirty in the afternoon. “Wow, I guess we got carried away, eh?”

He grimaced. “Carried away by work?” he groaned.

She laughed. “And I thought I was the tutee. Don’t tutees usually wish for time to fly past faster, not wanting to do work?”

Zico shrugged and winked. “Well, you should be glad that I’m not any ordinary tutor,” he said arrogantly.

“Right, you’re the kind of tutor who still needs to be tutored,” Jaehyo muttered as he lazily flipped a page of the magazine he was reading. He put it down. “Seriously, Jiho-yah. You’re a tutor now. You shouldn’t need me to help you teach Kasumi. You should know them. I taught you all those last year!”

Zico only sheepishly rubbed the back of his name. “Heh.” Then he turned to Kasumi and smiled brightly. “Well, I think we’re done here so yeah.”

She nodded and began to pack her things. “Thank you, Jiho sunbae.” She looked over to Jaehyo. “Thank you, Jaehyo sunbae.”

“You’re welcome,” the boys replied.

She took her phone out and began to call someone. “Yeobosaeyo? Yunho Oppa? . . . Yeah, can you fetch me back home? I’m done already. . . . All right, gomawoya, Oppa.” She hung up and smiled at the two boys in the room.

Zico smiled back. “I’ll wait with you downstairs if you want,” he offered.

“Sure. Thanks.” She walked out of the room.

He was about to walk out with her when Jaehyo grabbed his arm back and made him turn to him. “Hey, have you asked her about Saturday?” he asked.

He shook his head. “No, not yet.”

“You better ask her before she makes plans,” he said sternly. “Before they all make plans and then Min Hyuk hyung isn’t going to be happy.”

“All right, all right,” he hastily said, shrugging his arm off. “I’ll ask her while waiting for Yunho sunbae to pick her up.” He quickly walked out of the room. He found Kasumi bidding goodbye to everyone.

B-Bomb was giving him death glares, wondering if he had asked her what he was supposed to ask her. He just grimaced at him and mouthed, “Later,” as he followed Kasumi out of the apartment.

The two of them went downstairs.

They went to the lobby and waited. Zico wasn’t sure how long Yunho would take. He checked his watch. It was four forty-five in the evening and both of them weren’t saying anything. While Kasumi was thinking about everyone back at the orphanage, Zico was awkwardly trying to think of a way to ask what he wanted to ask her.

Finally he summed up the courage and turned her. He said, “Hey, we’re having a barbeque over at the public pool on Saturday afternoon. I know it’s still winter, that’s why we’re doing it at the inside pool. And, so, Block-B and I were wondering if you and your f(x) friends would like to join us as well?”

Kasumi was surprised but also touched with the invitation. “Er, I’ll have to ask my parents about it,” she replied, “and if my friends want to go too. But thanks for the invite.” She smiled at her tutor. “It’ll most likely be a yes, though.”

He just smiled and shrugged, shoving his hands inside his jeans pockets. “Welcome. Let me know soon, all right? I need to know exactly how much stuff to buy,” he said.

She nodded as a car pulled up into the curb. “Sure. I’ll let you know.” She gave a wave and got in the car before it drove off.

Zico waited until he could no longer see the car before he went back up. The moment he walked in the front door, B-Bomb practically jumped on him.

“So?” he asked eagerly. “Did you ask her? What did she say?”

He shook his head at his hyung’s eagerness. “Yes, hyung, I asked her. And she said she’ll have to ask her friends and her parents about it.”

He pumped his fist into the air. Then he paused. “Do you think that Amber will come?” he wanted to know.

U_Kwon stared at his hyung in disbelief. “That’s the girl you like in f(x)? Dude, what is wrong with you? She’s scary!” he exclaimed in a staged whisper, pretending to strangle himself to death.

B-Bomb gave him a chilled look. “I could help you with that,” he offered, gesturing toward where his hands were.

U-Kwon dropped his hands back to his sides and smiled cheekily. But if he was honest enough, he was excited that girls might be coming. He had been single for far too long already and he was actually kind of jealous of B-Bomb who went out on different dates almost every week.

He was ready to get back into the game!

When Sunggyu went up to everyone at the table during lunch on Friday, he had this big grin on his face that made his eyes to disappear. His friends weren’t sure if he was even smiling, to be very honest.

“What is it?” Hoya asked the leader once he sat down. He knew that something was on his mind. It was really obvious.

Everyone stopped eating and waited.

“Let’s go roller-skating tomorrow!” he announced cheerfully. “I noticed that we haven’t been going out together and doing a fun activity ever since a week before Christmas. And I really want to go roller-skating.”

“Sure,” everyone spoke up eagerly but Kasumi was the only one who flatly replied, “I can’t go out with you guys tomorrow.”

“Why?” Sunggyu whined.

“Yeah, why?” Woohyun wanted to know as well.

“Erm.” She looked at each expectant pair or eyes but didn’t know how to tell them. She knew they would not be happy to hear that she was going to a Block-B event. She turned to Myungsoo for help.

He saw the look on her face and knew her dilemma. He decided to come to her rescue. “Oh, right, you’re going out with f(x) tomorrow, right?” he said, careful not to mention anything about Block-B.

She nodded, grateful that he was considerate. “Neh.”

Sunggyu frowned, displeased. He hated it whenever something didn’t go exactly the way he wanted them to go. “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

“It’s not like you planned it earlier,” she shot back.

Sungyeol nodded. “She has a point,” he spoke up, earning a glare from the leader. He shrank back. “What? She does,” he mumbled.

“Anyway, I didn’t think you would want to go out and do something together,” Kasumi spoke up regrettably. She really was sorry. But she couldn’t back out now because she had promised Block-B first. “I’m sorry. Besides, we just arranged everything last night so it wasn’t as if I kept it from you all this while.”

It was technically not a lie. The f(x) girls had confirmed with her the previous night and she had asked her parents who said yes, since there would be other girls going and Myungsoo had vouched for her safety. Then she had told Zico about it.

Woohyun pouted. “It won’t be fun if you’re not there.”

Everyone else murmured in agreement.

She smiled softly and kissed his cheeks. “Think of it as an Infinite outing,” she said, “just the seven of you. Okay?”

That cheered all of them — but only slightly. As much as they were thrilled to spend time as just as the seven of them, they knew they would feel like something was missing since Kasumi was practically like an associated member.

Kasumi turned to her brother and mouthed, “Thank you,” to which he mouthed back, “You’re welcome,” and smiled at her.

The next afternoon Myungsoo promised Kasumi that he wouldn’t tell everyone that she was with Block-B. Then while he went roller-skating with Infinite for the day, Kasumi, Amber, Sulli, Luna and Krystal went to the public pool at twelve in the afternoon, like how Zico said for them to be there at. Victoria couldn’t go because she was busy with her work so it was just the five of them.

They went to the inside pool where it was warmer than outside (it was still winter, although spring was coming) and found Block-B already grilling food, getting everything prepared for the barbeque. Some of them were already in the pool.

U-Kwon waved at them from where he was wading in the pool. “Hey!” he called out to them. Then he turned to B-Bomb with a smirk. “Look, Amber’s here, hyung.” He snickered before he cracked up.

Zico, Jaehyo and Kyung just smirked at B-Bomb’s reddened face. Taeil and P.O were playing with a beach ball and were oblivious to what was happening out of the pool. They were having so much fun, the oldest and the maknae together.

B-Bomb just threatened to throw the burning-hot tho