The day's exhausting rehearsals have finally come to an end. The newfound friends bade farewell and huddled in their respective groups, following their trainers to the chartered buses to bring them back to their institutions. Hyoyeon trailed to the back of the group, not wanting to be distanced from her old life again. Jonghyun noticed this and sighed. His sister obviously longed for her past, and that was what he wanted for her too, but since she had already made up her mind to resign to her fate, he's going to help smoothen the transition into her new life. After all, what were siblings (and friends) for? Jonghyun grinned as an idea popped into his head and nudged Onew. "Hyung, go get her for me, will you?"

 

Onew turned and saw Hyoyeon who was, by then, lagging far behind the group. He realised what Jonghyun was up too and nodded, making his way hurriedly to the girl in question. She's so pretty even when she's dazed. I wonder what she's thinking about. He followed her gaze and halted to a stop. That jerk again. He breathed in deeply. "Hey Hyoyeon, let's go, hurry. The rest are waiting!" He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away. Hyoyeon broke out of her trance and took a second to figure out what was going on. She let herself be dragged towards the bus which would send her back to her new home; her aching heart left her with no strength to argue. "Bye, Jaebo," she murmured. 

 

Onew pretended not to hear her. Sure, the kid's cute (he did, after all have Hyoyeon's genes), but if he was the product of the ACT between his Beauty and her Beast, he didn't like him. Not one bit. 

 

They soon caught up with the rest who were still boarding the bus. Being ever the gentleman, Onew stepped aside to allow the lady to board before him. Upon seeing Hyoyeon, Eunhyul started waving frantically, trying to get her attention. He had saved a seat for her and wanted to make good use of the bus ride back to figure out what was going on. Onew scowled as Hyoyeon made her way to the empty seat next to Eunhyuk. He encircled his fingers around Hyoyeon's arm and pulled her into the nearest seats. Hyoyeon was startled by this sudden action but did not refuse. She simply turned and nodded apologetically at the older boy. 

 

Eunhyuk rolled his eyes. Relax buddy, she's all yours. I'm not going to steal her. Funny, he thought. He never thought the young, kind, friendly, crazy Onew would be so possessive. Perhaps it was a good thing. At least now, Hyoyeon would have someone to look after her. All of a sudden, he felt someone plop himself into the seat he'd saved. "Hey bro, I know I'm not a pretty girl, but can I sit here? She's not going to come anyway." 

 

Eunhyuk turned just to be greeted by a grinning Donghae. "Yah, it's not like that."

 

"What's not like what, huh?"

 

Eunhyuk groaned and facepalmed. Then he straightened himself out. If he can't hear it from Hyoyeon, he could at least try someone else. "Hae, when was the first time you met Yuri, and, what do you know about her?"

 

"Whoa, easy there bro! Just because you can't get Hyo, you're going to switch targets?"

 

"UGH. WOULD YOU STOP THIS NONSENSE ALREADY HAE? I'm being serious."

 

"Okay, okay, chill man! No need to get all worked up, I'll answer you. SHEESH." grumbled Donghae crossly. "I met her when I first joined the school. She was just... always there I guess. A child who dances so weirdly, yet so gracefully at the same time, she was a little like Yesung-hyung you know. Not especially noisy, but you can't ever miss her. Yeah, after some time, we just started talking I guess? Since she was already best friends with Hyoyeon who wanted to befriend anyone and everyone. I don't really remember. Why do you want to know all this anyway?"

 

He knows too little, thought Eunhyuk, he arrived too late, I need someone who found out how Yuri and Hyoyeon met each other. "Nothing, just curious." Upon seeing Donghae's disbelieving face, he added,"you're forever so awkward, so... I was just trying to make small talk, you know?"

 

Donghae eyed his friend suspiciously. He's definitely up to something. It was strange though,how the boy asked about Yuri. They had know each other for about 5 years now, why would he ask about Yuri out of the blue? He stared at Eunhyuk's slouched shoulders, his back facing him and said softly,"Hey, Hyuk, I'm here whenever you need to talk, yeah, we're best buds!"

 

Eunhyuk turned to face his friend, "Sorry, but this is one thing I've got to do without you." Because who knows, Donghae might be in this too, for all he knew. As much as he trusted his friend... No, that wasn't it. What he was truly afraid of was that Donghae would be so eaten by anger when he finds out that he'd lash out at Yuri, his long-time friend. And Eunhyuk was not prepared to be the antagonist here. He just had to be sure. And maybe, hopefully, he could save a princess in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note: Hey guys! I was so excited because of all the new subscribers so I decided to update today even though I have papers tomorrow(: Sorry this chapter's kind of short and filler-ish, I haven't had time to properly draft the proper next chapter yet. I'll probably do it next week or the week after, when all my I have time to take a breather from my crazy schedules. Thanks for all the support even though I haven't been updating much, and I hope you guys are enjoying this! Do comment to let me know what you think!