Minah left the café at around 7 PM. Since EXO was unable to take her back to her dorm (it would be bad if Minah was seen with them), she walked back by herself. The boys apologized endlessly, though Minah didn’t mind walking alone. It wasn’t like she hadn’t done it before, anyway.

 

She arrived at the dorm at around 7:30 PM. She opened the door, and found herself being attacked by her roommate.

 

“Hello!” Hayoung cried, dragging Minah over to the couch. Hayoung pulled Minah down beside her, and let run with a million questions, all of them about her relationship with EXO. Hayoung stared at Minah the entire time she asked the questions, looking for any changes of emotion in her face. When Hayoung finished speaking, Minah groaned and put her head in her hands.

 

“It’s only the first week of school!” Minah exclaimed. “How does this stuff travel so fast?! And those rumor spreaders got their information all wrong!”

 

“It’s all wrong?” Hayoung said, a little sadly. “Then… Then where were you the whole day?”

 

“I was out shopping,” Minah said slowly, creating a scenario in her mind. “I didn’t find anything cute, though, so I didn’t buy anything.”

 

“You were shopping the whole day?” Hayoung asked, raising her eyebrows skeptically. “And didn’t get a single thing?”

 

“Well, I also stopped to eat,” Minah replied. “You know that really cute café that all the EXO fangirls go to? I went to that one. Their boba is so delicious!”

 

“Yeah, it is,” Hayoung smiled. “Speaking of EXO, what is your relationship with them? What is your relationship with Chanyeol? Is it true that you and him are dating?” And so the questions continued.

 

Minah answered them as best as she could without revealing her new friendship with EXO. When she finished, Hayoung tapped her chin slowly and thought hard.

 

“Hmm,” she said. “interesting.”

 

“You.. You don’t hate me too, do you?” Minah asked quietly. “For some reason, all the people at this school seem to dislike me. I don’t even know why.”

 

Hayoung laughed, a beautiful, sweet twinkling wound. “No, of course not! Why would I hate you? It’s not like the rumors are true, anyway.” She looked at Minah and smiled. “Plus, even if it were true, that’d only make me like you even more.  A girl getting friendly with EXO… Imagine!” 

 

Minah laughed nervously. “Now you’re the one making things up! Just because one guy chose me as his music partner doesn’t mean I’m getting friendly with them, “ She lied. “And the whole Kris thing was an accident! I don’t know why everyone’s making such a big deal out of it.”

 

 “Right? Girls can be so ridiculous sometimes.”

 

“It’s not just the girls, you know. Some guys have been giving me trouble too.” Minah pointed to her ripped up Literature textbook, which she hadn’t taped up yet.

 

Hayoung shook her head in disgust. “Why the hell did they do that? It’s not like they have a chance with EXO anyway!”

 

Minah agreed and let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh well. I’m sure it’ll stop soon, and things will go back to normal again.”

 

“Yeah, hang in there, Minah,” Hayoung said sympathetically. She stood up. “Hey, I’m going to shower first, okay?”

 

“Okay,” Minah replied. “I’ve got to do homework and fix the book, anyway.”

 

As Hayoung showered, Minah did her homework in the living room. After thirty minutes of struggling, Minah groaned and dropped her head onto the table. Why was calculus so difficult? She pounded her head on the table a few times before sitting back up. She flipped through the pages in her textbook and continued to attempt doing her homework.

 

When Hayoung finally came out of the shower, Minah had already given up on math. She had ended up looking online for the answers and writing random equations, just so there would be work to turn in. In short, she had bullted her assignment. Minah quickly finished the rest of her homework, and then it was her turn to take the shower. After that, Minah taped up her poor, broken Literature book and went to her bedroom. She passed Hayoung’s room as she walked, and discovered Hayoung sprawled across her bed, still clutching her laptop. Minah smiled and gently removed the laptop from her arms, shut it down, and covered Hayoung with the blanket. Minah continued walking to her own room.

 

…

 

Minah smiled into her blankets, which she had pulled up all the way to her nose. The past three years she hadn’t made any friends, but this year she already had 15: Taeyeon, Junhyun, EXO, and now there was Hayoung. She shut her eyes and fell asleep grinning, completely forgetting about the bullying she would receive the next day.

 

…

 

The next day was full of torments. Though Minah managed to survive, her textbook and papers weren’t as fortunate. She would definitely have to pay a fortune for the wrecked books.. Her first period, chemistry, was probably the worst class that day. People had thrown things at her, leered at her, pushed her around, and tripped her. One girl had even tried to rob her, though Minah quickly retrieved her bag before the girl could take anything valuable.

 

What’s worse was that Kris and Hayoung were both present to watch Minah get bullied. Hayoung looked like she wanted to speak up for Minah—her fists were clenched so tightly throughout the whole period that her knuckles turned white-- but she didn’t, probably because she was scared of getting targeted as well.

 

At one point during chemistry, someone threw a rock at Minah’s head. She let out a pained gasp as something came in contact with her skull. She picked up the medium-sized rock gingerly and wrapped her fingers around it, blinking back tears of pain. The back of the room burst into little giggles, and Minah turned around slowly, her eyes wide and hurt. Why in the world would they throw a rock at her? Why were they even bullying her anyway? She hadn’t done anything wrong…

 

As Minah turned, her eyes instinctively flickered over to Kris. He was staring at her. His face, which was usually filled with hostile glares, seemed apologetic instead. He mouthed “I’m sorry”, and Minah cocked her head to the side, temporarily forgetting about her annoying classmates and the throbbing in the back of her head. Kris was apologizing? What for?

 

Kris pointed to himself, and then added nine more fingers, equaling ten. He then added two more to that, and pointed at Minah. Then, he gestured to the rude students in the back.

 

Twelve fingers. The EXO boys. Minah. The outsider, the wallflower, the loner. He was apologizing on behalf of all the boys for making things troublesome for Minah. 

 

The thing was, though, that Minah didn’t blame the boys. She would never trade in her new friendships for peace and quiet. In the past, maybe, but now that she knew what it felt like to have more friends, she didn’t want to let it go. Anyway, the students at Junkang couldn’t keep bothering her forever. Sooner or later they’d find a new target, and move on. Once they stopped, hopefully Minah would still be friends with EXO. Maybe they could even be friends publically.. Maybe she could even introduce them to Taeyeon and Junhyun.

 

Minah shook her head. She was getting way ahead of herself. She shook her head at Kris and mouthed “No, it’s fine”. He was about to reply, when girls began to shout angrily.

 

“Hey!” one girl screamed, which shocked the professor horribly. The teacher, Mr. Lee, attempted to calm the class down, with no success.

 

“She’s trying to talk to Kris!!” the girl yelled. Other students began to join in the screeching.

 

“Look! She’s trying to seduce Kris with that ‘cute wounded puppy look’ of hers! As if Kris would fall for that!!”

 

Kris rolled his eyes at the ridiculous girls and sighed. They misunderstood his actions, and began to screech even louder, if that was even possible. Or maybe they DID understand what his facial expression meant, but were just looking for drama. Probably the latter.

 

“Look!” another girl cried, pointing to Kris’s annoyed face. “He rolled his eyes at her! Kris oppa obviously doesn’t want to talk to her, and yet she keeps trying to seduce him! I’ll bet she tried the same thing on Chanyeol, too!”

 

Great, Minah thought. Another reason for everyone to hate her. She and Kris had been caught having a silent conversation.

 

Kris opened his mouth, then shut up, reopened it, and closed it once more. He was speechless. Girls had such preposterous ways of interpreting things…

 

Minah sat in her seat quietly, her eyes glued to the clock. She ignored all the screaming students and watched the second hand make revolutions around the clock.

 

When at last the bell rang, Minah bolted out, leaving the teacher to continue stutter to himself. He had probably never experienced something like this before.

 

The next three classes were torture as well, though they were heavenly compared to Chemistry. Minah managed to keep low during her next four periods.

 

Lunch finally came after what seemed like years. The EXO boys grouped up and went to their private area, as usual, while Minah sat down at the lunch tables with Taeyeon and Junhyun. As usual.

 

The moment the three sat down, Taeyeoen’s mouth began to run uncontrollably. She shoved her lunch into , finishing it quickly so that she could interrogate her friend.

 

“Tell me everything,” she demanded eagerly, swallowing a mouthful of rice. “is it true?! Are you and EXO friends?!”

 

“Were you really flirting with Chanyeol?” Junhyun broke in. “Are you dating him?!”

 

“I can’t believe we didn’t hear about any of this until today,” Taeyeon groaned. “We’re so slow!!” She pouted for a second, and then turned to Minah again. “People also say that Chanyeol picked you as his partner in music!”She squealed and grabbed Minah’s hands “True or false?!”

 

“True,” Minah began. “But—“

 

“Oh my god!!” Taeyeon squealed again, earning strange looks from nearby students. “It’s true!! Junhyun, Minah said it’s true!!”

 

“Then!” Junhyun shouted. “Is it true that you two are dating?!”

 

“No! Of course not!” Minah said. “But-“

 

“But what?!” Taeyeon interrupted.

 

Minah raised her eyebrows and continued. “But—“

 

“Wait.” Junhyun raised his hand, indicating for Minah to stop talking. “Don’t tell me… You’re dating one of the other boys?!”

 

 “Oh my god!!” Taeyeon shrieked.  “Which one?!”

 

“Tell us!” Junhyun demanded, grinning widely. Taeyeon and her boyfriend began to chant. “Tell us! Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!”

 

Minah smacked herself in the forehead and sighed. Her patience was running low. So this was how crazy rumors started? People would just imagine scenarios and play them off as reality? Or assume things without knowing the full story?

 

“Well? Tell us!” Junhyun smiled.

 

“I have been trying to tell you.. for the past five minutes!” Minah put down her spoon and frowned slightly at her best friends.

 

Taeyeon pinched Minah’s cheek and giggled. “Hehe.. Sorry! We’ll shut up now and let you talk.” Junhyun nodded and the two leaned foreward eagerly, waiting for Minah to reveal the juicy news.

 

“First of all, I am not dating any of EXO,” she began. Minah took a deep breath. She was going to have to lie.. she had never lied to Taeyeon or Junhyun before.. “Nor am I friends with any of them,” she continued. It was a simple lie, but guilt welled up in her chest nevertheless, making it hard for her to breathe.

 

Taeyeon and Junhyun’s faces dropped. “But.. what about all the rumors..? Like.. the one about how you were flirting with Kris and Chanyeol? Or the one about Luhan being your childhood sweetheart?”

 

“I was never flirting with any of them!” Minah insisted. “I accidentally bumped into Kris on the first day of school, and that was it. And Chanyeol just chose me as his music partner for a project assignment. And how did Luhan suddenly become a part of this? I’ve never even talked to him before!” Minah lied again, and went dry.

 

“Oh.” Junhyun said simply. “Bummer.”

 

“Yeah,” Taeyeon agreed. “Man! I was hoping that you were friends with them! That way we could’ve met them too!”

 

“Totally,” Junhyun nodded.

 

Minah felt like a horrible friend. But there was nothing she could do now. She had already told them that she and EXO were not acquainted. How awkward would it be if she suddenly said, ‘oh wait. I forgot, exo and I ARE friends’? Hopefully, no one would find out about her relationship with EXO.. who knows what the fangirls and fanboys would do to her if they found out that she hung out with them.

 

The bell soon rang, and the trio stood up.

 

“Well, time to go,” Junhyun said, announcing the obvious.

 

“Duh,” Taeyeon laughed. “That’s what the bell is for.”

 

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Minah waved.

 

“See you!” Taeyeon and Junhyun waved back. The three walked to their respective classes.

 

Minah walked into Music, and was instantly greeted with glaring eyes and nasty snarls. Minah shrank back a little, but managed to run to her seat without tripping.. or getting tripped.

 

Chanyeol walked in and grinned at Minah. “Yo!” he shouted, taking a seat next to her. People hissed at his actions, but Chanyeol paid them no attention. “I have the perfect song in mind,” he announced.

 

Minah turned to him. “Really? What’s it called?”

 

“Well.. we don’t have a name for it yet. It’s an original,” Chanyeol explained. “Baekhyun, Chen, Luhan, and I wrote it. We were planning on performing it one day, but they agreed to let me test it out first. With you!”

 

“Cool!” Minah exclaimed. “Is there nothing you boys can’t do? You guys are rich, you all dress fashionably, run fast, dance, and now guys can even sing and write songs? Wow,” Minah shook her head and smiled. “Seriously, no one can match up to you guys.” Minah was so into the conversation that she forgot to keep her voice low. The entire class was listening, and some were even recording it. Where was Ms. Ji-Eun? She wasn’t here yet.

 

“You match up with us,” Chanyeol pointed out. Minah laughed and shook her head again. “Not even.”

 

The eavesdroppers were starting to get more and more suspicious. Just how close were these two?

 

Luckily for Minah, Ms. Ji-Eun walked in at that moment. The students all sat straight and shut up, scared of infuriating the teacher.

 

Ms. Ji-Eun smiled sweetly at the class and began the day’s lesson.

 

Sixth period was horrible as well, though still not worse than Chemistry. The boys from yesterday glared hatefully at Minah throughout the whole period, but that was about it.

 

When the bell rang, signaling the end of school, Minah felt her phone vibrate. She stepped out into the hall and took the phone out from her backpack.   It was a text from Chanyeol.

 

“Hey, want to practice the song today? Just us.”  The message read.

 

“Sure,” Minah typed back. “Where? Do I need to bring anything?”

 

“Meet me in the music room. Ms. Ji-Eun agreed to let us practice there. She promised that no one else would go into that room. We won’t be seen. Um…. Bring yourself?”

 

Minah smiled at his silly words and texted him back. “Sure. I’ll head there now.”

 

 

 

The two met five minutes later.

 

“Hi,” Minah greeted as she opened the classroom door. Chanyeol was already there. He sat on a chair, legs crossed, with a CD player sitting on his lap. Minah had to admit, he looked like a model.

 

“Hey,” Chanyeol replied, grinning. He stood up and walked over to Minah. He reached into his pocket and brought out a disc. “This is the song. I’ve got two versions on here. One is with Baekhyun, Luhan, Chen, and me singing. The other is the instrumental, so we can sing it together once you learn how it goes.”

 

“Wow, you came prepared,” Minah nodded in approval. “Great! But… I feel like such a leecher. I did nothing to contribute to this project.”

 

“Don’t be silly,” Chanyeol said, poking Minah’s cheek. She scrunched her face up and he laughed heartily. “I didn’t do much work either. We made this song waaay before the project. I’m basically just using it because it saves me a lot of work. Honestly, I think we’re both even in terms of contribution.”

 

“You’re too kind,” Minah smiled at the tall boy.

 

He grinned. “Not at all. Hmm. Fine, then how’s this? If you have a bad voice, I’m kicking you out of the team.”

 

“Yeah, except that isn’t possible,”  Minah pointed out.

 

“You got me there,” Chanyeol admitted, holding his hands up in defeat. “Well. Shall we get started?”

 

“Your inability to respond with a remark means I automatically win!” Minah said smartly. She laughed along with Chanyeol. “Sure. Let’s hear the song.”

 

Minah spent the next half hour listening to the song on repeat, reading off lyrics that Chanyeol had prepared for her. The boys, especially Baekhyun and Luhan, had angelic voices. Chen’s vocals were extremely powerful and beautiful. Chanyeol’s deep voice made his rapping extremely y.. How could Minah possibly sing a song like this? She didn’t have a horrible voice, but there was no way she could match up to EXO’s voices. There was no way. No way at all.

 

“I think you’ve got it memorized by now,” Chanyeol said, pushing the Stop button on the CD player. “Shall we try singing?”

 

“Um… my voice isn’t that amazing though…” Minah muttered. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

 

“What happened to your enthusiasm from earlier?” Chanyeol asked, raising his eyebrow. “You don’t want to sing anymore?”

 

“It’s not that… It’s..” She struggled for the right words. “You guys sound amazing. I can’t match up to your guys’s voices.”

 

Chanyeol’s eyes widened. “Wow. Thanks. I didn’t even know we sounded good. But don’t worry about it! Just try your best! None of us will be judging you. It’s just a homework assignment. You remember what Ms. Ji-Eun said? ‘Sing with emotion and in harmony, and I guarantee it will sound well.’ You’ll be fine,” he said comfortingly.

 

“Of course, that is if you aren’t completely tone deaf,” Minah recited Ms. Ji-Euns words as well.

 

“Oops. I had hoped that you didn’t remember that bit,” Chanyeol grinned. “So much for trying to make you feel better. Oh, whatever! I bet you’re not tone deaf. You’ll be fine!”

 

“Just remember: YOU chose me as your partner. If my singing , you can’t blame me, okay?” Minah said uncertainly.

 

“Deal,” Chanyeol grinned. He hit the Next button, and instantly the instrumental version began to play. Minah took a deep breath and waited. If she remembered correctly.. she was supposed to start singing… NOW!

 

Minah opened and let her voice carry past her lips. She closed her eyes (to avoid awkward eye contact with Chanyeol) and tried to block out all her thoughts. She simply let herself be engulfed in the music. She continued singing the verse, and went onto the chorus. When the chorus came to a close, Minah began to sing the second verse, but soon realized that she had forgotten everything that came after the first line. She faltered awkwardly and opened her eyes to look at Chanyeol.

 

He was staring at her. Oh no.. was her voice really that bad?

 

“Um,” she tried to say, but her voice came out as a squeak. She cleared and tried again. “Um, how was I?” she asked shyly.

 

Chanyeol grinned. “Not half bad,” he gave her a thumbs up. “To be honest, I had no idea your voice would sound like that. You should totally do a duet with Baekhyun. Your voices would harmonize perfectly.”

 

Minah blinked stupidly at Chanyeol, then smiled widely. “Thanks so much! Um, maybe I will sometime. When I get more confident.”

 

“Ookies,” Chanyeol nodded. “Let’s keep going. It looks like you’ve still got quite a bit to memorize.”

 

“Sorry…” Minah said sheepishly.

 

“Hey, no worries. It’s not due until next week.”

 

“True,” Minah agreed. She and Chanyeol continued to listen to the disc for a while longer.

 

Later, though, they found themselves chatting, and not paying attention to the song at all. An hour passed before Minah realized that they were supposed to be working on the project.

 

“Oh!” Minah cried. “Look at the time! We were supposed to be doing our song project!”

 

Chanyeol shrugged. “Oops. Well, we have all week anyway, and the weekend, too. Plenty of time.”

 

“I guess..” Minah replied.

 

“It was fun, though. Today, I mean. Talking to you and all,” Chanyeol turned his head to face her and chuckled. “Don’t you think so?”

 

“Yeah, it was fun,” Minah admitted. “We should do this again.”

 

“Tomorrow, then!” Chanyeol declared. “It’s getting close to dinnertime, anyway. We should get back to our dorms and eat. Same time, same place tomorrow?”

 

“It’s a date,” Minah nodded.

 

Chanyeol grinned. “Sure, if you want it to be.”

 

Minah’s eyes widened. “Hey! I didn’t mean it like that!”

 

He burst out laughing. “Oh!  Your face! I know you didn’t mean it like that, I was just messing with you.”

 

Minah punched his arm playfully and laughed along.

 

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow!” Chanyeol said, standing up. He smiled at Minah and offered her his hand. She placed her hand in his, and he curled his long, slender fingers over her smaller hand. He pulled her up and began to walk towards the door, pulling her along with him. He opened the door for her, and Minah exited first. She turned back to Chanyeol and waved.

 

“See you tomorrow!” she smiled warmly. Chanyeol waved back. “See you!”

 

With that, the two parted, both feeling rather giddy.

 

 

 

 

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Sorry I haven't posted in nearly a month! I've been really busy lately, and most of my free time has been going towards drawing... Plus, I was preparing for my AP tests :O WHICH I HAVE FINISHED BY THE WAY. YAAAAY