Three.

The group of you were gathered as usual around your favourite spot in the school cafeteria. Woohyun and Sunggyu were missing from the group because they had a different seminar slot from the rest of you, so they ended about an hour later.

You looked at your plate of cream spaghetti and started to use your fork to form the strands of pasta into words. You didn’t really feel like eating anymore. You didn’t know why, but your appetite had been weird all day. Usually you would have been ravenous by lunch, but lunch came and went, and your food was only a third eaten.

“What are you writing?” Sungyeol asked, his face stuffed with rice.

You rolled your eyes. “Chew first and talk later, Sungyeol,” you ordered, but you didn’t look up, you were still looking at your plate.

He ignored you and mumbled something incoherent which you didn’t bother trying to guess either.

“Ah, I see it. It’s your name.” Myungsoo smiled, pleased with himself for deciphering it so quickly.

You continued moving the strands of pasta on your plate. You tried to make a smiley next. But you couldn’t decide between a sad smiley or a happy smiley, so you made one with a neutral expression, with a straight line where the mouth was.

You felt someone else peer over your shoulder. It was Dongwoo. He rummaged around in his backpack, pulled out a bottle of peach juice and placed it in your tray.

You loved it when the guys remembered to do all these small stuff for you. Buying you chocolates when you were down, lending you their jackets when the air-conditioner in class got too cold and you forgot to bring yours, getting you drinks during meals, and walking you home even though you weren’t their girlfriend. As small as the acts were, you never failed to be thankful for everything they did for you.

You held up the bottle and waved it in front of Dongwoo. “Thanks for the drink!”

He smiled and tucked into his food. He looked a little tired than usual. You knew everyone was tired because the after-game drinks ended far too late last night. But Dongwoo being Dongwoo, he tended to be upbeat regardless of whether or not he had enough sleep.

You nudged him. “Hey, you okay?”

“I should be asking you that,” he said, pointing to your moody smiley. You hurriedly used your fork to mess up the pasta on the plate. He smiled, his eyes forming crescents as he messed up your soft, jet-black hair. “Don’t worry, just eat.”

You stared back at the gloppy mess of cream spaghetti on your plate and crinkled up your nose in disdain. “Nah, I’m done with lunch. I’m not hungry.”

“Don’t tell me…you’re nervous for your date with Hoya.” Myungsoo cast you a knowing glance. You gulped. “See! I knew it!”

“What. That’s…” you paused, your brain searching for words. “Weird. Yes, weird. Why would I be nervous?”

“Because you haven’t been on a date in ages,” Sungyeol quipped as he stuffed even more rice into his mouth.

“No…”

Myungsoo tapped you on the head. “Fine then, tell us, when was the last time you went out with a guy apart from the five of us?”

Last three months? Last year? No wait, maybe before you came into university. “I can’t remember,” you conceded burying your head into your hands.

Just then, a pair of hands wrapped themselves around your hands from behind. “Guess who?” the owner of the pair of hands asked.

You elbowed the person in the stomach from where you were sitting and spun around to find a wincing Woohyun. Sunggyu was right beside him, trying hard to stifle his laughter. “Well, hello Woohyun.”

Woohyun frowned. “Social graces, my dear! What if it was Hoya standing behind you? You would have scared him off!”

“First off, Hoya would have never done that, he’s much too shy. Secondly,” you paused and flicked Woohyun in the forehead, giving him a taste of his own medicine. “I recognize your voice anywhere. I only did that because I knew it was you.”

Sunggyu held his hand up to hi-five you. You grinned and returned the gesture. Woohyun tended to be pretty mischievous around you. At the beginning, the rest thought it was because he was interested in you, but then you realized he was the same to most of the other girls he knew. From time to time, you served him physical reminders to keep his behavior in check.

“So…what was the topic of discussion that caused our dear girl here to look so troubled?” Sunggyu asked as he settled down at the end of the table.

You waved your hand dismissively. “Oh nothing, they were just saying how I shouldn’t play with my food. And the usual comments about me eating slowly.”

“Oh really?”

“No, that’s not-” You delivered a swift kick to Sungyeol’s shin under the table before he could say anything more. “Ow!”

“Oh dear… Did you bite yourself while chewing on your food, Sungyeol?”

The poor boy only managed a whimper. He was obviously in too much pain to answer; your pointy-toed footwear today was quite a force to be reckoned with.

You opened your bottle of peach juice and held it out to him. “Here, you can have some juice.”

Sungyeol grudgingly took your juice and gulped it down, knowing that should he say anything more, he would probably end up with both his shins bruised by the end of lunch.

***

“You didn’t eat much at lunch. Are you hungry?” Myungsoo asked as he took your laptop from your arms. Both of you had ended classes and were walking home. He stayed the closest to you, just a few houses away along the same street.

You shook your head slowly.

He frowned. “Are you on a diet?”

You burst out laughing and whacked him on the arm. “Diet? Me?” You hated diets, you never stuck to them. You always told yourself you’d rather exercise more than eat less. And thankfully the guys always asked you along for runs and gym sessions, so your love for good food never caused your waistline to suffer.

“Then what’s wrong?” Myungsoo pouted at you, puzzled. He was usually quite spot on with reading what you had on your mind. You guessed that was why girls loved him so much; he knew what they wanted.

“Your pouts will not work on me,” you declared and pushed his face aside with your palm. As you turned around the corner to your street, you let out a long, deep sigh. “I don’t know, Myungsoo. You were partially right, I am worried about my date with Hoya. But…”

“But what?”

“There’s something else on my mind.”

“And…?” He looked at you, waiting for you to continue.

“And…I can’t tell you what it is.”

He stopped walking and turned to face you. “Really?”

You nodded.

“Oh.” Myungsoo looked somewhat disappointed. After all, he was the one you usually told the most things to, on your many walks home.

You felt bad. But you were confused too. You were concerned about Dongwoo. But you didn’t know if you were concerned in the capacity of a good friend, or if it was because you still had lingering feelings for him. And telling someone else was much too difficult because you hadn’t even sorted out your feelings in the first place.

An awkward air of silence hung between the both of you for the rest of the walk home.

A/N: 13 suscribers! Thank you each and everyone of you! I do feel more motivated to write now that more of you are reading! There will be more of the other neglected Infinite members in the next chapter, so do suscribe if you want to be kept in the loop. (: Oh, and there is a slight possiblity that I might be making this story H-rated because there might be crude language in the later chapters.