Taeyang’s POV

“Seriously, who the hell was that guy?” I ask, annoyed that I couldn’t find out more about him before TOP dragged us away.

“Duh, he’s Lee Kikwang! He introduced himself! Are you deaf or what?” Seungri says.

I sigh. Sometimes I don’t even know if he’s putting on an act or he just thinks that little of me.

“Yeah, I heard him, pabo! But we know nothing about him! I want to know what his intentions are with Cindy!”

And why did she seem so happy around him? She can’t have known him for that long, yet she couldn’t stop smiling when he spoke to her. He said he was a new friend, but why do I get the feeling that there’s something more to their relationship?

I feel a sudden pain in my right arm as TOP hits me, bringing me back to reality.

“Yah! You’re not even listening to us!” he scolds, “What are you so busy thinking about anyway?”

“I was just wondering if Cindy was interested in that guy, like, you know … romantically.” I say, as they would know if I were lying.

“She wouldn’t." GD says with conviction. "She hasn’t been here for that long and she has pretty much sworn off of guys now! Why would she like a guy like him anyway?” he muses.

“Yeah, what makes you think that she would be interested in him?” Daesung asks, curious.

“Well, it’s just the way her face seemed to light up when she was speaking to him. And she had this kind of sparkle in her eye when she looked at him. And did you notice the way she smiled when he said her name? Or the fact that she couldn’t stop smiling the entire time she was speaking to him? Or the way she bit her lip when he asked if she was okay? She only ever does that when she’s nervous! And she took so long to notice that we were standing behind her!” I rant, listing all of my observations.

“Are you Sherlock Holmes or something? Nobody pays that much attention to little details!” Seungri says. “Hyung, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re crazy!”

“Yah, have some respect you panda!” I scold, feigning annoyance.

It wouldn’t hurt him to be a bit more respectful, but I’ve become used to being called crazy so I’m not upset by it.

GD decides that we will go to Music class early to get a good seat.

“Besides, Cindy is most likely to arrive early to her classes anyway!” he adds.

“Do you think that she spent the whole period with that guy? Is that why she wasn’t in study hall?” Daesung asks as we walk towards the music room.

“Well, when we split up to look for her, none of us found her so unless she was hiding somewhere with him, they only just started speaking when we found them, right? Seungri asks. His mind works in mysterious ways.

“It doesn’t matter, just drop it! She is no longer freaking out like she was earlier, and that’s all that matters! We will find out more about him and his intentions later, but for now, we will drop the matter!” TOP says, taking charge yet again.

“I approve of this decision.” GD states, wanting to have the last word before we enter the class.

We introduce ourselves to the teacher and sit down in the very back row, waiting for the other students to arrive. The seats gradually fill up and when the bell finally rings, there is only one seat left in the front row; her seat.

Why isn’t she here yet? It’s not like her to be late for class! Aish, that Kikwang better not have done anything to her or he’s going to regret the day he was bor-

I hear the sound of someone running outside the classroom, drawing my attention to the door. I watch Cindy as she ever so carefully tries to sneak into the classroom without making a sound. Keeping her head lowered, she makes her way to the front row, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

Well, that was anti-climactic! We were all waiting for her to see us in the back row!

After the teacher sets some work, he comes to the back of the class to tell us that we will need to catch up on everything we’ve missed out on. Basically, they’ve just been composing and writing lyrics to songs, and every few weeks they have had to perform in front of the class. As the teacher explains, after we return from mid-semester break, we will be expected to perform more often and we must therefore write several songs over the break. GD, speaking on behalf of us all, assures him that we will work hard and do our best. Satisfied with that, the teacher returns to the front of the class.

“Okay class! For your next task, I want you all to work in groups! You may choose your own groups; between 2 and 8 in each group. For the theme … why don’t we go with love? That’s always a pretty easy theme for all you young lovers! Okay, go!” he says dramatically, clapping his hands.

There is a lot of commotion as the other students move their desks around to form new groups, but Cindy stays still.

When the teacher mentioned groups, I noticed her shoulders tense up with dread but now I notice them sag in disappointment.

Every other student has already joined a group, and nobody asked Cindy if she wanted to be in their group. It makes me so angry that she’s being left out and I wish that I could have been here for her for the past few months. She must be feeling so lonely and rejected.

The teacher approaches her, curious as to why she hasn’t moved yet. I guess that she said something about how there was no room for her in the other groups because the teacher then points to us and asks her to join the new students.

She turns around and her eyes almost pop out of her head again. At first she’s like:

But it dawns on her that we actually enrolled here and then she’s like:

She races to the back of the room and joins us. After scolding us initially for being “irresponsible” she thanks us for doing so.

Instead of working, the six of us try and work out what days we will attend school here and when we will go back to Seoul. If we had it our way, of course we would choose to be with Cindy, but she wants to stay with her mother here, where they are safe from public scrutiny and we each have our responsibilities in Seoul.

We decide that after school today, we will go back to Seoul for the weekend and return on the Monday for the day off where we will work on the music assignment together. Then we will stay for Tuesday and Wednesday and decide week-by-week which days we will stay.

And when I say “we” will decide, I mean GD and TOP who make virtually all the decisions.

I watch Cindy smile, nodding along with every word the others say. She then furrows her brow in thought as though she just realized something.

“So, after school today you guys will go back to Seoul?” she asks.

“Yeah, then we will be back on Monday morning to see you!” TOP says.

“Then I guess I can see him today after all…” she mutters.

“Huh?” GD grunts. He’s sitting the furthest away from Cindy so he understandably couldn’t hear.

“Oh, nothing! Don’t worry! But Jiji, do you think I could maybe borrow your phone to message Kikwang?” she asks innocently.

He would never deny Cindy anything and he hands his phone over straight away, no questions asked.

He just smiles at her cluelessly until he notices that the rest of us are staring at him.

He frowns and I can tell he is trying hard to figure out what’s wrong.

I’ll just give him a minute. Any moment now… come on! Why is he so slow?
He suddenly leans in closer to the table.

“Why do you need to message him? You’re not dating him are you?” he asks.

She blushes when he asks that. Since when did she start blushing? She’s not the bashful type!

“Um, well, he kind of asked me to hang out today but I wasn’t sure if I would be free or not so he asked me to message him when I find out. I don’t really know him but he’s a really nice guy and he’s the only person to be friendly to me here!”

“So, the two of you are just friends?” Daesung asks.

“Well, I can’t even say that we’re friends because we’ve only met twice!” she explains.

“Do you like him?” Daesung asks.

“Well, yeah. But as a friend! I think. I’m not sure!” she says, getting stressed out.

None of us know how to respond so we drop the subject as she texts him. He doesn’t reply so she hands the phone back to GD.

The next class I have is just with GD. We sit together at the back and talk about ideas for a new song.

Suddenly GD’s phone buzzes and he checks the message.

“It’s that Kikwang guy.” He says dryly.

“What did he say?” I ask.

“Here.” He says, handing me his phone.

Great! It’s a date then! ;)
I guess I'll see your beautiful face after school, perhaps by the gate?

“Call me crazy, but I think he may like her as more than a friend.” He says, rolling his eyes at the cheesy message.