“Awesome! School trip’s coming up!”

I laughed as Chanyeol let out a whoop and slung an arm around Yixing’s shoulder, bouncing slightly on his feet. A look of irritation crossed Yixing’s face before he grasped Chanyeol’s arm and pushed it off, brushing off the invisible dust on his shoulders.

“I’m aware that you’re excited, but there’s no point in yelling out information that everybody already knows,” he said with a huff.

“Aw, geez. You’re such a spoil sport,” Chanyeol said a shake of his head, but the grin that stretched his lips had not quite vanished.

“And you’re being unnecessarily happy,” Yixing countered. “What the hell is so great about a school trip anyway? I get more satisfaction sleeping on my bed than some sketchy representation of it in some miserable hotel.”

“Just be thankful you have a roof over your head,” Tao muttered darkly. “I still haven’t forgotten that camping trip we were forced to go to last year.”

Both of them shot glares at Chanyeol, who meekly took a step back. What was supposed to have been a bonding session for the basketball team last year had turned into a chaotic trip highlighted by a series of disastrous events, the worst of which, as Yixing had forcefully insisted, being the one that followed the unfortunate placing of their tents.

“In my defence,” Chanyeol stated, as if the excessive waving of his two hands was going to do anything to placate the rising tension, “I didn’t know that there was a beehive on the tree.”

“You were supposed to scout for a good site,” Yixing said with a growl. “It’s your job to find out.”

Chanyeol offered him a weak smile.  “Hey, at least it’s all good, right?”

Yixing’s lip twitched as he let out a loud sigh. He massaged his temples. “God knows why Kris made you co-captain of the team,” he muttered darkly under his breath.

 “Speak of the devil...” Tao muttered, just as Kris’s tall and imposing figure made its way into my line of sight.

Trailing him, as how he usually did since the past month they made each other’s acquaintance, was Joonmyun. Kris’s glaring height and Joonmyun’s shorter, more compact form made them an odd pair, noticeable by all aspects whenever they stood shoulder to shoulder. The fact that Kris’s features were smooth and severe while Joonmyun’s was gentle and proportionate made the nature of their friendship ever stranger, but nevertheless, I was confident that their brotherhood was forged out of trust, not based purely on looks.

“Practice again?” Chanyeol whined, for personal experience had taught him that that would be the only reason for Kris to seek them at such an early hour.

“No,” Kris replied, much to everyone’s surprise. “Meeting. We have somewhat an emergency.” His eyes flickered towards where Hyunji and I stood, regarding us contemplatively before saying, “You two can come too.”

I spared a glance at Hyunji; she was positively giddy with excitement at finally being noticed by her superstar.

“Are you going to explain what this is about?” Yixing asked with raised brows.

“Is it good news or bad news?” Chanyeol asked. The note of his tone suggested that he was nursing high hopes for the postponement of their upcoming weekend practice session.

Kris’s lip curled into a dissatisfied frown. “Bad. See you at the gym. I’m busy today so we’ll meet tomorrow, same time as always.” He turned in his heel and left, leaving Joonmyun shaking his head after him.

“He’s been in a foul mood all day,” he told us. “It’s a wonder how I managed to extricate a ‘good morning’ from him.”

“Isn’t he always like that?” Tao said with a noncommittal shrug.

Joonmyun smiled. “Contrary to his stoic exterior, I find him to be a nice guy off court. Tight-laced, but nevertheless, he does have a soft side.”

Chanyeol grinned and clapped a hand over Joonmyun’s shoulder. “Props to you. We’ve known Kris throughout our high school life and we’ve only seen glimpses of other character traits. He must really like you to be able to open up to you that much.”

Joonmyun smiled and brushed Chanyeol’s hand off his shoulder. He turned to me. “Hey, when are you coming to the music room again? I could use someone to talk to.” He flashed me a playful wink that melted my insides before giving us a salute, his figure dissolving into the crowd as he trailed after Kris.

“So, any thoughts about joining the music club?” Hyunji whispered into my ear, earning herself a hard jab on the rib by yours truly.

Hey You :),

I don’t really have much to say right now, but I do have one question. Do you, ah, by any chance, have any recipes for chocolate chip cookies?

My brows creased as I read the brief note again. A recipe? That was a strange request. Contact between us had been scarce throughout the week and the first thing he asked me was if I knew a cookie recipe? Honestly, it made me wonder about the true nature of the person with whom I was exchanging letters with.

I let the thought and the letter slide from my head as I approached the gym. Stuffing the short note into my wallet, I quickly zipped it up and pushed the door open. The heady scent of the floor-cleaner attacked my senses as I entered. I spotted the boys sprawled lazily on the bleachers, feet stretched out in front of them as they chattered idly amongst themselves. Yixing and Hyunji were there already, immersed in what I assumed to be a heated debate about a movie or something of the like.

They stopped when I approached. “Hey,” Hyunji greeted me, flashing her winsome smile at my direction. Yixing beckoned me to sit, gesturing towards an empty space on the bleachers.

“You’re here too?” a dark-haired boy –Sungjae –said as he extricated his feet from the bench on which I was going to sit on. “Is this meeting even related to basketball at all?”

Minhyuk, who was sitting next to him, frowned. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

At that moment, the door swung open and Kris strode into the gym, Joonmyun at his heels. The boys straightened up at the sight of him, opting relaxed, but less casual positions as their eyes followed the trail of their approaching captain.

“Alright, I’ll just be frank with ya’ll,” he said, clapping his hands together. “Our basketball uniforms got trashed last night.”

Kris’s declaration, brusque and frank, managed to stir the boys’ attention. The lazy ambience incurred by the coolness of the air conditioner was replaced by heated agitation. Questions were being thrown here and there –an outburst of words that punctuated through the casual stillness. Chanyeol was the first one to jump to his feet, the force of it sending fine tremors throughout the benches.

“How?” he demanded, his loud voice carrying easily over the sea of words.

“If you guys would keep quiet, I would explain,” Kris snapped. The words began to die, reduced to whispers and finally, tense silence. I exchanged glances with Hyunji. As the only outsiders in this private meeting, we hadn’t said a word since Kris began speaking. I half expected to see Hyunji fangirling, but much to my surprise, she looked pretty calm.

“Apparently, some prankster decided that it was amusing to dump all the school’s sports teams’ uniforms into the school pond. It doesn’t make sense, I know,” he added as everyone’s brows furrowed.

“Which idiot...” Yixing muttered with a shake of his head. The others weren’t so kind with their words. Minhyuk was cursing the culprit with every curse word he knew.

“You’re gonna punish that guy, right?” Sungjae, piped up from behind me.

Kris smiled, almost menacingly. “Oh, don’t worry. The principal had relegated the job of deciding the punishment for the scumbag to all the captains of the sports teams. Believe me, we don’t intend on being so kind to him. Violence is prohibited, unfortunately, but Luhan has some devious ideas up his sleeve.”

Kris clapped his hands together again to draw the boys’ attention back to the subject at hand. “Basically, we need new uniforms, but the budgets are low and the school can’t fork up the money to pay for twenty or so uniforms for every sports team. So, we have to get a sponsor, or earn the money ourselves.”

All the boys groaned. I could just imagine how unappealing work sounded right now. It was as if the very notion zapped their energy, drained their strength. The weight of the situation must have affected Kris more than he let on; it was rare of him to let the boys argue without as much as a bat of an eyelash. He did attempt to appease them though, after their groans had risen into protests of growing crescendo.

“You have no choice,” he said loudly to the boys. “It’s either we earn the money now, or you we can’t play on the next season. Uniforms are a requirement for school sanctioned competitions.”

“Alright, boss,” Chanyeol said, slumping into his seat glumly. “What do we have to do?”

Kris smiled slightly, pleased that he had procured the boys’ agreement without so much of a fight. “That’s what this meeting is all about; we’re fishing for ideas. So, anyone?”

“Are you not even going to take my suggestion into consideration?” Joonmyun finally spoke up, the downturn curl of his mouth suggesting that he was somewhat offended.

Kris turned to him with a grimace. “Sorry man, it’s not like it’s not a good suggestion, but well, I hardly think this lot could make anything, much less cook.”

“I can do ramyun!” Chanyeol interjected, happily waving his arm in the air.

“You don’t have to,” Joonmyun huffed, ignoring him. “I told you, we could get help from a few other students. I know Kyungsoo can pull some strings. All you guys have to do is sell them.”

Kris scratched the back of his head. “But well, a bake sale is still a bake sale. I’d rather not make it so conspicuous. The exchange program is coming up, and we’ll be the laughing stock of WH when they find out.”

“I think it’s a plausible idea,” Hyunji piped up, but only loud enough so that only Yixing and I could hear.

Yixing grimaced, “I’d rather grovel for a donation than go from house to house selling cakes and cookies.”

“You men and your stupid pride,” I said with a roll of my eyes. Hyunji laughed.

“Please, you’re only agreeing because he’s your crush,” Yixing countered.

I glared at him and smacked him on the back of the head, hard. “Not so loud!” I hissed.

Yixing mumbled something about my lack of feminine gentility and I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms across my chest. When I looked up, I found Joonmyun staring amusedly at us, his lips quirked up in a small smile.

My heart thumped faster. Please, please, tell me he didn’t hear that. Thankfully, it didn’t look like he did.

“Anyway, I was thinking that maybe we can all form groups and work to earn the money,” Kris continued, oblivious to everything that was happening. “By the end the month, we’ll all pool in our contributions.” For the first time in the whole span of the period, he finally turned and spoke to Hyunji and me. “I guess I should explain why I asked you two to come too. We need all the help we can get, and seeing as how you’re so familiar with all the members –”

“Yes,” Hyunji piped out loudly, giving him a sweet smile. “We’d love to help out in any way we can.”

Kris smiled briefly. “Thanks. That means a lot,” he said, before turning to organise the chaos that had somehow ensued while the boys were trying to decide their teams.

Yixing scowled loudly. “Yeah, right. If I was the one who asked you, you’d be halfway out of the door by now.”

“So we have the teams formed,” Kris said, cutting off Hyunji’s comeback. “That only leaves you two. Since you’re helping out, you can choose who you want to go with.”

Hyunji opened to say something, but was promptly cut off by Yixing. “She’s with me.”

Hyunji’s smile froze on her face and she elbowed him on the ribs. Nevertheless, Yixing said nothing more to undo his words. Kris nodded. “Okay, so it’s you, Hyunji, Chanyeol and Sungjae. What about you, Aeri?”

I hesitated. Yixing’s team looked too full to accept any more members, and although I saw the boys at regular intervals, I wasn’t really close with any of them except for Yixing, Chanyeol and Tao.

“Why not let her come with us,” a voice suggested. “Pretty sure there’s an opening in our team.”

Kris shrugged. “Whatever you say, Joonmyun. So it’s me, Tao, Joonmyun and Aeri. The rest of you have your teams?” –the boys nodded –“Good. We’ll work through this, I know we can. You guys can go now.”

The boys rose from their seats and filed out of the gym.  A buzz of words ensued as they discussed strategies that would guarantee them a quick profit. Kris had slunk back and was speaking with Tao. I couldn’t exactly tell what they were discussing about, but judging from Tao’s apprehensive manner and Kris’s furrowed brows, the topic of their discussion probably revolved around the unfortunate prankster who would soon meet his doom.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Joonmyun said, surprising me with his close proximity. I tore my eyes away from Kris and Tao and whirled around to face him, only to be greeted with his soft smile and depthless eyes.

“Mind what?” I asked, directing my gaze to the wall behind him instead to recollect myself.

“Working with me, Kris and Tao. Sorry I dragged you into our team. You were hesitating so I thought I should help. You don’t mind, do you?”

I plastered on a smile. He had no idea that I was struggling to contain my feelings, trying to keep the excitement in check before I unleash it in the confines of my room with my face buried into the depths of my pillow.

“Of course I don’t.”

“Figured you’d be easy to work with,” Joonmyun said with a laugh.

“Did Kris ask for your help too?” I asked curiously.

“Actually, I offered. I figured might as well, since I have nothing better to do,” Joonmyun shrugged.

“Aeri!”

Joonmyun and I whirled around towards the direction of the voice. Hyunji and Yixing were standing on the other side of the gym, watching us. I couldn’t see her face too clearly from where I was standing, but I could definitely discern that devilish grin playing on her lips.

“Are coming with us or is Joonmyun walking you home?” she teased. I swear, if the basketball wasn’t so far away from my reach, I would have thrown it at her face.

Thankfully, Joonmyun took it with a good-natured laugh. “Unfortunately, no. Although I’d love to sometime in the future," he said with a smile.

Hyunji grinned, more to me than to Joonmyun. I took it as a cue to leave and gave Joonmyun a curt goodbye. Once I was close enough, I gave Hyunji a hard jab on the ribs and half-dragged her and Yixing out.

“I hate you,” I hissed at her on our way out.

“Aw,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes, “I love you too.”

Dear You,

Sorry, I don’t think I have any. For starters, I’m notorious for being completely incapable in the kitchen; my mother even forbade me to take out a frying pan.

Really sorry I can’t help. Why do you need it anyway?

Signed,

Me

Dear You,

Nah, it’s okay. Turns out I won’t need it after all. It’s for something I was planning to do, but it was cancelled. Anyway, not even a frying pan? How do you survive without making ramyun?

Yours truly,

Me :)