Three days had passed since, and I had never felt so carefree in my entire life. The buzz about Minhee spread fast, and it appeared that it would soon be bestowed the crown as ‘Best Gossip of Year’ if this kept up. I was happy to silently relish her misery though, and I feel no remorse whatsoever as I watched her trudge down the hallway, trying her best to look dignified (but mostly coming off as pathetic) as whispers trailed her wake.

I was glad, that, after such extreme excitement, I was finally entitled to a break, and it was this thought that made me hum as I wove my way through the corridors. Everything seemed back to normal. Animosity no longer lingered behind hooded gazes; hushed whispers no longer contained venom in its words. I had a feeling that, besides the comfort that came with Minhee’s dethronement, the relief was also due to the departure of the WH exchange students. I resented the thought though; our students were too quick to judge –and the schools were fools themselves for thinking that they could change their perceptions within such a short period of time.

I crossed the crowded hallway, thin buzzes of intermingling worlds trailing at my wake as I made my way to class. Despite almost being mobbed upon my arrival, I had managed to sate their curiosity with the little trivial details I gave as an answer to their onslaught of questions. I was saved when Chanyeol came barrelling down the hallway, book in hand and mop of bronze hair streaming at his wake, laughing as another boy screamed at him as he followed suit.

I reached my class and eased the door open, glad that I was spared for the time being. I made a mental note to thank Chanyeol for his impeccable timing when it came to playing pranks on unsuspecting members of the student body.

I was stunned though, when I reached class and found both Hyunji and Yixing laughing. They were sitting by the window, bags discarded at their feet as Hyunji leaned against Yixing’s shoulder, holding up a piece of paper that appeared to be the source of their amusement. At first, I couldn’t help but coo at how adorable they looked as a couple, but it then dawned on to me that the note looked suspiciously familiar.

The thought was enough to send me dashing across the classroom with an indignant battle cry. Hyunji shrieked when she saw me barrelling at her, ducking away before I could tackle her for the note, dislocating a few tables in the process. Yixing jumped to his feet, grabbing me by the arms and holding me back before I could attempt anything physically damaging to his girlfriend.

“Hyunji you have no idea how much trouble you’re in right now,” I hissed at her as I attempted to claw my way out of Yixing’s hold.

She laughed, waving the paper tauntingly in front of my face as danced a few metres away from me. “Isn’t this adorable? I had no idea our little Aeri’s getting letters from a secret admirer.” She cackled quite evilly as I aimed a kick at Yixing’s shin. His grip didn’t falter, but I could feel his body hunch in pain. Hyunji didn’t seem to notice. I pitied him for choosing a sadistic witch as a girlfriend.

“Hyunji, I swear, when I get a hold of you –”

“Dear You -”

“Lee Hyunji! Shut up, or I swear, I’ll destroy all your Infinite posters the next time I gain access to your room!”

She sneered at me. “You never will,” she sang, evil glint dancing in her eyes as she trained her gaze back onto the note to read its contents.  “I admire the –”

“And your sacred notebook with L in it!” I screeched. Birds took off from the window sill at the high pitch of my voice.

“Wait a minute,” Yixing intervened, brows furrowing. “What notebook?”

I decided that this was too good an opportunity to disparage my best friend. “Oh, she has an entire notebook dedicated to her darling L,” I said maliciously, enjoying the paleness of Hyunji’s face when she finally looked up at me.  I grinned at her, “In which she dedicates the hours she should be spending doing her homework to write fanfics –”

“Yah!”

“There is even a short script about how many children she wants to have when she marries –”

“Alright, alright! Here’s your damn letter!” she huffed, yanking me away from Yixing and sidling her way up to him with an angelic smile that she hoped would placate the look of growing displeasure on his features.

“But you’re still my number one,” she said sweetly, to which I responded with a reflexive finger into my throat as I pretended to gag.

“Hey, that’s not nice,” she said, turning to me with a frown. “Mind you, without us, you wouldn’t have known for sure that letter’s from Joonmyun.”

I stopped pretending to throw up and looked up at her with wide eyes. “What?”

“Oh really. Don’t give me that look,” she said with a roll of her eyes, crossing the classroom to her bag. She pulled out a folder, unclasping it and riffling through its contents before she withdrew a piece of white parchment that looked severely crumpled at the edges. She tossed it onto an empty table and let it slide towards me. “Here.”

Cautiously, I picked it up. I couldn’t help my unresponsive fingers, and spent the better part of a minute staring at it with a hammering heart.

“As per your instructions, we have finally managed to procure a sample of your beloved boyfriend’s handwriting,” she said airily.

My lips automatically moved to counter. “He’s not my –”

“Oh, save it,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Neither one of you are fooling anyone.”

I decided that the situation was unsalvageable at the moment and decided to move on to the more pressing questions. “Are you sure? You’re not just playing an elaborate joke on me, are you?”

“Yes,” Hyunji said exasperatedly. “And no, it’s not a joke. Why not you compare the two notes yourself? Then you’ll see that I’m not lying.”

With trembling fingers, I unfolded the paper. The writing inside it was legible and smooth, uneven at the edges, indicating that it had been written over a rough surface, but the curve of the letters, the tilt of the characters, were identical to those in the letters that I had thus far received. I refolded it quickly before I could make any sense of the words that he was writing.

Hyunji and Yixing were staring at me expectantly. “See?” Hyunji said, shrugging her shoulders.

“It’s obviously him,” Yixing said, crossing his arms across his chest.

“I –” I couldn’t seem to bring myself to articulate a proper response.

“He wrote this note,” Hyunji said, snatching the small square of paper that I had managed to arrest from her to wave it front of my face, “and he’s also obviously the one behind all the others on your locker and your desk all those mornings too.”

“Wait a minute, you saw?” I asked, my cheeks burning.

“I pass by your locker every day,” Yixing said with raised brows. “Of course I saw it, and unlike you, who I suspect was born as a human-bat hybrid, I come to school early enough to see it taped forlornly over your locker until you come to tear it off.”

“I do not sleep like a bat,” I snapped at him. “I come to school early.”

Hyunji snorted. “I’m sure that only happened because you had prompting.” She waved the note pointedly at me.

It succeeded in sending my stomach into doing acrobatic flips. “I –”

“What are you waiting for?” Hyunji asked exasperatedly. “If I were you, I’d be running out of the classroom to find him right now.”

“You obviously suspected that it was him when you sent Hyunji and me out to investigate,” Yixing pointed out. “Why are you hesitating now?”

“Because,” I waved my hands around vaguely, hoping to convey the message –and my feelings –across.

“Oh I get it,” Hyunji said, smiling teasingly. “She’s scared.”

Yixing snorted. “Oh, honestly. Trust me. You’ll be doing the guy a favour if you just confess to him now.”

“Yeah, he wouldn’t have to take such roundabout ways to determine your feelings for him anymore,” Hyunji continued, resting an arm on Yixing’s shoulder.

The bell rang then, saving me before they said anything else.

“Don’t think you can run,” Hyunji said warningly with a wink, just as the rest of the students filed into the class.

I decided that I deserved a little seclusion that afternoon, considering the overwhelming turn of events. I ducked down the hallways, keeping my head down and cradling my sandwiches and milk in my jacket as I tried to make my escape as soundless as possible. By some miracle, I had managed to evade both Yixing and Hyunji in the frenzy that followed the ring of the school bell, and I was hoping that everything would proceed on as smoothly as it started as I craned my neck, trying to spot the familiar faces that I needed to avoid.

I was thankful that, although the school was quite colossal in size, it had quite a direct floor plan with very little twists and plaques that pointed me to the direction I needed to take. Lunch was taken as a very serious affair here, so I figured it would be safe if I rerouted my journey and took the hallway that lead to the classes instead of following the smaller, more congested one located somewhere at the front portion of the wing.

I smiled slightly when I opened the door to the library and found it empty. Although it wasn’t the most creative of hideouts, it still had plenty of nooks and crannies that I could just squeeze into.I ducked my head and plastered my bangs over my eyes, trying to keep myself as inconspicuous as possible as I quietly shut the door behind me, and then promptly scurried past the librarian’s desk.

I decided to go a little further than usual, forgoing my usual spot by the romance section for something that wasn’t in plain sight. I passed by the spot Jongin and I usually claimed when we had lunch together, and paused for a moment as I remembered that it had been days since I last encountered him. I was so used to the idea of him seeking me that once I lost hold of him, I didn’t know how to get him back. I decided that I could address the matter later, when I didn’t have more pressing matters begging for my attention.

I ducked behind the shelves, my eyes instinctively following the trail of words dancing over the thick spines, a myriad of different colours and fonts that expressed the severity or lightness of the book’s content. The science section –the aisle that I was standing in now –was mostly made up of books with thick, hardback covers and shabby spines. There was something lonely about these books, as if they were pulled out frequently for reference, but then abandoned just as fast when they had served their purpose. The colours also seemed to swirl between blue and black, monotonous in presentation, unfriendly in its words.

I emerged at the end, smiling slightly when I saw the corners of a table peeking out from behind the shelves, and then paused in my tracks when I realised that I was not alone in the idea of seeking refuge in the library’s open arms. The table already had an occupant: an attractive boy with pale skin and a crown of jet black hair. A pen was braced against his fingers. It swooped across the page in unison with his dancing eyebrows and frowning mouth, precise and rhythmic, before losing its tempo and coming to a slow stop. He stared at the paper, pressing his lips together, and then cast aside the pen in frustration.

My breath hitched when he looked up.

“A-Aeri,” Joonmyun gasped in surprise, automatically moving to stand. “I –um, what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question,” I said softly.

“Oh, I was just... writing.” He smiled at me, but I detected the edginess in his voice.

“What were you writing?” I paused for a while, swallowing. “Was that another letter?”

Joonmyun’s eyes widened. His jaw slackened; a warm, red flush crept up his cheeks as he fumbled for an explanation. He seemed to have trouble meeting my eyes, and it was the first time I had seen Joonmyun lose his coolness and eloquence.

It must have been fate then that the wind from the open window behind us chose this moment to blow in, lifting the paper and sending it in a graceful arc towards my waiting hands. All the words were crossed out except two, two very simple words –a salutation, which had headlined all my letters since the beginning –and apparently, to the end –of our correspondence.

“It’s you,” I muttered, no longer taken by surprise. I looked up at him.

Joonmyun bit his lip, crossing the space between us, his eyes everywhere but on me. When he was near enough, he reached out and tugged the letter out of my fingers. I noticed that his cheeks completely flushed now, and the tips of his ears had acquired a crimson hue.

“This wasn’t meant to be sent,” he said quietly, hastily crumpling it between two trembling hands and casting it away onto the table.

“Joonmyun, why didn’t you tell me?”

The corners of his lips lifted in a feeble attempt of a smile. It was so different from the usual, because back then, Joonmyun always smiled with his eyes, confidently and blindingly. This one looked more like the muted version, b with hesitation and uncertainty. “I was afraid, I guess. I didn’t want anything between us to change, because well,” he coughed into his fist, “because I never want to lose you.”

It took me a moment to realise that I had stopped breathing.

“How did you know it was me?”

He swallowed, raking his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry. I knew that the deal was that we kept this anonymous, but I just had to know who you are. So, that day, when everybody was so busy discussing the field trip, I decided to wait for you.”

Realisation came to me in the form of images and sounds: the creak of the door, followed by my nervous decision to follow its direction in order to quell my uneasiness. The empty classroom and my conclusion that I had been dreaming. The feeling that I was being watched.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, this time, looking almost beseeching.

I didn’t hear him. My brain was reeling. I saw my letters once again with unnerving clarity, the of the words against the paper and the feelings inscribed in my confessions during our exchange. He knew everything. The content of my letters, how it related to my life, my friends –he knew all. Another realisation struck me. That day when I wrote to him about my crush. Joonmyun must have figured that the boy in question was him.

“I think,” I began, stumbling back slightly. “I think I need to get some air.”

Oh God. Oh my God!

Joonmyun knew! Joonmyun knew about me –about my feelings. I had as good as confessed to him when I asked him for advice that day. He knew the complications of our relationship, how I viewed the affections he showered me with.

He knew I was in love with him.

I a fist into my mouth to keep myself from screaming as I dashed down the hallway. I wished the ground would just open up and bury me alive. I didn’t think I could take this anymore.

I literally crashed into Yixing and Hyunji on my out, falling onto my as they they exclaimed in surprise. My eyes were still glazed, my brain still working to process the information, the words that came out of Joonmyun’s mouth. I distinctly heard them fussing over me, asking if I was alright, if something happened.

I stood up shakily, refusing the hand that Hyunji offered, and dazedly continued down the steps, ignoring them as they called my name. There was a pattering of several footsteps, and in the next second, I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders, spinning me around.

“It’s true, isn’t it?” Hyunji asked urgently, Yixing hovering behind her with a concerned look in his eyes.

I shook away her hold and ran all the way home.

My phone rang overtime that evening. Numbers flashed across the screen, followed by a list of names that I didn’t bother to look at until nightfall. My fingers were cold from my shower as I scrolled through my phone, my eyes easily picking up the first syllables of Hyunji and Yixing’s names that made up almost the entire list. I found two other names as well, one of them Chanyeol, the other Kris. Yixing must have contacted them to ask if they were able to reach me.

My finger faltered when I reached the near bottom. The same name flashed thrice, the time of call implicating that all three had been made subsequently, one following the other. My finger hovered hesitantly over Joonmyun’s name as I debated whether or not I should return his call. Was I ready to face him again?

It was a stupid question to ask. I tossed the phone onto the foot of my bed and snuggled into my covers.

A/N: So, mystery solved! Although I won't be surprised if all of you already guessed that it was Jooonmyun. He's nothing if not obvious.

Anyway, the story's nearing its end, so I'd just like to say thanks you guys, for sticking with me all this while. I think it's been dragging on for too long, so I just had to have it finished. I'm not quite so sure what's going to come in the near future, but I don't think I'll write stories that are chapters long anymore. Sometimes, you just get stuck in the middle you know? And then you'll have to really brainstorm to think of a way to end it.

So, that's all I guess. Please comment and subscribe!

PS: Expect the last two chapters within the next few days.