“Ah, Kyung, I’m on break now. Where are you?” Jae asked again. “I’ll be there just tell me where.” She began walking, leaving Taeil behind. She didn’t know where she was going, but she was at least moving. Hearing Kyung being so frantic on the phone made her nervous. She had never heard him like that before.

“I’m in the cafeteria.” That’s all Jae needed to hear. She took off running until she got there. Kyung was standing outside clutching a stack of envelopes. Jae was huffing and puffing as she put her hands on her knees and tried to breathe.

“What’s wrong?” she wheezed. Kyung held up one envelope and Jae was shocked to see her handwriting addressed to Kyung. She started to go into panic mode.

I wrote that! How did Jiho get a hold of that?

“Jae Hyung, Zico just gave me these. It is three years worth of letters from our friend. I can’t believe this.” He was upset and crinkling the envelopes. They all seemed to be unopened. Jae tried to play it cool, but her mind was racing.

“I don’t get it. How did Zico get them?” she asked, moving to lean against the wall next to him. She slid her backpack off and pressed her back against the cool brick wall. Kyung shook his head.

“I’m not really sure myself, but they got forwarded to him somehow. At least he never opened them.” Kyung looked at the numerous envelopes. “He said that they came every day for 3 years.”

That’s because they did come every day for three years.

“Oh, sounds like a long time. Why don’t you open them? You have an hour or so.” Jae grabbed her bag and pushed Kyung towards the cafeteria doors. He shoved the doors harshly and sat down at the nearest table. Jae followed, but at a distance. She didn’t really want to get caught in his angry spree.

“I’m scared, Hyung!” Suddenly, Kyung became docile again. “What if it’s just anger? I don’t know if I would be able to live with it. It wasn’t my fault after all.” He sighed, spreading the letters on the table. There were different sizes and colors. He reached inside his backpack and pulled more out. “I don’t think I’ll get through all of them, either.” He sighed.

“Kyung. Get a hold of yourself. You can do this.” Jae insisted, even though she herself was afraid to see what she had written so long ago. “You’ll be fine.” She pushed the envelopes closer to him.

“Oh hyung! What are those!” Jihoon popped up out of nowhere. “You have so many!” he set his backpack down and stretched his arms.

“Jihoon. They’re letters from someone. Kyung hasn’t really told me the full story either.” Jae tugged on his sleeve for him to sit down.

“Oh.” Kyung chuckled and raked his hand through his hair. “Well, when I first moved, I gave Jae Noona an address to send letters to. I never got any. Today, Zico gave me all these letters saying that they came everyday for three years from that girl.” He sighed. Jihoon’s eyes widened.

“Zico Hyung saved all the letters for you? He kept them safe until he saw you again? He’s really nice! All this time I thought he was just a bully.” Kyung’s mouth hung open.

“But, Kyung is upset.” Jae patted Jihoon’s shoulder and laughed. “You’re funny.”

“I suppose I didn’t really think about it that way. He did save them.” He felt a little guilty for being mad. “Well, I guess I’ll forgive him for now.” Jae whipped out her phone and texted Zico while Jihoon was looking through the envelopes. He picked one out and handed it to Kyung.

“Open this one first!” he seemed so excited, Kyung couldn’t refuse. He opened it carefully and unfolded the paper. It was pretty lengthy. He scanned over the letter and his eyes soon looked like they were glazed over. “Yah, Hyung! It’s ok!” Jihoon stood up. Jae looked up from her text and stared at Kyung, who was sniffling away. Jae snatched the mail from him and looked it over.

Oh great, he’s reading one of the later ones. Looks like I was pretty angry in this one. Way to go, Jihoon. Why couldn’t you have picked a different one?

“I think that I should do this later.” He had his head down on the table, trying to compose himself.

Meanwhile…

Minhyuk was going out of his mind in class.

Oh my god, I totally hurt him. I slammed him into Jihoon. He hates me. I probably gave him a nose bleed. What the hell is wrong with me?

“Yah, Minhyuk. Are you paying attention?” Jaehyo hissed and elbowed his seatmate. Minhyuk was about ready to pull his hair out.

“I did something terrible today.” He picked up his pen and started scribbling on the already half covered paper. “I pushed Jae.” English was a boring subject for him anyway.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Jaehyo glanced over as he simultaneously took notes.

“I feel terrible. I didn’t mean to knock him into Jihoon, but he went flying. I didn’t know I ran into him with that much force. It didn’t seem like much to me.”

“Oh, so he has class with Jihoon. That sounds nice.” Jaehyo was purposely dodging the issue.

“You know that isn’t the point.” Minhyuk leaned his head on his hand, elbow propped up on the table. The green haired boy raised a brow at Minhyuk, a smile tugging at his pursed lips.

“You sound like mom. Quit it. He’s a strong guy even though he looks fragile and stuff. Don’t worry about it. And if you still have a problem, just apologize.” He went back to his diligent note taking, leaving the red head to ponder for the remainder of the class. When class ended, Jaehyo peeked at his note pad and laughed.

“I’m glad you know how to spell Kang Jae. I see you’ve been practicing.”

Somewhere else…

Zico was busy hiding from society in the dorm. He was In the middle of self loathing when he got a text.

You have some explaining to do. This better be good. At least Kyung no longer wants to murder you.

He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment before making his way to the cafeteria. On his way, he passed by Yukwon.

Hyung!” he called and Yukwon jumped. He looked like he was freaking out.

“Oh. Zico.” He waved and flipped his hair out of his eyes, but it fell back. “You on your lunch break?” Zico only nodded. “I see. I’m going to grab stuff before my next class. I’m lucky it’s not so far away.” And with that he retreated into the dorm.

I can’t believe it. I hope nothing went wrong. At least Kyung isn’t going to come slit my throat in my sleep. But Jae Noona. Why haven’t my feelings died out? Why haven’t Kyung’s feelings died out? She’s moved on, but why can’t we?

By the time he made it to the cafeteria, Jihoon had already gone to the library and it was just Kyung and Jae alone at the table. They were laughing and they looked like they were enjoying each other’s company. Zico stood at the table for a few minutes before the two took notice of him.

“Zico, sit, sit!” Jae commanded and he sat on the opposite side of them. “Did you eat already?” He shook his head solemnly. Kyung stared at Zico for a minute and then rolled his eyes.

“Aish, come on, don’t be like that. I’m not that mad.” He muttered. “I can’t stay angry if you keep looking like that.” He turned his head away. Jae looked from Zico to Kyung.

This is just déjà vu all over again. This used to happen all the time when we were little.

Zico looked up with his puppy dog eyes and a pout. Kyung winced. Jae just laughed and everything went back to normal. The rest of lunch was spent eating and joking around. Jae, Kyung, and Zico all had their next class together, so they headed to Chemistry.

Oh god, this class could be dangerous. I don’t know if I can even trust these two around chemicals.

The whole class time was used to safety procedures. Jae made sure the two boys paid attention the whole time. It was an interesting class with an amusing teacher. The class went by quickly, especially with the two clowns. As they were leaving, Kyung was snickering and he pinched Jae’s cheek.

“See you later, Jae Noona!”

“Erm, what?” Zico looked really surprised. “Dude, that’s Hyung. He’s a guy.” He whacked the back of Kyung’s head.

“Ow! Sorry Hyung! He reminds me of Noona.” He turned to Jae and slung his arm over her shoulder. “My bad. I didn’t mean to.” He smiled lazily. “I’ll see you back at the dorm, then!” he ambled along, leaving Zico and Jae along.

“Thank you. I thought that could have gone a lot worse.” He sighed and patted Jae’s back. “I have class with Kyung again.”

“Don’t think you’re off the hook. I’m still kinda mad at you.” Jae glared at him. “I will talk to you later.” She her heels and speed walked to her dance class. She entered the locker room and picked a locker, withdrew her gym clothes, and stuffed everything else into the half locker. She was a little early so it was easy to change. She was used to changing quickly anyway. Having three sisters to share two bathrooms with was no easy feat. She was jamming on her sneakers when someone pushed the back of her knee and she stumbled a bit.

“Jae!” Minhyuk was back to being abusive. Jae flipped her hair out of her face and smirked.

“Ah, so you are in my class.” She chuckled. “That means I have many opportunities to get you back!” Minhyuk blushed.

“Oh about earlier today, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I-“ the boy didn’t get to finish because Jae began pushing him away.

“Hyung! Go change! You’ll be late for class. We can talk later.” But in the end, it never really happened. The class was so busy that they never really had a conversation the whole time. Every now and again, Jae would catch Minhyuk’s glances and she would smile at him and he would turn away and shake his head. He got flustered so easily. Why hadn’t she seen this before?

Oh, Oppa, I missed you so much. I just wish I could tell him, but at least I get to see him every day.

Minhyuk looked so passionate during class. He was graceful and his movements were powerful as well. It looked as if he had been training for a long time. As soon as class was over, Jae raced into the locker room and grabbed her stuff.

“Yah, what’s your rush, wait for me!” A sweaty Minhyuk grabbed the back of her shirt. “You should just shower here. It’s a lot easier than having to share the bathroom back in the block.” He nodded towards the shower room. Jae shook her head and sighed.

“I have no choice. I have work after this.”

And if I showered here, I would probably get kicked out of school.

The red head pouted for a bit, but then began patting his sweaty face with his pink stained towel. His sweat was making his hair dye run again. His bangs stuck to his forehead and limp strands. Jae bit her lip. She left like her heart was going crazier than it had been during the class.

“Ah. Where do you work? I’ll come visit!” Minhyuk perked up and stripped his shirt off. Jae tried to control her eyes, but it was impossible. They wandered from his damp collar bones down his torso to his well toned stomach. She turned around quickly, trying to hide her embarrassment.

“I’ll give you a hint: I’m not where you think I might be.” She didn’t even bother to turn around again, but she waved as she walked off towards the block to fetch her uniform for tonight.

She arrived at the restaurant, uniform in tow. She ran for the employee door before anyone spotted her and ran into the bathroom.

Why did I agree to do this again? This is so stressful. Just getting here on time is going to give me a heart attack.

She put on her uniform and hair extensions and took a deep breath before exiting the bathroom. Mari was sitting on the couch texting on her phone. She didn’t even look up from her phone, but she greeted her.

“Hey, Oppa. How was the first day of school for you?” she finally looked up, delighted to see the hair extensions. “These match really well! I have such a good eye.” She fluffed Jae’s hair and tied it into little pigtails and patted her cheeks. “You look just like a little girl!”

“Usually, I’d be upset, but now I’m kinda excited.” She confessed. “So, are we training tonight?”

“Yep. You can just follow me around. We should be getting another new waitress in tomorrow night. And I believe Block B is here tonight.” She elbowed Jae. “We can test if this costume really works.” She snickered. Jae’s eyes widened.

“Can’t I just work tomorrow with the other new girl?” she began to make her way back to the bathroom. The taller girl pulled her back and grabbed her shoulders, looking her square in the eyes.

“You can do this. I’ll even put make up on you and give you a fake name. How about that?”

Some eye shadow and a few coats of mascara later, Mari and Jae were out working their section of the restaurant when Taeil and Jaehyo came in. Jae whispered to her partner.

“Yah! I thought you said Block B was coming, not just two of them!”

“Welcome! Is it just the two of you tonight?” Mari ignored Jae and continued to talk to Taeil and Jaehyo. “There are a few specials…” Jae wandered away from her partner and spied Minhyuk by himself near the door.

“Do you need to be seated?” she asked in an unusually high pitched voice. She was nervous. He was the last person she wanted to see tonight.

“What’s your name?” he asked immediately, stepping closer to her. She looked down at her feet to avoid his gaze.

“I’m Rae. I’m new.” She mumbled.

“Don’t lie to me. What’s your name?” he asked again