Jae backed away from him and blushed wildly. She took her order pad and tried to cover her face.

“I was just kidding.” Minhyuk’s face was inches away from hers. “I come here a lot and I know you’re new. I was just giving you a hard time, Rae.” He grinned and patted her forehead. Jae’s heart was in . She could barely breathe. “I see my friends. I’m over there, ok? Don’t forget to stop by.” He gave a lazy half smile as he strolled over to them, Jaehyo waving energetically.

Well, I’ve escaped one encounter.

Mari waved her over and Jae went running, grabbing the order slip and heading to the kitchen. The rest of the night was spent avoiding the table like the plague. She would occasionally get called over, but she would do what they asked and as quickly as possible. When the restaurant was near closing, Cho PD called her into his office. It was located in the back and was well hidden. The door shut behind her.

“I just want to thank you for your work. I feel like I should be paying you extra for cross dressing, but this seems pretty natural for you.” He eyed her again. “But, anyway, if this schedule is too much for you, let me know. I can be flexible because you’re a student. Thanks again.” He dismissed her with a wave of his hand and he turned away from her to do some paper work. Jae bowed and left the room calmly.

“I’m pretty sure he likes you.” Mari noted. She had been standing by the door. “He is probably judging you right now, but you work fast.” She was grinning like she was crazy and had her hands behind her back.

“Um, why do you look like that, Noona?” Jae tried to look behind her. “You’re being really weird.” She walked around and pulled off her apron as she headed towards the changing room.

“Rae-ssi!” someone was calling her. Rolling her eyes, she put on her customer smile and turned around. It was Minhyuk.

“Hello again!” she was tired, but she was extremely cheerful. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to be around your table as much. We were busy.” She fiddled with her apron. Jaehyo and Taeil were behind him a ways. Taeil looked a little on edge.

“I just wanted to know what your schedule is.” He looked different from his usual apathetic self. He looked almost shy, but there was a cocky aura around him. She had never seen this side of him before.

Is he seriously hitting on me? What is this?

“I work after my classes. You’ll just have to come visit the restaurant and find out, Oppa.” She went into the changing room in the back. After some harassment from Mari, she told her what Minhyuk and she had conversed about.

“How can you attract boys when you’re dressed as a girl and I can’t attract anyone when I’m dressed as myself?” she whined. Jae took out her hair extensions and styled her hair back to the way it had been this morning.

Well, actually, to attract boys, you have to pretend to be a boy who pretends to be a girl.

“He’s just attracted. It’s not like he really likes me. He’s only seen me once.” She shrugged and went into the bathroom. Mari was already done changing so she sat down on the couch. “And it’s not like someone isn’t attracted to you. I saw Jaehyo Hyung tonight!” she yelled through the door as she changed. She could hear Mari get up to wait by the door.

“You caught that? All he was doing was staring at me. You’re observant. He is a space case, but he’s cute.” She giggled. “He did help me that one time.” Jae finished changing and folded her uniform and slid on her sneakers.

“Well, I do have to be observant or I wouldn’t have gotten this far.” She muttered under her breath but Mari didn’t hear it. She was in her own little world. “So, don’t say that you don’t attract anyone, Noona. I like you, too.” She grinned and winked. Mari laughed and clutched her midsection.

“I’m not even your Noona. I’m not older than you.” She grabbed her bag and headed towards the back door that lead straight outside. “You can call me whatever you… want…” she trailed off and stopped in the doorway. Jae bumped into her back and walked under her arm.

“What was that for?” she squinted into the darkness at Mari, who looked shocked. “Mari Noona?” all Mari did was point in front of her.

“Hey. I can’t let the little princess walk home alone in the dark, can I?”

“Taeil Hyung?” her jaw dropped. “What are you doing out here?” She shifted her weight and pulled Mari out of the building. “I was going to walk her back to her place.” She tried to come up with some reason to avoid him.

“Oh, I’ve got a car waiting for me.” she squeaked. “You just scared me a little. Thanks for the thought, though. I’ll see you tomorrow, uh… Jae-ssi?” she didn’t know how to address her with Taeil present. She waved and shuffled quickly towards a white parked car.

“Well, thanks, Hyung, but I’m a big boy. I can walk home by myself.” Jae nudged him with her shoulder. He was the shortest out of all her dorm mates but she was still quite a bit shorter than him.

“You don’t have to act like that.” He said, knowingly. “I’m just going to tell you now, since I have no reason to hide anything.” He put an arm around her shoulder and began walking. Jae had no choice but to follow.

“What are you talking about Hyung?” she gulped. Her phone began buzzing in her jacket pocket. She looked at the screen. Mi Unnie. Her picture popped up. She dropped the phone back in her pocket, but Taeil grabbed it and opened it and handed it back to Jae.

“You don’t have to worry about me.” he smiled lazily.

“Yabosayo?” she said carefully while keeping her eyes on Taeil’s face. His eyes looked mischievous.

“So, how was work? You just got off right?” she asked excitedly. “It’s your first job!” Jae pulled the phone away from her ear as more questions followed.

“It’s going good. It was hard work, but I’m getting the hang of it. But hey, listen, I have to go. I’m in the middle of something right now.” She pulled the phone away from her ear for a second time. She could practically see her sister’s frustrated expression.

“Why do you always do this when we’re on the phone? Why are you so busy? Do you have so many new friends that you don’t care about your family anymore?” the onslaught of questions began again.

“Mi omma, don’t worry. I am just doing something important.” Jae interrupted. At this point, Taeil grabbed the phone.

“Yabosayo!” he said and the other side went silent. “Mianhae, we are in the middle of a math lesson. I’m her tutor, Lee Taeil.” There was an audible gasp from Eun Mi.

“You’re Minhyuk’s roommate!” she deduced. “I saw your picture! Oh, I didn’t mean to make that sound so strange.”

“Ah, so he did send that.” He looked a little embarrassed. “Well, your dongsaeng is in good hands. She is doing well. She doesn’t mean to ignore you. She really is just busy. She said she is trying her hardest.” He raised his eyebrow at Jae, who nodded vigorously.

“That’s good news. My dongsaeng is growing up. Finally.” She chuckled. “Well, I will let you two get back to work. I know how much she needs it.”

Oh, thanks, Unnie. Thanks a lot.

Taeil handed the phone to Jae and shoved his hands in his pants pockets. Jae stopped walking and tugged on his wrist. “You’ve known all along, haven’t you?” she was staring down at ground.

“I knew once you asked about Minhyuk’s picture.” He kept walking. “Don’t worry no one else suspects anything. I’m the only one who knows.” He assured her. “Everyone else is still clueless.”

“If you knew, why didn’t you say anything?” she sniffled. “I was feeling so alone all this time.”

“I’m sorry. I thought it would be better if I stayed out of it, but it seems like you needed help.” He patted her head.

The rest of the walk home was silent, except for the sound of footsteps and sniffling. By the time they had reached the campus, Jae had gotten over her tears and she was back to normal. As she walked into the dorm, Zico was running past the door, Kyung on his trail. The last thing she wanted to deal with was hyper active guys. She wanted to take a hot shower and get her homework done as quickly as possible and get to bed. Taeil scolded Zico and Kyung, telling them to calm down.

“Unlike you, some of us need to get sleep to wake up early in the morning.”

Jae went into her room and dropped everything on the floor and headed straight for her bed. It had been a long day and the worst part was she was going to get to do this every day. She curled up into a ball at the foot of the bed.

This is only day one and I’m exhausted, but I have to stay. Minhyuk Oppa, Kyung, Zico, and Taeil Oppa will miss me. Or will they?

She got up before she had time to get too comfortable. She opened the door and yelled out into the hall. “Anyone using the shower?” she bellowed.

“No one.” Kyung winced and held his left ear. He had been right outside the door. “Geez, Hyung, you don’t have to yell at me.”

“I didn’t know you were out here, mian.” She shrugged. “I was just getting ready for a shower, then homework.”

“Taeil Hyung said you had work today. Are you tired?” he was looking at her face curiously. Jae tried to look anywhere but at Kyung. She knew full well what was coming next. She tried to close the door on him, but he grabbed her arm and yanked her out. He picked her up and swung her around. “You can’t be tired, you still have homework to do, Hyung!” he put her down and she slouched against the wall.

He really is the same. He hasn’t changed one bit. He used to do this to me on Sundays when I hadn’t done my weekend homework.

The surge of nostalgia struck her hard. Harder than she thought it should have. She slid down the wall and put her forehead on her knees. Kyung knelt down beside her.

“Hyung, are you alright?” he asked, ruffling her hair. “It usually made Jae Noona feel better. You help me this afternoon and I thought I could help you, too.” He explained, feeling a little guilty. “Do you get motion sickness?” Jae chuckled and rubbed her eyes before lifting her head.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I just wasn’t expecting it, that’s all.” She stood up and dusted herself off. Kyung’s eyebrows furrowed.

“You sure seemed like you were expecting it. If I wasn’t fast enough, you would have closed the door on my arm.” He laughed. “Well, you should go shower and start on homework. I hope you aren’t too bogged down.” He sobered up and fixed the hair he had mussed earlier. “Whaiting!” and he strolled to his own room, while Jae could hear her heart beat in her ears.

Idiot. Why do you have to do this to me? And why am I still like this after all this time?

She crawled into her room and grabbed her clothes, toiletries, and a towel and headed to the shower. She stood under the running water, letting her stress melt away. It was just what she needed. Suddenly, the door opened and closed. Jae immediately crossed her arms across her chest.

“Hey, you don’t have to worry. It’s me. I just wanted to tell you something.” Zico’s voice was wavering and nervous. Jae turned the shower off, but stood where she was, watching the water drip from her finger tips, silent as ever. “When I saw you at your house, something inside me rekindled. It was like going back to when we were younger and I missed it. I missed you.” He coughed. Jae had a similar feeling. felt like it was closing up. “I know you’ve moved on from me and Kyung and I know that situation caused you a lot of pain in the end. You never want to go back to that.”

Of course not. You almost wrecked my relationship with my sister.

“What I’m trying to say is, um, I’m going to move on too. I still have feelings for you and I know they aren’t going to disappear overnight, but I’m going to try and get over you. It’s not fair to you and not fair to me either.” The shower curtain pulled back a bit and her towel appeared. She tiptoed towards it and clutched the towel, peeking out at Zico. His eyes were squeezed shut. She let out a long sigh. Instead of just taking the towel, she left it and pulled his arm. He stumbled forward a bit. Jae leaned out of the shower and kissed his cheek. His eyes flew open. “Why would you do that? I’m trying to tell you I don’t want to like you anymore!” he grumbled. “And I’m wet now.” Her hair had dripped all over his shirt and face.

“You deserve so much more. Don’t settle. Find someone better than I ever was.” She retreated back into the shower and grabbed the towel and began to dry herself. Zico left after that and shut the door behind him. She changed quickly and went to her room to finish up homework.

Meanwhile…

Yukwon and Minhyuk were hanging out in room two with Jaehyo. Minhyuk was busy gushing about the new waitress at the Black Boat and Jaehyo was adding in his two cents about Mari whenever he could.

“You should have been there, Kwon. She was cute! She looked kind of scared at first, but her smile can make anyone melt.” Minhyuk was going on and on, while Yukwon rolled his eyes, but listened while scribbling in his math note book. He was lying on his stomach on the bed while Minhyuk sat on the floor, messing around with his guitar. Jaehyo was studying his history text, his glasses on the tip of his nose.

“What is the point of this? You talked to her once.” Yukwon took one of his pillows and hit Minhyuk over the head. “Yesterday you were talking about one girl and now you’re on to the next. What is wrong with you?” Minhyuk snatched the pillow and hugged it.

“Maybe I just miss her.” He frowned, suddenly feeling guilty for looking at other girls after he had told someone he liked her.  “Whatever. It’s complicated. What about you then?” he shot at Yukwon.

“Oh, I have someone I like. Don’t worry about me.” he lifted his head from his notebook. “I’m pretty sure it won’t work out, though.”

“Yah, you like someone?” Jaehyo pushed his glasses up and turned around. “You serious?” Minhyuk was sitting up, alert and ready to pounce. “How come you’ve never said anything before?”

“Is she older or younger?” Minhyuk pressed. “How tall is she?” Yukwon tried to ignore him, but the questions kept coming one after another. Jaehyo joined in as well and the two made it impossible to do any work. He slapped his notebook shut.

“Fine. I’ll make you a bet. You both guess how old they are. Whoever is the closest wins and the loser has to ask someone out.” He challenged. “You still want to guess?” he sat on the edge of the bed, his hands on his knees. Jaehyo and Minhyuk looked at each other.

“I’ll guess that she’s your age.” Jaehyo ventured, taking his glasses off and setting them on the desk. He leaned forward in his chair. Minhyuk was silent for a while and finally shrugged.

“She’s younger than you, right?”

“You’re both wrong. Older.” He said smugly. Jaehyo and Minhyuk exchanged looked.

“Noona!” they both burst out laughing together. There was a knock at the door and it opened just a crack. Jihoon peered inside.

“What’s so funny Hyungs?” he slowly stuck his head in. Yokwon motioned him inside.

“Jihoon is my witness! Minhyuk has to ask Rae out!”