Violet’s POV:

  Curling the paper in my hand into a roll, I turn to Sehun and start attacking his arm with the paper bat continuously.

  “Why! Are! You! So! Stupid!”

  “Ow! Arra! Ow! I’m sorry!” He shrinks back as I keep hitting him. “It… the words just spilled out of my mouth and I… mianhae Jung In-ah!”

 [Flashback]

  “Why are you even here when your Chinese is already good?”

  “Vi’s Chinese isn’t just good, Yeollie. It’s like, excellent.”

  “That’s the point! Then why is she even taking Chinese classes with us?”

  “Because… I feel like it?”

  Kai smirked. “Jung In just wants to take the same classes as Se – OW!” He suddenly jerked in his chair with a pained look and glanced over to the boy sitting between us. “Oh Sehun!”

  “What, does your foot hurt?” Sehun stuck out his tongue innocently, and as the two maknaes of EXO-K started hitting each other, I rolled my eyes with a small smile on my face.

  “Gwenchana, Yeollie oppa,” Chohee poked Chanyeol’s cheek with the other end of her pen. “Your Chinese will be like a pro like her too… eventually.”

  “Says someone who actually grew up in China and doesn’t really need to be here, too.” I laughed as she threw her eraser at me.

  Chanyeol pouted and wrapped his tone arms around Chohee. “Babe~”

  “Oh my gosh.”

  “Go get a room!”

  “My eyes… my ears…”

  “… I want to have a girlfriend, too.”

  The groans and sounds of heads hitting desks stopped abruptly as everyone in the room turned to the speaker. At first I thought to myself, Ani, it isn’t him who said that…

  But it was.

  Baekhyun cleared his throat and started twirling his pen. “I-I mean, look at Yeollie and Cho. And Vi and Sehuna. And all the other sunbaes that are dating. They… you know… look so happy.”

  I turned in my chair. “And you’re… not?”

  “That’s not what I meant.” He locked gaze with me. “When you’re in love, it’s a different kind of happiness you experience, Vi. I want to… I want to experience it with…” when I glanced at Sehun and the movement didn’t fail to be noticed by Baekhyun, he gulped and stared at his worksheet on his desk. “… with someone else, too.” His voice dropped to a whisper.

  The classroom full of fifty people was silent for a moment.

  “Wait, what?! Sehun sunbae and Kim Jung In are… a thing?!” A boy trainee, Derek, who was definitely not Korean but I couldn’t guess from where, exclaimed.

  “You don’t know?” A girl from my group, Tess, replied him. “Well yeah, they don’t shine in every corner of this building like XioaCho and Chanyeol oppa do,” she laughed when I tried to kick her and Chohee threw Chanyeol’s eraser at her. “But yup, Violet and Sehun are… a thing.”

  Suddeenly, the door opened and our Chinese teacher walked in. “Break time’s up, kids! So, let’s pick up from where we left off…”

  As everyone in the classroom uncapped their pens, put on their fake glasses and silently said ‘Fighting!’ to themselves, my gaze never left Baekhyun. He had been silent the whole time, and I knew why.

  I wasn’t stupid, I wasn’t blind. I knew he wanted to say my name in that sentence, and I knew he didn’t because he knew he just… couldn’t.

  He still likes me, and both Sehun and I know that.

 [Flashback End]

  “It wasn’t really – “

  “It was a sensitive topic, Sehun. It would seem as if you were implying that he and D.O. oppa would somehow be… paired up with other girls.”

  “It would be good for him – “

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Why are you suddenly being so protective over hyung?” Sehun huffs and shoves his hands into his pockets. “It’s like you want him to keep liking you and torturing himself.”

  “I don’t…” my bottom lip starts trembling, and my eyes feel stingy. “Of course I don’t want him to keep torturing himself, and of course I want him to find someone else who is not taken to like…” I sniffle. “But… if you look at this whole thing with Baek oppa’s point of view…” I close my eyes as I feel Sehun wrap his arms around me, “he might be scared. I think… I just think that he’s used to liking me and is afraid to… I don’t know.” I groan. “It’s just a freaking hunch, oppa.”

  Sehun chuckles and pats my head not-so-tenderly. “Isn’t there an American saying, ‘I feel it in my guts’?” I laugh. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re right about everything. But no matter what, don’t worry too much, arrasso Jung In-ah? He’s Baekhyun hyung. And he always knows what he wants and what he deserves the most.”

    Leina’s POV:

  “Tell me good news.”

  “Um… I called?”

  I can hear Suyeon roll her eyes on the other end of the line. “Yay, Kim Rae Na is calling me~ GET TO THE POINT LADY DID YOU GET YOUR GOLDEN TICKET TO MEET YOUR FUTURE HUSBAND OR NOT?!”

  “Suyeon!” Wincing, I nod politely to the cab driver after paying and step out of the taxi. “I’m actually on my way back to the S.M. building right now…”

  “Bwo? Wae?”

  “Because they told me to go home first and come back with my stuff.”

  “OHMYGOD YOU GOT – “

  “ACCEPTED!” The both of us squeal at the same time, making me accidently drop my suitcase to the floor.

  “The company – “I bend down to pick it up “– actually told me they weren’t going to accept me at first, Su.”

  “BWO?! But… but you sing like an angel from heaven and whenever you sing flowers bloom and rainbows appear and – “

  My laughter cuts her off. “They mentioned something about ‘a new thing’ or something. And stop exaggerating; my singing isn’t that good… at least not like his…”

  “Hoho, Ms. Kim is so excited to meet her future husband – “

  “He is not my future husband. He’s an idol, for goodness sake.”

  “And idols can’t be husbands?”

  I finally approach the entrance of the building, but sheesh, there are so many girls flooding the whole driveway I can’t even see the door. “T-that’s not what I meant, Su. Anyway, I have to go now, but I’ll call you later when I settle in my dorm, arrasso?”

  “Arra. Oh my god, now my other best friend is a trainee, too…” I laugh again when I catch her last line before hanging up, but then frown. How am I supposed to ram through this herd of girls?

  My answer appears a second later when a van suddenly appears behind me, and then I see him.

  The boy I haven’t seen for 7 years.

 [Flashback]

  “Leina.”

  “Hey dude.”

  He blinked once, then laughed as he sat down beside me on the grass. “’Hey dude’? Have you been watching too many American movies? It doesn’t fit you, you know.”

  “M-mianhae…”

  “You don’t have to apologize,” he ruffled my hair with a smile. “You’re just… too cute to use that kind of phrase.”

  I nodded, a tad bit disappointed at my failed attempt to try another style. I wanted to stop being so… girly, always being described ‘shy’ and ‘inward.’ But I guessed… maybe next time.

  Because he said I was cute.

  Cute.

  “By the way, why do you write ‘Leina’ instead of ‘Rae Na’ on your papers? Isn’t your name spelled R-A-E N-A?”

  “It is,” I nodded again, sheepishly, “but… I like the way it looks when it’s spelled L-E-I-N-A. And it’s actually my English name.”

  “Ah. So in the future, if I want to write your name, I’ll have to write the name L-E-I-N-A with an ‘L’ and an ‘i’?”

  I smiled. “Ne. But… why would you need to write my name?”

  He shrugged. “Just… in case.”

  “Arrasso. Should I watch out if I suddenly receive a box of somebody’s recorded singing?”

  “Maybe,” he laughed. “Or you might just receive a big box of which I would hop out!”

  That would be a great present, too, 10-year-old me thought to myself as I watched him jump onto his feet and run to play chase with his friends.

  Of course, I never received him in a box. Not even a box of tapes of his recorded singing. But sometimes, randomly, in class, he would pass notes to me that read ‘Fighting!’ or ‘Don’t fall asleep, pabo!’ with the words ‘Leina’ on them.

  And gosh, I never knew my name could be written that beautiful.

 [Flashback End]

  “Kyungsoo!”

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[Author's Note] CAN YOU ALL NOT. I HAVE BEEN DYING OF HAPPINESS COZ OF ALL THE COMMENTS AND SUBBIES AND VIEWERS AND ASDFGHJK.

SO MANY OF YOU GUESSED THAT THE MYSTERY BOY WAS BAEK OMG DID I SURPRISE YOU THAT IT'S ACTUALLY THE CUTE DORKY BOY UP IN THAT GIF LOOOOL./GETS BRICKED/

Because I'm getting ready for my college entry exam which is in less than 190 days, I might update only once a week, so please understand, ohkai guys? Srsly, I want to update like every day but I don't have that much time. Hope you guise can understand my unconvenience and still enjoy this story! (Don't worry, I have another update coming up soon hehe. Because I love you all <3)

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING AND ENJOY THE STORY!!<3