13: Suho

“Kris,” It was late at night. Kris seemed like he had just woke up from his sleep, hugging his alpaca toy. I didn’t have time to mention about it and immediately walked into the living room. He grunted in acknowledgement before locking the door close again. He dragged himself behind me and plopped into the sofa, trying to get more sleep.

“I did something incredibly crazy the other day and I don’t think I could go to school anymore.” I said. He hummed and tried to sit upright on the sofa. He pointed at Luhan’s and Lay’s room before slowly passing out. “Yeah, you’re right. Should I talk to Yi Xing instead?” Kris nodded his head and slowly walked into his room again.

I sighed and knocked on Lay’s room. I stopped knocking when I realized that they were perhaps asleep. Slowly opening the door, I found a light source in the middle of the room. When I heard a few giggles and some shooting noises, I didn’t hesitate to just barge inside. “Why are you still awake?” I asked them.

“Why are you here?” Luhan couldn’t believe that I was there. Lay squinted to see whether it was the real me. I closed the door behind me and sat on the edge of Luhan’s bed. When I felt him nudged my , I slipped myself to sit on the floor. Apparently, they were far from being sleepy. Their eyes were still energetic and I shifted closer to sit in the middle.

“What is it?” Lay asked me. I looked at him and sighed. Now that Luhan was around too, I found myself quite reluctant to tell him about it. I cleared my throat and just shrugged.

“I’ll keep myself busy. Don’t mind me…just talk.” Luhan scoffed. I just laughed at him and found myself a more comfortable seat. Lay glanced at Luhan for confirmation before chuckling. He looked at me and I nodded.

“Is it about Hani?”

“Who’s honey?” Luhan asked.

I sighed before looking at him. “It’s Hani, not honey. Well actually, her real name is Hanhee but if you say it quickly, it’d be Hani.”

“Shim Hanhee is it?” Luhan put away the console when Lay beat him in the game. He sighed and closed the whole game leaving me and Lay blinking in the dark. “Did you say that it was Shim Hanhee?”

“Uh, yeah,” I crawled to sit on Lay’s bed. I heard Luhan hummed. “Well, about her…”

“What happened?”

“I did something.”

“What thing?” Luhan had the bed lamp opened and he stared at me. Lay pointed at him and nudged me, laughing a bit. I rubbed the back of my neck and looked at Lay. “Well, what did you do?”

“I told her that I like her.”

It was silent. The two friends looked at me as if I was some kind of an alien. I smiled at them and nodded my head. “I confessed to Shim Hanhee that I like her. I told her that I didn’t expect anything. I just…I like her.”

“Whoa,” Lay exclaimed. “You were really serious about her, weren’t you? Did you tell your mom and dad about this?” He had expected me to bluff it off but what should I do? I chuckled lightly and shook my head. Luhan’s expression eased a bit and he sat upright on his bed, hugging his pillow.

“Mom and dad knew about Hanhee. They met once before and they found her comfortable.” I leaned against the wall and sighed, “But the thing is, I don’t know anything about Hanhee. I like her a lot but there isn’t much that I know about her. I had confessed to her but she did nothing back. She didn’t even say anything as if she didn’t even acknowledge me there.”

“If you want,” Lay nudged me. “I can dig up Hani’s background—maybe not?” Lay trailed slowly when I gave him a glare. “Well, what can I do for you?”

“She has a problem, that kid.” I decided to tell them the truth.

“But everyone has problem, Joonmyun.” Luhan said, “You can’t expect her to rise up with you. You’re Kim Joonmyun. You have wealth, knowledge, health, good looks, supportive family and most importantly good friends. You can’t expect to have any more, can you? Let Hani, that girl to breathe. It must’ve been suffocating for her, and pressuring too now that she has you to be worried about.”

“What about me?” I argued. “There’s nothing wrong about me liking someone. I don’t have to worry about girls being heartbroken if I wanted someone else—unlike you guys.”

“Are you being humble or just plain bragging?” Lay chortled.

“Why doesn’t she like me back?”

“Maybe because you’re too much of a perfectionist,” Luhan took as an example. I rolled my eyes at him and sighed. “It’s burdensome, Joonmyun in case you don’t know. You are the student president. She’s just a normal student. Maybe she thinks that you’re just fooling around.”

“I stick around her for a while now. There’d be no way for her to think like that.” I grunted. “I mean, there’s gotta be something that made her so reluctant to trust my feelings.”

“Is there any other guy around her? You can’t possibly be someone else’s relationship third person, huh?” Lay assumed. That was when I thought of the man who’s closer to Hanhee than I am. But they don’t seem like a couple. Or was I trying to deny everything?

“Ah I don’t know.” I grunted. “I’m going to sleep here tonight anyway.”