08: 

I guess that Luhanless days are far away from my grasp. Yeah, because when I arrived at Beijing, he helped me to locate my luggage. And then he walked out of his friend’s car to offer me a ride as well. That’s how I met Baozi (whom a few days later I found out that real name is actually Kim Minseok). I declined of course but there were no taxis available. It was like Luhan had planned everything in advance but then that sounded too impossible.

We shared a lift, okay, but when they stopped by in front of my dorm, I realized that they had loaded Luhan’s luggage as well. It seemed that Minseok is living in the same apartment unit as I do, and Luhan was his roommate before he went through a few months transfer student course in Korea. After all Minseok is a Korean student like me.

Ah right, speaking of that, I guess that I am now going to the same university as they do. When they saw my new student card, Minseok looked amused, Luhan looked excited while I just sighed and god why is this happening to me?

“What do you mean by that?”

“It means that my plan of avoiding you is a complete fail.”

Luhan snorted, “You’re just saying that.” I didn’t understand what he was implying but Minseok did and his eyebrows arched upwards that they almost touched his hairline. The boys quickly fall into a hushed conversation and I dismissed any unnecessary thoughts.

That night, Luhan knocked on my door, saying that Minseok might miss Korean food. It was weird but seeing Minseok’s face when he smelled my dinner, I let the two boys in. We talked a bit and then Minseok received a call from a friend. That explained the new face I met the next morning, Kim Jongdae.

Kim Jongdae is like a mixed version of Baekhyun and Chanyeol. In other word, he is the worst, but worst in a good way. He’s a vocal major, claiming to swoon the singer Liyin before returning back home. Personality-wise, he’s just like a cat—playful and annoying (all in a good way, that dude’s a darling) He takes care of me too, always reminding me to eat more and sometimes telling me to stop hogging the refrigerator when I get too hungry.

Minseok, Jongdae and I talk about stuff so excitedly that Luhan is always left ignored in the car.

When I broke down because of the language barrier and how people keep on staring at me again (because I’m friend with the boys), Luhan was the one who sat in front of me, consoling. Minseok and Jongdae shared their experiences too and I think they went through it well because now, Jongdae speaks Chinese like a native Beijing man.   

I didn’t know how it happened but things somehow settled down. Two weeks after I arrived and undergoing intensive language lessons (with the school by day and the boys by night), I could weakly converse in minimal Chinese.

Gradually, things improved overall.

I didn’t know why but my heart just gets warmer. Maybe it was because there was no one to pull me back. There was no one to spare a look at me before I take the leap. There was no one to judge me and to pray that I would fall after that one leap. There was no Chanyeol to remind me on how ruined I had become. There was no more of his friends and the strangers that fell too easily under Chanyeol’s innocent act. Just no one to judge me.

But running away will never solve the problem. I had a few unanswered calls from Yumi. Maybe one or two from Kyungsoo? But none from Chanyeol. Never a single call from Chanyeol.

“Waiting for a call?” It was Yixing. I recognized the voice as the Korean was dragged barely understandable. Well, at least he is better than Zitao. I chuckled at my sudden thought of the panda boy. Then only I realized that Yixing had sat comfortably next to me. There was a burger on his laps but the cucumber slices were put aside. I frowned.

“That won’t taste anything like burgers,” I commented.

“Burgers should be served with just the buns and the meat slice,” He paused and looked away into the clouds, “More meat slices would be better though.” His eyes were distant as if he wasn’t conscious. I chuckled at him and watched as he munched on the hamburger.

When Luhan introduced me to him one day, I remember feeling so scared and intimidated because he’s looking at me like I’m a hooker—I had pouted at Luhan in Korean, hissing because Yixing was really gruesome to look at. Yixing blinked for a few times before frowning as well and he said, “You don’t look like a hooker. It’s just the way I look.”

I agreed with him on that because after talking to him for the next few days, I realized that it’s just the way he looks and how he looks at people. I also found out that he’s in Psychology course and he teaches dancing classes in the weekend. Yixing looks sleepy on daily basis and sometimes he put up expressions that could easily surpass Kyungsoo’s monotone look, Sehun’s bratty look and Chanyeol’s creepy one or even a crying Joonmyun.

“Stop laughing at my face.” Yixing sighed in Chinese. I figured out that he might think I would laugh even harder at his Korean pronunciation. I stopped laughing at once and looked down on my lap.

Silence passed comfortably as I tried to enjoy the breeze. This is nice.

“Luhan is having his soccer practice. He’s been away for a while so he needs time catching up with the rest of the team. He plays for the university. I bet that if he didn’t return sooner, the coach would fly over to Korea just to get him back here,” Yixing suddenly revealed. I blinked at Yixing. He shrugged and winked, nudging me, “Just in case if you’re wondering where he is.”

“Am not,” I pouted and a beep from my phone alerted me. Swiping the password unlock, I saw a text saying that I had a missed call from my mother. I sighed and decided to call her back when I get home later. I put away my phone and tried to focus on my surroundings.  

“Waiting for a call?” Yixing asked again. I looked at him and noticed him munching the burger as if he wanted it to get over with quickly. Seriously, he looks tired all the time.

And then his question sank in and I didn’t like the way I was too predictable to someone I just met a couple of weeks ago. Come to think of it, I don’t like the way I became so close to a group of men and became the target of half of the women population in the university. The exact thing happened back in home. I don’t want to go through this all over again.

Yixing suddenly stared back at me and blinked. “You think too much. You think more than Zitao does when he tried to understand that Korean drama you introduced him to.”

Zitao is an angel. Not literally (definitely not with his personality) but I just smile whenever I see him. He reminds me of a particular maknae back in South Korea and it was nice, thinking about the little things like this.

“I’m glad I met you,” I suddenly blurted out. It was random but I was thinking of how Luhan’s friends had welcomed me warmly and reached out for me. “Remind me to thank Luhan for introducing me to all of you.”

Yixing blinked sleepily again.

“Luhan has never brought a girl home you know. He dates a few girls here and there but I could sense something weird and serious between the two of you. Are you his girlfriend?” His question was also random and I could only gape emptily at him. Yixing pushed my chin up with his finger and resumed eating his burger. “I’m just curious. You did spend a night at his place, right?” Two nights actually—but still— “I think he does like you even though you’re not his girlfriend.”

I shook my head frantically and chuckled, “Luhan and I are not like that. We’re friends.” He’s done so much for me and I’m just indebted to him. “He’s just too nice.”

“Luhan is not nice,” Yixing argued as he rolled his eyes at my response, “He’s rude and short-tempered. A girl teased Minseok one time and I remembered vividly what happened to her.”

“What happened to her?” I was just curious.

Yixing’s eyes met mine and he shrugged, “He poured his coffee on her. Luckily it’s cooled already. But he was still sent to the board to explain himself. You see, Luhan holds a high reputation around here. Everything he does is watched by many. That’s why he ran away to Korea. But—” running away will never solve the problem, I continued in my head. Yixing stopped though and I followed his eyes to see what distracted him from finishing his words.

It was Luhan and Minseok, running towards us, all in their soccer jerseys and wow—Luhan does look fine. Minseok looks dashing too but he’s just too cute to have me awing over his looks. I swore he looks exactly the same as the hamster I saw in a pet shop. Yixing hummed thoughtfully at this sight, asking me to pay extra attention to how ‘nice’ Luhan is.

I’m guessing that the two of them were racing towards us and Minseok got here first. When Luhan finally caught up, he smacked Minseok’s with his kick. I frowned at that exchange.

Minseok glared at him before they burst out laughing. They went into another series of playful kicks and chasing each other which left Yixing shaking his head. I blinked and turned to meet his gaze.

“See,” Yixing stated, “Luhan is far from nice.”

“Why did you learn Korean?” I asked Yixing one day.

Tao looked away from the television and grinned at me, “Ge actually likes a Korean. He’s probably learning to language to impress her.”

Yixing merely looked at Tao as if he didn’t exist and I found out that was his way of showing his anger. He then looked back at me and smiled shyly. Normally other people would deny the accusation and tried to explain himself but Yixing just continued looking at the ‘Easy Korean for Dummies’ on his lap. Luhan had bought me the same edition of ‘Easy Chinese for Dummy’ the other day and I’m guessing that the one Yixing was holding was actually Tao’s.

“That’s true actually,” Jongdae commented as he looked up from his phone.

“Is that true?” I asked Yixing himself.

“Yeah,” He confessed, “I met her when I joined a dance workshop at Korea last year. We kept in touch sometimes.”

“You’ve been to Korea?” I smiled in adoration. That explains his smooth Korean.

At that time, the front door opened and Luhan came in, drenched. My smile disappeared. Before I could say anything, he waved his hand at me and shook his head.

“Whatever you’re about to say, don’t say it.” He argued cutely. I muttered a small ‘what’ and Luhan looked up from the towel Minseok had handed him. He sighed after a few seconds of staring at me and looked away. “I know what you’re about to say. Don’t say anything.”

“What?” I managed to croak. I didn’t know why but a heavy tension was lingering in the air. I couldn’t hear the buzz of the rapid Korean from the TV (I think Tao had turned the volume down) and Jongdae stopped talking to Minseok as well. Luhan pouted as he took a step away from where I was sitting. I got up as well.

“What is it?” To be honest, I didn’t know what I was about to say. So when Luhan said it like that, I was just curious. What did he think I was about to say?

“I thought it wasn’t going to rain, okay.” Luhan hissed. He then looked away again when he realized that his voice had hitched a pitch higher. “You always remind me to trust the weather forecast. You were about to say ‘I told you so’, didn’t you?”

I wanted to tell him that ‘no, I wasn’t thinking of saying anything actually’ but that would put him in a situation even more awkward than this so I just shut my mouth.

“I’ll take a shower.”

“I’m going back to my room.”

“That was weird.” Minseok commented, amusement ringing in his voice. Jongdae smirked evilly and Tao turned the volume up again. Yixing just smiled as he shrugged at Minseok’s remark. “Don’t you think so, Xing?”

“She thinks he’s just being nice to her.” Yixing replied.

“Luhan is the opposite of nice.” Jongdae scoffed. “I could smell the from where I was sitting.”