“Baekyun! Mr. Lu! Lunch is ready!” The head lady shouted through from the back door of a building to the two men who were working outside. She quickly scanned to ensure that they had heard her news. For confirmation, she repeated, “Lunch is ready!”

Baekyun and Kris stood up from their place after hearing Baekyun’s grandmother tell them about lunch. They had been out in the fields since morning because Kris had asked Baekyun to explain how things work before he officially started working next week. The agricultural business was always slow from late winter to late spring because the workers had to re-grow their crops out on the fields that weren’t in the green houses.

“We can come back later, Mr. Lu.” Baekyun said as he led the way back through the muddy grounds. “Watch your step or you’ll fall.”

“Got it.” Kris said. Ever since his arrival on the field, he had looked at the ground more constantly than looking up because these muddy fields were always trapping him.

Within ten minutes, they safely made it back to the house and the aroma of cooked foods made their stomach growled lightly. They laughed at each other because they heard it.

Sitting down, Baekyun smiled to his grandmother, “Thanks, grandma.”

Grandmother Byun smiled back as she pulled the plates closer to the young men, “You two, eat up. We will need your energy once business gets busy.”

“Thank you.” Kris said before digging into his food.

Grandma Byun shook her head, “It’s my pleasure, Mr. Lu.”

“Please, call me Kris.”

“Then, Kris it will be.” She bashfully said.

“Yes, please.”

Baekyun laughed, covering his mouth. He joked, “Grandma, I’m going to tell grandpa that you like younger men now.”

Kris and Grandma Byun chuckled at Baekyun’s comment.

Grandma Byun said, “Go ahead and tell your grandfather. He knows I only have him.”

“Does grandfather only have you in return?” Baekyun sneered, playing around with his grandmother.

She sighed and put her hands on her hips, “He better!” After laughing with the boys, she was reminded of something that had been bugging her to talk about. So, she waited until the boys finished eating, which wasn’t long. They were quiet hungry, eating as if it would be their last supper. “Leave the plates in the sink. I’ll wash them later.”

“Okay.” The boys said.

Baekyun said to Kris, “Let’s rest before doing more field work.”

“Sure.” Kris agreed as he sat down on his seat again.

“Good, I need to talk to you, Baekyun.” Grandma Byun began seriously.

Baekyun innocently looked at his grandma, “What about?”

“High school.”

*

Hana and Luhan walked with their friends to attend their first day of school as third year students. Ever since the sleep over during spring break, the friends promised to walk to school together in case they didn’t get accepted into the same university. This way, they could at least have some final memories together because they knew their third-year wouldn’t be as relaxing as they would like. But, unlike the usual hyper mood they were always in when they got together, it was quite depressing. Even Xiumin couldn’t find the energy to make jokes for the gang. Luckily, along the way, they came across Gayoon who was wearing their school uniform for the first time as she would be attending the same high school with them as a first year.

Xiumin ecstatically came over but was pushed to the side by Luna who wanted to provoke Xiumin for fun. “Why’d you do that, Luna?”

Luna ignored her friend, “Wow, Gayoon ah, you are so cute with our uniform!!!”

“It matches you well.” Hana added.

Lay and Luhan nodded while Xiumin pouted in the background because he knew now that his friends had telepathically agreed to gang up on him and steal the first compliments to say to the girl he liked.

Gayoon shied away, “Thank you, everyone.”

“Hey, Xiumin…” Luna began, turning back with a grin, “…How does Gayoon look?”

Xiumin froze. His chance had come, but…he didn’t want to be put out on the spot. He wanted to say all those beautiful words to Gayoon when noises were heard, not when everything was quiet—or especially when she was looking at him with such anticipating moist eyes that made his stomach twist and turn.

“I really like this part, Xiumin.” Luna pressed her index finger right in between the bosom of Gayoon, and doing this made the wrinkles of Gayoon’s shirt stretched and curved the shape of Gayoon’s C-sizes.

While doing this, the friends but Xiumin held in their laughter because they knew Xiumin witnessed the entire thing.

Unfortunately, the play ended quite early because Gayoon flinched and covered her chest with her bag. “Luna…”

Luna pretended to not had realize where her hand was, “Ah, sorry.” She pulled her hand away and covered , “It was really nice, though.” She then turned to face Xiumin and mouthed, “Big and squishy.”

That was it.

Xiumin’s face reddened and he docked his head down. Turning away, he said, “Let’s go to class!”

Luna’s hand stopped Xiumin and she said, “Xiumin. What are you doing? You should walk with Gayoon and make sure that she knows the school well enough.” She tugged at her boyfriend’s hand and hopped forward. Glancing back, she shouted, “Hana, Luhan! Let’s leave them for a while!”

Hana and Luhan laughed, nodded, and then obeyed Luna. As Hana went, she touched Xiumin’s shoulder and whispered, “You can do it, Xiumin!”

Luhan also encouraged him with, “Show her your skills.”

Xiumin furrowed his eyebrows together because he didn’t like the situation he was stuck with at the moment, but at the same time, he really did wanted to spend time alone with Gayoon for they hadn’t ever since Krystal and Luhan broke up and Krystal hardly came to visit afterschool, including Gayoon who occasionally followed the Krystal.

Everything was silent between them until Gayoon walked forward to him and said, “Should we get going?”

Xiumin perked up and monotonously answered, “Y-yes…”

*

“Luna, why’d you do that to Xiumin?” Hana said, although she was chuckling.

She and everyone but Xiumin and Gayoon were almost near the school entrance.

Luna smirked, “I had to. It’s my revenge since it’ll be blue.”

“What will be blue?”

Luna, Luhan, and Lay stopped walking. For a slight moment, they forgot that Hana had no clue of what they were planning to do and they wanted it to stay that way, well, at least just for another three to four months.

Luna’s awkward laugh put the gang into a weird atmosphere, “What did I say? Ah, that’s right, are you going to join any club this year?”

“It’s too late to join a club since I’m already a third year student. I want to focus on the college applications and Taeyang.”

Luhan nudged Hana with his shoulder, “What about me? You have to focus on me, too!”

“You’re last on my list.” Hana said, smiling to him.

“Luhan!”

The gang turned to where they heard a very familiar but unwanted voice.

It was Victoria.

Without warning, as always, she gave Luhan a back-hug, squeezing him so tight that Luhan actually wheezed. “I couldn’t find you after graduation, Lu-Lu! Where were you?”

And, like always, Luhan couldn’t’ free himself from her grasp and eyed his friends to help, in particular, Hana. But, she ignored him like always, too.

Victoria continued to speak, head still resting on Luhan’s back and arms still encompassing his waist. “I cannot believe that we’ll be miles apart! I miss you already, my Lu-Lu!!!”

“Please…please—let…go…!” Luhan begged as he fumbled his hands with Victoria at his waist to unchain himself.

Victoria shook her head, “No! I didn’t get to see you after graduation, so I’m going to hold you for a long time before I leave!”

“Leave?” Everyone said, although, Luna was the one who sounded quite happy about the word.

“Don’t think you can have Lu-Lu, Hana.” Victoria snarled to Hana, glaring up at her with the usual disgusted face she gave to her. “When I come back, my body will be better and bigger, something yours definitely wouldn’t become.”

As it that wasn’t enough to pop an invisible vein for Hana, Luhan had to let out a laugh. He knew she caught him yet he even added a fake shrug, implying ‘what’.

That Luhan. I’ll get him for thinking that my body won’t grow.

“Victoria.”

Again, everyone looked in front of them and saw Jongsuk, Victoria’s older twin brother. He elegantly stood there, just distance apart. He had on a brown denim short with black and white tennis shoes. His top consists of two layers, a white shirt covered by a black jacket. For once, he emitted a normal-looking teenage boy instead of the hard-working baseball player.

“Oppa.” Victoria stated while still holding onto Luhan; however, her grip had weakened. “But-but, Lu-Lu….”

“We have to go if we want to catch the flight.”

“You guys are leaving Seoul?” Lay asked.

Jongsuk shook his head, “No. South Korea.”

The friends’ eyes widened. They knew the twins were in the top three percent of their year’s class rank, but they didn’t knew, or at least, thought, they were that academically smart.

For the first time ever, Hana sadly looked at Victoria. She caught the trembling lips and wet eyes of Victoria. She had known all along that Victoria was a good sunbae. She had seen it a couple of times before, it was just that Victoria was always against her just because she was with Luhan. Although the situation was different, Hana could somewhat understand how painful it was to leave a beloved behind.

She tapped Luhan on the chest, “Go with her.”

Everyone looked at Hana because they thought they heard something that didn’t fit the situation.

Hana looked at Jongsuk, the first time they locked eyes together ever since the incident, and asked, “Is it okay if your sister takes a night flight?”

Luhan caught on and tugged Hana by the hand and hissed, “Oi, what are you planning?”

“Yes…it’s fine.” Jongsuk answered.

Hana faced Victoria with a smile, the most sincere, the first, and the last smile she would ever—probably—give to Victoria. “Take him. He’s all yours.”

Victoria’s expression brightened for a quick moment but quietly asked, “But…school…?”

Hana let out a laugh, “I got that under control.”

*

It was lunch time and the gang, but without Luhan, and with the inclusion of Gayoon now, they were up on the rooftop as always.

Xiumin frowned with disappointment because he was always the last one to know something, “I thought Luhan’s constipated problems were over?”

Hana put out an index finger to , “Shh, it was a lie.”

“A lie?” Gayoon and Xiumin whispered.

Nodding, Hana explained, “Victoria stopped by because she wanted to see him before she left.” Under her breath, she muttered, “This is revenge for laughing about my inadequate body, Luhan.”

“Eh? But, she’s always on the leave for her photo shoots. It’s not like she’s going out of South Korea and will never…” When Xiumin caught the blank faces of his friends, he realized that what he said was the situation Victoria had. “WHAT? Really? She’s going out of South Korea and never coming back?”

“Well, the ‘never coming back’ part is a ‘we-don’t-know-yet’, but for sure, they’re going out of South Korea.” Luna answered.

“They?”

“Jongsuk sunbae is going, too.”

Xiumin shrieked and looked at Hana, “What? What about you and sunbae? What about your guys’ relationship?”

“We broke up.”

The friends stood in shock.

Luna put two hands on Hana’s shoulders, “Why didn’t you tell us? When did this happen? Is it because of the long-distance?”

Hana broke free from Luna and scooted back because she knew she would need some space between her and her friends or else she’d be accidently physically hurt by them, especially from Luna who usually got emotionally worked up and tend to use her hands to express her state of emotions. “We broke up…on that day.”

“What day?” The friends asked together.

“The day…Luhan and I made up.”

Luna gasped and gloomily whispered, “Is it…because of what I told you?” She gulped and spoke to herself, “I ruined your first relationship.”

Hana violently protested, “No, no, no. Luna, you didn’t—I did. It was all me.” She looked away and thought back to that day.

"Please, break up with me."

“Does Luhan know?” Xiumin asked.

Hana nodded. “Yeah, I told him.”

“How-how did he take it?” Luna asked, worried. She usually didn’t care for Luhan as they were just friends, but knowing that Luhan was the one who had a righteous and clear mind that night in regards to Hana’s V-date, she was concerned that he might blame himself, too.

“He took it quite fine. I told him it wasn’t his fault either, so…yeah.” Her trailed off sentence wasn’t persuasive but the friends knew better to not touch on a wound that was slowly recovering. She scooted back into the circle and picked up her lunch box, “Let’s eat.”

*

Around the same time that Hana and her friends were eating lunch at school, so were Luhan and Victoria. They were dining at a fancy French-like restaurant for lunch, right across from the three-story museum they recently came out of and had spent almost two hours in, just looking at artwork from painters back in the centuries before they were born. This whole day had been planned meticulously by Victoria who wanted to get Luhan to spend a day with her even if she had to use force. But, luckily she didn't since Hana was the one who excused him for her.

Luhan wasn’t interested in walking around and hearing someone explain the importance of why the art piece was considered a cultural importance but Victoria was. What did caught his interest was how extremely different Victoria was in comparison with Hana. That thought came to him when they passed by a water color piece of a mother and a daughter standing atop of a hill, looking at the horizon as the sun kissed the agriculture landscape goodnight.

He knew Hana didn’t have a girly side—or, at least, had not come to contact with—but when he saw how Victoria was excited at almost every picture she came across and hearing the brief summary about it from the tour guide, he couldn’t help but see Hana not acting the same ecstatic way as Victoria; in fact, he knew that if they were to ever choose a place to date, it'd never be a museum in the first place.

He choked on his water when he realized what he had thought of—a date with Hana. That was not possible between them. They were just two good friends and to go on a date together—never!

“You okay, Lu-Lu?” Victoria asked, laying her fork upside down on the side of her plate. Leaning forward with a worried expression, she added, “Was the food not tasty?”

After Luhan wiped his mouth with a tissue, he forced a smile, “Y-yes. I’m okay, thanks.” He looked around the area, “I’ll be in the bathroom for a bit.” He stood up and headed to his left.

Victoria sighed as she leaned backwards. She looked at the time on her cell phone and saw that it was almost one in the afternoon. She had promised Jongsuk that she’d be at the airport at seven so they could still be at England by the next morning.

Yes, England, oh beautiful England was where she and her brother would be staying for the next two to possible three years. Although she wanted to go after her dream career of becoming a biochemist, she also didn’t want to leave her first die-hard crush. But, she knew all along that she’d never get Luhan. He was sweet, caring, and always understanding, and that was why she could never look away from him.

Feeling depressed, she blinked the tears away because she feared that Luhan would come by and see them fall. With these tears, memories of how they first met crossed her mind.

“Oppa, you promised that we’d go home early today.” Victoria whined to her brother who was in the equipment shed. It was afterschool and they were at the baseball field and she and her brother had become second-year students. Because she mostly interacted with people who followed what she asked for—the people at work—she was used to getting her way. The only one who didn’t give in to her was her older twin brother. “I have a shooting tomorrow and I’ll be leaving tonight.”

“Wait, Victoria.” Jongsuk said, not looking back, still searching for something. “Coach asked me to help the team for fifteen minutes. He poked his head out, “You can wait that long, can’t you?”

“I can, but I don’t want to.” She scowled and looked around, “I don’t want to see a group of immature boys. If they fawn over me and smell like sweat, I’m going to hit them.”

“They won’t.” He walked out and pulled a cart full of bats, balls, and gloves. “Let’s get going.”

As Victoria followed her brother to the stands, she expected wild cheers and wooing whistles because she was usually featured in gravure magazines, and of course, being the teenage boys they were, they have had to have seen her at least once on the front cover. Within two seconds of catching the young boys’ eyes, indeed, it got loud. It was so loud that Coach Yunho had to blow his whistle five times, each louder and sharper than the first.

Jongsuk only smiled at the responses his sister was getting. He was used to the popularity she had. All he did was focusing on getting the cart next to his coach. When finished, he stood beside it, with the cart in between Coach Yunho and him.

“Hey, pay attention!” Coach Yunho shouted. His pink face slowly reverted to its original color.

Although it took a while, the boys finally unlocked their gazes from Victoria to their coach. On the other hand, Victoria sat down on the lonely bench just adjacent from the stands.

Coach Yunho clapped, “Congratulations on passing the athletics health tests and requirements. But, do not celebrate just yet.” He put his arms behind his back, “I can eliminate you anytime I want if I see you have no teamwork, no sportsmanship, or lack of determination.” He points to Jongsuk, “This is our ace. He had been playing baseball for most than four years and each year he always surpasses his previous. I want you to follow or at least use Jongsuk as your athletic model.”

Jongsuk bowed and then introduced himself formally, “Good evening. I’m Jongsuk, but I’m not that great yet. I still have plenty to learn. As your sunbae, I will do my best to guide you.”

Watching her brother spoke to the kids with much comfort made her envious. She knew she had a problem with speaking nicely but she could never help but speak with a snide attitude. She never had any friends to begin with. She learned the ranking of superiority first through working and she learned life that way. Her dejected eyes wandered amongst the crowd when she saw a young boy who was constantly poking the arm of a young girl who was ignoring him. She arched a brow in response. She hated those kinds of annoying people who didn’t know when to stop irritating others. She felt bad for the girl who might be friends with that boy—or worse, his girlfriend.

As the introduction and welcoming speech was over, the next thing on the agenda was a baseball warm up where they’d play a small game of catch so that Coach Yunho could get an analysis of where everyone’s athletic abilities currently lie.

Once everyone was down at the field and feeling bored fo