When the others came home, they were surprised. They expected you to have locked yourself in your room crying but they found you and Chen were on the couch watching TV. But that wasn't what they found surprising. 

What was surprising was that you were actually smiling! Even if it was a little. You weren't as emotionless as you were during school and they were glad. 

"Oh? Where's Minyoung?" Kai asked when he noticed the other girl wasn't around. 

"She said she had some emergencies at home to take care of and left right after we left school." Chen said. 

"So you were alone with Haerin the whole time?" Baekhyun asked. 

"Yeah, I was." Chen smiled. 

 

While the other boys surrounded you and asked you if you were okay, Baekhyun tapped on Chen’s shoulder and nodded towards the rooms.

 

Chen got up and followed Baekhyun into his room.

 

“Did anything happen while we were gone?” Baekhyun asked.

 

“Nothing much, really.” Chen said. “Instead of coming here straight away, Haerin said she wanted to go to the park nearby your apartment so we did.”

 

“We sat the bench near the pond and then all of a sudden, she started crying.” Chen continued. “She cried for like, I don’t know, half an hour?”

 

Baekhyun’s face changed the moment he heard that you cried.

 

“Is she okay now, though?” Baekhyun asked as he took a peek outside to where you and the guys were.

 

“Yeah, I think she is. Better than she was earlier, that’s for sure. But I don’t know she’s totally okay.”

 

“That’s okay. At least she’s better.” Baekhyun smiled. He walked over to Chen and patted his shoulder. “Thanks man, I owe you one,” He said and left the room.

 

Chen looked outside to where you and your friends were and smiled as he saw you smiling and talking to them. I’m glad she’s smiling again.

 

 

*

 

The first three weeks of the term went by quickly.

Chen got used to his schedules easily with the help of his friends. Luhan avoided you. Or, well, the boys made sure that he did.

After that night of opening up a little to Chen, the two of you had gotten closer. Definitely not as close as Chen had hoped, but still significantly closer. 

Although you still didn't start the conversations, you didn't try to push him away and end it as quickly as you usually would have. 

You felt happier now that you were talking to Chen and that made Chen happy as well. 

During those first two weeks of school, although Luhan made sure to stay away, he still watched you from afar. 

Watching you so close with the guys weren't a problem, really. But when he saw you talking to Chen, it made his blood boil. He wanted to so badly be in Chen's position. 

There was definitely something different about Chen. 

Luhan had noticed that you weren't as close to him as you were to the other guys. He didn't know the exact reason why but he just figured it was because he was a new friend. 

But anyone could've easily figured out that this 'new friend' had a huge crush on Haerin.

Ever since that encounter at the beach, Luhan had disliked Chen. He didn't know why, but he just did. 

At first he thought it was because he took you away from him when he really wanted to talk to you. 

But after the three weeks of watching you converse and hang out with him, he started to realize that that anger he felt towards Chen was jealousy.  

"How can you be jealous of him?" Luhan's friend, Sehun, was telling him. "You can't be jealous of him unless you..." 

Luhan looked down and played with his feet. 

"...You like her, don't you?" Sehun's eyes turned serious. 

When there was no response from Luhan, Sehun knew that the answer was yes. 

"I think I really do." Luhan sighed. "Is that bad?" 

"It's not bad, I guess." Sehun said. "But you have to let it go, Luhan. You won't be able to get her back." 

"What if I do want to get her back?" Luhan whispered. 

"Are you kidding me?" Sehun stared at Luhan thinking he was being ridiculous. "You've been found out, Luhan. They won't even let you anywhere near her! How in the world are you even going to talk to her again?" 

Luhan silently listened as his friend he ranted. 

"You played with her and broke her heart. Even if you did develop feelings for her, no one's going to believe you. It doesn't even matter if you feel guilty about it."

"How are you even going to get her to talk to you?" 

Luhan sighed. "I don't know," He whispered. 

"All I know is that I want to get her back." 

 

*

 

 

For the next few days, Luhan seemed to always be looking for you.

 

Every morning when he awoke, he would wonder if you had woken up as well; if you had eaten breakfast or if you had left the apartment to school already.

 

The moment he entered school grounds, he would wonder if you’ve reached school yet.

 

When he walked to class, he would wonder if you were already in there. If you weren’t, he would wonder where on earth you were.

 

You just happened to be the centre of his thoughts and every time you appeared in his mind (which was practically every single time), he would have this goofy smile on his face.

 

Sehun noticed this and sighed. Sure, he was glad that his friend had a crush on someone but he was worried. More worried than he was glad.

 

Luhan’s friend could already tell that his love story wouldn’t end the way he wanted it to. And he had a feeling that maybe Luhan knew this as well, but he wanted to try anyway.

 

 

Every time that Luhan would see you alone, he would try to approach you. But one of your friends would always appear before he could even get anywhere near you. It was like they knew that he was trying to get to you again and would magically appear out of nowhere before he could say anything.

 

There was once, though, when Luhan had found you alone.

 

It was during lunch break and you were there at you locker. He didn’t know where your friends were but he thought that they were probably already in the cafeteria waiting for you to get there.

 

You were looking into your locker. Looking for a book or your eyeliner, maybe, but he didn’t know.

 

Luhan was on the other side of the hallway when he had seen you. He made sure that none of your friends, especially your brother, were anywhere near the vicinity before he started walking towards you.

 

There was a tap on your shoulder and you turned around to look. You thought it was probably Kai or Chanyeol or any of your friends but when you saw Luhan’s face, your eyes were immediately filled with anger and sadness.

 

Luhan noticed the look in your eyes and felt guilty. He was extremely sorry for what he had done to you. He couldn’t even believe that he had used you like that. If only he had realized his feelings for you before you found out that he was playing you.

 

Speaking of that, Luhan still didn’t have any clue to how you knew about it. Or how your friend knew about. All he knew was that it wasn’t Sehun because he said that he didn’t tell anyone.

 

“What do you want?” You snarled, brushing Luhan’s hand off your shoulder.

 

“I want to talk.” He whispered, but loud enough for you to hear. “Can we talk?”

 

“No.” You spat. Then you slammed your locker door and left him standing there, sad and hurt. But mostly, he was just filled with regret and guilt.

 

That was the only time after that encounter at the beach that you had talked to him. Even if it was one word. One word that was filled with so much negative emotions. 

 

Sehun had seen this and immediately came over to the side of his best friend and patted his shoulder.

 

“Come on,” he said, “Let’s go get something to eat.”

 

Sehun dragged the glum Luhan towards the cafeteria and sat at a table that was far away from where your friends were sitting.

 

He wanted to warn him and tell him that the possibility of him getting back together with you for good was extremely low, but he didn’t have the heart to. His best friend was already feeling so down about it, so Sehun thought that he would tell him another time. But soon, definitely.