*

KRIS WU

*

Kai is a ing idiot.

Period.

This wasn’t a personal opinion, it was a fact. But it wasn’t completely all his fault. After all, he didn’t raise himself to be the way he is. I blamed his parents, actually. I didn’t know too much about his relationship with them, but I knew they expected a lot from him. Like enough to drive any child absolutely insane, and that’s probably why Kai was the way he was today.

The guy couldn’t recognize his own feelings, and he couldn’t comprehend anyone else’s, and even worse, he was unable to care about anyone else’s feelings even if he was able to comprehend them because he was an emotionally stunted freak. He would probably be miserable for the rest of his life. It’s just unfortunate that innocent people like Minji had to suffer, too, because of this.

I’ll admit that the prank Minji and the girls had pulled on us was pretty brutal, but I still had to give them their props. Literally, none of us guys had ever seen it coming. Of course, I hadn't been all that affected by it thanks to Chanyeol who had eaten almost all my chocolate leaving me only a couple of pieces. But after seeing the effects of the prank and what it had done to the rest of the guys I was grateful that he had.

I know Kai must have been really affected by what had happened to him in English class regarding the prank the girls had pulled on him, but he had to know that he had kind of asked for it after what he had done. In fact, we had all kind of asked for their revenge prank after what we did to them, so, him setting Minji up to be removed from her position as president was just wrong.

I had warned him not to go through with that stupid case against Minji after Chaerin had told me all about it, but he had told me that the situation wasn’t that serious. He had said that Chaerin was just “over exaggerating the issue” and that “Minji would be just fine.”

Bull.

I’d had a bad feeling about it back then, but I couldn’t get any more information out of him about it since he’d practically disappeared from campus that week. He had even stopped showing up to classes so I couldn’t talk to him, then, either. 

Then, next thing I know, a little over week after I had confronted him about what Chaerin had told me to which he had told me was nothing to worry about, I see Minji presenting an apology letter to the entire school for her so-called “disgraceful behavior” and being the troublemaker behind the prank on the guy’s dorm house. I felt like I had been slapped in the face once she had said that she was officially resigning from all student government activities for the rest of the year and therefore, would no longer be president.

That’s when I had realized that Kai had flat-out lied to me.

To everybody.

And yet, Minji was the one who got burned because of it.

That’s why I had decided that he was the scum of the earth and that I no longer wanted anything to do with him anymore. The rest of the guys still stuck by him though, more due to ignorance. They had enough faith in Kai that they believed that whatever had happened during the meeting with the board’s superintendent, that the final verdicts made were probably fair. But I didn’t think so.

Kai would say anything, do anything to save his own image or to get his way. I had learned that when he had forced Chanyeol to steal Minji’s ticket from me and when he’d had me take the fault for the food fight he’d started for inexplicable reasons. The guy was just all over the place and I didn’t want to be one of his little pawns anymore, so I was staying clear away from him.

The only problem was, I was still his appointed vice-president, and that meant I had responsibilities, too, both to student government and to him. I knew Chaerin was having a hard time having to deal with him on her own since I wasn’t talking to him, based on the stories she told me whenever we were in art class together.      

According to her, Kai was held up in the student government’s office doing basically nothing but sitting around all day and looking miserable. I didn’t care if he was feeling bad for whatever reason. Serves him right for what he did to Minji. You can’t just go around messing with other people’s lives and never expect bad karma to come back to bite you in the . If something was bothering him so much to the point that he was feeling like and refused to come out in public then I say let him rot in that office.

But then, without a well-functioning senior president, and two vice-presidents who hate this senior president, then that means senior year will be a total bust. We’re already way beyond late on announcing the results of the elections for student government positions. Everybody’s been wondering what’s going to happen. Here we are, already near winter, and we still haven’t gotten a single thing regarding government together. But that was all Kai’s fault, too. He was the one who had screwed everything to hell.  

Now everybody in our entire senior class was going to suffer because of it.       

I was currently walking the academy’s hallways, on my way to art class—my favorite class. It used to be that English was my favorite since I was good at English, and it was a plus that all my friends were in there as well as Minji, but because of the way Minji had been treating me as of late…or should I say not treating me, for she hadn’t really been paying me any attention at all, it had grown to be more and more awkward to be in over the last couple of weeks.   

This had started a long time ago, though. Her treating me weirdly, that is. I remember her attitude towards me having gone from interested to straight up indifference all within a few days. But at least back then she still talked to me, even though she didn’t seem interested in getting to know me beyond a purely platonic friendship-level. Now, she refused to even look my way.

My guess was that she had found out about the prank us guys had played on the girls and that she was so mad about it that she wanted nothing to do with any of us, me included. Then Kai had gone on and further screwed her over by lying about her involvement in the prank or something like that, which made the superintendent see her as guilty and that’s when she completely withdrew from everything and everybody, again, me included.

This didn’t stop me from being friendly towards her though. I just knew she had to be hurting, but probably couldn’t say anything. But it was still awkward to try and be nice to her when she was basically ignoring my existence.  

Maybe I could ask Chaerin for some advice on how to get back on Minji's good side, or more specifically, see if she knew why Minji was ignoring me in the first place.

I just had to get to art class, first, to be able to do so.

Basically, I was late, not for any particular reason other than that I was taking my sweet time getting there. I really hated to rush and the time the schedule gave us to travel from one class to another wasn’t long enough, especially when you had one class on one end of the campus, and another way on the other end, which is what happened to me every day I had to transfer from math to art.   

The tardy bell had rung already, but I was only reaching the class, just now. Luckily, the art teacher was really cool about attendance as long as we gave the class our full, undivided attention for the hour it was in session, and we took our work seriously. 

Once I entered the classroom, I was hit with the familiar smell of acrylic paints and the sight of art easels stationed all over the room, each of them in use by my classmates. The atmosphere was pleasant as everyone worked on their own art pieces and chatted quietly. Despite the many elevated art easels all around, with me being as tall as I was, the art instructor noticed me immediately. He gave me a once over and nodded, acknowledging me, and I knew I would be counted in attendance. I, then, headed for the side of the room where my own easel stood, and immediately smiled upon seeing the back of Chaerin, already seated at her own her stool and easel that was right beside mine.

Because her back was facing me, as she was focused on her painting in front of her, I knew she didn’t know I was coming up behind her, so I decided to play a little trick on her for fun.         

Slowly, I crept up behind her until I was almost touching her back, then I leaned over so that I was level with her head. She must have really been into her painting because she didn't sense me at all despite how close I was to her body. I could even smell the scent of her shampoo fragrance. I didn’t know what it was but I knew it was flowery and that it smelled delightful.  

I felt myself grin, unable to control the excitement I felt for what I was about to do.

I leaned a little closer to her, getting right next to her ear, and then whispered, lowly, “Hello Chaerin Le-”

Wack!

“OW!” I bellowed in pain as I stumbled back, gathering attention from our peers. My hand instantly came up to cup my sore nose. The back of Chaerin’s head had collided with my face when she jumped up in surprise thanks to my little prank.

Immediately, the raven-haired girl spun around in her stool to face me, her eyes widened in shock and cheeks beet red from embarrassment.

“Oh my gosh!” she gasped and her hands immediately came up to touch my nose. “I am so sorry.”

“Yeah, me too,” I muttered under my breath as she started to massage nose for me, caringly. I frowned at her, although I did so with a smile because I was amused at how terrible my attempt to surprise her had gone. “That’s the last time I try to surprise you.”

Chaerin suddenly stilled in her ministrations before fixing me with an unamused look.

“Yeah, well you shouldn’t be sneaking up on people, especially when they’re in the middle of doing something really important,” she growled at me. She then turned to her art easel and sighed. “Look, you made me mess up on my painting.”

Looking at her painting, I noticed the big black line now slashing across the work of art which she must have done on accident when she had jumped.

“Oh, you’re still working on your banana painting,” I commented, sarcastically, knowing that what I just said would cause the girl to flare up and sure enough, she did.

“They are not bananas!” she snapped with a grin plastered to her face. “They are gondolas!”

I narrowed my eyes as I looked at her painting again. “They look like bananas to me.”

I had been teasing her about her “banana” painting for the last week now. Apparently, it was a dream of hers to be in Venice, Italy one day, and to row in one of those little boats they call “gondolas,” particularly with a male lover since the scene was romantic, or something like that.

But all I saw were two yellow bananas floating on water.  

“You know what?” Chaerin scolded me now, though not seriously for she was still smiling. “Just focus on your own painting galaxy Fan Fan!”  

I laughed. Chaerin had come up with that nickname for me after she found out about my obsession with all things related to outer space. Here, in art class, my paintings, drawings, or whatever I created were always images of outer space and she seemed to have taken notice hence, the nickname “galaxy Fan Fan.” I had always been enthralled with our galaxy and the immenseness of the mysterious outer space even as a kid. In fact, when I was younger, my mother always used to tease me saying that I must be from another planet.  

Lifting the sheet covering my unfinished painting that I had started on a week ago of another image of the solar system, I stared at it, examining what I had so far.

The sun, and the 12 planets, perfectly in orbit. But it needed the moon. I grabbed the pencil off my easel and began sketching a small moon in the distance.

Chaerin and I worked in comfortable silence for a few minutes before I heard her sigh, and she put her paint brush down.

I side-glanced her but continued with my sketching. “What’s wrong?”   

“You would not believe how much of a wreck your friend Kai looks like right now,” she began sounding frazzled. “He’s always moody and depressed and never wants to do anything. When I went to the office to talk to him yesterday, he was just sitting in there, by himself, just staring at the wall like some weirdo. Then when I tried to tell him that we needed to get votes counted for student government he just walked out on me.” 

It didn’t surprise me. Chaerin had been complaining to me for weeks about how awful a job Kai had been doing at being president since they started working together, which was odd for him. He had never been the most decent or responsible president, but he had always gotten things done when he was supposed to. That wasn’t the case now, according to Chaerin.    

“Kai is not my friend,” I told her without an ounce of sympathy, but not because I didn’t care that she was clearly upset. Rather, my resentment towards Kai made me act coldly whenever his name was brought up. “I don’t associate with idiots like him anymore.”

Even though I wasn’t looking at her, I could feel Chaerin’s gaze on my profile.

“You’ve been knowing him for your entire school-age years, and you mean to tell me that you never knew how much of an he was?” she asked in disbelief. “You’ve never witnessed him do anything messed up before he met Minji?”

I shrugged. “Kai has done some pretty shady things in the past. I mean, we all have. Not even I can claim to be a saint, but damn. I’ve never seen or heard of him doing anything like what he did to Minji. I’ve seen him bully kids, other students, and even some teachers before, but this time it’s different. This time it’s worse because this time the person he’s messed with is someone I actually like.” 

Chaerin didn’t say anything immediately after my little outburst, but when she did I suddenly got a strange vibe.

“…Right…” she said finally and when I glanced at her I noticed she looked uncomfortable but seemed to be trying to hide it as she kept her eyes on her painting. “You like her…”

In that moment, I almost smiled. Ever since I really got to know Chaerin while in this class, I always had this…feeling. A feeling that she might have liked me. I wasn’t completely sure because Chaerin was always so cool. In fact, sometimes I felt a little inferior around her because she would be a little too cool.

I mean, over the last few months of knowing her, I had learned that she had impeccable taste in hip-hop (a genre in which I happen to love), and could even rap in four languages (Korean, English, Japanese, and French). She had lived in many places all over the world thanks to her father, France being one of them (where she had learned French), and was a true fashion expert.

We talked about our favorite musicians, our favorite places that we’d both been and even shared similar tastes in designers. But I always felt like I was learning more from her than really seeing eye-to-eye. Chaerin was very well-rounded and she had experienced a lot while young, plus, she was both book smart and street smart.

It amazed me to think that she might be interested in a rich boy like me, but I still had the feeling. It was the way her eyes would linger on my profile sometimes when she thought I didn’t notice. Or, the way she giggled at all my jokes. Not to mention the kiss we’d shared that day up on that podium all thanks to Yoona’s kissing booth. Even though I had been conned out of having my own kiss with Minji, the one I’d had with Chaerin, I have to say, wasn’t bad at all.

Sometimes I even think I wouldn’t mind having the chance to do it again. But, like I said, I wasn’t totally sure how much she liked me. Our friendship could be flirtatious sometimes, and we always had a good time when together, but it hadn't gone any further.

Plus, there was still Minji…        

“Well, of course, I do,” I said now, agreeing with her earlier statement that I liked Minji, but saying so gently. Somehow, I found myself wary of offending her. “She’s one of the closest girl-friends I’ve made while here at the co-ed academy.”

Chaerin was looking up at the ceiling as she said her next words.

“Only one of the closest?” she asked with a grin now, probing further as if trying to get another answer out of me. "As in there are others?" 

I smiled at her as I realized she was referring to herself. “Well there’s also Bom, and Dara, oh, and that really cute girl in my drama class…”

Chaerin’s eyes suddenly flicked to my face and she fixed me with an unamused look thus, causing me to laugh again.

“And you,” I admitted, finally, unable to hold back my grin. She smiled too, revealing the little dimple on her left cheek that I had grown to adore. She then looked away and muttered something unintelligible under her breath, but I swore it sounded like “dork” or something like that.

I looked back at my sketch, staring at it in deep thought for a minute before finally voicing what was on my mind.

“I have to find a way to get back into Minji’s good graces,” I told Chaerin. “I don’t want her to hate me.”

“Minji will come around, eventually,” she said sympathetically. “Truthfully, she’s not even really talking to me, Dara or Bom right now and we’re her best friends. I think it will just take some time since she’s really upset about…you know. Everything.”

I nodded understanding. What Kai had done to her was so wrong it was unbelievable. I couldn’t blame her for being as upset as she was. I still wanted to find a way to help though.        

“Okay, but we still have to see each other every day,” I said. “Between her ignoring me, and me not talking to Kai anymore, English is so awkward for all of us now. Kai even got his seating arrangement changed to near the door because of it. It’s even more awkward because I see them staring at each other all period like they want to say something to the other, but they refuse to speak to each other and the whole situation is just really annoying.”

Chaerin shook her head.

“It’s so obvious that they need to hash things out,” she said with a sigh. “I wish we could lock those two up together and then just leave them there until they sort out whatever problems they have.”

“That’s their problem,” I replied, not caring much for their nonexistent relationship. “Minji’s totally justified to hate Kai for the rest of all eternity as far as I’m concerned, but I just don’t want her to hate me as well.”

“Try apologizing, sincerely,” Chaerin advised now. “I think when it comes down to the root of the problem. What she seriously wants is an apology.”

This made me pause thinking for a moment.

What Chaerin said got me thinking and I realized that none of us guys had ever apologized for the prank we pulled on the girls and that’s probably one of the reasons there was so much tension between us today.  

“You know, I realize none of us guys have ever apologized for what we did to you girls,” I told her. “We’ve all just kind of ignored it and moved on, but we actually owe all of you girls an apology for what we did.”

Chaerin was silent for a moment before she asked, curiously, “Why’d you guys do it in the first place?”

“It’s stupid, really,” I admitted with a shake of my head.

“Is this about the tradition-thing those two freshman boys told us about?” Chaerin asked, and I was surprised she knew anything about that, but I figured those two little boys Kai bosses around must have really told the girls everything when they snitched on us.

I nodded and began explaining. “At our all-boys school, it was a tradition for the senior guys to prank the incoming freshman each year. The pranks are horrendous, but it’s tradition, and it’s kind of like an initiation to becoming a full-fledged member of the school. Even all us guys had been pranked during our freshman years, except for Kai because he was the headmaster’s son. No one ever touched him which is why I think the prank you girls pulled on him in English drove him so crazy. He’d never been so embarrassed before. But anyway, this year, with the school going co-ed, instead of pranking the freshman, the guys thought pranking the girls would be better. That’s why all you girls became the target.”

Chaerin didn't say anything after that so it was silent between us. We both just sat there staring at our art works and that’s when I turned to her to look her square in the eyes. I had to do what all us guys should have done a long time ago.

“I’m truly sorry Chaerin,” I apologized, sincerely. “For everything.”

In response, a small, kind smile spread out on Chaerin's lips. “Apology accepted, Kris.”

*

I decided I would take Chaerin’s advice and apologize to Minji, formerly, but I had to make sure of what I was going to say and how I was going to say it. I wanted her to know that I was being sincere, so I spent days writing down and practicing my apology. I wanted her to know I truly was sorry and that not all of us guys were like Kai, especially not me.

Things did seem to be looking up though as the weeks went by. Although she still didn’t really talk to me much (other than to ask if I had an extra pen if she needed one) I noticed that when I went to take my desk in front of her she smiled back at me if I did so, first. She also looked better, physically.

For a while, she had kind of started to resemble a zombie, which I assumed was because she wasn’t taking care of herself due to depression. But these days she seemed a bit perkier and looked a lot like her old self again.

The chance to apologize to her presented itself to me when Ms. Johnson gave the entire class a project based off the Odyssey, a book we were reading for English this quarter. Apparently, she wanted us to pick a theme from the book and make a presentation of it. Because she surprised us with this project that was worth 30 points (easily enough to take a student from a C to a D if they bombed it) on a Monday morning, she decided to let us do the project in pairs.

The moment she told us that I instantly thought of Minji sitting behind me, but I wasn’t sure she would want to be partners with me based on the last few weeks. She seemed better now, but we still weren’t really talking yet. From the looks of it, Chanyeol had called dibs on Dara, so I knew Minji couldn’t be partnering with her. It was times like this that I really regretted not branching out from the few people I knew in this class because now I didn’t know who to partner with. Kai and Baekhyun seemed to be partnering as well, so Baekhyun was no longer an option for me.

I thought I’d stall for a minute by fidgeting with my backpack, looking for a notebook and pen before turning around to ask her, but before I could I felt the smallest tap on my left shoulder and I just knew it had to be Minji. Surprised by the realization that she could actually want my attention caused me to spin around so fast that I heard my joints snap.   

Minji sat there looking at me with eyes wide open, but her shocked face soon relaxed and she gave me a small smile. She seemed nervous.

“Hey,” she started, seeming to try and sound casual. “Um…do you want to be partners?”

I stared at her almost not believing the words that just came out of . Did she just really ask to be partners with me? I wasn’t hearing things, right?

I guess I sat there in awe for too long because she soon blinked and looked down.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to. I’ll just-”

“No! I want to,” I said quickly. “I’m just surprised is all. We haven’t exactly spoken much lately…”

Minji gave me a sheepish smile.

“I know,” she replied somewhat somberly. “I’ve been withdrawn and not very friendly at all which is why I want to apologize to you. You’ve been nothing but kind to me even while I was ignoring you. Even despite the fact that I had pranked you as well as the rest of the guys for petty revenge. I realize now that that wasn't the best solution to the problem. I’ve been really down lately because of everything that happened after the case, but I’m feeling better these days and I just want things to go back to normal.”

Minji then looked at me through her eyelashes and smiled a genuine smile. “Will you forgive me?”     

I couldn't speak. This was the second time this girl had completely shocked me within just the last few minutes.

I stared at Minji in awe of her kind heart.

It was official. This girl was extraordinary. Here I was, part of the reason why she no longer had a job as president anymore and yet she was apologizing to me because she had thought she was being a bad friend towards me.

Now I had to return the gesture.

“Only if you forgive me for what I did, too,” I proposed back with all the sincerity I could muster. “For being involved in the prank all us guys played on you girls. I’m really sorry Minji and I’m sorry for everything you had to go through afterward as well. I’m sorry that Kai is such an idiot. You didn’t deserve any of what he did to you.”

She looked sad as she smiled and I knew that even though she had said she was better that she wasn’t completely over everything. It made me want to strangle Kai for putting such a look on this girl’s face.

But she smiled nonetheless and nodded. “I forgive you, Kris. Friends?”

I nodded and smiled. “Friends.” With that, I got up to turn my desk around to face hers so that we could start working on our project together.  

From here on I promised I would never betray this girl's trust again. Not even for the sake of the guys I called my friends.

I was a man of my word, and I meant what I said. I was just glad that she forgave me and that we could talk again. I wouldn't blow it this time.

*

“So, how'd you possess Minji to get her to start talking to you again?” a gruff voice suddenly questioned from behind me while I was eating and I swear I almost about had a heart attack from its sudden emergence.

In fact, startled by the sound of the voice, I almost choked on the burger I had been grubbing on.

For the last hour, I had been in the lounge room reading the assigned chapters my history teacher had given us for homework as I ate when the voice suddenly surprised me.

“What?” I said through coughs, and a mouth full of food so it came out muffled.

I turned around to see a body and when I looked up I saw Kai right behind me, glaring down at me, his expression dark and his features hard. In that moment, he almost looked like a killer from a horror film, though he probably appeared this way to me because of the dimmed lights in the lounge, creating a slightly creepy atmosphere. 

I almost had to double take once I saw him though. Chaerin was right. He did look like hell.

There were dark circles under his eyes. His hair was unruly like he hadn't washed it in weeks. He looked stormy somehow. Like there was a dark thunder cloud over his head, raining down on him.

It had been a while since I had talked to Kai last, so seeing him right now was a bit of a surprise. I wasn't expecting this though.  

“Min-ji?” he repeated, slowly now, through gritted teeth, separating the name into two distinct syllables as if I was dumb. “I know you did something to make her talk to you in English today.”

As I stared at him, I took another bite of my burger and chewed in thought, trying to decipher the guy’s true intent for visiting me at this late hour with these questions. Kai couldn't recognize his own feelings but I could. His eyes were ablaze as he glared at me like he wanted to torch me on fire with his eyes alone.

If I didn't know any better, I could've sworn this was jealousy.

“I didn't do anything to make her talk to me,” I told him, coldly. “She wanted to talk to me.”

Based on his body language with him towering over me, I could tell he was trying to be intimidating, but I wanted him to know that even though he was standing and I was sitting that he didn't intimidate me in the least bit.

Kai shook his head. “That's impossible,” he denied, immediately, like he was so sure of himself. “She hates us all.”

“No, not us all,” I corrected. “Just you.”

At that moment, if Kai’s eyes got any hotter I for sure would be singed to a pile of black ash. I guess he hated hearing the truth which was understandable considering he was only used to telling lies.

He his teeth making his already pronounced jaw look much sharper than it already was and I knew he was holding back from saying something.

When he didn't add anything, I grew impatient at having him leaning over me.

“Is that it?” I queried in a slightly hostile manner. “Is that all? Because I was eating and I want to be able to finish in peace without you hovering all over me.”

Kai’s eyes which had been looking elsewhere as he had been thinking, snapped back to me, quickly. He scanned me up and down, his expression looking more pissed off than ever before.

“Yeah,” he grunted and stepped back. “That’s it for now…”

Then he turned and left. 

I had frowned after he said that, confused by what he meant, but he was gone before I could question him about it. I figured he was just being weird like always and went back to minding my own business.

Little did I know things would only get stranger from there.

As I continued to work with Minji on our project together we started to get closer. Of course, it was just a platonic friendship, but we were comfortable around each other again in that we could joke around, and laugh together. In fact, with my growing relationship with Chaerin along with the fact that Minji and I were on friendly terms again, I hung out with the girls (Bom and Dara, included) these days about as much as I hung out with the guys.

However, I noticed the more Minji and I were around each other, whether it be during class, or hanging out with the others, or during lunch or basically just anytime we were near each other, the more I started to notice that Kai always seemed to be somewhere nearby staring at us. Watching us.

 In English when she and I worked on our project together, instead of him focusing on his own project with his own partner, his eyes would be glued to our side of the room. Then, whenever I would look at him, he'd quickly look away as if to play like he wasn't just staring at us.

If I ate lunch with the girls and Minji was there, Kai, although hanging with the guys, would be staring at us, watching from a distance. In fact, it got to the point that anytime I was near Minji, I could guess that somewhere nearby, Kai was around, watching us. Or, watching me, perhaps.

It happened again when Minji and I met up in the library one afternoon to work on our English project together. We were almost finished with our theme which we had decided to present using a poster board and were finishing the last touches on it because the project was due soon.

Minji was a really good writer and had great penmanship so we both decided that she should write down our thesis and everything we were going to say while I sketched and drew pictures to go along with the presentation.

But as we continued to work, suddenly Kai, along with Baekhyun, came walking by and they stopped once they spotted us. The atmosphere grew awkward, almost instantly, along with his presence and I noticed Minji slightly step away from me as if to create some space between us once Kai's eyes landed on us both. I don't even think she realized she did this as her attention remained on my ex-best friend and his current sidekick.  

I grimaced not liking that his presence, alone, seemed to have an effect on Minji. And more importantly, I was concerned with what he was even doing here in the first place.

I mean, what was he doing, exactly? Was he following us around?

He had to have been because Kai never frequented the library, at least not of his own will, and the fact that he was here and it was a Sunday made his presence all the more suspicious.

Not only that but Baekhyun was just the same. He never bothered with going to the library either, especially not on a weekend, so I knew Kai had to have forced him to come, somehow.

Baekhyun smiled and greeted us. “Oh, hey guys, are you working on your project here too?”

“Yeah, we are,” I answered with an attitude, annoyed by their interruption.

“Cool," Baekhyun replied, cheerily. "Us too.”

I rose a brow. “Really?” I questioned doubtfully.

Baekhyun just smiled innocently and nodded, which would have fooled anyone else, but based on years of knowing him I knew he was anything but.

“Well, we're just gonna go on and work on our own project,” Kai said emotionlessly, but then, as if he suddenly remembered something funny, he smirked. “Have fun you two and try to stay dry.”

In that moment Kai had confused me for the umpteenth time. Minji looked just as confused as I felt as we watched the two walk away.

“But we're inside,” Minji said, looking at me for an answer. I shrugged.

At first, I thought Kai was referring to the weather. It was a rainy November and it had already rained earlier that day, but I later learned that this isn't what he had meant by that little snide comment.

I shook my head. "Kai’s being weird again.”

“Tell me about it,” Minji agreed. “I find it especially odd that he always seems to be around watching us.”

Hearing her say this surprised me and I stared at her in shock. “You noticed it too?”

Minji gave me a look like it was so obvious and nodded. “How could I not. He’s hardly discreet about it to the point that sometimes I wonder if he's doing it on purpose. But then I think he can’t be because once I notice and look at him he always looks away…”

She trailed in her sentence, leaving it hanging as she stared over to where Kai and Baekhyun were at, down one of the aisles, looking over some books. I couldn't help but shake my head at the fact that they were really trying to hold up their act of studying on a Sunday in the library.

Kai was here to watch us. That was it.   

“And you know what’s the most aggravating about him?” Minji now continued to ramble to which I let her because she seemed to have a lot on her mind that she needed to get out. “The fact that he still won’t talk to me. I’ve sent him countless messages trying to get him to meet up with me so that we could talk and finally settle our differences once and for all, but every day he continues to ignore me like I’m disease! And yet, he’s always around staring at me, or watching from a distance like he wants to tell me something but for some reason, just won’t. I can’t figure out what it is that he wants and it’s just really aggravating.”

I stayed silent as I thought about what all she had just told me. It was pretty weird. But Kai was weird. Still, just saying that he was weird didn't help explain his behavior. The question was why was he being so strange? Which I didn’t know the answer to.      

“You should just forget about him,” I told her.

“How can I do that when he’s always around?” She gestured over to the aisle that Kai and Baekhyun were in.

“You could always focus on me,” I answered, cheekily, but the look Minji gave me in response told me that she wasn’t all that convinced on why she should.

“Why would I want to do that?” she asked, looking away, shyly like she was uncomfortable with the subject. It was then that I knew to back off.

Minji was never the flirtatious type. With Chaerin I could joke around like that and she would respond with her own cheeky gesture but Minji seemed less comfortable with such behavior. I respected it even though it made me think that she really must not have been attracted to me.

I looked down, embarrassed. “Just kidding.”

For the next hour, I tried to keep her distracted from Kai even though the guy was always around being a nuisance with his presence like usual.

It didn't help that some small group of ninth graders were in the library that afternoon, as well, being basically a bunch of rowdy idiots. They had been kind of quiet, at first, but now they were goofing off and playing around like we were in one of the quads on campus instead of inside the library.

“What is this the playground?” Minji commented, annoyed, as one kid went running passed us as his friend tossed a ball to him.  “This school has a huge football field, a gym, and a large campus but they choose to play ball in the library.”

I agreed. It didn’t make sense to me either.  

Regardless, we just tried to focus on getting the project done since we were almost finished. I just had a few more sketches of the Greek gods to finish and Minji was finishing up with our thesis paper. Then all that was left to do was apply our work to the poster board.  

While working on a sketch of Athena, I felt Minji lean over.

She watched me draw for a minute before commenting, “Your sketches are really good.”  

“Thanks,” I replied as I continued. “Do you like art?”

“When I was younger I used to draw a lot, too,” she told me. “I even have a portfolio of all my art work from back then.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised. “You should let me take a look at it.”

“It’s back at home,” she said. “My parents keep it along with old trophies, awards and things from my earlier years. But, what I used to draw is nothing compared to your drawings. Kris, you could be professional.”

I smiled at the compliment. Being an artist, maybe a cartoonist or something, was something I had considered doing in the future. Either that or an astronaut.  

I nodded to her. “Yeah, I’ve actually been thinking of maybe going into-”

SPLASH!

In that moment, everything stopped for me as I felt the wet contents of somebody’s drink now dripping down my neck and shoulders.

“Oops,” I heard that kid who had been running around the library say. I looked down to see my white polo shirt was now stained with punch red liquid. I could also feel the liquid dripping down my neck, and even worse, some of the drink’s contents had splashed onto my drawing.

Luckily my other drawings were pushed far enough away on the table so not all my drawings had been drenched in red fruit punch.

I was livid now. These little runts had been acting like imbeciles all afternoon, throwing balls, running around, and now spilling on me. I looked up from my shirt, my eyes landing on the target who was staring back at me with wide eyes.

At that moment, I felt like a raging bull whose eyes had just landed on a little bull rider; I was ready to take charge.

The little ninth grader put both his hands up in a defensive stance. “I-I’m sorry man. I didn’t mean to. The b-ball was too high for me to catch and I tripped…”

“That’s why you don’t play ball in the library you little !” I snapped, harshly, before he could finish. I would’ve cussed him out some more, but the sound of Minji calling my name from behind me brought me back to reality and my anger vanished immediately.

I turned around to face her.

“Kris, maybe we should just finish this up tomorrow,” she said while staring at my now stained polo. “The library hasn’t exactly been the best place to get our project done, anyway.”

She then looked at the boy still standing off on the side. “Go tell the librarian about the spill so she can call the janitor.”

“Okay,” he nodded, fervently, then ran off in the other direction.   

I puckered my mouth in disappointment. So, this was it? Dang. I was having a good time, too, until those little ninth graders showed up out of nowhere and started to cause a ruckus. But I nodded, nonetheless. I was already feeling sticky thanks to the fruit punch drying on my skin. I would need a shower and a change of clothes.

“Yeah, alright,” I agreed, sighing. “Tomorrow afternoon? After classes are over?”

She nodded turning to put her stuff away. “I’ll text you and we can finish the project in my dorm.”

I paused. Her dorm? As in, her dorm room? Was I actually being invited inside the girl’s dorm?

My heart sped up.

“Oh,” I said trying to play it cool even though in that moment I felt like a little preteen boy. “Okay then. We’ll finish it your dorm.”

“Cool,” she said, taking the poster board with her, and I watched her dash off.  

Later, during that same day, while I was in the shower thinking about what all had happened in the library, I recalled Kai’s strange comment.

Have fun you two and try to stay dry.   

It hadn’t made sense then, but it made sense now.

“Oh, that ,” I grunted.

*

“Hey, look who finally decided to come hang out with us?” Chanyeol joked upon my sudden approaching of the table the guys were all seated at.

We were halfway through the school day, and it was lunch time at the moment. The guys were sitting outside and I decided to hang with them since it had been a minute since I’d last had lunch with them.

Plus, the fact that Kai wasn’t with them gave me more incentive to go over to their table since I knew I wouldn’t have to be bothered with seeing him.

Baekhyun looked up at me. “Kris, you’re really back, man? You’re not going to hang out with the girls?”  

“Yeah, I almost thought you ditched us for good,” Tao, my roommate, said.    

“I never ditched you guys,” I said as I grabbed an empty chair from the next table over, and squeezed it between Tao and Baekhyun before sitting down. “I was just trying to mend some friendships. You know, branch out a little.”

Chanyeol chuckled, mockingly. “Okay, but did you have to branch out with Kai’s girl, man? He’s going nuts ever since you and Minji started hanging out again. In fact, Kai seems to do the craziest things whenever you two are involved.”

Kai’s girl?

I shook my head. “She’s not his.”

It suddenly got eerily quiet around the table and I got the feeling I was missing out on something.

“That may be technically true,” Lu Han said a moment later. “But try telling that to him and you’ll probably lose an eye.”

Around the table, all the guys started to laugh leaving me wondering what I had missed since I hadn’t been hanging around as much.

“Are you guys trying to tell me that Kai likes her?” I asked the guys. “Like he seriously likes her? For real?”  

“Yeah, but he’ll never admit it because he’s in the denial stage right now,” Lu Han said, which caused me to raise a brow in puzzlement but when the other guys started laughing I knew there was a lot I had missed on. “He’ll come around eventually.” 

“Still, I think you should be wary of the girls,” Sehun warned me. “They did pull a prank on us just a few weeks ago, after all. You shouldn’t be letting your guard down around them. They could be plotting something right now and we not even know it.”

After Sehun said that, I sat up straight in my chair as I prepared to tell them what I had originally come over to their table for in the first place.

“You know, guys, I’ve been wanting to talk to you all about that,” I began, gaining everyone’s attention at the table, which was good. I needed them to hear me out. “I’ve been thinking about this whole war going on between us and the girls for a while now. It’s kind of stupid, don’t you think? I mean, we were the ones who had started it in the first place. I think maybe we should apologize to them for what we did. Like, an official apology from all of us.”

The whole table stayed silent. The guys just stared at me with blank faces like I had just spoken to them in some foreign language they didn’t understand.

“Apologize?” Lu Han repeated the word like it was a completely foreign concept. Like he had never heard the word before in his life.

I suddenly felt like proposing that we apologize to the girls was probably a bad idea, but I continued, nonetheless.

“Well, yeah,” I continued, a little more desperately, hoping to get them to see things the way I did. “I mean, we’ve been pretty segregated even despite the fact that this school is supposed to be co-ed. Even our juniors are getting along better than we are. Plus, don’t you guys want to be able to have dates to prom? That’ll never happen if the girls hate us all.”

“I thought you were going to prom with me?” Tao joked, in a mock-offended manner, getting the guys to laugh along.  

I sighed. I was trying to get them to take this more seriously, but then “Mr. Never-Takes-Anything-Seriously,” himself, suddenly decided to make an appearance right at that moment before I could get the guys to think about apologizing to the girls anymore. 

“‘Sup guys?” Kai said as he sat down.

“Hey, look who else finally decided to join us again, as well?” Chanyeol joked again. “We got the whole gang back together!” 

“Kai, you finally decided to come out of hiding, man?” Tao asked, teasing along. “Where ya been?” 

He shrugged, coolly. “I’ve been around.”

“Hey Kai, man. Here this,” I heard Sehun say. “Kris says we should all make an official apology to the girls for pranking them. You know, to end the feud between us. What do you think?”

Kai’s eyes landed, lazily, on me, like he was bored, but I held his gaze, waiting for his response.  

He sighed, and replied dryly, “I think little Kristina here needs to close her legs. Her is starting to show.”

Oh.

The table went silent once again, but the air around us was more awkward this time around. It seemed like everyone was trying to suppress their urge to laugh in order to keep from offending me, but Kai’s innuendo was apparently just too funny, and they all started cracking up.

I clicked my tongue, totally ticked off. This little er…

It was completely like Kai to say something like that. He'd call me a girl because I tended to show more sensitivity than the others and I spoke up for the girls often. He also used it as a ridicule for whenever he was...jealous. And the viler his words were the more jealous I knew he was. 

“That’s funny,” I replied, gravely serious, not taking my eyes off him. “Especially coming from a little who chooses to run away from his own feelings instead of just talking to the girl he’s wronged.”

Kai’s eyes narrowed to slits as glared at me from the other side of the table.

“Even Minji has bigger balls than you do,” I finished, coldly.

By now, it had gotten really awkward for everyone else sitting at the table and the guys started coughing, exaggeratedly, trying to cover up their laughs.   

“Well, this little reunion has been festive,” Lu Han said finally. He then turned to the others. “Hey guys, why don’t we let these two…talk. They clearly have a lot to say to each other.”

The rest agreed, and in a moment, they were each getting up one-by-one and leaving the table until Kai and I were left alone, glaring at each other on opposite sides of the table.

After a minute of intense glaring Kai finally decided to speak first.

“So, you finally decided to start hanging with the boys again, I see?” Kai said.

I let my eyes run down his frame before replying, “And I see you finally decided to start bathing and grooming, again?”

He looked clean again, more like his old self rather than the dark, gloomy, grizzly thing he had started to transform into when he wasn’t taking care of himself properly.   

“You were actually starting to look like a zombie from the Walking Dead for a minute there, man,” I continued, mocking him. “I almost thought you were going to let me take over as the most handsome guy at the academy.”

In a bored manner, Kai looked away, and shot back, “Even looking like a zombie, I would still be the most handsome guy at the academy.”

This made me want to laugh. He was trying so hard to act nonchalant when he probably wanted to reach over the table and strangle me to death. But I had to figure out what the root of his anger towards me was for? What had I done to him? I had my reasons for being pissed off at him, but why was he made at me? 

Today’s little chat with the guys and what Lu Han had said about Kai being in denial gave me an idea of what his problem with me was. If what they said was true then Kai probably felt like I was crowding in on his territory or something like that.

I thought about yesterday in the library when that kid had “accidentally” splattered red punch all over me causing Minji and I to have to hold off on finishing our project later today. I decided to bring it up now.

“I know it was you,” I said, vaguely, causing Kai to look at me strangely, so I clarified. “I know you were the one who staged that whole thing with the kids in the library and the boy accidentally throwing his drink on me.”

Kai looked down and played indifferent. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I snorted.

“Right. Sure, you don’t,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “You know, if you really want Minji’s attention you should stop ignoring her and just talk to her instead of following her around and staring at her like some obsessed sasaeng. She doesn’t like it when you do that.”

“What are you blabbering on about, now?” Kai asked, seeming irritated. “I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about you, Kai,” I said, not in the mood for playing his little game anymore. “Following us around, staring, and watching like some psycho. You need to cut that out and just talk to Minji if you have something to say.”

Kai fixed me with eyes so chilling, I swore I experience a cold front even though it had been hot only a second ago…

He released a low cynical chuckle before spitting out, “Talk to her? Why would I do that? It looks to me like you’ve been speaking to her enough for the both of us.”

I stayed still, staring at him, who looked so rigid like a block of ice.

After he had made that little comment, the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. Now things were getting interesting.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked back, amused as the truth was being revealed right before my eyes.

“I think you know what it means,” Kai sneered back. “I see the way you two flirt around with each other, laughing, and joking and being all close—w-what are you smiling about?”

 I didn’t realize I was grinning until he brought it up. Kai gave me a dirty look now.   

“You’re jealous,” I stated, factually and I couldn’t help but start laughing. “The guys are right.”

Kai wasn’t a weirdo. He wasn’t an idiot. Well, actually he was all those things, but more importantly, what he was, was a boy in love. His poor little, crippled-heart just didn’t know it.         

This made me start laughing, hysterically so, and Kai continued to look at me in bafflement.

“Oh man, this is so good,” I gasped out through laughs. It took me a good minute to calm down, but once I did, I continued. “I would tell you to just admit it to her, but with the way you’ve completely screwed her over these last few weeks I don’t think a confession right now is such a good idea.”

Kai banged his fist against the table, obviously frustrated now.

“For the last time, I have no idea what are you talking about,” he grunted, angrily.

“I’m talking about you, Kai,” I stated, frankly. “I’m talking about you and your completely head-over-heels crush on Minji.”       

The next thing Kai did completely took me by surprise.

He pushed his chair back and stood up. “This conversation is over.”

I stared at him, shocked. Oh. What was this? Was he offended that I had figured out his dark secret?

“Oh, come on, Kai,” I said, teasingly as he started to walk away. “There’s no need to get all butthurt, man. It’s okay to have feelings. In fact, it’s even healthy!”

“Go yourself, Kris,” he yelled back and this actually got me laughing harder because I knew the truth now. He was just embarrassed by his own feelings.

Kai’s little heart had fallen in love with none other than Gong Minji. Oh, this was too good!

Funny how at the start of the year he had picked her out of all the other girls in hopes to get me to fall for her and yet, he had fallen in love with her instead.

As he continued to ignore me while I watched him storm off, I suddenly got an idea. But I just wanted to see his reaction.

“ myself?” I said loud enough for him to hear it. “There’s no need for that when I’ve got Minji.”

This got him to stop.

Okay, so what I had said was hardly true. Minji had made it clear that she only saw me as a friend, but Kai didn’t know that. He seemed to think that Minji and I were mutually attracted to one another and that we had something going on, so why not have some fun with that fact.

I just wanted to see what he would do if he thought she and I were seriously into each other. And well, I got to see what he would do, alright.

“What the hell did you just say?” he hissed as he turned around to face me, his expression like that of a vicious killer on the loose. Even though it was broad daylight, he looked dark, and stormy again, like he did that day in the lounge. 

I stood my ground, nonetheless, even though he did look pretty menacing at that moment.

“You heard me,” I declared as I watched him march back up to me until he was touching the table, fuming like lava before a volcano erupts. “In fact, she and I are meeting up tonight in her dorm room. I must say, Kai. You really picked a great girl for me to get into. That whole good girl thing she’s got going on is an act. She may be a lady in the streets but she’s a freak in the-"

POW!

I didn’t even get to finish my sentence because Kai, in all his raging fury, had socked me in the face.

*

I spent a good hour in the nurse’s office getting my bleeding nose iced down until it finally stopped. The nurse gave me some aspirin to ward off a headache and gave me lots of fluids to restore energy as well.

She had asked me if I wanted to stay any longer to rest, but I felt fine enough to go on to art class. Besides, I had something I really wanted to run by Chaerin.

Once she let me go, I headed straight for my favorite class, eager to see her and tell her about my idea.

Although Kai had socked me, he hadn’t gotten any other punches in really because by then, the rest of the guys who were still hanging around nearby had seen us and had come running over to pull us apart.

Unfortunately, a teacher did catch the scene and took both Kai and I to the office, me with a bleeding nose, and Kai with a busted lip (courtesy of the one punch I had gotten in before the guys interrupted).

Kai had apparently been sent to the headmaster’s office, but since the headmaster was his dad, I knew he wouldn’t be getting into any serious trouble. Or, at least, I didn’t think he would. I knew his dad could be quite tough on him sometimes.

Anyways, when I arrived late to art class, yet again, I chose to sneak up behind Chaerin, but this time, instead of whispering in her ear, I covered her eyes with my hands. I didn’t need a replay of what happened last time when she had bopped me in the nose. My nose had already suffered enough pain thanks to Kai’s right hook. 

“Guess who?” I said, playfully as I covered her eyes.  

She stopped painting as her shoulders fell and she laughed. “Channing Tatum.”

I scoffed in response and let my hands fall. “Pssh…You like him? I’m much better looking than him.”

She didn’t say anything but when I moved around to sit beside her at my own stool, she got a good look at my face and frowned.

“Why is your nose all red like that?”

“So I think maybe you were right,” I ignored her question, moving straight to what I wanted to talk to her about.  

“Right about what?” she asked, curious.  

“About the whole idea of locking Kai and Minji up together thus, forcing them to have to talk once and for all,” I answered.  

“Oh,” she paused in thought before continuing. “I thought you weren’t concerned with their problems. I thought you said that was for them to work out.”

“It is,” I said straightforwardly. “But see that’s the problem. They won’t, so I think it’s up to us to force them to because if not, this entire senior year is going to .”

Kai’s the senior president. Point blank. He and his father made sure of that and that means we were stuck with him, even if he was being a crappy leader. The only way to get him back in action was by making amends with Minji. Until then, he would continue to mope, and things for senior year would never get completed. Plus, he owed her an apology, and if locking them up together was the only way to get him to do so, then so be it.

“Even so, I don't think I really like the idea of Minji being involved with someone like Kai,” Chaerin said, looking unsure. “He hasn't proved to be that great a guy, especially to Minji. I’d be worried that he might do something even worse to her someday and it will be all my fault for helping to make them mutual again.”

“I don't think we'll have to worry about that,” I said unconcernedly. “Kai has a huge secret and once he comes to accept it I think Minji will be okay.”

“What secret is that?” she asked now, more interested.

“That he's absolutely in love with her,” I replied.

“Really now?” she questioned doubtfully. “Pranking her, lying on her in front of everybody to make her look bad and ultimately causing her to be forcibly removed from her presidential position is a funny way of showing it. Are you sure that's how he shows his love?”

“Trust me, he's smitten,” I confirmed, assuredly. “In fact, he's crazy jealous right now cause he thinks she and I are getting…close.”

I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively as I said “close” which caused Chaerin to make a face. 

“Aren't you trying to get close to her though?” she asked, putting air quotes around the word “close.” “You'd said you liked her, didn't you? Would you really be okay with locking her and him together in a room for hours just to get her and Kai talking again?”

I sighed as I thought about my feelings for Minji and everything that has happened since the whole prank war between the guys and girls started. 

“Minji is cool,” I stared to explain to her. “And I do like her, but she's made it perfectly clear that she only sees me as a friend, so I'm going to let it go. Besides, I'd really like to save myself for someone I really like and that I know really likes me, too. Before this school year started, I had been in a relationship with a girl who ended up being kind of stuck up. I'm not sure how much she really liked me, but obviously it wasn't very much because she had no problem dumping me. After that I'd been kind of a buzz kill to all my friends and that's when Kai said that finding a new girl to focus on would make me feel better and he introduced me to Minji as well as to Dara, Bom and…you.”

As I paused in my speech for a moment, to look at her, Chaerin blushed and looked down at her hands.

I continued. “I was so eager to have that feeling again of being in love that I think I kind of pushed those feelings onto Minji, trying to make her that girl. But I’ve decided not to rush relationships anymore. This time I'll take my time and go for a girl who I know really likes me.”

Chaerin nodded and when she spoke, she sounded a little flustered because she kept stammering.

“O-oh, that’s good. Y-you should totally hold out for a special girl t-that really likes you. With a heart like yours I'm sure you'll find her soon.”

I grinned at her. “I hope so too.”

She combed her fingers through her long, dark hair. “So, what do we do? Kidnap them, toss them in a room together, lock the door and let them duke it out.”

I chuckled. “As much as watching Minji kick the living out Kai would make me happy, no, I actually have a different idea. But I need your help. I really want to mess with Kai’s head and drive him crazy. As payback.”

“Okay…” Chaerin trailed, waiting to hear more.

“Remember when I told you that Kai was jealous because he thought Minji and I were getting close?” I asked her and she nodded. “Well, he'd be especially jealous if he knew that Minji invited me over to her dorm to finish our project together, but only, I want to make him think even more is going on."

Chaerin's eyebrows raised in interest. I then leaned into her so that only she could hear what I was going to say next.

"I want you to give me a phone call tonight and I'll make sure Kai's around so that he can hear it. But here's what I want you to do. I want you to pretend to be Minji and during the phone call, as her, I want you to try to seduce me into coming over to her dorm room tonight. ”

Chaerin leaned back, looking totally taken by surprise. “Seduce you while pretending to be Minji? Like, phone talk?

She erupted in laughter gaining attention from our peers and she had to cover .

“Oh, this is going to be so good!”

Yep. Kai liked to play around with other people. Well, he was about to get a tasted of his own medicine.

*

Hello Everyone! Man, you guys wouldn't believe how hard I worked at trying to get these last two chapters up. I've been obsessing over these chapters for weeks trying to get them just right, and I still haven't even fully edited them yet, but I wanted to get them posted already cuz I was excited to give you guys Kris' POV. 

You may have noticed that there is no Kris/Minzy ship anymore. Truthfully, I never intended them to be OTP in this story, and I always intended for him to end up interested in CL, which is why the kiss between them happened the way it did a few chapters back, and why I had made Minzy stop being interested in him back then, too, cuz she was mad about the prank. 

I know alot of you wanted to see Kai get jealous though, so I tried to make it where I could still ship Chaekris, while also having Kris/Minzy moments and we could still have a jealous Kai. I hope you guys are satisfied with how this chapter came out. It's the longest one I've written, yet.

I know we still don't know what Mrs. Jung gave Minzy but that's coming soon.

After writing this chapter, I think I want to try adding other character's POV's every once in a while. Kai and Minzy are cool, but changing it up is nice for a change, pllus, I had a lot of fun writing Kris' chapter.  

Also, Thank you to the people who subscribed recently (I see you guys!), and thank you to those of you who are still reading and commenting. (Also, please upvote, if you feel like it, that is). 

Alright, see you all next chapter! 

Blowing you all kisses! XOXO