I yawned, leaning my head against the bus seat. Having been awake all night, tossing with worry and curiosity, I had barely slept and my brain was drained of oxygen and pushing me to yawn every thirty seconds. Not only was it getting on my nerves, but the ahjumma next to me looked like she was about to stuff her Cosmopolitan down my throat if I opened my gob one more time. Needless to say, I was more than happy when I reached my stop near the school and I half jogged towards said place to wake myself up. Plus, I was later than usual because of traffic and I needed to hurry to get to class.

To my delight, none of the pinheads were at their lockers. But Kim Taehyung was.

I timidly approached my locker, for once thankful that Oh Sehun’s locker was next to mine, therefore giving Taehyung and me space. During my long night, I had thought about him and tried to figure out a way to fix things. I mean, yeah, he betrayed me and embarrassed me in front of the whole school. But the fact that he knew just how terrible he was to me and didn’t continue to shun me (and also the fact that he was blackmailed by Oh Sehun) was another reason I thought maybe I could find it in myself to forgive and forget. And now it seemed like my chance.

“Do you want to eat lunch together?” I asked suddenly, letting out a whoosh of air I had been holding in. Turning to face him, he looked just as surprised as I felt with myself. But, to my relief, he nodded.

“Sure.”

I smiled, getting that adorable one back in return and nodded, grabbing my books. Before the situation could turn awkward, I scurried off, a newfound rage in me now that I recalled just how Sehun tore down such a nice friendship for me. I suddenly felt like punching something—Sehun preferably.

Classes passed smoothly as usual: me getting yelled for snoring in history and then being told to go out during math because I was disrupting them with my yawns. Flicking my hair over my shoulder, I grabbed my things and complied to my teacher’s wishes. Wasn’t like I really wanted to be there anyway and my grade was fine in math so I happily left the room.

Closing the door quietly, I turned and gazed at the empty hallway. With a sigh, I realized I still had thirty minutes until lunch and I had no idea how to kill it. So I started down the right side of the hallway, figuring I could go ahead and replace my things and go to the canteen early. “Just get out!” had been the teacher’s words, so I saw no reason to go the principal and thought getting lunch early, before anyone showed up, would be very nice.

A figure coming down the staircase had me almost yelping before I ran to hide behind the nearest locker.

“. . . Luhan skips math . . .”

Yeah, he sure does, I thought, watching the male as he hit the floor landing and continued on his way down the seemingly empty hallway, his large hand loosening his tie as he went. I hawkeyed him until he was around the corner and out of my sight. Rather than running after him, to find out where he was going, I was only happy that he went in the direction of the storage and clubrooms instead of the canteen. Now I had free reign and there was not a thing in the world wrong with that.

Instead of diving into the food when I entered the canteen, I only bought a small carton of milk and settled at a table in the corner, behind the VIP section. I had asked Taehyung to eat lunch with me, so it wouldn’t really be eating lunch if I ate then and ran out before he was even out of his class. So I waited and endured the boredom and suspicious glares of the canteen staff.

It wasn’t even thirty seconds after the bell rang that people began entering the canteen, hurrying to get food. I stayed seated, waiting for Taehyung, as more people piled in, couples and groups, hardly a single person alone. It didn’t take long before the room was buzzing with noise and I wanted to go outside to eat, but the weather was still too cold to just sit out in. Soon, half the tables were filled and girls passed by, gossiping like there was no tomorrow. It was mostly VIP gossip and how so-and-so was so fabulous and so-and-so got in a fight some night or another.

Finally, Kim Taehyung walked through the door, looking as clueless as ever. I shot out of my chair and across the room, meeting him with a close-lipped smile.

“Have you been waiting?” he asked curiously.

I nodded. “Got kicked out of math,” I replied.

He chuckled and beckoned me towards the line, asking where we were eating at. He was surprised when I pointed to the place I had previously been seated. There were already several VIPs seated just a couple of tables away. When I assured him it was just out of VIP range, he nodded and continued to get his food behind me. I only realized afterwards that my assurance wasn’t needed because he was in fact a VIP now. Shaking my head, I grabbed a bottle of water and a pair of chopsticks and turned to see if Taehyung was done, almost running into two girls.

“Did you hear about Oh Sehun beating up some kid in Gangnam last night?” one as