As soon as the door clicked shut behind Sehun’s father, I panicked on the inside. It wasn’t that I had a problem with Sehun’s mother – she very well proved she wasn’t anything like her son or husband – but it was unsettling sitting there with a woman I didn’t know. Especially knowing if I opened my mouth and the wrong thing came out, then I was dead meat if it got back to Sehun.

Surprisingly, she was the one who opened and unwittingly said the wrong thing.

She asked me several questions: if I shared classes with Sehun, if we hung out much, if I had siblings. She complimented me several times and she was still going when Sehun came back in the room without his father.

“I just love your hair,” she said, reaching to touch the ends of it.

I flinched away, feeling heat spread all the way to my feet and cause my stomach to churn sickeningly. Sehun was halted in place by the door, his face blank. I straightened up quickly and turned back to his mother, realizing my mistake. She was staring at me questioningly.

“Sorry, I’m too touchy, aren’t I?” she asked, breaking into a small grin. “I just always wanted to cut my hair short but Sungchul always said he likes it long. So I never cut it.” Then she giggled lightly and patted my hand. She turned to Sehun. “What do you have, Sehunnie? Where’s Wei?”

With the attention directed at him, he straightened up and cleared his throat. He visibly looked uncomfortable and I really wondered if it was because of what was just said. If anyone, I should’ve been the one uncomfortable, not him. And I was – and getting even more uncomfortable.

Sehun held up a folded green object.

“A scarf,” he said, missing the other reply. “Eunhui lent it to me at school and I forgot to give it back.”

Well, that wasn’t an entire lie. I hastily nodded, backing up what he just said. But the smile his mom gave us both made me feel guilty and I hoped he felt it ten times over.

“So, I should be going now. I really need to study for our testing,” I told her politely.

She patted my hands once more and released them.

“Of course. But you’ll come back and have tea with me sometime, yes?” she asked eagerly.

Naturally, the right thing to say would be “sure” because it was polite. But the look in the beautiful woman’s eyes had nothing but pure sincerity. She really seemed to want me to come back. It didn’t seem to matter that we had just met or her son was insisting I leave. I couldn't figure it out, but there was more than just hope in her eyes. She really meant no harm, I knew that much. And so I agreed.

“Of course. I’ll come back soon,” I told her, giving her my best look of excitement.

Sehun cleared his throat again.

“I’ll walk you out,” he said, keeping his gaze directed away from anyone’s eyes.

I stood and bowed to his mother.

“Thank you for welcoming me,” I said before following Sehun out.

He stalked back the way we had come, not even taking a glance back to see if I was following. He was acting so bipolar, I was desperately wishing to get out of that house. In front of his parents he acted like a completely different person to anything I had ever seen before, but he was quickly back to being Oh Snothun as soon as the french doors were closed and his parents were no longer around to reprimand him. It was exhausting.

He stopped in the foyer. I didn’t need to be told to put my shoes on; I hurried over to the door and hastily slid them on. Straightening up, I turned back to Sehun, my eyes going to the object in his hand. It was, after all, what I come for and I didn’t intend to leave without it. When he moved, I quickly looked back at his face.

He held it out to me. “I don’t know what you planned to gain by putting this in my locker. Quite frankly, you just look like an idiot from where I’m standing,” he said.

“Well, you didn’t seem to have a problem wearing it home, did you?” I retorted. I snatched at the green scarf but he quickly held it out of reach and leaned down to my level. With his arm outstretched again, I took a moment to look closer at the mark on the inside of his elbow.

Eyeing me carefully, he released a sigh. “Do not ever come back here,” was all he said before tossing the scarf at me and pushing me to the door.

Fighting against his grip on my shoulders, I wriggled around to face him when he used one hand to open the door. Before he could shove me out, I shoved him.

“How can your mom be so nice and you turn out like this?” I asked bitterly.

And the next moment, he roughly shoved me out of the door, slamming it right behind me. A second later, the lock clicked loudly. It took me a moment to recuperate and turn around, promptly running out of the gates with possibly more anxiety than I had arrived with.

Waking up the next morning, I momentarily wished I would’ve just overslept and missed school entirely. Not only did I have to face everyone in my school once again, but also Kim Taehyung after that embarrassing break down and then Oh Sehun after barging into his house. Consi