The night wind caressed Hyun Ae’s fragile skin as she sat patiently waiting for Luhan to come out from a store. Since the minute they walked out of the club, he’d done nothing except worry for her, never letting her away from his side, like she was some sort of glue. But strangely she loved the feeling of it.

‘Stop  Hyun Ae. It’s only because he had misunderstood Kris that’s why he did it’ she rubbed her own shoulders to give a bit of warmth for her body to suppress the cold evening.

“Here Hyun Ae” she looked up when she heard Luhan’s soft voice.

“Kamsahamnida” she extended her arms to receive a coffee from Luhan and bowed to show her respect.

Luhan couldn’t get used to this at all. The honorifics that she was using made him think back to when they had not dated, back when they were strangers to each other and he hated it. But what’s the point of hating it when it was meant to happen? Maybe not in the past life but the second life was made for them to realise that maybe they just weren’t meant to be.

“Luhan sunbaenim?” Hyun Ae faced her side and looked at Luhan who was in a daze.

“Yeah?” he smiled at her.

“Why did you drag me out of the club? I was fine with Kris oppa, you didn’t have to do that. I’m afraid of what Kris oppa might think” she said sincerely.

“Kris was unable to protect you Hyun Ae. I told him to be always by your side but he wasn’t there when those jerks attacked you. What could’ve happened to you if I wasn’t there?”

“No one asked you to be there” she said coldly. “No one asked you to tell Kris what to do. You are not a boss of him”. She gulped and chocked back the lump in to prevent her tears “And lastly, you’ve misunderstood everything.”

“Wha-“

“It was an unexpected situation and Kris did not have any control over it. Sunbae, I’m thankful that you saved me but if saving me will hurt Kris’s feelings, I won’t be able to forgive myself” she said cutting Luhan off.

“But I care for you” Luhan held her hands and tightened his grip.

“It’s not your obligation to,” she shoved his hands away from her harshly and continued to speak “You’re just my senior and I’m just your hoobae. Now tell me, where does caring for me fit into place?”

“I’m your friend. A friend that cares for you a lot, even from before.”

“You can only care Luhan, but Kris can give me everything.” Hyun Ae went quiet for a while and then continued to speak “Let’s go sunbae, I’m tired”

Hyun Ae stood up from where she was seated and made her way to Luhan’s car. Luhan could only follow from behind, maintaining a gap from Hyun Ae. Did he do the right thing? If so, why was she angry? It was Kris who left her alone, he was the one who protected her. Shouldn’t she be at least thankful?

‘Why not try and ask her what’s wrong before you judge things one-sidedly?  Try and think of Kris’s side, have you actually considered how he felt? Luhan, if you were in his place right now, what would you feel? How would you react if your girlfriend was suddenly pulled out from him without proper explanation?’ Leeteuk’s voice echoed in his thoughts.

For the first time, Leeteuk actually knocked a sense out of him. He couldn’t say anything. Leeteuk was right. Luhan had no position to drag her out of there without asking why Kris wasn’t there to protect Hyun Ae.

Instead of answering Leeteuk he stared at Hyun Ae’s back profile and asked in a low voice “Then tell me why he wasn’t there”. In an instant, Hyun Ae stopped in her tracks and turned around to face Luhan.

“He was in the toilet” Hyun Ae’s laugh escaped her lips even though she tried so hard not to. Even though she was a bit pissed at him a while ago, she couldn’t stay angry when Luhan took the chance to ask her what was actually going on. He still cared about Kris, and that was the main point.

Luhan’s face went pale. “What a stupid reason to argue about” he glared to himself as he thought about jumping on a bridge and just die at that moment. Seriously, there was one word for it. SHAME.

“It’s okay sunbaenim, I get where you’re coming from. You were just trying to protect a friend. Like what you said right? You care for your friends a lot and for that, thank you.” Hyun Ae flashed a smile at Luhan.

‘It’s not just because we’re friends, it’s because you’re everything to me’ he thought sadly and wanted to tell her that but her smile cheered him up. At that moment, everything felt complete. Luhan forgot about the argument that Kris and him just had a while ago. For some reasons, whenever she was around, she’d always make him feel alright by just one smile from her. For Luhan, Hyun Ae was a natural at soothing one’s heart and that’s what made his heart beat for Hyun Ae in the first place. But now, even if he’d give anything to make things better and to have his own happiness with her, it was time to go back to reality. Even if he could only protect her from a far, he’d do anything to prevent any harm that would come to her.

“But if you really care about me. Can you do me a favour?” Hyun Ae widened her eyes that made Luhan blink a few times. She was really cute.

“W-what is it?”

“Please make Kris oppa feel better. I don’t want you guys to argue just because of me. You’ve been friends for 4 years, but now it seems like you guys have been into fights when normally you guys don’t. It makes me feel like I’m the reason why your friendship is falling apart, so sunbaenim, please, please be friends with Kris oppa again. Please? Do it for me?” she pleaded and stared into Luhan’s eyes sincerely.

“Don’t worry, I will. But Hyun Ae, please remember that it’s not your fault. Please don’t blame yourself. In fact, since Hwa Young and you came into our lives, everything’s been lively. So I think, we should just forget about this whole thing and return back to how we used to be right?” Luhan said as he stretched out his hands to Hyun Ae “Let’s start over shall we? Hi, my name is Luhan, nice to meet you, and you are?” Luhan smiled at Hyun Ae as she chuckled at his silliness. She missed this side of Luhan, the usual playful him.

“Nice to meet you Luhan sunbaenim, my name is Hyun Ae and I’m your hoobae.” She cracked up laughing. This scene was so clichéd, but she loved it “Friends?”

“Friends!” Luhan shook his hands with Hyun Ae as they continued to walk to the car.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The heat of the sun bounced through Hyun Ae’s white skin as she walked to her school. It was currently 12:00. This was the first time that she attended school in mid-day. Although she really wanted to attend school in the morning, Kris called her the night before and nagged her to come to school late and he’ll take care of everything.

“Annyeong Hyun Ae!” Hwa Young waved from the school’s huge gates and ran towards Hyun Ae to give her a big hug.

“Wait, you didn’t come early either?” She raised a brow at her friend.

“Nah…” She shook her head. “Chanyeol sunbaenim kept pestering me to just sleep in and forget about school or he’ll annoy me to death when he finds out.”

Hyun Ae smiled at her best friend meaningfully and let out a laugh. “I see”

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” She widened her eyes and stared back at Hyun Ae.

“Nothing...nothing.” She laughed at her friend’s obliviousness. ‘Well someone’s making a move on my best friend.’ She thought and smiled secretly as they made their way to the gate’s entrance.

They ran through the walkways until they reached their classroom. As they approached the door, their heart beat fastened as they inhaled and exhaled to catch their breath. “We’re so dead” Hwa Young sighed and opened the door, revealing their classmates’ watchful eyes. They tried to smile and bowed to their teacher to greet him. “Annyeonghaseyo Park seonsaengnim! Sorry we’re—“

“Just hurry up and go to your seats” Mr. Park looked away from the board where he was writing as he signalled to the empty chairs and tables. He then looked back to the board again to finish his writing.

“Aren’t you supposed to issue them detention slips?” A girly voice came from one of the seats. “I mean, it took them hours to get here. See this is why you guys need to get a car” Krystal said sarcastically gaining laughs from the other students.

“You don’t have to worry about that Ms. Jung. It’s none of your business. So before I send you to the principal because of your attitude, you better concentrate on your low grades.”

A huge round of laughter came again, only this time, louder. Hwa Young smiled at herself as Hyun Ae let out a soft chuckle. For the rest of the lesson, everyone was silent and concentrated except Krystal who was glaring to herself throughout the teacher’s discussion. After 2 minutes, the bell rang. It was finally lunch. Everyone stood up and rushed outside like hungry gorillas. Hyun Ae stared at the students crowding the door as she shook her head at their impatient approach. ‘Why can’t they sit still? It’s not like the cafeteria’s going to run away’ she laughed to herself.

“Hyun Ae, let’s go to lunch!” Hwa Young cried happily but Hyun Ae refused her offer.

“I still need to catch up on the lesson since I didn’t really get some parts. Don’t worry, I packed some lunch for myself so I’ll just eat here. You can go and hangout with your other friends for now” Hyun Ae said in assurance. Her best friend hesitated but Hwa Young knew that school was everything to Hyun Ae so instead of arguing, Hwa Young nodded in response and left. On the other hand, Krystal who was still eyeing Hyun Ae from her seat stood up in annoyance and approached the smiling girl. She couldn’t take it anymore, Hyun Ae was smiling the whole time and it was irritating her. Was she trying to mock the school’s queenka?

“You’re happy?” Krystal said in a scorn voice. She flicked her hair and sent a glare to Hyun Ae “Wipe that smile off your face. It doesn’t suit you.”

“Krystal, what do you want?” Hyun Ae asked in a calm manner. She didn’t have time for this. Although she was used to this kind of relationship with Krystal since she befriended EXO, the girl was just so consistent and wouldn’t let her go.

“What do I want?” she leaned closer “Stay away from EXO”

“You know I can’t do that” Hyun Ae stood up and was about to leave when Krystal pulled her sleeves making her return to her spot.

“Then I’ll make you” Krystal raised her voice as she continued to speak, “Just remember that I already warned you. You may be with Kris but that won’t last long. That smile of yours will disappear Hyun Ae, I’ll make sure it will” she turned away from Hyun Ae only to warn her yet again. “I’ll take everything away from you and your precious Luhan? Don’t even dream about it” she scoffed and walked away from the classroom.

Hyun Ae’s body tensed at the mention of Luhan’s name. When will all of this end? Everything was too complicated for her to handle. And Krystal’s suspicions weren’t helping either. Was she being too obvious? Was it just only her who couldn’t see that every passing day her eyes were only for Luhan?  

‘No Hyun Ae, you love Kris. You chose to be with him and you must stand by that decision. Besides, haven’t you sorted out the problem with Luhan already? You and Luhan are friends and will remain friends. No more no less’ she said in her thoughts when suddenly a reply came.

‘In your denial state again Hyun Ae?’ a voice of a girl came through her head. Her eyes widened in horror. She shook her head and stopped thinking. “See Hyun Ae, this is why you need to focus on learning!” she scolded herself to try and distract herself from the strange incident. But this was bothering her recently. This wasn’t the first time that she heard a voice coming from her thoughts, and it definitely wasn’t her own thoughts. “Hyun Ae you’re going crazy” she sighed in frustration as she went back to her notes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The wind brushed through Tao’s fringe as he sat down with all the other members of EXO in their usual hangout. This was a place of laughter and non-stop fun for the 12 boys but not in the past few weeks. And definitely not today.

“So, are you just going to stare at each other?” Tao asked the two people in front of them who were now having their very own staring game. Luhan and Kris had remained silent throughout the whole classes that they had together. No words were heard from them and what worried them the most was their meaningful gazes to each other. It was like electricity trying to electrocute your whole being. It was intense.

“Wow this is so fun!” Chanyeol said sarcastically while nibbling on his burger.

“Tell me about it” Kai crawled his way to the two people who were facing each other. “You know what? Why not just kill each other?”

“Yeah. Let it all out or something. We’re tired. God damn, just solve this already! I swear if you don’t I will really lose—“ Xiumin stopped talking when he saw the two boys finally letting out a smile to each other.

“What the flip?” Chen furrowed his eyebrows as Luhan and Kris laughed their hearts out and extended their hands to perform a bro fist.

“Man, that’s probably the most stupid and lamest reason to fight about” Kris rubbed his eyes to stop the tears from falling. This was too funny and he couldn’t bear staring at Luhan’s face after remembering his conversation with him on the phone.

“Hello?” a half-awake Kris answered his phone.

“H-hey, it’s Luhan” Immediately, Kris sat up and his lamp. He was really anticipating this.

“Yeah, what do you want?” Kris said arrogantly, trying to hold in his laughter.

“You see, I had a talk with Hyun Ae and…”

“Yeah you dragged my girlfriend with you outside and went to who knows where without my permission and had a talk with her… what’s next?”

A sigh was heard from the other line. “I’m sorry” he finally said it “I’m sorry if I blamed you. I shoudn’t have. I mean, the situation wasn’t within your control. Man that was too embarrassing.”

Kris laughed uncontrollably, not caring about his parents next door. “Arrasso… Everything’s fine now, just don’t drag my girlfriend out of nowhere again alright? And I’m sorry as well since I wasn’t there for her at that time but I’m also thankful chingu. Thankyou for thinking about Hyun Ae but really, from now on, don’t worry. I’ll be responsible for Hyun Ae. Well, see you tomorrow. And by the way, don’t talk to me until lunch. I just want to see their reaction.” Kris laughed yet again.

“Arrasso, jalja!”

“Aish! Jinja! Don’t do that!” Sehun complained, “Don’t you guys know how worried we were?”

“Mianhe uri maknae” Luhan hugged Sehun and ruffled his hair “We won’t do it ever again”

Together they formed into a group hug like what they had always done since the day they gathered as EXO. A hug that reminded them that no matter how big the problems that they were facing, they were always there for each other’s backs. A hug that reminded them that they are ONE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Annyeonghaseyo noona!” a boy in his freshman year suddenly approached Hyun Ae. She jumped in fright and almost tripped in her own foot.

“Uhmmm, I’m sorry hoobae, but have we met before?” Hyun Ae asked the friendly looking boy.

“We haven’t” he flashed a smile and extended his arms “I want to be friends with you noona. My name’s Seunghyun, what’s yours?”

“I’m Hyun Ae. Nice to meet you Seunghyun” she smiled and shook hands with him. ‘Kyeopta!’ she thought.

‘I know noona. Of course I know your name is Hyun Ae’ Seughyun said in his thoughts ‘Luhan hyung, you left me with no choice.’

Glossary for today

Seonsaengnim - Teacher

Hi guys! Finally and update after so many days :)

Hope you guys liked this long update and hope that this chap was worth the long wait ^^

Thankyou so much for your many support and love for this fanfic ^^ 

Looking forward to your opinions and comments ^^ Love youse! :*

~lovelyndgrey2230
  23/06/14