I continue to stare at Yixing as he went on folding red and pink paper hearts, smiling to himself and singing along to the song blasting from both his earphones in a volume I’m pretty sure is supposed to make his eardrums bleed anytime now. Even the people at the next table can hear the outrageously whiny notes of Taylor Swift judging by the way they are all shooting dirty looks at Yixing. They were hardcore nerds who treated study time in the library very seriously, the likes of whom Jongdae and Luhan both frown upon with repulsion, but their murderous gazes are lost on the blissfully ignorant boy.

Yixing has been like this for about a week now and even if the guy is a certified weirdo, though he really can’t be any worse than Jongdae, this dreamlike state he’s been in is something we can’t help but worry about.

“What do you think?” I turn to Luhan who is sitting across from me on the table.

He props his chin up on one hand and glances at Yixing beside him. “Ever seen that movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers?”

“If we accept that as our premise, then we have ourselves a particularly odd alien who has a penchant for origami and knows the lyrics to You Belong With Me.” I deadpan. “Oh, and blanks out during class recitation.”

Luhans eyes widen almost comically. “You’re ting me.”

“It’s true.”

“But Xing loves recitations. He lives and breathes for them.”

I shrug. “Yeah, the teacher asked him which year some nameless guy discovered some unknown island or something and he didn’t answer. He just looked blankly at the professor. I never thought I’d actually see the day when Yixing isn’t able to answer an academic question in school.”

“Maybe that’s why Professor Chua was bawling his eyes out this morning. I bumped into the old guy at the men’s room and he looked like somebody cut his nuts. He must have been devastated that he just lost the one student who actually gave a rat’s about his class.” Luhan says with amusement.

We both turn to gaze at Yixing again who is still oblivious to his surroundings. By now, seven paper hearts lay finished before him while his fingers are still working with the eight one.

“How about in that movie Freaky Friday? They switched souls, right?” I suggest another theory.

Luhan snorts. “So who do you think swapped souls with Yixing? Who’s in his body now?” He thumbs beside him.

“Judging by the complete gayness plus the general cluelessness in class lectures, I’m betting Jongdae.”

Luhan laughs and we share a fist bump. “Nice.”

And because he never misses a cue, Jongdae appears and grabs a seat beside me. “Hello, my three beautiful friends.”

“We’ve been here for about an hour now. Where have you been?” I protest.

He giggles in response, leisurely placing an arm around my shoulder. “Chill, Jia. Don’t ruin such a perfect day with your crabbiness.”

“You ing just had , didn’t you?!” Luhan announced, pointing a finger at Jongdae.

A harsh torrent of Ssshhh and more dirty looks is sent to our table. Luhan merely gives the bothersome onlookers the finger.

Jongdae only shrugs, a lazy grin playing on his lips. I take a close look at him and notice the beestung lips, the disheveled hair and an afterglow of sparkle in his eyes.

I push his arm away, horrified at the thought that the hand resting at my side is the same hand that had just come in contact with someone’s unwashed s not very long ago. “Eww. Stay away from me.”

As if reading my concerns, he laughs, clutching his stomach until his eyes fell on a singsong-y Yixing and his origami hearts. “He’s still at it?” He asks.

“My money’s on Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Jia’s is on Freaky Friday. She thinks you and Yixing swapped souls.” Luhan offers.

“Though I think we all see the flaw in that. If you guys really did change souls, Yixing wouldn’t be here. He would be engaging in in some unconventional place or another.” I say.

“The university auditorium isn’t unconventional. Everybody who’s active has at least done it there. Right, Lu?” Jongdae turns to Luhan.

Luhan nods. “ yeah, especially that area by the rows. Though isn’t advised. The sounds echo off the walls. But it’s considerably better than being cramped inside the janitor’s dark closet where I can’t spot where her zipper is—“

“Lu, you’re oversharing.” I hold up a hand and hear Jongdae snicker in merriment.

“Right.” Luhan doesn’t seem particularly embarrassed but thankfully, he stops. “So you finally scored with Kim Jongin?” He turns to Jongdae.

“Naah. Jongin’s straight as a flagpole. Dead end there. A huge waste if you ask me but anyway, it was his best friend, Park Chanyeol.” Jongdae explains, examining his nails.

“What does this Park Chanyeol look like?” I ask.

It’s Luhan who answers. “Really tall dude. Brown curly hair and deep voice.”

“-inducing voice, really.” Jongdae adds in excitedly. "One moment, we were catching each other's eyes at the cafeteria  and he's following me to the Auditorium then the next thing I know, I'm being shoved up against the wall, his tongue already taking a grand tour of my mouth. He's a rough tiger, really."

Now it's Luhan's turn to complain. " man, too much information."

A shudder runs through me as I try shaking the gruesome images away. One thought suddenly occurs to me. “Do you really like this guy or are you merely using him as rebound after Yifan?”

Jongdae looks at me like my hair suddenly transformed into snakes. “You think I’m still hung up on that ? Puh-lease. And I’m pretty sure rebound only exists in Baseball.”

“Basketball, .” Luhan is quick to correct him.

“Irrelevant. The point still stands. I already bid good riddance to all things Wu Yifan so I suggest nobody utters his name anymore. He’s now ‘He Who Cannot Be Named’; he’s Voldemort, I’m Harry Potter. You two are Rons 1 and 2 and Yixing over here is our cuckoo Hermione.” Jongdae explains and although he ends with a joke, I don’t miss the almost unnoticeable hardening of his eyes or the slight clenching of his jaw. He’s totally not over Yifan yet.

The conversation is thankfully disrupted when Yixing finally acknowledges our presence and hands us each a paper heart with our names written on them.

Luhan stares at the paper heart on his palm in disgust. “The is this for?”

“For our friendship.” Yixing states simply as if it is the most obvious thing in the world.

I look down at mine. “Uh…um, that’s nice, Xing. Thanks, I guess.”

“Next time, throw in a friendship bracelet and a scrapbook of all our happy memories together, will you?” Jongdae piped in.

Yixing beamed at him, the sarcasm slipping past him. “That’s a great idea. We should definitely do that.”

“Are we re-enacting scenes from Barbie now?” Luhan grumbles. “You guys are so gay.”

Jongdae and Yixing both launch into their defense and as they continue to foolishly argue, I bury my nose into a book. Group study, my .

“You get it now? Okay, tell me the reasons why the Ming Dynasty fell.” Yixing quizzes Jongdae. It’s been a whole two hours now and amazingly, some actual studying has actually taken place.

Jongdae appears hard-pressed for an answer. “Um. Those Mongol bastards made annual invasions on the Northern frontier.”

Yixing claps his hands, obviously pleased. “Good, good. What else?”

“Well…the Ming army was defeated in Manchuria by the good for nothing Nurhaci.” Jongdae uncertainly drawls out.

“Excellent. And then?” Yixing prods. I'm actually quite impressed. It's more than I can honestly enumerate.

“That’s it. That’s all I have.” Jongdae raises his arms up in surrender. “, can we stop this and go home now? I’ve been using the residual bliss from the mind-blowing I had to tolerate this horror but I’ve run out of it already.”

“Me too. I’m ing done with this crap. I’d rather walk around town .” Luhan joins in.

“Oh comeon, Lu. You did nothing but play Candy Crush most of the time and we all know walking around and flaunting your body is something you’d like.” I comment, stretching my arms.

It's dark outside now and I'm personally happy to hit the bed already. Studying is never an enjoyable endeavor.

 “Won’t you like that as well, Jia? Seeing me ?” He winks at me.

I tiredly regard him. “I've already seen you , Lu. And no offense but there’s really nothing to see." I gather my books and stand up, remembering the time in high school when the new PE teacher shoved me inside the boy's locker room to change into my PE uniform because she witlessly thought I was a boy and I ended up seeing the collective chests of all my guy classmates.

He looks affronted. "That was back in high school and those were my skinny days, okay? Besides, you only saw my chest. How about seeing the whole package?" He smirks.

"I'll pass." I say, meekly, slinging the backpack over my shoulder.

"Don't take it personally, Lu. Jia just hasn't hit puberty yet. Give her time." Jongdae places a comforting hand on his shoulder as we walk away and exit the library.

Completely neglecting the sarcasm yet again, Yixing jumps to my defense. "She's 20, of course she has already hit puber—“

Taking Yixing's hand, I interrupt him. "It's fine." I whisper conspiratorially.

He looks sideways at me in question and I smile at him in assurance.

Jongdae launches into another one of his dramatics. “You’re a slave driver, Zhang Yixing, you know that? Nobody has ever worked me up in the name of school like that before. You render this poor soul famished."

"You're the one who put him up to tutor your stupid brain. At least deal with it." Luhan says.

Yixing laughs. "Naah, he has a point. All this studying for the midterms is starving me as well. Let's go eat out at Burger King, my treat."

We all stop and look at him in astonishment. It’s not that Yixing is ungenerous or anything but he’s the one person I know who’s very thrifty with his money. I look at him and there’s a very big smile on his face. Something serious is definitely up with him.

After dinner, we all got on Luhan’s car. Now that we’re full, weariness takes over. Conversation is still buzzing but not with the same amount of vigor as before. At the front seat, Jongdae and Luhan talk about various people in school I have no idea about and beside me, Yixing keeps furiously texting on his phone and swaying his head from side to side to the gentle music playing in the car. I lean my head against the window and take out my own phone. There’s a text message from my mom asking me where I was and I slowly type a reply, stifling an incoming yawn.

“Guys.” Yixing suddenly calls out. I turn to face him yet the other two doesn’t seem to hear him. “Hey guys.” He tries again. I can’t help but note the anxious look in my best friend’s eyes.

“What’s up?” Jongdae turns around to face Yixing.

“I think I’m in love.”

Luhan steps on the brake and the car abruptly comes to a screeching stop and since none of us wear seatbelts, we all come flying forward. Jongdae hits his head on the dashboard and Yixing and I quickly slide off our seats and smash our faces to the mini TV screens attached to the back of the front seats in front of us. We all groan in pain.

“What the hell, Luhan? Are you trying to ing kill us?!” Jongdae rubs his forehead furiously.

“It’s Yixing’s fault. He never should drop news like that in a moving vehicle!” Luhan reasons out.

Yixing cups his jaw and sits back up. “Why? What’s so surprising about what I said?”

I look at Yixing and then laugh. There it is. No big mystery there. We really should have seen all the signs. Paper hearts, listening to hollering love songs, not to mention a jolly good mood all the time. “You should have said so sooner. You got us worried.” I say.

“Correction. Jia was worried. I knew it wasn’t something to stress about.” Jongdae says.

I kick the back of Jongdae’s seat. “Shut up.”

“Hey, don’t hit my baby!” Luhan protests, starting the car again and driving away.

“Aww. I didn’t know I was your baby, Lu.” Jongdae cooes.

Luhan snorts. “I wasn’t referring to you. I was talking about my car. Jia, control your violent tendencies while you’re inside my baby, will you?”

“Sorry.” I mutter, turning to Yixing and I see a smile still plastered to his mouth.

A discussion ensues regarding the identity of Yixing’s mystery girl with Jongdae playing interrogator. As usual.

So my best friend is in love. I honestly don’t know what to make of that.