“Ottoke…”

You mumbled to yourself while leering at the wooden clock perched on the wall inside your bedroom, already showing 10:30 AM. Sitting on your bed alone with legs idly crossed, you blew out a loud sigh as you recalled the scenes that happened both this morning and yesterday.

Right after you ended your meeting with Yong Junhyung in front of the school’s restroom, everything had been extremely awkward for you. You returned to your classroom a little bit late, earning yourself a set of confused faces of your classmates and the boys; thank God the teacher was late too. You were expecting the boys to be pissed, but they weren’t. In fact, they showered you with worried stares instead.

The remaining lesson was gloomy too. Forget about engaging in a proper conversation with Leo, you didn’t even dare to glance at him. You tried to focus to whatever the teacher was blabbering about, but nothing registered your head. And when it was finally over, you didn’t have any choice but to go back home with the boys.

The whole way back home wasn’t anything better either. More like deadly uncomfortable. None of you spoke with each other. Worse, you somehow walked a little bit faster than them, leaving the boys to tail you from behind. You went straight to your room once you were home and only stepped out of it when Hyuk called for dinner.

And yesterday's night might be the most awkward dinner you’ve ever had in your life. Again, you didn’t let out a single word. But this time, the boys had become somewhat comfortable with your silence. They smiled, laughed, bickered with each other. For a couple of times, they tried to talk to you, waiting for you to respond, but all you did was either nodding or shaking your head.

You had a hard time thinking what kind of topic to bring up but the boys eventually stopped trying. It was just like they decided not to give a damn about what happened to you. Or more like they were all just pretending that nothing happened in the first place.

After dinner, you locked yourself up in your room, trying to cool your head down with sleeping. Only to wake up early in the morning with even more burden on your shoulders. Not to mention the growing guilt inside your heart. You planned to skip breakfast and just pretended that you were still sleeping, but when you heard Ken’s voice, calling you for more than ten times from outside the door, you had no choice but to call off the plan.

Just when you thought things would get better after breakfast, you had exactly the same scenes from last night’s dinner replayed before your very own eyes. Your lips were tightly shut and nerve had long gone to even see them in their eyes. All you did was munching the savorless spread then vanished from their sight, back to your bedroom.

Little did you know, the boys didn’t have it easy too. With you somewhat refusing to talk to them was torturing enough for a crack to appear in their hearts, yet they didn’t have the courage to make you give them a reason. Whenever you went back to your room in silent, they were all thinking on how to hear your voice again.

“You are so stupid, ___…” You slapped your own forehead, pouting your lips. “No… You are an idiot…”

You were staring blankly at the white wall when you felt a vibration on your lap. You looked down and saw your phone screen flashed a new text message. The sender’s name could be seen on the top of the it, and for of that you sighed deeply. Your right forefinger traced the flat screen, opening the content of the text message with a weak tap.

Sender    : Yong Junhyung

Subject   : [Our deal.]

In front of Hongik University. 12PM.

Don’t be late, babe~♥

You groaned in annoyance soon after you finished reading the message. Tossing your phone to the side, you threw yourself to the bouncy bed.

“Ughh! I hate this! I hate it! I hate it!!” You frantically kicked your legs to the air as if Junhyung was actually there, hovering above you.

You grabbed a pillow before burying your face into it, releasing a scream, followed with a heap of curses. After ruffling your hair until it looked like a messy bird’s nest, you glared at your phone.

“Why did I agree with that stupid deal in the first place?!”

Another curse came out from your mouth before you pushed yourself off the bed and walked to the closet to get your clothes changed. Junhyung’s deal was actually a one-day-date with him and you had no reason to reject it since you already had it sealed.

“And why did Saturday had to exist?!” You muttered angrily with hand busily combing your hair. After putting some BB cream on your sulking face you drew a thin line on your eyes with your favorite eyeliner.

Grabbing your purse, you took out a lip-gloss and planted it on your lips, making it appears even pinker and somewhat glossy. You might hate the thought of having a date with a bastard like Junhyung, but of course, you still didn’t want to look improper. It’s true that you had never gone on a date before, but it didn’t mean that you could do things half-heartedly and spoil everything. As much as you dislike your date, it was not wrong to have some fun too. Besides, you were dead sure that you would never go on another date again, at least not for the second time.

“Okay… I can do this.”

You grabbed your doorknob tightly before twisting it slowly. Without any reasons, your hands were sweating and you believed it was simply because you were nervous.

At this moment, meeting the boys felt even more nerve wrecking than final exams. Your heart thumped loudly as you opened the door bit by bit. A faint laugh was heard and it wasn’t even hard for you to realize that it belonged to Hongbin.

You walked outside the door, tiptoeing to lessen the noise. You exhaled in relief when no one was in sight. You took a couple of steps forward and learned that one of the boys’ rooms was slightly opened. You glanced inside to see a sleeping Ravi on the bed. He was sleeping with a quite loud snore and you quickly bit your tongue to hold back your laughter.

Walking down the stairs, you stopped to take a glimpse on the situation downstairs.

“Ya! Don’t waste water!!” Hongbin’s voice could be heard from the kitchen and you were pondering to whom he was yelling to.

“N was the one who splashed me first! Look! I am all drenched now!” Another yell echoed and it was coming from the backyard.

“Just wait until I give you a nice shower with this hose!”

The same voice yelled again, convincing you that it was Hyuk’s. Another scream, coming from who you believed as N, helped you to picture the situation perfectly. Instead of watering the garden, as you tasked them, the boys were having some sort of water fight.

You took a couple steps down and halted when you saw Ken busily mopping the living room. He had nothing but frown on his face and you could swear you heard him cursing N silently.

N must be the one who forced him to do this chore…

You chuckled, unconsciously smiling. You were happy that the boys didn’t feel sad because of what you did. The weight on your shoulder decreased by a bit and you felt your heart became much calmer too.

Ken didn’t notice that you were there since he was busy with whatever he was doing. You hesitated for a while, wondering if you should let him know about your plan on going out or not. You glanced back and forth at both the front door and Ken.

There were only two options: to slip out without them knowing, or to make up some lies about whom you were going out with. Telling them lies sounded like a better idea, but too bad you were out of good lies. Worse, you still found it awkward to open a conversation with them, despite of the fact that you didn’t want them to be worried if they found out that you were not inside your room.

Suddenly, you felt another presence behind you and immediately had your head turned.

“Oh my God!!!”

You jolted in surprised and fell on your while staring at whoever behind you with wide eyes.

“You scared me! Oh God!!” You took a deep breath to calm your pounding heart down but he just stared at you with flat expression.

“Princess!” Ken instantly threw away the mop he was holding then rapidly strode towards your direction.

“Gwaenchana?!” He checked on your body worriedly.

“I-I’m okay…” You warily answered, still felt awkward to look at him right in the eyes.

“What happened?!” Hongbin ran from the kitchen when he heard your scream. “Is everything okay?!”

You turned your head and accidentally met eyes with Hongbin. His face looked dead worried as he stormed to you and Ken.

“Nah~ nothing happened.” Ken reassuringly explained, “Princess was just shocked because of Leo…”

Hongbin then glanced at Leo, but the culprit just showed an indifferent look before continued to walk to the kitchen in complete silence, fetching his favorite canned latte from the fridge.

“I thought you fell from the stairs…” Hongbin somehow let out a relieved sigh and smiled when he knew that you were okay.

“She did fell.” Ken pointed at spot where your collided with the cold floor, “But you are okay, right?”

You just nodded before looked down again, avoiding their eyes.

“Did I hear someone said that my honey fell?!” N marched into the living room with Hyuk tailing behind him. Both of them were drenched from head to toe, just like two little brats coming out from a shower without caring to dry their body first. They totally ignored the fact that they had just made the floor all wet again after Ken had diligently mopped it.

“Arrghh! Who told you to go in without drying your asses first?!” Ken burst out in anger when he saw drops of water kept dripping from their drenched shirts and pants.

N just ignored him and came to you, assuring himself that you were okay since no one answered his question.

“Did you really fall? Did it hurt? Where? Here? Are you okay?” He bombarded you with questions while giving you a concerned look.

“From what I see here…” Hyuk crossed his arms, trying to read the situation. “You were shocked because you didn’t notice that Leo was right behind you… am I right?”

You sealed your mouth tightly and just gave them another nod with head hung low. You silently cursed yourself for being so stupid to get surprised just because of something so simple like that. Now, all of them were here; except of Ravi who was still enjoying his time at the dreamland, destroying your plan of leaving the house quietly.

N sighed while propping his hands on his waist, with an expression that looked exactly the same with those angry wives’ when their husbands did something wrong.

“Ya, Jung Taekwoon! Apologize! Now!”

He tapped his foot on the floor impatiently, glaring at the second eldest. You and the others automatically looked at Leo but the latter just waltzed into the living room with a canned latte on his left hand. He then laid his body down on the sofa with remote control grasped in the other hand, turning the flat-screened TV on.

“YA! Don’t ignore me!!”

N quickly rushed to Leo and snatched the remote control from his hand, stopping Leo’s intention to watch the TV. He turned it off then tossed the remote control to the coffee table before giving Leo a death glare, still waiting for the quiet man to utter an apology.

Leo didn’t even spare a minute to pay attention on the furious N, instead he retrieved the remote control and pressed the power button. N groaned in frustration before replaying exactly the same thing.

You closed your eyes and slapped your own forehead.

Oh boy… Here they go again…

N started to throw his tantrum at Leo while hitting him playfully on the neck. Nothing came out from Leo’s mouth when N kept on lecturing him about how to be a good “husband”.

Hongbin, Ken and Hyuk just shook their heads, totally fed up with their “silly parents” before focusing back to you. It didn’t take them too long to notice how fancy you had dressed, especially with a tiny purse slung over your shoulder. Further giving them an idea that you weren’t planning to stay at home today.

“Are you going somewhere?”

Hongbin finally blurted out the question that worried you the most.

The three of them scanned you from head to toe, figuring that it was actually the first time they ever saw you sporting such a cute fashion. Loose white sweater combined with pastel colored skirt. And when you lifted your face because of Hongbin’s question, the three of them realized that you had also put on some light make up on your petit face, which was something that you had never did before, at least not since the first time they saw you.

Their lips slightly parted and their hearts thumped faster when their eyes met with yours.

Beautiful…

That was the only word they could think the moment they landed their eyes on the girl before them. As if something had struck them right at their hearts and it couldn’t be calmed down even for a millisecond. Instead, their hearts kept beating faster and louder like it was about to fly out from their chest.

“Y-yeah… I’m about to… go out…” You awkwardly answered while gripping on the strap of your purse tightly.

“W-where a-are you going?”

Hongbin was kind of surprised because he didn’t think that you were really planning on leaving, at least, not without telling one of them in advance. He slightly stuttered because his brain couldn’t somewhat focus on what his lips were trying to say, all because he was thinking of something else.

No, he wasn’t actually thinking. He was completely dazed. Stunned because of your beauty.

Hyuk and Ken were trapped in the same circumstances, because for a moment there, they believed that you couldn’t be a human, but more like an angel who lost her wings as she descended to earth.

“I’m… I… err… I’m going to… umm…”

As you were getting nervous, you triggered this habit of biting your lips. And this habit of yours further forcing them to focus on certain parts on your face.

Your eyes.

And your lips.

They watched as your long eyelashes moved softly as you blinked continuously and how your teeth grazed the skin of your glossy pinky lips; thanks to the lip-gloss.To you these tiny acts were with no particular meaning, but for them, they were all dangerous.

“My… f-friend wants me to accompany her to b-buy a new sneaker… I’m going to eat lunch with h-her… and maybe dinner t-too…”

You carefully organized the words inside your brain because you didn’t want to raise unwanted suspicion. But being the ones who always cared for you 24/7, not to mention sticking to you for nearly two months, these boys didn’t even need the slightest clue to know that you were lying. Everything was just too obvious for their sights.

“…Your friend?”

“Is it Sujin?”

“Where will both of you go?”

You were dumbfounded since they uttered those questions exactly at the same time.

“Err… No. It’s not Sujin.” You moved strands of hair out from your face before continued blabbering more lies, “You guys don’t know her… She is my c-childhood friend… Ha-ha…”

The trio looked at each other again, ready to halt you with another questions, but you already spun around, sliding towards the door to put on your favorite pink flat shoes.

“I need to g-go now… I’m going to be l-late…”

After you finished those words, ready to unlock the front door, N instantly stopped his one-sided quarrel with Leo, shifting his stare to your figure by the door.

“W-what? Where are you going?!” He missed the part where you explained everything to the other three because he was too busy arguing with Leo.

You glanced at the watch wrapped around your wrist and figured that you were definitely going to be late if you didn’t go now. Like really now. Showing up late was never in your dictionary, and be it for a friend or foe; Junhyung was not an exception.

Explaining things from the scratch to N again would definitely take even more time. And you couldn’t afford to lose even just another minute. You were determined to leave him be because you believed that the other three would do all the explaining for you.

You glanced at N from your shoulder before waving uncaringly at the boys.

“I-I will be home before 9PM! B-bye!”

With that, you left them with a slam on the front door, rendering them to flinch because of the loud noise.

N blew his bangs, feeling a little offended by your action. He then eyed the three boys next to the stairs before crossing his arms with an irritated face.

“You better explain to me what happened. Now.”

You tapped your feet on the ground while staring at the people who passed by, hoping the one you had waited for would show up.

“Where the hell is he?!” You grunted with arms folded, huffing invisible angry smoke.

You took out your phone and eyed the number on the front screen, showing a series of 12 and 30. It had been 25 minutes for you to stand alone before Hongik University’s front gate and it was kind of embarrassing since you weren’t even one of the students there. Besides, universities were nothing like high schools. Lots of students were still roaming around the campus even during weekends.

A couple of men that you assumed as students, walked by several times while eyeing you from head to toe. Your face reddened when one of them smiled at you. Some even whistled and waved their hands, followed with annoyingly high-pitched “annyeong”. Forget about why they were acting like that, you weren’t even aware with your own good looks. What you cared about was Junhyung to come faster so that you could leave this place as soon as possible.

“Aissh! This jerk!!”

You angrily slid your phone and searched for his number to give him a call. Calling him first might have never crossed your mind, but this time, you simply couldn’t just tolerate him any longer. You need to get out from here, this instance.

Right before you were about to tap on the green button on the screen, you heard a low voice calling your name.

“___!”

You turned your head and spotted a figure running to your direction, with a black snapback on his head, latched with a combination of plain white t-shirt and dark blue jeans around his rather slender built, he waved his hand at you while flashing a wide grin.

“I’m sorry I’m late, babe!”

Your eyes widened when you caught what he called you and quickly glanced around to see if anyone heard it too. Disastrously, some people heard it and started to giggle while murmuring something about you and him being a “cute couple”.

You mentally slapped your face and glared at him who was still running to your direction, approaching you even closer.

“Ya, Yong Junhyung! Don’t call me babe, I’m not—whoaa!!”

All of the sudden, you got your body pulled by him, forcing you to run as well. He tightened his hand on your wrist, hurrying you in heavy breaths.

“Come on! Let’s go eat, I’m hungry~”

“Ya! Ya! Ya!” You tried to yank his hand away but he was just too stubborn to let you go, so you ended up being dragged away to wherever he wanted to.

Both of you kept running for another couple of minutes before you realized you had reached Hongdae market area where heaps of shops and restaurants dwelled. Your legs went jelly and you could no longer catch your breath properly. You forced yourself to stop, making Junhyung to stumble backwards.

“I…I can’t r-run… anymore…”

You chanted between tired panting with body slouched forward. You felt his grip on your wrist loosened and you decided to squat down while trying to catch your breaths again.

Junhyung blinked at you as he squatted down beside you as well, staring at the girl beside him with hands propped on his knees. He smiled a smug one as he put strands of hair away from your face.

“Sorry… I was just—err… too excited.” He slightly pouted and patted your head.

You lifted your head with both of your eyebrows furrowed, taken aback by his oddness.

“…What are you doing?”

Junhyung confoundedly asked, “What what?”

“You are so…weird… today.” You tilted your head with eyes narrowed at him.

He had his rim slightly gawked, completely confused.

“Whatever…”

Junhyung gave you his hand to help you stood up, but you just stared at it with blank face.

“What? You are my girlfriend today, remember? I swear I won’t do anything that might hurt you… I’m actually a very caring boyfriend, ya’ know…”

You rolled your eyes at him and took his hand. He pulled you up and you dusted off your skirt before looked at him again.

“Should we eat there? I’m really hungry~ somehow I can hear those meats calling me~”

Junhyung pointed at a BBQ restaurant across the street in glee and you couldn’t do anything but nodded with a sigh. He then took one of your hands again, tangling his fingers with yours.

“Let’s gooo~~”

You stared at the entwined hands while making your way to the restaurant. You got the fluttery feelings but they were nothing compared to the rather electrifying ones you usually felt whenever the boys touched you. You glanced at Junhyung who already hummed a random song with his lips curled up and felt somewhat vigilant.

Why is he so kind to me?! Is he planning to do something bad later…? This is so not him… I should be careful…

“WHAT!? A DATE?!!”

5 minutes ago they were arguing about where you had gone to and started to blame each other for had not blocked the door. Worse, what happened next had their mouths clenched shut nearly instantly.

Leo bluntly told them that you were going on a date.

Now, the five dolls stared at Leo with wide eyes and hanged mouths, completely in contrast with the latter who sat comfortably on the sofa with feet aloofly crossed.

“What do you m-mean?! She is… d-dating someone?!”

At that moment, Hyuk could swear that he nearly choke on his own words, simply because he hoped that whatever he heard was wrong.

“Leo… please don’t joke around at a time like this!” Ravi raised his voice. Deep down he still tried to convince himself that he had long left his bed and everything that just entered his ears was real.

N had his head shook, totally not buying what Leo just said. “She said it by herself that she is meeting her friend… t-there’s no way she’s going out for a dat—”

“I heard it with my own ears.”

Those words came out firmly from Leo’s mouth. The other five could already tell by his tone alone that he was not, in any possible way, joking, and Leo was not the type of person who would joke around to begin with. That’s why they were confused when Leo said something like that.

“…And I’m not joking.”

Leo emphasized while staring at each souls before him, as if he wanted to convince them that he wasn’t lying.

“Omo…”

N grabbed his own neck and his body unconsciously swayed to the side. His legs gave up all of sudden and he felt like all the strength inside his body drained in an instant.

“N!!” Ken quickly grabbed the eldest’ waist and dragged him to sit beside Leo. “A-are you okay?!”

Hongbin slapped his own forehead before sighing loudly, ending it with a curse. While Hyuk and Ravi were too surprised and remained stiff at their spot.

“So… you’re saying that… she has a boyfriend?!” Anger quickly consumed Ravi as the jealousy inside his heart reached its limit.

Leo simply shook his head, clearing his throat. He then put down his crossed legs and dug his back even deeper to the sofa, trying to find a more comfortable position to explain.

“N-no…? Then… c-can you explain what is… e-exactly happening…?”

Hongbin’s face started to grow pale as