The weekend passed by without any further incidents and soon it was Monday—time for Soo Min to return to her normal weekday routine.

She went downstairs dressed in a faded dark green t-shirt and black sweatpants. She grabbed her backpack from the couch and put her feet in her shoes, stomping around a few times to position them.

Infinite was sitting around the table waiting for Woohyun to finish making breakfast.

“Where are you going?” Sungjong asked as he set the table.

“School. “ She turned towards the front door.

“Yah! Come here and eat breakfast first!” Woohyun nagged from the kitchen.

She stared at him for awhile and then stuck out her tongue at him.

“Yah! Yah! Yah!” He stepped forward, brandishing his spatula at her but she had left before he could shout another word to her.

“Aish! This girl!”

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She was halfway through her second period when she heard shouts in the hallway.

“Is this even her school?”

“How should I know?”

“Then why are we here? Besides, she wasn’t wearing a uniform this morning and everyone here is wearing one. I don’t think we’re in the right place.”

“Hyung, trust me!”

“… I don’t.”

“HYUNG! This is the closest school anyways. Where else would she go?”

“Oh gee, I don’t know, ANOTHER SCHOOL?!”

She looked around at her classmates but they were still silently working on their essays. So the noise could only come from one group of people: Infinite.

All of a sudden, she saw a transparent head pop in through the wall and then a second later, it disappeared.

“I FOUND HER!!!” Dongwoo yelled.

She groaned and put her head on her table. Why did they have to come? They’re always at home and now they’re going to follow her to school too?!

Seven bodies, each carrying a backpack, floated into the room and situated themselves in the back around her seat.

“Hey Sungjong, look what I can do, “ Sungyeol said as he lifted his foot towards Sungjong’s back. “I’m kicking your !”

Because of the limited amount of space, they had to remain transparent so their bodies were merging together in some areas.

A few seconds later, she hears, “Now my foot is in your . Muahaha” followed by the poor maknae’s loud scream of “Sunggyu hyung!! His dirty is IN my head! Eww! Get him off! Get him off!”

She looked up and sure enough, the choding was floating above Sungjong’s head, perched conveniently so that his behind could be seen inside the latter’s face, while his dangling feet kicked in and out of the maknae’s upper body.

Hoya tapped her shoulder. “Sorry for being so distracting.”

She nodded in forgiveness and struggled to concentrate on the rest of the class.

Luckily, lunch was right after and she could enjoy some peacefulness, except they decided to follow her during her break time too.

They all sat under a tree, just like when they first met, and pulled out their lunchboxes. The boys all had bibimbap while Soo Min only had rice with kimchi.

Upon seeing her minimalistic food, Woohyun felt angry, but more at himself for not considering her when they were preparing their lunches that morning. “You can cook. Why do you bring that?”

She shrugged and drank some water.

He grabbed her container from her lap and substituted it with his own.

She immediately snatched back her food and ran away. Within a few seconds, he had already replaced the lid on his lunch and had chased after her, shouting, “Give me your damn food, woman!”

Here we go again, they all thought.

After a few minutes—what they deemed to be enough fighting time—they searched for the two fighters. They found them in one of the classrooms, Soo Min duct-taped to a chair and Woohyun feeding her.

“Oh hey guys!” he waved cheerfully.

He faced her again. “Say ‘ahh’.”

Soo Min pinched closed and shook her head. With a creepy smile, he poked her sides, causing her to open . He quickly placed the spoon inside and patted her head in approval while she chewed.

“Woohyun, you watched a movie last night, right?” Sunggyu asked.

“Mhmm.”

“Where did you get it?”

“Her room.” He pointed at Soo Min.

“I see… And in this movie, was there some sort of kidnapping involved?”

“Yup! The bad guy would tie up his victims and torture them! How did you know?”

They all turned to look at each other while shaking their heads. “Woohyun, no more movies from Soo Min’s room.”

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They were all walking home together when Myungsoo tapped her arm. “Why aren’t you wearing a uniform?”

“Don’t want to.”

“And you don’t get in trouble?”

“They don’t notice.”

Those three words clarified everything for them. The whole day, they had thought it was strange that none of the teachers picked on her to answer any questions. They couldn’t see why none of the students said even a simple “hello” to her. Everyone was taught to greet with sincerity yet she never received even a glance.

“So, do you have any friends? Were they sick today or something?” Myungsoo continued with his questions.

Woohyun, who had been talking to Sungyeol about girl groups, overheard their conversation and quickly grabbed her arm, leading her towards the supermarket.

“You guys go home first! We need to get some stuff for tonight’s dinner!” He shouted over his shoulder.

Confused, they stood around, deciding what to do. Listen to Woohyun or not listen? After weighing the pros and cons of each, they just went home, agreeing that there really was no benefit in following those two. They’d probably get dragged into another chase anyways.

“We don’t need to buy anything. I just went shopping yesterday.” Soo Min said as soon as they were out of earshot.

He placed his hands in his pockets and looked inside a store. “I just wanted to walk around a bit.”

I just wanted to help you, he thought as stared at her reflection in the window. They don’t need to know what I know.

A half hour later, they headed home, having bought a milk carton as proof for their earlier excuse.

They opened the door to find the rest of Infinite crowded around the doorway, a camera in Myungsoo’s hands.

“Soo Min, say ‘kimchi’!”

The flash went off, causing her to recoil.

They all looked at the picture. Her left arm was up in the air, covering her forehead, while her right clutched her stomach as if she was about to throw up. One eye was closed while the other was half open. The left corner of was lifted up as if she was about to sneer and sneeze at the same time.

“We’re going to need to work on this.”

Dongwoo led her away. “Come on. Let’s learn to smile!”

“Won’t this be so much fun?” Sungjong said as he jumped up and down beside her. Myungsoo followed with the camera while Hoya and Sunggyu held several photos of celebrity smiles.

Woohyun stopped Sungyeol before he could follow. “What’s going on?”

“Well, while you guys were off flirting—“

“We weren’t flirting! We were grocery shopping!” He lifted up the bag with the milk.

“Ok… as I was saying, while you were flirting,” Woohyun slapped him. “We decided to help Soo Min learn how to properly smile!”

“WHY?!”

“So she won’t be so lonely!”

Woohyun, who had his arm raised mid-slap, stopped. “What did you say?”

“We’re not dumb, you know. We know she doesn’t have any friends from school, too.”

His face softened. “I guess it’s a good plan.”

“Thanks! I’m the genius who came up with it!”

Needless to say, Sungyeol received another slap.

--------

Woohyun watched as they tried and tried again to get a decent smile out of her but each time, she would flinch, frown, or glare.

“Come on, Soo Min. Just be happy for us!” Sungjong shouted encouragingly as he peered out between his fingers, his hands covering his face.

For the hundredth time, she responded with a scowl.

He wore a similar expression on his face. It was almost five and he wanted to start making dinner but he couldn’t until she was free; he needed to observe and pick up tips about cooking from her.

It became obvious that none of their methods were working. Woohyun pulled out his phone and searched up something. His face brightened when he found what he was looking for and showed the image to Soo Min.

“If you smile, I’ll get you this.”

Curious, the boys also looked to see what it was: a sleeping bag with the anatomy of the human body. (http://phone.gadgetspyeye.com/uploadfiles/phonegadgetspyeyecom-1295237068/anatomical-model-sleeping-bag-for-creepy-camping_1.jpg)

“Hehehehehehehehe,” she responded quite positively.

“Nuh uh uh,” he waved his finger at her. “Not that kind of smile. Like this,” he grabbed the photo of SNSD’s Tiffany from Sunggyu hands and showed it to her.

She came closer until she was less than a foot away and stared at it. She moved to her right and observed it from there. Then she moved to the left and tilted and lowered her head.

When she was done, she returned to her original position and smiled.

It was beautiful.

It could’ve been because they were so used to seeing her usual expressions rotating between the blank stare and the glare.

It could’ve also been because of the way her eyes curved into perfect upside-down arcs and the way her lips parted to show just the right amount of teeth.

They knew it was both. Myungsoo took a picture and her smile disappeared. Missing that bright moment, Infinite moved to look at the picture instead.

Earlier, when they were discussing their plan, someone had mentioned a rumor that any girl could look attractive with an appealing and sweet smile. They now understood that statement.

Soo Min walked up to Woohyun. “Don’t forget. You promised.” She walked past him towards the kitchen.

Woohyun smiled to himself as he looked at her retreating figure. Didn’t you know? I was already sure that you would be able to do it. I just wanted you to know it yourself.

He walked into the kitchen and took the knife from her hands. “I’ll cut the onions. You go prepare the broth.”

She released the tool and went over to the stove, stirring the pot while adding in the rest of the meat and vegetables.

He sliced the onions slowly as he stared at her again. Because what are you going to do when we’re gone? We won’t be able to stay here forever with you.

I want you to be happy before I leave.