The first time Ga-In had sat down with Mi-Hyun, Baekhyun, Hyorin and Kyungsoo was weird. Granted, it was a kind of weird they could live with, Mi-Hyun decided.

~~~

'Hi, I'm Ga-In and from today on, I am officially the newest and last member of this little huddle!'

'...'

'Um, I'm Kyungsoo. Nice to meet you.'

'Heyyy Kyungsoo~ How's your ceramics class going? I heard you chose it over commerce for your elective.'

'How...?'

'Oh, don't worry, I only stalk you a little bit. I know loads more about Baekhyun!'

-Inserts big Ga-In wink and two face palms'

~~~

It had taken Baekhyun a couple of weeks to warm up to Ga-In, he had privately confessed the Mi-Hyun that he hadn't really liked her. He wasn't scared of Ga-In spreading rumours anymore, though, it seemed he was past that stage now.

'You'll like her in time,' promised Mi-Hyun. 'She might seem a little crazy now, but it's she's still recovering from her breakup and she's a real fan of you guys, so she's excited and nervous as well. She's genuine in the end.'

Thankfully, Baekhyun found Mi-Hyun's words true and after a couple more weeks, Ga-In had calmed down so that the group could have a proper conversation. And so it went from four to five.

Baekhyun's social life outside of the roof was improving as well. He had loosened up in class enough to answer questions in class and participate in discussions. This always received a ,'Well done, Mr. Byun,' from Mr Kim and several compliments from the girls. Baekhyun accepted them graciously but Mi-Hyun could see he didn't really believe them.

He was growing taller. Not that Mi-Hyun noticed or anything. At the beginning of the year, she was only a little shorter than him. Now he was almost 10cm taller than her. And she also tried to ignore the fact that whenever he leant back on his chair and smiled at her or whispered a joke, she had to stop her whole body from leaning towards him, to stop her basking in his warmth, blooming under his light.

~~~

They were walking in the hallways, talking. Suddenly, a girl latched herself on Mi-Hyun's arm and jumped into the conversation like she was there all along. Mi-Hyun gave the girl a strange look and tried to shake her off. Baekhyun hesistatingly replied to the girl's enthusiastic words.

They walked all the way to the end of the corridor before the girl finally flashed Baekhyun one more smile, and then, without even looking at Mi-Hyun, dispatched herself from her arm and skipped off.

'Was she crazy?' asked Mi-Hyun. 'She didn't even know me!'

Baekhyun only shrugged. 'She's a fan.'

That marked Mi-Hyun's first personal taste of EXO's fame.

She found she didn't like it that much.

~~~

Finals came then went. All Mi-Hyun could remember later was a desperate flurry of papers, Mr Kim's long lectures, dwindling nights, combing through the libraries and an absurd situation where Baekhyun, nearly crazy with stress, had thrown all his notes over the roof rail and then proceeded to actually tear out his precious hair with frustration.

But somehow they had survived, ('My company will kill me if I get less than all Bs on my report,' Baekhyun moaned) and the group spent the rest of the week's lunchtimes just sleeping and laughing on the roof, dizzy from relief of finishing their exams.

The new issue of the newspaper was published and Baekhyun smirked when Mi-Hyun told him that sales went up by a whole 15%.

'See, I told you it was the right decision to cut out the fortune telling article,' he .

'And to replace with an interview with EXO's Baekhyun,' Mi-Hyun grumbled. 'The perfect choice.'

~~~

'Woohoo!' Mi-Hyun clapped. The wind carried her applause to Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, who were slightly panting after performing their vigorous dance routine.

The two plopped down.

'What's the song called again?' Ga-In asked excitedly.

'Wolf,' Baekhyun replied. 'It's about a playboy finally falling in love for the first time.'

'I love it,' Ga-In squealed, and proceeded to dissolve into a series of fangirl giggles.

Hyorin said something quietly to Kyungsoo and Kyungsoo chuckled and whispered something back. Mi-Hyun watched the two affectionately and was interrupted a nudge by Baekhyun.

'Do you like it?' he asked casually, but Mi-Hyun could see his anxiousness shining in his eyes. Adorable eyes. And below those were the markings of eye bags, indicating just how much Baekhyun had practiced to get the routine perfect.

'I do, Baekhyun, I love it.'

~~~

It was getting colder now. Mi-Hyun's breaths came in puffs and Baekhyun's nose was pink. Hyorin, Kyungsoo and Ga-In had all retreated to the library, where it was toasty and dry. However, Mi-Hyun and Baekhyun were both stubborn enough to stick it out on the roof. It was their place after all.

They were sitting side by side, arms touching all the way from the shoulder to their gloved hands. The sky was completely white and the roof was littered with a little snow. Even though the both of them secretly wished they could touch each other more, even for heat, it wasn't allowed. SM had a strict rule of no dating amongst rookie groups after all.

It was one of those rare days that Mi-Hyun and Baekhyun were both silent. Then slowly, Mi-hyun turned to Baekhyun and, even though she knew she wasn't allowed to, she slowly cupped his face. He closed his eyes at her touch as her thumb brushed against a bruise on his cheekbone, covered by makeup on TV and a scarf at school.

'Why?' Mi-Hyun breathed. She didn't ask who. She knew very well who.

'Just because of some stupid things I tried in middle school,' Baekhyun said, eyes still closed. There was no anger in his voice, only weariness and acceptance. 'It was something the company said idols should never do.'

~~~

Spring had come and love was in the air. That much was evident from the sudden couples seen everywhere, the blushing, and the enormous increase of love letters in Baekhyun's locker. Apart from that, Mi-Hyun thought her group was rather unaffected by this whole season's affairs. Until Hyorin pulled her into an empty classroom and admitted that Kyungsoo had confessed to her.

'What?' Mi-Hyun shouted then immediately lowered her voice when curious heads turned from the outside hall, only to repeated in a strangled whisper, 'What?!'

Hyorin nodded fervently. 'He said that really, really liked me and if he continued, it would probably turn into love,' she stammered. Mi-Hyun raised her eyebrows. Hyorin flustered? Now that was a definite first.

'Well, are you happy?' she asked cautiously.

Hyorin's whole face broke into a shy smile. 'Of course, but his career...his fans...we can't date, so what can we do?'

'Wait, wait, wait, 'Mi-Hyun held her hand up. 'You told him you reciprocated his feelings?'

Hyorin nodded again. The news hadn't really came as a shock to Mi-Hyun, she could've told the two had always been attracted to each other ever since the first time she had lunch with them.

'Okay,' Mi-Hyun said slowly. 'Okay. What are you going to do?'

'I don't know, this is why I'm telling you!' Hyorin took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. 'I don't think we will date,' she said after a while. 'We're not experienced enough to do it in secret, and I don't think I want it a secret either. But if we admit to dating...no, I can't do that to EXO or his career. No. No dating.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yes. Absolutely.'

~~~

And so the five resumed their lunches on the roof after the snow had melted and the tress blossomed. Mi-Hyun observed Hyorin and Kyungsoo carefully. There was a certain freedom to heir attentiveness to each other now since the truth was in the clear but there were still restrictions. But they seemed okay with it, ('He said he would wait and I told him I would wait with him,' Hyorin confirmed to Mi-Hyun and Ga-In, the latter still in shock), so Mi-Hyun relaxed.

The sun was shining and the end of the year was approaching fast. She looked around their group fondly. One year together and they were already this close. She wondered how painful it would be saying goodbye at graduation. She didn't want to think about it.

A sneaky pair of chopsticks crept into Mi-Hyun's lunchbox.

'Hey!' she cried, swatting it away. 'Eat your own food!"

Baekhyun directed the full force of his puppy eyes on her. 'But your food always tastes so much better,' he whined.

He snuck his chopsticks in again and Mi-Hyun didn't have the heart to stop him.

'I curse the day I started letting you taste my food,' she laughed.

'How long ago was that?' Baekhyun squinted his eyes in thought. 'Wow, a whole year.'

He grinned down at her, the sunlight making his (now blondish) hair turn gold and illuminating his smile even more. 'We've been friends for a whole year,' he said, bumping Mi-Hyun's shoulder with his.

Mi-Hyun blushed. What were her umma's words again? Wait a whole year before you let a boy date you...yeah, that was it.

It had been a whole year now. As Mi-Hyun looked at Baekhyun and felt her heart thudding inside her chest, almost painfully she realised she no longer felt just friendship with this boy anymore. To be honest, she never really had.

But now it wasn't a question of whether she will ever let him date her. It was a question of whether his company will let him date her, whether his career will let him date her and whether he will let himself date her.

Mi-Hyun could only sit back, look and love Baekhyun.

And right now, it was enough.

A/N: Okay, for anyone used about this chapter, I basically squashed one whole year in, while writing about specific moments that span the whole year, hence the huge time jumps :) And also, I made a post about this on my wall but I would just like to say it again, I am aware that Baekhyun has a real life gf (Taeyeon, from SNSD) and that this story is COMPLETELY fictional. I am only using his image for this story, I am not hoping this story will come true or anything. And also, the last thing is, I'm going to China tomorow and school holidays started yesterday so either I'll be updating really frequently or rarely :( There won't be wifi in some spots in China and I'll be busy all day but I will try my best to write as much as I can.

Thankyou as always for reading :)