Kaeru immediately crumples the paper in a whim and hides it inside her pocket. Baekhyun chuckles at the flustered look on her face and he receives a deadly glare pointed towards him.

She clenches her teeth and takes a deep breath. She takes her pen and then shakily writes on the corner of a page in her notebook. After few seconds, she rips off a portion of the sheet and balls it in her fist. She tosses it and it ands on Baekhyun’s desk.

“Ooh, a reply!” he claps his hands jollily like a child and then straightens out the crumpled paper. Baekhyun glances at her before reading what has been written. And to his disappointment, the only thing written on the paper was the word idiot.

Well, half of Baekhyun’s oh-so-smart instincts told him that, knowing Kaeru, it was the most probable reply he would receive from her. Half of it, well, assumed something different.

“Hm? What’s that unhappy expression on your face, Baekhyun? Aren’t you glad?” she smiles.

Baekhyun flinches at her smug expression and then looks away.

Suddenly, Kaeru feels a twinge of terror inside her. Everything seems like it’s happening the way Kaeru doesn’t want it to. Her usual attitude towards him, and his unusual response of coldness and also his declaration of hatred towards her; it’s happening just like how Kaeru fears.

And then Kaeru sees Baekhyun’s ears completely red.

And then she feels that wave of relief that visited her occasionally again.

And then a smile appears on her lips. Kaeru’s hands, like they aren’t in her control, suddenly reach out to Baekhyun’s cheeks and she pinches it slightly. Baekhyun recoils before putting his hand on top of Kaeru’s.

Kaeru’s sincere smile then evaporated into a frown as she feels the sweet gentle friction brushing between their skins. She harshly pinches Baekhyun’s cheek making him pull his face away on his own. As Baekhyun carefully massaged his physically tortured cheek, he asks her, “Geez, Kaeru, why are you being such a sadist?”

“Touching my hand nonchalantly while having such a mischievous face as yours is considered ual harassment, alright? I can sue you and I definitely will.”

“If that’s the case then does that mean you’re blushing because you’ve been harassed?” Baekhyun giggles, which adds gasoline into her scorching temper. She takes her pen and throws it towards Baekhyun; it hits Baekhyun on the chest. Unfortunately for Kaeru, the pen’s cover sealed the ball point off.

“I’m begging you, shut up,” she messes her own hair in frustration. Well, everybody is going crazy because of Baekhyun. And sometimes, it’s not the good kind of crazy.

Seeing the pallor on her face, Taekshin approaches Kaeru as the whole class puts all their efforts and attention into their tasks. By means of whole class, including Baekhyun and excluding Kaeru, who seems to lose her face color. The classes just finished and their daily after-class preparations start again but Kaeru’s health seems to be unable to perk her up.

As Taekshin reaches her, Kaeru’s hand massages her forehead harshly like hurting herself from the outside will ease the ache in the inside. She feels like throwing up, but at the same time, she feels like she’s literally empty with nothing to take out. Her sane thoughts abandoned her with mere headache. And guess what caused this?

Sleepless nights that visited her when she was scared of falling into oblivion. She feared that once she falls asleep, the harsh Baekhyun of her nightmares will appear again. It happened twice and she is definitely not looking forward for the third time.

Even with the reason so vague, she’s sure of one thing and that is, she doesn’t want Baekhyun to hate her. To be frank, she’s just afraid of Baekhyun hating on her.

But she doesn’t love him. She says to herself. Who would fall in love with a person within barely few weeks? And not to mention, the guy she loathed since forever, right? It’s Byun ing Baekhyun! The guy she hated? The ridiculous guy she despised?!

Then it occurred to her.

Past tense. Past freaking tense, Kaeru. She was just telling herself in past tense how she hated him.

Before she could continue with her self-discovery, she hears a deep sigh from a familiar person. It’s him.

No, it’s not Baekhyun, to her disappointment, but it’s Taekshin. He’s sitting casually beside her with paint on his cheeks and bandages on his fingers. He’s holding a spray can on his hand, and his other hand inside his pocket. She raises an eyebrow, “What?”

“You look pale.”

“Ah, oh, sleepless nights,” she chuckles. Well, isn’t this surprising? She’s actually talking calmly to the man who rejected her few days ago!

He looks at her seriously, “I’m sorry, Kaeru, please don’t hurt yourself anymore.”

For a moment, Kaeru’s eyebrows creased. She asks, “Huh? What are you saying?”

“Being your teacher, I should value our relationship as mentor-student. You’re an amazing girl and I bet you’ll find someone who deserves you better, alright?” he tries smiling but his eyes avoid hers. She chuckles and looks at him.

“Oh, right! To be honest, I really was hurt, Taekshin—I mean, sir—when you rejected me out of extreme anxiety,” she smiles, “But don’t worry, I’m pretty sure the only reason it felt so painful was because I hated being rejected, so much. And please don’t assume that I can’t sleep at night because of you. Please, you’re too conceited,” she lets out a chuckle, and then she bows her head, “But… I really loved you, Taekshin,” she lowers her volume and her voice becomes gentle, “And I am happy that I did.”

Taekshin looks at him with a flabbergasted expression, “You really are an amazing girl.”

"Please. Tell me something I don’t know,” she rolls her eyes.

“Seriously, kid,” he laughs, “Usually, girls who got rejected would drown in self-pity and shame but here you are! Standing—or sitting—in front of me, smiling and being normal.”

“Ah, it’s because for me, when I say it’s over, it really is over.” she glares at him when she catches a glimpse of him chuckling mischievously, “You actually find this amusing, huh? Aren’t you such a bas—”

“Oops,” Taekshin puts his index finger on her lips, hushing her, “Watch your language, young lady, I’m your teacher!” He ends his statement with a playful chortle.

Kaeru weakly smiles, “Sure.”

And that’s when Taekshin notices her face completely losing color, he grabs her wrist and calls her attention. With a panicky voice, he says, “Kaeru! Kaeru, are you alright?”

“No, my head hurts,” she says, as blunt as ever. She puts her fingers on her temples and massages them slowly. Without her noticing, her body is slowly sliding down the chair and she’s about to fall. Taekshin looks at her agitatedly as he puts his hand around Kaeru’s shoulders in attempt of pulling her up.

Kaeru shakes his hand off but Taekshin says “Don’t move too much, Kaeru!”

“Don’t yell at me, it hurts my ears,” she chuckles.

Taekshin hushes her and then he calls Baekhyun. Baekhyun, who’s about to walk out of the classroom from the door across, tilts his head towards Taekshin’s direction just to see his brother embracing Kaeru.

The whole class flocks around Kaeru as Baekhyun wasn’t the only one whose attention was caught by Taekshin’s loud voice. Baekhyun surges towards the two and then without any hesitation, grabs Kaeru’s arms and puts them around him.

“Infirmary, take her to the infirmary,” Taekshin orders.

Baekhyun, assisting the half-conscious Kaeru in walking, says, “You could have brought her there instead! Why are you being such an ?! Your student fainted and you call somebody else to take her there? Irresponsible adult, aren’t we?”

“Just go, Baek,” Taekshin refuses to argue back because what Baekhyun said was actually true. Of course, Taekshin as a stronger adult should have brought her there. But he hesitated, and instead, he called out for a younger man’s help. Why for the sake of mankind did he do that?

Maybe he was scared. Maybe he didn’t want to raise her hopes up just like how Kaeru didn’t want Baekhyun’s to. Maybe he wanted his little brother to get the girl. Or maybe, he didn’t want anybody to misunderstand.

As Kaeru finds herself comfortably lying on the bed, she notices the presence looming beside her. She sighs and says, “Baekhyun, go and attend to errands. Send them my apologies, alright?”

Baekhyun walks near her and then pulls up the blankets to cover her. She looks at him, stunned, and she feels the words stuck in . He takes a chair from beside the nurse’s table and situates it beside her bed. He sits and starts interrogating, “What was that?”

“What?” she gulps as she remembers Taekshin embracing her. Well, not like Baekhyun cares but why is she being nervous about?

He tells her sternly, “You were not feeling well and you acted like a complete martyr by attending the after-class arrangements! Why?”

“If you’re going to scold me, save it for tomorrow. I’m tired.” She sighs, “Please, go back to the classroom and go run around.”

He stays quiet for a while and then he sighs, “You think I’d just leave you here?”

She frowns, making Baekhyun laugh. He says, “I’m staying with you, okay?

“Do what you want,” she sighs and then covers her full body with the blanket. Baekhyun stands up from the chair and moves to the edge of the bed. He sits there and lets out a deep exhale.

Then Kaeru suddenly mutters, “Thank you.”

Like it’s the first time he’s heard of the two simple words, he feels his cheeks burn up and his pulse accelerate. He looks over the blanket and sees Kaeru’s sleepy face. He smiles, “It’s some sort of a payment.”

And before she could even question his odd reply, Kaeru falls into slumber.

Her eyes flings open and she sees Baekhyun casually sipping coffee from a vendo cup. She smiles a bit and asks, “Hey, what time is it?”

Baekhyun looks at her in surprise and gives out an awkward smile. He heaves up his hand and checks his watch before announcing the time. He says, “It’s past 7, why?”

“.” Her eyes widen at him and she quickly pulls herself up. She preps her messy hair up and then straightens her uniform in haste.

“What?” Baekhyun giggles, completely ignorant of what she just said.

“I’m going home,” Kaeru picks her bag up and then pats the bed, as if few pats would fix up the bed. She rushes towards the door but Baekhyun pulls her wrist.

“Wait, wait, I’ll take you home then!” he offers. In which she responds with pulling her hand harshly and refusal. But Baekhyun insists and asks again, telling her that it’s dangerous for a girl to go home alone in the night.

Kaeru says, “Did you purposely not wake me up so you could take me home?”

“Excuse you,” he chuckles, “I didn’t wake you up because you were so beautiful sleeping and you look extremely tired so—!”

“Whatever, I’m going home,” she bids and then turns around towards the door again. But Baekhyun pulls her back.

“Wait! Wait!”

“What now?!” she snarls.

“I have an umbrella!”

“This excuse again?” she can’t help but chuckle as she remember Baekhyun’s ridiculous attempt in the past.

“Excuse? More like a generous offer!” Baekhyun smiles airily.

She rolls her eyes before bolting towards the window. She pulls the curtain and faces Baekhyun, “It’s not raining, Baek, see—”

She cuts herself off when she sees the bullets of rain on the glass and the campus grounds completely drenched and still being drenched with rain. Kaeru bites her lower lip and shakes her head in surrender.

Baekhyun grins and says, “You are certainly welcome.”

“Ugh,”

As they take steps on the wet grounds extra carefully to not have mud splattered on their legs, Baekhyun’s smile was irrefutably wide. On the other hand, Kaeru plays with her lips by pursing it towards different sides.

They walk under the same umbrella and on the same ground. Kaeru crosses her hands and then steals a glimpse of Baekhyun from the corner of her eyes. He notices this and he grins widely while his free hand fold a peace-sign beside his face, “It’s alright, you don’t have to look at me in secret.”

“Shut up,” she covers her face in shame. He smiles slightly and then using his unloaded hand, he reached for her hand in at