Kyungsoo frowns in bewilderment when he is faced with the Son siblings, completely unharmed.  “Ya, Son Yunjae, what in the world…?” He pockets his phone, eyeing the two carefully.  “You guys are okay?”

Yunjae flashes him a smile along with an ‘ok’ sign.  ‘I’ll leave you two to yourself.  The taxi will be here in about 10 minutes, so take your time.  I’m buying myself a drink,’

Haerin reaches out to hold him back.  “Y-Yunjae-yah, don’t go..” But he avoids her grasp and skips away as if he just did something he deserved an award for, while Kyungsoo is left grumbling by Haerin’s side. 

“Aish, Haerin-noona got hurt, my , that little..”

Haerin’s eyebrows shoot up and she turns to face Kyungsoo.  “He said that?”

“He did,” Kyungsoo sighs.

“That lying little- was I even raising him right? Wha- I- he..” Haerin falters when she catches the way Kyungsoo is looking at her.  The way she treated him this morning flickered in her head and almost immediately, she wanted to- 

“Don’t even think about it,” Kyungsoo steps closer to her.

“Think ab-about what..”

“Running away,”

“I wasn’t-“ Haerin glances at Kyungsoo for a split second and draws back at his closeness.  “Okay, I was, now step back,”

Kyungsoo does, but only by so little it didn’t make a difference.  Haerin stretches both of her arms out and keeps the distance that far.  “I meant what I said,” She said, her head lowered.

Kyungsoo persists.  “Then tell me again, while you look at me,”

“I don’t want to,”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to,”

“Why?”

“Because you’ll know that I’m lying, I tell you!” Haerin starts raising her voice.  “Because then, you’ll look at me, with that, that, look you had on the roof, like your parents did, like I’m so freaking precious to all of you and I won’t be able to stop myself from loving you! Because I’m so weak, because I can’t handle anything by myself, because being in love crushes me, owing to the fact that sooner or later, I’d no longer have you around, all because I can’t be there for you like you were there for me!”  By the time she’s finished, she’s running out of breath, from saying things without a breather and from the pent up frustration.  “I didn’t even freaking see that damned wound on your neck and I couldn’t even thank you or apologize properly,”

“Haerin,”

At the sound of her name, realization dawns on Haerin, of what she had said and of how she’s acting in front of this guy, who just manages to bring out the worst in her. 

“Haerin,”

“What?”

“I know you don’t like to be touched, but can I at least hold your hand, right now?”

Haerin lifts her head in surprise.  “What did you say?”

“That’s better,” Kyungsoo smiles as she finally looks at him, taking her hands in his nevertheless.  “So, you’re really in love with me?”

Blood rushes into her face and she opens and closes soundlessly, astounded at how he could have concluded everything she had said into six words in a sentence without breaking a sweat.  “A-am not!” She tries to pull away, but again, he has her in place.  “I’m just falling, okay, I-I don’t know myself,”

“Then let’s date each other,”

Haerin coughs at her own spit and in bewilderment, narrows her eyes at Kyungsoo, who had just said the most outrageous thing in the whole freaking world.  “Come again?”

“Let’s date.  You, me, boyfriend, girlfriend.  That way, maybe you can be sure about being in love with me,” Kyungsoo beams.  It’s cute, seeing Haerin flustered.

“Ya, you’re being really shameless, right now,” Haerin scoffs, managing to pull one of her hands away from his grip.  She pokes hard at his chest to emphasize her words.  “You’d think I’d agree to something like that?”

“Why am I being shameless?” Kyungsoo raises his eyebrows in surprise.  “You think I’m joking around?”

“Well, Do Kyungsoo-ssi, you just asked me, Son Haerin, to date you, when you don’t even like me! That’s completely playing around!”

“Did I say I didn’t like you?”

That got to Haerin.  She blinks rapidly.  “You didn’t,” Her words come out as murmurs.

“Bingo,” Kyungsoo chuckles and brings her knuckles to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on them before gazing into her eyes.  “Your brother is returning, and your taxi is here, I should be going,” The way his hand lingers in Haerin’s before completely letting go sent tingles up her spine.  “Bye bye, girlfriend,”

And that; sent her into complete shock mode.

***

A continuous nudge at her arm shook her awake.  Haerin cracks an eye open and is faced with Yunjae’s annoyed expression, her loud alarm blaring in the background.  “What?” She mumbles.

‘You’re freaking late for school, that’s what,’

Haerin jolts awake, jumping out of bed and rushing for the bathroom.  She washes her face and brushes her teeth, not even bothering to comb her hair as she runs out, grabbing the box of food from Yunjae.  “Thank you, I love you,” She waves, sprinting towards school because she definitely missed the bus when she was busy dreaming about-

No way.

She was not dreaming about Kyungsoo.

The thought made her stop in her tracks, despite her late-to-school frenzy.  Do Kyungsoo just asked her out, last night.  She doesn’t recall saying yes, but she does recall telling him that she was falling in love with-

“Holy mother of idiots,” Haerin goes back to running as she lets her thoughts go by unfinished. 

Okay, she’s definitely not going to believe this.  Haerin drowns herself in her thoughts as she gets herself some lunch.  It was part of her dream, yes, that’s it.  And it doesn’t really make sense, too, anyways.  She’s not even sure of what she’s feeling, and she doesn’t see anything-mutual happening between her and Kyungsoo.  Sure, he invited her and Yunjae to her house and came to her rescue that night and tended to her wounds and was really, really, nice to her, but does he really like her? Does he, actually, sincerely, like her? Or was he just being nice? Or was it just common sense or common courtesy or a common something? Haerin doesn’t really understand how things like this go, that’s for sure.  Do you get to know each other first and then date because you eventually find out your feelings, or do you actually date each other to get to know each other better? Or are the two equally applicable? To Haerin, the only way to get rid of an ambiguous matter is to simply reject it.  That’s what she calls safety measures.  To push away vague things so she can focus on the indisputable. 

“It’s simple,” She talks to herself, pointing her finger towards the air as if she was teaching herself.  “Just act like you usually do, around him.  Like nothing, absolutely nothing happened,”

“Hey,”

Haerin frowns, faintly registering disturbances amidst her thinking process.  “You just went to part-time with Yunjae, and met him before you got to the taxi,”

“Haerin-ah,”

“He suddenly pops out of nowhere and says hi and then says bye.  That’s it,” She brushes the voice away.  It must be her head, trying to make her face things she doesn’t want to.  She is so not responding.

“Son Haerin!”

“What?!” Haerin snaps, despite her persistence in resisting the voice, and turns towards the source of annoying nagging much too abruptly, her head hitting the pole that kept the food section’s sign up.  “Ow, what in the world?” Her hand roughly takes her tray and she rubs her forehead, narrowing her eyes at the person beside her.  “What is your pro-" Her sentence is cut short by her identification on the guy standing beside her.  "Oookaay, I don’t know you,” Haerin turns at her heels and walks away from him.  No, no, no, no, no, she did not see that, she did not just see him.  She takes a seat on an empty table, lowering her head and letting her hair cover her face.

“Hey, girlfriend!”

She turns quickly and clamps her hand over the taller guy’s obnoxious mouth, which apparently, had taken the seat beside her.  “Do Kyungsoo, if you don’t shut up, you will- AAH!”  Haerin yanks her hand away, wiping it over her uniform skirt, because Do Kyungsoo just it.  He her hand for god’s sake.  “Ewww, ew, ew, ew,” She sobs unpleasantly, making a face at Kyungsoo, who is smirking and chuckling all at the same time, down at her misery.

“Morning, darling, did you sleep well?” Kyungsoo leans forward teasingly, and Haerin had to hold back from slapping him with everything she could muster.  “You were late, I didn’t see you in the morning,” He sighs in mock pity.  “Busy dreaming of me, huh?”

At the guess, Haerin blushes, and turns away, ignoring the way everyone, literally everyone, in the cafeteria hall was staring at her. 

Kyungsoo gasps, scooting closer towards her giddily.  “You really did?! I meant that as a joke, though, but you actually did dream of- Hey, guys!” He stops, mid-sentence.

Haerin lifts her head to see that he’s waving and stretches her neck to look at whom he’s waving at. 

It was his group of friends.

It was the other 5-most-popular-guys in the whole school.

And they were coming.

Towards her.