Kyungsoo’s POV 

            When I arrive at school the next day, I see Xiumin, Luhan, Lay, Kris, Chen, Tao, Kai, Sehun, Suho, Chanyeol and Baekhyun talking to someone. I can’t see who it is from the angle I’m standing, but as I get closer, I realize it’s Luna. Before I approach them, she waves goodbye to the guys and goes her own way. I wonder what they talked about.

All 11 of the guys spot me and I smile and wave to them, but they don’t return the gesture. Uh-oh, did I do something wrong?

Kai marches up to me and he drags me to them by the arm. As soon as I’m in front of them, he says, “Kyungsoo, why didn’t you tell us before?”

I am clueless as to what he’s talking about, but after thinking for a second, I realize that maybe I do know what he’s asking me. “I’m sorry, but I wasn’t the one who replaced your hair spray with whipping cream. It was Sehun!” I exclaim.

Sehun looks at me in disbelief. “You said you would never tell!”

Kai whips around to face Sehun. “So it was you!”

Sehun raises his hands in an attempt to brace himself. “I’m sorry, hyung. Have mercy on me!”

Chanyeol’s voice booms. “Focus guys! This wasn’t what we were going to ask Kyungsoo about.”

Kai shifts his focus from Sehun back to me. “Oh, right.” He clears his throat and then says, “Why didn’t you tell us that punk Damon messed with you? We had to find out from Luna! We would’ve beaten the daylights out of him!”

The rest of the boys nod enthusiastically. I simply shake my head. “I didn’t want to get all of you guys into trouble. Plus, that wouldn’t have solved anything.” Seriously, we could all get expelled if all 12 of us ganged up to beat up one guy.

“Sure, it would,” Baekhyun says. “It would teach him not to mess with you ever again.”

Once again, all the boys nod their heads with enthusiasm. “I appreciate you guys for standing up for me, I really do, but he’s not worth our trouble,” I say. “Arasseo?”

“Arasseo,” they all mumble.

“What’s that?” I cup my ear with my hand and lean towards them. “I can’t hear you.”

“Arasseo!” They say, louder this time.

I nod my head to express my approval. “Good, now let’s get to class before -”

I stop speaking when Tao violently jerks forward. It takes both Kai and Kris to hold him back. I turn to look at what made Tao do that. I realize it’s not a what, but a who.

“JUST LET ME AT HIM!” Tao yells. “LET ME AT HIM!”

Damon just smirks as he walks away. Kris turns to look at me. “Can’t we just let Tao at him?”

“Please hyung,” Tao says. “Just let me practice my wushu skills.”

Argh, don’t they know how hard this is for me? I really want to just go and punch Damon too, but there is no way I am getting expelled over one stupid person. I hold my ground and tell Tao, “No.”

Tao whines and the rest of the boys sigh.

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The bell rings, signalling that class has ended. I pack my books into my bag and walk out of the class.

“Kyungsoo!” I hear a voice call from behind me. I turn around to face Luna. She’s out of breath and she looks like she’s run all the way from the other hallway. I smile because her present state reminds me of the time we ran to my house to be on time to give my mom flowers for her birthday.

“Hi,” I say to her.

She looks at me in surprise. “You’re not mad?”

“Mad?” I look at her, perplexed. “Why would I be mad?”

“Because I told your friends about Damon,” she says. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know they would overreact.”

“It’s okay,” I told her. “I think they’ve got their anger under control.” I only half-believe my last sentence.

She looks at me, incredibly confused. “Um…..they’re in detention right now……”

“For what?” I say. I didn’t know this.

She answers my question hesitantly. “For beating a boy up.”

“Who?” I ask her, even though I can already guess.

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I awkwardly knock on the familiar blue door of the detention room again. “Could you put me in detention for 30 minutes?” I ask the detention teacher while he looks at me as if I’m crazy.

“Ok…..” he says, still eyeing me suspiciously as I take a seat between Kai and Luhan. Yes, they had actually left an empty seat just for me. It’s like they expected me to come here and I had no other option…. which is true.

“Welcome to detention, hyung!” Sehun says while grinning.

I roll my eyes at him. “I can’t believe you guys deliberately went against everything I told you. You’re lucky you didn’t get expelled.”

The teacher at the front slams his hand on the table. “Silence!” he hollers, making us all jump out of our seats.

“Are you mad, hyung?” Tao whispers.

I scoff. “Yea, I’m mad. I’m mad because you guys decided you were going to beat Damon up without me. If you were going to do it anyways, you may as well have invited me.”

All the boys grin at my response. I become curious and ask them, “How did you guys get Luna to tell you about Damon anyway?”

“Well,” Luhan starts. “We started asking everyone around us if they knew anything about how you got that black eye. Coincidentally, Luna was there and she told us.”

I shake my head at them. “You crazy people. You went through so much trouble just to find that info?”  

“It would’ve been a lot easier if you had just told us from the beginning,” Kris mutters.

I ignore him and ask them, “Did you guys know Luna from before?”

“No,” Luhan replies, but then his eyes take on a mischievous twinkle. “Why? Should we know about her?”

Tao catches on. “Kyungsoo hyung, you have a girlfriend and you didn’t tell us!?”

“What!? No! Not you too!” I say, remembering how my parents had reacted the exact same way.

“Be quiet!” the teacher at the front yells again.

“Kyungsoo’s got a girlfriend. Kyungsoo’s got a girlfriend,” Tao whispers in a singsong voice.

I bang my head on the table. Why did I choose to come here?

Shadow’s POV 

“Is anything wrong?” Kyungsoo asks me.

“No, it’s nothing,” I tell him. I replay the words he said to Luna a few hours ago. Don’t’ worry, I don’t think I would ever be able to stay mad at you. It sounded like a cheesy line from a romance novel. But deep down inside, I knew that if he had said that to me, I would probably have jumped for joy.

I hate pointless jealousy. I was a shadow, I knew I had no chance of being with him, so why was I still feeling angry and hurt?

I snap out of my thoughts when I hear Kyungsoo’s voice. “Could I ask you something?” he says, turning to me.

“Yea, sure.” I say, turning to him as well.

“You told me before that you were Krystal’s shadow, and that you had her personality, her thoughts and her feelings, right?”

“Yea…” I say. I wonder what he’s getting at.

“Well, if you’re really Krystal, why are we still treating each other like strangers?”

Good question. Why are we treating each other like strangers? I think for a while before shrugging in response. “I’m not so sure either.”

“Well, don’t you think it’s time we have an official reunion then?” he says.

Before I can respond, I feel him enveloping me into a tight hug. I gasp slightly out of shock. I’ve never actually had someone hug me before, because I only became solid a few days ago. Before that, everything just slipped right through me. So this is what a hug feels like, I think. It’s cutting off my circulation, but I don’t care. I grin and hug him back, just as tight.

“I’m happy that you’re here, Krystal,” he says. His next words make my heart melt. “I really missed you.”