Warning: Has not been beta'd.

“Do you have to avoid me like I’m a plague or something?”

Victoria’s expression remains cold, rushing down the hallway towards the school exit as quickly as she can while ignoring the boy beside her. Donghae is following closely beside her, trying not to run into people as they’re proceeding forward.

“Can we talk?” He scowls, grabbing her wrist and pulling her to a stop.

She takes a deep breath. “No, we can’t.”

“We already are,” Donghae says, attempting at a smile.

Flinging his hand off of her wrist, Victoria shakes her head and starts walking again.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop joking around,” Donghae exclaims, stopping in front of her so that she can’t move any further. “Honestly, I didn’t think—“

“Donghae? We’re heading to the mall. Do you want to come?”

They both glance at the voice calling out to him, a beautiful girl stepping outside of a classroom and smiling his way.

“I’m busy right now, Sooyeon. I’ll meet you guys there a little later.”

Victoria holds back the urge to laugh at herself.

The girl nods and smiles even brighter. “Okay then. See you in a bit.”

They wait until she leaves, Donghae fixing the alignment of his backpack on his shoulders, before he finally tries to pick up where he left off. “I really didn’t know that you—”

“It’s fine,” she interrupts him.

His eyebrows knit together. “What’s fine?”

“That you don’t know I like you,” Victoria answers simply, “and it’s fine that you don’t like me the same way, too. Really, it’s okay, I don’t mind.”

“What?” Donghae asks, a little confused by her sudden change in attitude.

She shifts her textbooks in her arms into a more comfortable position, looking forward towards the double door exits. The skies outside are clear; puffy white clouds decorating the blue horizon. “I mean maybe it’s time for me to grow up a little bit.”

“I don’t get it,” he admits bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest. “What are you trying to say?”

Victoria sighs. “For a person who is friends with practically the entire school campus, it doesn’t matter if one person isn’t your friend, right?”

“No,” Donghae frowns. “Of course it matters. You’re one of my best friends!”

“That girl just now seems like she’d make a lot better of a friend than I would,” she shrugs. “After all, I have no intentions of being just your friend.”

At that, Victoria picks up her pace and heads for the doors. Donghae wants to chase after her, to argue, but there is no strength in his legs and no will in his mind.

What left was there to say? She doesn’t want to be friends and she’s at the hilt of her anger towards him now, so, what more could he say?

Donghae doesn’t really give up. They sit next to each other after all, so tossing quickly written notes and whispering at her from the small distance isn’t very hard at all.

The hard part is when she doesn’t respond.

Communication is a two way road, no?

He notices that the harder he tries, the more upset Victoria becomes. Even he doesn’t truly understand why he’s being so stubborn but, for whatever reason, Victoria is a friend that Donghae really doesn’t want to lose.

“You’re late again.”

Donghae smiles apologetically, taking off his sweater and joining the boys on the basketball court. “I wanted to make sure Qian made it to her ride safely.” He leaves out the part about Victoria being bullied on a constant basis out of the conversation.

“She refuses to even talk to you, man,” his friend narrows his eyes at him, “I don’t get why you even bother. It’s not like you actually like her.”

“How did you know?” Donghae asks with eyebrows furrowed. This friend was from a different class and he’s pretty sure rumors don’t spread that far away.

His friend smirks. “Your type’s more like Sooyeon, isn’t it? Small and cute with a bright personality.”

“I guess it would make sense for you to think that,” Donghae shrugs, “Sooyeon and I do hang out a lot and she’s really cute.” He doesn’t realize that the fact he isn’t denying or admitting to his friend’s statement makes the whole situation that much more ambiguous.

The other boy nods. “That Song Qian girl is super weird, anyways. She never said much when you brought her here to watch us play and she hardly ever smiled. Sooyeon’s way nicer.”

“I don’t blame you for thinking that,” Donghae replies, “but Qian’s a really nice girl, too. It just takes her a long time to warm up. Sungmin broke through to her.”

Sungmin just stays quiet, not wanting to be involved with the way their friends are judging Victoria.

“Looks like you’re still working on that, though,” another friend laughs at Donghae.

Donghae frowns. “No, it’s more like I’m actually digressing from that point and I don’t even know how to fix it.”

He never does get the chance to fix their relationship because about a month later his dad tells him that the entire family will be moving to Taiwan. When news hits the school, almost the entire school mourns the fact that he will be gone.

People crowd around him, hoping to spend at least a little bit of time with him before he has to leave.

The news hits Victoria just as hard but she holds back every urge to speak to him, even if it may be the last time. Through Sungmin, Donghae manages to have sent a small message to her.

“He tried to catch you before you left the classroom but some other people pulled him away,” Sungmin smiles while handing her a bottle of water. “It’s his last day today.”

“Oh,” she says.

Sungmin laughs. “You’re really not even going to bid him farewell?”

She lowers the bottle of water from her lips, beads of sweat sliding down the sides of her cheeks. They’ve been jogging at the track for almost an hour now and every inch of her body feels like its burning. Aside from the pain, she can’t think of much else.

Something in her chest hurts a little more, though.

“Not even that, huh?”

“Do you think I’m heartless?” Victoria asks him.

He shrugs, setting his bottle of water down on the ground and lying back against the cement ground.

“I just… don’t have the courage,” Victoria says, “I don’t have the courage to say goodbye because knowing that this may be the last time I’ll get to see him really hurts. I don’t know if I’d cry.”

“So what if you do?” Sungmin asks. “Plenty of others already have.”

Victoria leans her head back, staring at the cloudy sky. “I only cry for those who know how to cherish my tears. Haven’t you heard? A girl’s tears are like diamonds.”

“I’m glad you still have the mood to joke,” Sungmin chuckles. “Well, anyway, Donghae wanted me to tell you that his flight is Saturday at seven thirty in the morning. He didn’t tell anyone else but me so you don’t have to feel afraid about running into anyone else there.”

She takes a deep breath. “Then can you tell him that I’m probably not going to be there?”

“Okay, I’ll tell him,” Sungmin agrees.

“Also, tell him that he’s always been a great friend, so, don’t feel bad because he’s never done anything wrong.” Victoria continues, closing up the rest of her thoughts. “Tell him to be happy, just like he always has been, for forever and ever.”

Be happy, even without her friendship.

Present

“You’re really bad at keeping secrets,” Victoria lectures, turning an accusing eye to Sungmin.

The man just laughs helplessly and shifts his chair so that he is facing her. “I’ve been the messenger between the two of you for so many years; I think I deserve a break.”

Pouting, Victoria grabs a remote control nearby and switches on the television. It’s been so long since she’s last watched something in Chinese; the language is almost foreign to her ears. “If you were tired, you could have just stopped. It’s not like I ever had anything impactful to say to him anyways.”

“Still, it made him happy to know that you got his messages,” Sungmin tells her. “Donghae is a simple guy like that.”

Unfortunately, she knows. That is exactly why it’s been so hard for her to give up on her feelings for him even after so many years. Despite her long having given up on having anything to do with him, Donghae’s never once stopped trying to mend the broken strings.

“Out of the two of you, who do you think is the more stubborn one?” Sungmin asks.

Victoria crosses one leg over the other, hugging a cushion to her chest. “We’re stubborn in different ways.”

“Which of your stubbornness’s is the more effective one then?” Sungmin repeats himself, rearranging his wording.

“Don’t know,” she shrugs. “Zhoumi’s sleeping already?”

Sungmin smirks. “Not everyone likes to invade a man’s room in the middle of the night.”

In response, Victoria tosses the cushion aside and stands to her feet, stretching her arms over her head with a small yawn. While she’s walking towards the exit, she doesn’t forget to pause for a moment and turn slightly to look Sungmin in the eyes.

“What?” Sungmin asks her, feeling uneasy.

She smiles slyly and points a weak finger at a pair of heels sitting beside the closet door. “Tell her I said hi.”

Thinning his lips, Sungmin subconsciously glances at the bathroom door and rubs the back of his neck, clearing his throat.

“The night view is rather beautiful in Taiwan, isn’t it?” She teases, looking past him outside of the hotel room window. “Even the moon shines a little brighter here.”

When Victoria first met Sungmin, she remembers he told her that,

“Lee Donghae really loves to smile; he’s like the sun, always shining, always brightening up everyone’s day. Donghae never stops—he doesn’t know how to stop—but you’ve made him slow down.”

During that time period, Donghae’s basketball team was in the middle of a few competitions and all of their teammates were stressed out. However, like the uplifting personality that Donghae was, he didn’t think of relaxing and taking a break.

Instead, Donghae spent even more time with each of the teammates and lost more rest than he could afford.

From the sidelines, as one of Donghae’s best friends, Sungmin worried; not only did he worry that Donghae’s health may deteriorate from all the exhaustion, he could see that there was something else in Donghae’s eyes—concern.

When Victoria started showing up to their tournaments and practices though, Donghae physically and mentally started to be more at ease.

“I really like you,” Sungmin told her, “because you’re not like the other girls. You don’t fake interest and you don’t scream or shout like a crazy psycho. I think we could be good friends.”

Victoria replied, “I don’t know how to be friends with people like you guys.”

Smiling, Sungmin lifted his hand to her shoulder and gave her a nice pat while he said, “You’re a smart girl; you’ll learn.”

Day by day, Donghae notices how Sungmin and Song Qian grow closer and closer, yet, she becomes more and more distant with himself. It isn’t really fair, he thinks, because even though Sungmin has a lot more time to spend with her, Donghae tries to spend as much time with her as he can.

By accident, while Victoria and Sungmin have lunch together outside, instead of in the classroom like Victoria always used to, Donghae catches a small interaction between them that sort of leaves him speechless.

“Are you and Qian dating?” Donghae asks Sungmin later on, at basketball practice.

Wiping the sweat off of his forehead, Sungmin gives Donghae and odd look. “What makes you think that?”

“I saw her fix your shirt for you during lunch time,” Donghae admits honestly. “I’ve known her twice the amount of time as you but she hates it if I even get too close; it doesn’t seem like the type of thing she’d do for a friend.”

Sungmin kind of wants to laugh at how there’s a little bit of jealousy at the end of each word, but Donghae doesn’t even notice it. “Song Qian is like a sister to me.”

“But—”

“Lee Donghae, when you’re not around to protect her someone will have to be,” Sungmin interrupts him, “but not everyone that wants to be there for her wants to be the only one there for her. You’ve known her for a long time so you should know; towards the person that she likes, she won’t do things like that naturally or comfortably.”

Unfortunately, because Donghae wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, he didn’t understand exactly what Sungmin was trying to say.

Lee Donghae was probably the only person who didn’t know that Song Qian liked him, more than a friend, and that’s what made the friendship between them become so heavy and burdensome.

The phone in the hotel room starts ringing nonstop at approximately seven in the morning.

Groaning under her breath, Victoria tosses and turns in her bed until she absolutely cannot stand it anymore and answers it with haughtiness in her tone.

“Hello?”

It’s Sungmin’s voice on the other line. “Come get breakfast with me.”

“Are you crazy?” Victoria scowls, glaring at the clock on the table. “It’s seven. No one has an appetite at seven in the morning.”

“Get out of bed. Now.” Sungmin demands.

Victoria scoffs. “Does your woman approve of you going out this early?”

He doesn’t say anything and nothing scares Victoria more than when Lee Sungmin is silent.

Sighing, Victoria surrenders and forces herself to sit up on the bed. She pushes back her hair and stretches, mumbling a lazy, “Is Zhoumi going, too?”

“Nope, no Zhoumi, but there’s a Donghae. Lee Donghae.”

She grimaces. “Don’t you get tired of always doing stuff like this for him?”

“Not as tired as you probably are,” Sungmin laughs. “Hurry up, he’s already waiting in the lobby.”

“Do I have to go?” She groans.

Sungmin’s voice is rather serious when he asks, “Will it kill you to have a meal with an old classmate?”

“Alright, I get it,” she grumbles. “I’ll be down in a bit.”

Honestly, breakfast has never been Victoria’s thing.

In the morning, she never gets up before nine and will only order a nice, hot cup of coffee to start her day. Sometimes she might get a bagel or something simple, usually only if she didn’t get a fulfilling dinner the night before, but having a full on breakfast with bread and congee and other side dishes really doesn’t even begin to get her appetite started.

It actually has the opposite effect, really.

Knowing her habits, Sungmin doesn’t really say anything and digs into the food deliciously.

Donghae, on the other hand, is a little more concerned.

“You don’t like the food?”

She shakes her head, smiling small as she takes her chopsticks and picks a small piece of broccoli and chews on it slowly.

Sungmin ignores them.

“The congee here is really famous,” Donghae tells her. “Try some!”

Eying the large bowl sitting in the center of the table, Victoria takes a very hesitant breath before saying, “Why don’t you go ahead? I’m not feeling very hungry.”

Polite. So very formal.

“You should at least eat a little bit more,” Donghae lectures, “it’s not good to skip breakfast.”

Yup, still that caring and enthusiastic Donghae that he used to be.

“Really, try it!”

Before she can reject his offer again a spoonful of congee is already brought up to . She glances at the spoon and then she shifts her eyes onto Donghae, who is urging her to eat, and, slowly, she opens .

Something in her chest feels like it’s going to explode.

“Ow—Lee Donghae! It’s hot!”

Donghae laughs, shrinking back into his seat, his eyes crinkling at the corners and lips tugged into a tight smile. Even his smile hasn’t changed.

She fans at her tongue, feeling the searing pain spread throughout in small tingles.

“You didn’t seem very awake,” Donghae snickers, “maybe that will get you to wake up a little.”

“You’re so annoying,” Victoria groans, glaring at him out of the corner of her eyes.

And his smile only grows wider.

He’s found it, Donghae thinks. Maybe he’s found the old Song Qian again.

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A/N: Omgosh all the teasers of Krystal and Sulli so far ;A; I can't handle the gorgeousness and uniqueness of this concept. When Victoria's photos are released, I'm going to need someone to hold me T_____T