The test went terribly – as Sehun expected it to.

He'd spent last night trying to study but every time he opened the books, he remembered something really important that needed to be done right that instant.

Like tending to Lay who was sick and needed to be kept awake. He was such a caring brother, taking caring of Sehun whenever he felt down or was sick; the least Sehun could do was talk to him so that he won't be bored sitting in bed all day.

Suho, who'd returned looking extra-chipper, had narrowed his eyes threateningly at him when he'd seen him by Lay's bedside. 'Don't you have a test tomorrow?'

Stupid Kai and his silly habit of sharing everything with D.O. – who in turn, related it to Suho and it was Sehun who had to take the brunt of it. Tao was often reprimanded with him as well – but never regarding studies – Tao was as concerned about good grades as Kai. They didn't enjoy college at all.

Not wanting another lecture regarding his studies, Sehun had left Lay. 'I'm tending to the sick here,' he told Suho, stopping in the doorway. 'It's a good thing to do.'

Suho had been in a really good mood because he let Sehun go with a mild, 'I'll take over for you, then'. Marveling at how a girl could elicit such good mood, Sehun had gone out. And then proceeded to systematically annoy the rest of the Legends.

Sneaking up on Tao and scaring him while he was taking a shower. Interrupting Kai's dance practice – he turned into such a quarrelsome shrew. Annoying D.O. who was trying to cook something complicated – and getting into one of his painful locks as a result. Simply goofing off with Chanyeol – the only guy who understood how restless studying made you and the urge to purge it with pranks. Luhan was their victim – they drenched him in water with the bucket they had ingeniously rigged over the entrance.

Luhan dragged him by the ear and sat him next to his books. 'If you get up again, I swear I'll take D.O.'s advice and tie you up. Study.'

But he couldn’t.

When he flipped through his books, he realized he didn't remember crap. Each topic seemed entirely new and eventually, he lost it. Went crazy; like shaking-his--while-listening-to-music-rolling-on-floor-trying-to-do-headstand-putting-arms-in-air-because-he-couldn't-think-of-anything-else crazy.

He was going to fail. Period. 

Not one who believed in worrying unnecessarily, he'd turned off the lights and gone to sleep.

And the test had gone exactly as he'd predicted – see, he was smart – and his sole comfort was that everyone was complaining about how tough the test had been.

Putting his pen in his pocket, he went over to Mei. Kai was waiting for him at the doorway but Sehun wasn't feeling very friendly towards him right now, knowing Kai must've aced it. Shrugging, Kai went outside.

Sehun stopped beside Mei. She was talking to someone else, so he waited for her to finish. When she turned, he blinked in surprise. 'What's that?'

Mei was wearing black-rimmed spectacles – without the lenses. He poked a finger through it, nearly hitting her eye. She batted his hand away. 'Careful.'

'These are just frames.' Sehun stated.

'Yup.'

'Why're you wearing them?' Mei did some pretty random stuff.

'Well, these are my special study glasses.' Mei batted her eyes at him, grinning. 'See, I have trouble studying – sometimes, I just can't concentrate and I end up wasting all of my time. So, I put these on – to get me in the mood for studying.'

Sehun's eyes expanded. 'Really? Do they work?' He put out his hand in a silent demand.

'Like a charm.' Mei took her frame off and gave it to him. Sehun put it on and blinked. 'Whoa! I feel smarter already!'

'Told ya!' Mei stuck her tongue out at the girl she'd been talking to. 'Even Sehun says it works.'

The girl shook her head, grinning. 'You two are crazy.'

'Hey, can I borrow these?' Sehun asked Mei, inspecting the frame closely. Thick, black nerdy frames without the lenses.

'Sure. The test's over, so I don't need them for now.'

'Cool.' Putting them on, he looked around. 'Wanna go grab a bite?'

'Aren't you going with Kai?' Mei looked around and saw Kai had already left. Sehun almost always went to the nearby ice-cream shop with Kai and Tao for lunch.

'Don't feel like it right now.' Sehun shrugged. 'I wanna hang out with you.'

'Cool.'

………………………

Luhan was sitting in the main cafeteria, trying to be inconspicuous. Which was difficult, given the number of stares he was garnering.

He'd wondered how he could approach Mei – now that he'd let out the power-buildup in his system and the first fever had passed, he wanted to get close to her, know her. It was one thing to go crazy about a girl because his beast was acting up and quite another to go crazy simply because he was in love.

He wanted to be in love.

Ever since he'd started living as a human, this was the one thing he absolutely, positively wanted to do. Find a girl, fall in love with her, live happily ever after. It always amazed him how such a simple thing could take such a long time to happen. There were literally billions of people around – how hard was it to find someone? On Exo-planet, they had no one.

However, finding The One, as humans dubbed it, was hard. He hadn't felt anything for any one – until now. She was his mate, his One but he'd nearly messed it up, attacking her and injuring her; he still couldn't bring himself to think of it as just a scratch – he had injured her and that was final.

So now, he'd come to the cafeteria because Tao had told him that's where she usually had her lunch. He just wanted to surreptitiously observe her a little and maybe casually introduce himself.

Only, everyone was staring at him, making him nervous.

So he didn't come to the cafeteria often. Big deal. Go eat your food.

Just then, Mei walked in with Sehun, laughing. Her tinkling laugh was music to his ears but he felt a spark – okay, blazing inferno – of jealousy burst open his chest. Her hand was on Sehun's arm. Sehun was laughing along with her but maybe because of the intensity of his thoughts – or simply because he sensed a threat – he glanced around. His smile faltered when he saw the look in Luhan's eyes and immediately shook her hand off. Smart move, Luhan thought.

………………………..

Sehun saw Luhan glaring at him and felt a little hurt – of all his elders, Luhan was his favorite and it hurt him that Luhan thought he'd be flirting with his girl. He shook her hand off and waved at Luhan, trying to convey his good intentions.

Luhan blinked and nodded. A sudden idea struck Sehun.

'Hey, look who's here.' He elbowed Mei. She followed his glance, saw Luhan. But she didn't react the way he'd expected her to. She looked at him instead. 'That's Luhan.'

'Yeah. Don't you wanna talk to him?'

'Um… nope?' she looked at him questioningly. 'You want to?'

'No, no, let's get something to eat first.' Shrugging helplessly at Luhan, Sehun ushered her to the line. He leaned down to whisper. 'Don't you like him, though?'

'I do.' Mei nodded, getting her wallet out of her bag, a naughty smile blooming on her face.

'So… should I introduce you two?' Sehun suggested tactfully.

'You still haven't figured it out, huh?' She looked at him mischievously. 'You assumed that I like like him. I never said that.'

'But…' Sehun sputtered. 'You said you liked him.'

'As a player.'

'Your gallery is full of his videos.'

'So? I record things I like.' She shrugged.

'Things you like…?' he shook his head. 'You knew what I was talking about.' He said accusingly, not at happy that she'd misled him. 'You said you liked him!' He whined.

She grinned again. 'You were holding my cell phone hostage – of course I said it.'

Sehun shook his head, utterly depressed at being misused. She patted his shoulder comfortingly and gestured for him to lean close. 'Since you're a friend, I'll let you in on a little secret.'

Sehun frowned. 'Secret?'

'About girls in general and me in particular.' She nodded. 'See, there's a rule of thumb – to make sure we don't get misused by guys.'

Sehun was all ears – this information seemed promising.

'We never – and I mean never – let on who we like. Not even to the guy himself. Okay?' She patted him again.

'I don't get it.' Sehun shook his head in confusion.

'Well, if the guy knows that a girl likes him, he gets cocky – overconfident – that the girl won't leave him. So, he turns into a jackass and goes around cheating on her and the girl is left in a puddle of tears, heartbroken. There's only one way to stop that from happening.'

Sehun looked at her questioningly, his curiosity fully aroused. 'What's that?'

'To always keep him on his toes – keep him guessing. Even if the girl's nuts about him, she'll act like she couldn’t care less; he'll keep on thinking he can lose her anytime, so he'll keep himself in check – ergo no heartbreak, no calling girlfriends in the middle of the night to tell her you're breaking up and having sleepovers, crying while eating ice cream and swearing at the jerk.' Mei finished with a triumphant smile.

Sehun could only shake his head in wonder. 'Human mating rituals are so complex.'

'So are monkeys',' Mei pointed at the burger she wanted, placing money on the counter. 'But I don't criticize you.'

'Ya! Did you just insult me?'

'You insulted me first.'

'No I didn't!'

They bickered as they looked around for a place to sit. Sehun kept glancing at Luhan, desperate to convey the news to Luhan – if Luhan was going to get himself hooked with a human, he needed this secret information. Mei caught his glances.

'Just go.' She nodded at Luhan. 'You obviously want to talk to him.'

Sehun shook his head. 'No, I said I'd hang out with you.'

'It's okay. I don't eat here anyway, I just came to get this.' She held up the burger. 'Besides, he looks like he could use a little help right about now.'

Sehun looked at Luhan. He was surrounded by an ever-increasing crowd of girls – since he never graced the cafeteria, it was big news and more and more fans were gathering – and his eyes were looking around wildly for an escape, panic evident.

'See what I mean? Go on, I'll see you in class.' She waved and headed outside. Sehun went to Luhan, who looked up at him in relief. 'Hey.'

The girls around him parted reluctantly to make way for Sehun – exclaiming as they realized who he was. Sehun was about as popular as Luhan. He leaned to whisper in Luhan's ear, eliciting oohs and aahs from the fans. 'Let's go, okay?'

Luhan, looking like a man saved from drowning, stood up immediately. 'Okay, let's go.'

……………………..

Mei couldn’t believe her own candidness.

She's just come out of the cafeteria, after convincing Sehun that she recorded Luhan because he was one of the many things she liked and recorded on a daily basis.

It was a lie, of course but he didn't need to know that. She'd meant what she'd told him – a girl never let on who she really liked. Whether anyone else believed it or not, she did.

She'd been worried because Sehun was armed with knowledge he could use to potentially exploit her. She didn't like that kind of insecurity, so she'd been thinking how she could turn the situation to her advantage. And then, Sehun had brought up the topic and the solution had suddenly clicked into place.

Now, Sehun could never use the knowledge against her. And if Luhan, by any chance, was interested in her, he wouldn't be too confident. She liked having power in a relationship.  

What am I even thinking? She asked herself. Just because Sehun was teasing you… you're going to take him seriously? The guy had dragged her with him to the tryouts, convinced she'd love to see him dance. When she'd done nothing to validate that inference. He'd probably 'convinced' himself that Luhan liked her as well…

She sniffed, shaking her head. Besides, whether or not she liked Luhan, she believed in the guy making the first move. If – and it was a big 'if' – Luhan was interested in her, he'd have to start and she'd take it from there.

……………………...

'Things she likes?' Luhan repeated disbelievingly.

They were sitting in the living room. Or rather Luhan was sitting – Sehun had his legs up in the air as he leaned his head back off the sofa arm. Sehun had shared everything with him – even his misassumption that she liked Luhan – and that she'd basically called him a thing; in other words, refusing to acknowledge him as a person. He'd been relegated, with that phrase, from him to it.

'Is that what she really said?' He asked again.

'I'm sorry.' Sehun patted his knee comfortingly. 'I really thought she liked you – she had a lot of your videos – but she said it's because she records…'

'Don't say that again.' His ego had taken a hit as it was. He didn't need to hear that again.

'Don't say what again?' Chanyeol asked, slipping beside Luhan. He grabbed Sehun's foot and put it down. 'What happened?' He asked, looking at Luhan's depressed condition.

'Luhan's mate said some pretty harsh stuff,' Sehun replied, sitting up. 'She called Luhan thing she likes.'

'Ooh, that is harsh!'

'What's harsh?' D.O., coming out of the kitchen, asked. Chanyeol began telling him.

Kai, who'd just come out of the shower wondered what everyone was talking about – Chanyeol started over.

Tao, clinging to Suho and whining about some sale or other stopped to listen. Suho, who was on phone with Xiumin stopped in his chat – and his attempt to disentangle from Tao's clingy arms – to hear what was going on.

As if that wasn't enough, their telephone rang and Chanyeol answered it.

It was Baekhyun and Chen. 'Yo wassup?'

'Oh, you're just in time. You gotta hear this,' Chanyeol began eagerly. 'Luhan got dissed big time – you know his mate? She called him –'

'YAH!' Luhan's patience cracked. 'If you say 'thing she likes' one more time, I’ll hit you!'

'Ouch!'  Lay, who'd just been coming out of the door – walking despite Suho's instructions not to – put a hand to his chest. 'She didn't!'

Great, just what I need. Luhan wanted to ram his head against the wall. He glared at Sehun who blinked innocently at him. This cub…aarrgh…

'Whatever.' Amid their sympathetic clucks and thinly veiled jokes cracked at his expense, he went to his room, banging the door hard against its frame. He could hear their free running commentary on his situation. They weren't going to let this go any time soon – and he knew he'd be teased mercilessly.

Plopping face down on the bed, he stayed like that for a while, seething.

Things she likes… I'll show you things you like…I'll make sure I'm the only 'thing' you like, dammit! Sitting up suddenly, he punched in the air. 'Yes, I'll do it! You hear me???' He yelled.

Kai stared at him in shock, Sehun stopped mid-sentence and Chanyeol's smile still half-formed as they stood in the just opened door. Luhan stared back, suddenly awkward.

 Chanyeol broke the silence. 'It's official guys – he's lost it!'

Luhan threw a pillow at them as they ran for cover. Leaving them, he stalked to the shower. At least there, no one would disturb him.

………………………….

A/N

I hope this is what you imagined as Exo's reactions to Mei's statement 

credits to whoever made it