'The jerk!' she mumbled, crying into the tissue she was holding.

'Hush now, it'll be alright!' Tiffany gently patted her shoulder, handing her another tissue so she could blow her nose. She did and then crashed against her and started weeping again.

'You know…' Tiffany spoke hesitantly. 'I still think it's a misunderstanding.'

'I don't care!' She told her. 'He still had no right to say anything like that! That jerk!' Her voice rose.

'Hush, quiet down!' Tiffany, seeing the tell-tale signs of another tantrum, shoved her head down on her shoulder again, patting her back. 'Don't hold back!'

Mei sniffled, tears turbulently flowing out of her eyes. She felt so miserable it was hard to believe she'd thought everything was perfect a mere hour ago. How could he?

They'd been talking about how nervous they were and one thing led to another and then he told her he'd asked 'Lily' to pick his clothes because he couldn't decide.

She didn't like that – he was her guy, after all, and no other girl should be allowed to his room.

'It's just Lily.' He'd shrugged noncommittally.

To show him he was wrong – it didn't matter if you knew the person, it just wasn't right – she told him that she'd had help with her clothes as well.

'Chen and Baekhyun helped me decide.' She told him, seeing his smile vanish. Ha, he didn't like it either. 'Well actually, it was Kai – and he just told to wear what I normally did. He was really sweet, you know.'

'Wait, Kai helped you pick? Where were you?'

'In my room.' She shrugged. If 'Lily' could go to his room, he shouldn't have a problem with her friends coming over to hers, right? But no, of course he had a problem.

'What was Kai doing in your room?' He sounded pissed.  

'Whatever Lily was doing in yours.' She countered. 'It's the same.'

'No, it's not the same.' He leaned closer. 'I have no feelings for Lily…'

'I have no feelings for Kai!' she told him, hurt at his implication. 'What are you trying to say?'

'That's not what I meant…'

'What else did you mean?' Her voice was getting shriller as she tried to hold on to her tears. Was he accusing her?

'Look, I just don’t like it, okay?' He told her, rubbing his forehead. 'Whether it's Kai or Chen or anyone else. If you have some guy in your room, it should be me!'

'As it should be me who goes to your room!' She told him. 'I don’t like it either!'

'Let's just drop this, okay? We can talk when you're calm.' He tried to back out.

'Oh, when I'm calm?' She was truly pissed now. 'I'm perfectly calm, so you can explain yourself right here!'

'I'm not going to explain myself.' Luhan was pissed as well. 'And if we're going to talk about explanations, how about you explain yourself?'

'Excuse me?' she snapped. 'I'm not the one who's flirting with girls and taking them to his room!'

'Puh-lease!' Luhan rolled his eyes. 'I'm not the one with my hands all over another guy!'

'Okay, you did not just say that.' She stood up, looking down at him. Luhan stood up as well so she'd have to tilt her head to meet his eyes.

'You're always hanging out with Sehun and Tao and Kai and it's not like you're particular about where you place your hands.'

'Are you calling me easy?' she yelled. He blinked as if shocked. 'That's not what I meant at all…'

'Oh, I should've known it was too good to be true!' She suddenly burst into tears. 'I should've known soon as I saw the bike…'

'Mei…' he tried to touch her but she slapped his hand away. 'Don't touch me!'

'I'm sorry…' she heard him but she was too busy drowning in her tears and started running towards the exit blindly. How could he even think like that? She sniffled, rubbing her eyes and realized her mascara was ruined. That made her cry even more.

'Hey…'  Luhan's voice made her start but she didn't turn to look at him, instead walking off in one direction. 'Mei.' He called again, grabbing her shoulder so she could face him. She didn’t look at him. 'Let me go.'

'I won't.' He told her, keeping his hold firm.

'If you think I'm going to talk to you now…' she began but dissolved into tears midway. 'Just leave me alone…' she cried painfully. He sighed.

'At least let me drive you home.'

'In your dreams!' she snapped, then started running towards the road. She'd walk home if she had to.

Soon, she was out of the city center and on the rather quiet road that led to her dorm. She was still crying because the tears just wouldn't stop. Some vague part of her realized that this was rather abnormal – she wasn't such a cry baby usually – but she was hurting too much. His words kept playing over and over in her head and the more she thought about it, the worse it seemed to get.

The light footsteps behind her told her that he was following her – probably to make sure she got home safely – and this act of consideration, so different from his recent jerkiness, made her sadder. This was the guy she'd fallen for and that he could be like this – it broke heart heart all over.

Sadly, it wasn't only her heart that broke that night. She wasn't exactly watching where she was stepping and her heel landed in a small pothole in the road. She fell, scraping her hands and knees. Luhan was beside her in a moment. 'Are you okay?' He sounded worried and that, more than the pain, brought tears into her eyes.

'Here, let me…' he took out some napkins to wipe the blood, then wrapped clean ones around her hands. He grabbed her shoulders to help her stand – only, she fell down again because the heel was broken.

The broken heel – another bad omen as far she was concerned – brought another fresher round of tears. Seeing her standing there, helpless and miserable, Luhan sighed and bent down in front of her. 'Come on, I'll carry you.'

She climbed and cried into his shoulder the rest of the way.

And now, she was having the midnight ice-cream session with Tiffany, swearing at the jerk – just like the girls she didn’t want to be like.

………............

Xiumin knew, before Suho and the rest of the gang showed up, that tonight was going to be busy.

First, there was the sudden surge in Suho's powers that Xiumin felt – indicating that he'd finally claimed Angel as his and was now at full power. The torrent that raged outside was, of course, another good hint. But it was the feeling of gloating happiness that assured him that Suho'd show up with his ugly mug just to rub his success in Xiumin's face – because despite his assurances, Suho treated him as the main rival in the claim game.

So when they all showed up in order to celebrate the end of exams for the kids and Chanyeol and D.O's safe return and Suho's mating – if it could be called that – Xiumin was prepared. He'd asked Lily to stay longer because when his brothers got rowdy, things could get out of control. Lily, ever eager to earn, agreed.

Of course, she was constantly casting dirty looks his way now because each and every one of the Legends had stopped by to thank her for taking care of Xiumin and then, shamelessly began digging for details.

Especially the troublesome foursome – Chanyeol, Chen, Baekhyun and for some inexplicable reason, D.O who hung around with those idiots – had tried every trick up their sleeves to get something out of her. It was a good thing Lily was such an expert in keeping secrets because any one else would've cracked by now.

He didn't even know why he was keeping the pretense though – he should just let them know she wasn't his anything, so they'd stop bothering her. In fact he was going to go there and tell them right now.

Only, Suho slipped beside him and Xiumin stifled a groan. Whatever Angel had said or done to him was making him too cocky and he'd been bragging ever since he got here. And it made Xiumin wish he could knock him down a peg or two.

The door opened, the tiny bell jingling and Xiumin got up with a hearty 'Luhan!' – anything to get away from Suho – but he stopped short at Luhan's ragged expression. His eyes were red-rimmed, his hair stood up on end and he was drooping like a dead plant.

He cast a sad, unseeing gaze around as two tears spilled down his eyes. He didn’t bother wiping them away, muttering a dead 'Hey guys' and heading towards the stairs. They all glanced at each other, wondering.

'Guess the date …' Baekhyun's runaway mouth got the best of him again. He slapped his hand over his mouth immediately as the others glared at him.  

Luhan stopped and they waited for him to react – probably lash out and defend his honor or something – but his shoulders drooped even more and he dashed upstairs. His wretched sobs rang in the shocked silence, the slam of his door ominous.

'Why are you crying?' Chanyeol asked Kai who was discreetly wiping his eyes.

'I'm not.' he sniffed, two more tears slipping out his eyes. 'Something got in my eyes.'

'Shouldn't someone go ask him what's wrong?' Lily whispered in Xiumin's ear, having managed to escape the quartet.

'He'll be fine.' Xiumin told her. 'I hope so, anyway.'

'But…'

'Leave the guy his dignity.' He turned to her. 'He's obviously hurting, it would be even worse to have his friends see him like that.'

'Guys.' Lily shook her head.

Xiumin looked around at the suddenly serious group – even Suho had stopped smiling and that in itself was enough to tell them how they felt – and announced. 'Okay, party's over guys.'

There were some half-hearted protests that went unheard as they stood up and slowly shuffled out, leaving in groups.

Kai left last; he stood looking at the stairs as if he wanted to go upstairs and comfort his Shadow. It was instinctive, really – when one was hurt, the other felt his pain via their link. So Kai was probably feeling all the misery Luhan was and despite their recent tussle, they'd been really close. However, he didn't think his presence would be welcome just then, so sighing, he said goodbye to Xiumin and thanked Lily for taking care of them and went outside to join D.O. who was waiting for him.

Lily waved after them, Xiumin waving beside her, then turned to him frowning. 'You know, I can see where they might think we're a couple. This is such a couple thing to do.'

'You're right, this is.' Xiumin said thoughtfully, then smiled at her flirtatiously. 'Why not make it official?'

'You value your eyes, don't you?' Lily mock-threatened him, curling her sensibly cut nails into a claw. 'No more of this crap from your side.'

'You're no fun.' He pouted, then sighed. 'Guess I should take you back as well; it's getting late.'

'I'm not the one who needs help right now.' She reprimanded. 'Besides, this place is pretty safe.'

He gave her that look then – the one he reserved for particularly foolish ideas. 'No where's safe, especially not for a girl out on her own at night. He,' Xiumin pointed upstairs, 'can wait a little. Get your things, we'll leave.'

She sighed, knowing he wouldn't budge on this and went inside to get her 'things' – a single multipurpose backpack. 

……………………….

A/N

I feel bad for my sister, she asked for a fluffy story :/ ah well, its is more interesting this way. Sorry sister (-_-) unnie loves you --- saranghae <3