The sun shone brightly over the whole campus. With squinted eyes, she tried to make out the path in front of her without knocking into anybody.

Yoona was undoubtedly sick when she woke up this morning. Perhaps it was the new environment and the multiple changes, and her body couldn’t adapt in time—thus giving her a good fever that could probably knock a girl like Yoona out for a few days straight.

At 39 degrees Celsius, Yoona was ready to collapse any moment. She had been weak since young, the only compensation for that weakness being her emotional strength. And her emotional strength probably gave rise to her determination to attend school despite the bad fever. Escaping her brother in the morning was a feat she was terribly proud of. She could at least spend her day knowing that she wouldn’t burden her brother.

Well, if anything, Yoona knew this: her emotional strength, no matter how strong she was, would never be able to be used as physical strength. She felt weaker every moment as the day passed, and under this scorching hot sun, she felt like she could collapse immediately into a mess of melted body matter.

She already felt her world shaking. Hands extended, she was groping at nothing for support.

It was at the final moment before she collapsed when a pair of strong arms encircled her from behind, shielding her fall backwards.

She wanted to open her eyes to take a look at her savior, but something in her heart told her that she already knew whom it was.

=/

“Yah, how do you work this thing…” Jaejoong muttered as he fiddled around with the electric mixer. He turned it around and around, trying to find a button of some sort.

Junsu reached over from the other side of the table and took the mixer away from him. “Don’t break it,” he snapped. Setting it on the empty space of the kitchen table in front of Jaejoong, he flicked the switch on the wall on and pressed a small white button on the mixer.

It started working, mixing nothing but the air. Jaejoong stared in wonder, applauding for his friend. “Man, without you here, I’d be clueless.”

“You always were and you always will be.”

Jaejoong flicked Junsu’s forehead, asking for a fight. Junsu raised his hand, ready to retaliate, before taking a deep breath and turning away. “You ingrate,” he mumbled. Jaejoong laughed.

Digging out a crumpled piece of white paper from his pocket, he silently mouthed the instructions to himself. “Alright, time to get started. Will you help me?”

Junsu shook his head. “You said this was a gift you had to make to convince Taeyeon that you’re her Mr. Right. It should be filled with your sincerity, and I’m not allowed to help.”

Jaejoong ran his hand through his hair. “But this is just… like a draft, you know?”

Junsu sighed in defeat. He stood up and snatched the paper from Jaejoong, reading the recipe carefully. He smacked Jaejoong’s arm with the paper after finishing. “Seriously, this isn’t hard to follow at all.”

Jaejoong guffawed. “Pretty please?”

Sighing in exasperation now, Junsu shook his head and forced himself to get to work.

He wasn’t sure what was causing his bad temper, but somewhere inside his head he was actually thinking about what to gift Taeyeon.

The sad part is that he knew he shouldn’t be thinking about this.

=/

Yuri leafed through the school calendar printed on a thin piece of pamphlet. “Yah, Taeng, look here—It’s the big V-day in a few more days!”

Taeyeon stopped chewing her apple and stuck her head over to look at Yuri’s pamphlet. “6 more days?”

“Yeah! I bet you’re expecting something, huh?”

“Actually, no; I was planning on spending it with you again. We do that every year, don’t we?” Taeyeon resumed consumption of her apple as she winked at Yuri, nudging the taller girl in the ribs.

Yuri rolled her eyes. “Seriously… Don’t go gay for me, okay? You’ll probably either receive flowers or a house from Jaejoong this year.”

Taeyeon shook her head adamantly. “No way—I won’t go gay for you, and I most definitely do not desire such gifts from Jaejoong.” Pausing, she delved into her thoughts a little before continuing. “Don’t make his crush on me sound like some romantic fairytale. He’s barely known me—for like, a few days—and now he’s all about ‘liking’ me. To be really honest, Yuri,” she lowered her volume, making sure no one can hear her. “I think it’s kind of creepy.”

Yuri eyed her petite friend for a few seconds before nodding in understanding. “Ah, now I see it… You’re playing hard to get. Jaejoong’s got to work hard on this one, then!”

Taeyeon sighed deeply. “And you claim to be the brightest one in our bunch…”

“I’m the brightest, that’s true—‘cause you don’t even light up at all!” Yuri cracked up at her own joke, prompting Taeyeon to laugh with her.

Taeyeon swore under her breath and thought about Valentine’s Day.

‘6 days, should I give anything?’

She bit her lip.

‘No, to whom should I give it to?’

==