Chen stared at the paper in his hands. Was he really doing this? He looked up again to the metal locker aobut five foot away from him and sighed. It was right there and all he had to do was just to put it into the locker. Simple as that. But of course being the coward he was, he felt as if the job was a mission impossible.

"Aish!" he ruffled his own hair, feeling annoyed by the constant anxiety that was growing by the minute. It was supposed to be a simple task but the truth was, things were much more complicated.

If a moment ago he felt like the most confident man in the world, things were way different now. He could be boasting about this to his friends, but in reality, he chickened out. He was chickening out. The Kim Jongdae was chickening out. It was something worthy to be laughing at, but then again, nobody had to know about this shameful fact.

With all the lose of confidence and the imagined scenarios he had pictured in his head earlier, he decided to give up. There was no point to such humiliation anyways, so why bother? He crumpled the piece of paper and threw it into a dustbin before turning on his heels to walk away.

Chen gloomily hung his head low as he dragged his own two feet along the long, long hallway that seemed to never end. He failed again. It wasn't the first time this had happened. In fact, it happened so many times that Chen himself had lost count. He wished that his boastful confidence would stay the moment he wanted to do probably one of the most important things in his life, but no, it all disappeared. Maybe it was because he kept on imagining the 'what ifs' which was never ending anyways. He regretted it now, but playing safe was always the best option to him.

Things wasn't getting any better for him. He didn't notice his way and accidentally bumped into someone, causing her to spill all the books onto the floor. She hurriedly picked them up, it seemed like she was in a rush. Chen bent down to help, but that was when he realized that that someone was no stranger.

"Namjoo?" he uttered instead of a sorry. The girl with the mid-length hair which fall just below her shoulders only made a three-second eye contact with him as she quickly picked up the leftover books. 

"Yah, I'm in a hurry now. Talk to you later, Chenchen," she stood up and started to rush away, leaving the latter rather dumbfounded.

He scoffed as his lips parted into a small smile, "Chenchen."

Her nickname for him was like magic, it kind of made him feel better slightly. Chen stood up and walked away casually this time, more spirited than before. Maybe his day wasn't so bad after all.

"Here are the books, unnie!" Namjoo placed them on top of the library's counter, letting out a heavy sigh due to the exhaustion of 'fast walking.' By this rate, she could probably win a gold medal in a walking competition at the Olympics. Was there a walking competition at the Olympics? Oh well, who cares? She made her point already.

"You carried all of them alone?" she looked rather furious than concerned, which made Namjoo pout.

"Unnie, do you know how much energy I've used up for the sake of delivering these books before the library closes? Do you know how good of a sister I am?" she faked her heart hurting, clenching her fist on her chest along.

The elder snorted, as if used to her only sister's dramatic response. "No one asked you to carry them alone, you idiot. Aren't they heavy for a girl? Oh, wait, you're not one, right?"

"Ha-ha, very funny," Namjoo crossed her arms, feeling that her help was not appreciated enough. 

"Where's Chen? Didn't he help?" the mention of his name made her froze. Cold seep between the tips of her fingers as she awkwardly fix her already perfect hair. 

"I don't need his help, okay? He's a pain in the ," she wittily quipped, but this was blood-relation we're talking about. She knew that her sister wasn't that easy to be fooled. Not when she had been living with her all her life.

"Yeah, and the earth is flat. What's new?" she started to sort the books according to its genre, making it easier for her to carry them to their respective shelves later. 

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

She glanced at her meaningfully, but then snorted as she looked away and focused on the books again. Namjoo wasn't that oblivious, she knew. It was just at times she chose to be just because it would make her feel comfortable. But why? That, she could never understand. It wasn't like her feelings would not reciprocate his.

Baekhyun's boisterous laughing filled up the whole cafeteria making the people there wonder if he was still sane. Chanyeol cowered as he slowly took out his already worn out wallet and took out three 10000 won bills. He slapped them onto his best friend's wide open palm but never let go. Baekhyun stopped laughing to pull the money away from his grip, each time harder, until he succeeded. And so then, Baekhyun continued to roar out laughing, once again making the people there uncomfortable with his lack of normality.

"Yah! I believed in you! How could you, man?" Chanyeol was literally holding Chen up by the collar then, but the latter just shook it off to resume gobbling his lunch. Chanyeol heavily sighed, he couldn't believe his own best friend was this pathetic.

"I told you. The day he confesses would be the day I'd be losing to you. Which is...never!" Baekhyun childishly pointed his finger to bitter Chanyeol, who was very close to punch Baekhyun square in the face. He had always believed he was the mature one, which was not really the case. But then again, let's just let Chanyeol's thinking to roam freely as to his liking.

"Aish, would you guys cut it out? He's having a hard time already," Kyungsoo squeezed in between the inseperable childish pair, placing his own tray of lunch in front. Baekhyun and Chanyeol had finished theirs, they were just there to mock comfort Chen.

"Finally, the sane one's here. You know what, I'm glad to have you as a friend, Kyungsoo," Chen slung an arm around the latter but Kyungsoo only eyed him weirdly with his large pair of eyes. "Stay away from me. You're a coward. You are not my friend. How can you chicken out at the last minute, man? So disappointing," he himself shook Chen's arm off and started munching on his piece of chicken.

Chen pushed Kyungsoo away, frustrated that such answer could come out of his mouth. It was Kyungsoo, his last strand of hope for comfort. Not childish Baekhyun nor pushy Chanyeol, it was Kyungsoo. The normal one, the caring one, the sane one. Even saner than he himself. And yet mature had proven to be just downright boring since he was saying the truth right to his face.

"Haish! You guys are the worst! Are you even my friends?" Chen slammed down his chopsticks onto his tray, startling his three best friends. They looked at each other, and within just the mere telepathy, they knew it was getting serious. His feelings was getting more and more out of control.

"Chen, dude, you know that you should just believe in yourself for once, right? You're not that bad, why wouldn't she accept you?" Baekhyun uttered the most logical thing he said all day but it didn't seem to cool Chen down.

"Baek's right. Just gather courage for this one time. You're going to regret it if you don't do this," Chanyeol put a comforting hand on his shoulder, assuring him that it would be just fine.

"But what if she doesn't like me? What if she'll hate me if I say those words? What if she doesn't want to be friends with me anymore?..."

Kyungsoo intercepted before Chen could blabber away, "What if she does like you too?"

Chen blinked innocently while looking at his 'mature best friend.' He stopped at those words. It did occur to him that she might, just might like him too. And that would be a dream come true. But then again, the negative thoughts would continue flooding into his mind.

"You should tell her. She's your friend, she's not going to laugh at you or anything," Chanyeol added.

"What if she thinks I'm just trolling around like I always am?"

"Be serious, then. Look her in the eyes and tell her. People say you can see how sincere someone is just by their eyes," Baekhyun shrugged just like the info was not a big deal. It was to Chen, though.

"So I shouldn't stop hoping?" 

"Never stop hoping, my friend. Even if she doesn't like you, she would eventually. Because I can guarantee that she would. I, Byun Baekhyun, guarantees you."

Chen stood up, feeling more motivated than ever. They were right. He had to do this. It was then or never. And if it was never, he knew he would regret it for the rest of his life. And he would be wondering the 'what ifs' of the present in the future. "Wish me luck!" he slung over his backpack and raced off to find her, the love of his life.

"Why do you sound so sure? You know he could just be friendzoned?" Chanyeol was worried that Baekhyun might be giving false hopes by now. "I'm not. I just need to sound like I am so that he would feel confident. Now, problem solved," Baekhyun smirked as Kyungsoo could only snort in disbelief.

"Namjoo!"

She whirled around at the sound of her name being called. She was greeted by his infamous eye-smile, which as usual sent butterflies to her stomach. He happily rushed towards her, his smile never left his face.

"Hey, I just..."

"I...."

Their words collided at the same time as both laughed awkwardly at the coincidence. "Go ahead," she motioned. "No, ladies first," Chen gestured for her to speak first. "No, no. It seems like you have something more important to say. So, you first," Namjoo insisted and Chen took that as the green light. He breathed in deeply, remembering what Baekhyun taught him. It was funny to think that his childish best friend was the source of his courage right now. Maybe he would treat Baekhyun later if this goes well.

"Kim Namjoo, I...I like you. Like really, really you. And no, I'm not trolling you, I'm dead serious. I, Kim Jongdae, like you. A lot," his gaze never left hers the whole time. But Namjoo was silent. She wasn't smiling or responding in any way though, which made Chen felt nervous.

"I just want to let you know. It's okay if you don't like me back. Like of course, who would? Ha-ha...," he laughed nervously.

Namjoo handed him a piece of paper, making him even more clueless to this situation. Chen reached for it and opened the paper, which turned out to be a letter. An oddly familiar letter.

Annyeong Namjoo!

Haha, you must be surprised to get a letter from me, right? It's so not my style to write letters, so do feel honoured please. Anyways, I'm writing to you because I have to tell something very important. I couldn't bring myself to say it to you, thus the letter. This feels awkward, but, I like you. Not in a friendly kind of way, but really like you. I'm serious, I'm not kidding around and I'm very sure of my feelings. So yeah, it's out now. Haha, it's okay if you don't like me back, I just need to get this feeling out since I felt freaking crazy these few days not being able to act normal around you. I'm sorry that I always make fun of you but I mean it in a good way. I just don't really know how to act around you and so yeah...it comes out like that. That's all, then. 

Chenchen.

"I found that near the dustbin the other day. You wrote it, why didn't you give it to me?" Namjoo asked, she was purely curious by it.

"Since you don't feel the same as I do, there's no need to..." Chen's face was starting to blush a shade of pink. Partly embarassed, partly ashamed that he was getting rejected. But honestly, he wasn't.

"Who says I don't?"

Chen's eyes lit up and met hers. She smiled pleasantly at the latter and pecked his cheek. Chen was startled by it, but he then chuckled out of disbelief. "Hey, what's so funny?" Namjoo was not following him.

"Nothing. I just don't believe that this is happening to me. Like what, Kim Namjoo actually likes me too?" he faked a shock and she pushed him away playfully. "So does this mean you're my girlfriend now?"

"We haven't even gone on a date. How is that possible?" she scoffed.

"Because I say so. Kim Namjoo is Kim Jongdae's girlfriend from now on. Namjoo is Chen's! Namjoo is Chen's!" he kept on hollering around in the hallways, once again making the students question his level of maturity.

"Yah! Shut up will you?" Namjoo tried covering his mouth but failed miserably at he was taller than her, and much more hyperactive.

The scene continued like that for a good two minutes before Chen finally stopped. Chen slung an arm around her, feeling contented as he walked away with her towards their next class.

"Yah, pay up," Chanyeol handed out his hand, smirking in victory. Baekhyun groaned, he was just planning to buy a pair of new headphones with the addition of money he won from Chanyeol. Nevertheless, he had to comply because losing was losing. He did feel happy for Chen though, at least one of them was now happy with a girl.

"So what's our next bet going to be about?" Chanyeol stashed his money back into his pocket as he observed the two lovebirds sauntered away happily. 

Baekhyun thought hard, thinking of another way to earn money from his best friend again. He smirked when the idea hit him, slowly turning to face Kyungsoo who was reading a book titled 'Meaningful Life.'

"Say Kyungsoo, what about that girl who played the piano in your English class? When are you going to confess to her?"

Kyungsoo's eyes widened, he never thought Baekhyun was smart enough to figure that out. He glowered in doom as Baekhyun and Chanyeol creepily smiled, preparing Kyungsoo to be the next victim.