The human skin can be hard to live in.

That’s why most of us tear it open.

18^th December 2013

A man and a lady walked across the dancefloor hand in hand. The guy had his other hand stuck in his pocket while the lady ran her hand through her red hair ily, earning some stares along the way. Girls admiring the guy’s handsome face, guys lusting over the lady’s assets. They were long used to such stares. Everday, they do the same damn thing. Their whole life is so boring yet there was nothing they can do to make it better.

“When are you two getting married again?” Chen teased Luhan and Raelynn who had just walked in. He refused to believe that the two had nothing at all. From the way they always hold hands and hugged one another, he was quite sure they must have at least made out. Why couldn’t they just admit it?

“Hey man, that’s too fast.” Tao shook his head disapprovingly, a teasing grin was visible on his face. He too, didn’t believe that the two were as innocent as they claimed. “You should be asking this instead.”

Clearing his throat, he turned to Luhan and Raelynn who were sitting beside him. “When are you two going to admit that you all are actually in a relationship?”

“When?” Raelynn cocked her head and looked at Tao with an unreadable expression. Luhan on the other hand just poured himself a drink, clearly couldn’t be bothered by his friends.

“Maybe… we should tell them afterall.” Raelynn hooked her hand over Luhan’s neck and the boy’s head turned to look at her. She slid her manicured nails over his chest with a seductive grin. “Should we baby?”

Everyone around the table froze and stared at the couple. Xiumin held his cup near his mouth, unable to finish the drink as he tried to comprehend what just happened. Tao and Chen hung their mouth wide open while Lay and Kris just looked on with their intense gaze.

“Let me.” Luhan threw Raelyn’s hands around his neck and turned over. Immediately, he pressed the girl down to the couch. From the corner of his eyes, he saw how Lay’s eyeballs were about to pop out any moment but that didn’t stop him from inching closer to Raelynn. He held Raelynn’s chin firmly between his thumb and index fingers so she wouldn’t move.

They looked at one another as Luhan went nearer, till their lips were less than an inch apart then the couple broke out laughing at the same time.

“What is this!” Tao threw the nearest cushion towards the couple, even Lay had to throw the peanuts at them after realizing they had all been cheated. For that moment, they thought they finally got together.

“You guys should see Luhan’s face!” Raelynn pointed at Luhan’s face and laughed. “He’s the worst actor on this earth.”

“You are not any better idiot.” Luhan spat back and passed her a drink. They couldn’t take the seriousness in each other’s face so they broke out laughing, or else he really wouldn’t mind continuing tricking them with their close proximity. Raelynn and him are so close that such skinship didn’t bother them any more.

“Please. Luhan and Raelynn will never get together.” Kris rolled his eyes, he was probably the only one among them who didn’t believe the scene they just staged. Initially, he was like them. He firmly believed that the two would get together sooner or later. However, after yesterday’s incident, he firmly believed that they are just best friends.

“Why? They are just bluffing us duizhang!” Tao whined.

The way Luhan being so protective over Hwayoung yesterday shocked Kris quite a bit. As guys, they were able to understand each other’s motive so when Luhan feigned ignorance even when Chen volunteered to accompany Hwayoung to the toilet and volunteered to go instead, he knew.

“Ask Chen who ed him yesterday.” Kris’s words made Chen laughed out loud, realizing what he meant right away. Chen then pointed to Luhan and shouted over the loud music. “er!!”

Ignoring the group’s teasing, Luhan turned to Xiumin and asked about Minji whom he was with the entire night. Surprisingly, the boy just shrugged his shoulders, refusing to say much. After much bugging from the boys, then he said. “We made out.”

“Made out only?” Chen looked at him in shock. From the way they had their hands over each other last night made it hard for him to believe that they had yet to hit the last base.

“Define made out hyung!” Tao reasoned, “Everyone’s definition of making out is different.”

“What difference is there? Make out means make out.” Xiumin said flatly, not wanting to tell them much and it made Kris raise his brows interestingly as he looked on.

“No?” Tao raised his voice louder this time, “Lay hyung define kissing and frenching as making out.”

Pointing to Kris, he continued. “He can be completely and have a girl on top of him and still say they are not making out.”

The group broke into fits of laughter while Kris threw the cushion back at Tao for embarrassing him unnecessarily.

“We did both you just said, happy?” Xiumin downed his drink and didn’t continue on. The group sensed the weird atmosphere and decided not to press further. Even Raelynn found it unusual for the boys not to share their history the previous night but shrugged it off since Xiumin didn’t want to talk about it.

“Then Luhan what about you?” Kris didn’t intend to let Luhan go that easily.

“Me?” Luhan pointed to himself and raised his hands innocently. He still knew the difference between romance and . These days, many mistakes for romance. Guys are taught that pushing a girl against a wall is romance. is easy, one can do it with anyone, with themselves, with batteries.

But to him, romance is when someone he likes walks into a room and she takes his breath away. Romance is when two of them are dancing and they fit together perfectly. Romance is when two of them are walking next to each other and all of a sudden they find themselves holding hands, and they don’t know how that happened so he was in no hurry to lose his ity. “I didn’t do anything to Hwayoung I swear.”

“Please, you always makeout but you don’t have . What makes us think you will let Hwayoung go?” Chen rolled his eyes, clearly unhappy that he got ed by his best friend.

“But I really didn’t!” Luhan fought back, “I don’t touch my friend!”

“Wait wait! Who is Hwayoung!” Raelynn stopped the conversation. She was so confused by what was going on but she was not that stupid to not realize what Kris was hinting at.

“Our classmate. The girl that Chen was after but Luhan ed.” Kris summarized the story in one sentence and Raelynn’s lips went into an O shaped. She recalled how Luhan texting her to tell her about this girl he met. Though he didn’t talk much about her, it was not common for him to mention a girl whom he did not bring home.

“She’s just my eyecandy alright?” Luhan clarified, not wanting to stain Hwayoung’s name with their polluted minds.

“Change a target hyung! She’s too quiet! Nobody even notices her!” Tao ranted,

“Just because she doesn’t say much doesn’t mean that people don’t notice her?” Luhan reasoned with him seriously. “It’s actually the quiet ones who often draw the most attention.”

“But she is not even pretty! Even our Raelynn is prettier!” Tao continued ranting.

“Don’t ever compliment me by insulting other women. That’s not a compliment, it’s a competition none of us agreed to.” Raelynn rolled her eyes at Tao and Luhan raised his hand to high five her which she smacked it away.

“But point taken Lu, I better learn to talk lesser if I want to get someone to like me.”

“Hahahaha.” Laughing at Raelynn’s wittiness, Xiumin opened his mouth again. “Don’t worry our Lu-ge will still want you.”

“If she talks lesser I may consider.” Luhan muttered under his breath but Raelynn heard it all. Avoiding her smacks, he pulled out his phone that had just vibrated.

[From: Hwayoung]

I’m on my way to work. Have fun at club!

Catching her that she is still online, his long and slender fingers quickly keyed in a reply.

[To: Hwayoung]

Thanks! Oh? Where are you working at?

[From: Hwayoung]

A convenience store near my house.

This story is really hard to write so pardon me for the slow updates. My proofreader is away so I'm doing this all by own now. Feel so insecure without her. And I miss her a lot. ):

Enjoy!