My calm demeanor was destroyed after seeing someone who seemed to be Sihyun. He looked so much like him that I was almost sure that it was him, and it scared me deep to my bones-he was a fragment of my past that I had tried hard to leave behind. The excruciating pain was threatening to suffocate me and over the course of two weeks even after that unexplainable appearance, I felt like I was going berserk over the uncertainty.

I couldn't eat properly, I barely paid attention in class, and in the tranquillity of the night, the thoughts of Sihyun would come and take over my entire mind, taunting me. I was barely hanging on, always oblivious to everything and everyone around me, seeing as how all I could focus on was him. Sihyun. Everyday, I texted Suho, voicing my concerns to him, but seeing as how he always took long to respond, and mentioning that he had a few big projects coming up, I stopped and decided to keep everything to myself.

I didn't see the male after that one time, and I was beginning to wonder if it was only my mind playing cruel tricks on me. I would look out in the same crowd every day, hoping to catch a glimpse of this mysterious male, but day after day I didn't see him, and a small part of me was relieved.

This morning, I woke up to yet another headache from overthinking, and I was starting to get fed up. Why am I letting someone I had kicked out of my life affect me so greatly? I have had enough of this. I glanced over at my table, pulling myself into a sitting position on my bed. Already a fair amount of sheets and textbooks were piled on the surface, accumulating after I blew off homework one day after the next.

I took a deep breath and got up. I can't fall back into the pits of despair I had been in just a few months ago. A new environment, a new mindset. I stepped into the shower, scrubbing away all of my insane thoughts of Sihyun and emptied my mind. I looked at myself in the mirror after washing up-my skin was dry and had random patches of dry, scaly spots, most likely from me violently rubbing my face whenever my brain overloaded, which was pretty much every day. I had dark circles under my eyes, chapped lips and my complexion wasn't looking too alive.

Grabbing my small makeup bag, I started to moisturize my face, applying foundation and concealer to the required spots, giving a small dab of blush. Already my face was starting to look better. Taking that as encouragement, I applied a thicker line of eyeliner than I normally did, finishing it off with mascara before moving to my lips, applying a thin layer of lip balm.

I leaned back from the counter to look at my whole face and smiled softly. I'm finally starting to look normal again.

I came out of the washroom with a livelier aura surrounding me and was met with Minah's surprised expression. Looking at her in query, I asked, “What's wrong, Minah-ssi? You look...surprised.”

Blinking multiple times, she broke into a wide grin and pulled me in for a hug. My eyes widened, surprised at her sudden action, but I slowly responded to her, wrapping my arms around her back. “What's wrong?”

She pulled back and gave me a toothy grin, showcasing her pearly whites. “Kyungmi, you're alive again!” I looked at her, my mouth slightly ajar.

“You noticed?”

She frowned at me and crossed her arms. “Of course I noticed! We're roomies, you know. And your friend, I think his name was Chanyeol? I can't remember the other guys' names, but they kept coming to me, asking what was wrong with you, but that was what I wanted to know too. You've been so out of it these days, it was like you were just the shell of the shy girl I knew.”

I blushed, looking down at my feet. “Sorry, Minah-ssi, but a few...personal matters came up...suddenly.” With this new found information, her eyes widened and formed a small 'O' shape.

“Oh, I didn't know! I'm so sorry, Kyungmi!”

I smiled tenderly in return, touched at how considerate she was. “It's okay, Minah-ssi, I didn't tell you anything so you wouldn't have known anyway.”

She smiled, relieved before hitting my arm playfully. “Yah, stop being so formal! Just call me Minah already! You're making me feel weird,” she laughed.

That caused me to laugh as well, nodding. “Okay, Minah.”

She grinned, putting her hands on my shoulders, leading me to where the door was. “Let's celebrate with some cafeteria breakfast.”

I arrived to my Functions class, this time with more confidence and a slight smile on my face. Spotting Chanyeol, Kai and Xiumin, I slipped into the seat next to the former and smiled. “Morning, Chanyeol.” He glanced over nonchalantly, opening his mouth to greet me back before giving me a double take, eyes widening just like how Minah's were like.

I raised my hands self-consciously to my face. “Why? Do I look weird or something?” Did I go overboard with the makeup?

He shook his head furiously, looking like his head was about to fall off. “No, you just look a thousand times better than how you've been looking for the past few weeks. My best friend's back!” Sending me a wide grin, he flung his arms around me, rendering me stiff for a few moments.

This caught the attention of the other two, who also broke into wide grins and pulled me in for bear hugs, happy of my return.

I wasn't used to skinship, much less skinship from a guy. But seeing how happy he was, I softened up and let out a small laugh, hugging him back. “I'm back,” I said, with a tone of finality.

My confidence quickly dissipated when the professor started teaching today's lesson. None of the equations made sense to me, and as the period progressed, my confusion only grew more, not understanding anything that was coming out of his mouth.

I looked over at Chanyeol, who was writing down notes, nodding to himself as if to confirm that he actually understood what was happening. I looked over him at Xiumin who was next to him, and saw that he too was doing the same. I mentally cursed myself for throwing my self-control out the window and letting myself drop into my own despair.

I sneaked another peak over his shoulder, watching him work quickly. Frowning, I turned back to my poorly scrawled notes, reading it over. My frown only deepened as I continued reading. What the hell did I write?

I mentally gave up and just resorted to listening to what the professor had to say for the remainder of the period, reminding myself to ask Chanyeol for help when the class was over.

As we were dismissed for our next class, I turned to Chanyeol who was packing his bag. “Hey Chanyeol,” I started tentatively, knowing that this was a big favour, “About the two weeks of class I practically missed, do you...” I trailed off when he stopped to look at me.

The words caught in my throat and thinking against it, I shook my head, turning to pack my own bag. “Nevermind, forget I said anything.”

He laughed and slung an arm over my shoulders as we walked out of the building into the next. “I know what you're going to say, Kyungmi-ah. You want my notes right? And my help?” I looked at him sheepishly, nodding timidly. Confirming his suspicion, he laughed. “And I'm guessing that you need my help on all of the other classes, right?” I bit my lip and nodded again, ashamed at my request.

“You don't have to if you don't want to or if you don't have time.”

“Naw, Chanyeol The Superman is always here to help damsels in distress, no worries,” he patted his chest, smiling at me smugly. “I got the brains to help out a wee citizen like you,” he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, “Not to mention the looks.”

I scoffed and dropped his arm from my shoulder, opting to walk ahead. He ran to catch up with me and re-slung his arm over my shoulders. “You know, for an introvert, you sure don't act like one anymore,” he commented.

I looked at him thoughtfully. The guy had a point there. “That's probably because I'm used to you now, since it's been just over a month,” I reasoned after thinking about it. He grinned and pulled me closer playfully as we reached the building. “Because we're best friends, right?”

I laughed and escaped his long arm, going to open the door for the two of us. “Keep dreaming, Chanyeol.”

He huffed and messed up my hair as I held open the door for him to pass through first. “Hey!” I scowled at him, fixing my hair and giving his hair a good ruffle too, though it took more effort since I had to tippy toe to be able to reach his head.

At lunch, I arrived with Chanyeol to the cafeteria where we usually sat, and suddenly realized that I was the only girl sitting in this group of guys, and unconsciously looked around. Sure enough, there were a few pairs of eyes on me, watching me approach the table. The eyes all belonged to girls who seemed to glare at me with envy.

Well, I'm not going to deny the fact that the guys did look pretty handsome.

We approached the table and I hesitantly smiled, knowing that I had withdrawn myself from the group for a while, opting to either work in my dorm or go out for a drive. In addition, I haven't really been hanging out with the others, save for the few of them who were in my classes, but even so, I haven't been very talkative.

Due to Biology being slow going and being the period right before lunch, I found myself skipping it a few times, and missing it due to my headaches the other times. Come to think of it, I ended up skipping the entire two weeks of Biology. I groaned inwardly. I am so screwed.

Upon reaching the table though, I saw the back of an unfamiliar figure who turned around after hearing their cheerful and surprised greetings to me. When that figure turned around, my mind blanked out and all the noises surrounding us were drowned out. All I could see was his face, particularly his eyes. My breathing slowed and I stopped feeling my legs. I found him. I finally found him. A closure. I finally got a closure. I closed my eyes for a brief moment as relief washed over me like a tidal wave. It was never Sihyun. He just had the same hair and eyes as him.

I opened my eyes again and broke into the happiest smile I have ever shown in a while. The past didn't come to haunt me.

Chanyeol, noticing my weird behaviour, laughed out loud, poking my cheek. “Yah, what's up with your sudden grin? It's so wide it fills up half of your face,” he exaggerated, resulting in me rolling my eyes, but still keeping the smile.

“Nothing,” I turned to him, purposely grinning even wider, much to his amusement, “I just finally resolved a huge problem.” He looked at me questioningly, but didn't pry and just nodded, chuckling.

“Well congrats then, Kyungmi.”

His eyes widened upon spotting the said male and he tugged me over to him. “I haven't introduced you guys yet! Yah, my dongsaeng!” The male scowled at him which turned to a look of curiosity when his eyes landed on me. Out of nowhere, I felt myself swallowing nervously at his intense gaze, seeing as how it reminded me of Sihyun.

“Hyung!” the male greeted Chanyeol, who only laughed in response. Turning to me, he cocked his head to the side and gave a curious smile. “Hey, haven't seen you before,” he said, “are you perhaps Chanyeol's girlfriend?”

“W-what?” I spluttered, widening my eyes. “Chanyeol's girlfriend?” Luhan laughed and patted his back. “Yeah, don't degrade Kyungmi like that~”

Chanyeol reached over and kicked Luhan's bum, earning more laughter from the male. “I'm not his girlfriend,” I clarified to the male, who still looked at me with confusion, “just a friend. I haven't been around for the past few weeks, so that'll probably explain why you've never seen me before.” Busy freaking out over you who looked so much like him with your face mask on.

“Oh,” he nodded, “I'm Sehun.” The name rung a bell in my head.

“Oh, from Biology?” I asked.

“Are we in the same class?” He asked confusedly.

“Yeah,” I replied, “I've just had matters that had me skip a few weeks.”

“Which by the way,” said Luhan, leaning over Sehun's shoulder to look at me with his eyebrows raised, “you're pretty screwed for, because we have a test coming up this Friday.” I gaped at him. “But today's already Monday!”

“And, you are Kyungmi, I presume?” Sehun interjected, raising his eyebrows, to which I nodded. “Oh yeah,” I laughed, “I'm Kyungmi. Sorry, forgot about my own introduction.” He looked at me with a flicker of amusement in his eyes and nodded, turning back to finish his lunch.

I smiled at his turned back. You don't know how glad I am to know that you're you, and not somebody else.

After class, Lay dragged me out with the guys for a ride. I had weakly protested, saying that I needed to catch up on everything, moreover study for the Biology test, but to no avail. They were all firm on it and Luhan said that I needed to live a little after disappearing from them for so long.

And so, here I am, stuck in the back seat between Chanyeol and Sehun as Luhan sat in the front seat with Lay, who was driving. The other car, containing the rest of the guys were following steadily behind us. It was okay for the first few minutes, until I had to practically scrunch up my legs due to the two guys having such long legs; I mean, I'm not short, actually, I'm considered tall for a girl, but compared to them I was tiny. Thankfully, it was nearing Winter, so being cramped together kept us warm, but I was starting to lose feelings in my legs.

"Why am I cramped in a group of five?" I groaned, patting my legs in a futile attempt at getting the blood to flow, "Why couldn't I be in the group of four?"

Luhan turned back, grinning, "Because Lay mentioned it first, so of course you'd have to go with us~" I glared at him.

"Why didn't you move to the other car then?" I said flatly. He laughed and mocked getting shot by an arrow to his chest, feigning pain. 

"Well, that's total typical behaviour of an introvert," Luhan said dryly. I scrunched up my nose at him in distaste, earning more laughter from the former. "That's because I'm used to you guys," I stated. "to some extent."

"I don't see you being like that to Kyungsoo or Xiumin or a few others."

"That's because I'm not used to them yet!"

"What are you trying to say? We all sit at the same table, do you hate them or something?"

"That's not what I meant!"

"Then what do you mean?"

"It's just-argh! Can't you just go away or something?" I asked, irritated and messed up my hair in frustration before covering my face with my hands. Lay chuckled and reached a hand over to mess up Luhan's hair, much to his dismay. "Don't bully the girl, hyung."

Chanyeol shifted in his seat and his leg brushed across mine, yearning a yelp on my part. He turned over startled, and saw me rubbing my leg and squirming away from him, earning most of the guys' attention in the car. "I didn't do anything!" He defended himself when the guys looked at him suspiciously. He turned to me, "Tell them! I'm getting wronged here!"

I nodded stiffly, as I attempted to stretch my legs out as much as physically possible. "My legs were cramped up so I got the pines and needles feeling when he brushed my leg." Sehun raised his eyebrows at my explanation. "Not intentionally." I hurriedly added, feeling a bit embarassed.

Chanyeol moved his legs over and leaned them against the car door and pulled my legs up from their stiff position to rest upon his lap. My eyes widened and I tried to pull back my legs, but he held them down firmly, not letting me go. "Just stretch out your legs a bit like this, okay? And don't yelp anywhere, the guys will think I'm harassing you or something," he muttered, glaring at the other three, who just grinned back cheekily. I hesitated, again not used to the sudden skinship, but seeing as how just a slight brush brought so much pain to my legs, I reluctantly nodded and stopped trying to pull back.

After another ten minutes thanks to traffic, we finally reached the destination and everyone got out, me being the last one out. I groaned as soon as my legs touched the ground and the feeling shot up my leg again, causing my legs to wobble. My hands whipped out, originally going for the car, but instead were caught by a pair of long arms who stablized me. I looked up, surprised and were met by Sehun's intense gaze again. I was starting to think that his gaze was always like that, and continued to stare into his eyes. "Are you okay? Still numb?" His voice broke my small reverie and I nodded, mumbling a thanks. He smiled and retracted his hands, opting to walk with me to the building the rest had already entered.

"You're kidding!"

Noraebang. On a Monday. Almost an hour away from campus. When I could've been studying and catching up on homework. I stared at Lay, extremely vexed, but he just smiled playfully. "Nope, we're serious here."

"Come on, it'll be fun! Bring you out of your shell, Kyungmi!" Chanyeol cheered, grabbing my arms and swinging them playfully. His excitement was overflowing and he could barely contain himself, jumping everywhere and randomly dancing with everyone. 

I groaned as he continued to swing me around, not amused. "I have so much work to do! How do you expect me to loosen up? Plus," I lowered my voice, "I'm not even familiar with everyone yet. This is embarassing, Chanyeol! You know how I am with people I'm not familiar with," I hissed. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows. "You looked fine with Sehun just then."

My eyes widened and my ears involuntarily turned red. "That's because I was about to fall! How is that comparable?" He laughed and shrugged, dragging me to the seats where almost everyone was seated at already, ignoring my continuous protest.

"Alright, who's starting?"

"Me~" Kyungsoo stood up and took and mic, as well as the panel to select a song. The screen lit up and the music started, showing the familiar tune of What Is Love. My right eye twitched slightly and I frowned. How ironic, that's what I wanted to know.

"I need someone else to sing with me...Luhan! Let's blow our audience away," he said, giving a smug smile to us seated. Kai laughed and jokingly booed him. Ignoring him, the two started and sang. Their voices rang out confidently and the high notes were reached with perfection, no hesitation. At first I was focused on the lyrics, settling into my glum mood, but their vocals really blew me away. Both were strong vocalists and harmonized nicely, and I ended up watching them in awe after the song finished, not even noticing the points they got. Kyungsoo noticed me and laughed. "Told you we'd blow them away," he said with a smug smile.

I flushed slightly and looked away, a bit embarassed at being caught staring open-mouthed and turned back and smiled tentatively. "You guys have great vocals," I said softly. Luhan laughed and leaned in, placing a hand to his ear. "What was that? Sorry, couldn't hear you." I glared at him and scrunched up my nose again. "Go away."

Kai took the panel from Kyungsoo and picked another, more lively song, dragging Xiumin and Lay into it. The three ended up with their hands over each other's shoulders and swaying to the music, singing loudly and happily. Their result was a proud 90% and they jumped in celebration, and I cheered along with them, starting to forget about my worries. I began to loosen up and was a bit less timid towards the few who I wasn't as close with yet; I was going back to my own self for the first time in almost a year.

I found myself cheering to Chanyeol and Sehun as they rapped passionately to Two Moons, complete with the hand gestures and intense gazes. I felt a bit compelled towards Sehun's presence throughoutt their entire performance. Slightly mesmerized, I'd even say. 

I blinked as they finished and mentally shook myself as the others howled in appreciation. What am I doing?

All of a sudden, a mic was pushed into my hands and I was pulled from the comfort of my spot on the couch. I looked around confusedly, which soon turned to horror as I realized what they were doing. "Oh no, I-" I started, but was cut off as the music started. My head whipped over to see Kai holding the panel while Chanyeol was trying hard to stifle his laughter next to him. My eyes widened to the size of saucers as I recognized IU's famous song, Good Day. I gaped at him and he urged me on saying, "I'll treat you if you get a high score!"

My eyes glinted. "Anything?" He nodded, suddenly a bit unsure. I smiled brightly and turned to the screen with a sudden burst of confidence. He's going to regret it. I will sing in front of them, if it's for food. 

The guys looked at me in anticipation as I sang the bridge for the famous three-octave part. I took a deep breath. "I'm in my dree-eeeaaa-ams~" I sang successfully, "Ireoke joheun nal," I finished, smiling widely at the boys who sat there, suddenly quiet and wide-eyed. My confidence faltered and I started to think that maybe I didn't do well, but the boys roared and stood up, cheering and clapping, madly pointing at the screen behind me. I turned around and gasped at my score. 98%. 

I turned back to Kai and grinned widely. "Kai, you remember your promise, right?" His eyes widened and he swallowed hard. Chanyeol grabbed the panel from his frozen hands and picked another song, grinning and urging everyone to stand up. "Sing us another song~!" I turned back to the screen and laughed at his song choice, Nonono by Apink. I obliged and sang, and upon reaching the chorus, a few of the guys grabbed the remaining mics while the others opted to belt out, "Seulpohajima nonono, honja anya nonono," we all sang out loudly, and all broke into fits of laughter as the guys broke into the shuffle hop that was the key point in their dance.

I laughed even louder as they dragged me into their sequence and we ended up attempting to dance the whole routine instead of singing. Our mark was 70%, but we didn't even care as we all broke down laughing, running out of breath.

Our crazy antics continued for the next two hours, but it didn't feel that long. Time flies when you're having fun, they say.

I wiped my tears from my eyes as I sat up from the couch, recovering from our hysterie. Chanyeol came over, wiping his own tears as well, and patted my back proudly. "See? You're finally breaking out of your shell!" 

I looked up at him and smiled. "Yeah, I finally am."

Hey everyone! Back with another update (: Been busy again, sorry ^^;; 

And yes, Luhan is having his lawsuit with SM, but to be honest, he is my top bias and I will ignore it. OT12! -cries-

But anyway, thanks to the new subscribers! Please continue enjoying! See you in the next chapter!

xx, BeatofWings~