ONE MINUTE BACK.

I'm gonna emigrate for sure now.

Change my name, dye my hair back to black and live a peaceful life in Europe, where there aren't enough Korean boys to ruin my life.

Really, I'm done with this country. It's full of hurt and hot guys that dance with you on parties, talk to you in Psychology class but actually hate you.

And for god's sake, the worst is that I never saw SHINee after all those years of living in Seoul!

"Wait!" Kai yells after me, but I keep running.

Thousand thoughts circulate inside of my tiny brain, trying to get along with this situation. If I could just go one minute back, back to the time everything was alright, back then when he was still the one I thought he was.

Another problem might also be that I'm an awful runner and already nearly dying, but I keep ignoring Kai's yells anyway.

Well, until I twist my ankle and trip painfully.

"!" I touch my ankle in pain, cursing myself for never wearing flats.

I really do need to change my clothing.

Kai bows down to inspect my foot before looking at me in worry. I stare at the floor, unable to keep tears from falling down my cheeks.

"Don't cry," is everything Kai manages to say, because he's obviously feeling over challenged. He looks like he's the one who doesn't know what to do.

I hide my face behind my hair. "Please, go away. I don't want to see anyone right now."

Kai's expression suddenly gets more serious, nearly angry, before he lifts me up bridal style, not caring about my kicking and struggling against him.

"Shut up," he shushes me, suddenly totally Kai instead of being nice-boy-Jongin.

"Leave me alone!" I cry out, struggling to get away, but he's too strong; I give up, burying my face on his shoulder.

"This is embarrassing," I mumble, hoping that no one sees us.

"I said shut up." His voice is sharp and annoyed.
I stay silent, eyes closed but limps still slightly trembling.

I don't see where Kai takes me as I'm afraid to open my eyes. After a walk through empty halls I feel him open various doors and also step on the campus; several minutes pass by until I feel like I'm thrown onto something soft.

"What the ?!" I hear a guy exclaim.

I open my eyes to find myself to be on an unknown bed in an unknown room - a room with Byun Baekhyun sitting on the floor in front of an old Nintendo 64, wearing sweats and, holy , no eyeliner.

He suddenly reminds me a lot of a puppy. Bad boy puppy, but still a puppy.

"This is your fault!" Kai yells at Baekhyun, making me flinch.

Oh, , , .

War of the s.

"You come inside my room, throw a crying girl on my bed and tell me it's my fault?"

Baekhyun lets go of his controller, stopping his round of Super Smash Brothers. It disturbs me that he plays as Jigglypuff, I imagined him to be more the type for Falcon or Samus but now's not the time to wonder about this.

"Chanyeol made her cry because you stupid never teached him any manners! Because you only teach him how to treat women like !" Kai yells, his voice was never deeper and more terrifying.
I really want to get out of here.

"Excuse me?" Baekhyun stands up, facing Kai. "You tell me I don't treat women right? You would probably your own sister!"

And with those words the longest hour of my life begins.

Lamps are thrown, blows are stricken and I scream about twenty times because I thought those two would kill each other.

Soon the heated discussion runs out of track until they are simply debating about who has a longer . Good thing I manage to throw myself between the boys before they have the chance to compare.

Bad thing that I totally destroy my hurt ankle in the process.

One hour becomes two hours in which I'm unable to sneak out of hell because Kai wants me to listen to all those ty comebacks and feeling like my right foot needs to be amputated.

It's not about Chanyeol or manners in a long time. They're talking about some weird stuff involving high school and friendship now, and I suddenly can't keep myself from listening.

"You are acting like we never were Exo, damn it!" Kai grabs Baekhyun by his shoulders, making me jump slightly in shock. Baekhyun gets shaken him violently. "Like we all never were one!"

Exo?

Being one?

Is this something about a gay math club ?

Baekhyun snorts, shaking him off. "Yeah, you talk. You only hang out with Kyungsoo now, leaving Chanyeol and me alone. Suho doesn't want to get involved and Sehun? God knows what that guy is doing, so who cares about stupid Exo anymore?"

What the is going on?

Sehun? They know Sehun?

And what is this Exo?

I try to remember highschool and lessons teaching me useless words like 'exothermic'. Was it Maths? Chemistry? I don't ing remember .

"Really?" Kai looks like he's on the verge of tears. He reminds me of a koala bear. , he looks exactly like a Koala. Why did I never notice that? "Exo is only history to you? You gave us all a heart attack with all the you pulled, telling Sehun to don't go, but in the end you don't even know what is love! You brought thunder to our whole group, growling like a wolf and letting out the beast, you are still behaving like Peter Pan, damn it!"

He either is showing symptoms of or trying to name as many stupid words in one sentence as possible. I'm not sure.

Then, someone's knocking on the door. My heart skips a beat, because I exactly know who also lives in this room. I look at the second bed, mounted with Rilakkuma plushies and bedding.

Park Chanyeol.

"Open the door, it's Yeol," Baekhyun hisses, looking at Kai.

My heartbeat starts again - in twice the speed.

"What? So he can insult innocent girls some more?" Kai snorts.

My stomach starts to hurt again.

Knock, knock.

Now louder, accompanied by a "Let me in, Baek!" in the most beautiful and painful voice on earth.

Kai looks at my trembling self in worry. "I didn't want this to happen."

I nod, looking at the floor. No tiles, but wood. "It's okay," I whisper.

With a last look in my direction, Kai opens the door for Chanyeol to come in, before Kai locks it once again.

"Kai?" Chanyeol blinks in surprise, before wrinkling his brow, looking at Baekhyun. I don't miss out on how pretty he looks like this, wearing a hoodie once again, featuring the same jeans that is too big for him. "What is going on?"

He hasn't noticed me yet. I try to remain silent. Maybe I can sneak out later.

I reach for my backpack as silently as possible, attempting to text Minseok to save me somehow. Then I remember he's in class and that he'll never reads his messages in lessons. And texting someone else is no option. Luhan is stupid, Lay is also, okay, maybe Chen could handle this, but I'm not sure if he's busy laying Lay, Tao would just advise me to start an and Kris would either break in this door and kill everyone or ignore my message, depending on his mood.

Do I really have to endure this torture?

Arguing manwhores talking about high school math club issues featuring my dream guy standing there and being dreamy?

I really need to get out of here. I need to-

"MOMMY IS HERE TO SAVE HER BABY!"

BOOM.

Baekhyun's door bursts open, revealing a panting Luhan, accompanied by a very upset looking Minseok.

The room turns silent. Kai, Baekhyun, Chanyeol and I look at those two in shock, especially when Luhan runs over to me and gets me off the bed.

"What were they doing to you? Are you hurt? Do you still have your ?!" Luhan asks.

The last time I remember him to be that worried was in high school, when I decided to learn how to ride a bike and killed about three pigeons and myself in the process.

"Oh my ing god, don't touch me," I hiss, struggling against his touch. "And how the did you know where I am?!"

Luhan wipes sweat from his forehead, looking at me with the biggest amount of love I've ever seen in someone's eyes. "A mother feels something like this."

Okay, what the . I won't question this.

"What is she doing here, Baek?" Chanyeol asks, his voice now deeper and more silent.

A shiver runs down my spine. The red of his hoodie makes him look mind blowing, complimenting his white skin.

I want to kiss him, but I want to cry and punch him at the same time.

It's similar to my feelings for various idols.

"Kai brought her here. She was crying and hurt. He said you were badmouthing her." I never expected Baekhyun to ever sound that… serious.

"What? What have you done to my baby?!" Luhan yells, jumping up to beat the out of Chanyeol. I try to hold him back, sneaking my hands around his waist.

Minseok comes for help, pinning Luhan down in a rather homoual way. Nice display.

I hope those two one day. If they haven't already had.

Baekhyun laughs a little at the scene, before looking at Chanyeol again. "So?"

Chanyeol looks at me for a second and our eyes meet. He turns away again, now crimson red. "It's her fault from jumping from guy to guy." He looks like a child, crossing his arms and looking at the floor.

For the second time today I feel like someone stabbed my chest.

"I am not!" I yell, making everyone look at me in shock. "You don't know anything about me! And I was defending you in front of the s in my class!" Tears form in my eyes. "It doesn't matter. You're just like everyone else. They are right about you being disgusting."

I take a last look at the no longer pretty form of Park Chanyeol, who looks back at me with huge, shocked eyes, before I storm out of the room.
Well, I attempt to, but my twisted ankle makes me trip again - well, nearly.

Park Chanyeol's arms are stronger than expected. The warmth of his skin is overwhelming as he holds me, his black eyes looking at mine. There's something about his look that captures me, maybe it's the guilt, the shock, the worry or the insecurity I think to see, that is nearly making me fall all over again for him.

Well, nearly.

I shake him off, without so much as looking at him.

I don't want to fall for him.

I don't want to see him ever again.

"Minseok, Luhan, let's go."

The boys both nod, stabilizing me and helping me getting away from this god forsaken place.

After various painful steps we finally reach Luhan's and Minseok's room, where I fall onto Luhan's bed immediately.

"I think you have a lot to tell us," Minseok sighs, straddling my hair.

Luhan's pillow muffles my sigh. "Yeah, probably."

I feel someone sit beside me, and a second later a soft hand touches my… .

" you, Luhan!" I throw the pillow at him. "I'm still mad at you because of that ing cake!"

"Chill!" Luhan looks offended, as if he's now the devil. "I just wanted to cheer you up!"

Yeah, so much for being my mum.

I sigh again, deciding to ignore his existence before I tell Minseok what happened today.

"So the cake was a bad idea, after all…" Minseok shakes his head, hiding his eyes. "I'm so sorry."

"It's Poohan's fault," I reassure him, ignoring Luhan's "Hey! I'm still here, you know!"

"And what do you plan to do now?" Minseok looks at me, not able to hide his guilt.

I smile bitterly. "Forgetting about Park Chanyeol, I guess."

Minseok pats my head. "We will find a solution. But let's take care of your ankle first."

And so Minseok disappears to get a first aid kid and dressing material for my ankle, taking Luhan with him to prevent more -touching.

I reach in my backpack again, taking out my mobile to text a certain someone.

To: Unknown number
tell me about exo

My display is not even locked yet when I already get an answer message.

Unknown number
I’d tell you everything in exchange for a date night noona ♡

I swallow before texting back.

To: Unknown number
meet me at seven.

Again, not even thirty seconds pass.

Unknown number
I’ll come pick you up then, wear something cute for me ♡

I don't bother answering, so I just save the number in my contacts under 'boy'.

boy aka Oh Sehun aka robot Chanyeol arrives at point seven pm.

I manage to sneak out of my room under the excuse of needing to buy sanitary pads, knowing that this excuse always makes sure that Luhan and Minseok won't follow me.

Explaining them why I leave in a pastel pink dress is also easier than I thought it'll be.

"I want to dress nicely, is that a crime?" I only say, and they let it slide. I'm thankful at myself for always being so picky about my clothes, otherwise this lame excuse would have never worked out.

The campus is only filled with a few people, and one of them is tall and black haired and has the body of a noodle.

Oh Sehun is one hell of a handsome guy, I admit. He's nearly as tall as his brother with his five and a half years, his hair just as black as Chanyeol's and taste in fashion flawless.

He wears a beanie, sunglasses and a college jacket. I don't get how he can look like a model in such simple clothes while his brother would probably look like diarrhea in designer clothes.

He slightly smiles as I head in his direction, now wearing sneakers because my ankle still feels .

Sehun takes off his sunglasses, mustering me. "You look even cuter than I remember you, noona."

"Yeah, yeah. Because my hair is brushed today, Einstein."

He laughs at my comeback, a weird laugh that doesn't fit his robot-livestyle, still looking like a machine. Then, he takes my hand. "I know a coffee shop that's nearly as cute as you are, noona. Let's go."

Ugh.

How can such a high pitched, monotone voice sound so manly and… djskxksld.

I don't know how to react properly. I want to scream at him and make him audition for a boy group because damn, all the charisma and charme that his brother doesn't have landed in Sehun's robot body.

But I must not forget the mission.

Sehun holds my hand on the whole bus ride. He pays my ticket and asks me about my day, my life and makes me tons of compliments. I only glare at him. Perfect boys make me angry, somehow.

SHINee's an exception, because they are dorks off stage. And even on stage. They even breathe in a weird way. SHINee are weird as .

Looking at Sehun's face, he suddenly looks more like Luhan than Chanyeol to me. If I squint my eyes, their faces are identical. It scares me to ride the bus with Luhan and Chanyeol's lovechild.

We arrive at the coffee shop at quarter past seven. Sehun's hand is still wrapped around mine, and his hand sure is huge. My hand is sweaty and slippery but he still doesn't let go.

He holds the door open for me to enter; for a second I stare at our reflection in the glass.

He actually looks older than me. We look like a ing couple, and I am the high schooler in this setting. My head doesn't even reach his shoulder - I have a hard time imagining how stupid I must look next to Chanyeol, who's even taller. Sehun gives off that mature vibe while I've always looked younger.

Drumming the absurd thought of Sehun and me being a couple out of my head is not easy, when the coffee shop actually proves to be a bubble tea shop. Little was fooling me.

"Coffee sounds classier than Bubble Tea. I hope you don't mind."

Sehun shrugs, and I want to punch him in the guts for bringing me to a place filled with teenagers. I have to deal with brats all day and now this?

"Coconut, black, vanilla bubbles?" Sehun asks, grinning at me.

I nod absentmindly and go find a seat to spend some time away from that maniac.

"Whoa, that guy's absolutely gorgeous!"

"He's so handsome!"

"Wow, look at how tall he is!"

"Oh my god, he's so skinny, but can you see that ?"

Sehun must have a huge ego if girls go crazy every time they see him.

I realize that he indeed has a huge . All the genes went straight to him, too. Chanyeol's is as flat as Kim Jonghyun's, whose flatness level is pretty hard to archive.

It's like a life goal.

I plug in my headphones to escape the fangirls that are placed all around the room and my thoughts of Chanyeol's , letting SHINee's new album play.

I need to forget him, he hates me, he's as , I chant internally, following the rhythm of SHINee's Love Sick.

Then I realize that it's a sequel to Replay, a song about…

"Noona." Sehun soon comes back with two bubble teas and a piece of strawberry cake. This is probably the first and only bubble tea shop on earth that sells cake. "I didn't know what kind of cake you like, but strawberries are as sweet as you." Sehun grins at me and I can hear fangirls scream in the background.

"Thanks, bro," I mumble, empathising the word 'bro'. Bro should know his place. Me ain't no noona, .

"Bro?" Sehun laughs. "You shouldn't call your date that."

"I'm sorry, I don't date toddlers," I munch, mouth full of cake. It's not the place to act feminine. I need to be as disgusting and, well… like myself, to scare him off.

"I'm glad to be able to tell you I turned seventeen. So there's hardly a difference between us, now."

"Oh, happy belated birthday, my son. I'll buy you a hot wheel or something in exchange for being such a good little boy. Now eat your veggies."

He bursts out laughing, making more fangirls stare at us.

Is this shop only filled with pubescent girls? Why are they all thinner than me? Do they want to get punched? Where are their ing parents, letting them out in this hour?

Questions upon questions.

I eat my cake silently, like fat people do, feeling Sehun's gaze on me.

It's annoying as hell, so I decide to come to the point of this whole meetup.

"Ekso," I only say, making him chuckle slightly.

"I will tell you about Exo, if you tell me why you like my brother."

He smirks his devilish grin. I want to slap him. Not in an way, of course. Even though his would be perfect for that.

"I don't do, anymore." I take a sip of my bubble tea. Coconut, . I totally forgot about this. Flashbacks all over the place.

"Oh? How come?" He raises an eyebrow, making more fangirls scream.

What is privacy?

"He hates me. Long story. It doesn't matter now, I want to know about Ekso."

Sehun sighs. "Noona, you need to learn how to cooperate. But you're too cute to ignore, so I'll tell you."

Cute, my . I'd be capable of killing all my friends without looking back, running amok, kidnapping SHINee and causing a nuclear war in only one afternoon.

But when Sehun opens his mouth, I brace myself for the worst.

"So, back then when my brother was in middle school, I always hung up with him and his friends. Baekhyun, I guess you know him already, was our neighbour so we always played together. My best friend, Kai, joined us."

I nearly choke on my bubble tea.

Kai was Sehun's best friend?!

How did I miss out on this?

Why do I miss out on everything?

And why the hell are all people in my life secretly connected like this was a strange crossover universe created by a mangaka without hobbies?!

"One day, Kai brought his neighbour with him. A sickish boy. Kai's mother wanted him to take care of him, so he joined us. His name was Kyungsoo."

Sickish boy?

I remember the boy Kai took care of in the hospital. Could this Kyungsoo be owl boy?

"We always did pretty stupid stuff. An upperclassman from Kyungsoo's school once caught us setting a trash can on fire. He was a huge nerd, student council and everything. He always nagged, but he somehow became our friend. His name was Junmyeon hyung, but we called him Suho, because he was our suho after all - he acted just like a guardian for us." Sehun smiles at the memory of his hyung.

Once again a bubble gets stuck in my throat.

Junmyeon, my middle school crush?!

No, , no!

Which means that… owl boy was on my school.

This can't be happening, Seoul is huge, how is this possible?!

And why does Sehun give off the vibe that he ed Junmyeon?!

"Is everything alright?" Sehun asks as I catch my breath again.

No, nothing is alright! "Yeah, continue please."

"Okay, so, we were calling ourselves Exo. Don't ask why, I don't know either. We were something like a gang, I guess." He laughs, scratching the back of his head. "Something like the Bangtans, but now as embarrassing, I guess."

Pft, still sounds like a gay math club to me.

"But soon we started to argue a lot. Kai and Baekhyun always fought, Kyungsoo got really sick and Kai left us to take more care of him. I guess he did became his best friend. Since I felt alone, I left too, doing my own stuff. Somehow everything fell apart in last year of middle school. We never hung up again. In the end only Chanyeol and Baekhyun stayed friends, so Chanyeol started working a lot so he could attend the same expensive college as Baekhyun. Our family isn't exactly wealthy, but he somehow managed it." Sehun takes a final sip on his tea. "That's it, basically."

Oh. I expected crime stories or something.

That was lame if you ignore the fact that my first crush was in a math club gang with my recent crush and his younger brother plus the school , my shawol friend and an owl.

"Okay, thanks." I finish my cake and take out my wallet.

"No, stop! It's on me, silly." Sehun shoves my money away. "You can repay me on prom night."

I don't miss the ual undertone. My loins might feel flattered and very alive because of his voice, but my brain is saying 'Error: File not found'.

"Uhm, I'm sorry for not being sorry to tell you that I won't attend your prom. Tell your brother whatever you want, it doesn't matter anymore. I won't come."
Sehun grins his robot grin - other wave of girls scream (where are they all coming from?!) - before opening his mouth to destroy my life. "I have pictures of him in his pyjamas when he was in first year of high school. His pyjamas only consisted of boxer shorts, by the way."

I nearly faint.

My ert mind runs crazy picturing cute little Highschoolyeol, topless and god knows why, this time in Hello Kitty boxers. I'm not sure if something like this exists, but it would sure satisfy my sick brain.

Not only my loins are screaming 'yEs' now, my brain is also crippled.

"Deal."

Hey there! Thank you your subscribing and staying tuned.

I had to split this chapter up into two because it ended up being over thousand words. So expect the next chapter to come soon.

A little warning for the next chapter:

ual themes and a huge pile of unnecessary drama awaits you. Be prepared!

I also apologise in advance for what's going to happen. Please don't kill me /hides