"Things you don't expect sometimes knock like how you least expected it from coming."

Time surely passes by as quickly as it can when you don’t notice it. You spend your days to the fullest, spent each one like it’s the last, that you almost forget how much important time for you should be. You forget how much you badly want it to stop for you no matter how much you look forward to the next day.

And when you notice how much time you’ve consumed, you’ve lost, suddenly you just wish there’s just plus one more day to spend. Just at least one more day.

But how impossible is a plus one more day when time can’t adjust for you?

Today, is the third week of November.

14 more days before the start of Christmas vacation and Sehun’s departure.

“Choi Sungrin,”

“Ya! Sungrin-ah!”

I snapped out of my own trance when I heard the mention of my name. I looked up from where I am sitting and saw Hanjoo already huffing out restlessly. “W-wae?”

She sighs and then fans herself to calm down. “What were you even spacing out for?” She asks as she stalks towards the table behind me and grabs a bottle of water. “Nami rushed out of the classroom to meet her boyfriend and the booth needs people. I came here to ask you to take over her post.” She told me before uncapping her bottle and gulping a huge amount of water.

I frowned at what she said. “But I just finished giving out flyers by the school yard. I’m tired Hanjoo. Can’t you just find somebody else?” I told her tiredly.

She sighed again and groaned in annoyance with what I had answered, “But tell me, who else would I pick now? Everyone’s busy doing their own job and you’re the only one free to serve our customers.” She told me.

“Just go get Chen to help you.” I told her, and she scoffed at this.

“Don’t mention that kid here since he’s not even helping his own class.” She chides, and I almost burst out laughing at the bitter tone she used when mentioning the said boy.

I sighed and leaned back on the table behind me. “Arasso, I got it mom.” I smiled at her and stood up when I noticed how irritated she became. “You’re really lucky that I love you, Joo.” I told her before ruffling her hair and passing by her.

“I’ll keep an eye on you.” She says behind me, “If you slack off even once, I swear that you’re not gonna get free lunch!”

I looked back at her and snickered. “Okay, boss. Just make sure to feed me enough and I’ll be working hard however you like.”

I went out from behind the counter and gazed around our classroom we have turned into a café for the annual university fair that we are all currently celebrating. The room has been filled with customers since this morning and needing enough people to serve the guests, almost all of us have been taking shifts to bringing orders to them. I was assigned to give out flyers by the yard, but having finished earlier with enough help from my other friends despite their own booths to handle, Hanjoo’s fire-breathing dragon mode kicked in again and threw me right in the arena once more.

“You can do this. You can do this.” I told myself as I saw how busy the room still is.

“Think of this as a distraction, so you don’t have to think about the few days left.” I convinced myself even though it’s almost impossible not to think about the inevitable future no matter how hard I try to distract myself.

When new people got in, I rushed to them and assisted them to empty seats near the windows. They sat down and I took their orders as quickly as I can, passed the orders to people behind the counter collecting the slips, and when the orders were finally ready, I served everything to the guests. The routine repeated itself over and over, as if it is a nonstop cycle. It was damn tiring and I don’t even know how I managed to last without eating lunch at all. Perhaps my endurance for doing part-time jobs in the past kicked in and I’m just lucky to have used my experience as my anchor.

When another batch of guests got in, greeting them was like already done by instinct. “Welcome to our café!”

I looked up, was about to smile, when I noticed Sehun, Baekhyun, Chen, Kai and Suho actually getting in. Behind them were the rest of the group, noisily coming in. Some of them were busily chatting happily when Sehun and Kai already noticed me. The latter waved in acknowledgement, while the previous just strode towards me without minding the stares he and their group were getting.

“Hey.” He uttered as he tuck strands of my hair behind my ear and looked at me with utter concern. “You look tired.”

I forced out a smile and held onto his arm. “I was just so busy that I already look this haggard.” He heaved out a small smile at my words, but worry still overtook his features.

“Stop staring at me like that.” I chided as I slapped his chest lightly. “I’m not that tired.” I tried convincing him but he still remained looking doubtful. “Why did you even come here with your friends?” I asked.

He looked behind him and then faced me again, “Well, we heard your booth got kind of popular today since people coming out of this classroom kept saying how good your food is, and how pretty the server is.” He utters out as he taps my cheek, but I knew he only said that to flatter me that I snorted at him when he’s finally done with his speech.

 “Wae? How come you don’t believe your own boyfriend? I was just—“ I slapped a hand over his lips to stop him from spouting more nonsense but he only kissed my palm in return, making me pull away and laugh at his embarrassing acts.

“You’re such a goo, Sehun. Why don’t you just go and entertain your friends over there?” I told him as I pointed at the group behind him still standing by the doorway, blocking other guests from coming in.

“Ya! Kids, mind coming in and sitting down, already?” I hollered over to them, and they grinned at me as they scrambled their way to empty seats in the room.

I turned to Sehun again and pushed him back lightly to urge him to sit down with the rest, “Get going and I’ll get you guys your orders.” I told him.

Instead of making a move though, he held my hand and pouted at me. “Can’t you even take a break and eat with us?” He pleaded.

I shook my head in denial even though I want to just actually accept his suggestion. “I’ll just catch up later—“

“Sehun-ah,” I turned around only to see Hanjoo behind us, “Go take that girl from here already. She has already done enough, but even if I told her to have lunch before she just wouldn’t. Please get her away from here before she obsesses herself in working.” She shoos me away with a hand and shoves me closer to Sehun.

“But—“

She narrowed her eyes at me and pressed her lips to a thin line. “No buts, missy. You’ve already done a lot for today, so why don’t you spend the rest of the day with him?” She suggested cheekily and winked at me.

I felt my cheeks flush at her playful remark, but I refused to show her how flustered I already am that I still tried to sound normal. “You sure about this?”

She nodded and smiled at me. “Of course. I can’t let the lovebirds get separated for the rest of the day, can I?”

Sehun squeezed my hand and chuckled. “If you will insist then, I will snatch this girl away from your booth for the rest of the day.” He told her.

“You better not let her return, or else—“

“Arasso.” I held up a hand to stop her from saying more cheesy stuff. “In return, I’ll just find Nami for you, so she can at least help.”

“Better.” She breathed out and left us alone to get the orders of the rest of the guests in my stead.

I joined the group soon enough, ate well along with them, and had mini chatters consisting the activities we did throughout the day.

Apparently, half of the group which came to visit the university fair as per Sehun and the others’ invitations came early this morning and patrolled the grounds, played mini games set up by other students, and finally came strolling towards the Dance Department’s booths to snatch Sehun and Kai. Chen casually left their booth like the lazy bum he is when they finally found him and joined them. Suho was running errands for his own class when he got found and got salvaged from being the hardworking lackey to their booth (he was just too nice to say no to his classmates that he endured being ordered around). Baekhyun was idly spending his time at the soccer field when Chanyeol tackled him to the ground like an overly happy seal and he finally joined the gang (it was the most hilarious account for the day, I tell you.).

It’s about three in the afternoon when all of us decided on leaving my class’ café booth to stroll around for the second time since they wanted me to enjoy the things they actually already went through before when I was still busy and wasn’t around with them. We stopped by at almost every stall, and whenever I found things eye-catching Sehun would always be on the watch and ask me if I liked any, but I would always tell him otherwise since I knew he’d buy me anything without thinking twice.

“Can you give me this hairclip for her?” He asked as he pointed at the hair ornament with flower designs on it, that I had actually touched briefly a while ago, to the girl behind the booth selling hairclips.

“Ah, really, there’s no need to buy me anything Sehun. It would be a waste—“ I tried telling him as I clasped my hands around his arm to stop him, but he only pulled his arm away and took a hold of the clip, as the girl held it out to him, and he paid for it.

“What waste are you even talking about?” He asked when he finally faced me and pulled me closer to him.

I was a little taken aback by his sudden action that I couldn’t do anything but blink at him in wonder and flinch when he actually raises his hand to pin the hairclip through my hair. He my hair with both his hands from the top and slides them down till my shoulders as he stares at me with fondness, cups the sides of my face and then caresses my cheeks with both his thumb while smiling at me, before leaning down and kissing the top of my head like I was his precious possession. It felt so dreamy, so sweet, so sudden that I wasn’t actually able to control the change in color of my cheeks when he finally pulled away to look at me again.

“What is there to waste when the one I’m going to spend for is you?” He says, but I was too flustered by his deeds to even resp