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As early as day one, Nayeon has formed a decent amount of connection with Seunghee's circle of friends. She joins the group as if she's part of it from the beginning. Being her, it doesn't take much for the others to adjust being with her. Not to mention, someone's growing adoration for her is on the go, before even appearing in the circle.

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At the gym, the group rendezvous during their free time. Just idling down, chitchatting like they usually do. They are scattered in the bleachers almost together but within a minimal distance from each other.

Sehun and Areum are somewhat busy cuddling, watching some video on his smart phone. Something both of them have been enjoying for a while recently. After viewing something, Areum exclaims.

"Wow! That was awesome! Can you do that?" Areum asks Sehun.

"What do you take me for? Of course, I can! Just watch me next rehearsals," he answers her quite certainly.

"I bet you can't."

"For how much?"

"My whole allowance!" she says this with a taunting grin.

"You really have so little faith in me. It hurts. Just wait and see Lee Areum," he eyes her with a serious look.

"I definitely will."

But it's always playtime for these two, Sehun treats it as if nothing, puts him arm around her and says, "Come on let's watch the next one."

That's what she loves about him. Even if she's frank about her thoughts of him, that she oftentimes hurt him, but not intentionally, he always has the last laugh after everything. Proving to her that he's more to what she gauges him to be. And be the better Oh Sehun each and every day. In return, she does all sorts of stuff for him. It may not be obvious but she devotes all her time for him in the sidelines. That's why Sehun works even harder just for her.

On the other hand, the 95 liners and Sorn are sitting close by with a different topic. Seunghee sits in between Jeonghan and Nayeon, and just a meter away from them are Seungcheol, Jisoo and Sorn.

"Now it's a duet for sure," Seungcheol utters.

"Aren't you just wishing for a duet?" Jeonghan intrigues with a hint of teasing.

"And somehow picking up the perfect duet partner," Jisoo adds.

These boys have been picking on Seungcheol since Nayeon came. It's the first time he's ever revealed a façade like this. He's trying too much, seems like cupid shot him on the right spot hard. He found the person who makes his heart explode.

Seungcheol can't respond to the two, if he did, he'll probably show his true cruel nature. And he doesn't want to let it show just yet.

"Why? What happened last term?" Nayeon asks.

"We thought it was a group one but ended up with solo ones. That prof always has the most radical decisions," Seunghee answers her.

"I got to sing a duet with Jisoo oppa though," Sorn adds.

"Yeah, it was awesome," Jisoo smiles at Sorn.

"Oh yeah the english song," Seunghee tells.

"Seunghee ranked first that time, with her composition," Jeonghan shares.

She pats his arm and says, trying to be humble, "I was just lucky, don't mind him."

Seeing Seunghee holding his arm like that, and Jeonghan treating it as if it's their everyday routine, Nayeon suspects there's something she doesn't know about. She can see Seunghee and Jeonghan are always together. And their closeness is different from the others. She doesn't want to entertain undesirable thoughts so she decides to ask Seunghee about it when she has the chance.

"So what's your strong point Nayeon?" Jeonghan asks.

It still rings in her ears, the way he calls her by her first name. It's only been a while but all of them has been calling her informally already. Mostly her peers.

"I like dancing better. But I try to write some songs once in a while," she replies.

"You definitely should start writing now. That prof's a bit strict when it comes to compositions," Seunghee adds.

"I can handle that. Don't worry," Nayeon confidently replies.

Seungcheol whistles at her remarks. She sure is one confident girl. Just his type. Nayeon quite found it rude though.

"Don't just sound a whistle whenever you like Seungcheol," Nayeon tells him off.

"It didn't mean anything. Why are you so defensive?" Seungcheol utters.

"It's actually rude, don't you have any common sense?" she replies.

"So we're talking about common sense now? I do it all the time though," he continues to say.

The others silently observe how their talk is going. And it's obvious that they're liking how these two are interacting. It's interesting why they're like this. They watch them with the corners of their lips forming grins.

"Then you're one hell of a rude guy," she's unexpectedly ticked off at this guy. She can't understand why.

He snorts at her like taunting her, "You haven't seen the rude part of me yet."

"Whatever, I don't care."

"Then how about we hang out after class, so you experience it first hand?"

"No thanks, I'm not interested."

"Now who's being rude?"

"What?" she grimaces at him, not hiding her annoyance.

"Whoa!! Break it off for half time!!" Sehun exclaims right behind them. "You guys are heating up, chill!"

The others notice it too. Since day one, Seungcheol and Nayeon have been somehow prickly with each other. They know Seungcheol has a thing for her, but how about Nayeon? They don't know why she acts this way about him. Although that instant, all of them are certain that there is definitely some unknown connection between these two.

"Why don't we hit the floor then?" Seungcheol says as he sees the persons playing at the court have ended their play. "Hyung! Are you up for a play?"

Sehun replies affirmatively, "Yeah! Grab the ball Seungcheol!"

"Alright!" Seungcheol answers.

The other boys all agree and hop down the benches one by one. It's been a while since they played each other on an active game like this. As the boys are going down the bleachers, someone is calling Sorn, it's actually Jun but she doesn't want to let Seunghee know about it.

"I'll just take this call noona," she stands up and paces a few meters away from them as she answers the call.

"You're close to Jeonghan, aren't you?" Nayeon asks, in a camouflage, like teasing her.

"What are you saying? Of course we are! He's my boyfriend," Seunghee answers her casually.

It takes Nayeon aback big time. Her world crumbles for a moment but still manages to reply her calmly, "He's your boyfriend?"

"Yah, I didn't get to tell you? We got together since January."

Nayeon can't reply soonest but she has to, just not to let Seunghee learn of her secret.

"That's good for you!" she cracks a forced smile.

"Yah, it's been a while. I couldn't tell you before you left that I had a crush on him. Well, a major crush on him. And luckily, can you believe it? He felt the same all these years. It's so cliché, like those in movies and dramas. Who'd have thought it can really happen. I'm just one lucky girl."

Nayeon pauses for a while and takes a deep sigh. But then, she can't let this news overcome her. As Seunghee continues to tell her their love story, it continues to squash her heart too, like pummeling it to pieces bit by bit. Later on, Sorn joins them again. Areum follows soon and the four girls have a girl talk as the boys strut their stuffs at their surprise ball game.

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Down the basketball court, as they play, they can't help but tease Seungcheol for being overly obvious about his crush on Nayeon.

"Someone's trying to impress," Jeonghan says as he dribbles the ball and passes onto Jisoo.

"And looks like he's going for the win?" Jisoo dribbles too, passing onto Sehun.

"About time?" Sehun adds, trying to skip past Seungcheol with his play.

"Is this play 3 on 1?" Seungcheol asks seeing that the three guys are teaming up on him and they don't seem to bother. "Bring it on!"

Seungcheol doesn't let Sehun pass. He's really aiming for the win. "Not so fast hyung," he says with a smirk.

Eventually, he steals the ball from Sehun, drives under the basket, jumps and scores a lay-up.

"Whoa!!" the others exclaim in approval of the feat.

Seungcheol proudly smirks as he glances at the object of his effort, but sadly, she is so focused on listening to Seunghee talking at the bleachers that she did not even have a glimpse of his brilliant feat. The others crowd at him, cheering up on his failed attempt to impress the girl.

"Better luck next time coups," Jisoo taunts with a snicker.

"There's always a second time," Jeonghan seconds.

It irritates Seungcheol that they are the ones cheering up on him now. He can't believe he's acting like a lovesick puppy right now because of this girl.

"Aghh!! Let's go for another round!" he stomps his feet and shouts.

Sehun tosses the ball at him, "Chill man. You can do better than that. Impress the girl!"

It ticks him off, seems like Sehun knows about his endeavor as well. He grumpily points out to them one by one saying, "I won't let you score. Just watch me."

"Try me," Sehun replies.

Jeonghan and Jisoo just smirk at each other and the ball game restarts in a flash.

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"Hey," Seungcheol has been waiting for Nayeon to go out of her last class. With some effort, he got hold of her schedule from someone in the registrar. Nope, he's not stalking her, he's just checking her out.

Nayeon is a bit surprised seeing him there in the hallway. She stops somewhere near him. Her last class is a bit late and there are not much people in the campus anymore. But she smiles at him otherwise.

"Are you waiting for me?" she asks without a thought, in a sarcastic tone.

"No, I was just passing by," Seungcheol lies, but immediately takes it back, "No, I mean, yeah."

He can't look directly at her that she finds it funny. "Are you hitting on me?" she questions with a grimace.

"What? No, of course not. I was just waiting for you," he answers once again with this bothered look on his face.

"Then why are you waiting for me?" she walks past him giving him no attention.

It puts him on the edge. He can't blow this up. Looking at her receding figure, he utters again, "Nayeon-ie, I was thinking if you wanna hang out. And yeah, I'd like to know you."

It puts a smirk on her face. Someone is crushing on her this early on. It's amusing. She turns back to face him and sees his rather composed look with a slight hint of uneasiness.

"You... is this for real?" she asks snorting.

"Are you making fun of me?"

"No! no, I'm just amused." But she's definitely laughing at him inside.

"So which is it?"

"Which is what?"

"Your answer?"

"Oh. This doesn't mean anything right? But I don't want to be rude to you. So well, yeah, I'd like to have a tour around. I'm new to this place anyways. A cup of tea would be nice."

Seungcheol smiles at her satisfied. "Now we're talking. Come on, I'll treat you tea."

He walks by her and it surprises her again. Now he's walking ahead of her. This one's peculiar, she thinks.

He notices that she's still not moving. He looks back at her and asks, "What? I thought you're coming?"

"Ah, nothing," she follows him so they walk side by side now.

"I can take you around whenever you're free. Feel free to ask me anytime," he says.

"Sure. I'll do just that."

"I'm sorry about the whistling thing in the gym by the way," he says it so casually out of the blue.

She's surprised again. He's not all rude after all. "I'm surprised you can say sorry now."

"Well, you heard it. I'm not all rude when it matters."

She only smiles at him as they walk on by the corridors.

Together off they go for some fine tea. Seungcheol arrogantly thinks to himself that he'll eventually get this girl for good. But for now, he'll play along with her. She'll give in to him soon, he knows it. That's what he's showing on the surface but deep inside he's really wishing hard. This is the first time he's ever gone after a girl head on. He can't understand it himself. But he knows this is something worth fighting for. His feelings and this girl.

But Nayeon only wants one thing. To get close to Jeonghan. She can't have this kind of distraction. Maybe hanging out with him will relieve her of some stress but she can't really entertain his feelings. It took her long enough to come back, and finally get a hold of the guy she likes. And now that she has the chance, she'll definitely grab it. No matter whom she stumbles upon. No matter whom she hurts along the way. This is her one chance in getting him. And she will not hold back for anyone or anything.

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To be continued...

(16.06.03)