"JIHYE!! JIHYE!" A loud noise was heard from somewhere near me. I fluttered my eyes open and yawned with my mouth widely.
The sight was blur and I rubbed my eyes a bit more. "OH GOD JIHYE! CAN YOU STOP SLEEPING?!" And there he was, my perfect brother, Kyungsoo standing in front of my study desk with his hands on both sides of his waist.
"Sorry, bro! Sleep is important to me. Studying can wait." I replied casually, still resting my head on the desk.
"You should listen to your brother. We've only gone through this for like an hour." Xiumin, who was sitting in between me and Luhan replied.
"Easy for you to say. Unlike you, a hollow mannequin, I sleep." I grinned at him with my eyes closed.
"HAHAHAH! At least our brains aren't as hollow as yours!" Luhan jeered and smirked at me.
I opened my eyes wide at his comment, made my way to him and smacked his head, hard.
"Don't call me that! Fine, I'll study!" I narrowed my eyes at Luhan and pouted.
"Omg Xiumin, look! Jihye pouted!! Isn't she the cutest thing ever?" Luhan pinching my cheeks now.
I glanced to my side at Xiumin and I saw him nodded and blushed a little. I gasped at his reaction and then maintained a straight face.
"Less chit chatty! And more studying guys!" Kyungsoo rolled his eyes at us.
"Oppa! So, who's the lucky one sitting next to you this semester at school?" I voiced out, clearly not concentrating and most probably disturbing the others too.
He looked up and had this serious face on.
"Baekhyun."
"Oooh! The cute guy at school? Why isn't he's the one that's tutoring me?" I blabber and smiled at Kyungsoo. But then I noticed something. I looked to my side and Xiumin was glaring at me and my comment.
I blinked innocently at him and then looked back at my book as if it was really interesting.
"Why would he teach the hollow Jihye? HEHHEHEHE!" Luhan teased me again. Clearly he, himself wasn't concentrating as well.
"Stop calling me that! I'll definitely beat the both of you in this test! Especially you, Luhan." I challenged and carried on, "Whoever gets higher scores, you'll get something in return."
"Fine. You sure you want to do this?" Luhan said, challenge mood on.
"Yeah! If I get higher scores than you, you'll have to do things as I said." I smirked, thinking all sorts of things I could do to Luhan when I score better than him.
"And if I win ..." Luhan contemplated for a moment and smirked at me. He came closer to my ears and whispered something that made my face go all red.
"NO! I CAN'T DO THAT!" I backed off and yelled.
"So you're scared? Not being able to score better than me?!" Luhan said.
"I didn't say that!!! Alright. Challenge accepted." I smiled at Luhan and determined I would do whatever it takes to score higher than him.
"Is Xiumin in?" Luhan asked.
"Whatever." Xiumin replied coolly and started flipping the pages of the books.
***
The time was around 1 in the morning as I rolled around my bed, still thinking about what Luhan challeged me to do.
Hmmm, I can't do what he asks me to do if he wins. People might laugh at me. Aish! This Luhan.
As I kept thinking, my train of thoughts brought me to the time where Luhan spilled something about Xiumin. I can't remember but I know that my Kyungsoo knew what exactly happened. I bit my lips as I needed to find out more. I wanted to wake Kyungsoo up to talk but most probably, he'll yell and shoo me away from his room.
So there's only one person left. I picked up my cellphone and dialled the number.
"Hey. Can you come over? I need someone to talk to."
***
I sat on the swing at the playground next to my house.
"Yo whassup?" Luhan came running towards me wearing his white hoodie, jeans and running shoes.
I gestured him to sit on the swing next to me.
"Girls like you shouldn't come out from the house at this hour. It's dangerous." Luhan warned.
"Yeah~ I know that. Look, Luhan." I've decided to jump straight to the point. "Remember what you said earlier? About Xiumin?"
"What about him?"
I then changed my question. "Can I know something?"
Luhan nodded.
"When will this be over? I mean all this fake relationship thing. Is there a limit to begin with?" I'm starting to get confused, so did Luhan. I didn't want this to stop, especially not when Xiumin was always around me but there's always a period.
Luhan stared at me for a very long time as if things he was going to say will hurt me deeply. And it did.
"We won't be here for long, Jihye. As long as we accomplished what we wanted in the first place, we'll go back to our lives. As a mannequin." Luhan explained.
"W-what?" My heart dropped. "You and Xiumin will be l-leaving?"
He didn't answer me, he continued. "I'm almost done with the things I wanted to do and Xiumin, he's looking for someone. But I'm not sure if that person appeared or going to or not."
"Who?" I asked curiously.
"I can't tell you, Jihye. Even if Xiumin can find her or not, he still have to return. We agreed on this the moment we became human."
Her? I shook that thought away.
"None of you told me this when we first met. Why didn't Xiumin say anything?" I was closed to tears.
"He can't. I told you why before this, Jihye. Don't you remember? He can't possibly tell you he's leaving. Xiumin likes you."
He couldn't be liking me. I thought. I'm confused. Sometimes I think he does but sometimes I don't think so. Who am I supposed to believe in?
If Xiumin wasn't going to find that person, he'll leave. Even if he found the person, he'll still leave. But if he's happy, I would gladly help him in the latter even if that means I'll have to sacrifice something.
I sobbed a bit and my voice was shaking.
"The t-time. How long? T-that's left ..." my voice trailed off.
"Three months."
***
The next morning, my face was swollen from all the crying but my mum insisted that I should go out and bring lunch to Kyungsoo to save the trouble of her travelling. So I did. I entered the studio and looked if the other students were around.
It was empty and pretty sure most of them went for lunch as well. I spotted my brother sitting with his friends at the corner laughing and joking (which scared me a little since it was the first time I see him that happy.)
"Oppa!" I called him across the room and it echoed. I was startled and Kyungsoo waved me over.
"Your lunch!" I shoved the tupperware in his hands and sat next to him.
"Jihye! Meet Jongin!" I looked at his friend and I couldn't believe it. He was there at the café the other day.
"I thought you're Kai." I asked, pretending to not care but I was really curious.
"I'm both Kai and Jongin." He smiled and his pearly white teeth was shown. His smile, it's nice, I thought. Only then I realised I was staring at him for far too long. He was still smiling so I quickly looked away.
"Erm... Kyungsoo! I need to have a moment with you." I grabbed Kyungsoo's arm and stood at the other corner. "Excuse us." Kyungsoo mouthed to Jongin apologetically.
"Did you know? About Xiumin?" I questioned my brother.
"No."
"Seriously, Kyungsoo. Do you really have to do that? You're bad at lying. That's my job."
He heaved a sigh. "You don't have to know, Jihye."
"I want to. Please ......." I begged my brother.
"Why do you want to do this, Jihye? You clearly know you can't have anything to do with him after this. That's why there's Jongin."
"Why Jongin?"
"He's a nice guy." Kyungsoo protested.
"Just tell me what happened. I'll do anything."
Kyungsoo contemplated for a second and began.
"Miyoung."
"Huh?" Who's that? I thought.
"There's a girl named Miyoung. Xiumin became a human for her. They had an accident. Miyoung was bleeding but Xiumin didn't. She was scared and thought he's crazy. It was one-sided, Jihye. She hurt him. That explains why he was so human in every aspect. He does have feelings, Jihye."
I was about to cry but managed to control it because Kai was staring. I can't believe it.
He didn't become human because of me. It was because of Miyoung. And the girl he needed to find. Is it her? It's her, isn't it?
"And one more thing, Jihye! They'll be leaving soon. Take my advice. Go out with Jongin."
"I know ..." my voice trailed off.
"T-thanks Kyungsoo. I should get going." I can't think straight. I went out the door and sat down on the staircase in front of the dance studio, pulling my knees towards my chest and was urging to cry.
I could control it no more as tears started flowing. I hid my face with both my arms. That was a lot to take in. I didn't know what to do.
I knew exactly why I felt how I am now.
I love him. That's why.
And that him was now standing in front of me.
"Jihye! I've been looking all over for you. Let's go have some lunch, shall we?" Xiumin's familiar voice ringing in my ears.
I could sense the excitement in his voice. That made me cried even louder.
He bent down to make sure I was okay. He lifted my chin up and cupped my face. He wiped the tears away as I cry. Worries was written all over his face.
"Xiumin-ah!" I called out as I wrapped his neck with my arms and pulled him closer to me. "I-I ..." I wanted to tell him I love him.
But those words didn't escape my mouth and he certainly didn't hear it.
I pulled back and looked in his eyes. "You're gonna leave." I whispered so silently only I, myself could hear me.
I began pulling his face nearer to mine with little force and kissed his lips. It didn't shock him. We both closed our eyes and he leaned in a little more, deepening the kiss.
Xiumin likes kissing Jihye but she didn't know it.
We pulled back and we were staring intimately at each other. My face was still wet from all the crying. Xiumin caressed my cheeks and leaned in to give me another quick kiss on my lips.
Well, I didn't expect that he would do that again. That feeling made my heart skipped a beat.
And few minutes later, the atmosphere was silent and the both of us could hear heels walking up the stairs. We tilted our heads to peek at the person.
The lady was tall in her heels and hair looked perfect as if it was fresh out from the salon. She wasn't as beautiful as Jihye. Her make-up was thick and she continued to approach Xiumin and Jihye. She looked familiar.
Ahh, Kai's sister. I thought and I furrowed my brows at her as she was approaching Xiumin.
"Minseok-ah! Long time no see."
She flashed a flirtatious smile at Xiumin, making me felt even sadder.
"I'm Miyoung."