Xiaojun and Ryujin sat in the packed stands, digging into their burgers as they waited for the game to start.

Yangyang and Lia approached, fresh from their date.

They were both dressed a little nicer than usual.

Yangyang glanced at Ryujin, uncomfortable.

Lia looked nervous as hell.

"Hey, guys." Yangyang greeted.

"Hey." Xiaojun answered awkwardly.

Yangyang and Lia sat down next to them, they were hard to read.

Xiaojun tried to break the silence.

"Uh, how was dinner?" Xiaojun asked awkwardly, trying to break the ice.

"It was cool." Yangyang forced out.

"Mhmm. We got soup dumplings." Lia added.

Another loaded silence.

The gang had never been so awkward together.

"I like your dress." Ryujin finally said to Lia.

"Oh, thanks-"

"I bet you'd like it even better if it had a pun on it." Yangyang said bitterly to Ryujin.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Yangyang shrugged and put his arm around Lia.

She was super uncomfortable, weirded out by Yangyang and Ryujin's charged dynamic.

Xiaojun cringed.

This was a disaster.

"And now, everyone please rise for the school song." The announcer's loud voice echoed, hardly cutting through the intense tension and awkwardness in the group.

Seulgi walked onto the field with a microphone.

"I'm sure this will be a subtle and tasteful rendition." Xiaojun said, trying to start up a conversation.

"Oooo-oohhh we-" She sang with a crazy vibrato.

Seulgi stopped singing when she noticed Kun rushing through the field in his Grizzly Bear costume.

He reached for her microphone.

"What the hell are you doing?" Seulgi asked as they struggled over the mic.

"I need the mic." He finally yanked the mic away from her.

Everyone stared at them, rapt as Kun took off his bear head.

"Oh no." Xiaojun said under his breath.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I have something to say that's a little more important than our school song. No offense, SM." Kun waited for a laugh that never came.

He cleared his throat and found Ryujin in the audience.

"Ryujin, when you came to SM High School three and a half short months ago, you didn't just transfer into a new school. You transferred into my heart." As he talked, he walked up into the bleachers, approaching her.

"Whether it's being your partner in pong or your Waffle House warrior..." Everyone looks confused.

This wasn't the easiest declaration of love to follow.

"I've really loved getting to know you this semester. And I know you're a beautiful, smart, perfect woman, and I'm just a sweaty schlub in a bear suit. But like ol' Bogie said, it's a crazy, mixed-up world." By now Kun was standing right in front of Ryujin.

"So? What do you say? Would you want to go out sometime?"

"Oh. Um..."

Ryujin took Kun's microphone and switched it off.

Kun shuffled uncomfortably, he could tell this wasn't going well.

"She's too hot for you, Kun!" A jock shouted from a few rows back.

"Way out of your league, buddy!" Another jock joke everyone around the jocks laughed.

"Shut up, Lucas!" Ryujin shouted before turning back to Kun.

"I just don't feel that way about you."

"You don't?" Yangyang blurted out, surprised.

Ryujin shot him a weird look.

Yangyang looked at Xiaojun with a look that said: "You told me she liked him."

Xiaojun just shrugged in response.

"I'm really sorry. I hope we can still be friends." Ryujin continued on.

Kun was devastated.

He took a deep breath, wiping his sweaty hair out of his eyes.

"Sure. Don't worry about it." He turned the mic back on and forced a manic: "And now back to Seulgi with our regular scheduled musical masterpiece."

He stumbled awkwardly back down to the field, almost tripping over a stray hotdog.

Ryujin picked up Kun's bear head.

"Kun, don't forget your ... head." Ryujin felt terrible.

He grabbed it, put it on and abruptly resumed chipper mascot mode, dancing back down to the field.

"You said she liked him." Yangyang whispered to Xiaojun.

"I thought she did."

"That was horrible." Ryujin said, stricken.

"Don't worry. People will have forgotten about it by the time we're back from Christmas break." Lia said gently.

Xiaojun watched Kun go, hoping that Lia was right...

●○●○●

Xiaojun sat at his desk in, calling Kun as he watched muted video that someone had posted to the SMSECRETS tumblr of Kun's big speech under the headline "Grizzly Grozzles For Love".

Xiaojun grimaced, feeling bad for Kun in spite of himself.

BEEEEEP.

You've reached Kun, leave me a message. Oh no you didn't, mother--

"Kun, it's Xiaojun. I'm sorry about tonight. Call me, okay?" Xiaojun spoje after Kun's bad jokey message before hanging up, worried about Kun.

"She's here!" Xiaojun could hear Yuna from downstairs.

●○●○●

Everyone excitedly greeted Yeri, home from college for Christmas break.

"You're supposed to gain the freshman fifteen, not lose the freshman twenty!" Mrs. Xiao said as she hugged her daughter.

"You are literally insane." Yeri said jokingly into her mom's shoulder.

"She looks fat to me." Mr. Xiao shrugged.

"That's not funny!" Mrs. Xiao rubbed Yeri's hair comfortingly before giving her countless kisses.

"I think you look the exact same weight. But a foot shorter." Xiaojun shrugged.

"I missed you, bub." Xiaojun and Yeri hugged.

Everything seemed a little better to Xiaojun with Yeri around.

●○●○●

Mr. Xiao passed out mulled cider for the family as Yeri told them all about college.

"I mean, I get being comfortable with your body but my roommate is always naked..."

Yeri faded into the background as Xiaojun checked his phone: a new e-mail from King Of Hearts.

He stepped away to read it.

=====
(a/n: enjoy this absolute shit chapter after months of no updates 😥😧)