University of Wonderland

Chapter Fifteen

I looked up to see Minho wearing sweatpants and a 'No one cares about me' T-shirt. A snapback with the word 'SHINee' on his head. "Where did you come from?"

"Gym like you."

"You did not." I took a step away from him. I'd spent about ten minutes total with him so far in my life, and I could never get those back. My leaving was preemptive.

"A knot!" Minho craned his neck, searching. "Where is it? I'll undo it. Though as a general rule, I prefer tying things up over letting them loose." He fell into step beside me. "And FYI, I was sitting in the bleachers the whole time, watching your pathetic flirting attempt. Not my fault if you're incredibly oblivious."

"What class did you skip? Since you're obviously weren't participating." He gathered a wad of sweatpants fabric in his hand. "Do these look like my normal clothes? This hat isn't even mine!" So either he stole it or he was delusional. Tough choice. "I forgot a doctor's note." He lifted his palm to his mouth and fake-coughed. "I'm so sick."

"Yeah, you look like you're about to keel over."

"That's not funny," he said in a serious tone that almost made me follow it with a "sorry." But then I remembered my level of sympathy for Minho wouldn't even register on a normal thermometer.

"You must be sick because you're not acting like yourself. Talking to me like a normal person instead of threatening me." Or, you know, trying to solve the mystery of time travel via a broken watch and some determination.

"I haven't gotten to that part yet." He leaned into me, so close his warm breath breathes onto my face. "And I'm not going to threaten you. It's too early for that." He checked his watch. As long as he went by his stalled watch, it would never be time for threats. Though I did wonder what time he thought would be appropriate. "I'll tell you what I know and you can do what with that information, as long as it's the right thing."

His riddles weren't nearly as cryptic as Sulli's. He might as well ahve spelled "stay away" in skywriting. My throat went dry. As much as I could pretend he didn't intimidate me, I'd be lying to myself. "What do you know?"

"I know what you're up to. You want us to get caught. I saw you talking to that girl." He pointed back at the empty track as thought that might clarify whom he meant. "The one with the red hair? She's like president of a bazillon clubs."

"Kim Hyuna? I don't think -"

"then you shouldn't speak." He let out an exaggerated sigh.

"What about her?" I asked. A full minute passed by, with him fiddling with his watch and ignoring me. I knew how to get his attention: mention the only thing that could hold it. "It's time you told me about her."

"Him. Time is a him. Clearly you haven't spoken to him or you'd know that."

"We haven't really had a chance to get acquainted."

He lifted his head and studied me. Particularly, he studied my chest. "I can tell."

Omo! Was that . . . no way . . . I crossed my arms to shield his view. "What about Hyuna?"

"She's always snooping on my conversations, like she might get extra credit for unearthing something."

I pursed my lips. Hyuna did that? Maybe that was how she gathered her gossip ammo: she sniffed it out of people.

I rolled my eyes. "You don't know anything."

"Sehun may be blindsided, but I'm not. I know you're bad news, and I'm not going to sit by and let you ruin everything."

"I'm not going to ruin -"

"And I know for a fact Sehun is not what he seems. So you hope you're using him as an in to the group and not because you like him. Because when you learn about him, you won't."

Minho might be off his rocket and off in his interpretation of everything else he'd told me, but this was one area where held the crowning expertise.

. . . =^_^= . . . =^_^= . . .

School is starting on August 10, so I will not be posting a lot. But I will try to update for you guys~