Jae sat at the lab bench, head leaning on his hand as he looked down at his phone, watching it attentively. There was nothing in particular he was looking at, just the lock screen. He was, however, waiting for a text. It had been three days since he asked Catalina if she wanted to join him with his parents and she hadn't gotten back to him. He was somewhat hoping she would say yes, but of course he wasn't going to admit it, neither was he going to encourage her to go.

     "Hey." Hands fell on his shoulders and he was startled by the action. He stiffened and let out a sigh as he watched the perpetrator sit down beside him. "Whatcha looking at?" Daniel set his bag down on the floor before pulling out his biology textbook.

     "Nothing, really." Jae shrugged.

     Daniel gasped, "Is...is Jae warming up to me? You didn't call me nosy this time. Wow, I'm impressed."

     The Korean sent Daniel a glare before looking down at his phone as it vibrated. "Oh my god!" He gasped, but then he frowned seeing the text was just a company promotion of some sort. "Screw this."

     "Cat told us that you invited her out on a secret trip," Daniel cooed, "You waiting for a reply, lover boy?"

     "Leave me alone Daniel. This doesn't concern you."

     "Ah," he sighed, "and he's back to his normal self. Gotta admit I liked it while it lasted. Anyway, I think Quebec City is a great idea. It's romantic, European looking and beautiful, especially in winter."

     "Have you gone?" Jae looked over at him, rather intrigued.

     Daniel nodded. "You know it. I've gone a couple of times with my family. It's really picture-esque."

     Jae nodded, looking back at his phone. "You're her best friend right?"

     "Maddie, Drea and I? Yeah, you know that already, though."

     "Do you..." He tried to swallow his pride. "Do you think she'll want to go?"

     A smug grin grew on the brunet's mouth, a toothy smug grin. "Are you...nervous, Jae-Jae?"

     "I told you to stop calling me that!" Jae growled as he looked away, crossing his arms over his chest.

     "Right, only Cat can call you that, forgot 'bout that. Well, she said she asked her father and he agreed if her mom said yes. She's just waiting for the right time to ask her mom...which means she wants to go."

     Jae looked back at him. "Really?"

     "If I only know one thing about Cat after knowing her for seven years, it's that when she asks her father for permission before asking for her mother's it means that she really wants to go," Daniel assured him.

     "So we just have to wait and see what her mother says, right?"

     "Yup! Which can take a few days. Wait, is that what you're worried about? Is that what you were looking at your phone for?"

     "There's the T.A." Jae was lucky that the teacher's assistant walked into the room at that moment. He was relieved he didn't have to answer Daniel's question and possibly embarrass himself further.

     Somehow, still to Daniel's surprise, they worked well together as lab partners and they also got along well, omitting the fact that Jae was normally kept to himself and was occasionally on the defence. Time flew by and they were already handing the preliminary report as they left the class.

     "I think you should wear that for Halloween," Daniel commented. "Cat loves scientists."

     Jae looked down at his lab coat before slipping it off and grabbing his stuff from the locker. He folded the lab coat and placed all his things in his bag before he swung the black bag over his shoulder and scoffed. "I don't want to make a fool of myself, thank you very much."

     "You know, Cat just adores men in lab coats. You should do it, honestly."

     "To be honest, I don't trust you that much. For all I know, she probably hates lab coats because of childhood trauma or something." Jae rolled his eyes as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

     "You're being cynical, buddy."

     They walked down the hallway, conversing some more as after all the lunches they shared with Catalina, they grew to be friends. Yes, it was still a riveting concept for Jae, but he was starting to get along well with Madeline and Daniel. Andrea, on the other hand, was still quite cold towards him and maybe even a little bit menacing. She questioned him a lot and shot a few glares his way when she thought he wasn't looking. He understood her, albeit, she was just watching out for her friend.

     "Oh shit, isn't that Philip?" Daniel gasped as he hid his face by lowering his gaze.

     "Who?" Jae questioned, looking around.

     "The kid in the yellow crew neck, but don't look!" Daniel warned as he kept his eyes on the floor and away from a blond man that walked towards them.

     Jae analyzed the young man and shrugged as he passed them by, he fixed his black baseball cap and looked over at Daniel. "So, who is he?"

     "Cat's ex," Daniel shuddered as he made sure the boy was long gone. "He's a jerk."

     "Cat's ex boyfriend? Really?" Jae couldn't help but turn around and look to where the man had gone, but he couldn't catch another glimpse of him for they were lost in the sea of people leaving their classes. "The blond kid?"

     "Yeah, Philip was an asshole."

     Jae nodded slowly, turning back to Daniel who gave a disgusted look, as if he'd stepped barefoot on dog feces. "What'd he do?"

     Daniel now looked puzzled, brows furrowed and lips pouting to the side. "Cat hasn't told you? Not even about me?"

     "Uhm, should she have?" Jae blinked ignoring the second part Daniel had said.

     "Well, you're dating. I thought she'd tell you. You know, about her exes and all."

     "She hasn't."

     "Oh well... whoops, you shouldn't have heard that then. Wow, okay, just don't say anything, she'd kill me if she knew I so much as mentioned it."

     Nodding slowly, Jae spoke, "Of course. It'd only be proper."

     "Right, well, okay let's move on then."

     "Wait." Jae couldn't exactly let Daniel's comment go. "What did you mean by you? Did you and Cat date?"

     Daniel made a motion to zip up his mouth and throw the key. "I've said too much already."

     "I'll take that as a yes, then. How long ago was this?"

     "I told you I've said too much! I think that's her call to make, okay? I think she'll tell you when she's ready and we shouldn't rush her." Daniel opened the door for the next building while he looked off into the distance.

     "Of course, you're right." Jae agreed, lowering his gaze and fixing his cap. "So, who was the communist one? Were you the communist?"

     "Communist?" Daniel questioned, once again visibly confused and unnerved. "Where'd you get that from?"

     "From Madeline. She said that one of Cat's exes was communist and that meant he wasn't really her boyfriend. I don't know what that's supposed to mean."

     "Well, I'm not communist, so there's no need to worry about that. Unless it's a code word for something. I really don't know. We shouldn't even be talking about this."

     Finally, they'd made it to the food court and it didn't take long to find the three girls sitting at a table in the corner of the court. They walked up to them and sat down at their respective spots. Where Jae was sitting next to Catalina and Daniel was sitting on the other side of her.

     "How was the lab, boys?" Catalina asked, wrapping her arms around the two young men.

     Jae frowned. "It went okay," he took her arm off and she gave a pout. "How was class?"

     She shrugged, slipping her arm off Daniel as well. "It went well, I guess," she said as she gave another shrug.

     "You had a midterm, right?" He pulled out his box lunch, taking out his chopsticks from the small pocket of his backpack.

     Catalina nodded with a sigh of what Jae deemed as defeat. "I think I failed," she huffed, slumping forward into the table in a depressed heap.

     Jae stopped opening his lunch and turned to her. Hesitantly, he gave her a pat on the head. "Why would you say that? I'm pretty sure you did well."

     "Yeah!" Daniel encouraged.

     "No," she groaned, "I failed." Sitting back up, she gave a frown. "I guessed like half the test. I'll be happy to even pass."

     "I don't think it's that bad," Jae said, tone almost sarcastic but not quite, he was trying his best to be supportive.

     "Yeah, it is! A question asked me what d.b.h was and I wrote it was needed for proper experimentation. You know what it means? Diameter of a tree trunk at breast height. I'm so stupid, I should've studied harder," she complained as she ran a hand through her hair, getting it stuck halfway only to upset her even more.

     "Wait, so you guys are actual tree huggers?" Daniel questioned, brow lifting and sly smirk on his face.

     "Yeah," Catalina managed to laugh a little, her sour expression lightening up, "we went around campus measuring trees."

     "And you forgot what the term meant?" Andrea shook her head in disappointment. "You need to get your head in the game, Cat, this is third year. You got this!"

     "I know..." Catalina whined as her sadness returned. "Now mom's gonna kill me and I won't be able to go with Jae."

     "With Jae? Where're you guys going?" Andrea questioned, leaning back on her seat as she crossed her arms over her chest.

     "I told you like two days ago, remember? Jae's parents want to take us somewhere. Either Quebec city or a cabin, right?" Catalina turned to Jae.

     Jae gave a nod. "I think they've settled on Quebec city."

     "Yeah," Andrea nodded, not even sparing a glance towards Jae, "and you told me you didn't want to go. Now you suddenly want to?"

     Catalina's face turned beet red and Jae didn't even seemed fazed. He just gave a couple of blinks and nodded. "I'm not forcing her to go, if that's what you're insinuating, okay?"

     "I wasn't insinuating anything, unless you're guilty."

     Jae stood from his seat, packing his lunch that he didn't even get to take a bite out of. "Sorry, Cat, I'm gonna get going now. I'll see you around," he said as he swung his bag over his shoulder. "Bye." He waved to Madeline and Daniel before turning to Andrea. "Goodbye." He gave a curt nod and walked away, leaving everyone but Andrea speechless.

     "I've been thinking about it for some days and I did actually want to go. It would be the first time I ever leave the province, and you just ruined it." Catalina crossed her arms over her chest and grimaced. "Thanks a lot."

     Andrea huffed. "You really want to go with him? For god's sake, Cat, are you stupid? You guys have only known each other for a month and now you're going on a trip? Like a four day trip? You must be out of your goddamn mind."

     "He's my friend, and we're going with his parents which I've met twice already."

     "You're too naive, Cat, and you need to wake up. Not everyone is filled with butterflies and daisies and I'm sure that of all people you should know that. After what happened with Philip you really want to replay it?"

     They never really fought much and Andrea always knew that the subject of Philip was out of question. So this argument, it made Catalina angry.

     "You really want to go there? Fine! I'm done being scared and hesitant about boys and relationships but if you can't get over James, you shouldn't drag me down with you!"

     Andrea sat there, stunned and hurt before she gathered her things and stormed off without so much as a goodbye.

     Daniel made a low whistle and whispered over to Madeline through clenched teeth. "That was intense." He earned himself death glares from the two girls that remained at the table.