“Darling, we’re getting new neighbors.”

As you sat at the kitchen table, you looked up from your homework with a suspicious look in your eyes. Your mother was smiling down at you warmly, though you just knew she had an ulterior motive for suddenly mentioning this. Slowly, you nodded and attempted to go back to working on your Math homework. It was impossibly difficult despite you being in the lowest level a high school student could be in. The subject just really wasn’t your thing.

Your mother was still standing there; you could feel her eyes on you. With a small exhale, you glanced back up at her. “Okay, so what does that mean?” You asked, raising your eyebrows questioningly. Her smile widened, causing a pit of dread to form in your stomach. She couldn’t make you do this. She couldn’t. She knew how much you disliked meeting and talking to new people.

“Well, I invited them over for dinner.” She said happily. Yep. There it was, the big announcement that you had been looking for. She must’ve seen the small frown on your face because she kept going. “Now, now, it’s okay. We both know that you need to get out more—see the world and meet new people!” Your frown deepened.

“I’m happy with the life I live now and the people that I already know.” You said, furrowing your eyebrows at her. She sighed in exasperation, and you felt just a little bit guilty. You knew she was just trying to help, really you did, but you were the definition of an introvert. Talking to and meeting strangers caused you way too much anxiety for it to be pleasant. She just didn’t seem to understand that.

“Come on, ___, it won’t be that bad. It’s just dinner.” She said, saying your name sternly. Your shoulders slumped in an obvious sign of defeat. You hated arguing with anyone—especially your mother. She was the only one you had left after your father passed away.

“Yeah okay, Mom. Can I get back to my homework now?” You asked tiredly and she beamed, reaching out to ruffle your hair.

“Of course, dear! And don’t worry, it won’t be so bad.” She said before turning around and disappearing. With a shake of your head, you turned your attention back to the worksheet in front of you.

“___!” When you heard your mother call your name a few hours later, you glanced away from your laptop and towards the door to your room. She would come bursting in any moment now. You just had to count down. Three, two, one…

“___, it’s almost time for them to arrive.” She said excitedly as she flung open the door. Your stomach clenched as you cringed internally. She must’ve seen your reluctance, for her smile faltered. “Are you not excited?” She asked, resembling a confused child. You fought the urge to scoff at her. Of course you weren’t excited! How could you be?

Nevertheless, you forced a smile for her sake. “No, I’m excited.” You didn’t sound very convincing, but it seemed to be enough for her. She grabbed your hand and dragged you off of your bed. You lagged behind unenthusiastically, trying to force down the panic building up slowly but steadily. This was going to be a disaster. You looked just fine on the outside since you had put on one of your better outfits, but you were a wreck inside.

“Love, go set the table, would you?” She requested, and you nodded numbly, departing for the dining room. Just as you were finishing up with your task, the doorbell rang. You just about threw up from nervousness at the sound. A moment later, you heard footsteps and the sound of voices conversing. The urge to run back to your room was overwhelming, but you squashed it for your mother’s sake.

Pretending to be busy, you messed with the positioning of the silverware on the table. Maybe if you kept yourself occupied, they wouldn’t bother you. Unfortunately, that hope was squashed when your mother and the new neighbors entered the room. You resolutely kept your head down, staring at the table, until you heard your name being called.

“___, these are our new neighbors!” Slowly, you raised your gaze upwards only to have it immediately land on a boy looking to be about your age. Your mouth dropped open to form a small “o” shape. Blinking rapidly, you tried to convince yourself that the person in front of you was just a hallucination. He couldn’t be real.

He was gorgeous. His dark brown hair didn’t look like it had been styled, and yet it fell perfectly. His eyes were a beautiful shade of mocha, not to mention how expressive they were. It looked like he was smiling with his eyes. And then there was the way his lips curled upwards without him even seeming to notice. Everything about him screamed “flawless” to you.

Your mother clearing jarred you back to your senses, causing your eyes to snap over to her. She looked beyond amused, and so did to man and woman next to her. Oh, right. Introductions. “Um, sorry, I’m ___ Aiken. It’s, uh, nice to meet you.” You stumbled over your words, feeling your cheeks heat up in embarrassment. This always happened.

The two adults beside your mother introduced themselves, smiling all the while. Once they were done, you reluctantly looked back to the boy. He was staring right at you. Had he been doing that the whole time?

“I’m Hong Jisoo. Your mother tells me that we’re in the same grade, so we’ll probably see each other a lot.” His smile widened, and your stomach flipped. Despite it being near impossible, you attempted at a smile, which only served to further embarrass you.

“Okay, so now that introductions are over, you all can take a seat and I’ll go get dinner!” Your mom said, shattering the uncomfortable feeling in the air, as she bustled into the kitchen. Biting down on the inside of your cheek, you pulled out a chair for yourself and sunk down into it. The table was small, just big enough for five people to sit at, so it wasn’t a surprise when you sensed someone sit down next to you.

“I didn’t get to tell you that it’s nice to meet you.” You heard a gentle voice address you. You debated keeping your head down, but decided that doing so would be too rude. You tilted your head back to look up at him. You hadn’t realized just how tall he was. He must’ve had good five or six inches on you.

“R-Right, yeah.” You stuttered, wincing as you did so. If he noticed, he didn’t act like it or make a comment. You took a deep breath and blundered on. “It’s nice to meet you too. You know, I didn’t expect our new neighbors to have someone in my grade.” What did that have to do with anything? Damn, you were babbling again. This couldn’t end well. “If you want, I can show you around the school.” What? No! No, why did you say that?

Panic threatened to overwhelm you, only for it to be soothed by his kind smile. He sure did smile a lot, didn’t he? It—It was kind of cute. “I’d really like that. Thank you, ___.” He said warmly. This time when you smiled, it was genuine and actually didn’t hurt.

You two ended up talking through the whole dinner and, weirdly enough, you were somewhat saddened to see him go.

It turns out that you didn’t need to show Jisoo around the school. There were tons of girls that were willing to do it themselves. In fact, they were all but fighting over who got the chance to do it. When he politely turned them down and told them that you were going to show him around, you received the dirtiest looks you had ever seen. You kind of wished that he would’ve just let one of the other girls take over.

“So, this is the cafeteria. We’re not required to eat in here, but most people do. We can actually eat outside if we want to.” You motioned towards the double doors of the lunch room. “But I don’t really like doing either of those.”

He sent you a curious look, tilting his head to the side slightly. “So where do you go?” He questioned, and you had a brief debate with yourself. Telling him would mean revealing your sacred place created specifically for alone time. On the other hand, you felt that you could share this with him.

“The roof.” You responded, pointing upwards towards the top of the school. His eyes lit up.

“We can go up there?” He asked, and you shook your head.

“Well, not really.” You responded. Confusion flitted across his face, so you elaborated. “It’s just that I’m sort of friends with the janitor, and he lets me go pretty much anywhere within the school.” You explained, hoping that he wouldn’t find it weird that you were friends with the janitor of the school. It wasn’t as if you had many friends anyways.

“Can we go up there for lunch then?” He asked, still smiling down at you. You swore your heart skipped a beat as you nodded slowly. “Great! I’ll look forward to it, ___.” He said happily. You were caught between being happy that he was happy and berating yourself for agreeing to share your special place with him.

As the bell rang, signaling the five minute period before homeroom started, he lifted a hand and waved. “I better get to class.” He said jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

“Ah, right. Do you remember where it is? Do you need me to show you again?” You didn’t mean to, but