“MANSAE!!!” The class fell silent at my very loud outburst. I couldn’t help it. We were in math class and Sojin-seonsaengnim just passed back our tests. I got a B! I’ve never gotten that high of a grade for a math quiz before. I spied my teacher grinning to herself while she passed back the rest of the quizzes. I bet even she was amused that I was this overjoyed at my result.

            I was on cloud nine throughout the rest of class. Soonyoung congratulated me too. Class was over and it was lunch time… I was walking out the door with Soonyoung, but I was unsure of what to do because I wanted to thank Mingyu and such. I was dragging my feet, and Soonyoung gave me a weird look.

“What’re you doing that for?”

            Just then, Mingyu walked past us. I guess he was thinking I’d just go with Soonyoung… I didn’t know what to say, but suddenly Soonyoung was calling out to him.

“Hey!! Kim Mingyu!”

            I was alarmed at his actions. Mingyu stopped in his tracks and turned to face us, looking at me for a split second. He cautiously ambled to us and I stood there quietly, wondering what exactly Hoshroom was up to. The two of them looked at each other for a moment.

“Yes?” Came Mingyu’s response.

“Did you help Jinhyun study for the quiz?” Soonyoung straightforwardly asked.

“I did.” Mingyu replied, folding his arms. Why does this look like a confrontation?

“Well I just wanted to… thank you. Thanks for helping Jinnie! He was so worried about failing.”

            Soonyoung began smiling as brightly as the sun shone, which threw me off. Mingyu could only nod. I bet he felt as awkward and caught off guard as I did right now. Soonyoung looked at Mingyu, and then at me, then Mingyu and me again.

“Are you guys gonna go study now?”

“Are we?” Mingyu echoed, directing his gaze at me. I felt nervous at the sudden attention and figured I needed to thank him and stuff, so I would just hang out with him. I nodded.

“Okay then. I’ll tell the guys. Have fun now, all right?” Hoshi plastered a grin on his face. I was wondering why exactly he seemed so upbeat and amused with this whole thing. Mingyu tipped his head and began walking off. I followed him, but not before squeezing Soonyoung’s arm in thanks for his concern. Or whatever that whole thing was about.

“Your friend is quite… interesting,” Mingyu finally spoke as we walked off.

“That’s Soonyoung, one of the guys I hang out with. He’s a very funny guy, no worries.” We were heading towards the stairs, presumably for the rooftop again.

“So, what was with that yell in class?” Mingyu brought up, starting to chuckle. I joined him, because I guess it must’ve looked embarrassing enough to laugh at.

“Because I saw my score,” I said, this time smiling as brightly as Soonyoung did earlier, “It’s thanks to you. If you didn’t help, well, I’d probably fail the whole course.” Mingyu grinned and stared at me, which I couldn’t help but do it back because his looks were just so damn amazing. I started losing myself in his eyes when all of a sudden; a loud screech broke the silence.

“Kim Mingyu!” A rather youthful looking girl ran up to us. Or rather, she ran up to Mingyu. One look at his face and I could tell he dreaded her for some reason. I stood there quietly, not knowing how this scene would play out.

“Oh… Soyoung…” Mingyu started. His tone of voice gave off the impression that he didn’t plan on seeing her here, or rather he didn’t want to see her here.

“There you are! You always run off whenever I try to call out for you. After class you just run away from me too. Anyways, now that I caught you. How about the two of us eat lunch together?” She pretty much acted like I wasn’t physically there. Her tone of voice just made me think she was pretty stuck-up and obnoxious.

“Sorry, but as you can see, I already have a date with someone,” Mingyu said while slinking an arm across my shoulders, shocking both me and the girl.

“WHAT?!” We managed to scream in unison. I looked at her and she glared at me with a look toxic enough to kill.

“Why are you so surprised babe? It’s not like we haven’t been together before,” Mingyu spoke, making full eye contact with me. I saw his eyes glisten with panic and desperation for a quick second, and I caught on to his signals. This is a cover up, huh? Fine, but you owe me.

“Right,” I started, chuckling a bit too uneasily. The girl, Soyoung, I think her name was, stared at me intently.

“We gotta go now,” Mingyu announced, snaking his arm around my hip. “I’ll see you later, Soyoung. Bye.” He started scooting us away, as the girl huffed and stomped her foot down.

“I don’t believe you, Kim Mingyu! I’m going to date you if it’s the last thing I do!” She hollered. Mingyu held me even closer at her words, which kept me silent because I couldn’t form any words. Why exactly is he doing this to me? I wailed in my head, although I was second-guessing if this was really a bad thing, because it somehow felt so right being with Mingyu like this. Mingyu turned behind to see if Soyoung was still around, and when the coast was clear, we flew upstairs to the rooftop. Right when he reached there, I pushed him off of me.

“What was that all about?!” I managed to muster up some words, feeling very flustered at the whole situation.

“Sorry, she’s a girl in my class that won’t leave me alone… She’s also part of the reason why I hang out up here. What a pain, right?” His treated this subject rather lightly; did he not know how this affected me?!

 “Umm hello, you pretty much just said you were dating me to her! Now if we run into her, she’s going to expect us to be all couple-like or else she’ll just keep bothering you. And why did you even do that to me in the first place?” I was steaming at this point. Mingyu was messing with my feelings that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to have them in the first place.

“I’m sorry, but she’s a very stubborn girl, she won’t give up that easily. I didn’t know what else to do. But hey.” I looked at him curiously as he tapped my arm.

“What?”

“Could you be my boyfriend?” If I was drinking something, I would spit it out right now.

“And why would I do that?” I retorted.

“C’mon, please. Soon she’ll get tired of pursuing me and then it’ll be all done. It won’t be that bad. It’s kind of like a favor.”

            A favor. The word rung in my head, and suddenly I remembered Jisoo’s words. “You should start to think of a way to repay him somehow. It’s