“Hey, why are you eating alone?” A boy sat on the bench, positioning himself next to Yeonji after picking up the soccer ball which had gone off the field and landed a meter from her feet. His voice was bright and friendly, as usual.

Instead of answering his question, she looked down to her lunch box on her lap, letting her hair cover her face as an effort to hide herself from him.

“You’re from our class, right?” Apparently, he hadn’t given up trying to talk to her despite not getting a reply. “The quiet girl at the back left corner near the window. Choi Yeonji, isn’t it?”

It surprised her. The fact that he knew who she was.

She lifted her head out of reflex and accidentally met his eyes. Not even a second later, she went back into hiding behind the curtain of her long straight black hair. She could feel her cheeks flashing red.

He was smiling while looking at her. It’s the cheerful smile that never failed to greet everyone. It’s the smile that she had been paying attention to over the past month. And this time, he directed that smile to her.

She despised getting attention, but getting Taehyung’s attention was an exception.

A light chuckle escaped his lips. “You’re not much of a talker, are you?” Then, he gasped exaggeratedly as if he realized something important in a sudden. “Or do you hate me so much that you don’t want to talk to me?”

Not wanting him to misunderstand her, she braced herself and mustered all her courage to say, “No, I don’t hate you.” But, she didn’t sound as confident as she had hoped and her voice was so quiet that it was more