[Chaeyoung POV]

It’s been over a week since that fateful day… The day that I ran into (literally) the love of my life.

It hasn’t exactly been rainbows and butterflies since then. We’ve had our ups and downs. I mean it’s pretty hard to maintain a relationship with someone if they don’t even know that the relationship exists in the first place… Or at least, not yet.

Through my extensive research in romantic movies and Google, I have determined that Mina has sent me exactly 37 signs that she likes me. And that’s a huge number – by my standards at least… And these aren’t exaggerated signs either! They are cold, hard evidence of her reciprocated love to me. I mean why else would she greet me with a smile through the window of her classroom, or on occasion save a seat for me at the lunch table when I’m one of the first ones to arrive? Exactly.

She even tries to make me jealous too! Like one time, when she was sitting next to me, and she talked to Nayeon for almost the whole lunch period, just to make me jealous! I mean her and Nayeon kind of made up since that first day when the whole ‘Nayeon temper tantrum’ event happened, but they can’t have been good enough friends to talk for the whole hour… She had to be forcing herself.

And it’s not like I’m mindlessly flinging myself at her either! I can play that push-and-pull game too. Sometimes, when I get to the lunch table before her, I purposely let her off the hook if she doesn’t end up sitting next to me. Even other times, when I see her walking home by herself, I completely restrain myself from accompanying her on the long walk back that could probably earn me some friendship points for the future… Now that’s called self-control.

But anyhow, today would mark the fourth day anniversary of when our parents forced us to start studying together. At first I believed my mom was a matchmaker from heaven who approved of our blossoming relationship and tried to set us up on daily study dates, but it didn’t really end up that way at all. Mina enjoys studying alone, and I totally respect that. So rather than us going to the library to study together, it sort of just turned into me giving her some Korean workbooks to study from and her going to the self-study rooms on her own…

But today was going to be one for the history books. Today’s the day that she stops playing hard-to-get and we go on our first study date! I already had my plan all laid out.

After about a week of gathering data, I have recorded that Mina spends an average of 7 minutes talking to Sana and packing her belongings as she wraps up for the day, and maybe another 15 seconds to get to the door. My homeroom teacher, Mrs. Moon always holds us for about an extra 5 minutes after the end of evening study. So, if my calculations are correct, I need to be able to pack my stuff and make it to the second floor in those 2 minutes and 15 seconds without any room for error. If everything goes according to plan, there’s no way in hell anything could go wrong. But that’s a big if.

8:00 PM

“So today I hope you guys learned that…”

My eyes were glued to the clock in the back of the classroom.

8:01 PM

“And speaking of…”

My timing had to be absolutely perfect.

8:02 PM

“And don’t forget to…”

One misstep and my love life will be ruined forever.

8:03 PM

“Chaeyoung! Do you know the answer?”

DAMNIT!

I stared wide-eyed at my seat partner Tzuyu hoping she could save me from the embarrassment, as well as the ticking clock. She matched my expression looking just as clueless as me. Great.

I flicked my head around to my right to see a overexaggerated Dahyun jumping around like a madman in the corner of the room holding four fingers in the air.

“Um… Uhh… Four?”

“Nope. Wrong… again. The answer was actually that your guys’ first test is coming up tomorrow! And obviously none of you have been studying! I guess I’ll have to just repeat it all again until it gets into those thick skulls of yours…”

DAHYUN YOU !

Three more minutes were now added to the clock. Now Mina is going to go off and marry someone else! I can just picture it now… I’ll be a bridesmaid at her wedding… I’ll be watching her walk down the aisle all teary-eyed… But I wouldn’t even be able to fight it, because all I want is for her to be happy…

I’ll remember this Kim Dahyun.

“And that’s all. Have a good night everyone!” Mrs. Moon cheerily finished.

! I was too busy lost in thought. I glanced up at the clock.

8:07 PM

I HAVE FIFTEEN SECONDS! I CAN STILL MAKE IT!

I slung my backpack wildly over my shoulder as I bolted straight for the exit.

“Hey, Chaeyoung…” a voice began, probably from my seat partner that I almost nailed in the face, but I was already out the door before I managed to sneak a glance back.

I made a break for the stairway and arrived on the second floor in ten seconds flat. A new record.

I stopped for a bit to catch my breath as I immediately spotted the obvious redhead in the crowd.

But… there was a girl walking with her this time…

With blonde hair…

Of all days, this just had to be the day that Sana followed her out of the classroom, didn’t it?! And I can’t just ask Mina while Sana’s there with her… she’s gonna ruin EVERYTHING!

I ruffled my hair in frustration. My heart was still beating rapidly from the race I had just completed.

How could my plan just fail when I was so clo-

“Chaeyoung! Finally caught up to you…” a soft voice in a broken accent called from the stairs behind me.

Tzuyu literally has the best timing. I love this kid so much.

“Want to eat at-“

“Tzuyu-ah, come with me!” I spoke as I hooked my arm around hers and hugged her close to me as I pulled her into a mad dash down the hallway. My plan was back into motion.

“Wh-What’s… happ-” She couldn’t finish her sentence. Her face was all red, maybe she was tired from running too? Or was it the language barrier?

“Mina!” I roared through the halls in a hurry to catch her before she went down the stairs.

“Ehh? What is it Chaeyoung?” The sound she made closely resembled that of a penguin’s call and the way she raised her eyebrows was literally the cutest thing ever.

“The test… tomorrow… come study… Korean…” I managed to sputter in between my mild coughing fit and exasperated gasps for breath. I must’ve looked like an idiot.

“Um…”

I sensed hesitation in her voice.

“Well…”

Is this really how it all ends?

“I mean Sana and I-”

“WOULD LOVE TO JOIN YOU GUYS!” Sana squealed suddenly as she cupped a hand over Mina’s mouth. Her eyes gave Mina a death glare as if they were saying, Don’t you dare ruin this for me, and then shot right back to the out-of-breath Tzuyu standing next to me.

Sana, at first I totally wanted to murder you for ruining my chances, but if this works out, I’m officially making you the godmother of our children.

Mina glanced bitterly at Sana before rolling her eyes deciding not to argue back any longer.

I’m just gonna take that as an excited ‘yes’.

*****

All my free time lately has mostly been devoted to imagining what the first date with the glorious Myoui Mina would feel like, look like… even smell like. Like maybe she would laugh at my dumb jokes as she played with her magnificent hair. We would both look up from our textbooks and gaze into each other’s eyes with longing passion. The lights would dim around us and suddenly we would be the only ones in the room – an unspoken love affair. There were so many scenarios playing out in her head that I wanted to live out…

But this turned out to be exactly the opposite of what I was hoping for.

Rather than having our eyes being fixed on each other, Mina’s were buried deep into the folds of her textbook while mine were stuck glancing at the clock worried about the amount of time I had left to make a move. The redhead had never liked to study with others and she was clearly hesitant on accepting my invitation, so my window opportunity was bound to close soon. To make things worse, I had managed to come up with my first plan, which nearly failed, over the course of an entire week… now I had merely minutes.

What made it even harder was the mess of positioning that ruined my plan from the very start. Sana had picked out a small little four person table for us to study at, which would have been perfectly fine, if I hadn’t ended up in the seat diagonally across from Mina. When we had arrived Sana instantly took her place next to the Japanese girl. The moment I started to pull out the chair in front of Mina, however, Sana interjected with the idea that I should sit in the seat diagonal from her so she wouldn’t have to turn her head so much whenever she needed my help with Sana already helping her. Now what kind of bull is that? But to be honest it did make my intentions pretty obvious if I just outright sat across from her like that so I begrudgingly took my place on the other side of the table.

But the Son family always makes the best out of the worst situations, and this time would be no exception. I needed to come up with a game plan.

Step 1: I need to isolate the target if I want any chance of success.

With Sana being her handy Korean-Japanese dictionary by her side, there was no way I could even start a conversation with the girl without blowing my cover.

My eyes darted all over the library in an attempt to find a solution to my dilemma.

There has to be something here for me to cause a distraction…

My gaze fell on one of the bookshelves nearby. Maybe I could ask Mina to go help me look for some books to help us study with each other?... No that’s dumb. I hadn’t even read a single word since coming to the library so she would probably suspect me.

There has to be a more subtle way to get her to be alone with me… Maybe she would go to the bathroom with me?

My cheeks flared up just at the mere thought as I shook my head furiously getting rid of my vulgar thoughts. But suddenly, a miraculous idea popped up in my head and I stopped shaking it in fear that it would pop right out of my genius brain.

But there is someone here who wouldn’t be afraid to try something erted…

I immediately kicked my plan into action as I grabbed a full bottle of water from the side compartment of my schoolbag.

“Tzuyu, aren’t you thirsty?” I questioned with a smile as the younger girl pulled her nose out of the Chinese dictionary she was so engaged in. Her eyes lit up and she started nodding furiously like a delighted puppy.

I offered her the water bottle as politely as I could and in no time she grabbed it out of my hands to start chugging it with the bottom pointed straight up at the ceiling. After some rapid gulping and a loud exhale, she set the bottle back into my hands, completely empty.

Good girl! She drank way more than I expected, but I’ll give her about five minutes…

Now for Phase 2: popping the question.

This was every teenager’s wet nightmare. And I was about to face it in approximately 280 seconds.

What would I even ask her out to do? Where would we even go? Most importantly, how was I even supposed to ask? If it’s too direct, she would probably outright reject me on the spot. If it’s too transparent, she