A frown appeared at Jungkook’s face as he examined the paper in his hands. And it wasn’t even because of a low grade. In fact, he aced the test again. However, it was due to the little evident detail that immediately caught his eye upon receiving his paper, itching every nerve in his body.

“Who dares rip a piece from my perfect test paper?!”

Lifting his gaze, Jungkook glared at the teacher in front, trying to shoot daggers at her. Of course, it may seem so trivial to some but for him, even something this insignificant meant the world.

“Damn, old hag. I should send a note to my dad to fire this woman.”

He scrunched the paper in his hands thinking it was of no use anyway considering that it had been used as an extra by their professor who, to him, looks like she didn’t even mind as she continued to blabber about stuffs that clearly doesn’t concern their subject.

“And so, for those who would like to take advanced classes this summer, don’t hesitate to see me at the faculty room anytime,” the teacher announced to the class before she adjusted her thick-rimmed glasses. “Moving on, let’s proceed to our lesson proper. Please open your books to page 316.”

Jungkook rolled his eyes over how innocent the teacher was acting.

“As if she didn’t do anything wrong…”

Deciding not to listen, Jungkook planted his chin on his palms as he stared out the window to somehow occupy his thoughts throughout the duration of the class. He scanned the scene outside with inquisitive eyes as he tried to look at every detail. In spite of that though, as if on purpose, he found his stare landing straight directly to the girl sitting on a wooden stool with an easel and a blank canvas before her.

A huge breath escaped Yuna’s lips as she continued to point her brush at the canvas in front of her without further idea of what to do next. Art was never her forte. She’d rather run or play sports than sit quietly in a corner and allow her hands to make out something with just a brush and a bunch of paint on the side. She was never creative with colors to begin with.

“What should I do? I’d have to pass something at the end of this class and I don’t even know how to start.”

Frustrated, Yuna threw her brush aside before she ruffled her hair rather forcefully.

“Damn, art class,” she muttered under her breath. Unfortunately, their teacher seemed to have super ears as she heard what she said and turned to her direction with a nasty look.

Yuna faked a smile at her teacher while retrieving her brush from the ground without breaking their eye contact. “I’ll start now,” she said but only earned a glare before the teacher returned her attention back to the student she was explaining things with. At that instance, Yuna stuck her tongue out to her teacher before she, too, went back to focusing on her own business or problem, if she may say so.

Jungkook chuckled as he watched in delight at the one girl who seemed to be having trouble with her art class.

“Mr. Jeon Jungkook, please read the next paragraph,” the teacher called out unexpectedly causing the boy to snap back to the reality he was in.

He glanced over to his teacher who had a stern look on her face that shows how she’s obviously a bit mad at the fact that he wasn’t paying attention to her discussion.

“Who would want to listen to boring Biology anyway?”

“Please read the next paragraph, Mr. Jeon,” she repeated, placing great emphasis on every syllable.

Jungkook scratched his head and decided to obey the command as he stood up only to realize he didn’t even bring his book with him. So, he glanced over to his seatmate and gave him a knowing look as if telling him to hand his book over to him. Alarmed at the terrifying glare he was receiving, the boy, with shaking hands, immediately placed his book on Jungkook’s table before shifting to move his chair a bit further away from his seatmate.

A smirk escaped Jungkook’s lips at the thought of how easily he could let almost anyone in this school bow down to him. “They never change.”

“Mr. Jeon?” the teacher called out again.

“Yeah,” he replied before he took the book on the table and began to read.

“We won’t be having History class tomorrow?” Yuna asked once more, quite not believing her ears over what her best friend just told her.

“Yeah nd the week after that. He also said he already e-mailed us the topic for our take-home final examination which means we won’t be seeing more of him this semester,” Eunha continued casually as she placed a spoonful of ice cream to before eliciting a sigh of delight. Currently, the girls were lounging at a nearby café after their last class for the day ended early. And with nothing else to do to waste their time, Eunha suggested that they treat their selves with some sweet stuffs before hell break loose on their final examinations on the week after.

“Seriously?!” Yuna exclaimed, leaning over the table to question her best friend closely. “You’re not pulling a prank on me, right?”

Eunha placed her spoon down and stared at the girl in front of her with a raised eyebrow. “Does it look like I’m joking?”

A bit ashamed, Yuna sat back down and said, “No but it’s difficult to believe seeing that you’re not even a little excited at the news and knowing you, you probably hated History more than I do.”

Eunha snickered and looked at her best friend directly in the eye. “Please. You could probably not imagine how crazy I must have looked like last night after I read Jihyo’s message about the news.”

Yuna laughed over Eunha’s statement before she reached out to place her hand over her best friend’s. “Trust me. I know you well enough to imagine how you must have looked like and it isn’t pretty.”

“What about the notes? Aren’t you interested in what reply you could’ve gotten from your mysterious friend?” a voice whispered in Yuna’s mind all of a sudden causing her to sit straight up.

“What’s wrong?” Eunha asked after noticing the rapid shift in expression at her best friend’s face- from being all happy to suddenly conflicted.

Yuna shook her head to clear her thoughts before replying. “It’s nothing.”

Unfortunately, Eunha knew it was not nothing because from that moment onward, her best friend seemed to be mentally absent despite her being before her flesh and bones. It’s like her mind was drifting off to somewhere she couldn’t quite reach.

While waiting for Yuna to return from the restroom, Eunha muttered to herself, “Something is fishy,” as she placed a finger to her chin, thinking what could have occupied her best friend’s thoughts. “I could tell something is definitely going on.”

“Mr. Jeon, you know what this means,” Mr. Kim said over to the aloof boy before him.

“Yeah, you don’t have to tell me,” Jungkook replied while not giving a single glance at the teacher in front of him.

“Honestly speaking, I would have given you a failing mark by now. You always seem uninterested in my subject and you don’t even put much effort into understanding it. And now, you even came late. I’m quite disappointed,” Mr. Kim voiced out in concern over the inappropriate behavior of his student. After being a teacher of the university for almost twenty years, he never liked it when a student of his acts as if education is unimportant and a hassle and so, with whatever he could do, Mr. Kim always sees to it that his every student would behave properly or would be able to pass his subject in just one try. “See me after your detention.”

“Whatever.”

“Yuna?”

Yuna flinched as she heard her name being called. At present, she was lurking outside of their History classroom, about to go inside and see whether she got a reply from her previous note.

“Why am I even curious? Truthfully, I don’t even know myself sometimes.”

“Yuna?” she heard again. Cautiously, she turned around and was surprised to see Yugyeom in front of her with someone who she can identify as one belonging to Jungkook’s circle of friends.

“Yugyeom, hi! It’s good to see you!” she greeted with a nervous face and a forced smile as she took wary steps away from the door of the classroom.

“Taehyung-hyung and I were just passing by when I happen to see you. What were you doing here?”

“Uhmmm…uhhh…” Yuna began while looking around as she struggled to look for an acceptable excuse. “I…uhhh…I came to check whether we really didn’t have class on History as what Eunha informed me. I mean, it’s already finals week next week. It’s shocking to know that we won’t be meeting the week before that,” she managed to say as a lie.

“Oh, I thought you were snooping or something,” Yugyeom joked at which Yuna faked a laugh.

“Do I look that suspicious?”

“I’m not the type to stalk.”

“Yeah. You’re more of the direct type. I know.”

“Well, since Eunha was obviously right, I should get going,” Yuna stated quickly as she waved goodbye over at the two boys before bowing and walking away.

“What a bad timing.”

“You think it’s her?” Yugyeom asked with raised eyebrows over to Taehyung who had a grave look on his face while he thought deeply even more.

“It’s possible. I mean, why was she there in the first place?”

“It’s true that she was supposed to have History class in that room at that time,” Yugyeom explained while walking over to sit on the couch in the middle of the private room in their school that was reserved to be Jungkook’s hangout area.

“Yeah but she was clearly stuttering while explaining to us which tells me she wasn’t reasonably telling the truth.”

Yugyeom gave a grin and a short applause of mockery to his hyung. It was rare for him to see Taehyung this serious and contemplative. “I’ll leave it to you to notice that. As a talented deceiver, you’re probably quite good at sorting out lies from the truth. But we need evidence before we can confirm.”

“Exactly,” Taehyung agreed as he retrieved a can of soda from the fridge.

“Don’t you think it’ll be really funny though if ever Yuna is the one whom Jungkook is exchanging notes with? I mean, I can’t even imagine the look Jungkook will have once he finds out he was obsessing over someone he despises.”

“It will be rather interesting and amusing. But for now, let’s keep this a secret from Jungkook until the moment we are a hundred percent sure.”

“Roger.”

As soon as he entered the room to detention, Jungkook immediately made his way to the only vacant seat which the others reserved just for him. Throwing his bag down on the floor, he pulled back the chair and sat down with a thud before leaning back in a relaxed position.

“It’s weird how I always look forward to detention like this as if it’s my only time out for the whole week.”

He eyed the desk in front of him and stopped to look at the hole which until now, remained unnoticed except for him and the mysterious girl.

“Scratch that previous thought. The notes are obviously the reason why I favor detention,” he reasoned to himself, finally acknowledging the importance of the weekly notes to him.

Jungkook isn’t exactly sure why but ever since his encounter with that girl.

“Choi Yuna, right?”

Right. Ever since his encounter with Yuna at the mini garden, it’s like Jungkook created another side of him- a side that’s more open and accepting. Before, he never wanted to concede to things or ideas that he knew would make him look and feel foolish but after that moment wherein he gave out his first apology to a girl, even if it wasn’t for a confession, he realized that he is also capable of owning up even the most embarrassing truth. He just wasn’t being honest to himself. He just played a blind eye to the thing that he doesn’t want to be when in fact, he already is. He was conceited. He had to admit. And so, here he is, after nights of mulling over the notes, fessing up how fond he is of the little exchange he’s having with still an unknown girl.

“I am so strange.”

Jungkook chuckled to himself before he adjusted his seat and leaned over the desk to pull out the expected note from the little hole at the corner. With careful fingers, he pinched the edges of the paper before extracting it with a bit of force.

“Now, this is what I’ve been waiting for.”

Excitedly, he unrolled the piece of paper but as he did so, something was slowly coming up to his mind- something that gave him an ideal connection between things.

“Wait a minute.”

Jungkook gently placed aside the opened note as he reached out for his bag. In a quick motion, he zipped his backpack open and scanned its contents for what it is he’s trying to find. Once he grabbed a hold of it, inserted in between the pages of his notebook, he drew it out and laid it flat on the surface of the desk.

“I may be conceited but I’m not an idiot.”

Jungkook grabbed the little paper on the side and aligned it to the ripped edges of his test paper only to find out how much of a perfect fit it was.

“This is just remarkable,” he said to himself with a fascinated look carved on his face as he marveled over the detail in front of him, calling him out for a challenge.

“I’m just one step away from knowing you now.”

Here you go! Here's an update in which you can see that the end is near for this story hahaha. Things are already starting to get interesting. But since, I'll be having my midterm examinations this coming week, I will not be able to give you another chapter. Please be patient and wait for me. :) If you like, send me your thoughts on this one.