☆ 부승관 ☆

Tick tock. Tick tock.

Nona glances at the clock located above the small mirror in her room. It's already 11:30 and I haven't studied a thing.

She had a big test the next day, but her brain wasn't letting her absorb any information at all. She facepalms, as another memory comes to mind.

"Nona, I'm gonna come over to your house later!" He says, inviting himself over to Nona's house.

"And who said you could do that?" The girl raises an eyebrow up, making the boy slightly pout.

"But I need help! I don't get geometry and you're really good at stuff I'm not good at." He replies, certainly still pouting and knowing that Nona couldn't possibly resist.

"Remember to bring food over," she finally complies.

Nona violently shakes her head at the memory. The reason why she's completely distracted? Boo freakin' Seungkwan. That's why.

These days, each time she closes her eyes... It's Seungkwan. Each freaking time. She doesn't even understand why this is happening. It just does.

What she does understand is that if she doesn't try to take her mind off of Boo Seungkwan, she'll surely fail the test tomorrow. I need to study, she thinks.

Knock knock knock.

What the hell – who's knocking on the door at this hour?! She immediately walks over to the door, but when she opens it, no one is there.

Knock knock knock.

"If any one of you is trying to trick me, I'm screaming–" Nona warns any member of her family, when she realizes the sound came from the window.

She grabs the nearest thing she could use to hit, slightly trembling. As she tightly squeezed her eyes shut, she turns around.

"Whoever you are, I am seriously calling the police." She whispers, scared out of her wits. Nona slowly takes a step forward, and breathing in, she tries to open her left eye.

Friggin' Boo Seungkwan. She sighs out of relief, and losing all strength in her legs, she falls to her rugged floor.

"Nona, it's me! Please don't report me to the police!" Seungkwan says, putting his hands together, though one of them held a full paper bag.

"And who the hell told you to come in the middle of the night?!" She whisper-screams, frustrated at the boy hanging onto the tree outside the window. "And you even planned to come through the window?!"

"Before I explain, please let me in. It's kind of hard to hang onto a tree, Nona."

She slowly stood up, "Who ever told you it was easy?" Unclasping the hook on her window, she opens it and lets Seungkwan in. "Gosh."

"Well, you see," Seungkwan's eyes try to avoid Nona's.

"Mmhmm." She crossed her arms in front of her, waiting for his explanation.

"There's a big geometry test tomorrow. And remember what I told you before? ‘You're really good at stuff I'm not good at.’ "

"So...?"

"I came here. To ask you to teach me."

"In the middle of the night?" She furrowed her eyebrows.

"I fell asleep in the afternoon," he shook his head, "The important thing is, I brought food." He smiles as he raises up the hand with a paper bag.

Apparently, they spend the whole night studying and eating (more eating, of course), and that was probably the first all-nighter Nona never regretted. It was fun, she smiles to herself once Seungkwan goes through the window again.

Well, after that "fateful day", once became twice, then thrice, and then many more times. They had an all-nighter once or twice a week, all at Nona's house, and it wasn't purely studying (of course). Sometimes, they had eaten their heart out, or watched 2-3 movies in a row.

Nona loved it. So did Seungkwan, maybe even more than Nona did.

Months pass, and something has definitely changed. People around them noticed a lot more than they did themselves. Many have been asking Seungkwan if it was alright to pursue Nona, and it was the same with Nona.

They've been wondering why this strange phenomenon was happening, and what made people think it wouldn't be okay to pursue the other. They just shrugged off the thought, and couldn't bring themselves to think that they liked each other.

Well, actually, they denied the very fact that they, indeed, like the other person. It was frustrating to watch the two, especially for their best friends who witnessed this preposterous denial of feelings.

One day, their best friends had enough. The two had met up after school, and talked about setting their friends up.

"So, how do we do this?" Saeri, Nona's best friend, asks.

"I haven't really thought about it either." Hansol, Seungkwan's best friend, sheepishly smiles at the other. Saeri squints at the male, completely unimpressed, yet thinks of a plan.

"Why don't we just talk them into confessing or something?" Saeri says, unsure.

"And how do you suppose we do that?"

"Why don't you think of a plan, too?" Saeri (mildly) snaps at Hansol, who invited her to meeting after school but didn't have an actual plan.

"Sorry, sorry," Hansol mutters. "What if we, uh– tell them that we like the person they like? Do you get it—"

"You mean, like 'So, I wanted to ask your opinion on an important matter; I like Seungkwan and I want to tell him. Tomorrow.' Is that it?" Saeri intimidatingly looks at Hansol, who got a bit nervous.

"Something like that." He replies, nodding.

"Okay~!" Saeri's tone suddenly softens, as she bids goodbye to the boy. "See you tomorrow, Hansol!"

"Bye." He waves to the slowly dissapearing silhouette of the girl. 'What an incredibly moody girl.' He thinks, laughing to himself.

---

The next day, the plan took place. Of course, as expected, the two (Nona and Seungkwan) were a nervous wreck (and being as oblivious as they already are, they didn't know why). The two didn't even notice that their best friends haven't showed up the whole day (they were actually stalking the two).

By the end of the day, Seungkwan was decided. I'm going to confess my feelings, he thinks to himself. Hansol, from afar, sees his best friend's resolve and messages Saeri. 'I'm pretty sure he's gonna confess any moment now.' He types.

'Well, Nona isn't! --it's ur fault if she doesn't--' Saeri replies immediately.

'??? you agreed to this' Hansol changes Saeri's name in his contacts as "moody girl".

Saeri, in all her panic, messages Nona, saying that she was just kidding with liking Seungkwan. And that in fact, she likes Hansol. 'Why am I even saying such a big lie??' she thinks, regretting her statement about liking Hansol.

'ok i got it all covered' Saeri then messages Hansol. The said boy looks at the girl's message in disbelief, such moodiness she possesses, he thinks.

As Nona reads Saeri's message, she sighs out of relief. She hums, walking to the school's main gate.

Meanwhile, Hansol and Saeri meet up, while watching over each of their best friends. They see Seungkwan catching up to Nona. Saeri hits Hansol's arm in excitement, as Hansol just glares at the girl.

"Nona!" Seungkwan calls out. Nona's eyes widen, as the corner of her lips curl up. She finally admits that she really does like him. A lot.

As she turns around, Seungkwan's mouth is open, yet he isn't saying anything. "Yes?" Nona asks the frozen boy.

"Uh, um, is tonight okay?" Seungkwan finally speaks. The girl nods in reply.

"Don't forget to bring food."

"Of course." Seungkwan smiles. The two exit the school, while the other two watching were speechless.

"Hansol, what the hell?!" Saeri snaps.

"It's not my fault!" Hansol exclaims.

"You're treating me ice cream!" She annoyingly looks at the taller boy.

"I was gonna say dinner, but if it's just ice cream you want then—"

"Okay, dinner it is!" Saeri grabs Hansol by the hand as she drags him to her favorite diner.

---

"Nona, you wanna go stargazing?" Seungkwan turns to Nona.

"I'd love to!" She replies. 

"Great!" They go up to the balcony, and they lean on the railings, looking up.

"There are so many stars tonight," Nona says with a wide smile on her face. And without her noticing, Seungkwan was actually staring at her most of the time.

"You know..." Seungkwan's voice trails off.

"Know what?"

"Remember the first all-nighter we had?"

"The night I almost had a heart attack? Of course, I do." Nona softly laughs, still looking up at the sky.

"Well, I told you I went late because I slept in the afternoon, right?"

"Yup."

"Well, actually, I was up all day thinking if I would go. I didn't know if you'd be alright with me going to your house, but at the end of the day, I realized that nothing would happen if I just thought about coming. So I went."

"Don't worry 'bout that. You know you're welcome here."

"Well, I actually meant to say that I like you but I guess you didn't get it."

"Uh–" Nona turns to the boy, "What?"

"All those times I asked you to teach geometry was because I liked you—"

Nona starts speaking an unknown language.

"Calm down!" Seungkwan tries to settle her down, and takes a hold of her shoulders.

"I didn't expect that, okay- I was really surprised 'cause actually I like you too, and–" she cuts off her sentence with a gasp. She covers , kind of regretting what she said.

"Okay, let's start over! And let's be calm about this."

"Okay."

"Nona, I like you." Seungkwan stares into her eyes.

"I like you, too." Nona tries to breathe normally.

"And I think you look prettier than those stars," Seungkwan says, making Nona slowly melt, possibly near fainting.