Mina had spent the next few days trying to avoid confrontation with Jackson. She rode to school with Mark, quickly ran into the school building so she didn’t run into Jackson outside, went straight to her class so she didn’t run into him in the hall, and stayed out of the cafeteria and ate on the roof. She didn’t really want to hear what he had to say about Mark and definitely did not want to be face-to-face with him after stupidly assuming he had feelings for Mark.

    She was sitting on the roof of the school with Momo and Sana with her lunchbox in her lap, light purple chopsticks in her hand, and a can of iced tea in the other.

    “Jackson really said that to you?” Sana asked. Mina had told them about it the day it happened but every time she told them the story, both girls couldn’t help but be shocked by Jackson’s actions. They had never known him to be like this for as long as they were there and there were never any rumors or stories either of him doing things like it before.

    Mina nodded, placing her juice can down next to her. “He did! And then he pushed Mark oppa against the wall!” She picked up a piece of egg from her lunchbox and held it up to as she pouted. “I seriously thought they were going to fight, but he just stormed off…” She placed the egg into and sighed heavily.

    “I knew Jackson was weird, but not that weird. He was never like that when I was…” Momo stopped in the middle of her sentence and took a bite of her onigiri to avoid continuing.

    “I understand that he and Mark oppa don’t get along,” said Sana, “but why would he say it to you? Unless…”

    Mina frowned. “Unless what?”

    “Unless he’s in love with you,” Momo replied for Sana.

    Mina’s frown grew deeper hearing those words as she held her chopsticks to as she thought of the possibility. “No, that can’t be.” She lowered her chopsticks, resting her hand on her thigh. “We barely know each other. We’re not even in the same class.”

    Sana shrugged. “Maybe it was love at first sight.”

    “Eh?!” Mina exclaimed in shock, her cheeks flushing a soft pink. “N-No! Don’t say things like that!”

    “In fact,” said Momo, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Mark oppa was in love with you too.”

    “Y-Yah…you two…stop talking crazy. There’s no possible way they’re both in love with me,” said Mina, her hand knocking over her can of iced tea out of shock. She swore under her breath and picked up the can before any more of her drink was spilled.

    “Is it?” both Momo and Sana said in unison making Mina twitch. There’s no way Mark and Jackson could both be in love with her. Could there?

After her classes, Mina headed straight for the music room. Today was her music club. She looked around the empty room and sighed, walking over to the piano. She set her bag down on the table next to it and tested a key on the piano.

    It rang loudly in the right key. Good, it’s tuned, Mina thought as she let out a sigh of relief and sat on the seat in front of it. Mina positioned her hands on the keys and began to play. She was so absorbed in the song, she started to sing as well.

    Youngjae, who had quietly come into the music room without Mina noticing, watched her in awe. She sings and plays the piano? he thought, Not to mention how pretty she is. She’s literally the whole package.

    He shook off the thoughts feeling his cheeks burning as he blushed and huffed out a breath softly. He bit his bottom lip debating if he should stop her. Her singing voice was so heavenly he didn’t want it to stop, but she had to know. He slowly made his way over to her, shoving his hands into his back pockets.

    “That’s beautiful,” he said catching Mina by surprise. She jumped, hitting her knee on the underside of the piano. She let out a gasp of pain and held her knee.

    “Ow…” she mumbled as Youngjae uttered an apology.

    “Let me see,” he said, moving right next to her and examined her knee. Mina blushed softly as he did so. Her knee stung as small bulbs of blood formed out of the small cut on it. Youngjae hummed softly, moving to grab the first aid kit from the cabinet. He came back, this time, sitting on the seat next to Mina. “Put your leg up in my lap,” said Youngjae as he pats his thigh.

    Mina quietly did so and bit her bottom lip feeling her ears start to heat up. Youngjae pulled out an antiseptic wipe from the kit first and gently wiped the blood off of Mina’s knee. She hissed in pain at the sting from the antiseptic wipe.

    “Sorry,” Youngjae muttered. “This was my fault.” He took out a band-aid and placed it onto the cut, smoothing it out and looked at Mina. “Did you go to school for music before?”

    Mina shook her head, moving her leg off of Youngjae’s lap and watched as he put the first aid kit away. “No. My mom was actually the one who taught me how to play the piano when I was little.”

    “You’re really good. Even your singing.” Youngjae leaned back against one of the tables and smiled gently at Mina. She smiled at the compliment and looked at the band-aid on her knee. “Well, anyway, Music club was canceled today. That’s why no one else is here.”

    “Oh…” was all Mina said before standing up. She grabbed her back, throwing it over her shoulder. “I guess I’ll be going then. Thanks for—um—this,” she said, gesturing to her knee.

    Youngjae smiled and shook his head. “It’s no problem. It was my fault anyway that you got hurt. I felt it was my responsibility to help.”

    “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Mina bowed her head and shuffled out of the music room. Youngjae’s eyes followed after her as she left.

    Youngjae heaved out a breath and looked at the piano. “Ah…Mark hyung isn’t going to like it if I tell him I like her.” He slowly made his way to the door only for his path to be blocked by Momo and Sana.

    “You,” said Sana, “tell us everything.”

    “Now,” added Momo.

    Looks like I’m dead already, Youngjae thought as he stepped back into the room.

Mina puffed up her cheeks as she gripped tightly on her backpack straps. Her face slowly heated up thinking back to what happened earlier with Youngjae. She approached the school’s front gate and, just before she could walk out, Jackson stepped in her way.

    Mina looked up at him, feeling her stomach fill with butterflies. “Yes?”

    She felt her heart start to beat faster as Jackson stepped closer to her; so close, she could feel his breath brush against her cheek. Mina flushed a bright pink color and tried to step back, but Jackson was quick to restrict that action. He looped his arm around her waist, pulling her even closer to him. Mina felt her whole face heat up to her ears as their bodies were pressed tightly together.

    Jackson moved his free hand up to her cheek and cupped it in his palm. Mina’s breath hitched as he slowly started to close the gap between their faces.

    “U-Um...J-Jackson—” Mina stuttered, her heart now hammering in her chest.

Jackson was only millimeters away from kissing her when Mina gave him a hard shove in the chest. He stumbled back and caught himself against the gate behind him. Mina’s eyes were wide as she panted heavily, her cheeks still burning. In the next second, Mina found herself running down the street, booking it back home.

“Oh, hey,” Mark said when she entered the apartment building. He had just got back and finished chaining his bike to the stand when she came in. Mina said nothing and walked right past him. Mark frowned. What was that about?

Mina, once in her place, announced she was home and went straight to her room, not hearing a word from her mom. She shut and locked the door quickly. She leaned back against it and held her chest. Did that…really just happen? she thought.

An image of Jacksons face up close stayed on her mind that she just couldn’t shake. She chewed on her bottom lip and fished her phone out of her bag immediately texting Sana and Momo in their group chat.

Not even seconds later, she got responses from the both of them.

    紗夏 (Sana)

        - See?! We told you he was in love with you!!

    もも (Momo)

        - I’m going to kill him

Mina let out a laugh at Momo’s response. She sat quietly staring at her phone, watching as Sana and Momo were talking back and forth. Mina didn’t really bother to read it because she was too preoccupied on thinking about what happened between her and Jackson. What if I didn’t push him away? Mina thought suddenly daydreaming about kissing Jackson.

She shook her head firmly suddenly realizing what she was imagining and groaned loudly. She threw her phone onto her bed and buried her face into her hands.