If there’s one thing I regret doing in ninth grade, it was that I never checked my friend requests.

I only add people who I think were cool, or who I had interactions with, or who I think would be of good use for my everyday life (aka, the people who posts assignments, people who I can ask the answers for a homework with, and people I can ask a favor for).

All the rest, they either never get a message from me, or they’re left chilling in my friend requests.

About a month after my break-up, I met her.

I’ve never met her before, probably because we never were classmates, nor am I friends with her set of friends. She was timid, too. On the first day I saw her, she wasn’t even talking much, despite hanging out with her friends.

It was a good thing that she was hanging out with her friend, Seungwan (who was my classmate). They were strumming the guitar – she was stopping every now and then to ask Seungwan how to get a certain chord right.

That time, I didn’t realize how long I had been staring at her.

It was the case, until a classmate smacked my back and started to laugh.

“Got an eye for her?” She teases. It was Heeyeon, the awkward social butterfly. She has this kind of appeal that makes everyone want to know her, and she has a wide memory. She probably knows everyone in our batch, including the person with Seungwan right now.

I denied a little, despite knowing to myself that she indeed looked fine. She looked nice, her personality looks nice, she’s taller than me, and she plays the guitar well. But it was my first time seeing her, and I am not quite sure about how I feel about her.

So with a shrug, I said, “N-No,” not even noticing I flinched a little. “She just looked nice, that’s all.”

Heeyeon grins. “She’s a nice person, just so you know. And she plays the guitar well!” She says. If she thinks it was going to make me fall for her in an instant… then yes, she’s right. “Want me to introduce you to her?”

I paused briefly to think about the situation. I did just break up a month ago, and I just met her today… “Well, does she have a boyfriend? Or a girlfriend..? Or whatever-friend?”

“As far as I recall, she doesn’t!” She says. “She’s Kang Seulgi, and she’s from the class just next to us. She’s really very kind, she’s not picky of who to help! And she’s talented too, as you can see.” She continues with a smirk. “I know you want her.”

And maybe the way I sighed betrayed my guard up, for she tugged me with her towards Seulgi and Seungwan.

“Hey, Seungwan.” She first greets our classmate, as to not look very suspicious about our (hers, actually) plan. She then smiles a bit for Seulgi.

And good god, does Seulgi look better up close. I feel myself blushing, but she was looking at Heeyeon, so I’m relieved she didn’t see how awkward I was.

“Seungwan, I’m really sorry to bother you, but Joohyun was pushing me to ask you if you can teach her how to play the guitar too!”

I smacked Heeyeon’s back discreetly, as I apologized to Seungwan. “Oh, no! I don’t want to bother you, sorry! Please go on!”

I could’ve sworn Seungwan and Seulgi stared at me a bit in confusion, but went on with their business as soon as I had pulled Heeyeon outside the classroom.

“What was that?!” I asked.

“My plan to get you and Seulgi closer.” She says.

I face-palmed. “I said I wanted to be close to Seulgi, why are you making Seungwan help me?”

And it was now her turn to think of me as an idiot. “Wouldn’t it be very obvious if I asked Seulgi to help you instead?”

She had a point, and maybe I truly am an idiot.

“Seungwan could’ve gladly helped you, and you get to have some interactions with Seulgi. You could’ve been learning about Seulgi’s hobby and get to be close to her, but you blew the chance!”

Yeah, I’m an idiot.

“Well, at least now I know her name,” I said.

It must’ve been my lucky day, for all the teachers gathered for a meeting, which means we don’t have teachers for the afternoon class.

Seulgi hung out with Seungwan again in our chaotic classroom, along with another guitar player, Taeyeon.

Despite the noise and commotion in our room, I managed to focus on only Seulgi.

I’m not the type to believe in love at first sight, but damn. I think I’m infatuated.

Seungwan and Taeyeon were playing, and Seulgi was just watching them. I then had the chance to finally push through with Heeyeon’s plan, so I mustered all my courage and stepped closer to where their circle was.

“Seungwan!” I said enthusiastically. Close friends would have hit me, because I never was that enthusiastic in my entire senior life. “Can you teach me how to play that song?”

And I thank the good heavens because the plan ended up in a better way.

“Oh… I would like to help you out, but Taeyeon and I are busy with this song.” Seungwan says. She then turns her head to Seulgi. “Sseul, why don’t you help her out?”

Seulgi seemed hesitant and shy at first, but she handed me her guitar.

“Do you know all the chords in a guitar?” She asks.

I shook my head no, in all honesty. I wanted to know how to play an instrument, but I never got the chance to. So Seulgi temporarily claimed back the guitar to show me all the hand positions and corresponding chords for it, and handed me afterwards.

There was a song Seungwan and Taeyeon was playing, and she probably saw me sing along to it earlier. So she offered to help me know how to play it, arranging my fingers every time the chord changes and telling me the pattern of strumming.

She had this smile on her face, probably proud to have helped me (since she’s kind and all), or maybe glad that I wasn’t a hard student to teach basics to.

But her expression changed, and for a moment, I thought I did something wrong.

I thought I played the wrong chord, or I strummed the strings wrong, or sang the wrong lyrics.

But she leaned closer and pushed my hair back for me.

“Your hair…” She mumbles. “It might get caught in the strings…”

I swear, my heart stopped.

In her class, I am close with someone who I didn’t know she was close to.

She was the notorious Park Sooyoung. I know that if I ask her to help me out with Seulgi, she’d laugh and be noisy about it. She’ll make all the most obvious acts ever, would probably make fun of me in front of her, and slip up as she talks to her.

But I trust Sooyoung on this one.

I know I can count on Sooyoung for making me and Seulgi closer.

So as I walked over to her seat, I internally prayed.

“Joohyun-ah!” She exclaims. “Rap for me,”

“No,” I grumble. “Introduce me to some of your good-looking friends, would you?”

I decided not to make it obvious yet. Or maybe I should act as if I’m interested in another person, so that I won’t look like I’m already all over Seulgi.

She cackled. “How about Yeri? She’s single.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, anyone but not Yeri.” I said. “I want someone cool. You know, the chill type?”

She scratched her head a bit.

I was already trying to hint Seulgi, why can’t she get it?

“Ah, I know!” She snaps a finger. “How about LE? You know, Hyojin?” She pulls me by the hand and leads me out the room. “She went outside, I can introduce you to her if you want!”

“I actually have met her before, because of a school competition. And I asked her to buy me lunch once.” I said. “So, no need to introduce me to her! I think she knows me.”

But I was too late, and we were already outside. She had already called LE, and now they were talking together.

“Do you know who she is?” Sooyoung asks LE.

She shrugs. “Yeah. Joohyun, right?”

I nod, and Sooyoung follows.

“But we’re not close,” LE says.

The very moment LE spoke, Sooyoung cackled and hit me playfully. “Hah! She said you weren’t close! Hah!”

I’m already red from the humiliation that Sooyoung was putting me in. I hope none of them misunderstands it and thinks I’m into LE, because I’m nowhere near that feeling.

“Wow, you made my day!” Sooyoung continues to laugh, and LE just nods.

I shook my head and covered my face in embarrassment, not even wanting to hear any more of Sooyoung’s mocking laughter.

I wished I could filter my hearing, so that I can never hear her like that, ever again.

But God must have listened to me, for I heard the name of an angel when she spoke again.

“Hey, Seulgi!” She calls out. I looked up from the palms of my hand. “Do you know this person?”

She looks at me.

I tried hard not to flinch.

She answers coolly and without hesitation, “Yeah, I saw her last year in ninth grade. I thought she was our teacher, Miss Kwon Boa.”

And Sooyoung laughed harder.

Just when I thought that LE telling Sooyoung that we weren’t close was the funniest for her, this happened.

I turned red, once more, and covered my face til Seulgi went back to her classroom.

“Hey, Yoona!” Sooyoung speaks again. “Do you know this person?”

God, will she ever end?

I’ve always been active in my social media accounts, but never really bothered to check other people’s accounts.

I rarely follow people back, I seldom check filtered messages.

I never scroll through my list of friend requests.

Either I add a person, or when I look up for their account, they’ve already sent me a friend request.

Same scenario had I given to Seulgi.

Sooyoung had her own fun mentioning me in her tweets, along with all the people she embarrassed me to earlier that day.

One of which was Seulgi.

I’ve never came across her account before; probably because we’re not really related, I don’t follow the people who talks to her, or plainly because I’m asleep whenever she’s online.

So I checked her account and scrolled through it for a bit.

I found out we had some common interests in music, in games, and in more things that I never thought she would like. I looked at it as an opportunity to talk to her again, keeping it cool by starting to mention about the song in her bio.

A little bit after our short and friendly conversation about the song and its artist, we somehow ended up talking in Messenger.

Apparently, Seulgi had sent the friend request back in ninth grade, back when she thought I was our teacher. I don’t recall seeing her in my friend requests – but that’s probably because I have never checked them in the first place.

But I’m glad she hadn’t cancelled it yet.

I’m glad that I got to meet her and – finally – accept her friend request.

So I decided to keep the conversation light, as to not scare her off.

I know I’ve been notorious for being a straightforward flirt, but based on my research, she’s really timid and shy so I might intimidate her if I go for it right away.

She might never ever talk to me again.

Or worse, she might unfriend me on the day I accepted her friend request.

Days passed, and we have talked a lot about our interests.

I think we’re getting closer, and I’m actually glad and relieved that I at least have an idea on most of what she’s talking about.

And Heeyeon wasn’t lying when she said this girl was kind.

Lucky was what I thought I was.

She listens to me. She asks me how my day went, even though we aren’t even that close yet. We can freely talk about random things, and we never got awkward about it.

We talk about our interests, and our hobbies. We even planned to go on movie marathons if we had the chance to (since we both like animated films), even though we’re not sure of how we’d get to have that.

She understands me, no matter how petty I am, or how simple my problems are. Despite sounding too whiny, she offers me some help.

I mean, she even offered accompanying me to the cafeteria after knowing that I’m awkward with transactions. And she kept on accompanying me for days, even though “accompanying me” meant “I’ll wait for you at the end of the line and you go buy it on your own, Seulgi.”

She was just… so kind, over all.

One of the factors that made me fall harder for her was how open she was.

And that she lets me vent out to her, even though she’s not directly related to the problem. No matter how wrong I am, she helps me pick up myself and tell me ways on how to get away with it.

Damn, I can just curse myself.

How lucky can I get?

What good deed did I do in my past life had been equated to this kind of blessing in my current life?

It hadn’t been long when finals week came up.

Usually, our classes would start at 7:00 AM, but for finals, we were required to report to school at 8:00 AM. I don’t know why it was a thing, but everyone at school probably thought that we use that excess one hour for study time.

As for me, I use the excess one hour for more sleep.

But after meeting – and being close – with Seulgi, I have found a reason to wake up at 5:00 AM, leave the house at 6:00 AM, and arrive school at 7:00 AM.

If I arrive school earlier, then I get to spend more time with Seulgi.

This girl probably was hired by someone who hates me so much, for I die a little inside whenever she does something with me, and for me.

On the day before the start of our finals week, Seulgi asked me what time I would go to school for exams.

I honestly answered that I might go to school past 7:00 AM.

But my mind changed and I set my alarm at 5:00 AM because Kang Seulgi, the angel I think I have a crush on, invited me to have breakfast with her before exams start.

Man, I never woke up so early in my entire life for school!