❀ arinsays ❀

simply something short to get the story started! welcome^^

 "Guess what?" Hansol asked the moment he reached his two best friends with clear excitement that lit up his face. He slid into the bench opposing them, as Chan sighed at him and didn't bother looking away from the phone in his hands. The round table had a mess of books and stationery but the youngest seemed to have given up on studying, resorting to playing Piano Tiles instead.

 "If it's another life hack or a Minecraft cheat," Seungkwan's expression was dead serious as he waved his pen in Hansol's face. "I will unhesitantly stab you with this."

 "You guys are mean." Hansol's cheeriness faltered, a sour frown forming on his face as he ped his bag. He rummaged through it initially to grab his social studies book but his hand found a small packet of banana chips instead, so he forgot his intentions of studying and focused on his snack. He slapped Chan's hand away from the packet, much to the younger's chagrin. Seungkwan simply rolled his eyes.

It was a nearly daily activity for the three stooges of Seolnam High School to meet up like that; it became sort of an unplanned habit to gather at their usual place in the courtyard once the final bell rang and they'd do their homework (or rather, attempt to do) and have lunch together, before they disperse to their respective meetings in about an hour's time. They were in separate classes as well as explored different fields of interest—Seungkwan was a choir member, currently preparing for a competition, Chan was the vice captain of the swim team who had a match coming up soon while Hansol was one of the school counselor's assistants and best believe, despite how it may sound, he had a lot to do. And once all their respective tasks are settled with, they'd meet up at the school gate to walk home together.

As much as they wouldn't want to admit it, they were truly inseparable. Stuck at the hip, even.

Not long later, Hansol was busy sticking his nose in the packet of chips in hopes of finding some leftover crumbs, when the boys were approached by a fellow female student that was well-acquainted with them. Seungkwan and Chan exchanged obvious, exaggerative looks, earning themselves a threatening look from Jaena. Her expression immediately changed, however, when Hansol looked up to see her. The menacing glare magically vanished and was replaced by a sweet smile, making Chan snort.

 "Oh, hi, Jaena!" Hansol greeted her cheerfully, not knowing how much it made her heart flutter.

 "Hi, Hansol," Jaena replied, beaming as she was turning red. She then turned to face Seungkwan, the real reason she came to them, her tone dropping from honey-like sweetness to absolute bitterness. She ed the pink notebook she'd been carrying towards Seungkwan, saying, "Here's my history notes that you wanted."

 "Ah, yes! Jaengjaeng, you're really the best." Seungkwan blew her kiss, to which she shivered in disgust at.

 "Jaengjaeng, aren't you going to acknowledge me?" Chan in an annoyingly high-pitched tone.

Jaena squinted her eyes at him. "Am I supposed to know you?"

Despite how it was more of lame satire than a joke, Hansol was chuckling at it and Lord, it was like music to Jaena's ears. She tried her hardest not to blush but she could tell she was failing miserably.

 "Oh, Jaena!" Hansol's dark brown eyes locked with hers and she could feel herself slowly melting into a puddle. "Did you know that you could use sticky notes to clean out your laptop keyboard?"

Jaena raised her brows. "Really? How's that work?"

Ignoring the groans coming from Seungkwan and Chan, Hansol launched into explaining with full of enthusiasm, Jaena paying attention to every single word that came out of his mouth. She didn't realise how wide her smile was; how couldn't it be, considering how blessed she felt to have this kind of moment with her own Prince Charming.

 "Hey, that's actually really useful," Jaena grinned. "I like to eat snacks when I'm on my laptop, so you can imagine all the icky crumbs that get stuck between the keys."

 "Well, now you can go home and try it out." Hansol looked so proud and satisfied with himself that it made her insides go wild. It was the cutest sight to see; he was going to be the death of her, she knew it.

 "I will," she assured him. Once again, her face made a drastic change when she looked back at Seungkwan. "And you, take care of my notes—if anything happens to them, I will cut you."

 "Yes, ma'am."

 "Bye Hansol!" the kind side of Jaena returned as she waved at Hansol, leaving the trio's self-proclaimed territory.

As Chan grumbled about how she didn't bother saying goodbye to him, Hansol wiped his sticky hands on his pants (an unhygeinic action that made Seungkwan scrunch up his nose in disapproval) and sighed.

 "You saw that?" Hansol gestured at Jaena's retrieving back. "This is why I like Jaena—she appreciates whatever I tell her. Not only is she nice and funny, she's a good friend too, unlike some people I unfortunately know."

 "Yeah, well. It can't be helped we aren't as easily entertained as the two of you." Seungkwan only shrugged.

 "Jaena chose the right man, alright." Chan muttered. His words were only caught by Seungkwan's ears and he snickered in reply, but Hansol was left staring at them in confusion.

 "What did you say?"

 "Oh, nothing."

The conversation swiftly flowed into something about the baseball match from last night. Seungkwan and Chan began to argue about whose throw was the best; Hansol had spaced out, finding interest in Jaena's notebook. He picked it up and let out a small ‘wow' at the cover, which had the word ‘history' above Jaena's name written in neat calligraphy. Intrigued to see how pretty her notes were, considering that even the cover was a gift to the human eye, he started to flip through her notes, merely admiring what he thought of as work of art.

He skimmed through each page. Each page that was full of unbelievably tidy handwriting, various different colours used, cute little diagrams here and there. All except for one—the only bare page, consisting of not history notes, but a boy's name and a shaky large heart drawn around it. In spite of how rushed the drawing seemed to be, it was unmistakably still done by Jaena.

 "Hey guys," Hansol spoke, successfully cutting off Chan and Seungkwan's bickering. "Do we have another Choi Hansol in our school?"

 "Yeah, but he was a senior when we were freshmen," Chan said. "Why the sudden question?"

Hansol proceeded to show what he had found to his friends. He hummed, not noticing how Chan's eyes went wide and Seungkwan nearly choked on air.

 "Ah, Jaena must've had a crush on him. Look, she drew a heart around his name. I wonder if she had the chance to tell him." he sounded so innocent, like he seriously had zero clues about the truth.

 "Hansol, I love you and all," Chan inhaled deeply. "But you're such a ."

Hansol was taken aback. "Wait, why? What did I do?"

 "The Choi Hansol Jaena likes is you, you idiot!" Seungkwan slapped his forehead, frustrated. When Chan gasped, Seungkwan realised his mistake and belatedly clasped a hand over his mouth. Panic aroused among the both of them, the same thought running repeatedly in their minds: , Jaena's going to slaughter me.

Meanwhile, Hansol was too surprised for words.

 "Jaena... hearts me?" he repeated. He glanced at his friends then back at the heart. What exactly was happening?