“Ack,” I rubbed my tired eyes as I gazed at my weary reflection. I shouldn’t have stayed up so late, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but ponder about my current situation. I patted moisturizer on my face, which was puffed up and swollen from my late-night snacks.

“Myungsoo... Airi...” I murmured. Huh. It didn’t make sense to me, but perhaps I was just in denial.

“Maybe I’m just overthinking?” I tilted my head and my chin.

“Overthinking what?” My brother stood outside the door, visibly annoyed. “Yooae, can you go any slower? Hurry up, for god’s sake!”

“Alright, alright,” I put my hands up in exasperation, frowning as I heard him whisper something about “females and their narcissistic tendencies”.

“Hey,” I whirled around and stormed up to my brother, pinning him against the doorframe.

“Er... yes?” He pulled back, visibly surprised by my outburst.

“Say... is there any type of situation where you wouldn’t want a girl to like you?” I stared into his eyes.

“Sis, you’re kinda weird, you know?” He grabbed my face and tried to push me away. I resisted his (weak) attempts and continued to corner him.

“Answer as a favor for your beautiful, amazing, and wonderful sister!” I commanded.

“Doesn’t every guy want girls to confess to them? I don’t see why not, unless he has a girlfriend or... he’s gay!” He gasped in realization, catching me off guard. In that one second that I wasn’t paying attention, he shoved me away, entered the restroom and locked the door. His loud laughter rang out from behind the door.

“Why are you laughing?!” I yelled.

“No, nothing!” He called back.

“Gay?” I frowned. “Well, I don’t think he is... so...”

My cellphone rang from my hand, and I didn’t have to think twice to know who it was.

“Hello?” I hesitantly answered. “Oh, Airi.”

“How are you? Do you have a cold? Your voice sounded terrible yesterday! Just like an old woman’s!”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” I cleared my throat. “I’m all better, though.”

Not really. If only she knew how terrible I was feeling. At the same time, I was overwhelmed with guilt; if Airi was really dating Myungsoo, then it would be me that was standing in between them. I couldn’t help but push all the blame onto Airi, although I knew that I was at fault as well.

“Hello? Yooae, you there?”

“Yeah..” I replied, pulling on a cardigan over my clothes.

“Just so you know, I won’t be at school next week!”

“Why?” I questioned.

“I’m going to Jeju Island for a week long vacation! Jealous, right?”

“In the middle of the school year? Isn’t that... bad?”

“Eh, dunno!”

“I see...” My voice trailed off. “Hey, uh...”

“Oh, and Yooae... I have to tell you something when I come back.” Her tone turned serious for a split second before returning to its normal chippiness. “Whoops, gotta go! See ya later, Yooae!”

“B-” She hung up, leaving me to frown at her bad habit of hanging up too early on people. Really, sometimes I didn’t understand Airi at all. She seemed easy to read, but mysterious at the same time. As one can imagine, I didn’t know whether to anticipate or dread what she was going to tell me.

What if she said “I’m dating Myungsoo”?

I didn’t even want to think about it.

“I’m leaving now!” I yelled to no one in particular. Today, I planned to go to my favorite bookshop and perhaps a cafe to keep my mind off Myungsoo. Nothing beats a good book and Americano, after all.

During my walk to the subway station, I saw a girl pick up a piece of trash laying on the floor. She instantly reminded me of the first time I talked to Myungsoo. He had always been a popular person throughout middle school, surrounded by the same type of people as the present.

I was a very tidy person during middle school, and I could care less about looks or reputation. In contrast to now, my hair was a plain black color. I sometimes spotted Myungsoo and his crowd around the school. I was annoyed at them most of the time, wondering why they would take so much space in the hallway. I was under the impression that Myungsoo and his rowdy crowd were the same; arrogant, rude, and complete s.

Well, maybe some of his crowd were s, and still are. But I knew that Myungsoo wasn’t, for sure.

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“Ehm... could you please move?” I quietly asked, tugging at one end of my braid. Myungsoo and his crowd were spread across the hallway, blocking my path to the classroom. The crowd shifted to form a measly path, which I squeezed myself through. I didn’t miss the many looks of ridicule and disdain.

Later that day, I walked through the same hallway, on my way to the library.

“What is this?” I huffed in annoyance at the plethora of trash and cigarettes laying astray the hallway floor. I hurriedly tugged a heavy trash can from a nearby classroom and into the hallway, where I crouched down and began to pick up trash.

“Ew, what’s she doing?” A girl from his crowd wrinkled her nose.

“Gross... is she picking up trash?”

“Let’s leave...” The crowd dispersed, chattering actively amongst themselves.

“Annoying,” I muttered, brushing my hair behind my ears. I hated his group. Well, more like looking down upon them. Didn’t they know that smoking was harmful to their body? Why didn’t they pick the trash that they left themselves?

“Hey, what are you doing?” Myungsoo bent down next to me with a curious expression on his face. He was the last person I wanted to talk to.

“Picking up trash,” I replied. Picking up trash that was by your group, I mentally added.

Out of the corner of the eye, I spotted Myungsoo clumsily scooping up a few pieces of crumpled papers and dumping them into the trashcan.

“What are you doing?” I blurted out.

“Picking up trash!” He cheerfully answered. “We left it, right? I can’t let you clean up for our mess.”

Seeing the blank look on my face, he continued, ”Sorry. We were too loud in the hallway too, right? I’m really sorry...”

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“Hey, watc-”

I crashed into someone, causing my legs to wobble. I closed my eyes, waiting for the impact of the cement floor on my knees.

“Huh?” I opened my eyes. Someone held me up, their firm grip on my arm.

“Are you okay?” The man who held me up playfully winked. One look, and I could tell that he was what people called a  “player”. I squeezed my eyes, trying to avoid the light that was reflected off his blond hair.

“Thanks,” I regained my balance, refusing to look him in the eye.

“I’m Woohyun, by the way!” He introduced himself, sticking out his hand. “Come on, handshake!”

“Yooae...” I replied in return, bending down to pick up the items that fell out of my handbag. I hated dealing with people like him. “Well, uh, I gotta go, so...”

“Hey! Wait!” He called out. I quickly made my way into the crowd, ignoring his voice. My train would be here any minute. Luckily, I found my platform just as the train arrived. Once I stepped into the train, I clung onto the metal bar by the entrance and shifted through the contents of my bag.

“Tissues... mirror... cellphone...” I whispered, then briefly pausing. “Wait. Cellphone?!”

Ignoring the stares of other passengers, I didn’t hesitate to bend down and dump everthing out of my handbag. Sure enough, my cellphone was missing. I must have dropped it when I nearly fell at the platform.

Which meant...

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“Huh,” Woohyun watched as the girl he ran into fled into the crowd. Something shiny on the floor caught his eye, as he bent over to pick it up. Woohyun stared at the brightly colored cellphone in his hand, smirking. “What’s this?”

He turned over the cellphone, inspecting the sticker on the back.

“Isn’t that Myungsoo?”

Woohyun pocketed the cellphone, chuckling to himself before walking away. “What a lucky find.”

A/N

So... not much to say...

Sorry for the late update, as well as the lack of quality in this chapter... /shot

Hm.

Next chapter:

“School festival?”

“What do you mean you don’t have it?!”

“Why are you with Yooae?!”

.