“Dad! Come on! I’m late!” you shouted on top of your lungs, calling for your dad, who’s upstairs, still getting ready.

You glanced at the clock. 8:00 p.m. You let out another heavy breath and quickly grabbed your stuff and headed for the front door. 

“Bye mom!” you called out to your mom who’s in the kitchen, washing the dishes.

“Bye hun! Study smart!” your mom said raising her voice a little so you can hear her.

As you stepped out from your house, you could hear your dad’s steps down the stairs. You headed straight for the car and a couple seconds later, your dad unlocked the cars’ doors. You entered it and so did your dad.

“Sorry.” Your dad said as he reversed the car after starting the engine. You can hear his heavy breathing, probably due to his running down the stairs earlier.

You were on your way to your weekly night class and your dad would drive you to it every week. You would always be on time but tonight, your dad was a little late.

You had occasional chats with your dad in the car. Mostly about the jerky drivers whom had no manners. You tapped your feet on the car floor, getting a little impatient because of the long halt due to the red light.

You reached your class and you could already hear the teacher’s voice, explaining something you couldn’t quite understand. You sighed realizing you were already late for 15 minutes. Your breathing also got heavier considering that your class is on the third floor. You took a deep breath and you opened the door, which is situated at the back of the class. ‘Good. At least they won’t stare at me for being late.’ you thought.

You took a look around the class, looking for an empty seat. You usually sit at the second row with your best friend, but seems like someone was already sitting there. You looked for another empty seat, and you noticed that there was none, except for the one right in front of you, the seats located at the way back of the class. You had no choice but to just cope with it. ‘It was my fault anyway’, you thought while relieving a sigh. You took a look at the white board in front of the class, and you realize that it’s something new.  ‘So it’s a new topic’, you sighed again. You were studying additional mathematics. In your opinion, add-maths is the hardest subject and that is the main reason why you signed up for this class despite your busy school life.

You just tried to focus and tried to catch up with the things you missed earlier. ‘Wow, who knew someone can be so left out in just 15 minutes’, you thought. Suddenly, you heard a voice.

“Sorry I’m late. The traffic was pretty harsh.”  Said a boy.

‘His voice is so delightful’ you thought, admiring his manly voice, slightly high-pitched. You lightly slapped yourself after you realized your silly thoughts.

The whole class was staring at him and he casually bowed to the teacher. The teacher slightly nodded, acknowledging his presence.

You glanced at your watch. 8:30 p.m. ‘Wow, he sure is early. The class started at 8:00 and he came in at 8:30. I thought I was late.’ You judged him inside your head. You didn’t even turn around to look at him the entire time.

He placed his bag on the seat next to you. You were startled by his actions. Followed by his action earlier, he took a seat on the chair. You were getting red. He’s so close. You suddenly remembered that there are no other empty seats except for the ones here. You didn’t look up to look at him. You just stared at your book, pretending to be focused in your study. You were heating up. It has been ages since you sat this close next to a boy.

He started taking out his books and pen, getting ready to take down notes. You looked at him on the corner of your eyes and you nearly choked on your saliva after seeing his looks. ‘He’s gorgeous!’ you thought to yourself. You let out a small cough and you can feel your heartbeat increasing by the second.

“Are you okay?” asked the boy, sounding worried.

You were startled by his sudden question. To be exact, by his sudden care.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine.” You managed to answer.

‘He sounds a little worried. Oh my god, he likes me, he likes me!’ you were imaginary jumping with joy. You slapped yourself lightly after you realized you were being stupid. Slapping yourself has become a bad habit of yours whenever you realize your stupid actions.

“Oh my god, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” asked the boy again, sounding a bit worried at your actions.

You feel your face heating up. ‘Oh my god, he saw that? I’ve got to stop slapping myself. Oh my god, he must think I’m awfully weird. And stupid. And pathetic. And silly.’ Thoughts were building up in your mind.

“Yeah, it became my habit. Haha.” You answered, ending with an awkward laugh.

“Oh, okay, I thought you were possessed or something. That’s good.” He stated, sounding relieved. He ended his words with a laugh, which made half of the class turn to the both of you. He, realizing that, quickly buried himself in his book, looking serious.  Your cheeks were burning and turned into crimson red.

The teacher ignored the noise and continued with his lesson.

“Sorry.” Whispered the guy while looking at you sympathetically. His eyebrows were inverted.

You turned your head to him. ‘Oh my god he’s so cute. Look at his brows. Oh and that jaw line. I’m seriously gonna die if I keep on staring at him. Oh wait I’m staring at him. I’m staring at him!’ you started to think loudly. You quickly turned your head back to your book and managed to answer. “No, it’s alright.”

You looked to the front at the teacher and you noticed your best friend was glancing at you, smiling cheekily.  You blushed. Knowing her, you know what she must be thinking right now. ‘She thinks I’m flirting.’ You thought while glaring at her with a smile.

You were friends with boys at school but not close friends. You talk to them casually and your friends always see it as flirting. It was just your character, being flirty without realizing it. Although you were friends with boys, you never sit as closely to them like you were to the guy beside you.

At this point, you paid no attention whatsoever to the lesson and you were drowned in your thoughts.

“I don’t understand.” The boy said slowly.

“What? What’s wrong?” you asked the boy. You were worried as he sounded a little bit down.

“Oh, no. I don’t understand how -x/5 is the f^-1(x) of f(x) which is 5x+20.” Answered the boy sounding a little bit lighter than before.

‘Oh, I got this one. I learned this already. I got it. I can use this chance to teach him and he’ll think I’m a genius and he’ll fall in love with me and we’ll be a couple and we’ll be flaunting it and all my friends are gonna be jealous and sick of me and my crush would totally want me after seeing me with another guy.’

‘Oh my god what am I thinking? Ugh, it’s getting too far now.’ you reminded yourself and you were just about to slap yourself until you remembered the boy’s presence.

“ Umm, hey? Are you okay?” the boy asked you as he realizes your sudden silence and stare.

“Oh, right, add-maths. Right!” you blurted out.

He laughed an awkward laugh and nodded his head. You began to teach him.

After a good minute of a private lesson from you, he finally understood.

“Oh, now I get it. Funny, how I always don’t get anything the teachers are teaching but I always end up understanding something when someone else does.” He explained. “By the way, I’m Chen. You?”

You laughed at his unfunny statement. You further answered, “I’m  Micha. Nice to meet you Chen.” You held out your hand for him to shake. Chen was a bit shocked by your offer of handshake so he sat still for a second to take it all in his head. You started to feel silly. Just as you were trying to pull your hand back, embarrassed, Chen grabbed it quickly before you finished your attempt. He shook your hands, smiling at you. He was frequently blinking. You noticed that natural behavior of his and your heart begins to melt. You felt his warm hand in your cold hand. He had slightly rough skin. Both of you just stayed in that position, facing each other hand in hand, staring into each other’s eyes. You felt the connection between the two of you and you were drowned in his charming and twinkly eyes.

“Ehem, Mr. Kim, Miss Hyun. Exactly what are you two doing in my class?” the sudden interruption by the teacher startled the both of you.

The whole class was now staring at you and Chen.

 

You immediately let go of Chen’s hand and he did the same to yours. Both of you looked down to the books, staying away from any eye contact with the teacher.

“Uhh, we’re just…” you couldn’t finish your sentence. You thought deeper for a good reason as to why you were holding hands with Chen. You started to turn red as you felt the pressure building up on you.

“We were just getting to know each other.” Chen’s casual answer interrupted your thoughts. You immediately looked up to him and he was looking at the teacher. He sounded very confident.

“Now that you’ve ‘gotten to know each other’” the teacher said sarcastically, “go to page 47 and do the exercises provided. The same goes for all of you.” The teacher ordered us and the whole class and he walked to his seat.

The class’ attention was no longer at you and Chen, instead, their books.

“Heww, that was close.” You heard Chen said. He then laughed.

You were mesmerized by his laugh and you couldn’t help but to laugh along.

“I thought you were confident about it” you said with a tone of questioning.

“Confident? I thought I was gonna die there! Do you know how scary it is to have the teacher question you and waits for an answer while the whole class stares at you? I’m never going through that again!” he exclaimed.

You laughed at him. You thought he was the tough one but turns out, he was just as panicked as you were.

You were starting to work on the exercises but you couldn’t answer any of the questions since you didn’t pay any attention at all during the lesson. You looked up front to the white board to read the notes your teacher wrote. You then noticed your best friend looking at you with her signature cheeky smile again. She was making faces. You understood those faces completely. She was teasing you. She was teasing you being all flirty with Chen. You just scoffed and glared at her, laughing while showing those oh so shiny teeth of yours.

You turned your attention back to the white board, not for long though.

“Wait, Micha? Micha? A beautiful daughter?” Chen suddenly asks you. Pouring all your attention back to him.

“Yeah, that’s what my name means. How do you know that?” you were curious as how Chen knows what your name means, considering that the name is quite rare and the language used is traditional.

“I was always interested in names. Yours is really rare, do you know that?”  Chen stated casually.

“Wow, you’re the first person that I’ve ever met who was interested in names. I mean, no offense but, it’s weird!” you exclaimed “Wow, interesting, really interesting.” You looked at Chen, eyeing him while placing your left hand across your upper tummy and rubbing your chin with your right.  “Well what does your name mean, Mr. Interested In Names? And why is your name Chen? It doesn’t sound really Korean.” You asked him, raising your left eyebrow.

“My name’s actually Jongdae. Kim Jongdae. But I prefer to be called Chen.” He explained.

“So you lied to me?” you asked with a raised tone of voice.

“N-no, no. I didn’t lie. Chen is jus-“

“I was just kidding, no need to start stuttering,” you chuckled at him.

“Ha. Ha. Really funny” he rolled his eyes at you.

“Okay, so your real name is Jongdae. Why do you prefer Chen instead? Jongdae’s a cool name.” you asked him.

“Simple. Because Chen means Great.” He looked at you, crossing his arms on his chest, raising his eyebrows, trying to sound and look cool.

His actions froze you. You thought that he looked very seductive, and cool. You pretended to act normal and brush the heat off.

“Huh, oh does it now?” you teased, raising an eyebrow at him. “Well what does Jongdae mean?”

“It means..” he answered slowly.

“What does it mean, huh?” you asked impatiently, still teasing him

“It means big bell.” He answered quietly, looking down to his fiddling hands, which he placed on his laps.

“What? Big bell?” you resisted the urge to laugh at his funny name. But you couldn’t hold it. You laughed out loud until half the class was staring at you, again.

“Miss Hyun!” the teacher said your name really loud.

You quickly covered your mouth with your hand and looked down to your book. You continued to laugh quietly while lightly hitting your thighs.

Chen looked straight at you. You glanced at him and noticed his serious expression. You stopped laughing immediately worried you might have offended him for laughing at his name. You then turned to look down at your book, trying to hide your guilt. There was an awkward silence for a couple of seconds before Chen broke it with his laugh.

You turned your head back at him, looking at him with wide eyes. You were freaked out by his sudden laugh. But seeing him having so much fun laughing, you slowly joined in too. Now, the both of you were laughing.

“Mr. Kim! Miss Hyun!” the teacher shouted on top of his lungs. He was getting annoyed and angry at both of yours behavior.

Both of you stopped laughing and your faces turned to a much more serious expression.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to send the both of you out! Since the both of you seem to enjoy each other's presence so much” the class started giggling at his words “go to the next room and finish the exercises on page 47 that I see you haven’t even worked on obviously due to your constant fooling around.”

‘Oh my God, this is embarrassing. The whole class is looking and and and, UGH! This is embarrassing!’ you thought to yourself. You felt like pulling your hair and flipping tables and rolling like a buffalo! You just sat there, unsure of what to do. Unsure if you really have to do as the teacher says. Processing his words in your head, wondering if everything he said was just his form of humor.

“NOW!” his voice echoed through the whole room.

Both you and Chen were startled by his sudden outburst so you shoved everything into your bag as quick as you can and Chen did the same. You went to the room first, leaving Chen behind.

The room was dark, you the lights. It was really stuffy and the tables and chairs were full of dust as you took a step closer to look closely at them. As you were examining them, you heard steps. You figured it must be Chen. You just pretended to be busy dusting off the tables and chairs.

“Sorry.” You heard Chen sighed. “I’m really sorry to drag you into this.” He said with a sympathetic voice.

Your heart melted for him. You realize he’s really sincere.

“No, don’t be. It’s not your fault. I was the one who was fooling around too much. I’m sorry.” You said, trying to ease him.

“Yeah, it is your fault” he said.”You shouldn’t have laughed at my name in the first place”

“Excuse me?! You were the one who was telling me a joke! You shouldn’t have done that! You should’ve kept the joke to yourself!”

“What joke?” Chen asks, trying to remember if he told you any jokes.

“The joke about your name. Big bell.” You said, trying to hold in laughter.

“Ha.Ha. Really funny.” He said with a sarcastic tone.

You quickly ran to the door and closed it. You ran back to your position, making sure you were far away from the door. You laughed your heart out as soon as you were sure your laugh won’t be heard all the way from the class where the teacher’s having his lesson. You laughed for a good minute before Chen starts laughing with you.

“Why are you laughing?” you asked Chen while holding your tummy, still laughing.

“Because it’s funny!” he said in between laughs.

“Yeah, big bell! It is funny!”

“No! Not my name! That’s not funny!” he stopped laughing, then looked at you.”You’re  funny.”

You stopped laughing too. Then you looked into his eyes which are set directly into yours. He has a gentle smile on his face.

“You think I’m funny?” a small smile creeping up your face.

“And cute.” Chen continues, still with that gentle smile on his face.

You were speechless. Your heart fluttered and you could feel the butterflies invading your stomach. You didn’t know how to respond to that. So you quickly turned your gaze to the floor. You were both still standing in the middle of the room between tables. You were too nervous to think of anything to say. ‘Come on, think! Think! Don’t let this be awkward! Think! Okay, so if an extremely cute guy with a totally gorgeous jaw line says you’re cute, what do you say?  Ugh, how should I know? No one has said that to me before! Oh my god, it’s awkward already. What do I do?’ you were freaking out in your head.

Just before you could think of anything to say, Chen broke the awkward silence.

“We should get to work.” He said with a serious tone.

“Don’t you think it’s a little too fast?” you said quickly, your eyes still fixed on the dusty floor.

“What do you mean, too fast?” Chen asked, looking at you with one of his eyebrows rose.

“Well, we just got to know each othe- “ your words came to a halt as you realized how foolish you have been.  By get to work, you thought he meant something like, physical activities. Like, kissing and making out. You just realized how stupid you are. ‘Oh my god! What am I thinking! I shouldn’t have read those dirty fanfics! Oh my god, my innocent mind! Okay, now he thinks I’m a ert. Oh god, save me!’  You tried to cover the line so you just blurted out whatever you could think of.

You looked at him and blurted out “Yeah, we just got to know each other a bit and we’re already starting to do the work? I mean exercises? Shouldn’t we get to know each other a little bit more before we turn our attention to the books? I mean, we’ve still got” you glanced at your watch “an hour before class ends. Yeah, that’s what I meant by too fast. Yeah, that’s it.”

Chen’s face lit up hearing you said that.

“So you think we should get back to our conversation?” he asks, with an innocent smile on his face.

“Yeah, right.” You started smiling yourself realizing that what you just made up was exactly what your heart wanted. You wanted to spend more time with him.

“Maybe we should sit down first.” Chen said, making his way to one of the chairs. He dusted off the dust and he did the same to the chair next to his. He sat down and you followed. You sat down on the chair that he cleaned. Thinking to yourself ‘he’s such a gentleman’. Your heart flutters again.

“So you’re 18?” he asked you.

“Yeah. You?”

“Me too.”

“What school do you go to?” you asked him, trying to keep the conversation alive.

“Kyungsoo High. You?”

“Joonmyun High.”

“Joonmyun High? A good friend of mine goes there.” He exclaimed.

“Oh really? What’s his name? Is he also 18?”your curiosity grew.

“Suho. Yeah, he’s the same age as us.”

Your heart dropped to your feet. ‘That name. Suho’ You became speechless as you stare blankly at the wall.

“Hey, are you alright?” Chen asked, worried at your sudden silence.

“Huh? Yeah, sure. I was just thinking for a while.”

“Think about what?” his curiosity towards your sudden speechlessness grew.

“Oh, nothing.” You said, short.

Chen figured that the cause for your silence was what he said before. Suho. He tried to get out of the topic and switch to a new one.

“So, what’s your favorite dessert?” Chen asked.

You laughed hearing his silly question. “Dessert? Why are you suddenly asking me about desserts?”

“Because I’m hungry.” He simply said.

“Oh really? Or are you just really interested in me that you want to know every single thing about me?” you teased. You forgot all about Suho, your crush.

“Yeah, that too.” He said with a smile.

‘Oh my god, he likes me! He likes me! HE FREAKING LIKES ME!’ you’re being frantic inside your head. ‘Wake up Micha! No he doesn’t! He’s just teasing you! You shouldn’t have in the first place!’ ‘Heck, I’ll just play along with this.’ Your thoughts changing every second.

“Well, mine is probably ice cream. Turkish ice cream. Have you tried it before? It’s really nice, it’s not like normal ice cream. It’s a bit harder and chewy because of the ingredients used, salep and mastic. I like it a lot.” You explain your love for Dondurma.

“Wow, I’ve never tried it before. You sound like you know a little something about food there, Miss Turkish Ice Cream.” He rose his eyebrow at you.

“Are you saying I’m fat?” you joked with a high tone.

“Yes, yes I am.” He joked back with a casual tone.

“How dare you?!” you asked him, hit him with a book and then laughed.

“Hey, you asked for it.” He laughed back.

“So, you wanna go try Turkish ice cream sometimes? I know a place not far from here. It’s a little expensive, though.”  You asked.

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Chen asked with his eyebrow raised again.

‘Oh my god did I just ask him out on a date? I didn’t did I? It was just an invitation to eat ice cream together. Oh my god I did! I asked him out on a date! Why did I do that? You’re so stupid Micha! You should just keep your mouth shut! Now what am I gonna say?’ you were freaking out in your head.

“Fine, if you don’t want to.” You said sounding a little bit taken aback.

“I’d love to.” He said quickly, trying to get your attention back. “I’d love too.” He repeated the same sentence.

“Really? Great! When?” you asked anxiously with your eyes lit up.

“I don’t know. Some time? Wow, you sure are rushing into this.” He said, teasing you a bit.

“What? Rushing? Rushing into what? I wasn’t rushing!” you blurted out quickly, your cheeks turning red.

“Why are you blushing?” you hear Chen’s voice asking you.

“I’m not blushing! You’re blushing!” you accused him and blushed harder.

“Am I?” he touched his cheeks, trying to feel if there was any unnecessary heat. “Oh my God, my cheeks are burning!” he exclaimed further.

You laughed at him for being cute and funny. Then you remembered about the work that the teacher had in store for the both of you.

“Oh my god, Chen!” you said hitting your hand on the table, and then you looked at the time.”It’s 10:50 already! We’ve got 10 minutes to do our work before class ends! We’re so dead!”

“Really?!” he panicked with you.

Suddenly, you heard a knock on the door. The door opened, and you saw your teacher coming in.

‘That’s it. I’m dead.’ You thought.

“Mr. Kim, Miss Hyun, I have to cut our class short tonight. So the both of you can go home and finish the exercises later. I expect the both of you to finish it by next week.” He said, making you feel much better. “You may leave now.” He finished and exited the room.

“Heww, that was close!” you said as you wiped the imaginary sweat beads on your forehead.

“Already?” Chen asked with a little bit of disappointment.

“Aww, cheer up! We could still meet next week. And the week after that, and the week after that” you said trying to bring him up. Then you realized that you just over reacted. He didn’t say anything about separating with you. ‘Oh god, there I go again.’

He laughed. “I didn’t say anything about not meeting you. You’re so full of yourself.” He said.

“Hey! I am not!” you scrunched your eyebrows together. “That reminds me. Are you new here? How come I never see you?” you asked.

“I thought you were new. I’ve been to this class for six months now and I’ve never seen you either.” He replied.

“What? How can you not realize the gorgeous being sitting at the second row at the front?” you flipped your hair at the end of your sentence.

He scoffed. “What gorgeous being? I didn’t see any gorgeous being?”

You stared at him with a death glare. “Ha. Ha. Real funny.” Then you laughed.

You heard someone clearing . You looked at the door and saw your best friend there. “I’m sorry to disturb you love birds but it’s already 11:00 and the gates are gonna be closed any minute.” She said. Then she continued after a second of pause. “Oh wait, maybe I should’ve left you two here so you could ‘get to know each other’ better” she rephrased what Chen said earlier. “Oh well, bye Micha! Bye Micha’s new friend!” she said and waved and made her way down the stairs.

“Wait! Haewon!” you called out to your friend. You certainly didn’t want to be left alone with Chen. Although, you already were. But! Not with no one else in the building. “Wait up!”

Haewon’s tracks stopped upon hearing you call her name.

You went to her and asked her to wait for a second. Then you went back to Chen, only to see him packing up his things.

Haewon just waited outside the room for you to wrap it up with Chen.

You went and packed your stuff too.

“So I’ll see you next week.” You said to him after you finished packing your bag.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll be there. Same time, same place.” He finished his sentence with a charming smile.

“No, don’t be!” you said.

“What?” he was startled by your opposition.

“Don’t come in at 8:30. Come in earlier and sit next to me at the front.” You said, blushing at every word you say.

“Yeah, definitely.” He said with a super charming smile. His eyes twinkly.

“Okay, bye!” you said with an excited tone. You waved at him and flash your biggest smile. He waved back and tilted his head, smiling back at you.

You made your way to Haewon, leaving Chen behind.

“So, enjoyed your ‘detention’?” she asked, teasing you. "Or should I say attention?" she made a lame joke.

“Ugh, shut up!” you blushed and hit her with your elbow. You both made your way down the stairs.

 

You couldn’t sleep that night. All you could think about was Chen. His sweet smile. His twinkly eyes. His gorgeous jaw line.  The way he made you laugh. Big bell. Big bell. The name was echoing in your head. So was the sound of his laughter. You blushed and smiled to yourself.  You never wanted to go to a class this much.

“Can’t wait for next week.”