I opened the door to my classroom and poof! It was empty as always. I was always the first person to arrive at school. My parents always went to work early and rather than walking to school, I’d rather they dropped me off by car even though I had to arrive at school early every day.

 

There were a lot of advantages of arriving at school early though. Like, you could copy your friend’s homework in the morning if you hadn’t done yours, you could have more time to study quietly for exams, and you could be the first person to see Sungyeol every morning.

 

Oh there he was. Lee Sungyeol just entered the class. He was one of my classmates. He is tall, good looking, pretty smart, and he had a lot of girls rooting for him. I wasn’t one of his fans though, but seeing him every morning made me started to like him a little, just a little.

 

He would always smile at me when he entered the class, of course because I was always the only one in the class, and I would always smile back. Sometimes he would copy my homework or I would copy his and sometimes he would ask me to teach him a few things for our exams or the opposite. But our relationship was never more than that.

 

“Good morning, Nara! Umm can you teach me about math? I still don’t get it ugh!” Sungyeol said to me. He dragged the chair in front of my table and sat in front of me.

 

“Sure. But I don’t fully understand it either though… Which part you don’t understand?” I replied while opening the pages of his math book on my table.

 

He only greeted me when he needed something though. But I didn’t mind, I loved to hear his frustration sigh whenever he couldn’t understand things. Not that I loved to see him frustrated, but I thought it was cute.

 

* * *

 

“Good morning, Nara!” I said to Nara. As usual, she was already sitting prettily in the classroom by herself early in the morning. “Umm can you teach me about math? I still don’t get it ugh!”

 

“Sure. But I don’t fully understand it either though… Which part you don’t understand?” She replied. I pointed the part that I didn’t understand and she started to explain.

 

I loved it when she explained me things I couldn’t understand. Sometimes, however, her explanation made more sense to me than the teacher’s explanation, but some other times, I couldn’t even understand her explanation because I would be too busy looking at her. She’s really beautiful but damn smart too. Sometimes I would purposely ask her about things I already understand just because so I could talk to her.

 

“Thank you, Teacher!” I said to her.

 

“You’re welcome.” She replied while smiling at me. I always called her ‘Teacher’ to . She did protest the first times I called her though, but she probably got tired of protesting and accepted it anyway.

 

I didn’t know exactly when did I start to like her, but I just did. I loved to see her hair fell on her shoulders and how it glowed under the sunlight, I loved how she smelled like sweet soap in the morning, I loved how smart she is and how she helped me to understand things better, and I loved her smile. But I’m not sure if she’d like me back though. She’s just too smart for a guy like me.

 

* * *

 

“Hey I think I just caught Sungyeol stealing a glance at you again, Nara!” Ara said while we were passing by the field to the library. Sungyeol and his friends liked to play basketball after school, it wasn’t hard at all to spot him around the field.

 

“He was probably just looking at other things…” I replied to Ara.

 

“But this wasn’t the first time!” Ara insisted.

 

“So? If he liked me then he’d just talk to me like he did to all the other girls, right?”

 

“That’s true… But maybe he just feels pushed back by your aura? I felt that when the first time I met you... You’re smart and beautiful and you didn’t look like you need friends hahaha.”

 

“Seriously? I look like that? You’re kidding me! Hahaha.” I light punched Ara on her arm. “I don’t feel like I need a boyfriend at the moment anyway.”

 

“Ouch! See? You don’t need friends!”

 

“Shhh! Stop shouting we’re in front of the library. We need to focus on our final exams.” I ended our conversation while sticking my tongue out and opened the library door.

 

Actually, Ara wasn’t the first person to tell me that I have that strange aura that makes me look unapproachable. But they also said that I am a completely different person than how I looked like, if you got to know me better.

 

And Ara wasn’t the only one who noticed that Sungyeol was stealing glances at me. I noticed that too. But I always convinced myself that he was looking at something else because if he liked me then he’d already asked me out by now. He didn’t look like that type of person who had problems talking to girls anyway.

 

I just didn’t want to get my hopes up too high. Also, the fact that he only talked to me when he needed my help proved it.

 

* * *

 

We were sitting on the bench near the field after a game of basketball.

 

“You know, the graduation day’s getting closer. Time really flies, huh?” Myungsoo said to me.

 

“Yep, High School days feel like it passed in a blink. Hey, why are you talking about graduation all of a sudden?”

 

“Sure High School passed in a blink if you keep on staring at that girl without blinking. Who’s her name again?”

 

I scoffed. “Nara.”

 

“Oh yes, Nara. Maybe you should talk to her or something… You know, or you might never see her again after the graduation day.”

 

“I don’t know… She doesn’t look like she likes me at all.”

 

“And you’re going to give up without even trying?!”

 

“I’m trying okay. I come to school early everyday just so I can be the first person to see her in the morning and talk to her, but she doesn’t look like she has a thing for me or anyone! She’s just too smart for me anyway.”

 

“Try harder! I can’t stand seeing you watching her for the rest of our High School days alright. Like studying for our finals isn’t boring enough.”

 

“Shut up! Hahaha.”

 

 

Days before the graduation day passed by really fast. Nothing much changed since then. Everyone was busy studying and worrying about final exams and their future collage.

 

The graduation day came, everyone looked really happy to finally leave High School. The graduation ceremony was finished and the students were outside the school building for probably their last chance to talk to their friends before going to different collages.

 

I saw Nara with her friend, still looking pretty as usual. But her smile was bigger, probably because she graduated with high scores too.

 

“Hi, Nara.”

 

“Hi, Sungyeol.” She looked surprised, but continued to smile big. “So, I’m not your teacher anymore?”

 

“Sorry for always calling you teacher haha. Thank you for everything, by the way. Good luck with your collage.” I said while placing my hands in my pocket.

 

“No problem.” She said while looking at her shoes. “You too, good luck with your collage.” She said again, this time she was looking straight into my eyes.

 

We looked into each other’s eyes until I said, “See you later, then.” even if I wasn’t sure if I were ever going to see her again.

 

*  *  *

 

“Ara! I’m going to miss you so much!!!” I said while squeezing her between my arms. We were literally doing the bear hug.

 

“I’m going to miss you more, you little ostrich!!!” She said while squeezing me even tighter.

 

“When are you going to get tired of calling me little ostrich?”

 

“Never! Hahaha.” She said while hugging me again.

 

Ara was my closest friend in High School. I knew and became friends with a lot of other students too, but Ara and I were always together everywhere for almost all the years of High School. She was going to different university far away from mine, so the chance of us meeting each other again was slim.

 

When we were done hugging, laughing, and talking about our moments in High School, I saw Sungyeol walking up to my direction and without any command Ara moved further from me at once.

 

“Hi, Nara.” He said to me. I was surprised to know that he wanted to talk to me, plus, he didn’t call me ‘Teacher’ like usual.

 

“Hi, Sungyeol. So I’m not your teacher anymore?”

 

“Sorry for always calling you teacher haha. Thank you for everything, by the way. Good luck with your collage.” He said while smiling at me. His smile looked sincere, and…

 

“No problem.” I didn’t know what it was, but suddenly I felt shy talking to him. “You too, good luck with your collage.” I said again, this time I tried to encourage myself and looked him in the eyes.

 

For a moment that felt like infinite, we were just looking into each other’s eyes. That was when I realized that probably, I liked him more than just a little, definitely a lot more than just a little.

 

I came back to reality when he said, “See you later, then.” I nodded and watched his retreating back slowly disappeared between the crowds.

 

And that was the last time I saw him.

 

* * *