"So guess what."

"What?"

"The trip to Jeju is cancelled-- or postponed? I don't know; it might have been moved to another date..."

"That's crazy! Why?"

"Some kids can't pay for the trip so they're thinking about taking us somewhere else that doesn't require a fancy hotel or yacht...."

"I guess that makes sense..."

Bekah eavesdropped on a passing conversation. True, she wanted to go to Jeju to spend some quality time with her friends... away from her parents, but she understood the situation of those who couldn't afford to go. Shrugging, she walked off to Math class.

Things have gotten better. Though she was still not completely over Chansung, she still felt that there was hope in other things-- other boys. Afterall, it's not like he was the only boy that went to their school.

Point is... he was the only boy that she had ever wanted so badly. Was it the fact that she couldn't have him that made him so appealing? or was it just him, his personality that charmed her into such deep infatuation? She would never know.

Whenever she saw him passing her in the hallways, she'd purposely dodge him for a reason that she couldn't figure out herself.

As she hiked up a flight of stairs to her math classroom, she kept thinking about him. It was impossible for her to keep her mind away from him, at least for now. 

Sitting down at a random cluster of desks, she pulled her books out of her bag, sighing.

"Mind if I sit here?"

She looked up and saw Wooyoung standing at the desk next to hers.

"No! Not at all!" She said as she pulled her books to make room for him.

"Thanks." He flashed a smile at her as she felt her ears grow hotter. 

She had always wanted to talk to Jang Wooyoung, but he was just so quiet. It was more of a friend-crush than a real crush, though she did find him quite cute.

"Hey, did you do the homework from last night?" He suddenly struck up a conversation.

"Umm. Yeah; I couldn't do two of the problems though." She said as she opened her binder to her homework worksheet.

"Which ones?"

"Number six and nine?" She hesitated

"Oh. I didn't do six either, but do you want me to explain nine to you?"

"Yeah, I'd love that. I'm so confused by all this Trigonometry and Integral stuff," she felt embarassed. Their teacher always gave her a hard time for being the slowest in the class. She knew that the classmates had judged her harshly too whenever she asked questions that, to them, were easy to answer. She just wished that there was some way that she could show them that she was good at other subjects that required more creativity like Art, Dance and Writing. Math just seemed so dead.

He chuckled. Something about everything he did was so charming.

"But first you have to promise me something."

"Hmm?" 

"Go on a date with me."

"I--I......" She stuttered. This was the last thing she would have expected... Wooyoung hung out with the popular crowd-- though he was one of the shyer ones. She was baffled as to how he even came to ask her on a date. It's not like he had ever paid much attention to her anyways.... Maybe this was some sort of joke, maybe a dare, between his friends and him.

He looked confused; he had finally worked up enough courage to ask the prettiest girl in their school (or at least in his opinion) on a date.

"No?" He said, unsure of why she had hesitated.

"I mean I don't know if you're doing this as a dare or something... I just didn't expect you to ask me out..." She continued warily; if it wasn't a prank, then she the last thing she would have wanted was to hurt his feelings and turn him down because she did want to go on a date with him.

He looked down and laughed, "How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Not too sure... just... jumped to conclusions... I didn't really think---"

"Are we done with chattime?" Their teacher cut in on their conversation with a harsh tone.

Everyone in their class was staring at them.

"Oh. Sorry about that," Bekah awkardly looked around the room.

Their teacher held a grudge against her for some reason... It had always been a mystery to her.

"Well then, if you're ready we'll start by going over the homework. Did anyone have trouble with any of the problems? This should have been relatively easy for everyone."

Bekah was aware that she was probably the only person to have not finished the worksheet-- but didn't Wooyoung say that he didn't do number six as well? That'd be a good place to start.

"I had trouble with number six...." She trailed off at the end of her sentence hoping that others would chime in.

Their teacher gave Bekah a weird look as she flipped through the worksheet.

"You should have learned this in Precalculus last year... If you need extra help you should get a tutor; the library has sign ups for those." The teacher had began her usual singling out.

"Sorry..." Bekah whispered under her breath, without a trace of sarcasm.

Wooyoung looked at her, as he always did, wanting to say something back to their teacher who had always pummeled her confidence into the ground.

And finally, he piped up, "I didn't get that one either...."

"Wooyoung...? What didn't you get about the problem?" Their teacher had not expected Wooyoung, her star student to ask such a dumb question.

"Mrs. Kim, is there something wrong with not knowing the answer to the problem?"

Bekah looked at Wooyoung with surprise.

"No! There isn't at all! Let's do the problem together then..."

"Wait a second, though. You were just giving Bekah a hard time, though. Why? Does it all change because I'm asking you?"

She nudged him, "Wooyoung, what are you doing?" She whispered.

He was so close to crossing the line-- this close to being sent to the principle's office for talking back to the teacher.

Mrs. Kim was dumbstruck. "Um.. no....."

"Actually, I think it does." He rebutted.

"Wooyoung, are you talking back to your teacher?" She suddenly said sternly. "For what? For a little bit of young love you'll experience?"

"No. It's not for that. I just think it's about time someone said something to you about singling Bekah out. It's not right." 

Bekah could not believe what was happening. A cute boy in her Math class had finally called out their of a teacher in front of everyone. It was like she had hit jackpot.

Mrs. Kim glanced at the clock on the wall. "Everyone, class is dismissed; everyone except for Wooyoung and Bekah is allowed to leave."

"So, you're going to cancel class because you don't want to be humiliated in front of your students? It's a little late." He had very clearly crossed the line.

"Wooyoung, stop. You'll get in so much trouble if you continue," She said in a hushed tone-- not quite a whisper.

"Come on; you guys heard her, class dismissed." Wooyoung pushed his books into his backpack and swept Bekah's books into one arm while grabbing onto her hand, leading her out of the classroom.

Bekah stumbled out the door, hearing everyone shuffling to pack their bags.

"That was crazy!! Do you want to be expelled or suspended for being rude to a teacher?!" Bekah exclaimed, pacing back and forth as Wooyoung sat on the steps of the amphitheater eating his lunch.

"Come eat your lunch," he smiled charismatically

"Wooyoung! Are you not listening to me? That could seriously affect your grade... and what if she goes to the administration?!?"

"and say what? That I told her off for being rude to you?"

"There are other ways of putting it to make her seem like the victim!"

He rolled his eyes. "Will you just sit down and eat lunch with me? Stop worrying. I already talked to the administration about it. They weren't going to do anything about it, so I did."

"You... when?"

"About two weeks ago."

She stood there silently. So he's liked her for at least two weeks now?

"Come." He motioned for her to sit with him.

"Ugh," she grumbled.

Handing her a sandwich, he continued to maul his own. 

"Wooyoung--"

"Stop! You'll be fine. If anyone were to get in trouble, it would be me."

"I know... I just don't want you to get into trouble... for me."

He smiled as he took another bite from his sandwich. "You still never answered my question."

"Huh?" She turned to face him.

"About the date," he anticipated an answer.

"Oh." She thought for a second and suddenly thought of Chansung but quickly shoved off the thought, "My answer... is yes."

She finished off a few more bites of her sandwich, and was full. She didn't even notice the grin on his face.

"Wait, really?" He looked a little bit too excited.

"Yeah, why not." She shrugged, "You did just make my day."

He chuckled as he fiddled with the saran wrap that had contained his sandwich.

The bell rang and she took one more bite from her sandwich before she wrapped it up to throw it away. 

"Wait!" He yelled, just as she was about to throw the left overs away.

"What?"

"Don't waste your food," he lectured.

"But I'm really full..."

"Give it to me then; I'm still hungry."

She quickly withdrew her hand away from the trashcan and handed him the sandwich. "Here you go."

He took a bite and smiled, "Did you make this yourself?"

"Yeah.. I pack my own lunch everday. Why?"

"It's really good... I can't really put my finger on why, though..."

"I put avacados in it... if that's what you like..." She tried guessing.

"Mm.... Probably." 

"I'll make you lunch sometime; you look seriously starved," She laughed.

"No; it's okay. I'll just mooch off of your lunch everyday."

"Suit yourself," she shrugged.

"Wait... surprise me one day," he smiled.

"Alright." She gave a witty smile.

Once he had eaten the entirety of the left-over in such a short time, he threw away the wrapper and picked up his bag.

"What do you have now?"

"Psychology?"

"I'll walk you; I have English in the same hallway..."

"Totally not creepy that you know where I have Psychology," She joked.

"Oh... Sorry." He suddenly realized how weird he must have sounded.

"I'm kidding... kind of. It's cute that you know that... but... maybe you should have saved that for our date or even another date after that..."

He tried hard to cover up his excitement when she mentioned "another date" but still couldn't hold back a small smile. 

"Come on. We'll be late if we don't go now!" She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him up the steps of the amphitheater to the humanities building.

When they reached the top of the steps, he used his free hand to lead her hand into his so that they were holding hands. She blushed but continued to lead him on their jog to class. 

It's strange how fate works-- why had Chansung's previous class been let out late enough so that he would arrive Psychology at the same time as Bekah? And why did it have to be on the day that she was with Wooyoung?

As Bekah and Wooyoung sprinted towards the door, he stopped in his steps, trying to hide behind a column to avoid an awkward situation-- for Bekah's sake. It would have been easy for him to suddenly show himself and throw her into a fury of confusion, but he was a little bit more decent than that.

He peeked around the column to see their linked hands just let go of one another. He saw that Wooyoung had unwillingly let go of her hand and wait for her to walk into the classroom and apologize for lateness before he had left-- just incase her Psychology teacher was just as unnerving at their Math teacher had been.

'Another one? How easy am I to replace?' 

Around the other side of the column, Chansung could see Bekah look back at Wooyoung and smile, as he did back to her as well before he walked off to English, feeling quite accomplished and jittery.

It was probably for the best.

He felt uneasy, though. 

When Wooyoung had disappeared from his view, he finally jogged to the door.

"Sorry about my tardiness," Chansung bowed as he took the only empty seat next to their teacher.... right next to Bekah.

"Let's try to be on time next time, guys; fifteen minutes have passed already," Their teacher had directed his attention to Bekah and Chansung.

Bekah nodded apologetically, but still couldn't get the past hour of amazement out of her mind. It's as if she had dreamt it all, but she hadn't, and Chansung could bear witness to that. He had seen her blossoming relationship with Wooyoung begin, and he couldn't help but to feel disappointment in himself, even moreso than he had before.

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lol I hope you enjoyed that chapter, y'all. I had fun writing it. *sigh* if only things like this happened in real life.

>_____________________<

/forever alone

lololol so tell me what you think! I'll be waiting to read your comments!

Thanks for hanging in there and bearing with me. I really hate making you all wait... but I also have a boatload of work to finish for school. 

LOVE YOU ALL!

yellowbee