Kyun Mi Ri was finally back in her hometown, Seoul. After spending all that time in New York City trying to follow her singing dream, she didn’t know what to expect finishing her high school year out at Verdant Arts. Since her parents still lived back in America, she had to buy her own little place in Seoul. It was a nice apartment; just enough for her to enjoy. Her designated ringtone for her best friend Lee Ji-Na went off in Mi Ri’s purse. She grabbed her phone and picked it up. “Ji-Ji?!” Mi Ri said with excitement as she replied with, “Miri Unnie~ I’ve missed you so much~ how have you been?! You have to send me the new address so I can see your face before school tomorrow!” she says happily. “I’ll text it to you now. I shouldn’t be that far away from you. I’ll invite Ji Hye too.” Ji-Na started squealing as if she seen her big time favorite crush in the world, G-Dragon, or something. “I can’t wait! Hurry~!” she said in a rush then hung up immediately after she said that. Miri shook her head at her wildness then sent out her address to both Ji-Na and Ji Hye.

As she waited for her friends to show up, she decided to make chocolate chip cookies for them. For some reason, her mother made her pack all these American treats before she left. While she making the dough, she heard a knock on her door. “I’m coming!” she yelled from the kitchen whilst she scrapped the rest of the cookie dough off her fingers. She skipped to the door and opened it with her arms wide open. “Come in!” Ji Hye and Ji-Na looked around and both gasping at how nice she set up the place for only being back for at least a week.

“It’s nice and quaint in here unnie~ I’m jealous~” Ji-Na said as she plopped down on the couch face first.

“This is completely your style; simple but complex. I like it.” Ji Hye follows up after Ji-Na.

“Thank you, thank you.” Miri says whilst she bows then makes her way to the kitchen. Ji Hye follows her and looks into the bowl of cookie dough.

“Are you making us cookies?!” Ji Hye’s eyes widen with delight as she smells the bowl. “COOKIES!” Ji-Na yelled and ran at light speed to the kitchen. Miri laughs and snatches the bowl out of Ji Hye’s hands.

“Yes! I wanted to bake us some cookies so we can have something to munch on as we catch up on the last couple of years.” Miri explains as she drops plops of cookie dough down onto the cookie sheet. She puts the two sheets in the oven then sets the timer to 12 minutes. “Since when could you bake?” Ji-Na says mockingly, sticking her bottom lip out. “My mom taught me in New York~” Miri says teasingly back, sticking her tongue out.

“Did you have a boooooyyyy~friend~ while in NYC? Ooh la la~!” Ji Hye pokes at Miri repeated as she cringes from being tickled then Ji-Na joins in on tickling her.

“YAH! I didn’t have time for that!” she slaps their hands away as they continue laughing at her sensitivity.

“Yes you did!” Ji-Na and Ji Hye say at the same time and continue to tickle her for the full 12 minutes that the cookies were baking. When the timer went off, the two girls ceased the tickling and helped Miri off the floor. Her face was covered in tears and as red as a cherry when Ji Hye handed her the oven mitts to remove the cookies. She places them on the cooling rack whilst all three of them stick their noses close to the cookies and say, “Yummy cookies~” They waited for the cookies to cool and munched on them as they caught up on lost time.

♡♡♡

Miri looked at all the other students walk through the gates of Verdant Arts High as she took a deep breath to prepare herself for her first day to the school. She was a little nervous but saw some familiar faces she hasn’t seen for quite some time. She made her way to homeroom and sat in a desk near the window. Miri took her phone out and started to send a text to Ji Hye who’s homeroom was right across the hall, “Aigoo, I’m so bored already~ and I’ve been here for only 5 minutes~” the text message said. When she pressed send, her eyes looked up to see a boy with blonde hair with some pink in it. It looked like he could have been emitting some kind of energy as he walked into the room; he was gorgeous. He had a sharp jawline and amazing eyes. Miri was hypnotized by him but came back to reality when she heard, “Oppa~! Sit next to me!! Oppa, you look so handsome today!!” and noticed that they were all swooning over him like he was a God or something. She rolled her eyes at the gawking girls and realized that he was probably the playboy type. He looks like he acts just like that. She turned her attention to the trees blowing in the wind outside. The boy looked over at her as she was the only girl in the class with her hair done up nicely in a curly ponytail, resting over her left shoulder. He spotted an empty desk right across from her and made his way over to her.

“Excuse me…” Miri’s ears perked up as she heard a voice from right side of her. She slowly turned around and noticed it was that boy that walked in from a couple of minutes ago. Miri looked at his jet black boots, making her way up his white pants, and his green, black and white blazer, and then finally looked at his face. “…is someone sitting here?” he asked her kindly. Miri didn’t know what to say. She looked around and saw the girls glaring at her evilly then shook her head. “N-No…” she spoke up shyly. He smiled at her then pulled out the chair. “Good.” He said happily. “I rather sit here next to you than by those crazy girls.” He points to them and laughs. Miri gave him a blank expression as the funny one left from his. He put his backpack down next to him and positioned himself to sit forward. “Class!” the professor said loudly as she hit the table with a book to quiet everyone down. “I will start attendance.” She said in her nasally voice. Miri finally got a text back from Ji Hye saying, “Agari dakcho! You’ll be fine Miri. Did you find anyone cute in homeroom? I have a couple of boys I have my eye on. ;)”  Miri chuckles at the text then looked over at the blonde boy next to her. He was pretty freaking cute. She didn’t want to say she found anyone just yet or Ji Hye would run in here and make it this big thing. “No, I haven’t found anyone yet. Sigh~” she sent back. “Kyun Mi Ri?” “I’m here.” She raises her hand as the professor marks her down for being here. The boy looks over at her with a smile.

“You have a pretty name.” he follows with a nod. Miri didn’t know what to say so she politely nodded back, making his smile even bigger. “Lee Byung Hun?” “Present!” the blonde boy says making Miri’s ears perk up. “Byunghun…” she muttered under breath as the girls gasped and ooh’d and aww’d at his name. He leaned over to Miri then said, “You can call me L. Joe if you like.” He sat back up and smiled at her. She looked over at him and gave him another blank expression, he laughed. “You can talk to me. I don’t have cooties or something if that’s what you think.” He points to the girls again. “But I think they do.” He laughs causing Miri to giggle a little into the palm of her hand that was resting under her chin. “See, I don’t mean any harm. Your name is Mi Ri right?” he says kindly. Miri exhaled then nodded. “Uhm… yeah, but you can call me Miri; it’s what I was called in America.” L. Joe’s eyes widen and point to his chest. “You’ve lived in America too?” he says surprisingly while Miri continues to nod. “I lived there for 5 years, how about you?” he looks at her anticipating her answer. She lightly flicks her key charms dangling from the side of her phone. “5 years.” L. Joe smiles brightly at her, “Wow, isn’t that a coincidence?” she nods nervously as he continues to talk to her. “Why do you call yourself L. Joe?” she looks at him then turns away quickly, to not get lost in his beautiful orbs. “In America, every called me Joe. I put L in front of it from my surname and came up with L. Joe” he smiles at her. “How did you come up with Miri?” she looks up with her eyebrows raised as if she wasn’t listening when she was. She was closely examining how unique his voice sounded but yet it was slightly y. “Well… my name is Mi Ri so when you put it together; Miri its sort of the same thing. My American name is Mary Kyun which is kind of a play on my Korean name…” she says softly, still playing with her key charms. L. Joe reaches for her hand then pats it lightly, “I think it’s pretty.” She looks at his hand then at his face as he welcomes her eyes with a warm and sweet smile. Miri quickly moved her hands away and put them in her lap. L. Joe couldn’t help but chuckle at her shyness. “Byung Hun and Mi Ri do you have something to add to the news?” the Professor says as she looks at both of them over her glasses. They both shake their hands as she continued talking.

After homeroom, the day went pretty smoothly until Miri’s last class. Ji-Na’s English class was right across from Miri’s music class. The bell rung, indicating that the last class of the day was near and almost over. Miri waited out of Ji-Na’s English whilst she was gathering up all her books. She went to look down when she noticed a manly face to be in his 2^nd year. Instantly, she compared his cuteness to L. Joe and he was basically a solid 9 but this guy… this guy was tough competition for him. He had a small mole over the corner of his mouth and his hair was perfect. Miri couldn’t really tell if it was the lighting in the room but his hair was either blonde or brown; either way, it made me look y. His shirt was open a little, revealing his chest. He had a nice build. Miri studied his every move as he grabbed his books. Even though she hated the fact that girls were all over him as well, she couldn’t stop looking at him.

“Unnie~! Unni, who are you looking at so hard?” Ji-Na says playfully in her normal childish sounding voice. She looks in Miri’s direction and notices she’s looking at the guy in the distance.

“Oh! You like Changjo?!” she says loudly, making Miri cover and pull her out of the doorway when he looks over at them.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!!?” Miri hits the back of her head lightly.

“Owwwwww….” Ji-Na rubs her head as one eye is closed and she pouts. “Wah unnie, you were the one looking at him, not me.”

“No I wasn’t! I was looking out the freaking window to see if it was freaking raining outside!” Miri yells at Ji-Na loudly, making everyone look at them. She rolls her eyes and grabs her by the arm, dragging her to her to the next class. Ji-Na and Miri walk into the classroom only to see L. Joe look up at them as he was now wearing a t-shirt. He waves at Miri. “Change your clothes and sit with us!” Miri’s heart became to race as she seen both L. Joe and that Changjo boy sitting together. She gulped then turned around. Ji-Na looked at her then tugged on her blazer. “What’s wrong? Who’s that cute boy over there with Changjo?” she muttered innocently. Miri grabbed her arm again, heading up to the Professor’s desk. “Annyeonghasyeo. Kyun Mi Ri and Lee Ji-Na. Which locker is ours?” Miri says politely, despite her deathly gasp moments ago. “Ms. Kyun you are locker 23 and Ms. Lee you are locker 22. Hurry back! I’m going to teach the introduction soon!” The middle aged man said kindly, handing them their keys. Miri continues to drag Ji-Na to the back of the room. “Yah, can you stop dragging me around unnie?! Your grip is too strong~” Ji-Na whines, making the others in the class snicker at the two’s amusement. Miri puts her on her locker as she drops her bag. “How do you know that guy?!” Miri whispers to Ji-Na as she opens up her locker. “He’s in all my academic classes. He’s really shy… but he’s nice.” She says as she takes off her blazer. Miri thinks about what she said as Ji-Na continued blabbering about something.

When they were finished putting their things up, they both walk out back to the class. “Please sit with Byung Hun and Jonghyun at table D1” the Professor says as Miri and Ji-Na make their way to the table. Miri sits next to L. Joe and Ji-Na sits next to Changjo. “Now, as you can see in front of you…” the Professor starts with his lesson. “Changjo, this is Miri. I was telling you about her before.” He nods then holds out his hand. “Hello. I’m Jonghyun but you can call me Changjo.” Miri stares at his hand for a second then slowly puts her hand in his. ‘His hands are so freaking soft…’ she thought as she couldn’t let go of his hand. Ji-Na pulled their hands apart then Miri looked at him, lightly flushed, “I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” she said repeatedly, putting her hands in her lap. “How do you know Changjo, L. Joe?” Ji-Na says cheerfully as she looks at the small clay pot in front of her. “He’s here for both singing and dancing. I met him in music class last year when he was in 1^st year and I was in 2^nd year.” Ji-Na’s eyes widen. “You can sing L. Joe?” he shakes his head. “No, no, I rap.” Ji-Na taps the table lightly with her fingertips with excitement. “I want to hear you rap one day~!” L. Joe smiles shyly with his head down.

Miri sat there quietly, not used to attractive guys by her. Even though she lived in New York, she was always studying and never really had the chance to date anymore before. “Is she always this quiet?” L. Joe points to Miri as looks at Ji-Na whilst she shakes her head. “Unnie’s usually really loud and cursing all the time but she’s a really lovely girl.” Miri kicks her under the table making Ji-Na jump from the pain and grab her leg whilst she winced with pain. L. Joe and Changjo looked at Ji-Na as her face was covered in pain. Miri cleared . “So… what are we are making pots tomorrow?” Miri adjusted herself in the seat to sit up straight. The three of them looked at her. Changjo cleared his throat, “Yeah, we need partners.”

“I want to be Miri’s partner.” Both boys spoke at the same time. Miri’s eyes widen and looked at the two boys oddly as they wanted to be her partner.

“Changjo, let’s be partners for tomorrow!” Ji-Na tried to break the awkwardness with her normal aegyo.

“Sure.” Changjo said kindly with a smile at her as they began talking causally, leaving Miri alone and partnered with L. Joe.

“Are you good with your hands?” L. Joe said as he examined pamphlet on the table, further explaining the types of clay and pottery.

“…I-I-I guess.” She said shyly whilst she looked at the side of his face. His deep v neck t shirt was distracting her greatly. The exposed skin of his chest made her bite her lip as the collarbone was always her favorite feature on a man. L. Joe glanced over at her quickly.

“Why are you biting your lip? Are you hungry?” he asks coolly whilst he looks to his side and digs in his bag then pulls out a small box of pocky. “We can share this but hide it from the Professor…” he whispered in her ear with a smile.

“Okay!” she barked quickly as her cheeks formed a pink rose color when she felt the warmth of his right arm grazing hers when he leant over. His breath lingered up her neck as it gave her goose bumps. Secretly, L. Joe and Miri eat the sticks as they looked up to pay more attention to the Professor.

♡♡♡

“Ji-Hye! How was your first day back at school?!” Ji-Na said sweetly as the three girls walked toward the entrance of the school.

“It was really good. Surprisingly, I love all my Professors. Miri and I’s Literature teacher is so cute~!” she cooed whilst she thought dreamily about him and continued to describe him to Ji-Na.

“Why are you so quiet?” Ji Hye nudged Miri’s arm. She turned around and looked at her.

“No reason. I’m just ready to go home.” Miri said calmly.

“She’s thinking about how L.Joe and Changjo both wanted to be her partner today in Arts and Crafts today~” Ji-Na teasingly said to Miri as she started walking backwards in front of her with her tongue sticking out.

“L. Joe? He’s in your class?!” Ji Hye said with shock and slight jealousy.

“Yes and he likes our Miri Unnie!” Ji-Na continuing teasing her. Miri waved her hands in front of her as she stopped dead in her tracks.

“He doesn’t like me! Dakcho pabo!” Miri playfully hit Ji-Na as Ji Hye tried to pry Miri away from her whilst she laughed hysterically.

When they reached the gate, Ji Hye and Ji-Na lived in a different part of town than Miri did. Miri put in her earbuds and put on some music, softly humming to herself as she walked to the bus stop. She went to move her bangs out of her eyes when she noticed a familiar figure walking a couple of steps in front of her. ‘Could that be L. Joe?’ she wondered as she pulled the cord to her earbuds, making them pop out of her ears. She causally walked up closer and noticed he was taller than L. Joe, it was none other than Changjo. Before she could speak up to say something, he turned around and waved at her. She stopped dead in her tracks, making people walk around her.

“Hey Miri, are you going to the bus stop too?” He took two steps back to stand in line with her.

“Y-Yes…” she said shyly looking down as she started walking again.

“We can ride the bus together.” He said kindly as they continued to walk. He looked down and noticed that her iPod was still on then he pointed to it. “May I see what you’re listening to?” he asked.

“Uh, oh! Yes, sure! Here.” She handed him her iPod as he started looking at the album she was looking at it. He then put in one of the earbuds to listen to the song that was playing.

“Travis Garland?” he said in English. Miri nodded then pointed to his picture.

“He is my inspiration for the kind of music I want to sing. I sang his song, ‘R.I.P’ to audition to get back into Verdant High.” Miri looked down as she felt herself becoming more nervous as Changjo listened to the song.

“He sings really well. I like R&B music too. Do you have more songs by him?” his face was so cute Miri thought as he asked her the question.

“Oh, uhm… yes. He only has two albums but I have some of his older songs when he used to be in a group.”

“We should listen together on the bus.” He said with a smile as he put the other earbud in her ear. Her face turned a rosy pink as she felt his fingers lightly graze her cheek and ear. They both listened to her iPod as they walked for the bus together.

The bus pulled up in front of the people among Miri and Changjo. He pulled out one of the earbuds and boarded the bus with Miri behind him. She spotted a nice seat near the back near the window and sat down. Changjo sat closely to her with his bag down in front of him. He then took the earbud and continued listening. He looked over at Miri and saw how red her face was. ‘She’s really pretty’ he thought whilst he watched her looking out the window.

“When’s your stop?” he asked as he tapped her hand that was firmly holding tight to her bag, littered with all kinds of characters from shows on her it. Miri gulped before she turned to face him. When she did, she closely saw his good features. ‘Omo… he’s freaking beautiful…’ she thought.

“Uhm… it’s the next spot.” She nodded to her reply, making eye contact with him shyly.

“Me too! Which building are you staying in?” he asked as he forgot his hand was still resting on hers. He quickly moved it and sat it in between his legs.

“T-T-The white stone building…” Miri spoke softly as she rubbed her hand that Changjo’s fingertips were on, missing the feeling of it being there.

“Seriously? I live in the one directly across the street from that building. We can come to school together. Now we don’t have to walk alone.” He said with a huge grin at the thought he’d be able to see Miri in the morning and walk her to the bus stop. All Miri could do was nod with a smile as she thought ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me. He’s interested in an American artist that I love and he wants to walk me to school every day. I don’t know what to do…’ she shook her leg vigorously as she looked out the window, trying to not talk to Changjo anymore until their stop came up.

The two of them stepped off the bus. Changjo handed her back her iPod. “Thank you for letting me listen to music with you.” He said shyly, looking down at his shoes, rubbing the nape of his neck when he finally looked her in the face.

“N-No, thank you for listening.” Miri closed her eyes in realization of how dumb that sounded. She scoffed and rubbed the space between her eyebrows.

“I’ll see you here tomorrow morning. Get some rest and don’t study too hard your first day.” He smiled at her sweetly then waved with two fingers. “Jal ja.” Miri bowed hesitantly as she watched him walk away. Miri watched him walk into the building and when he disappeared, she finally turned around and headed over to hers.

Miri never could concentrate on her studies when the house was quiet, especially now that she didn’t live with her parents anymore. She decided to put on some music as she worked on her homework. Her cellphone vibrated violently as she was just finishing up the end of her history work sheets. Miri looked at the text that Ji Hye sent her at 8:53 PM.

‘Miri Unnie~ I hope I’m not disturbing you! I’m so happy you’re back in town! Everyone’s missed you! See you tomorrow at school! Jal ja~! Saranghae ♡’

The text made her smile seeing that her best friend still highly cared about her after she moved to try and pursue her dream. She sent a simple text back saying ‘I’m glad to be back! You should get some rest Ji Hye. See you tomorrow. J’ she put her phone down and finished up her last sentence of her homework. “Done.” She said as she put her pen down over top of the paper. Miri stretched and yawned then walked over to the window. Directly across from her she saw a man in a towel wrapped tightly around his waist, showing off his pelvic bones whilst he rubbed the towel against his wet hair.

“I shouldn’t be watching this.” Miri said out loud turning around then she turned back around to look at him. When he turned around enough for her to see his face, she yelled, “CHANGJO!” making him look out the window and she ducked down underneath the window and gasped. Her heart was racing at the thought he probably saw her.

~~A/N: I hope everyone likes the first chapter. Please comment, subscribe, all that nice stuff if you like it. If you do, I'll love you forever~