“Being on the school yearbook staff has its advantages. I get to go around school and take pictures of people or special events and I don’t have to stay in one place the whole class period. I usually look forward to the special events, though, like senior auctions, choir concerts, volleyball games, football games…basketball games. I especially love the basketball games. The players look so magnificent on the court, running around and passing the ball to their teammates and around the opposing team. The girls look so high-spirited in their red and white cheerleading uniforms and the guys are just plain hot. Especially him. You know how sometimes when you see a group of people there is always that one person who stands out like a sore thumb? Yeah, that was him. Junhong Choi, aka Zelo. But he wasn’t a sore thumb. He was beautiful. The way he focused when he ran down the court, his brilliant smile he gave when his team scored a point, everything about him was mesmerizing. Unfortunately he was a junior and I was a shy, reserved sophomore. In other words, he would never notice me. And I’m not just saying that because I sort of have low self-esteem; I have my reasons. On more than one occasion I would go up to him because I had to ask him a question for yearbook, and every time, EVERY SINGLE TIME, he would just walk away. It made me sad, to be very honest, but I was also happy just being able to be so close to him. My heart would race at 1 bazillion miles per second from being so close. –Sigh- I don’t want to think of the fact that next year is his senior year...in other words, I only have one more year with him. I’m going to be so sad when he graduates, but hey I’ll move on. It’s what I always do. For now though, I’ll just enjoy looking at him from a distance as much as I can. Admiring him from far is better than not seeing him at all.

Well imma go to bed now. G’nite dairy! :3”

“That’s cute. That’s real cute,” he chuckled after reading the entry.

“Hey Zelo! We gotta go.”

“You guys go ahead. I’ll meet you later.”

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“Where is it? I’m sure I left it here somewhere.” Taylor scratched her head as she searched frantically for her diary. It had somehow fallen out of her bag when she was taking pictures of the basketball practice.

“Oh no!”  She exclaimed as a thought suddenly occurred to her.

“What if someone picked it up?! I hope no one picked it up! *gasp* What if HE picked it up?!?! Oh my God my life would so completely over. I would never be able to show my face here again! Oh dear God where is it?”

“Looking for this?” She turned around and saw what she was looking and her face brightened up, and then she saw who was holding it. All the blood drained from her face and it took all her will power not to freak out.  HE was holding it. The very same person who she wished and hoped on her life would not find it was holding it. Taylor’s mind wasn’t functioning well at this point. She couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Well, are you?” he asked. She desperately wanted to say no and just calmly strut out of the gym, but her feet suddenly had a mind of their own and would not cooperate with her mind.

“Y-y-y-yes…” she replied in a very small, barely audible voice.  He then began walking slowly and purposefully towards her, watching her face quickly turned a deep shade of red and she kept her eyes glued on him, unable to look away.

‘She is too cute,’ he thought and smirked. Her eyes widened a little more, if that was even possible at this point in time. He stopped right in front of her, only a couple of inches away, and held out the small book which she hesitantly reached up to take. She put her hand back down and finally looked away from the boy’s eyes.

“T-thank you.” He took another step towards her and she looked up quickly, eyes wide once more.  

‘What is he doing?! Why’s he getting so close?! Oh my God he’s even more beautiful up close. His lips are so red and soft-looking I just want to bite them...wait what am I thinking at this moment?’ Taylor kept backing up until she hit the wall.

“What’s wrong Taylor?” He emphasized her name (he knew her name?), causing shivers to go down her spine. Zelo walked steadily towards her and put his hand on the wall near her, smiling slyly. He leaned down, lips slightly grazing her earlobe, and whispered, “You are too cute you know that?” before along the edge of her ear. His unoccupied left arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer to him. Taylor’s heart was racing at a million miles per hour, and she could bet on her life that he could feel it. He nibbled on her earlobe and she felt a million shockwaves flowing through her body. Her lower region was throbbing, and a strange sensation filled every muscle of every part of her body. He felt her tense up and smiled again before pulling back.

“See you around.” He lightly kissed her forehead and his heels before walking out the door. Taylor slowly sank to the floor while clutching her chest, still in shock at what just happened.

‘I’m dreaming…right?” she blinked several times then pinched herself.

‘Ow!!! I’m not dreaming. Did that…did that really just…happen?’

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‘Why did I do that? What was I thinking? She’ll probably think I’m a and avoid me for…forever. Ugh!’

“Zelo !!! Dude we’ve been calling you for like five minutes. Are you okay?” Zelo finally looked up from his frozen yogurt at his friends. They were at Frozen Café after their basketball practice, but while the others were immersed in conversation, Zelo was busy thinking of the incident that had happened earlier that afternoon. He’d been so preoccupied with is thinking he didn’t notice they had been calling him.

“Huh? Yeah I’m – I’m fine. What were you saying?”

“We were talking about the upcoming game. Are you ready?”

“Why bother asking? Y’all know he got this.” They all laughed heartily, but he was barely able to chuckle.

“Well, I’ll be leaving first. I have to go pick up my little sister from her friend’s house.” Shundar stood up and began to leave with Jason close behind him. Kenneth got up as well, saying he wanted to go rest before doing something Zelo didn’t really catch on to.

“Well, I guess that means we leave too.” Alan said, but he didn’t move and just stared at Zelo .  The latter looked up and was met with a stern gaze that caught him off guard.

“What?”

“What are you thinking about?”

“What—what…”

“Don’t try to evade it Zelo. You’ve been out of it since we left school. What’s wrong?” knowing he couldn’t avoid the questioning, Zelo sighed and began probing his frozen yogurt that had melted quite bit.

“You know Taylor right? The sophomore?”

“The one who always had the camera?”

“Yup.”

“What about her?”

“….I don’t know any more Alan. She just…and I….and then she…gah!!! I don’t know.”

“Wow. You like her don’t you?”

“Well, I guess but I don’t know when it started and…yeah. *sigh* This is too complicated.”

“It wouldn’t be as complicated if you just drop your cool guy image, go up to her and talk to her. All those times you walked away when she tried to interview you…you gotta make up for that,” Alan said, patting Zelo on his back.

“How? I don’t know what I’m gonna say.”

“Here’s how…”

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Taylor was sitting in the bleachers looking through the pictures she’d taken. They were good, but they didn’t really…hit home. She wasn’t satisfied. Sighing, she looked up and observed the four guys playing basketball. She followed the movement of the ball, focusing on it until her thoughts turned to Zelo and the incident that happened two days ago. What made him act that way that day? He’d never even looked her way let alone made physical contact, and then out of the blue he did….that. Taylor was still trying to process what happened that day when she heard someone clear their throat. She looked up and found herself staring- wide-eyed at Zelo .

“Hi *clears throat* Hi Taylor.”

“H-hi,” she managed. Zelo then walked the few steps to the spot next to her and sat down, his hands behind his back. He took a deep breath and brought out a hand clutching some notecards and just stared at them. After a moment of silence between the two, Zelo chuckled and threw the cards away. He cleared his throat again and looked at her.

“I had a whole speech prepared and everything, but I guess I’m gonna do it the natural way and just let the words flow. Here goes.” He took a deep breath, then another before looking up at Taylor’s face.

“I like you. I’m not sure to what extent or how deeply I feel for you, but I do know you have some sort of impact on me. Those times when you come to interview me and I kind of, um…walk away, it’s cuz I don’t know how to look at you or face you without fumbling my words or screwing up somehow. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize it, but that incident two days ago helped me realize that I do feel for you. I probably made a bad impression or scarred you and I’m really really REALLY sorry if I weirded you out.” Not realizing he had his eyes shut, Zelo opened his eyes and saw Taylor’s stunned face. She didn’t know how to feel. Junhong Choi. The school’s equivalent of Troy Bolton, was confessing to her. This wasn’t happening.

‘Oh my God,’ she thought. ‘I should stop staring and say something, but…what do I say in this situation?’ Before she opened to say anything, he hurriedly finished.

“Will you go out with me?” That hit home. Now she really didn’t know what to say, but in her head she was screaming YES YES YES a million times yes. Taylor was taking a long time to answer, and Zelo was beginning to wonder if he’d made a mistake. He searched her eyes for some sort of answer, and began to give up when he couldn’t see anything. He looked down and his sneakers and began to curse himself.

‘What made you think she liked you? But it was in her diary wasn’t it? What if she got over me? What if--’

“Um, Zelo?” He jerked his head up.

“Hmm?”

“I said yes,” Taylor said in a small voice. Words could not describe the sense of relief that washed over Zelo, followed closely by unspeakable joy. He stared at her for a while, then began smiling and finally broke out in laughter before hugging her close to him.

“Oh my God. Oh wow. I thought you were going to say no. Wow. You don’t—you don’t know how happy I am right now.” She hugged him back and giggled timidly, which caused him to smile wider. Zelo pulled back and looked at Taylor’s smiling face that mirrored his happiness but in her own shy way. He took her slightly calloused yet delicate hand and laced his fingers with hers.

“You don’t know how I would have felt if word got around that I, Junhong Choi, the Junhong Choi, was rejected by a girl.” Taylor’s smile slowly fell and the bliss in her eyes was slowly being replaced with disbelief. Realizing how seriously she was taking it, Zelo began to panic.

“No, Taylor I was kidding. I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry. I do genuinely have feelings for you and I don’t care what other people say. It’s not their business so their opinion doesn’t matter. I’m so so sorry.” Taylor let out a breath of relief and gave Zelo a little smile to reassure him.

“Okay. I believe you. Just don’t say those kinds of things anymore please.”

“I won’t. And just so this doesn’t feel rushed, we’ll take this relationship step by step, starting with getting to know each other more until we’re completely comfortable with each other.” Taylor nodded in agreement, still feeling like she was on cloud nine. They sat side by side on the bleachers watching the practice still going on, fingers intertwined. They sat like that in comfortable silence, just enjoying each other’s presence. After a while Zelo cleared his throat once again.

“So…how about a kiss to make this official?” Taylor’s eyes doubled in size and she seemed to freeze in her spot.

“Or…or not,” Zelo said with a pout and looked at the court again.

“Um…Zelo?” He turned to face the blushing girl and was met with a soft quick peck to his lips. Taylor quickly turned around and began fiddling with her camera. Zelo brought his hand to his lips and lightly ran his fingertips over them and looked at Taylor. She was biting back a smile and looking around shyly. He gently took her shoulders and turned her towards him and, before she could say anything, puts his lips in hers. She was stunned for a second, but she began to respond to the kiss and their lips were moving softly and passionately with each other. When they broke apart they were both smiling shyly, Zelo's blush evident on his cheeks while Taylor’s was a bit less obvious. They sat there until the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. They slowly stood and walked to the exit of the gym. Taylor hesitantly reached out and took Zelo’s hand in hers and continued to walk. The blissful couple walked towards the parking lot, hand in hand, hearts filled with happiness.

(Optional Ending)

As the bell rang, he jogged towards the bleachers to get his things but also with hopes of talking to her. She was a sophomore and he was a freshman, but he didn’t really care. She was beautiful. Not your movie star, magazine cover beautiful, but she possessed her own beauty. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and began searching the bleachers, only to find that she wasn’t there anymore. He rushed towards the exit thinking he could catch her before she left. He did find her, but she was walking out with another guy. And holding hands with him. Anger boiled in him. It wasn’t fair. He hadn’t even gotten a chance to talk to her and some guy had already snagged her up. As he watched them leaving, he made up his mind. He would try to win her heart. He had to at least get a chance with her. He just had to. 

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Junhong Choi aka Zelo 

 *Okay, I know that's not a basketball, but that's why we were all blessed with an imagination right?*

 

Taylor