“You know, I think I can manage going home perfectly fine without you two accompanying me,” Yixing said that afternoon, dribbling a ball against floor of the court as he eyed Hyunji and me.

Hyunji smiled sweetly at him. “Nonsense! We’re not going to leave you to go home on your own.”

“Yixing, stop dallying and get over here!” Kris yelled from centre court. The rest of the boys were gathered around him, backs turned to us, all ears for what Kris had to say for today’s training regimen.

Next to me, Hyunji sighed dreamily. Yixing rolled his eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’m here to support you,” I told him.

“You’ll be much more of a support if you get her out of here,” Yixing muttered, before turning in his heels and jogging over to where the rest of the boys stood.

I suppressed a smile and rested my chin on my hands, darting a quick glance at Hyunji. “Tell me Hyunji, what is it about Kris that you find so attractive?”

“His face, his physique, his height –and everything else about him,” she replied, not once taking her eyes off the court.

I chuckled and turned away, deciding that I would perhaps be better off watching the boys play than trying to attempt a conversation with her. She didn’t take it too kindly when people try to distract her from admiring her ‘idol’.

 I observed the boys and kept a score in my head. Kris had divided the team into two, with him leading one team and Chanyeol the other. It was a tangle of feet and limbs as they raced across the court, trying to steal the ball from each other and defend themselves from the other team. Being the captain, Kris was naturally the best player, but Chanyeol was a close second. He wasn’t as smooth and graceful as Kris, but he did have the agility and power. Yixing came close at their heels; his analytical power proved to be invaluable at calculating angles and determining the proper throwing points.

As of now, they were tied. I could see it in Yixing’s face that he wasn’t satisfied with the way things were going. Yixing, although sometimes apathetic, did have a winning streak in him. Kris was giving signals to his team, sending Yixing to one side of the court to block Tao and the rest to strategic positions around Chanyeol’s team to pass and steal the ball. 

2:1, I thought as the ball Kris shot made it through the hoop. Hyunji was clapping excitedly next to me, silently chanting ‘Go Kris!’ under her breath as she watched him dash across the court.

Just then, the double doors of the gym swung open, and once again I was treated to another surprise that brightened my day considerably. Joonmyun stood on the other side of the court, hands in his pockets as watched them play. He was wearing the school uniform today, clean and pristine and not a detail out of place –a model student. I surmised that he might have just gotten it, which explained why he wore casual clothes the day before.

His eyes darted around the court, and then paused at the bleachers and rested on me. He smiled brightly and waved, before making his way around the court to join us.

“He’s coming,” I said in alarm, clutching Hyunji’s arm. She yelped in pain and swatted my hand away, but my fingers soon found her forearm again and refused to let go.

“Aeri relax,” she said soothingly, clawing at my grip with one hand. “He’s just another guy. You’ve managed fine talking to them,” –she jerked her chin towards the court –“you’ll be fine talking to him.”

“But he’s nothing like those monkeys,” I hissed at her, just as Joonmyun approached us.

“Hey Aeri, Hyunji,” he said with a smile.

He remembered my name, I thought, slightly in a daze. I was quite impressed. To admit the truth, I was prepared to introduce myself again if he asked. Being a new student (and a handsome one at that), I had assumed that he received multiple introductions just this morning alone, and perhaps may have forgotten mine in the course of memorising all the others. It left me feeling light and fluttery knowing that he remembered it.

“Hi,” I managed to say to him, offering him a small smile in turn. Okay, that was good progress. No stuttering as of yet, but then again, one word could hardly be considered as an achievement.

“Who are you waiting for?” he asked, settling himself on the bench next to me. My heart skipped a beat at how close he was.

“Yixing,” Hyunji replied, gesturing towards our friend running across the court, currently in possession of the ball.

“For me, it’s Kris,” he said. “My sense of navigation in this school still leaves much to be desired. I still have to rely on him to take to places.” He rested his palms on the back of the bench, leaning back and stretching his legs out in front of him.

“It’s after school,” Hyunji said, for once taking her attention off the court to check her watch. “Why would you need Kris now?”

Joonmyun laughed, rubbing the back of his neck in an adorably sheepish manner. “It’s really stupid actually. I think I left my books at the science lab. It’s locked now, but Kris said he knew where we can find the key.”

“Oh, then just have Aeri go with you then.” My eyes widened in alarm and I whirled around to glare at Hyunji. She ignored me. “This girl here is a pro at picking locks,” Hyunji said with a grin, patting me on the back.

“Really?” Joonmyun looked amused. “I never expected that.”

I laughed nervously, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear as I tried to keep myself from cursing Hyunji. I didn’t look him in the eye.

“Go!” Hyunji whispered to me. “This is the perfect chance for you to catch some alone time with him.”

“Lee Hyunji, shut up,” I hissed at her.

“You’re okay, aren’t you? With Aeri going instead of Kris,” Hyunji said, addressing Joonmyun this time, paying no heed to the silent pleas I was giving her through my eyes.

“I don’t mind,” Joonmyun said with a shrug. “But we gotta ask the lady first. What do you think, Aeri? Are you willing to help out a helpless new student just this once?”

He flashed me a breathtaking smile that rivalled all the others I saw the day before. For a moment, I swore that my heart could have stopped altogether. It was only when Hyunji nudged me on the rib that I managed a response.

“O-of course,” I said, my tone shaky.

“Let’s go then,” Joonmyun said. “Here, let me get that for you.” He took my bag from me and started to make his way down the bleachers.

I turned to Hyunji, somewhat dazed. Hyunji winked and began to fan herself with her hand, pretending to swoon. I rolled my eyes and smacked her on the arm. Sighing, I followed Joonmyun, praying that I wouldn’t make a fool out of myself in front of him again.

“Which lab?” I asked him after a fifteen minute debate in my head.

The slanting sun filtered through blinds of the windows, forming a jagged trail down the length of the hallway. The emptiness of it seemed to amplify every sound: our footsteps, slow and rhythmic, and our voices, bouncing and echoing as it hit the empty walls. I could feel the eeriness of it. Like any other school, ours had its own ghost story, revised and retold in the years subsequent to the year it was first created. Like any other student, I myself had heard of it, but I doubted that Joonmyun had.

“I think the room number is 502,” he replied. He had my bag slung over his shoulder, carrying it as if it weighed like nothing at all. I had asked to have it back after we had slipped out of the gym, but he insisted by telling me that he was going to need to carry it anyway while I worked on the lock. I nodded, trying to keep up a brave front. To admit the truth, I myself am terrified of the story, and the labs were famous setting for the tales of the supernatural.

When we arrived at the designated lab, I bent down and eased a pin from my hair. Gently inserting into the lock, I began to work it open. While I worked, I could feel Joonmyun hovering over me. He had bent down to see what I was doing, and I could hear the sound of his rhythmic breathing next to my ear. Forcing myself to pay attention to the lock, I stumbled through a few tries before I managed to get a good leverage.

“How’d you learn to do this?” The sound of his voice so close to my ear made me jump a little, but I forced myself to stare at the knob while I answered.

“I have a box at home where I keep my jewellery,” I said. “I lost the key once and I knew I’d get an earful from my mother if I told her. So, I had to pick the lock.” There was a satisfying click and the door swung open. “There you go.”

“Thanks,” Joonmyun said, patting my shoulder before making his way into the darkened room.

I stood by the door, unsure if I should go with him. I decided against it. The empty hallways did make me feel uneasy, but I didn’t feel like taking a chance in the lab either. I peered in.  Since this lab had no windows, it relied entirely on the overhead lights.

“The switches are at the back, by the board,” I yelled at him.

“Nah, it’s fine,” he replied. The darkness cloaked his figure, shadowed his features. I could just make out his outline as he wandered around the tables.

A few minutes later, he remerged, holding a few textbooks in his hand with a satisfied smile. “Found them.”

I closed the door behind him, pressing the knob from the inside before I pulled it shut. We started down the hallways again.

“Can I have my bag now?” I asked him.

Joonmyun cocked his head at me amusedly. “You’re very quiet, you know,” he said, completely deviating from the question I asked.

I blushed slightly. “I’m not good at interacting with new people.” I’m not good with interacting with my crushes.

“Well then, how about I tell you a few things about myself?” Joonmyun said, smiling a little. “My name’s Kim Joonmyun and I’m eighteen years old.”

I gave him a small laugh. “That’s hardly new information.”

“Well, it got you to smile,” he said with a chuckle. “I transferred here from China,” he added.

I looked at him in surprise. “You don’t look Chinese.”

Joonmyun grinned. “That’s because I’m not. I used to live in Korea until about a few years back, when my dad got transferred to Beijing because of his job. We lived there for two years, but now I’m back.”

“Can you speak Chinese then?” I asked curiously.

Joonmyun began to say some words that I didn’t understand.

I paused for a while, trying to discern the foreign vowels and unfamiliar enunciation before I nodded. “I take that as a yes.”

“I said, ‘It’s nice to finally be back’,” Joonmyun translated, apparently amused by my failed attempt at trying to understand him. “I missed Korea.”

“Two years is a long time,” I agreed. I noticed that I had been slowly gravitating closer to him while he talked. I could feel the light brush of his skin against mine. Blushing, I sidestepped away.

“Do I seem all that intimidating now that I told you all this?” he asked.

I almost laughed. He thought I found him intimidating. It was embarrassing enough that I could barely form a coherent sentence around him, but he thought it was because I was afraid of him. If I could dig a hole through the thick steel and concrete below my feet, I would.

“No,” I agreed in a small voice, back to feeling shy.

Joonmyun smiled. “Good. I don’t like scaring people.”

His sweetness, that gentle aura, kept pulling me, drawing my heart closer and closer although his still remained oblivious. I’d had crushes on boys before –with the amount of fangirling Hyunji did, you couldn’t help but notice a lot of boys –but him, he was a rare one. Perhaps, the only one I would find in a million.

I turned my head, realising that I was staring at him. I bit my lip. To think that I managed to hold my own for this long was achievement itself. It was time to think about other things, like my to-do list. Now that I mentioned it, there was something I was supposed to before I left school. My eyes widened in realisation.

“Joonmyun,” I said, whirling around to face him. “I’m really sorry, but I have to go.”

I expected him to ask me where, but he just nodded and handed me my bag. “Your friends waiting for you?”

“Yes,” I lied, taking it from him. “Goodbye.”

“See you,” Joonmyun said with a wave. “I’ll see you around, I guess.”

It was at the tip of my tongue to ask why he wasn’t at the subway station today, but I held back. I would sound like an obsessive stalker if I asked him that. I clamped my mouth shut and quickly darted away.

At the fountain, I quickly looked the spot where I left my letter and found its reply. I scanned the ground, deciding that it would a safer place to leave my new letter rather than letting it get splashed by the water. I stared at it for while, wondering about the sanity of this situation, before I shook my head and dashed away.

I would know if I received a reply for it tomorrow.