“Eunmiiiiiiii? Eunmi? Answer me when I’m calling to you, honey. I can see the lights on in the kitchen. I know you’re in there…” my mother trilled from the living room.

In a panic I forgot Suho was even in the room with me as I frantically zoomed around the kitchen at lightspeed to tidy up the small mess I had made while baking Umma’s soufflés (along with the BIG mess a certain someone coughSUHOcough had made of the powdered sugar). I stunned even myself with how quickly I had the kitchen looking close to sparkling – even the floor gleamed. I heard a small cough and whipped around to see Suho still sitting at the table, his eyebrows raised. Shoot! I had forgotten he was even in here – what fresh hell was this jerk about to unleash on me now?!

“What?!” I mouthed, annoyed.

Suho smirked and whispered “Impressive.”

Well, now he’s talkin’ – what I just did to the kitchen was, indeed, impressive. Internally I high-fived myself and I felt my chest swell with pride.

“…maybe you should apply some of that intensity to your scholastic pursuits.” Suho hissed, shattering my reverie of pride.

“BWOH?!” I shrieked. Shoot!! My eyes widened and I clapped my hands over my mouth.

“Eunmi? Are you baking in there? You know there’s no baking until you’ve finished your school work” the patter of my mother’s footsteps sped up slightly. I heard snickering behind me and whipped my head around.

“Shut up!!” I mouthed at Suho, and he cockily crossed his arms and roised and eyebrow at me. The thought of how he would make things worse for me in front of my mother caused my breath to catch in my throat. This was no time for my pride so, begrudgingly, I lifted my hands in a *pretty please?* position to my face. Suho seemed to freeze for a second and then rolled his eyes at me from underneath his perfectly disheveled bangs.

“Fine but will you quit that cutsey stuff out? You’re making me feel more sick than before…” Suho hissed. I was about to throw the nearest spatula I could find at his head when a new voice entered the room.  I grimaced and squinted my eyes shut as my mother began to speak.

“Eunmiiiii, I didn’t hear an answer. Have you or have you not finished you---Omona!” My mother’s voice tinkled like (shrill) bells…this was a degree better than her angry shriek, so I knew it my be safe for me to open my eyes.

Suho stood before my mother – his uniform looking perfectly pressed as though he hadn’t just been through a rainstorm, a tornado of powdered sugar, and multiple bouts of FALLING ALL OVER ME. His face had transformed into the serene, beautiful countenance of a young royal and his eyes glittered as he executed a perfect 90-degree bow before my umma. I blinked a few times, not quite processing how well this was going for me, when I finally realized I should probably say something.

“Umma…this…this is…um…” I stammered.

Suho let a princely smile toy at the corner of his mouth as he took my mother’s hand and raised it to his lips. I could help but roll my eyes in disgust – this player was charming the heck right of my umma!

“Anneyeonghaseyo. My name is Kim Suho, I’m in Eunmi-ssi’s class, it is an absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance. I do apologize for intruding on your lovely home – I had just come over to sort a school project with Eunmi-ssi.” I could see Suho’s elegant words fall over my mother like warm honey. GOD this was disgusting! But…he was sort of helping me, right?

“Omo, omo. No, no, no don’t apologize,” my mother tittered like a stupid teenager “I know exactly who you are! You’re the president and top-student of Eunmi’s class. It is an honor to have such a good influence spend some time with our daughter here.” I nearly choked on my own saliva at this embarrassing statement from my mother.

“Actually, umma, he’s the second-to-the-top student; the top- top student is Hyejoo. Y’know…my best friend? Over here all the time? That one?” I calmly stated. It annoyed me to now end that my own mother didn’t want to acknowledge Hyejoo as my best friend just because she wasn’t from as “nice” a family as ours. I enjoyed watching the previous elegance dissolve from both my mother and Suho’s faces as they turned to look at me. Suho’s eyes bore straight through me, he clearly wasn’t privy to the fact that Hyejoo had outscored him on the last test. And my mother’s eye twitched as she spoke to me through an artificial smile.

“Ahaha, oh our Eunmi, always such a...a…jokester. You must forgive her behavior, Suho-ssi.” My mother spoke in strangled tones and I stuck my tongue out at Suho while she wasn’t looking. He made a merong face at me as my mother turned to look at me reprovingly.

“Not to worry. I understand Eunmi’s behavior – it must be difficult to be friends with one of our smartest students when your scholastic performance is…lagging” Suho nodded in faked sympathy at me. UGH he was getting on my last nerve and there was just no way I could blow up at him the way I wanted to with my mother watching.

“Hm. Yes, you are right, Suho-ssi it could very hard being friends with the SMARTEST student in the class. But thankfully my self-worth is not caught up in my class ranking, that truly must be an even greater burden than mine.” I place my hand over my heart and bowed my head politely. Two can play at this false sincerity game, buddy.

Suho let out a small sniff of disapproval but my mother looked stunned and pleased by my behavior.  Encouraged, I put on my most sugar-coated sweet voice as I smoothed out my apron and spoke once more.

“Suho-ssi, I know you are such a busy student. What with trying to raise your class rank and everything…and I’m worried I have already taken up too much of your time with this project. I am truly sorry for taking up so much of your time. May I walk you to the door?” For added measure I threw in a little aegyo-pout, enjoying watching Suho go rigid with barely contained disgust. Not surprisingly though, he had smoothed the unsavory emotion from his expression with frightening speed. He did not speak but gave me a curt nod, instead turning to my mother

“I must apologize once more ma’am for intruding upon your lovely home.”

“Oh not at all! You are welcome back anytime. By the way are you perhaps interested in Eunmi as a girlf---“

“OH SHOOT LOOK AT THE TIME.!!! Sorry, Umma, Suho-ssi must be on his way. Verrrry busy schedule…” Jesus! Was my umma really about to try to set up the two of us? Barf city!!

Finally at the door and out of my mother’s sight, I shoved Suho’s phone into his hand.

“Here. You’re precious phone. Thanks for such a lovely afternoon” I snarled at Suho.

He shook his bangs out of his eyes and smirked down at me,

“Hey, isn’t that a little rude? Maybe you’re too thick to realize – but I was kind of helping you out back there.”

Tch. Yeah….by reinforcing what a bad student I am in front of my mother, you stupid jerk!

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Thanks..for the help.” I huffed.

For a moment Suho’s eyes seemed to smile, though the rest of his face did not. There was something beautiful and intriguing about that face…almost like seeing a flame through a wall of ice. I felt heat rush to my face as I stared openly at Suho’s mesmerizing eyes.

“You sure you’re ready to begin our lives of not acknowledging each other once more – seems like you still can’t get enough of my face.” Suho chuckled.

I huffed my bangs out of my eyes and glowered at Suho’s stupid smirking face.

“As if! And of course I’m ready! In fact, let’s shake on it! Here’s to NEVER speaking to each other again,” I extended my hand toward Suho…fully ready for this exhausting ordeal to be over. He shot his hand back in hesitation, clearly not expecting to be pushed out of my life with such gusto – so I reached in and grabbed it anyway, forcing him to shake on it. All right Eunmi, you can resume life as normal! This jerk wont be bothering you any more, EVER…good riddance, right?

“Well, Eunmi…it’s been…interesting getting to know you.”

“Likewise, buddy.”

“And…uh…” Suho’s cheeks glowed red once more and I worried for a moment that his fever was returning “…thanks for taking care of me back there. And for the cookies…you…you really do have a talent.”

BWOH?!! Suho smiled and I felt ice melting. Before I could even process what he had said, he turned and was walking out the door. With a lump building up in my throat I closed the door. What the heck was that all about? And why am I feeling all emotional about that creep? Snap out of it Eunmi! This was the jerk that was the whole reason Hyejoo was bullied in front of the entire class today – so good riddance to him! In fact, maybe you should call Hyejoo to let her know that Suho had agreed to get Nana to stop bothering her. I reached in to my pocket to grab my phone only to pull an empty hand out. Confused momentarily, I remembered that I had set my phone down on the table when Suho was running a fever.

But my phone wasn’t there either. In fact, it was nowhere to be found at all.

That’s when I remembered…there had been a cell phone poking out of Suho’s blazer pocket when I handed him his phone back.

GRAHH!! Is there no end to the torture this creep is going to put me through??