When you got home, you headed straight up the stairs while your sister followed you with a sleeping Mieun in her arms. You opened her bedroom door for her before you walked the short distance to your own room and settled on your bed. Your mom wasn’t home yet and your sister talked about her craving for some fusion dish on the way home so she would be making dinner and that left you with nothing to do. You could help Nunji with dinner but it was too early to start cooking and the dish she was talking about didn’t take long to make. Mieun was fast asleep and you thought a short nap wouldn’t hurt but your mind was too cluttered for it to settle down enough to sleep especially with what happened at school today.

Thinking about things now, you knew there were only a few choices you could make. He was consuming your thoughts at a rate you couldn’t stop even if you wanted to. He didn’t even need to be there for all your attention to go to him. Just the mere thought of him brought an onslaught of instances when he was with you or he was mentioned.

You rolled over onto your side and the fringe of your throw over blanket. His athleticism only added to your attraction to him and you sighed at the thought of other girls who must have thought the same. The girl in the pink jacket who tried to push her way to him during break made you realize that.

You distantly heard your sister moving around down stairs and you slowly got up. You stretched your arms and felt the tenseness in the muscles before you dropped your arms to your side. It would be a few days before you got over the soreness. Your teacher’s words about clubs opening up next week rang in your head as well as that volleyball player’s suggestion to join the team.

You pushed away from the bed along with the place your thoughts were going. That was something you had to discuss with your parents and sister since that would take away your free time from home.

You walked down the hallway to the room at the end and slowly pushed open the door that was slightly ajar. You froze at the doorway and listened for the gentle breathing before looking for the small rise and fall of the chest that accompanied the sound. Mieun was slowly getting back to her healthy self and one of the indicators was that she was going back to her earlier and familiar sleep cycle where she slept at a specific time rather than when she cries herself to exhaustion.

Her breaths were deep and steady. She was breathing freely with no mucus blocking her airways and you reached into her crib to feel her forehead. The feverish heat was still there but it was not as hot as it was a few days ago. She shifted and her nose scrunched up before her face was back to a relaxed state. You pulled your hand back and carefully made your way out of the room. You pulled the door behind you and left a sliver of light filtering its way into the room.

Your sister was walking up the stairs and she looked at you surprised. A second later that look disappeared before she nodded and turned around and retraced her steps back down since you had checked on Mieun. Your eyes followed her form down until she was gone and you went back to your room. You left the door open so you could hear the familiar buzz of the TV on back in the living room and just in case Mieun would wake up. You looked around your orderly room and took the three steps from your doorway to your desk.

Your fingers skimmed the wooden surface and with your other hand, you reached for your bag at the foot of your bed. You sat down and quickly got to your routine of homework before you took your shower. You were engrossed in your math homework when your hair started to bother you. You did quick work of pinning it up into a bun and got back to plugging in numbers into equations.

The next day before school, the weather took a turn for the worst and along with the cold wind, rain made its appearance.

“Aish, what’s with the weather these days?” Ravi shook his jacket out while Hongbin pushed past him to reach for the door handle.

“Yah, let’s get inside instead of wasting time out here,” Hongbin quickly pulled the door open while struggling to close his umbrella.

Ravi let out a sigh of contentment as the warmth of the school hit him as he passed through the entrance of the school. “It’s about time the school fixes the heater.”

“Winter is coming soon so isn’t it better they fixed it sooner rather than later?”

“Wait,” Ravi looked behind them, “Wasn’t Hyukie with us?”

The door banged open, “I can’t believe you two just closed the door on me.”

“It’s a door maknae, you can open it yourself.” Ravi rolled his eyes but he straightened up when he saw you walked through the door Hyuk propped open for you with his entire body. “Oh noona!”

“You didn’t even wait for me or notice when I left them to help Mikyung noona when I saw noona getting out of her car,” Hyuk continued to whine. You pulled your umbrella out of his hands as he finally let the door go and it slammed shut behind him. You shook it out and the droplets joined the growing puddle spreading across the floor in front of the doors. 

You frowned and looked around the hall. There were a few students who were in the hallway along with you guys and most of them were sporting damp and frizzy hair like you. There was a clump of teachers huddled around the office doors with upset looks at the other end of the hallway and you heard the door open to the gusting winds behind you. You quickly moved out of the way to make more room for the two girls who came in. Your feet splashed into the water as you were forced to take a step back into the puddle.

You reached up to brush your hair away and relaxed your grip on the handle of your umbrella as the door closed with a loud thud. The girls started complaining as they walked away while asking each other to check their makeup.

“Check my makeup too Hongbinie,” Ravi leaned close to his friend who only gave him a look before pushing him away.

“Your eyeliner is smudged, go fix it.”

“Ravi hyung is wearing makeup?”

“Be quiet maknae.”

Feeling like you did your best to get acceptably dry after shaking out your umbrella and stomping your feet, you gave one last look at the three boys before walking away.

“Wait for me noona! Don’t leave me with them.” Hongbin appeared beside you and you kept your pace brisk to get to your classroom quickly to take off your wet jacket.

“Hongbin hyung is escaping with Mikyung noona!”

“Don’t make up stories Hyukie!” Hongbin yelled back while turning to walk backwards. Wordlessly, you pulled him out of the way as a group of boys exited one of the doors in the hallway. They cut you guys off and you glared at the backs of their heads as they walked on without apologizing.

You let go of Hongbin’s arm just as Hyuk and Ravi quickly caught up. “They look like third years,” Hongbin muttered and looked away as one of the boys happened to look over his shoulder at you guys. You also looked away so he wouldn’t catch you glaring and just stared at the blank wall while continuing to follow them down the hallway. There were only so many people you were allowed to freely glare at and anyone older than you including the third years were off limits. When you looked back after a few seconds, he was staring right at you. He smiled a half smile at you before turning back and laughing at something one of the other boys said.

“Leo hyung has his work cut out for him,” Hyuk whispered to Hongbin and received a glare in return.

“Be quiet maknae.”

The boys turned up the stairs that led to the third year classes. An obnoxious bout of laughter drifted down the stairs as you four walked past it. After you guys walked further, Hongbin’s shoulders relaxed while you were still stewing about the rude behavior of those boys.

A couple of steps in silence, Ravi asked, “Do you guys have anything planned this weekend?” He pushed Hyuk a little to walk by you as Hongbin stayed on your other side. You were the only one who saw Hyuk send an annoyed glare at him that disappeared within seconds before a blank expression took over.

Soon you reached the first year wing of the building as they discussed their plans for the weekend that you weren’t paying attention to and they stopped in front of the hallway. You were about to keep walking when Ravi held out an arm to you. You looked at his arm in front of you for a second before you slowly looked at him. He smiled impishly before lowering his arm, “Sorry noona. I wanted to ask if you---,”

 “Choi Mikyung-ssi? Are you Mikyung-ssi?” a tentative voice asked. All of your attention went to the tall boy who had suddenly walked up to your group with his squeaky shoes.

You only nodded in the newcomer’s direction answering the question. You noticed Hongbin and Ravi immediately stand their tallest and Hyuk moved to stand next to Ravi doing the same. “Yes, I am,” you spoke up and the three younger boys looked at you in surprise.

The speaker didn’t notice and smiled with a bow, “Hello, I am Lee Gunwoo from class 3-D.”

Your group bowed only stared the sunbae and you registered the name from the note you received yesterday. Recognition also passed over the three younger boys’ face and they did a quick scan over Gunwoo followed by a polite bow but kept silent.

“I was wondering if I could speak to you about the content of the note I sent you yesterday.” He looked at the three boys, and an amused smile crossed his lips, “In private.”

“Wha—,” Hyuk’s voice was cut off as Hongbin elbowed him.

Hongbin looked at you, “We’ll see you later noona.”

“We’ll just go to class,” Ravi wrapped an arm around Hyuk and pulled him along as the maknae continued to sputter.

“Noona,” you heard him whine as his two hyungs pulled him away.

“Be quiet maknae.”

You followed their departure with your eyes until the remaining boy cleared his throat and you looked back at him. “Your friends are rather protective,” he smiled but it faltered slightly when you only shrugged instead of replying back. “I was surprised when Teacher Lee suggested a second year as a tutor but he assured me of your capabilities and also mentioned you were one of his best students despite your grade level,” he added, trying to get you to talk.

You only stared at him and he chuckled nervously before continuing, “Anyway, I was wondering if you had an answer for me about tutoring me. I need to know so I can arrange my schedule with cram school.”

You didn’t let your gaze drift from his while his eyes shifted nervously. Since he was a sunbae, you finally talked, “I still have to talk with Teacher Lee and my parents before I commit to this.”

Gunwoo looked startled at your voice but he composed himself and quickly nodded along with your words, “Of course, I understand.” He smiled at you, now at ease with your response, “I’m sorry for popping this question to you so early.” He laughed a little, “I was anxious to hear your answer and my parents have high expectations for me to get in a really good college. I don’t want my grades to be holding me back,” he rambled on.

“Choi Mikyung,” an annoying voice cut in and Gunwoo looked over your shoulder to the owner of that voice while you refused to turn around. You saw a flicker of irritation flash over Gunwoo’s face before it went back to his composed expression. You heard footsteps approaching you from behind and the squishy sound of wet rubber on the tile floors of the school made you frown. “Good morning Choi Mikyung.” You kept your gaze forward and caught a familiar head of hair quickly disappear around the corner of the next hallway ahead of you. Your vision was broken as Annoying Boy leaned in front of you and smiled cheekily. “Ignoring me as always.”

You took a quick step away from him and almost bumped into a different boy who appeared out of nowhere. This boy smiled warmly at you, “Hey Mikyung-ssi.” He added a small wave.

You looked at him for a few seconds before you waved back. It took a second to recognize him.

“Why does Eunkwang get a wave while I get nothing?” Minhyuk sidled closer to you while Eunkwang laughed.

“