Kai spit out his water in disbelief when I told him about my new job. His practice had just ended and we were sitting side by side on the floor of the dance studio. And so, much of that water landed on me.

“Thanks,” I said, scooting away from him in annoyance. “You’d better mop up the water on the floor before some kid slips and breaks his neck. Also, put on a shirt before you catch a cold.”

“We have to celebrate!” Kai said. He enthusiastically waved his arms around and spilled more water everywhere. “This is incredible!”

“The kind of celebrations you’re used to probably take up a lot of time and money,” I pointed out. “As we’re both poor students with mock exams coming up soon, we don’t have very much of either at the moment.”

“We can downsize! But we still have to celebrate. It’s the principle of the matter,” he said.

“Well, I need to go home and study.”

“You study all the time. It's not like you go out all the time,” he complained. “Anyway, you have to eat. So we’ll celebrate by eating out. And the stuff that we’ll eat tonight is way more nutritious than whatever ramen you’d have otherwise.”

“We don’t have the money to eat out. We barely have enough to cover rent!” I said exasperatedly.

“We’ll go to a place that my hyung runs. He owes me one anyway,” Kai said, running his fingers through his hair. “Plus, we never celebrated when I got a job. It can be a joint celebration. If you won’t do this for yourself, do it for me!”

“No,” I said firmly. “I’m going to get some paper towels, you’re going to wipe up your mess and put a shirt on, and then I’m going home because I need to study. You can go eat out on your own if you want.”

Kai shot me a dirty look. As I got up to leave, he reached out a hand and pulled hard on my hoodie. I think he pulled much harder than he meant to, because I lost my balance from the force of his grasp. As I fell backwards, I felt the sudden movement of air as Kai immediately rose to steady me. He instinctively clasped his hands around my waist. He was still warm from the exertions of practice, and I was acutely aware of the feel of his chest. Embarrassed, I tried to squirm my way out of his arms. He reflexively tightened his grip on me, confused by my agitation. At the same time, he took a step backward and slipped in a puddle of water.

Kai fell down, and of course - being the gentleman that he was - took me down with him.

“Are you alright?” he asked, as I rolled away from him. I scooted a suitable distance away from him and pulled my knees up to my chin.

“I’m fine,” I said. “I’m fell on you, not the floor.”

“Well, yeah. That’s the point. I wanted to make sure you didn’t hurt your back on my rock-hard abs,” he said cheekily. He moved closer to me. “You know, you’re really red.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, feeling my face grow even redder. “Well, I get red sometimes.”

“Yeah,” he said. He raised an eyebrow and leaned in toward me. With quite obvious deliberation, he inspected my face. “Must be the heat in here, right?”

“Yes. Yes, definitely the heat.”

"I've never seen you this red before. And it isn't that hot in here," he mused. "Weird, right?"

"I get really red during the summer," I fibbed. "All the time."

“Yeah. Or maybe…maybe it's something a little more scandalous that's making you red?”

"Kai!"

“Still flustered, I see,” he smirked. “You know that I’m not going to let this go, right? It’s not every day that I get to see the great May Wu, the epitome of cold rationality, succumb to hormones.”

“What do you want?”

“You already know. Or are you so flustered that you’re suffering from short term memory loss?”

He leaned in even closer, so close that I could smell the mint on his breath. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath.

And then, I head-butted him because he was being a serious jerk. As he recoiled from the impact, I quickly stood up.

“May!” he cried out indignantly. “What the hell did you do that for?”

“Come on,” I said, walking toward the door. “I’m hungry. Let’s get something to eat.”