“You never told me you had a sister,” Kris mentioned at the bar. Little did he know, he had just dropped a bomb of questions.

 

“What? You have a sister? I bet she’s too cute!” Interjected one blonde girl.

 

This was the last thing he wanted to talk about. Emile didn’t know what to say. He just doesn’t talk about her much. He shrugged his shoulders, “There’s not much to say. It never came up.”

 

Kai, a mutual friend of the players asked, “Is she cute?”

 

The blonde interjected once again, “How couldn’t she be? She has the same genes as Emile,” then directed her questions towards Emile, “So did you grow up together in France? I bet that’s so nice! Does she want an unnie? By the way, what’s her name?”

 

Kai raised his voice, speaking over her, “But most importantly, is she cute?” with his hands pressed firmly against the freshly cleaned table. To him, this is the most important factor.

 

Emile became flustered at all of the questions about Flora and the pairs of eyes in anticipation staring at him. Just then, Kris answered, “Yeah, she’s super cute,” with a dirty smirk on his face, “Flora is her name, right?”

 

He didn’t like Kris’ tone at all. He tried to hide his anger, but those eyes still shot daggers at that dirty smirk of Kris’. “Yeah... Flora,” He managed to get out through his teeth. Kris was unfazed by the daggers and snickered to himself.

 

“She is? Is it too early for me to call dibs?” Kai rubbed his chin.

 

“Eh? No one even knows what she looks like yet, and she’s already about to get a date before me? I hate her already!” One of the cheerleaders complained.

 

“Kai, calm your . That’s his little sister you’re talking about.” Lay defended him.

 

“Thanks Lay. There’s at least someone with decency around here.”

 

**

 

Friday night was colder than usual. The sun hadn’t shone all day. It definitely wasn’t the weather to put the players in a good mood. Even the coach’s insults didn’t have the same zing to them at practice. How were they going to find the motivation to win their first game? Misun and her roommate sat at the top of the bleachers, watching the opposing team as they enter the field. “Still think we got a chance?” Misun shrugged, “Those guys look pretty intimidating.”

 

Flora shrugged back; she didn’t care much for sports. She was just there for moral support. “That means it’ll be a good game I guess,” she pointed out.

 

The match went on for what felt a decade to the two. The middle of game had finally arrived and the teams had an extended break. This was the opportunity to get drinks without missing part of the game, not that they cared too much. Flora felt a tap on her right shoulder while waiting in the snack ling. With confidence, she said, “Ha! That’s the oldest trick in the book. Nice try Misun,” but when she looked to her left, she jumped in surprise. “Kris!” she gasped.

 

“Well, the oldest trick in the book still works on you apparently.” He slapped his knee in laughter. “Did I scare you?”

 

“No...maybe... okay, a little bit,” she finally admitted.

 

“Haha, I’m good. Well, I gotta go.”

 

“Wait, you just came here just to scare me?”

 

“Mm... you got a problem with that?”

 

“You’re a bully! Go away,” she crossed her arms.

 

“You’re not the boss of me,” he teased while moving his face closer to hers. She looked up at him and gave a devious glare.

 

“Well I am! Okay social butterfly, get your back to the field! Pronto!” The coach caught him.

 

Flora giggled to herself, “Bye,” but before Kris left, he slipped a piece of paper in her hand. With a wink, he left again.

 

It was getting hard to feel bitter towards Kris. In fact, she really enjoyed having his attention, although she rarely returned it back. And when his face had gotten so close to hers, she came to the realization of how handsome he was. His heavy eyebrows made his eyes deep and pitch black. The way light bounces off of his cheekbones that steeply glide down to his delicate chin, showcasing his soft lips gave her goosebumps. With a sigh, she thought to herself, “Oh my god... he’s beautiful.” as her imagination reeled an instant replay of the past two minutes. She was over not being the star of her English class anymore by now. In her daze, Misun called her.

 

“Did I just see what I thought I saw?” She asked with eyes in disbelief.

 

“Huh?” Flora’s eyes rounded in confusion.

 

Misun’s voice got louder. “Did Kris just give you his number? He just slipped you a paper. What’s in the paper?”

 

“...I don’t know. The way he slipped it in my hands, he could be a drug dealer.” She didn’t see what the big deal was. Although he was handsome, she just wasn’t interested in some cocky, star-pupil spot stealing jock. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t completely over no longer being the star of her English class.

 

“How do you know Kris? Open the paper, Flora! Open the paper!”

 

Baffled by Misun’s harsh exuberance she asked, “Why are you freaking out?”

 

Misun’s jaw almost reached the ground. “Why aren’t you? Do you not realize he’s literally the iest guy at this school? Now open the paper Flora. Why aren’t you opening the paper yet?” She started getting seriously frustrated.

 

“Okay! Shiesh!”

 

And there it was, the seven digits that lead to his cell phone. Misun was shocked, yet happy for her roommate that she was able to somehow get on Kris’ good side. Apparently, not many made it to there. She saved his number in her phone and crumpled the paper.

 

**

 

Their school won by a landslide actually. Flora and Misun scrambled to the field to congratulate the team. Misun congratulated everybody and got caught into a conversation with Sehun, the waterboy. She didn’t see Kris anywhere, so she decided to text him some generic congratulatory message, making sure that their relationship stay platonic. She saw Emile though, and she couldn’t wait to celebrate his first win.

 

“Congrats on the win today! We should celebrate tonight!” She hugged her older brother tightly. He seemed to feel a bit uncomfortable, or maybe he was tired. Either way, he didn’t seem to be as enthused and hug her back as tightly. He was simply cold.

 

“Thanks! Uh, can we hang out some other time though? We just won our first game... so I was gonna celebrate with them. You can come... if you want,” he invited her and pointed to the guys, but she knew it wasn’t a real invitation.  She softly pushed herself off of him, feeling embarrassed around his group of friends. He didn’t even reply back to her in French.

 

It was obvious that he didn’t want her there, but she didn’t understand why. They had always been together, from the start. Why was he pushing her away now? She has hung out with his friends before in France. Why is it different now? This was the third time this week she’s been blown off.

 

“It’s cool. I should be studying anyways,” she replied. Of course, it was not cool and she was not okay, but what could she do? Demand quality time together right there and then? Once again, rejected and feeling left out, she tried not to let it show. Misun and Sehun wandered off together, leaving Flora to walk back alone, once again.