*

GONG MINJI

*

Part I

The moment Kai and I entered our office, I made sure we got straight down to business. Kai had a tendency to go completely off topic, so I knew I had to be the one to make sure we got things done because if it were up to him, we would've never even made it to the office. I still couldn't believe he didn't even know that we had an office!

“Okay, Amber is a really good choice for the athletic affairs committee,” I told Kai, while looking at Amber's credentials on the computer screen. “She's got connections to everybody in the school and she stays on top of all the upcoming athletic events. She'll be the perfect candidate and I think the students would agree so as well. So, I'll choose her as a candidate.”

“Well, what about the other girl?” Kai asked, and I figured he was referring to Krystal, the other student who signed up to be a representative of the athletics committee.

I frowned at Krystal Jung's name on the screen and clicked on it. It's not that I didn't like her or anything, I just knew she didn't actually care anything about athletics like Amber did. Knowing Krystal, she was probably more interested in getting to know the senior guys in sports than actually playing any sports.

“She's...nice,” I struggled to find a polite word to describe her. “And she's actually got pretty good connections as well-”

“I think she's a good choice,” Kai suddenly interrupted. “She's cute! So I'll choose her.”

“Well, yeah she's cute and all but-” I stopped suddenly realizing what I was saying. “Wait, what?”

Kai looked at me all wide-eyed and innocent. “What?”

“She's cute?” I repeated, begrudgingly. I looked back at the photo on the screen of Krystal flashing her white smile at the camera with her long hair flowing behind her. “The only reason you only choose her is because she's cute?”

“Well she's hot too.” Kai leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “Way hotter than that Amber chick you were just talking about.”

I rolled my eyes. The nerve of this boy! “Kai, you can't just choose Krystal over Amber because you think she's hot. Remember the students we choose are going to be representing the school for the entire year. We need to pick responsible students who are going to be good leaders for the committees.”

“The students are the ones who get the final say anyway,” Kai replied, unconcerned with anything I just said. “If Amber's as good as you say she is than you have nothing to worry about; she'll probably be the one to get elected. But I'm still nominating Krystal.”

“You just have an answer for everything don't you?” It was a rhetorical question, but he nodded anyway as his lips spread into a huge grin. Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. “Are all of the senior guys like this too or is it just you?”

“Nope, just me and my friends are this awesome,” he answered, cockily adjusting the collar to his leather jacket. “We're special.”

“Yeah, special with an ed at the end,” I muttered under my breath. Kai's thick-lidded eyes narrowed to slits and I knew that he heard my insult. Quickly putting my focus back on the screen, I moved on to the next candidates for the other committees. “Okay, let's get back to-”

Whack!

The feeling of some thing colliding with the side of my head, then landing in my lap, caused me to abruptly stop in the middle of my sentence.

Looking down, I could see a scrunched up paper ball in my lap and I turned to glare at Kai, who was just grinning from ear-to-ear. I groaned picking the ball up out of my lap.

See what I mean? He just couldn't stay focused on the task we were supposed to be doing and unfortunately, sometimes his actions got the best of me causing me to forget my work as well.

“What the heck!” I chucked the ball back at him sitting in the spinning desk chair beside me. However, before the ball could hit him, his arm instantly shot up and he caught it. Afterward, he started laughing out loud like he just heard the best damn joke ever.

I wished the ball had hit him. Damn his reflexes.

Resting my head into the palms of my hands, I massaged at my temples. Why do I feel a headache coming on? I really hoped it wasn't going to be like this all year. I was trying to get along with this guy, but every time it seemed like we were getting somewhere, he would turn into some ill-mannered freak. Didn't his parents teach him any home training?

“You're nauseating,” I blurted loud enough for him to hear, even though I was really just thinking out loud.

He suddenly stop laughing and stayed completely silent for a moment. I thought he would've had some kind of snarky comeback, but moments later, he was still silent. I looked in his direction out from the corner of my eye only to notice his arm raising like he was about to throw something at me again.

“Do not throw anything else at me!” I half-yelled, not looking at him with my head still in my hands. What the fudge was wrong with this guy? Earlier he threw his french-fries at me, now he's throwing office supplies at me. “If you throw anything else at me, I'm going to hack your arms off in your sleep!”

He still threw whatever was in his hands, but it didn't hit me this time; instead, I heard something land in the trashcan beside me and I figured it was the paper ball. With my head still in my hands, I heard the wheels of Kai's chair roll against the tile floor as he moved closer to me, but I didn't bother to look up at him.

“Why are you so mean to me today?” he suddenly asked me, his voice much closer now.

“Why do you keep throwing stuff at me?”

“You should feel honored. I only throw things at people that I really like.”

“Lucky me.”

“At least we aren't awkward anymore,” he said to me. I just ignored his comment. But when I didn't say anything, I felt him scoot his chair closer and closer to me until his armrest bumped into my own.

Without making it too noticeable, I looked out the corner of my eye in order to see what it was he was trying to do. His head slowly moved to rest onto the marble desk table we were sitting at, now making him completely visible to me and I frowned at him. Kai was now staring up at me with soft, gentle eyes and it was the first time I really noticed how young his face really was. He usually glided around campus with this cocky-swag thing going on, making him look more mature than he actually was, but seeing his face this close, I could see his features were actually pretty soft like a child’s- especially his eyes.

Even though we hadn't known each other very long (it's only been a week and a half since school started) I was beginning to notice that there were multiple sides to Kai- like he had multiple personalities or something.

At the moment, he wasn't Kai, but Jongin- I mentally used his birth name whenever he started to act... cute. I didn't have any other word to describe the way he was looking up at might right at the moment, but if you could see these eyes this close, you'd be a little flustered too. But whenever he was a jerk, I referred to him as “Kkamjong”- a name I often overheard his friends use whenever they were teasing him.

As a result, there was “Kai”, “Jongin” and “Kkamjong”; I would never actually call him anything other than "Kai", but they did have a tendency to want to slip off my tongue sometimes whenever he provoked me. I also wondered what other sides he had to yet to show. 

“This is what you said you wanted, isn't it?” he asked me, his voice softer this time as his coffee-colored eyes continued to bore into mine. A smirk then started to form on his deep red lips. “For us to get closer.” He followed that with a wink.

Ugh, this guy... Now he's turning into Kai again! He's seriously going to give me whiplash with all these moods changes. One moment he was totally cool, the next he was the most annoying brat, then he was cute, and now he's being...cheeky.

“Hm...” I rubbed my chin as I recalled the day after we had our first meeting with our headmasters and I told him we should get closer by calling each other by our nicknames. “Yeah, I did say that didn't I? Just don't make me regret it.”

“So does this mean that we're friends then?” he asked, a hopeful light glimmered in his eyes and it almost made me want to smile, but I didn't know how long this side of Kai was going to last, so I decided to not get too chummy with him. I rolled my eyes. 

“Sure.”

“Cool. Let's hug it out to celebrate.” He stretched his arms apart and waited for me to go into them, but I just stared at him like he was crazy.

Now he was actually freaking me out a little. I didn't know what name to call this side of him.

When a minute had gone by and I still had yet to move, he sighed before tugging on my arm- a little harsher than necessary, might I add- which caused me to practically rocket launch into his body. Sadly, the force that he used to pull me was so strong that I actually knocked my head into his chest cavity causing him to cough at the intrusion.

“My bad,” he said, holding me in a slightly uncomfortable hug; I say uncomfortable because I was expecting the hug to only last a second, but instead, he just held me in place a little longer than the usual hug between mutual friends. I didn't know what to make of this moment, so I decided to pat his back as I waited for this “celebratory” hug to be over when suddenly...

“Hey Minji-ah!” a familiar voice chimed as the office door flew open, unexpectedly and I bolted from Kai's arms like his touch burned.

Now inside the office room, my three friends were standing, staring at both me and Kai with big, shocked eyes and opened mouths. For the longest minute in history, the room stayed completely silent as Kai and I stared at Bom, Chaerin and Dara staring right back at us.

I swear it was like one of those moments in the movies where the main character does something so embarrassing that suddenly the whole world stops and everybody stares at them like their the most interesting thing on the entire planet. Bom was the first to break the silence.

“Well don't let us stop you,” she teased, her cherry lips now forming into a knowing smile. “Go on and continue with what you two were doing like we were never even here.”

Dara and Chaerin giggled and I looked away embarrassed, moving back to the computer. “I take it your feeling better Bom.”

“Yeah, I am actually,” she said and the three of them moved further into the office. I could feel Bom eyeing me down, but I didn't dare look up at her. I just stayed focused on the computer screen like the candidates on it were the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.

“You weren't feeling well?” Kai asked Bom.

I nodded and answered for her, “Bom got really sick over the week after she ate some bad food. That's why she was out all week.”

“Oh, I heard about the girls getting sick,” he said. “Actually it wasn't just the girls, a few guys I know were sick too. They said it was probably because of some campus food that wasn't prepared right or something.”

“I just feel bad for Jiyeon,” Dara said, sitting in a chair on the other side of the table. “Did you guys see someone actually filmed what happened to her in class on Monday and then posted it up online?”

From the left side of me, Kai suddenly coughed and cleared his throat. I looked at him curiously and he just smiled at me. I turned back to my friends.

“Yes, I saw that terrible video, it's just unfortunate you can't see who was filming it,” I said. Apparently somebody from our English class had recorded Jiyeon farting in front of the class and then posted it up on one of those blogging sites for everyone to see. Within a week, the video had spread and Jiyeon had become the of every joke at school. Now she'll hardly even come out of her dorm unless she absolutely has too. “ Whoever posted it is a huge to do something so cruel. I just hope it wasn't one of the girls who did it. You know Suzy hates her since last year and now they're in the same class.”

“I don't think so,” Dara disagreed. “Suzy sits way on the other side of the classroom, and from the looks of the video, it has to be someone who sits near her.”

“Well, who all sits near her?” Chaerin asked.

“Um ladies,” Kai suddenly butted in and we all stared at him. For a second, I had forgotten that he was here. “Can we all play detective later. Minji and I still have some important things to discuss.”

Oh so now he wants to do work, I thought sarcastically.

“Right, work,” Bom said, putting air quotes around “work”. She grinned at me and I knew she was going to be fishing for answers later about Kai and I getting caught in our hugging position just moments earlier.

“What are you two working on?” Charerin got up from her chair to peer around the computer and tried to get a look at the screen, but I moved it before she could.

“We're discussing the senior committee candidates,” I told them all.

Chaerin's eyes lit up, as her monolids widened. “Oh really. And have you two chosen who your vice president is yet?” 

I knew how much Chaerin like the title ever since she had it last year. I originally planned to appoint her as vice president this year as well, but once the headmasters informed us that the rules had been changed, I couldn't just choose her to be my vice president. Kai and I had to agree on candidates and then the seniors had the final vote.

“No, we haven't got to vice presidents yet,” I told her and her shoulders slumped. “In fact, honestly, Kai's right; you guys do need to leave so that we can get back to work.”

Chaerin put her hands up defensively. “Alright, we can tell when we're not wanted around. I won't bug you anymore about your choice for vice president.” She then pretended to sneeze while saying “pick me!”.

“Alright then I'll guess we'll see you later,” Bom said, looking at me. She then smiled, looking between Kai and I. “We'll let you two get back to work.”

“But don't work too hard now,” Dara now joined the teasing putting emphasis on the word "work". As the three girls were leaving the office, they all laughed as they walked out and I covered my mouth to hide my embarrassed smile. My friends.

“Your friends are...” Kai started but I interrupted him before he could finish.

I nodded. “I already know; they're weird. You don't have to tell me.” I clicked around on the computer screen to pull up more candidates from the committees. Now we could finally get back to work without distractions. “Okay so how about we choose vice president candidates?”

“I choose Kris,” Kai automatically answered without having to think about it or even look at the candidates.

“Are you sure?” I asked. I didn't know Kris like Kai did, but I found it a little odd that he didn't even care to look at the other candidates to see if there was a possible better choice for vice president. “You don't want to look at any of the other profiles?”

“Trust me,” he told me. “No one is as good as Kris. Kris is an excellent leader. He was the captain of our basketball team at our old academy and lead the team to three championships.”

I shrugged. “Alright, then I'll nominate Yongguk for the guys. And for the girls I'll nominate Chaerin. She is really smart; she had the highest GPA in Maecheon and I believe she's going for valedictorian this year. After all, there's a reason why she's known as 'dokk-chae'. Who's your nomination for girls?”

“What do you think about Kris?” Kai suddenly asked me. My brows furrowed automatically at the shift in conversation.

“What do I think about him as a choice for vice president?” I asked. “I guess he's-”

“No.” Kai shook his head. “I mean, as a person or as a man. Do you like him?”

I bit my lip, staying silent. What did this have anything to do with our work? I was still getting to know Kris, just like I was still getting to know all of the guys. I hadn't really formed a proper opinion on what I thought about him as a person yet.

“He's nice, I guess.”

Kai didn't look too impressed with that answer. “That's it? You don't think he's attractive?”

Where was all this coming from? “Uh... sure he's attractive, but I don't like him like that or anything. I barely know the guy.”

Kai's eyebrows raised, seeming more pleased but also surprised this time by my answer. He nodded as he eyed me like he was searching for further answers within my eyes.

Why was his gaze always so intrusive? I looked away from him back to the computer screen. “Can we get just get back to choosing candidates? We are never going to get this done if we just-”

“That's too bad you don't like him,” Kai said, and I looked back at him. Why? I asked in my head, but Kai already answered before I could get the question out. “Because Kris told me that he likes you.”

Well that was unexpected. I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open slightly as I stared into space surprised by the news.

Kai reached over me to grab the clicker to the computer and started going through profiles. “Alright, let's get back to work now.”

* * *

I sprung out of bed thirty minutes earlier than usual on Monday morning just to get ready for school today. Not that waking up early was really necessary, but I knew that the girl's bathroom on this particular day was going to be a complete madhouse.

See, today was picture day. Even though these particular pictures weren't going in the year book for senior photos- since all of us seniors had already taken our individual senior photos during the summer- they were still going in the yearbook as our “professional photos”. These pictures were also going to be the photos on the front of our ID's for everyone to see for the entire year; the same IDs that told everyone your rank within the school.

However, I knew that more than any other student on campus, that picture day was especially important to me. Why? Well, see at the end of the year when Yearbook committee sends out all of their polls for “Most likely to succeed” and “Class Clown” and so forth there's also a poll for “Best Student Picture”. For each grade, the students are asked to pick who they thought had the best picture for that grade and whoever is chosen gets a nice sized photo of themselves in the yearbook for everyone else to stare at in envy. Unfortunately, if there's a “best photo” then there also has to be a “worst photo” and it was during my freshman year that I was chosen as “Worst Picture of the Year” for the entire ninth grade class.

In my defense, I was so busy my freshman year trying to navigate my way throughout highschool, that I barely had any time to focus on my looks. Plus I was pretty inexperienced in how picture day ran in highschool- apparently the teachers didn't guide you in a single file line to the cafeteria to get your pictures taken like they did back in middle school or elementary- and when the day finally came I realized that I'd completely forgotten about picture day which unfortunately, just happened to be on the day that I looked my absolute worst. I was sick and bloated because I had just started my period for the first time, so in my photo, my face was incredibly puffy. Apparently I blinked when the picture was shot, so my eyes were half open making me look like I was on drugs. My hair looked a mess, I had zits and I'm pretty sure that anybody that didn't know me probably confused me with being a boy (all thanks to my short bowl-cut hair).

After I was chosen as the “worst picture” I promised myself: NEVER. AGAIN.

No, for the next three years of high school, every picture day, I was ready. In fact, in Junior year I'd actually been fortunate enough to be chosen as “best picture”, and not to sound conceded, but even I had to admit, my junior class photo was pretty damn flawless. And this year, I was going for “best senior photo" as well.

I had already prepared my uniform on Saturday and it was all nice, neat, and pressed waiting for me in my closet. I had Bom curl my hair last night and I even went to bed with rollers in my head (despite the discomfort) just to make sure the curls stayed in place. I wanted my hair to look perfect once I took them out. I'd had Dara use whatever magic masque she used on her own skin that kept her skin so flawless so that when I woke up, my skin would be in the best condition.

In short, I was ready. The only thing I had to do in the morning was brush my teeth, floss (had to make sure I had a bright smile), shower, and then I could get dressed and all prettied up for picture day.

* * *

“Hey Dara,” I greeted my friend once I made it to English class. I handed over her breakfast croissant like usual. “You look really pretty today.” Dara always looked great. In fact, she was usually always the shoo-in to win for “best photo” for whichever grade she was in, but like I said, last year, my photo turned out really great and I ended up winning.

“Thank you. You look especially cute yourself today.” She smiled and took her sandwich out of the bag to eat. She then, looked at me, seeming to notice something. “No coffee today? That's a first.”

I shook my head. “Nope. I don't want anything staining my teeth before I take my photo. After my picture is taken, I can eat and drink whatever. But I don't want anything stuck in my teeth or anything that's going to ruin this picture.”

Dara suddenly looked at her sandwich and frowned and I figured she was having second thoughts about eating it. But just like Bom, food was Dara's first love. A second later, she shrugged and ate it anyway.

I was minding my own business when suddenly I heard flirty whistles coming from the other side of the room and I looked up only to find myself staring in awe. I understood why the girls were whistling.

Kris, Chanyeol and it looked like another friend of their's (I think his name is Baekhyun or something like that) all strolled into the classroom looking like they just hopped out of a cover shoot for a popular magazine.

Kris and Chanyeol separated from their friend who sat on the other side of the room and they came over to Dara and I to sit in their usual spots.

“Well, don't you boys look snazzy,” Dara complimented, and Chanyeol grinned like a goober.

“But I look better, don't I?” he asked the both of us, but I could tell that the question was more pointed at Dara as he shifted his gaze from her-to me-than back to her. I could tell he wanted Dara to say that he looked more handsome than Kris.

Dara smiled. “You look very handsome Chanyeol.”

And that's all Chanyeol needed to hear. Chanyeol's big ears started reddening instantly which I couldn't help but to giggle at. He was too cute; totally Dara's type.

I could feel Kris' eyes on me so I turned to him. “You look really handsome too.” A little too handsome, I thought inwardly. Gosh!

When I told Kai that I wasn't really all that attracted to Kris, I must have completely forgotten just how gorgeous he was to see up close. He always kept himself pretty well-kempt: he never had a hair out of place, his uniform was always neat and I could tell he had a thing for fashion considering he usually always styled the uniform personally more to his liking as he added baseball caps, or bandanas or jewelry.

Today though, the only thing he accessorized with was a nice-sized Rolex to his wrist. His black suit was permed and pressed with absolutely no creases, his black hair was fresh cut like he'd just gotten it done yesterday, his thick brows that sat above his double-lidded eyes were groomed and neat, his skin was porcelain white. He was just wow!

It wasn't until he started chuckling that I realized that I said my last thought out loud. I looked down embarrassed.

“You look very wow yourself,” Kris complimented back. “Your hair is redder than before.”

I nodded. “I had it died over the weekend and I got extensions. It's no big deal.”

He shook his head as his eyes scanned me up and down. “I beg to differ.”

I'm pretty sure my cheeks were the color of my hair now; I didn't bother to look up because then I would be faced with having a staring contest with him. Ever since Kai told me that Kris liked me, I felt a little differently about seeing him now.

“What are you thinking about?” I heard him ask. I kept my eyes on my now twiddling thumbs.

“I'm wondering about something. About something Kai told me about you.”

“What did he say about me?” When I looked up, Kris' thick brows were now slanted as he continued to gaze at me, but more curiously. So I guess Kai hadn't informed him that he told me about him liking me.

“Basically, that you like me.” Now both of his brows raised up on his forehead and I knew that Kai hadn't told him anything. Kris' eyes moved away from mine to the wall behind me as he looked like he was deep in though about something.

Uh oh. He wasn't saying anything. What did this mean? Was Kai wrong about him liking me or did he lie about it, so that I could make a fool out of myself?

Minutes later and Kris had still yet to speak. I cleared my throat and continued, “I'm not sure if he was over-exaggerating or not-”

“He wasn't,” Kris interrupted, his deep voice was so firm and solid when he said it that it instantly shut me up. His dark eyes made their way back to mines again and he smiled one of those genuine smiles that was so rare to see on his face. “He wasn't exaggerating. The truth is, I do like you Minji-ah. So what do you say to that?”

Now it was my turn to stare off into space with a surprised expression.

“Oh.”

* * *

Bleghh... not much happens in this chapter. Next chapter, I promise! ^0^