The bell rung as it was time for class A-1 to attend PE class. Jackson and Chohee, holding hands while walking through the corridor, were taking their time as if they had no attention to spare towards their grumpy teacher shouting from not-so-far behind. A weary and jealous, yet helpless expression on JB’s face was directed towards the couple as he was walking behind them from a certain distance – he sighed. “When will I be able to hold her hand like that?” JB thought to himself as if the hallway seemed to have no end as he was staring at the tightly intertwined hands in front of him. “I feel like a total coward; I can’t even protect her whenever he acts like a jerk to her.” Thoughts kept rushing through JB’s mind – who knows how long it has been since he set his eyes on Chohee? He has no confidence; he can’t tell her how he feels even after so long.

 “So, we will be running some laps for today,” the teacher exclaimed. “As you all know, this is not a group activity so get used to working individually for this session.” The students started as soon as the teacher gave his signal; students ran from here to there, around the laps. About half an hour has passed and another half to go before the class ends – JB could not keep still, itching from looking at Jackson and Chohee fooling around on the track, displaying their affection for each other; he could not stand to wait for another thirty minutes with a view such as that. At that moment, the teacher blew his whistle and gathered up the class and said, “We will have a small competition for the remaining time of this session. Incentives will be given for the winners of this event. There will be 8 teams with 5 members each. Go ahead and group yourselves according to your liking.” Everyone hurriedly huddled with their friends and settled down in five minutes. The teacher spoke once again, “Since it looks like everyone has formed their groups, your group mates will be your opponents.” Most of the students were shocked; some anticipated it from the beginning. Without a doubt, Jackson and Chohee decided to team up together without realizing the current situation might happen – the girl was worried while her boyfriend was confident as if no one stood in his way. Although Jackson reassured Chohee that everything was fine, she was not completely calm about the situation.

As it was Jackson and Chohee’s group’s turn to run, JB stood at the side where he had a clear view of all the runners, eyeing on Chohee especially. The teacher gives the signal to start running. The students run as quickly as they can when suddenly… “Ah!” a loud enunciation of pain was heard throughout the gymnasium – Jackson bumped Chohee and she fell on the floor as he was mindfully aiming for his goal of winning; he did not even notice and kept on running. JB was stunned and wanted to run towards Chohee but had cold feet – he was unsure if he should go or not. As expected, Jackson had won and shouted as he claimed victory without aiding his hurt girlfriend (who fell because of him, by the way). Finally, JB gathered up his courage to approach Chohee; he helped her up and asked with a trembling voice, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Jackson, being an overly jealous boyfriend, hurried to his girlfriend when he sees someone else with her and pushes JB away. “Chohee, what happened?” the foolish boyfriend asked. “You bumped her off the track and she fell,” JB answered daringly. As the kind of person that he is, Jackson naturally answered back, “You stay out of this. She’s my girlfriend. You know that, right?” and gave the guy a solid glare.

JB was taken aback with Jackson’s unexpected backfire; he did not realize that Jackson was aware of his actions – his feelings, to be more exact. JB completely froze and was not able to answer back. Jackson, on the other hand, continued tending to Chohee as if he suddenly felt concerned.

Before they knew it, the bell rung once again and PE class was finally over. JB, still puzzled and moping at one of the benches in the gymnasium, noticed Chohee enter the gym and sit over at a far end; she snatched his utmost attention as she walked awkwardly, sat down and gripped on the bench, facing the other way. The boy turned more puzzled, and concerned about her. “What could be wrong with her?” he spoke with a soft voice. Chohee incurred an injury – a wound, one that her smartypants boyfriend could not have possibly noticed – from the accident that happened earlier; she also sat awkwardly which increased JB’s curiosity even more. Without intending to, Chohee tried to move her leg and blurted out a not-so-loud wail of pain. JB was alarmed. “She must’ve got hurt from what happened earlier! I have to help her out somehow.” With that said to himself, he quickly ran out of the gymnasium towards the school clinic to get first aid.

JB ran as fast as he could. When he reached the clinic, he was sweating crazily and talked while catching his breath, “Nurse! May I borrow the first aid kit? I need it, and fast.” The nurse quickly handed over the kit and the boy ran out of the room after he thanked and bowed to the nurse. Not seeing where he was heading, bumped into someone and fell.

“JB! Dude, I didn’t notice that was you. Are you alright? Sorry.” A concerned voice reached out to him. It was JB’s friend Mark – the one who knows all about his secrets, even his feelings for Chohee. “I’m fine, man. This is nothing. Listen, I gotta hurry to Chohee,” the panting JB exclaimed; he grabbed the kit he dropped and stood up. “Dude, speaking of her, did you already tell her? You better do it soon or you might regret it. I’ll be here to back you up.” Mark reassuringly told his friend with a bright smile. JB smiled back and patted his friend’s shoulder, uttered “Thanks, man,” and ran off.

As soon as JB reached the gymnasium, he shouted Chohee’s name to catch her attention; she could not help but only turn her head around to see who it was calling for her – to her surprise that it was JB. He rushed over to Chohee and immediately asked, “Are you okay? Where does it hurt? We have to treat your wound quickly.” The girl was shocked, out of words and just asked, “How did you know I was injured? Were you able to see it earlier?” JB shook his head and replied, “That’s not important right now. Can you move your leg? Where is it? ” He knelt and bent down to check her knee. Chohee hesitantly reacted towards JB at first but gave in after a few moments as she saw how much effort and sincerity he put just to help her out.

“There. It’s all done.” JB concluded, smiling, after placing a bandage over Chohee’s wound. “Thanks for doing this all for me, JB. You really didn’t have to,” the girl replied while gently looking at JB’s face. “It was nothing. I just wanted to help you out because you were hurt, not because I’ve been constantly looking at you from afar or anything and that I li—…” JB flinched and stopped before he could even say the next following words to his sentence; he paused for a moment and thought of Chohee and Jackson – all those times that they were together but how the latter treated the earlier unfairly. JB knew he disliked it if Chohee was to be kept treated that way; he wanted to protect her for himself and he wanted her to know that, even if it was only his heart that she knew, and that the only way for her to know it is if he confesses to her – he knew what he had to do.

“You know what, Chohee? I am tired of seeing you getting hurt because of Jackson.” JB stood up, stared into Chohee’s eyes and confidently exclaimed, “You don’t deserve any of that. I may not be in any position to say what you can and can’t do, but I just want you to know how I feel – I like you, Chohee – I always have.” He took her hand and gently rubbed his thumb over its top. “I don’t expect you to feel the same way, and I understand that; I just felt like I shouldn’t hide in fear or shyness anymore, especially towards Jackson. While you are happy, you should also take care of yourself because if you don’t, then I hope you will let me.” JB nonchalantly enunciated with a reassuring smile on his face. Chohee looked up to JB’s face and smiled back. “Thank you.”