“Is that true? That you and Kai are in a relationship?”

I choke out of my orange juice at Hyuna’s question. “What are you talking about?” I wipe my lips disturbingly.

“Well, it’s not a rumor that you wore his t-shirt—I mean, he let you wore his t-shirt!” She wriggles her eyebrows suggestively.

“And?”

“Well, he doesn’t really share his stuff with people. Not even those girls he’s sleeping with. They bring their own spare clothes. So it’s a wonder why he share his shirt with you?”

“I was wet.”

“Owh… that was nasty.” She continues to wriggle her eyebrows before I understand what she meant by that.

“It’s not that kind of wet, you little b.” I slap her arm playfully. 

“Well, you’re still wet.” She smiles, not minding that I call her ‘b’. It is kind of our thing you know. “What makes you wet though?”

“Somebody found it funny to dump a bucket of cold water on me.” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“Who did? No, no, don’t answer me. I can see who did.” She closes her eyes and opens them back; only this time I am greeted by a flare of anger in her beautiful orbs. “It’s Hana right?”

“More like one of her wannabe jocks.”

“Those dirty men you mean?”

I nod, putting a spoon of ice cream inside my mouth—it is our dessert for lunch.

“Oh, boys, they never learn. When will they see that Jung Hana only use them? They are nothing but mere toys for her.” Hyuna rolls her eyes and takes my spoon to scoop the dessert we share.

I just shrug, not really caring about those boys. They are mere strangers to me.

“Oh,right! I also heard about you and Luhan dating!” She excitedly says. “Which one is true though? Are you two-timing?” She smiles mischievously.

I give her a look. “Yeah, yeah. Are you crazy?” I shake my head. “I’m not dating anyone, so don’t get ahead of your imagination.”

“Why? It’s funny okay.” She laughs.

The bell rings indicating that lunch break is over.

“Oh great.” She says. “I cannot continue to tease you!”

I laugh. “Let’s go to class.”

I stare at the t-shirt on my bed. It is the one Kai had gotten for me, and I am staring at it like an idiot for the past few hours. I have washed it and even ironed it, but I don’t know how to bring it to school for him. I am a very awkward person, and that thought alone is making me anxious.

I puff out hot air as I take the shirt and fold it neatly. I put it inside my school bag and stuff my books inside as well. I lied down on my bed, blinking up at the ceiling and imagining all the things that could possibly happen the next day.

I fall asleep thinking, and I dream of dark hair, a pair of dark glinting eyes, and a pair of soft, plump lips.

“Inna, Inna!” I wake up when I feel my world shake.

I groan as I rub my eyes. “What is it?”

“Are you not going to school?”

I snap my eyes open and I finally can see my mom standing with one hand on her hips while the other one holding the cooking pan. I turn my head to the clock on my bedside table and inwardly curse when I notice how late I am. Jumping out of my bed, I quickly take my bathing supplies and run off to the bathroom.

Mom yells something about being late but I take no notice of it and begin to undress myself. I am done five minutes later—which happens to be my best record for being quick in taking a bath—and I quickly wear my uniform.

Junhong is already on the table when I reach the dining room and he grins up at me; happy to see me being scolded. What a good brother he is.

Mom continues her speech about being late and I deafen myself, wrinkling my eyebrows in distaste. I drink my milk and bite my toast, yet I am still frowning. Usually breakfast is a great and endearing thing for me, but this morning something just made me unable to be content. I wonder what’s wrong.

Junhong and I leave a little while later, catching the bus on time. Unknowingly my eyes look around, searching for a certain someone with dark hair, dark eyes, and plump lips. I sigh when I notice he isn’t around and unknown to myself, I pout.

Junhong makes a face but I take no notice of it. He is welcomed to make any strange faces because his sister a.k.a me, don’t care about what he thinks of me. The bus ride takes shorter than usual and I am more than happy to arrive at school.

After putting some books in the locker—which I don’t need to use in the morning class—I immediately go to my class, where Hyuna has already sit and currently is talking with the girls sitting in front of us. She waves brightly at me and I smile.

The class goes on boringly as usual, and Hyuna occasionally peeks at me, seeing how unfocused I am today.

“Okay, so I know you’re weird, but you’re not this weird weird.” She says, slurping on her yogurt milk.

I glance at her briefly before poking at my food again. “I’m not sure as well. I just feel a little bit weird today.”

“Oh? Why? What’s wrong?” She asks, blinking her perfectly curled eyelashes.

“I don’t know. It’s just, from the time I woke until now, I feel a little bit weird. It’s like I forget something important but I just don’t know what.” I pause. “And I keep getting these weird images in my mind.”

“Perhaps you dream of something last night?” She wriggles her eyebrows suggestively.

I gape at her. “What? No!”

“You’re not sure about it. How can you say no?” She teases me mercilessly. What a friend!

“Listen, whatever my problem is, it doesn’t involve Kai!” I whisper at her, but with flustered tone.

Her eyes widen looking at me. “Wait, who talks about Kai?” She asks, the question barely leaves her lips.

My eyes widen in panic. “W-what? Who said Kai?” I bite my lower lips helplessly. How can I forget that my best friend doesn’t know about my little stupid crush?

Hyuna puts her yogurt milk down and my inside rumbles in panic. She pushes my tray as well her yogurt milk to the side and leans forward close to me. “How does Kai get into our conversation, Choi Inna? And don’t try to lie to me, I can read you like an open book.”

My inside is jumping up and down, obviously not from excitement or whatsoever; but from anxiety. I peer up at her and see that she is glaring at me, her eyes probing information from me. “A-alright. I like him, okay?” I say with my quietest voice and peek at her to see her reaction.

“WHAT?!” She blares and stands up, silencing the whole canteen.

I look at her nervously, wondering what her next move is.

After a whole minute of pure silence, she looks around and sits down like nothing happen. She leans back again to me and whispers rather irritability, “Why do you not tell me about it?”

“It’s just a small crush.” I whisper back. “I don’t want to announce it to the world okay?”

“But I’m your best friend!” She dramatically puts her hands up.

“And now you know about it.” I retort.

She quiets down. Then after a moment, she asks, “What are you going to do about it?”

Here we go. She’s going to probe and ask again until her curiosity fills in.

“I’m not doing anything.”

Then she thinks about something before her eyes go wide again. “Holy ! So this is why you take that job!” She says loudly as if embarrassing herself before isn’t enough.

I glare up at her and she sheepishly covers her lips, letting out a bashful laugh. I shake my head before laughing along with her.

The moment I step into the gym room, I am bombarded by a hoard of guys—the basketball players of course—talking to me like I’m their best friends. I fake a smile and not bothered to reply or talk to them, but instead continue walking to my destination.

Kai is inside the locker room, closing his locker the moment I step inside. The hoard of boys stops talking as both Kai and I look at each other. We’re not exactly in friendly term—not that we have bad term as well, it’s just that I am not in his friend zone… I think.

He eyes the boys and in a flash, nobody else is inside except us. I snap back from my trance and take my bag, opening it and searching for his t-shirt. Once I get the shirt, I look up at him and smile. “Thank you for the shirt.” I mutter and give him his t-shirt.

He looks at the t-shirt, then back to me before taking the t-shirt wordlessly. I smile awkwardly and shuffle uncomfortably. He always makes me feel uncomfortable, but not in the way I hate it. It’s just the fact that his dark orbs can make girls’ knees weak and wobble.

I nod my head while smiling awkwardly before making a gesture that I’d be gone. “I’ll just… start cleaning.”

I don’t wait for him to respond and go to the janitor closet immediately.

When I come back to the locker room, Kai is no longer inside, but a note is stuck up at his locker’s door. I sweep my eyes on the words and a smile curls up on my face.

Let’s go home together

-Kai