“SOORI!” Jinhee and Serah squealed while tackling the girl down to the floor.

“YOU GUYS SAW ME OVER WINTER BREAK WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?!” Soori laughed lightly while hugging her two best friends.

“WE LITERALLY ONLY SAW YOU ONCE AND THAT WAS WHEN WE ALL HAD THAT PARTY FOR WOOBIN’S BIRTHDAY!” Serah pouted.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry we only hung out once over winter break, I was busy,” Soori shook her head while walking off to her walker so she could put some stuff away.

“You mean that extra credit thing for the theater?” Serah raised an eyebrow.

“In other words, flirting with Mark?” Jinhee smirked.

Luckily for Mark, after that incident at the café, Soori had quickly forgave and forgotten about it. She brushed it off completely, not wanting to believe that she was developing feelings for the player that she had been pushing away since the moment they had met.

“Oh would the two of you shut up,” Soori rolled her eyes before opening her locker, “We weren’t really flirting, anyway. We were just working together.”

“Working, with lots of talking, in other words, flirting,” Serah smirked.

Soori just rolled her eyes again and quickly put her stuff away before closing her locker again, leaning her back against it, “We weren’t flirting.”

“Good morning beautiful ladies!” Moonhyun greeted, walking up to them along with Woobin.

“Morning,” the three girls replied with a smile.

“Where’s the lover boy at?” Woobin asked.

“That’s a good question, where is Bambam?” Soori asked, looking at Serah. “It’s actually kind of weird seeing you without him. I thought you two couldn’t stand being apart,” she joked.

“I was actually going for Mark…” Woobin trailed off before turning to look at Serah as well, “But Bambam works too. Where is he?”

Serah shrugged nonchalantly, “He texted me this morning saying he and Yugyeom were going to be late because the giant was having problems.”

“Then where’s your loverboy?” Moonhyun turned to Soori. She just shrugged.

“Well now that you guys mention him it wouldn’t surprise me if he suddenly showed up in three seconds. He has this thing for showing up when we start talking about him.”

“Hey guys, what’d I miss?” Mark said as he pulled up to the group. Everyone turned to Soori with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. She just chuckled lightly and shook her head.

“I told you guys,” she smiled before turning to him, “We were just wondering where you and your friends were at.”

“I’m not sure about everyone else… But I’m here now, isn’t that great for you?” Mark smirked while snaking his arm around Soori’s shoulders.

In return, she rolled her eyes and shook her head in amusement, “Well aren’t you cute,” she spoke with sarcasm.

~

In theater, Ms. Henan had just given extra credit to the four students who did the winter break assignment: Mae, Jinyoung, Mark, and Soori. After that, she had gone straight into assigning people jobs for the spring musical they would be holding at the school. For this year, Ms. Henan had decided on doing a musical for “The Jungle Book”.

“Really, Ms. Henan. The Jungle Book? We could do something like The Sound of Music but instead you choose The Jungle Book??” Heeyoung sighed.

“Hey, The Jungle Book was an amazing movie. I’m looking forward to this,” Soori spoke up.

“Okay then you can have fun building up the jungle,” Heeyoung chuckled.

Soori pouted in response, “Yah, Unnie! Don’t be ridiculous… Building trees is one hundred percent Daniel’s job.”

“What???” Daniel yelled in protest, then sighed when the two girls shot him a look, “Alright fine… Yo Jinyoung, Mark, you two are helping me.”

“Yessir,” Jinyoung chuckled while playfully saluting to Daniel.

“Alright, alright class… Let’s all settle down while I give instructions on what I want to get done today. I’m not planning on getting much done since it’s the first day we’re working on the musical, but I at least want to give you guys an idea of what you should have to do so that we can get straight to work next class,” Ms. Henan announced, getting everyone settled in the theater before quickly going over the jobs and what she wants each ‘station’ to be doing. For today, everyone would have to help on building the set.

Soori was sifting through the containers of screws, trying to find the right ones that Daniel wanted.

“Come on freshman it’s not that hard to find the right screw!” Daniel teasingly spoke up.

Soori glared up at him and picked up a screw, threatening to throw it at him, “If it’s so easy then why don’t you find screws while I drill holes into that piece of plywood?”

“Feisty little girl,” Daniel chuckled before turning to Mark, “So tell me again what it is you see in this girl?”

Mark just chuckled, “Well I’m definitely attracted to how feisty she is. Not to mention, she’s cute.”

Soori rolled her eyes and threw the screw at Mark’s face, “Cute my ,” she muttered under her breath before continuing to sift through the screws. Finally, upon finding the right screw, she threw it over to Daniel.

“Great! Now find eleven more of these for me please,” he chuckled.

Soori groaned but nonetheless continued to sift through the screws. Soon enough, Mark had joined her in sifting through containers to find the screws that Daniel needed.

“Shouldn’t you be helping with drilling?”

“I could drill you,” Mark winked.

“You’re disgusting,” Soori chuckled.

“Yet you like me.”

“I don’t.”

“Sure you don’t.”

“Mark, I know you have this undying love for me, but that doesn’t mean I feel the same way. I’m sorry,” Soori smirked at him.

Mark chuckled lightly and handed Daniel another one of the screws he needed, “You’re cute, Soori.”

“Yeah, I try,” she chuckled lightly before continuing on with finding screws.

“You lovebirds are adorable, but in case you haven’t noticed the bell’s about to ring, you can stop sifting through that thing and help clean up,” Daniel spoke up suddenly.

“Oh…” Mark and Soori both looked around to find that everyone was indeed beginning to clean up. How did they miss that?

“Honestly, just date already,” Daniel chuckled before walking away to put his tools away.

Soori stood up, dusting off her pants before glancing over at Mark. “You know I wouldn’t mind if we did date,” he spoke up.

“Yeah I know you wouldn’t.”

“Would you mind?”

Soori hummed lightly while pursing her lips together, “Let’s find out. Try asking me out.”

Mark raised an eyebrow at her, “Um. Soori, would you date me?”

“Nope!” she giggled before walking away to put the containers of screws away.

What a cutie.

“You got shot down again,” Jinyoung chuckled while walking up to Mark.

Mark shrugged nonchalantly and grinned lightly while glancing over at where Soori was, “I can live with it. I was expecting that answer anyway.”

“She’s been a lot more carefree with you ever since that first night of the dance thing… Did something happen up in that light booth?” Jinyoung wiggled his eyebrows playfully at him.

“Please, I wish,” the other laughed while nudging Jinyoung.

“You sure nothing at all happened?” Jinyoung chuckled, “She’s really changed! Did you do something to make her finally fall for you?”

“Why? Do you think she’s fallen for me?” Mark asked with wide eyes.

Jinyoung smirked while crossing his arms over his chest. “What?” Mark asked. The other boy just chuckled while shaking his head in amusement. “Whaaaatttt?” Mark whined.

“Oh my god you’re doing aegyo!” Jinyoung burst out laughing.

“No I’m not…” Mark shook his head immediately.

“Soori’s gotten to your head, man… Maybe you need to go hit on some other girl. When’s the last time you had ?”

“Ew,” Soori gagged as she walked up to them, “I walked up at a wrong time… Is this really what you guys talk about??”

“Normally, no, we don’t talk about my ual life and I haven’t had in a couple months, actually.”

Both Jinyoung and Soori gasped as they looked at Mark. Immediately they started feeling his forehead and neck while asking questions. “Are you sick?” “Are you okay?” “Do you have a fever?” “Maybe a cold?”

Mark laughed and brushed away their hands, “I’m fine, guys. I just haven’t been feeling like having .”

The two friends looked at each before looking back at Mark. “I think you need to go to the doctors.”

Before Mark could reply, the bell rang and they were all walking out of the classroom. Once they were out, Jinyoung started heading an opposite way. “I got an after school thing I have to do, I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” he waved before walking away.

Soori and Mark nodded and continued on their way home. “I heard Jinhee, Moonhyun, Youngjae, and Yugyeom had a video production thing, so they won’t be walking home with us,” she said while looking over at him.

“And Woobin, Serah, Bambam, and Jackson have ROTC…” he added on.

“So… That leaves me, you, and Jaebum?” Soori questioned.

Mark shook his head, “No, Jaebum texted me earlier saying he had some business to attend to.”

“Then just you and me?”

“Just the way I like it,” he winked at her while she playfully gagged.

After a moment or two she nodded while looking up at him with a playful grin, “Then you and I can go out for a while and eat at the café?” she asked, “You’re paying, of course.”

He chuckled lightly and ruffled her hair, “Anything for the cutie.”

~

Once the couple got their food and were seated at a table, it seemed like everything around them didn’t matter as they talked with each other. They shared each other’s drinks, fed each other, and talked and laughed about anything and everything possible.

“So,” she spoke up after finishing her chicken, “Why haven’t you been having lately? Or is it just that you’ve only been making out with the girls?”

“I… Just stopped all my player habits, actually…” Mark chuckled, “Minus the flirting thing, I think my sweet talk just became a habit.”

She nodded slowly while looking at him in confusion, “Why? The only reason why any player would stop is if…” her eyes widened and she grinned widely, “You have your eyes on someone!!”

He laughed a little bit and shook his head, “I’ve had my eyes on this girl since I met her.”

“You know… It’s every girl’s dream to have a player change for them,” she smiled softly.

“Is it?”

“Yeah… Even a girl like me would dream about that.”

“Really? Even a cute girl like yourself?”

“Shut up.”

The two continued to talk about it as Serah and Bambam walked into the café. “Man… Sergeant really needs to calm down the drills…” Bambam groaned as he rubbed his sore arm.

“Aww… You poor thing,” Serah cooed, “It’ll be okay—Oh my gosh!” she squealed while pulling Bambam to the side.

“Ah- What?” he asked in confusion.

“Look!!” she pointed over to Soori and Mark.

He looked over and shrugged, “Those two have been hanging out a lot more lately… Seeing them like this doesn’t even surprise me anymore.”

“Look at them being all flirty though!”

“Are they?”

“You don’t know Soori like I do, but right now those are hearts in her eyes. Legitimate. Hearts.”

“Damn… Finally Mark’s got her,” Bambam chuckled.

“…That’s her?” a random girl spoke up while scowling at Soori.

“The reason Mark stopped hitting on girls, yeah… I guess that’s her,” another girl spoke up.

“Wow…” the girls scoffed lightly. They turned to their food and tried to eat, although they couldn’t help but throw dirty looks at Soori every now and then.

Serah bit her lower lip as she heard the girls’ conversation. She turned back to her friend before looking over at Bambam, “…As happy as I am for Soori and Mark… They’ve got something coming for them…”

Bambam smiled and shook his head, “They’re just girls who want Mark to makeout with when they’re bored or to have over when their parents are out of town… Knowing Soori… She’ll be able to handle them.”

“Yeah… I guess you’re right,” Serah smiled before pulling him out of the café, “Come on, I don’t want to risk having them see us. We might ruin their date.”

“You know,” Mark said while smiling over at Soori.

“Hmm?”

“You’re really cute.”  

~~~~~~~~~

As promised, a second update~

Hopefully I'll be back again next week :3

Comment Replies~

secretreader - Hehe sorry for the late update! No worries though, Mark will confess... Eventually

bloomst - Well the most I can tell you is I'm definitely not going to make you guys wait until the end of the story to have Mark and Soori get together, I think they're official get together chapter is coming up pretty soon actually~

thelillcat - Oh no worries they'll date sooner or later... maybe sooner rather than later But thank you so much for your support I love that you've been consistently commenting on this since the beginning of the story, I really really appreciate it <3

eithazin97 - I've updated again! Thank you for reading, chingu~! <3