“I guess its congratulations then~” She lifted one corner of her lips into a coy smile; truth be told, a tiny part of her was kind of glad that he came. Maybe it was because she felt comfortable knowing who her partner was but there was also something else, something more obvious of course.

“When does rehearsal start?”

“After class.”

“I’ll be there~”

They walked off stage and soon realized that they were all by themselves since there were vacant spots at the director’s table in the audience. Jieun sighed, knowing what was the point of this, and Yongguk was still with that dumb smile across his face, clearly enjoying himself. “Class is about to start soon… Do you want to join me?”

“I’d love that.”

Tension? Maybe, but there was quickly a shyness spreading across Jieun as she wasn’t able to stop her heart to beat butterflies or to flutter like a butterfly’s wings. “Did you do your chemistry homework?”

“Hmm, kinda?”

She giggled at his uncertainty as she nodded her head while looking in front of her; relieved that barely anybody was in the hallway since lunch time wasn’t over yet. From her locker to his, they walked back together towards their common class with only silence in between them.

Stepping inside an empty classroom, Jieun was making her way towards her desk with Yongguk right behind her and felt his hand right on the small of her back as if he was guiding her. It got her cheeks flushed; she turned her head to glance at him and he softly smiled at her, not realizing what he was doing. Once they took their seats, he pulled out the script and started taking a look at it while Jieun was busying herself with something else.

From the corner of her eyes, she gave herself glimpses towards him and bit her lip to stifle a smile, amused by the concentrated face he had on at the moment. “You really are into it.”

“Of course, I can’t disappoint Cinderella~”

The day came and went with rehearsals perfectly done – for the first time anyways – and moving on to the next day, Yongguk had it kind of stressful since he was hoping that what he had in mind would work out and wouldn’t make him lose focus on his football practice later today.

It wasn’t something big but still meant a lot to him.

Changing into his uniform and moving to the field with the rest of his teammates, he looked towards the bleachers and sighed with relief at the sight of Jieun waving at him, content to see that she had accepted to watch him play – which was what he was nervous about, it was the first time after all. He waved back and once he turned around, he put his focus to his coach.

The hour went by and that’s when suddenly things changed… in a bad way.

With practice over, its just then that he found out that the college scouts were here, making a surprise visit for all the team… and it gets worse.

For a scout who is interested in a player, he would go straight to him, right? Well for Yongguk, he waited and waited, long enough for him to be the only one left in the locker room without having any representatives coming to him; obviously, it got him angry.

He went to see his coach for an explanation and all he got was a simple “you weren’t what they were looking for” and that was it.

Jieun waited by the closed door for her friend to finish up, clueless about everything. She started to hear faint violent clashing against the metal of the lockers. She knew that Yongguk was the last one left, so thinking that something might be wrong, she hesitated on whether to go in or stay put since she would technically be walking inside a zone dominated by males… possibly half – or more – males.

Grunts were heard and she couldn’t stay still anymore.

She barged in to see Yongguk still covered in dirt with his football uniform, punching lockers in anger, striking them repeatedly. “G-Guk?”

Her soft voice, though terrified, made him stop, his heavy breathing being the only thing that could be heard. Taking a better look at him, she noticed how his eyes were red from crying; she took slow steps towards him with her small voice asking what happened.

“I didn’t get it.”

“It being what?”

“The scholarship.”

“Why?”

“Because apparently I’m not good enough. After everything I put in this team! Ugh!” He gave another bash, making Jieun jump out of shock. He saw her gesture and softly apologized as he dropped down on the bench, the girl taking a seat by his side. “I don’t know what I did wrong… I put everything I’ve got every time I’m on the field, practice or game.”

“Maybe that’s the reason… You put so much to make the best and be the best, you don’t have the time to actually enjoy it… maybe that’s why you didn’t get it; football is just… n-not for you…”

“Not for me?”

“I didn’t mean it like that-”

“You’re sure? ‘Cause it looks like it.”

“Yongguk… I was just there now, watching you play… maybe its just me but I didn’t see it.”

He scoffed, strangely feeling insulted by her comment. “What do you know about football anyways?”

“I know enough to see when someone doesn’t love what he’s doing-”

“So you’re basically telling me that I don’t like football?” He still carried the anger inside of him, clenching his jaw to hold it in. She noticed the bitter mood and got up from her seat, quickly apologizing. “I-I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to anger you.”

“So what did you mean to do then?!” Getting up from the bench, he glared at her, his frustration ready to lash out on the wrong person. “N-nothing! I was just trying to help!”

“That’s what you call help?! You insulted me!”

“How did I do that?!”

“Football is what makes me who I am in this school. Telling me that I don’t belong on the field isn’t a compliment!” He raised the tone in his voice making her slightly take a step back from the surprise. Tightly gripping on the straps of her bag, she was biting down on her bottom lip, stopping herself from shedding tears over a stupid argument. Mumbling an inaudible ‘sorry’, she ran out of the room, leaving the boy in complete defeat with a sigh out of his mouth, his head backwards with his eyes closed. “.”

Hissing out the anger that was left inside of him, he breathed out to recollect his thoughts knowing that he was wrong about lashing out on her.

Luckily, he knew how to fix this.

Back in the auditorium, Jieun was able to calm herself down before meeting the rest of her friends for rehearsals.

Moving fast forward, the girls were waiting for their male lead to arrive. He was already twenty minutes late, which started to give false hope to the troop.

“Can we just start another scene without him? He’s not coming, let’s just move on!”

A sigh out of , Sunhwa dismissed everybody, leaving only Jieun on stage. Looking down at the lyrics in her script, she slowly started to sing with her voice echoing across the auditorium. Trying to get the rhythm right without the music itself, Jieun was absorbed into the a cappella melody, not realizing that she was being watched by Yongguk who had quietly slipped in backstage, looking at her from the side.

He fell in love with her voice.

The way it left a trail of goose bumps up and down his skin; the way it left him breathless as it traveled through his ears and went straight into his flustered heart; it was definitely his favorite voice. He was so caught up in the moment, it took him a while to hear his name from and snap back into reality.

“You finally decided to come?”

“S-sorry.”

An awkward silence traveled through them with a staring contest meddling in between remorse and bitterness. She breaks the ice by letting him know that today’s rehearsal was cancelled but got cut half way through with the boy suddenly stomping over to shut her up with a kiss, his lips pressed tightly against hers, her breath stuck in with her gasp unable to escape.

She wanted to push him away but the moment she felt his tongue slide across her bottom lip, slightly parting , she gave up all will to fight at the deepening caress.

Her knees weakened, her heart bursting, all the familiarity of his lips sent a sense of nostalgia as it came and washed every nerves ending covering her body. Just like the other day, flashbacks of her hot night crawled back into her mind; overwhelmed by this effect, she quickly pushed herself away from him, shakily wiping with the back of her hand while intently staring at him.

The boy was heavily breathing, ready to do it again. As he stepped one foot towards her, she stepped back, stopping him from repeating the gesture. “Wh-y?”

He took a moment to think about the answer. His eyes glanced down at the clutched script in her hand and babbled the first thought out. “Act 2, scene 1, right? The abrupt kiss from Prince Romeo?”

“O-oh…” Her heart fell. She gathered back her thoughts the best she could and ended up nodding her head while holding the screenplay back in front of her while looking at it, not having the energy to stare at his eyes; they would always leave her flustered at the depth of his gaze. “Y-you’re right…”

“Jieun, I’m sorry for how I acted earlier; I shouldn’t have lashed out at you, I was out of line…”

She wasn’t able to reply back as he took few steps forward, his words cutting her off. “I wanna make it up to you… Let’s go back to our diner. It’s on me.”

“Our diner?” She curved the corner of her lips into a coy smile, amused by how he had already labeled a place of their own. “Yea, of course. I mean, we’ve been together to that place for the first time, right?” Hands in his pockets, he looked so shy it had Jieun giggle lightly. “I’d like that every much~”

He nodded his head in satisfaction, finally cheering up with a smile on his face. “And this time, we can actually take a car to drive~”

“What about my bike?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He chuckled in amusement, which only left her confused at whatever meaning he had behind his words.

Sunshine and roses on stage, at the other end of the school theater, someone was definitely not happy with what she was seeing.

I guess you guys know who I’m talking about, right?

The captain of the cheerleading team herself had sneaked inside the auditorium with a teammate of her ex, finding a secluded heated up making out spot. Things were going good – I guess – but things changed when the scene on the podium was being unraveled in front of her, leaving her to glare at the scene of watching the step sister she despised with her own ‘boyfriend’, kissing right in the middle of the stage.

Obviously, she didn’t like what she was seeing, to the point that she even forgot that she had a boy right behind her, getting his hands to caress her body.

To infuriated to enjoy the sneaky touch, she pushed him off and stomped out of the theater, voicing out her frustration into the hallway.

“I’m going to get that ! She will never see it coming!”