“No.”

“Yes.”

“Not happening.”

“It’s happening.”

“No, it’s not.”

I look at her with an eyebrow raised, before going back to my notebook. “Why in the world do you even want me, of all people, to do that?” I ask as I give her a weird look, but she’s still persistent. “You’re the one I want to do this with, duh.” Tiffany says quietly as the teacher turns around to look at the class, his eyes scanning us before returning back to the blackboard.

“I don’t care; I’m not doing it.” I reply with my eyes straight ahead as I send the note over to her desk. Again I hear Tiffany let out another sigh before talking quietly again. “Why not?” she asks and leans closer, trying to gain eye contact with me. “It’s a good thing for both of us,” Tiffany pauses for a while, still moving her head everywhere just to look into my eyes. I avoid her gaze as I try to concentrate on the lesson, but it’s hard when you have such a stubborn person next to you.

“And I know it’s your first time doing this, but I swear it won’t be that bad,” she manages to say before the teacher turns around to hand us some work sheets. “I’ve heard that if you prepare yourself well and take your time, it won’t hurt that much.”

I roll my eyes a little by that before passing her another note.

“You say that now.”

“Come on Jess… I’ll go easy on you!” Tiffany says a little too loud and successfully gains the teachers attention as he turns to look at us with a harsh glare. “Miss Hwang, Miss Jung, mind to share what you’re talking about with the rest of the class?” he says through his gray mustache, his wrinkled face forever cast in a frown. A little embarrassed by the sudden attention I look away and pretend like nothing.

I see Tiffany’s surprised and slightly red face beside me, and silently I snicker by the view. “It was nothing, Mr. Lee,” Tiffany says after a while, her voice a little uncertain. The teacher doesn’t buy that though, and gives us both another glare before sighing. “This is the third time, in a span of twenty minutes, that I hear you discussing matters not related to the subject,” he says while opening the door, the frown on his face deeper, which I thought wasn’t even possible. “Stay out in the hallway until I say you can come back inside.”

Silently we gather our belongings and nearly sprint out, not wanting all of the other students eyes on us any longer than necessarily. When the teacher nearly slams the door shut I let out a sigh of relief, glad that it was over, although I still feel slightly embarrassed. Tiffany simply laughs before sitting down on the floor, her back leaning against the blue lockers. I sit down beside her, a small huff escaping my lips before I write her a note.

“That was seriously uncalled for.”

Tiffany chuckles before looking at me, a small gleam in her eye. I will never understand how she could be so carefree and positive; it simply baffles me. “I won’t stop pestering you until you say yes,” she says and I sigh by that, knowing that she’s right. Tiffany has been nagging about this all day long, and now that we’re in the last class she still hasn’t stopped. Honestly I have gotten a little annoyed by now, but I don’t tell her that, it’s not like she would stop anyway.

“Jess… seriously, the marathon is just five miles, I’m pretty sure we can both make it through.” Tiffany says before nudging my shoulder. “Besides we don’t have to sprint the whole way, you know that right?” she tries to convince me, and I simply let out a barely audible groan.

“I can barely survive physical education.”

I send her the note and she looks at me with huge puppy eyes, nearly begging me and I feel my heartstrings tug just a little. This is probably her last attempt before she gives up I suppose; trying to act cute. And slowly my strong façade crumbles until I let out a sigh of defeat. “Okay, but you owe me!” I write in reply before handing the note to Tiffany, and as I look up to see her face, a wide grin stretches on her lips. Then she looks over at me and nearly crushes me in a hug.

“Thank you, thank you!” Tiffany nearly shouts as she still keeps on crushing me, my face nearly buried inside of her neck and light brown hair. Slowly I pat her back, signalizing I need oxygen, and she hastily lets go of me.

“Sorry,” she replies a little sheepishly, and I slowly chuckle.

“It’s okay… so when is this marathon again?”

**

A couple of days later I find myself in the middle of nowhere, feet aching and my lungs nearly screaming for oxygen. My throat is dry and sore as I forcefully keep my pace, small beads of sweat around my brow. “Come on, we’ve already gotten halfway through, we can’t stop now!” Tiffany says a couple of meters in front of me with a steady pace. As she turns to look back at me I see her face is a little red, but she’s doing far better than I am anyway. I feel like I’m about to collapse any minute.

Never again, I think to myself as I try to catch up with her. Luckily she slows down her pace and soon enough I’m right next to her again as we run mostly in silence, only our footsteps hitting the ground and my embarrassingly heavy gasps of air as well. Man, I really need to get in shape.

In front of us are some other contestants, and I figure that we’re probably somewhere in the middle of the whole marathon. At least there are some people behind us and we did pass a few, oddly enough. But I’ll be happy if we just complete this race in one piece.

We’re about to pass a small hill when I suddenly lose my balance, and with a twist of my ankle I land face first on the hard ground. A small pain shots through my leg, along with a burning sting in the palm of my hands as I lay there, mentally face palming for my clumsiness. “Jess, are you alright?” Tiffany asks with worry as she stops on her tracks and heads back to me again, and I look up at her, noticing a bruise on her leg that I didn’t notice previously. I would’ve asked, but with a small groan I nod instead before attempting to stand up, but the pain in my ankle doesn’t let me, and I nearly fall back down again.

Tiffany looks at me for a while before helping me up in a sitting position, before she crouches down to my level. Carefully she takes my hand and inspects the small wound, drops of blood leaking throughout my skin. I wince a little by the sight; I’ve never been good with blood, and I look away.

“Did you hurt yourself?” she asks as her eyes land on me, and I lightly tap on my right ankle. She lets out a small sigh before her back faces the other way. “Get on,” she commands, and I want to decline the offer, but before I could get my phone out of my pocket Tiffany interrupts me. “Just do it,” she says again, and there’s nothing I can do but obey. Carefully I move towards her and gently wrap my arms around her neck, and then she lifts me up from the ground in a piggyback ride.

Tiffany starts to walk towards the finish line now, and a few runners pass us by; some of them giving us strange looks or simply not caring. I frown as I watch them pass us, and a pang of guilt enters my chest. Why do I always have to be so clumsy?

Gently I tap Tiffany’s shoulder with one of my hands, and carefully she turns back to look at me. I give her an apologetic look, genuinely sorry for what just happened. But instead of a disappointed sigh, she softly smiles instead.

“It’s okay; don’t beat yourself up for it. I just wanted to join the race, not win.”

Tiffany says it like that, as if it was nothing, but even then I feel my heart flutter a little again by her soft expression. My insides turn warmer again as she gives me that look, and shyly I look down and bury my now heated head against the space between her neck and shoulder.

She must’ve mistaken my sudden flustered face for guilt, as she tries to gain my attention again. “Seriously Jess, it’s okay, you fell and hurt yourself, I don’t expect you to walk or let alone run.” Tiffany says again, that same gentle voice and for some reason my head turns a little light.

Another pause of silence enters us as Tiffany walks throughout the course, the chirping birds and the crunch of pebbles underneath us. I let my eyes wander up towards the tall trees of the forest, some of the branches lacking leaves from the autumn season. The wind gently blows and seeps through my thin jacket, causing me to shiver just a little.

“…Jess?” Tiffany asks after a while, and I lightly hum in reply, indicating that I’m listening. “When did you start liking me?” she asks, all seriously, the question hanging in the air as it goes silent between us. I look down from the partly bare trees and down to Tiffany again, the question throwing me off guard a little. I didn’t know what to say to that, the answer even uncertain to me. Was it the moment I first visited her, when we almost kissed? Or was it when we actually kissed? I honestly didn’t know.

“You don’t have to answer now of course. I’ll wait until we reach the finish line and we can get your notebook,” she says reassuringly as we pass the deeper parts of the forest and get closer to the finish line.  I look at her for a while after she says that, silence engulfing us again. Her face is bare of makeup, but even then she looks simply breathtaking, even after running and carrying me on her back. Slowly I take in her scent, my eyes still on her as my thoughts run free. “I don’t know when, but all I know is that I like you too much for this to be healthy,” I think to myself, gently blinking my eyes as I lean a little closer to her. Her warmth passes through me and I relax more by now, the calm weather helping a little as well.

And suddenly I think back to the day she first entered our classroom and how she really insisted on befriending me. Again my heart flutters as a soft smile graces my lips, me fondly remembering that day. Then unconsciously I feel my lips part, air seeping right through, and first I only exhale. After a while I hear a small noise emit from my mouth, until I manage to stutter out something.

“Tiff…” my voice comes as a faint whisper, but even then Tiffany looks up at me surprised, almost as if she was wondering if her ears were working, and even I feel surprised. I haven’t heard my own voice for years, the feeling of speaking and my voice a little foreign to me.
Tiffany looks at me intently, as if encouraging me to continue through her eyes. Carefully I clear my throat, taking another deep breath before parting my lips again.

“Thank you.” I manage to say after a while of struggling. I don’t even know what I’m thanking her for; if it’s for the fact that she’s carrying me, for the fact that she didn’t yell at me or that she likes me? Or is it everything she’s done? And I don’t know if it’s my already fluttering heart or if it’s the shining sun that reflects Tiffany’s smile, but as I look at her again I am almost sure that I might have really fallen for her.

“Thank you for everything.”