The next couple of days rolled by, it almost felt like a typical day for me. Jongin would always wait for me by my locker, smiling at me every morning and I would see Kim Myungsoo everyday but he hasn’t talked to me after the last conversation we shared. And I don’t know why, I feel like I shut him out just like that, when the last time I checked I got mad with Jongin because he shut a girl out.

Today, I woke up late because I stayed up all night working on homeworks and as results, I only have a couple of minutes before the school gate closed. But fortunately, the second I stepped inside the gate, the bell for the first period rang the school.

I whipped my head to the teacher who was standing in front of me. “I’m not late, sir.”  I said, smiling with a bit of relief. “I’m already inside the school when the bell rang.”

Mr. Shin, the teacher, glanced down at his wrist watch and then he looked back at me. Then he gestured me to get going.

I bowed at him and ran inside the school. There were a few students cluttering to get into their classes, including me. I hurriedly climbed the stairs and walked swiftly towards my homeroom.

As I approached the room, I could hear my teacher’s distant voice, doing the roll call of names. I stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath and then I turned the door knob.

“—Choi Chrystal.” My teacher called my name as I walked into the room.

“Here!” I said, standing by the doorway. Everyone’s attention was on me. “Am I late?” I asked my teacher.

“Almost.” He said, pursuing his lips at me. “Please take your seat.” He gestured me to come in and continued to call the other student’s names as I walked towards my seat.

I caught Sehun grinning at me as I headed to my seat and I gave him a small smile. Then, I caught the gaze of someone sitting beside him.

Jongin.

He was looking at me intensely. I was thinking of smiling at him but when I saw him having a straight face while looking at me, I gazed away from him and sat on my chair.

For the next couple of hours, I couldn’t sit straight on my chair. I tried focusing on the lessons but I just can’t. I knew that Jongin is burning holes into the back of my head, I can feel it. After our first period, I was thinking of talking to him, asking why he ignored me when I walked into the room and if I did something wrong but our next teacher came striding in. Same thing happened on our next subject so I spent the most of time thinking the same thing. I just couldn’t stay focused.

The bell rang for lunch time and screeching chairs followed as my classmates started to exit our homeroom one by one.

Sehun gave me a light tap on my shoulder and told me they’ll meet me at the cafeteria. I gave him a smile and a nod and continued to gather my things in my desk.

“Why were you late?” asked a low, deep voice behind me.

I turned around and find myself staring at Jongin, who was looking at me quite anxiously. He’s upset about something.

“I woke up late.” I said, gazing at him.

“I was so worried about you.” He said, and then got up from his seat, pull out a chair and sitting facing me. “I’ve tried calling you but you weren’t picking up my calls.”

“You called me?” I said, surprisingly.

He chuckled. “Several times, yes.”

“I’m sorry. I forget about my phone.” I said to him apologetically.

“I’m going to pick you up everyday now,” He said, grinning at me. “So that I don’t have to worried about you.” he gave me a wink.

“You don’t have to—“ He cut me off by pulling me outside our homeroom.

-

The cafeteria was packed when we both arrived. I could see girls are shooting me with their glares, so I gazed away awkwardly, while Jongin joined the queue and pulled me so that I could cut the queue. The students who were standing in line, mumbled that I shouldn’t do that but they were shushed by Jongin when he glared at them.

We grabbed our lunch and Jongin led me to his usual table he used to use during lunch with his best friends. They were talking to each other, so they didn’t notice us coming. I sat beside Sehun and he smiled as he saw me and then Jongin sat next to me.

“Are you guys dating?” Kyungsoo suddenly asked when we all were eating our food, making me chocked on my food.

“Are we?” Jongin looked at me with a smirk on his face.

“No.” I said, taking a sip from my orange juice.

“No?” Chanyeol said, looking rather disappointed.

I nodded and took a quick glance at Jongin. He was looking rather disappointed about the quick statement I made about our ‘status’.

“Let’s play truth or dare, shall we?” Baekhyun suddenly suggested, out of nowhere, to lighten up the mood.

I smiled at him and nodded my head excitedly. “Who’s first?”

“I will go first,” Baekhyun said, looking around to find his target. His eyes then stopped at Kyungsoo, “truth or dare?” he asked as he pointed his finger towards Kyungsoo, who looks surprised.

“Truth.” Kyungsoo said without hesitation. As usual, he showed his ‘poker face’.

“Okay,” Baekhyun said, resting his chin in his hand as he was thinking about what he should ask to Kyungsoo. He then snapped his fingers, “Do you like someone?”

“No.” Kyungsoo said, with his usual ‘poker face’. It’s hard to guess whether he was telling the truth or he was lying because of his expression, it’s unreadable.

“Really?” Baekhyun asked, rasing an eyebrow.

“I thought you only can ask one question.” Kyungsoo said, raising an eyebrow at him. Baekhyun groaned in frustration. “Okay, my turn.” Kyungsoo said and looked around. His eyes stopped at Sehun.  “Oh Sehun, truth or dare?”

“Dare. Since I’m a man.” Sehun said, taking a quick glance at me and grinned at me. 

“I dare you to say ‘I like you’ to one of the girls here,” Kyungsoo said, smirking at him. “Soojung is an exclusion.”

“That’s easy.” Sehun said and then got up from his seat. Our eyes all followed him as he approached one of the girls who was sitting with her back facing us. As he tapped her shoulder, the girl looking rather shocked to see Sehun was talking to her. We giggled as we saw him saying ‘I like you’ to the girl. After he said it, he walked away coolly as if nothing happened and he sat down next to me again.  “See how easy was that?” he said proudly.

“I bet that girl is going to dream about you tonight.” Chanyeol said and then giggled along with Baekhyun. Sehun then pretended to flip his hair as if he had long hair. I chuckled at their hilarious acts.

“My turn. Kim Jongin!” Sehun pointed at Jongin, making me glanced at him. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth.” Jongin said, leaning back against the chair.

“When will you confess to Soojung?” Sehun asked, while grinning at me. I was hoping that he’s not going to confess to me anytime soon.

“Soon.” Jongin said, as he inserted his fingers in his pants’ pockets. “I’m planning something.”

Everyone was in silence for a moment. Everyone was puzzled by Jongin’s sudden honest confession, especially me. But then, Baekhyun cleared up the silence by clapping his hands excitedly, and everyone followed along with an awkward laugh. “My turn. Soojung.” Jongin said, glanced down and then he looked at me intensely.

Isn’t this game is supposed to be fun? I thought nervously.

Once again, the atmosphere turned down. “Truth or dare?” Jongin asked, still burning holes into my eyes.

I took a deep breath before answering, “Truth.”

Jongin pursued his lips at me, and then he asked his question. “Will you accept me if I confessed to you?”

I gulped nervously, not knowing what to answer. “No one knows” I said.

“So it’s a 50/50 chance?” Jongin asked, curiously.

“Yup” I said popping the ‘p’.

After lunch, we seperated ourselves and we went to our next periods. During the afternoon classes, I couldn’t focus again on the lessons. I kept on thinking about what Jongin said earlier, about him going to confess to me. It was serious but yet I still doubt it, I still think that it was just a joke and that he was just teasing me. But his expression and by the way he said it, makes me realize that he was actually serious.

When the first class of the afternoon classes ended, I went to my locker to get my things for the next class. For a moment, I leaned my back against my locker.

“What are you thinking?” a voice suddenly said, almost whispering.

I turned around and find myself staring at Kim Myungsoo. “Oh, you.” I said.

“Something is bothering you, right?” Myungsoo said as he leaned his back against the locker beside mine, looking at me sideways.

“No.” I said tonelessly, and glanced at the ground. Suddenly the ground become interesting.

“You’re still a terrible liar.” Myungsoo said and chuckled.

This kid seriously knows me too well. “I know that.” I said, taking a quick glance at him and then at my shoes.

“You know...” Myungsoo glanced at his shoes before gazing softly into my eyes, “Maybe I can’t be your boyfriend anymore but...I can be a best friend to you, someone you can talk to when you have a problem.”

With that, I felt a strike of stung in my heart. It was an unexpected thing that come out from his mouth. It didn’t sound cheesy, it rather sounds sincere. As if he really wanted to come back into my life, to enter my life once again, not as a lover, but as someone that I can comfortably talk to.

“That doesn’t sounds bad.” I said, smiling at him. This time it was a sincere smile.

“Really?” He asked, a bright smile flashed on his face.

I gave him a smile and a nod.

“What class do you have next?” Myungsoo asked, taking away my schedule from me. His face enlighten when he saw my schedule.

“What?” I asked, curiously. “Do we have the same class?”

As I said that, the bell rang and he pulled me. So we do have the same class.

-

The afternoon classes melted away until the final bell of the day chimed the whole school. I gathered my things and packed them into my backpack. I said goodbye to Myungsoo and he gave me a simple nod and then I headed downstairs. I walked down the hallways and saw Jongin leaning his back against my locker. I took a deep breath and walked towards him.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him.

“I was waiting for you.” He said and moved aside so I can access my locker.  

“Why?” I asked and keyed in my locker combination and popped open my locker. I stuffed my books inside the locker and locked it.

“About the showcase—“ Jongin heaved a sigh. “I think my father will come home eariler than I thought.”

“What about it?” I asked, confusedly.

“Since he’s the owner of the school, there’s a chance that he will attend the showcase,” Jongin said.

“So? If you found out that he will attend, you will just quit like that?” I said, looking at him firmly.

“I—I don’t know. My dad will kill me if he found out that I’m dancing again.” Jongin said and looked down.

“Don’t you know the meaning of rebellion?” I asked him. “We’re teenagers! We are in the age where we always rebel”

“You don’t know him. I’ve tried once, running away from him but in the end, he will always bring me back again. No matter how much I tried.” Jongin said, looking rather sad.

“Don’t give up on something you love, Jongin. I know it’s hard but in the end, your father will see how much efforts you put into dancing and somehow he will let you do what you wants. Trust me. Just don’t give up. Just don’t.” I said, looking straight into his eyes.

“Thank you for that,” Jongin said, smiling at me. “And...can you promise me one thing?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Promise me that you will stay by my side when or if my dad at some point will do the same thing at the last showcase I participate, please?” Jongin said, peering into my eyes as if he was really desperate for it.

“I promise.” I said, looking straight into his eyes.