“Yah!!!! Wait for me!!!” I tried to shout as loud as I could.

“We are freakin’ late and you want me to slow down?!” Jae Hyun shouted right back at me as he turned the next corner in a rush. I followed suit.

“I should have never asked to go to school with you!!!” I screeched in frustration, putting more strength to my feet to catch up to him and his speeding long legs. WHY IS THERE NO DIFFERENCE IN THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US??!!!

He actually managed to throw his head back and laugh in the midst of running to school. “Too late for that now, Sun-ah!”

“I HATE YOU AND YOUR LONG LEGS, JAE HYUN-AH!!!” I shouted again, earning more laughs from the long-legged devil in front of me.

After a few twists and turns more from small roads and back alleys, I could see the front gates of Hwan Haneul High School. The gates were marvelously painted black and they were tall and fancy…and closed. And… that idiot Ahn Jae Hyun just ran past the gate to rush along the bricked wall on the left side of the gate. My let down senses pricked up immediately.

I caught up and crept along next to him. “Yah! You know a secret way in?” I whispered, in fear of anyone patrolling from the inside of the walls.

“Of course!” he told me right back, a mischievous glint evident in his eyes, “Thank God you actually wore those leggings under your skirt.”

I was confused. What does my habit of wearing knee-length leggings have to do with sneaking in? “Why?”

Jae Hyun grinned. “Because we’ll be climbing up this wall.”

From afar, I could already see someone walking with his nose in his book. I rushed up next to him.

“Yah, Hong Jong Hyun!” I smacked him in the head.

He almost stumbled over if not for his quick reflexes to stabilize his body back. He sent me a glare.

I snickered. “Good book you got there?”

“It would be if I wasn’t interrupted,” he muttered. He sounded really annoyed.

I put him in a tight head lock. “Awwwww you don’t mean that! You looooooove me~” I tickled him at his ribs with my free hand.

“Yah! Get away! YAH!” he accidentally raised his voice – hehe, I must’ve hit a ticklish spot then – and tried to push himself off me.

“Aigoo, these kids,” I heard someone mention behind Jong Hyun and me. I peered up to see Woo Bin and Jong Suk sauntering over to us. From afar, my ears detected some girl squealing at us.

I heard Woo Bin say, “Do you have to play so early in the morning, idiots?”

However, there were some extra voices that sounded off like a background sound of commentary, saying things like,

“Omo! Is this what we call F4?!”

“Yah! They’re totally hotter than Goo Jun Pyo! They’re living and breathing right next to us!”

“How can they look so handsome and god-like? Ah~ My heart~”

“Omona, their skin’s so clear and fresh! They must follow Jong Suk-oppa’s beauty regime!”

The other boys heard these squeals too. It’s just that they’d chosen to ignore it, to live with it. Jong Suk opted to stay deaf to these sounds and just laugh with whatever Woo Bin was saying, Woo Bin was blocking his hearing on one ear with his pinky. Jong Hyun was even cheekier; he put on some earplugs and walked away from us, leaving Woo Bin and Jong Suk to chat more. I had nothing to drown out those fangirl squeals since I’d already tucked my earphones inside my bag, leaving my sensitive ears to pick up more useless comments from these girls. Do we enjoy having this kind of attention on us? Perhaps a little, yes. Do we wish these girls would just leave us alone and live their own damn lives? Yes.

I tried to tune myself back into the conversation between my friends when I heard one of the girls say, “You girls can have those two, just leave Bang Sung Joon. He’s mine.”

“Omo, Min Hee-ah! You dare say that he’s yours?! Why can’t we all share those four?!”

“Andwae! He’s mine! MINE!”

“Yah! Be quiet! What if they hear us, pabo?!”

I groaned. I swear in the name of Nirvana, I might just murder these girls one day.

Jong Suk’s voice pierced through my thoughts. “Stop frowning like that, Joon-ah. You look like you want to murder them.”

I grinned at him. “How did you know?”

“Aigoo, this kid,” he said, knuckling me in the head, “You’re just that easy to read! The only ones that I can never read through his mind would be Jong Hyun and–”

“Soo Hyuk-ah!” Woo Bin called out.

We saw our quiet friend stop in his tracks, looking slightly dazed, before he turned his head to us and waved. We walked up to him and Woo Bin immediately ruffled his hair. Soo Hyuk did not even look annoyed. He just blinked and styled his soft hair again.

“Hyuk-ah, what did you do yesterday? Did you get Jong Suk’s SOS text?” Woo Bin said as we walked together to our classroom, his arm already hanging on Soo Hyuk’s shoulder.

“I got it. I was just too lazy to help out,” he said, with a small smile. We all burst out laughing, except for Jong Suk. I just love his honesty!

“Why am I not surprised?” Jong Suk commented to the air before turning back to Soo Hyuk, “Why? Were you shooting some hoops with your basketball friends?”

“Yeah. By the time I got your text, I was already walking back home, so…” he shrugged.

By that time, we’d reached the ground floor of our block. “Yah, Young Kwang’s already here right?” I asked them, stopping my tracks just before I went up the stairs.

“Yeah,” Jong Suk said, “I just got his text telling me to ‘hurry and get my over to clean the blackboard.’ Why?”

I grinned. “Anyone wanna bet that Jae Hyun’s late?” Out of all of us, I knew that he was the biggest sleepyhead. Even bigger than I was!

“Call!” Woo Bin exclaimed. Soo Hyuk just smirked and nodded.

“How much are we betting?”