Lee Soo Hyuk’s POV

I just stared at the girl sitting next to me. When was the last time that I had this opportunity to just study her facial expressions? To just hear nothing but the sound of her steady breathing and smell her wonderful cotton flowers scent? Ever since I realized my feelings for this girl, I had been staying away from her. Avoiding every sort of contact or any form of communication that she would initiate. What did I get from all that? More time to observe her from afar.

There were plenty of imprinted images of her in my head, either interacting with the boys or anyone in class, and just an image of her smiling away was enough to make my heart feel warmed. The side profile of her face under the morning light would make me freeze as my eyes trailed to her plump lips, every time. The rare and almost-golden glimmer of her eyes whenever sunlight reflected in them made me protective of her, like I wanted to be the one to make that glimmer stay alive. Even with her sitting in front of me and leaving me with nothing but her back profile, I could tell with just a slump of the shoulders or the slow shoulder rolls she would unconsciously do that she probably had little sleep the night before. I had to control the urge from within to drag her to the infirmary and make her catch some sleep there. It was getting clearer that she was not going to get out of my thoughts any time soon, especially not when I could even see her everywhere I went.

Whenever I would walk by myself in the streets, I would catch someone who laughed like her, or someone who had a similar voice to hers, or even someone who had the same perfume as hers. It was maddening, up to the point that I questioned myself if I were going mental! Just how was it possible for my life to suddenly be affected by someone I had just met?

I sighed. I turned my attention back to her. Kim Sun was probably feeling restless and upset, so I made her calm down the way I would do to myself; listening to some much-needed music and literally drown in it. I pulled out my Marshall headphones that was connected to my old mp3 player and made her sit next to me in that isolated basketball court. I placed the headphones over her head and told her to close her eyes and just listen to some of my favourite tracks.

She tugged on my sleeve. “Hyuk-ah, I really like this song.”

I smiled as I asked. “Which one?”

She hit the pause button on the mp3 player to read the title. “This song… Entangled by Genesis.”

I tried to hide the rising happiness from within. “I like it too.”

“I like the lines…” she smiled wistfully. “ ‘Sentenced to drift far away now. Nothing is quite what it seems…’ ”

“ ‘Sometimes entangled in your own dreams…’ ” I finished the chorus with her.

She nodded. “I’ve always admired songs like this. Poetic and filled with meaningful messages.”

“Don’t forget the song arrangement,” I peered down at her.

She chuckled as she nudged my ribs. “That, too.”

More silences came in to fill our space, and I did not feel like complaining at all. By staying right next to Kim Sun in itself was fulfilling. I realized that though she was quite a chatterbox, there were times that she would slunk right into her own zone. Solitary moments just for her to be herself, or maybe some moments so she could recharge her energy like a child taking power naps in between the hours of the day.

But she’s not a child. I stared at her relaxed form again. She’s just a girl. One that I was terribly in love with, too.

“Terribly,” I murmured as I bit down on my lower lip. I looked away, lest I feel tempted to kiss her and where would that leave us, then? I would just be the same as that impatient Bang Sung Joon.

“Hyuk-ah,” she called me, slowly taking my headphones off and putting it aside.

“Mm-hmm?” I stretched my arms that had been still for way too long.

“Even if we’re not close… We still count as friends, right?” she asked, warily looking up at me.

I nodded once. What is she trying to say?

Her hesitance was clear but she got over it. “Welllll… If you were in my position, how exactly would you react to what happened just now…?”

“You mean… what happened in the auditorium hall with Sung Joon?”

She nodded.

I thought about it, trying not to let her hopeful eyes distract me from seriously considering her question. It was mind-boggling to give her the answer. Should I reveal to her the one thing she had failed to pick up from our peculiar behaviour towards her? I dismissed that thought right away. It was wrong to take away someone else’s chance to confess his feelings to the one he likes, even if he likes the same person that I do. I was sure that I was not alone in noticing the strange ways my friends were behaving with Sun-ah. Young Kwang and Jae Hyun were sharp observers; they were bound to have noticed it immediately. Sung Joon obviously did, and decided to forgo all risks and lay it all out for her. Although Kim Sun failed to comprehend what he did in the hall during practice, the rest of us understood what he was doing; marking his territory. Jong Hyun was a puzzle, to be honest, as he was quiet and secretive about his feelings. Just like myself. Woo Bin probably viewed her as a close friend, since I recalled that he had that precious first love he was still infatuated with. Although his teasings and playful banters with her were still questionable, the affection he possibly held for her was in no way as severe as most of us. Jong Suk was another problem entirely. It was either he was too ignorant of his own feelings that he did not realize the extent of his love to pamper Kim Sun or that he had realized them and was trying to get as close as he could with her. Either way, he did not show any signs of acknowledging the invisible tension between the seven of us whenever we gathered with Sun-ah.

Should I just answer her objectively? Play the fool and think of it as a friend impulsively kissing her out of the blue for no apparent reason?

I cleared my throat. “First, I have to ask…”

She straightened as she sat cross-legged in front of me.

“Did you do something before practice started that could have… prompted him to do it?” I said with an eyebrow slightly arched.

She let out a loud sigh. “I didn’t do a thing! He started it!” she whined.

I grinned. So there was something… “What happened?”

She then went on to retell the happenings just moments before the theater practice. She seemed so frustrated and disappointed at Sung Joon, who suddenly went all maniac on her about that skinship-loving dongsaeng of hers. I thought it was adorable, really. The way she was stressing about everything when the asnwers were all right under her nose all the time. After a couple of minutes more worth of letting out her anger, she panted vigorously to calm herself down.

“Okay… So you’ve hit a real block.” I summed it up. “Let me ask you another question.”

She had a slight frown forming on her lovely face. “What?”

“How was it, your first kiss?” I asked her, with a meaningful smile etched across my face.

Her whole face suddenly turned a dark shade of crimson as she did not look away from me. “H-How’d you…?”

I shrugged. “I’m pretty sure almost everyone on the stage just now could hear you… if they paid enough attention, that is.”

“Oh God…” she buried her face in her hands. “So embarrassing!” her cries were muffled by her own fingers.

I chuckled even more. I tried to pry her hands away from her face. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s fine if you’re such a newbie in relationships–”

“Easy for you to say!” she cried as she pushed my hands away from her, revealing her flushed face. “I have a fake reputation to hold up, you know!”

This time, I laughed out loud at her ridiculously adorable thought. “You have a fake reputation as what? The biggest and baddest female in the hood?”

Her face still red, Sun-ah scratched the back of her head. “Sorta…”

More laughter burst out from me. It was starting to make my stomach ache that I had to hold my stomach as I fell over to the side. With her adorable self, was she really trying hard to make herself look like a badass in this school?

She frowned heavily as she jabbed at my ribs. “Yah, I had no choice! I’m still new in this area, so I had to pick some kind of an image for myself!”

I tried to calm my laughter as I sat back up and wiped away some tears from my eyes. I was having too much fun teasing her. “Just work with this image you have then; badass girl who ca