"Hey, Hyunwoo."

"What."

"I want to go on a date." Jieun looked at him up-side-down while swinging herself in the air as she locked her legs with the monkey bar. She gave him a careful look as he calmly flipped a page of his textbook.

"Not happening," he quickly told her.

Jieun pulled herself back up and jumped off the bars. "Aw, come on! Why not?"

"You should be studying," Hyunwoo pointed out.

"But I want to play." She pouted, hoping to gain his attention. Instead, he ignored her and continued to study the text. "Ah, boo! You're no fun!"

"What? I'm hanging out with you. You should be grateful for that," he argued.

Jieun narrowed his eyes. Then, she stuck her tongue out and squinted her eyes. Hyunwoo finally looked when she blew a raspberry and ran off on her own. Surprised, he grabbed his and Jieun's bag from the ground and ran over to catch up with her.

"Hey, hey!" he shouted. "Lee Jieun! At least get your bag before you run off!"

She stopped abruptly from her spot. She made a quick spin and marched over to Hyunwoo. He sighed and extended his arm out, handing over her bag. She snatched it away from his hand and continued running away in disappointment.

Hyunwoo sighed and ran his fingers through his hair while he tried to catch up. "At least tell me why you're mad!"

He scowled when he lost sight of her. Frustrated, he threw his bag against the ground and placed his hands on his hip. He wasn't sure why, but recently he felt like it was more difficult to understand Jieun. It always felt like she was getting further and further away from him for unknown reasons. It used to be easy reading her expression before he opened his heart to her, but ever since he decided to get closer with Jieun, she started to act even more childish and immature.

The irritated boy bent down to pick up his bag. As he regained his composure, he looked around, trying to figure out where Jieun went on the chilly afternoon. He walked around a little, hoping to find any signs of her.

At one point on his mini journey, he stopped and saw Taemin with Dasom. He approached the two in hopes that they had seen Jieun.

"Taemin," he called out. Taemin and Dasom stopped walking. The duo turned around and watched Hyunwoo walk over to them. "Sorry to bother you, but have you seen Jieun?"

"Jieun? You're with Jieun?" Taemin asked.

"Yeah. Why do you sound surprise?"

"Because it's surprising," the smarter boy reasoned. "Anyway, no, I haven't seen her. Why?"

"Nothing," Hyunwoo murmured. Where could she have gone off to?

"Why are you looking for her?" Dasom asked him.

"I was with her, that's why," Hyunwoo explained vaguely.

Dasom frowned. "Really? You are looking for Jieun?"

"I don't like the tone of your voice."

"I don't like the idea that you're suddenly looking for Jieun."

"Dasom, come on. Don't be like that. You know that Jieun has been working hard," Taemin pointed out. Dasom shrugged her shoulders and looked away while Taemin looked back at Hyunwoo. "Sorry, Hyunwoo. We haven't seen Jieun at all today. We'll give you a call when we see her."

"Alright, thanks," he said. He was about to go, but stopped himself. "It's unusual to see you two together."

"Taemin is my ," Dasom said.

"For what?"

"I'm just taking her back home and 'preventing her from interacting with Myungsoo.' You heard about his confession?" Taemin asked.

"Oh, yeah." He glanced at Dasom and studied her. "I'm not sure why he said he liked you. You're not that special."

Dasom dropped her jaws. "Why, you little basta—"

"Hey, Dasom!"

Dasom froze up. She glanced over at the top of the hill, where she saw Myungsoo walking down the street with comfortable clothing. One of his hand was hidden in his pocket, but his other hand was holding onto the risk of a familiar girl. As Jieun struggled and tried to snap at Myungsoo, the older boy dragged her down at the hill with little to no effort. 

Dasom yelped and quickly hid behind Taemin, using him like a human shield. Taemin sighed loudly, making it clear that he wasn't willing to put any effort into preventing Myungsoo from interacting with her. Myungsoo, on the other hand, pointed at Jieun once the two arrived in front of the group.

Hyunwoo narrowed his eyes at the way Myungsoo grabbed Jieun's wrist. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit.

"Can you keep your friend in your own little world? If you didn't know, she's been hollering your name in front of your house. The neighbors were watching and they were getting really mad at her," Myungsoo complained. He frowned at Jieun. "You're lucky that I was there to save you!"

"Bleh! You !" Jieun spat out.

"Oh boy," Myungsoo murmured. He rolled his eyes. "I am so offended."

"Damn right you are!"

"Jieun, stop. You're embarrassing yourself," Hyunwoo said. He grabbed onto Jieun's other arm and forcibly pulled her away from Myungsoo. At first, Myungsoo stared at him with a look of surprise, but a smug smile appeared on his lips.

"Oh, so that's how it is," Myungsoo murmured.

"What—"

"That's right! I belong to Hyunwoo!" Jieun interrupted Hyunwoo before he had the chance to say anything.

"Look what you've started," Taemin muttered. 

In a blink of an eye, Dasom started to dash away. She sped pass Myungsoo, avoiding him while Myungsoo scoffed at her reaction. He looked back at the rest.

"What's up with her?" Myungsoo asked. "I heard she's been skipping school."

"She doesn't know how to reply to your confession," Taemin explained.

"Hm." Myungsoo paused for a minute, then started to smile a little. "You know, it doesn't feel too bad knowing that you're on your crush's mind all day and night. I feel pretty good about myself."

"That's not really something you should be proud of," Jieun told him.

"I'll see you kids next time," Myungsoo said, ignoring what Jieun said. He bid them a "goodbye" and walked away with a proud smirk on his face.

Taemin began to rotate his neck. He glanced over at Hyunwoo and Jieun, then looked at how firmly Hyunwoo grabbed onto Jieun's shoulder. He raised an eyebrow in amusement, but didn't say much.

"So," Taemin started, "are you two on a date?"

Hyunwoo stared at him. "What?"

"We were supposed to be on a date," Jieun said, glancing at Hyunwoo, "but someone kept saying that they have to study." She turned to her friend. "Can you believe that? He said that he has to study. Study. What's more important? Having quality time with me or studying?"

"Studying," the two boys answered in unison.

Jieun dropped her jaws. "Really? Are you two ganging up on me?"

"I should go back to my house now," Taemin said, looking at the two. "I need to study."

"I was planning on studying all day today, but she came along and dragged me outside," Hyunwoo said. "She said that she wanted to do a group study outside, but in the end, she just played in the park while I studied."

"Because we were on a date!"

"We're not even dating!" Hyunwoo pointed out.

"He's right, Jieun," Taemin said. "If you two aren't dating, then you can't really say that it was a date."

Jieun frowned. "It was a date for me…"

"If it's not mutual, then it's not one. Don't be delusional," Taemin said.

"Hey, I'm the one who can criticize her thought process," Hyunwoo snapped. He looked at her. "Don't be delusional, Jieun."

Taemin rolled his eyes. "The same goes for you, too, Hyunwoo."

"What?"

"You can't except to be in a relationship where nothing is definite. Are you guys really dating or not? Pick one," Taemin said.

"We're not," Hyunwoo declared.

"Okay, well, then there's no point in you being so controlling over Jieun. You can't claim Jieun as your own when she's not even yours."

Jieun grinned. "You sound like you have a crush on me."

"I had a crush on you," Taemin corrected. "I don't now."

"Of course. You're super popular," Jieun said. She turned to Hyunwoo. "Did you know that he's in some kind of love triangle? His ex-girlfriend and his ex-girlfriend's best friend both like him."

"We're dropping that topic here," Taemin said. "I don't want to talk about that right now."

"Aw, now you're acting shy—"

"Jieun."

"Okay, okay," Jieun murmured.

"Good. Now, I'm going to go," Taemin said. He gave them one glance before leaving the two alone.

Jieun sighed. Then, she looked at Hyunwoo, who had been quiet for an awfully long time. She frowned while trying to understand what made him so quiet. When she reached to hold his hands, he slipped both of his hands in his pocket and awkwardly looked away as if he was ashamed. She blinked her eyes.

"Hyunwoo? You okay?" she asked softly.

"Y-Yeah. I'm just…thinking," he muttered.

"About what?" She pointed at the direction Taemin left. "About what he said? Oh, please! Don't worry about Taemin! He's fine!"

"No, no," Hyunwoo said. He looked at Jieun almost painfully. "He's right. He has a good point."

"About what?" she repeated.

"About us," he said. "What are we?"

"A couple."

"Jieun, come on. Let's be serious."

"A couple!"

Hyunwoo said. "Never mind."

"Husband and wife?"

"Who said that I'd marry you?" He snorted while Jieun locked arms with him.

"You don't need to say it. I know it," she declared. She gave him a sweet smile that only made him scoff. He turned his head to the other direction while pushing her away.

"Come on, let's go study," he said.

Jieun dropped her jaws and started to whine. As he went on ahead, a small smile crawled up on his face while Jieun lagged behind, complaining about school.