]

We went down to the 2nd floor and headed to the vending machine corner near the cafeteria area. There were 4 vending machines at the corner, the first one had snacks like peppero and oreos, the second one had can drinks, the third one prepared drinks like coffee in a small styrofoam cup for you and the fourth one sold microwaveable sandwiches. I consider myself very lucky to have such vending machines in school although sadly the sandwich one always runs out of sandwiches d*mn it.

“So what do you want?”

He asks me and looks at me waiting for my answer as I avoid his gaze and scan through the items in the vending machines instead.

“I think I’ll buy myself some oreos, a can drink and a chicken ham sandwich. What about you?”

I slowly turn to look at him as I ask him the question and I shouldn’t have because he was looking at the items in one of the vending machines with an intense gaze and his side profile was no joke it looked so good I was in awe.

“I think I’ll get myself a drink and get the same sandwich as you.”

He smiles at me after saying this and I just sorta avoided that killer sweet smile and acted busy by rummaging around in my wallet for coins.

He heads over to the second vending machine as I press the buttons for my oreos at the first vending machine. I bend down to retrieve them as he asks,

“What drink are you getting?”

“Coke.”

I stand up and see him pressing the buttons for both our drinks. I search through my wallet for coins again but he just hands me my drink and walks away to the sandwich vending machine.

“How much is it?”

“Nah it’s okay.”

“Huh why? Let me pay you.”

Nice. I sound like I’m talking to my creditor or something.

“My treat. You can buy me a drink instead next time.”

And after saying that he glances at me and smiles that rainbow smile of his and I try very hard not to melt at the sight of his smile.

“Oh man.”

So cute the way he says this phrase noooooo.

Can I just say that his expression when he said that was so cute. Awww boy stop it you’re affecting me and I have no idea why.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“There’s only one sandwich left and its chicken ham.”

D*mn I really wanted to eat that sandwich sighs. He puts in his coins and presses the order number for the chicken ham sandwich. I peek over his shoulder and watch as the machine prepares the delicious sandwich that would never reach my stomach.

“This thing is really heavy. Why do we need this again?”

Wait a minute. I’m pretty sure that voice was Youngbae’s whiny complaining voice.

“If you don’t stop complaining and asking meaningless questions, I’m going to add extra hours to your detention.”

Oh hell no. Wasn’t that Ms Kim’s voice? Oh sh*t. I forgot that the hall was on the same level as the cafeteria.

He looks at me as I look at him and we both have panicked expressions plastered on our faces although his expression is definitely cuter than mine of course. We just kinda continued staring at each other dumbly before we heard footsteps approaching closer and closer. I also kinda forgot that to get to the hall you had to walk through the corridor where the vending machine corner was at. I started to wave my hands hysterically at him and mouth the words ‘what where how’ repeatedly. He looks at me blankly and oh he looks so cute but now is not the time to look so lost and the footsteps keeps approaching and so he turns one round looking for a place for us to hide and he stops and points towards the space between the second and third vending machines and he mouths for me to go there and I’m like lost and mouthing ‘where’ and he just sorta holds my shoulders and leads me to go inbetween the gap of the vending machines and the space is incredibly small and squeezy but it keeps us out of sight of anyone passing by and he’s facing me and his face is incredibly close to mine to the point where I can sort of feel his breath and I’m trying not to die and my head is like in between his two hands which are against the wall because he’s technically covering me with his whole body and it feels like a scene in a drama where the guy would trap the girl as she leans against a wall before the guy goes in for a kiss and I seriously need to stop my imagination from going wild but that’s how it really was like and his lips are so close and obviously I’m not gonna kiss him but wow they look really soft and I can’t face anywhere else because I’m trap and I can’t turn my head at all that’s how squeezy it was and his face is turning slightly a little red and he’s avoiding my eyes and my gaze and he’s just staring at the wall behind me and he looks so cute and shy I can’t even.

“Ms Kim can you buy me a drink after all this hard work I did?”

Smh Youngbae. How can you be so shameless?

“I shall think about it.”

Wow Ms Kim might just be willing to do it wow.

The footsteps are really really close now and for 5 seconds I can actually like feel both of them walking directly pass us and I held my breath and I felt him holding his and we only breathed after we heard the footsteps turning the corner of the corridor towards the direction of the hall. Just to be safe we waited about 2 minutes more before getting out of that small gap. While waiting he finally looks at me and he silently laughs a laugh of relieved and I do the same and we laugh together and then he smiles at me and I smile back happily and I just end up staring at him openly and I think he got shy because he turned away and it was so cute and then I kinda tapped his right hand and he looks at me again questioningly and I gesture towards his two hands and his face kinda lits up with an ‘oh’ expression and he puts down his hands and gets out of that tiny gap first. Longest 2 minutes of my life right there.

“That was close.”

Too close boy wayyyyy too close.

“Yeah lucky we didn’t get caught.”

He grins at me and says yeah lucky before heading to the sandwich vending machine to take out his ready made sandwich. I stare longingly at it as he approaches me.

“Here you go.”

He tries to hand the sandwich to me and I just shake my head and tell him it’s his but he just takes my hand and gently places the sandwich on my palm as I stare at him in disbelieved.

“But you paid for it. You should have this.”

I try to hand it back to him but he just smiles at me like stop don’t do that to me.

“I bought it for you. I think you need it more than I do right? So you owe me a sandwich and a drink. Remember that okay?”

He smiles at me again before walking towards the stairs and I trail along behind him trying to figure out whether he heard my stomach growling like a bear and if he did well argh that was embarrassing and awww he gave me the last sandwich and he says I owe him so does that mean he technically wants to like see me again oh man stop it me just stop but I can’t help to smile a little as I go up the stairs after him and gobble up that delicious sweet chicken ham sandwich.

So we are back in the classroom again and I just realized that I had no idea who he was.

“So umm who are you anyways?”

“Me.”

“Yeah I totally know who that is.”

He laughs in reply and his eyes sorts of twinkles and like how is that possible.

“Don’t feel like telling you my name though.”

“Why?”

“Pay up.”

“Oh. How much is it again?”

I take my wallet and start to search for all my coins.

He laughs why does he keep laughing god d*mn it.

“No I meant it’ll take a chicken ham sandwich and a drink for you to know my name.”

“Ohhhhh.”

Okay now I feel dumb.

“Why can’t you just tell me though.”

“If you don’t know someone’s name and you owe them something well wouldn’t you think about them more?”

Waittttttttttttt. What is he trying to say here. I’m confused af. Is he teasing me or does he really mean it? But we just met though. Or is it because he really wants his sandwich so he’s trying to make sure I’ll buy it for him? Is this how loansharks work? They make you think about them constantly so that you’re always reminded about the money you owe them. It kinda makes sense.

“What-”

Before I could ask him what he meant though the door slid open and we both turned to face the front and acted as natural as possible okay maybe I was the only one acting because from the corner of my eyes he looked pretty natural and cool as if we never left the class.

Ms Kim steps into the classroom first and she stares at the both of us suspiciously.

“If I ever find out the truth about what you guys did while I was away and if it involved trouble, I’ll make sure you two get double the hours each. Understand?”

I nodded my head obediently while he gives her a nod of acknowledgement.

Ms Kim surprisingly smiles and I feel spooked out by her smile because it felt like she knew what we did but she couldn’t have known but still I felt nervous about it.

“Alright so because I have some impending matters to attend to, I’ll be releasing you guys half an hour early. This conversation never happened so let’s all act like you guys served the full hours okay? You may leave.”

She packs her stuff and walks out leaving the two of us in the classroom.

I silently screamed yayy in my head and turned to smile at him. He gives a smile in return and I suddenly felt shy and turned away and started to pack my bag slowly while wondering if I should say something to him.

“So that’s from Harin?”

“Yeah she gave it to me while I was waiting for you.”

“Ooooh. Mr High-In-Demand eh eh eh.”

“What are you talking about?”

I hear Youngbae’s voice from outside the classroom and another voice that seems extremely familiar. I look up to see Youngbae entering the classroom followed by Mr High-In-Demand aka Choi Seunghyun. Okay you got me as soon as I saw him I couldn’t help but to smile and internally scream joyfully silently excitedly. Seunghyun sees me looking at him and he gives me a cute little wave.

“Surprise to see me?”

He walks over to me and sits on the table in front of me.

“More like annoyed.”

Youngbae oh so helpfully helps to reply as he packs his bag and stands besides Seunghyun.

“Hi.”

That’s all I could muster in reply as I zip my bag up and sling it over my shoulder.

“So were you dying in boredom stuck in here without me?”

Youngbae asks as Seunghyun continues to look at me completely distracting me and making me want to shove his face far far away from me.

“Nope. I went on a mini food hunt with -”

I turn to my right only to see an empty desk with the chair pushed in. That was fast. I didn’t even notice him leaving the classroom. When did he leave?

I stare at the table in dismay feeling kinda hurt that he just left like that. He could have at least say goodbye or something. I thought we were a little less awkward after all that but maybe he was still awkward with me? I don’t even know his name.

“No idea who you’re staring at but let’s go eat.”

Youngbae says pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Oh right let’s go.”

I push my chair in and follow the two of them out of the classroom.