"Ugh. What the--" Jackson muttered as he slowly opened his eyes after hearing his alarm clock ring. He never liked getting up early, but he also didn't like being late. It was still midweek; two more days until weekend starts.

Jackson let out a deep sigh as he reached for the clock on the table beside his bed. And by the word 'reach', he only extended his arm to turn off the alarm clock without getting up.

"Dang, it's only 5," he thought to himself before adjusting his head on the pillow.

Jackson furrowed his eyebrows after feeling something different with his pillow. It seemed quite firmer than before, although it was still fluffy... or more like gossamery.

Jackson rubbed his eyes with his hand after noticing a ribbon on his pillow, "What's this?" he had a puzzled expression on as he pulled the ribbon from the pillow, but it wasn't removed.

"Who changed my pillows here?!" he exclaimed in annoyance before getting up. He knew his pillows by heart: which pillows go under his head, under his knees, and which pillows are for hugging. And using different pillows was his ultimate pet peeve.

But he had the greatest shock of his life after seeing that he rested himself not on a pillow...

...but to a motionless Heo Youngji who was still asleep.

"Crap," was the only thing a flustered Jackson was able to speak. No wonder he felt something firm under his head; he had rested his head against her bosom the whole night after all.

And the ribbon came from Youngji's uniform.

"Ah! What have I done?!" Jackson started panicking inside his head. He was too sick last night that he became very impulsive and ended up pulling Youngji to his bed. Jackson slapped himself after realizing how stupid he must had been.

But what bothered him more was the detached ribbon from Youngj's uniform.

Jackson closed his eyes shut, "If she sees her uniform like that, I'm dead," he thought to himself.

So, he slowly moved his hands to fix her ribbon... but when he tried moving closer to her, his hands trembled.

"Darn you, hands!" he remarked, "Nothing's wrong about fixing her uniform's ribbon!" he creased his forehead before moving his hands to fix her ribbon.

He slowly but carefully held the ends of the thin red ribbon and as he was about to make the first knot, Jackson saw Youngji squint her eyes.

"Mom, five more minutes," she mumbled before moving her hands to rub her eyes, but in the process, he hit Jackson's hand.

"Mom?" Youngji slowly opened her eyes.

Jackson froze, still holding onto her uniform's ribbon.

"Wh--" Youngji was startled after seeing a nervous-looking Jackson Wang in front of her, holding her ribbon.

It was not a good way to start their day.

"What--" Youngji's eyes widened with a horrified expression on her face, "You ert!" she shrieked, before getting up immediately and slapping Jackson's straight on his cheek.

"Ya!" Jackson exclaimed after feeling his blood rush up to the cheek he got slapped on. It was his first time getting slapped by a girl, and he didn't expect it to hurt that much. He quickly covered his face with his hands to ease the burning sensation; Youngji was a good slapper.

Youngji, on the other hand, held her blouse tightly, "You! You are such a ert!" she scowled, "Last night you just grabbed me and pinned me down, and now you're going to... to do something to me?! I cannot believe this!" she added before standing up and running her way out of his room.

"Hey!" Jackson called as he followed Youngji outside, "You don't understand! I was trying to fix your uniform for you!" he crossed his arms as he watched Youngji fix her stuff on her bag in the living room, "And--and I'm not a ert!"

Youngji wore a scowl on her face as she brushed her hair with her fingers and fixed the ribbon on her uniform, "I shouldn't have come here in the first place," she huffed before wearing her bag on her back, "Goodbye!" she exclaimed before walking towards the door to leave.

"I didn't ask you to come here anyway!" Jackson retorted, but Youngji had already closed the front door.

"Pfft. As if I'd be interested to see what's under her uniform," Jackson smirked to himself, with the thought of a self-absorbing Youngji irked by what she saw that morning. He immediately went to the kitchen to get something to eat, but he remembered something which made him freeze on the spot.

"Wait, is she a cup B or a cup C?"

-

"I cannot believe that irritating, dim-witted goose!" Youngji wore a scowl on her face as she walked her way to the school's front gate. She never imagined to experience almost being harassed by her class ranking opponent after her act of kindness to him yesterday.

After leaving Jackson's apartment, she went straight home to take a quick bath and to change. Good thing her mother was still asleep and Gayoon had already left for work, or else the two would bombard her with questions about her whereabouts last night.

And because of her extreme annoyance with Jackson, she decided to wear a different ribbon on her uniform.

"I'm gonna burn my old ribbon when I get home," she whispered to herself as she went to enter her classroom. She immediately went to her seat and continued thinking about how much of a ert Jackson Wang was.

"Good morning, Youngji!" a cheerful-looking Hara greeted her as she approached her friend's seat, "Let's eat lunch together later, okay?" Hara spoke as she dragged the chair from the desk beside Youngji's desk to place it beside her friend's seat, "And I don't have any club meeting today too. We could go home together!"

Youngji nodded with a shy smile on her face. Yes, she was happy to see Hara making her day a bit better, but she still could not forget how her day started that morning. And as much s she want to share it to Hara to make herself feel lighter, she had thought that her protective best friend might send a police report and file a ual harrassment case against Jackson Wang.

Hara quickly noticed the blank stare Youngji had, "Hey Ji, is something wrong?" she tilted her head.

"Ah--ah it's nothing! I'm okay!" Youngji forced a smile as she waved her hand in front of her, assuring Hara that she was indeed okay, "Um, I was just thinking about the volunteering activities I have this afternoon, I'm not quite sure if I can go home with you later."

The bright smile Hara had slowly disappeared, "Is that so?" she asked. Youngji knew that Hara didn't like what she said, and made her feel disappointed and rejected.

"Ha--Hara, don't worry! I can skip today's activity so we can--"

"No!" Hara interrupted her before clasping her hands in front of her, "You cannot do that, Ji! I know you've always wanted to join a club and expand your social circle, and I want to support you on that cause! So please, don't mind me, I'll be fine," Hara spoke enthusiastically with a grin on her face, "I'll support you until the end!"

Youngji felt happy for having a supportive friend like Hara, but deep inside her head, she already wanted to quit the volunteering team just to avoid seeing Jackson. But Hara's fervor for her extracurricular activity might stop her from doing so.

And not to mention, the thought of seeing Mark Tuan everyday also kept her from leaving the team.

-

"Hey! What are you guys doing there?!" a fuming Gyuri called out to a group of juniors huddled around the turntable and the synthesizer Mark brought for the festival, "You can't touch that unless you're members of the tech team!" she added, before hurling an empty carton box at their direction, "You go back to work! All of you!"

It was almost 4 in the afternoon, and Gyuri was already as stressed as an overworked office lady because of the preparations they had been doing for the festival next week. Mark, Soonkyu, and the other club officers weren't even around to help her out that day. Inside her head, Gyuri was already cursing everyone for leaving all the work to her.

"Gyuri noona," a male student approached her with a shy look on his face, "It's almost 4:00, and we haven't eaten yet. Can we... um... ask for a break or something?"

Gyuri glared at the student as if she was already ripping his internal organs apart. Since morning, she had been stuck with noisy and blabbering volunteers from the lower years who seemed to be quite clueless with how club activities actually work. The student in front of her already had a frightened look on his face, especially after noticing the furious aura Gyuri already had.

"Break time, you say?" Gyuri muttered bitterly.

"Um, yes, but noona, it's fine if you don't want to," the student gulped.

Despite Gyuri's intimidating nature, she was still a kind senior student to the younger ones. Still with her stoic face on, she responded, "I'm only giving you 30 minutes, if you don't come back here on time, I'll--"

"Ye--yes, ma'am!" the student responded eagerly before calling out the other students inside the room to go out and eat, leaving Gyuri with all of the materials and equipment inside the messy and chaotic club room.

Gyuri sighed; she didn't sign up for that club to do all the work by herself. She slowly approached the unfinished paper lanterns dumped on the corner of the room and started placing them carefully inside a box.

"Those kids, they didn't even handle the lanterns properly," Gyuri thought to herself.

"Ah, excuse me," a voice called out from the door, so Gyuri quickly turned to look to see who it was.

"Um, Gyuri unnie," it was Youngji, "Am I late?" she had an embarrassed look on her face. She was supposed to come early, but because her homeroom teacher held a class meeting, she arrived late.

Gyuri smiled, "No, you're not. I'm actually happy to see you here, you came at the right time."

"Do you want me to do something for you?" Youngji beamed. She was relieved to hear that Gyuri was not mad at her for being late. Everyone outside the club would talk about how heartless and strict Gyuri was as a club officer, but it seemed like the rumors were false after all.

"We're actually running out of glue sticks and cardboard," Gyuri sighed, "I was wondering if you could buy some from the crafts store near here," she took her bag lying on the floor and took a large, white envelope from it, "Here's the money."

With a wide, enthusiastic smile on her face, Youngji took the money and spoke, "What else do I need to buy?"

Gyuri took a small piece of paper from her bag's pocket and gave it to Youngji, "Well, they're quite many. If you want, we can wait for some of the volunteers to come back from the cafeteria so that they can go with you and help you out."

"Ah, no, I'll be fine, unnie," Youngji chuckled as she gave Gyuri a thumbs up. Youngji didn't like asking favors from other people, thinking that it would only annoy and bother them. She bowed in front of Gyuri before heading towards the door to leave.

"Be careful, Youngji!" Gyuri called out as she watched Youngji disapear from the far corner of the hallway.

-

"Ten cardboard sheets, glue sticks, six reams of colored paper, four yards of orange and yellow cloth," Youngji whispered to herself as she read the note Gyuri gave her, "Wow, this is quite a lot."

She was already on her way outside the campus. The front gate was already full of students on their way home, while Youngji was on her way to the crafts store to buy materials.

"I wonder if I could carry all of these," Youngji thought to herself after realizing how heavy the materials would be. She knew it; she should've followed Gyuri's advice of waiting for the other club volunteers so that they could help her out. But on another note, it might be too awkward for her to shop with the other volunteers since she didn't know them.

"Rest in peace, Heo Youngji's communicating skills," Youngji mumbled to herself as she pressed her index finger against her forehead; how was she supposed to carry everything alone?

As Youngji passed by the campus' front gate, a familiar voice called out from behind, "Youngji noona!"

And of course, Youngji knew that only one person would call her that. She immediately turned to look and saw Bambam running towards her, flashing a wide smile on his face.

"I knew it's you!" Bambam greeted as he tried gasping for air after chasing Youngji, "I was on my way to the club office when I caught a glimpse of you. Where are you going?"

"Gyuri unnie asked me to buy stuff for the decorations," Youngji responded.

"But you're alone."

"Yeah."

Bambam's eyes widened after noticing the worried look Youngji had. She seemed a bit glum that day, "Is Gyuri noona bullying you?" he tilted his head.

"Ah! No, of course not, you're getting things wrong!" Youngji immediately responded as she flailed her arms in front of her, "Gyuri unnie actually told me to wait for the other volunteers so they could help me out, but I didn't," she chuckled nervously, "I don't know the other volunteers, so it can be quite embarrassing to ask them to help me out."

Bambam pursed his lips; he knew exactly how Youngji felt. As the youngest member of the volunteering team, he also had his fair share of embarrassing moments involving him and his attempts of interacting with the older members. He knew how miserable the feeling was, and seeing Youngji feeling down because of it made him feel even worse.

Without thinking, Bambam grabbed Youngji by the hand and pulled her with him.

"Hey!" Youngji was startled, "Whe--where are we going?!" she tried releasing her hand from Bambam's grip, but he was too strong.

"I'll help you out, noona," Bambam responded without looking at her, "I'll go with you to the crafts store."

Youngji felt her heart skip a beat. It was quite overwhelming to see that there was actually someone out there who would want to help her, although a tiny voice in her head was saying that she should stop Bambam from helping her. She cleared before starting to speak, "Bambam, I'll--I'll be fine, honest. You don't need to come with me."

Bambam just kept walking, his eyes fixed on the road, while holding her hand tightly.

"Bambam," Youngji sighed, "You don't have to do this."

Bambam suddenly stopped walking, yet he was still holding Youngji's hand.

Youngji tried pulling her hand away from him, but it seemed like he had no plans of letting her go, "Bambam, you go back to the club office and help Gyuri unnie clea--"

"I want us to be alone," Bambam sputtered with a firm tone in his voice.

Youngji's eyes widened after hearing such thing come out of her younger friend's mouth. And the fact that he wasn't looking at her made her feel more uncomfortable.

"Why do you always push me away from you?" Bambam slowly turned to face her. He had a serious look on his face, his eyes gazing longingly at Youngji, and his hand still gripping her tightly.

"Huh?" Youngji was dumbfounded. She had no idea what their conversation was already about. Bambam seemed fine a few minutes ago; he was the happy, supportive junior she knew. But at that moment, Bambam was different. He was totally different.

"I think we're having a little misunderstanding," Youngji laughed nervously, trying to lessen the tense atmosphere between them. But Bambam's piercing stare and the serious expression he had were still making her feel very uneasy.

Youngji tried tugging her hand away from him, but he didn't release her.

"You're not taking me seriously, aren't you?" Bambam smiled gloomily.

"Wh--what?"

"I know you didn't take my confession seriously," Bambam responded, "You still think of me as a mere younger student, a junior, a schoolmate. You'll never look at me the way I want you to, just because I'm a sophomore," he sighed, "But noona, I like you a lot. And I'm serious about it."

Youngji gulped. It was the first time she had heard such thing come out of Bambam, although he had already confessed to her before. He seemed like a different person. Youngji didn't expect him to speak such things; everything was going too quickly again.

"Um, look," Youngji broke the awkward silence between them, "I still need to buy the materials Gyuri noona needs. So, um," Youngji slowly moved her hand to remove it from Bambam's grip, but he was still holding tightly, "I guess I should be going now."

"Ah, yeah," were the only words Bambam was able to speak. He just gave Youngji a sincere look in his eyes, trying to grasp what was going through her mind. Well, she just looked embarrassed, she couldn't look at him directly, and it was obvious that she was already feeling nervous.

Bambam knew it was all because of his actions.

But he knew that he did the right thing.

There were only a few months left before Youngji's graduation, and he had to act quickly before it's too late.

Bambam sighed. He was quite guilty of confusing Youngji, but it was better than having her ignore his feelings for her. He slowly started walking, pulling Youngji with her. He was still holding her hand tightly, and it seemed like he had no plans of letting her go until they reach the crafts store.

Meanwhile, Youngji still had a flustered look on her face. Her eyes just gazed at the back of Bambam, who was walking ahead of her. For the first time, she saw him in a different light. He was tall for a sophomore student, which made him stand out from the crowd. His broad shoulders made him look mature; Youngji was sure anyone would mistake Bambam for a university freshman. Also, Youngji noticed how big his hands were compared to hers. They were pretty, she thought to herself, and they were strong and firm. No trace of immaturity was visible. Bambam was indeed already a man.

Youngji remembered when she first met him. She only considered him as a younger schoolmate who was a fan of her articles in the school paper. But that day was different.

Youngji didn't expect that Bambam could make her heart beat faster than usual.

___

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Hey guys! This is my long overdue update and I am really sorry for being very very very late. ;_; Anyways, congratulations to all of us for hitting 400+ subs and 59 upvotes! Yay! Special thanks to out voters Angelcarolin, fotie2, awesome13, bearyyrensy, surQsafiah, and biepearl!

Let me know what you think about the 19th chapter thru the comment box below. Happy reading. :)