'Okay, I think we're done for the day,' Baekhyun quickly announced before rushing out of class 2B. 'See you guys tomorrow.'

He was shocked at what almost happened. He was surprised at his own swift actions. But mostly, he was astounded by how close Taeyeon was to him.

Byun Baekhyun had never had a girlfriend. He never really had a crush, either. It wasn't that he didn't like girls; it was just that none of his schoolmates interested him or met up to his standards. Moreover, he thought girlfriends were a distraction. He had more important things to do like study and play video games. And he certainly, never, not once, held a girl so tightly or closely as that. Heck, truth be told, he had never held a girl before at all.

But he just did. And it wasn't just any girl, it was Kim Taeyeon. The girl from the other class. The girl that irked him. The girl that recently made his days slightly more exciting.

His heart was thumping in his chest, adrenaline pumping through his blood vessels. Colour was leaving his face. He hurried to the staircase and leaned against the wall. He took a deep breath.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.

He didn't know why he was feeling that way. Was it because it was his first time being in close contact with someone from the opposite ? Was it because he was shocked and traumatized that someone almost got injured right in front of him? Or was it because deep down, a tiny part of him cared about Kim Taeyeon?

Baekhyun ranked first in class. He scored an average of 95 for each exam, the remaining 5 marks lost due to careless mistakes. He knew all the words in his textbooks by heart.

Yet for the first time in his life, he truly didn't know the answer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(4A)

'Fany-ah, Chan-ah, I ha-have something to tell you guys,' Taeyeon stuttered. She was fidgeting with her fingers and nervously biting her lips.

'What is it?' Tiffany asked as she turned to her side to face Taeyeon.

'You see.. There was kind of an incident yesterday,' she slowly explained. 'The screen in 2B nearly fell on me.'

'What?!' Chanyeol and Tiffany exclaimed simultaneously.

'Are you hurt??' Chanyeol asked, his forehead creased.

'It didn't fall on you, right?' Tiffany reaffirmed.

'No, i'm not hurt because it didn't fall on me. Baekhyun saved me,' she answered their questions one by one. The more observant Chanyeol heard a tremble in her voice when she said 'Baekhyun'.

'Oh, thank god!' Tiffany said, releasing her breath in relief. She put her hand on Taeyeon's shoulder and massaged it.

'Well, then why are you so fidgety? So nervous?' Chanyeol pressed. Surely there was a reason behind Taeyeon telling them what happened. 'Shouldn't you be ecstatic that you practically escaped death?'

'She wouldn't have died if it did hit her,' Tiffany promptly retorted. She didn't want Chanyeol's words to scare Taeyeon.

'Obviously that was just a figure of speech,' he rolled his eyes. 'Tiffany is so dense,' he thought to himself in dismay.

Sensing tension building in the air, Taeyeon quickly shifted the focus back to herself. She didn't want her best friends to fight and she certainly didn't want to be the cause of it either. 'Uhmm, guys? Can we deal with my problem first?'

'What IS the problem?' Tiffany finally started catching on. Chanyeol thought to himself, 'It's about time.'

'Okay, so right after it happened, my cheeks turned red and my heart was beating so fast. I didn't even know why!' She exclaimed in distress. 'I couldn't help but think about it the whole night.'

'I think I like him.' 'I think you like him.' Taeyeon and Tiffany said simultaneously.

'Woaaah telepathy,' Chanyeol stated in amusement. On a more serious note, he added, 'So.. what are you gonna do about it?'

'Are you gonna confess?' Tiffany asked.

'Of course not! I'm certain he doesn't like me back. Also, I've never pursued any of my crushes, so I'll just do the same with this one,' her tone was defensive and she spoke quickly, trying to dismiss the idea of a confession.

'Why don't you just give it a shot?' Tiffany suggested.

'Yeah, you never know what might happen,' Chanyeol supported her idea.

'Are you kidding me?? He and I are sworn enemies. It would just be embarrassing,' Taeyeon said, before completely changing the subject.

Chanyeol and Tiffany weren't satisfied with her justification. But they let it go because they knew she really didn't want to talk about it anymore.

She deeply regretted telling them about her feelings. Her liking for him grew intense. She couldn't bottle it up, otherwise she would have exploded.

'I'm just gonna treat him normally and act as if nothing happened,' she chanted in her head.

(4B)

'Baekhyun, are you sleeping?!' Jongdae, Baekhyun's deskmate shouted when he saw Baekhyun dozing off with a pen in his hand. 'Omona, omona! Sesange! The end is near!'

Jongdae was basically hyperventilating in his seat. He clutched his chest and even tried breathing exercises.

Baekhyun, whose snooze was disturbed by the one-man commotion next to him, awoke with a start. One minute he was writing an essay and the next, Jongdae was having a panic attack. He didn't even realize that he was asleep.

He looked down at the paper on his desk and read the last sentence he had written. 'The usage of fossil fuels has drastically increased since the Industrial Revolution in the Taeyeon century.'

'Holy crap,' he whispered to herself upon realizing what he had subconsciously written. His heart started racing. He quickly grabbed his correction tape and corrected the sentence before Jongdae saw anything.

'Baekhyun what's up with you? You never sleep in class! Ever! Did you stay up last night or something?' Jongdae questioned suspiciously.

Baekhyun never slept in class. He was always wide awake because he made sure to have at least 7 hours of sleep every night.

But last night was an exception.

'I couldn't fall asleep last night. I guess that's why I'm kinda tired,' he answered.

He had just spent the entire night thinking about Taeyeon and replaying the scene in Class 2B in his head. He tried to decipher his feelings, but to no avail. He managed to take his mind off her during lessons by listening and paying attention to everything his teachers said. But he didn't expect her to still be lurking in his subconscious mind.

He hit his head with his palm and slapped his cheeks, as if physically applying force would literally knock her out of his head.

'Aah I see. If anything is bothering you, you can tell me,' Jongdae offered. He knew something was fishy about the way Baekhyun was acting.

Baekhyun simply nodded his head and pretended that this never happened.