AN AUDIBLE TAPPING of panicked shoes can be heard through the whole length of a rather senescent bus. Minseok checks his watch - yet again! - for the time. A slur of curses escapes his pretty (there's no other word for it) lips as he realizes he has barely enough time to make it to school. It's been the fourth time this month that he's late for class. He can't afford any more tardy slips but he's only got himself to blame.

The freckled boy can only sigh and bang his head on the seat in front of his. To be perfectly honest, the first three tardy cases he'd been in is because of his frank carelessness, but he's not entirely at fault. He knew he's not one to get up early but he's also just not one to go to bed early. He's a teenaged boy after all, and all teens his age are awake until the wee hours of the morning, right? Right?

Okay, well, maybe not all of them. Some of them, maybe.

Fine, perhaps there's really few of them out there, but he couldn't help it! Sometimes, the big-eyed lad stares at the ceiling well into the night without realizing how long he's been bearing holes into it. And it's not like something is keeping him up either. He just stays still on his bed, tucked neatly under his blanket, looking - goggling - up on his ceiling that's childishly adorned with glow-in-the-dark stickers of stars in different sizes. But today had been a very different case.

He managed to sleep early the previous night, around 1AM (that's the earliest he could muster), and even woke up early with more than enough time to get ready for school. But of course, Lady Luck had not been on his side. Apparently, today's streets were going to be crowded because of some road reblocking or some that he just had to put up with. And even if he wanted to walk to school, the campus was still a good distance from his present location.

Which leaves him here on the cold, stiff chair of a worn-out bus with nobody to talk to and nothing to amuse him.

He lets out another groan of his own but that was cut short when the bus starts moving slowly. The fair little boy looks up from his hands as he feels the vehicle sluggishly move forward. However, the said bus stops after moving for a few meters as the traffic ensues yet again.

Frustrated, Minseok runs a helpless hand through his slightly disheveled hair and rests his forehead onto the bus window. He expected to see loads and loads of other vehicles impatiently making their way through the heavy traffic. To be fair, what he had envisioned is right but he did not expect a shock of blond hair and a pair of closed, sleeping eyes to come with that sight.

Minseok, blinking his heavily bagged eyes, tries to examine the girl who sits on the bus adjacent his, only a few inches from him. He sits up right, implicitly curious about her. The girl on the other bus does not show any signs of consciousness, save for the cute little scrunches of her nose she's doing and the probabilty of her snoring, judging by the looks of disgust the other passengers were giving her. She has one-half of her earphones plugged and ajar, a line of drool threatening to spill from the corner of and onto an all-too familiar uniform.

He chuckles lowly to himself. Although the blond girl is undeniably un-girlish with her sleeping habits, she's also undeniably cute.

He also can't help but notice the dark and heavy rings under her eyes.

Seems like I'm not the only one who's having a hard time sleeping at night, he thinks to himself. This makes him laugh. Hard.

Okay, well, a bit too hard for it to be appropriate. And so as a result, the little idiot bangs his head onto the window which gains him all pairs of eyes on the bus.

And also an added pair from the other bus.

He smiles sheepishly to the other passengers while rubbing his head and turns his attention back to the girl. True enough, she's awake and back into consciousness albeit still a little lost. She rubs her eyes with soft little fists and wipes the side of her cheek, stained with drool, with the back of her hand. Halfway through her limb-stretching and drool-wiping, the blond girl catches the wide-eyed boy on the other bus watching her.

He blinks once. He blinks twice. He blinks three times and-

The girl, obviously flustered, hastily turns her back to the other side and verbally assualts herself mentally - to which Minseok finds terribly adorable. He knocks on the window.

Now fully awake and drool-free, she hesitantly turns around and finds herself face to face with an awfully cute guy. He has these big doe eyes and fluffy cheeks, embellished with sweet little freckles and topped off with the friendliest smile in the whole world.

He raises a hand and mouths a cute 'hi'.

Having seen her at her messiest, Minseok was not expecting the girl to greet back, but she surprises him with a shy little smile of her own while smoothing down her messy blond locks. 'Hey,' she mouths back.

The freckle-clad boy stops himself milliseconds from sighing dreamily at how adorable the girl on the other bus is, moreso now that she is fully awake.

He puffs out his chest and presses his nametag against the window. Enthusiastically, he points towards his name and mouths it repeatedly. The girl, reading it with ease, immediately recognizes the name 'Kim Minseok' and the tiny 'Junior' embossed underneath.

A sunbae, the girl realizes, blushing at the thought.

Kim Minseok peers down at the younger's nametag, squinting very hard in order to catch a glimpse of her name. Her long blond hair blocking the already small print isn't helping either. He can only make out the little 'Sophomore'. The girl, having no idea of her namelessness to the stranger, keeps the name 'Kim Minseok' to mind.

The older points at her nametag. 'Your name? Your name, what is it?' He mouths, but the girl could not understand. Instead, she keeps on nodding, mistaking it to be an acknowledgement of them being schoolmates. 'No,' he insists. 'Your name!'

Of course, the little bun has thought of opening the bus' window - that would have made things easier for the both of them - but as soon as he lays his hands on the window's locks, the bus driver pointedly looks at him throught the rearview mirror. He carefully retreats his hands then.

Nod nod nod I'm your hoobae nod nod. The wide-eyed Minseok slaps a hand to his forehead, making the girl tilt her head in confusion. The boy waves a dismissive hand. He turns his back for a moment to search for any sort of paper in his bag but he finds none. All he got is an apple and an extra shirt, with some old candy wrappers tucked in the pockets of the bag. He isn't a very diligent student truthfully, but he does enough to stay on ground.

Smiling sheepishly, he turns back to the girl and scratches his nape. Minseok, looking up from underneath his eyelashes, notices the lass holding a pad of paper with a grin that could cure cancer. A small crease forms between her dainty brows as she writes on the sheet with concentration, biting the pen's lid between her teeth. ing adorable, I swear-, Minseok thinks.

She looks back up and shows him the pad. Printed in neat, even is the start of an amusing conversation.

The traffic's taking a bit long, don't you think?

To which Minseok nods in agreement. He animatedly cuts his throat with his thumb and puts both of his hands together, only to tuck them under one side of his head, pretending to sleep. He knows how stupid he looks with his acting but he'd pay anything to make her giggle - and she did. And boy, was it worth it. Minseok swears that giggle could bring withered flowers to bloom.

The faintest (not really) hint of a blush tinges her plush cheeks as she recalls her embarrassing episode earlier. She scurries back to write on her pad. I'm sorry you had to see me-, there was a brief pause before she finds the "right" word, -looking like birdpoop, she finishes.

The little bun reads what she wrote and it was 0.8seconds later when Minseok bursts out laughing. "Like birdpoop!" The rest of the passengers (who were clearly not amused by the burdensome traffic) looked at him like he's crazy. Perhaps he is. Who the hell laughs at birdpoop?

In his defense, who the hell writes birdpoop?

Having been calmed down enough, he wipes his tears, apologizing briefly to the other passengers before giving the girl the biggest smile in the globe.

All the books must have been lying. It didn't feel like there were butterflies in her stomach. They were more like dragons in there, flying about and breathing out nasty, nasty fire through their flaring nostrils. And all because of a particular boy's toothy smile.

'Nah, it's okay,' he says with a flick of his wrist, waving her off. 'You looked cute.'

She hides herself behind her rather thick pad of paper, shying away from his wide eyes. He's a sunbae; he can't possibly deal with someone like me. The girl bites her lip. I mean, he doesn't even know my name. Contemplating for a second what she's going to say next, the older cuts her through with a knock on the window.

'What's your name?'

To think that a cute sunbae was asking for her name makes her smile. But of course, she didn't allow him to see that. She begins to write her name in big, bold letters. Go Na-

Thump! Go Nari bumps her head onto the seat in front of hers. Rubbing her forehead and wincing as she feels an oncoming bump on a particular spot, she sees her Sharpie rolling down the floor and catches it just in time before it goes farther. She sits up again and finishes Go Nari on the sheet. The bright lass turns back to the window to show Minseok her name.

Only, she does not find him there.

In his stead is a pimple-y braceface, probably a hormonal middle schooler, who has these dreamy eyes upon seeing Nari holding the pad. A look of confusion stains her now pale face as she looks around for Minseok.

As for that guy? He's too stricken to react when the girl's bus moves ahead, the traffic finally moving. The most he can do is tap desperately on the window and show him her name - which she didn't, unfortunately.

Slumping back down onto his seat, he lets out a huff, effectively blowing his fringe off in the slightest bit. Minseok is too busy being upset about him not being able to know her name that he doesn't notice his bus moving as well. He doesn't even notice getting to school (an hour and a half late, by the way) had it not been for the bus driver calling him off to get down. As he gets off the bus however, he steps on a crumpled paper. Having been taught by his mother to not be an ignorant little wuss, he picks the piece of paper. He can't help but notice the faint bit of ink inside and so he decides to pry.

The traffic's taking a bit long, don't you think?

Squinting his eyes at the neat , he knows something is up. He's not that stupid not to realize that the crumpled-up paper belongs to the girl from the other bus. He knows it is but what was it doing on the floor? Another piece of paper loiters on the ground and yet again, he picks it up and reads its contents.

I'm sorry you had to see me looking like birdpoop.

At this, he smiles. The confused crease between his eyebrows gone for a second. Minseok spots another piece of paper. That's odd, he tells himself. She's only shown me two papers. He gets the piece of paper anyway and uncrumples it.

Go Nari.

The little baozi raises his eyebrows. Go Nari? Is this supposed to be her name? Just as he was about to confirm his conundrums, he gets hit in the head by - yep, you've guessed it - yet another balled-up paper. Scratching his head and looking around to catch the culprit (he found none), he bends down to collect the fourth paper.

Would you mind if you'd skip class for a day?

Now this, Minseok thinks. This is what I'm talking about. He looks around to try and see where she is. Well, he just hopes it was her who threw the last piece of paper or else-

"What do you say, Kim Minseok sunbae?" A faint voice calls from behind him. He turns around and finds himself face to face - without the windows - with the girl from the other bus who now has a name.

"So," he begins. "Go Nari, huh?"

The girl - Go Nari - does a brief bow of her own. "Yes, that's me, but you still haven't answered my question."

Minseok's big bright eyes crinkles at the corners and his freckles look like stars twinkilng over the galaxy that is his adorable face. And the sun, you ask? That would have been his smile - the brightest one Nari has ever seen. And when he still doesn't manage to answer, Nari decides to speak for him.

"Is that a yes or a no because I'm a stupid person and I rarely ever talk to people, especially those who have seen me sleepi-"

"Yes, I would love to skip school today. We're already late, after all."