Nana was plenty scared going to school the following Monday. How was she supposed to act around him? What did “going out” even mean? Did it mean she was his girlfriend or was it just casual dating? What was he expecting from the relationship?

With all these questions tumbling around her head, and some escaping down to her stomach causing unrest there, Nana made her way in to the school, knowing that Jongin was probably waiting for her by her locker  like he had been for all of last week.

Bora had squealed so hard when Nana had told her and had given the advice of “just act normal around him.” But Nana did not have a normal around Jongin. And even though she had tried to supress the thoughts, the doubt of why Jongin would like her still troubled her.

He was there, by her locker as she had predicted. He had been leaning against the locker door but when he saw her he straightened with a hand up, tousling his hair. Nana thought he looked plenty cute, and to her relief, a bit nervous himself.

“Hey,” he called.

“Hi,” she gave him a tiny smile before spinning the lock to her combination.

“So how was the rest of your weekend?” He asked as she opened the locker door.

“Um it was fine. I finished this book, did homework, hung out with Bora. What about you?”

“Nothing much. Had basketball and dance practice and did homework, like you”

Nana smiled at him but then continued putting the books she needed in her bag and the ones she didn’t out.

A silence stretched between them and Nana hated it.

Now that he knows how awkward I am he probably will want to break up or stop whatever we are doing.

But as she was snapping her lock closed, she felt his warm hand grasp her other one. She quickly glanced his way and he just smiled back.

“You have math first today, don’t you? I’ll walk you there.”

And he did.

By lunch the news had spread across the school. Nana didn’t like the looks of barely-concealed disappointment and jealousy pointed towards her but she was with Bora most of the time and that helped distract her.

“Okay promise me if you go sit at their table, you’ll take me with you. Sit somewhere close to Chanyeol so I can sit near him without looking like a weirdo. Oh my gosh this is so crazy! But I told you Jongin liked you"

After getting their food, they looked around. Nana suddenly felt a hand on her waist and she gasped.

“Sorry,” Jongin smiled, “You and Bora come sit at my table today, okay?”

Nana nodded still shocked by the sudden skinship. Her waist still tingled though he had moved away to lead them to the EXO table.

She could feel eyes on her as she walked but most of her mind was still reeling from Jongin’s touch.

If you guys are really together, he’s probably going to touch you all the time. You need to get over it.

But just the thought of them touching “all the time” caused nervous, though still excited, tingles through her. She had never given much thought about being in an actual relationship and what it might mean to be someone’s and for someone’s to be hers. It was an exciting thought.

When they reached the table, everyone sitting there turned to them and smiled. Nana smiled back but then noticed Jongin telling Suho to move over. Chanyeol was sitting on the other side of the table though!

She quickly grabbed his hand and told him, “There’s not much space here and everyone will have to move over. How about the other side?”

And then she half dragged him to the other side. It wasn’t that hard as this was the first time she had initiated such physical contact and it seemed he was shocked by it. Well there was that other time in the cafeteria…

But anyway, she owed it to her friend. She saw Bora smile at her thankfully.

“How’s it going Nana?” Baekhyun smirked at her from beside Chanyeol. Taeyeon, who on his other side, grinned.

“Good,” she gave him a smile after glancing at Jongin. She was unsure about how to act with his friends.

“So Jongin finally asked you out, did he? About time,” Baekhyun laughed as Jongin threw a piece of bread at him, “What? All you did was talk about her.”

Nana and Jongin both blushed.

“So Nana, do you like Ms. Chan?” Chanyeol asked.

Nan turned to him confused, “Um yeah she’s pretty ok.”

“Oh, then you must not know,” Chanyeol smirked and Nana knew the teasing wasn’t over, “She has a massive crush on Jongin here. All about ripped off her shirt in class the other day when she saw him.”

Nana’s eyes went so wide that she thought they were going to explode. She turned to Jongin in surprise but he was already out of his seat, trying to throttle his friend’s head.

Chanyeol was laughing while getting plummeted and Nana, still shocked, turned to Bora who seemed equally surprised.

When she saw Jongin at her locker at the end of the day she brightened. It had been a long day, not all bad but still tiring.

Jongin smiled too when he saw her.

“So do you want to go to that ramen place after school today?” Jongin ruffled his hair with one hand and had the other in his pocket.

“Sure,” Nana replied, “Let me just ask my mom.”

She quickly texted the question to her mother and then started putting her homework and the tools necessary to do it into her backpack.

“So,” she began, keeping her eyes on her what she was doing, “So is Ms. Chan like how Chanyeol said?”

Jongin coughed, “I-uh. Well she is a bit- I don’t know. She talks to- I don’t- …She just really likes me, okay?”

He all but shouted the last part.

“Okay, okay!” Nana laughed, “When I thought about it, it was actually pretty funny.”

“Not you too,” Jongin groaned, “The guys tease me about it nonstop anyways”

Nana felt her phone vibrate and she quickly checked it.

“My mom said yes,” she smiled and shut her locker.

“Okay, let’s go. I’m really hungry.” Jongin grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the school.

As they were walking down the street Nana asked, “So you wanted to ask me out for a while?”

She kept her head down as she talked and shoved the hand not in Jongin’s down her pocket.

“I-uh. Well I noticed you ever since Baekhyun told me what you did in the hallway-“

“But anyone would have done that.” Nana protested.

“No. They wouldn’t have. People like drama.” Jongin continued, looking at her intently now, “And then all of these things after just made me notice you more and more until I thought you were pretty cute. Then Baekhyun convinced me to get to know you. So I did and started liking you for real. That’s why I asked you to the ball.”

He peered down at her, “You know it wasn’t just because I didn’t want to go with Lina right?”

Nana shrugged, “I figured.”

She was casual on the outside but actually grinning in the inside.

Then she asked something she had been curious yet at the same time dreading the answer to for some time, “Did you kiss Taeyeon? When you were pretend dating her I mean?”

Jongin looked taken a back.

“No, Baekhyun would have killed me. To tell you the truth I don’t think she liked me that way. Everyone expected her to say yes when I asked her and so she did. She is much happier with Baekhyun.”

“Oh,” Nana hid her smile by looking at the ground.

‘”I’m really hungry,” Jongin said while pulling her hand, “Let's run!”

“That will only make you hungrier,” Nana protested as she was forced to run with him while at the same time making sure her skirt didn’t fly up.

The ramen was good and best of all Jongin had smiled and slightly reddened when she had kissed his cheek in front of her house later on.

The days and then weeks passed on and she loved having him in her life. Nana’s marks were good, her relationship with Jongin was good, and people had even stopped staring. Bora and Chanyeol had also become friends but she later told Nana that she didn’t see him in a romantic way anymore.

“Hanging out with him made things more real and though he is funny and I like him as a friend a lot, my feelings just disappeared,” Bora gave Nana a small smile.

Nana smiled back and thought about her own feelings. She hadn’t let herself think too much about Jongin before she actually got to know him so her feelings only grew as it became more real between them.

When he met her at her locker later on at the end of the day, she swung her arms around him and kissed him. His arms went around her waist as he reciprocated the kiss.

It wasn’t their first kiss and it wasn’t going to be their last.