"I like you."   "I like you too.." I blushed, harshly rubbing my palm against my shorts.   "Cool. Then can you do one thing for me?" He raised an index finger to make his point.   I nodded expectingly. He gave a lop-sided grin as he put out his pinky between us.   "Don't ever fall in love with me."               "BYUNBAEK YOU COME BACK HERE" I screeched, pulling the ends of my hair.   He cringed but stayed in his spot, a foot outside my room. Staring lifelessly at my ruined literature assignment, the poor piece soaked in coke. And of course this just HAS to be one of my higher graded assignments. "I said I'm sorry, babe. I'll dry it for you. Just don't kill me while I clean up."   I gave one long glare at the twitchy boy which made him freeze unceremoniously. "That's not the point, ." I turned away and scooped the wet paper off my table and into the dustbin right below the desk. Taking a few pieces of tissue from the side drawer, I dabbed the remaining liquid away before I opened up another drawer and took out a new sheet of paper. "God I wish you'd stay out of the way whenever I do my assignments. It's like you're always planning to destroy my homework."   Baekhyun shuffled back to his original place, which was beside my chair. He sighed and sat on the stool beside me. I ignored him for the rest of the time as I restarted my composition. It was just another normal day, where Baekhyun terrorizes just about everything I do. And I don't hate him. Of course not, I love him too much to care about all the times that he caused me to lose my work. And that says a lot.   Even after all those times of his confirming me that we were nothing but good friends, I still found myself growing attached to Byun Baekhyun. We would joke about being boyfriend-girlfriend with each other in public but we never actually got together. Baekhyun still went out on short dates with other girls and I would flirt with boys from time to time. We were both social creatures with a different set of cliques, it was a wonder how the both of us could be so closely acquainted when we had less similarities than differences.   "You still angry?" I felt a poke to my arm.  Baekhyun was never a fan of aegyo, but boy does he know how to use it to his advantage.From the corner of my eye, I could make out the pouty shape his lips formed.   "How long has it been? 10 minutes?" I asked, not looking up from my paper. I was almost done, just a few more sentences and I could shove this piece into my school bag. Baekhyun hummed as he counted the time cutely with his fingers because he knew I saw him from my peripheral vision.   He placed his open palm out, showing me all ten fingers up although I wasn't paying full attention to him as I scribbled some more. "It's been over 10 minutes!" He gave an affirmative nod, as though he was convincing himself rather than he was telling me. I gave one last flourish of words on the sheet before I tossed my pen into my pencil box and cleared the table.   "Done! Now let's go out for some Soba because I am hungry and you owe me." I grinned at him, stretching my back as I did from the whole 10 minutes -- or so I guess-- of bending it over the table.               "Oh come on! He was totally eyeing you! Don't tell me you didn't get wet from the amount of times he's his lips while looking at you." Soobin pointed out as we talked in hushed tones in class.   My friends were still fawning over this boy that had been 'eyeing' me every time we went to our regular cafe right outside our school gates. We were frequent customers to the point that most of the workers knew us by name. But it was only since a week ago that a certain male would constantly come in exactly five minutes after three, most probably right after his class finished. His eyes would scan the crowd before it stops at my direction. It is only after he makes that initial eye contact with me that he starts making his way to the counter to order a drink.   "It's a habit, Soo. Some people their lips every few seconds, you can't be sure he's 'flirting' with me," I quoted with my fingers in the air.   Soobin, one of my few best friends, was a very stubborn, very persistent and fussy dreamer. If she says something, it almost becomes law. No one could stop this girl from what she wants. Not me, not Jooyoung and not even her boyfriend of 3 years. And this time, she was certain that mocha boy had eyes for me.   Jooyoung, my other best friend, however, was a realist. She never really cares about flirting and gossip, unless of course she is interested in the counterpart, which rarely ever happens. I was pretty sure she would end up forever alone until a year ago when she came banging into my house, asking if I could teach her make up because some cute guy asked her out. But of course, that just happened to be a fling and she was only the slightest bit hurt when she found out he had a girlfriend.   "Really, Soo. Stop trying to set her up with every guy that eyes her. It feels like you're trying to create a ." Jooyoung rolled her eyes and leaned back to rest her back against the chair.   The former whined, "But this idiot needs to be showered with love from another guy because the one she happens to love is a bigger idiot for making her promise not to fall for him." She gasped all of a sudden. "Have you ever confessed to him?" I shook my head to which she narrowed her eyes.   "Good. Because I'd hate to know that he was in love with you the entire time too. Let's leave it as it is so I won't feel guilty."   I guffawed before I even realized how loud I was being. It was free period for the next hour before our last module of the day. I could feel the angry stares at me as I disrupted them of their peaceful studying. I didn't care though, Soobin, Jooyoung and myself were the top 3 students in our batch, we could deal with an hour less of revision.   I brushed a hand in the air limply, "That won't happen. Besides it doesn't matter whether I confess or not, he already rejected me from day one. What's the point in wasting my breath?"   My two friends nodded in agreement. "So anyways, you should totally talk to him. Even if he really wasn't flirting with you, it wouldn't hurt to try and get his interest." Soobin continued our earlier conversation.   "Who's flirting with my girl?" A playful voice spoke from behind me. Without even having to turn, I already identified him from his voice and cologne. The light musky scent infiltrated my nostrils, as I unconsciously took a deeper breath to fully get his smell into my respiratory system. How could I have missed him sneaking into our lecture theatre, I would never know.   Baekhyun leaned forward into my chair and rested his head on my crown. I leaned back and lightly bumped my head into his chest. "Are you done with classes?" I asked, wanting to turn to look at him but instead opted to close my eyes and await his reply.   "Done since an hour ago but I was discussing some class materials with Jongdae because you know how that boy will never listen in class." I nodded along, smiling at the thought of my high school friend still behaving the way he had been two years ago.   Jongdae and I were never close, but we had been in the same class for the 3 years of high school. We became initial friends when we both found out we'd be attending the same university, but later on found our own cliques from our different majors. Baekhyun happened to be in the same major as  Jongdae. That was how they became friends and I was introduced to Baekhyun. "I still don't understand how he even survives in your classes when he doesn't even like Micro and Macroeconomics." I mused.   Baekhyun took his head off mine and instead, came down to gaze at me from beside my shoulder. "Enough about that sleepyhead, what's this I hear about someone flirting with you?" He wiggled his eyebrows playfully.   I shoved him away by the chest, giggling. "It's none of your business, Mr. Boyfriend."   "Hey! If it's about my girlfriend then I have every business with it, right girls?" He turned to look expectantly at my friends. They both raised their eyebrows in unison. "Oh fine, be that way. You and your friends from grumpyville. But you better tell me who this brave boy is, because who in the right mind would want to flirt with a duck ?" Before I could clamp my fist into his hair, he stepped away from my grasp with a grin. "At least you're not flat either way." He implied to both my top and bottom assets. I narrowed my eyes at him before turning away.   The boy came closer once he was sure I would not do anything anymore. Only he could make me calm as quickly as he could make me angry. "It's just some guy that would look at me every time we're in the cafe and he his lips whenever he stares. But I swear, it's probably more out of habit than for intentional flirting." I explained. The boy seemed to contemplate his choice of words for awhile before he smiled.   "You gotta show me, babe. I wanna see him for myself."                   Soobin was counting down from her watch while Jooyoung sat uninterested, playing Clash of Clans on her phone. We gave in to Baekhyun's request and decided to grab some drinks at our cafe a few days after Baekhyun pestered us into bringing him.   "5… 4… 3… 2… 1… And here he comes!" She chanted just as the bells to the entrance chimed.   Baekhyun and I were seated side by side in our booth by the corner of the cafe, facing the entrance but a little further away from it. We both stared at the male as he skimmed through the area. His eyes paused as he established that eye contact with me and I could see the tips of his lips curling into a smile. "He looks… Like an elf. And an overgrown one at that." He lightly dissed the boy but not once did he take his eyes off the latter.   I chuckled in response and focused my attention back on Baekhyun. "So? That's all you're gonna say? That he looks like an elf?" I questioned, suddenly feeling interested in his opinion, even when I had already convinced my heart to not be swayed no matter what happens.   "My momma told me to never judge a book by it's cover." He proudly stated, resting an arm over my shoulders. Jooyoung looked up from her game and gave us a once over before her eyes darted to the counter.   "Incoming" was all she said before a figure brushed past our table, lightly touching my shoulder blade with his forearms. He then stopped momentarily, trying to find a good spot. Once he did, he immediately made a beeline towards it. And as always, it happened to be facing me. We met eyes once again and this time he his lips before bringing his cup of coffee to his mouth.   I blinked. "See, I told you it was just out of habit." Soobin pouted but defended that it's because Baekhyun was here. The boy was probably scared that he's hitting on a taken girl. Oh, the wonders of her brain, really.    My supposed 'boyfriend' nudged me and told me to look at the boy from across. I turned and found him still staring at me. His upper lip had a dash of foam. As though he had been waiting for me to capture this scene, he slowly his upper lip clean of the substance. My eyes widened as I unknowingly gulped my saliva and tore away from the view. "That was… Not supposed to happen." I muttered. "He didn't mean it that way.. I don't think he meant it. No, he couldn't have. I mean. This is the FIRST time that he actually did THAT blatantly."   Baekhyun frowned but kept mum while I fiddled with my straw. Jooyoung had long lost interest in her phone and Soobin had returned her attention to us after getting a call from her boyfriend. They were both intently wa