You woke up, the sun bright in your eyes. "What time is it?" you mumured to yourself. You opened your eyes slowly to look at the clock. "Oh.. its 7:30..." you thought. Then you popped up on your bed. "ITS 7:30!" you shouted as you fumbled to find your uniform. You had over slept and you were going to be late for school. "Kaiiiiiiiiiiiiii." You said angrily as you brushed your hair as fast as you could and ran down stairs, you checked on your dad quickly and ran out the house. Then you noticed you forgot your shoes so you had to go back and tie them on. "How could he let me over sleep!?" You thought as you ran to school. There was no way you were going to get there in time. You had basically woken up right when the late bell rang. "I should have just stayed home today!" You thought. 

You finally got to school and when you opened up the door everyone stared at you. Typical. You walked over to the teacher and bowed, "I am so sorry for being late sir!" 

"Just sit." The teacher replied. You walked to your seat feeling unneasy. You were late and it was just normal everyone would look at you, escpecially because the type of A+, on top student you were, but it felt like everyone's eyes were on you. All at once. It made you feel awkward. You saw Tao wasn't there either. "Weird.." You thought. 

***

SoHee and you waked to the basement in silence. When you guys reached the basement Kai wasn't there. "Weird... So maybe that's why Kai never woke me up this morning.." You said. 

"Maybe!" SoHee replied. 

"What are you doing for this history project? I think I may do the Japanese invasion." You said sitting down on one of the old wooden chairs.

"I'll probably just do it on the making of hangul." SoHee replied.

"You mean King Sejong era..?" You asked, SoHee seemed to be acting weird. "What's wrong..?" 

"Did anything happen between you and Tao yesterday?" SoHee asked. Your heart jumped. You weren't expecting anyone to even know what happened. You both were in the classroom.. alone. Were rumours already going around? You didn't want to hurt your friend, you knew how much she liked Tao. Even though you thought Tao was a dirtbag. 

"No. Why?" You lied.

"Oh, I was justing wondering.. I heard some gossip queen say something like that....Don't worry about it." SoHee said smiling. The bell rang. "C'mon! We don't want to be late." SoHee said.

***

It was time for the math lesson, which you always payed extra attention to because math and you didn't get along to well. The door opened. "Ahh, Tao. Late for the second time this week? And right in the middle of the day. Why do you even bother showing up?" The teacher asked. Tao just ignored him and went to his seat. The girls all whispered and giggled to each other while the boys tried their hardest to not make eye contact with him. When he walked by you he gave you a look. You didn't know to explain it but it was something that made your heart melt. 

Your heart, it was beating quickly. Too quickly. In that moment you noticed every little thing about Tao.

The way he looked at you, the way his hair was wet but glistened from the dull classroom lights. How his uniform was unneatly tucked in. His shoes were tied, but were tucked under. 

So much for paying attention to the lesson. You didn't know what was going on but your head was racing again. You felt SoHee's eyes on you but you couldn't make yourself look over at her. "She's probably just worried... you can probably read it all over my face..." You thought.

Class dragged on forever. And you were happy about that, because you didn't want to clean up today. You wanted to go straight home, but you knew better than that. You just really didn't want to face Tao. You weren't emotionally ready. 

But afterschool had to come and surely it did.

"Tao, _____, please come over here, I want to talk to you." The teacher said after everyone left the classroom. 

"Yes, sir?" You asked, happier than ever that this lecture would keep you from having to face Tao longer. 

"You were both late today. You both got into trouble on the very first day of school. _____, I have heard great things about you from your previous teachers but..." The teacher said.

"I am so sorry! Its just my friend never came to school today, so he never woke me up... I promise, it won't happen again!" You said bowing.

"I hope so.. and the classroom today, it wasn't too clean. Do better." The teacher said collecting his things and leaving. You immediately walked over to the cleaning closet to take out the supplies. You handed Tao the broom and you got out the desk cleaning supplies.

"She doesn't have so much to say today.. huh." Tao thought as he watched you wipe off the desk. 

"Please don't talk to me, please don't talk to me." You thought trying to block Tao out. 

"Who is your friend that wakes you up..?" Tao asked you. "Oh no.." you thought.

"Just my friend, Kai... why?" You asked trying to sound as stable as possible. Tao didn't say anything back.

"Why are you acting so weird?" Tao finally asked back.

"I'm not." You said back.

"Yes, you are.." you heard him say, his voice sounding closer. You felt him next to you now. You looked up at him. "What do you want..?" You asked him.

He moved a string of your hair behind your ear. You felt you heart skip a beat. "Nothing.... let's just... be friends." It took you a while to grasp onto what he had just said.

"Friends?" you asked. 

"Yeah." he replied. You sat and gave this serious thought. You shouldn't have hate raging inside you, so you decided it was the best thing to do. To give Tao another chance.

"Fine. I'll give you another chance." You said, finally.

"Tell me about yourself." Tao said looking at you sincerely. You sighed deeply, "why were you late, again?"

"I slept in late." Tao said putting up the broom and taking out the mop. "C'mon tell me about yourself."

"There isnt much. I just live with my dad." You said not wanting to reveal too much. You didn't feel like you could trust him yet.

"Oh, what about you mum?" he asked. There was a deep silence.

"She's... she's dead." You said wiping down the last desk. 

"Wow." Tao said. You just nodded your head.

"Well, I still have both my parents.. theyre in China though. They're so controlling. Ever since I was young. Its crazy." He said.

"That explains you being such a rebel." You said under your breath. 

"Sorry I didn't catch that." Tao said walking over you to again. You started smiling, "I said nothing." Tao started tickling you on your stomach. Your weakness. "Are you sure?" He kept tickling you and you kept laughing, "yes, yes I'm sure!" He finally stopped. "That's what I thought." he said jokingly.

"So this is the real Tao..." You smiled at the thought. Tao opened up to you. Not all the way, but he didn't put on that fake bad boy demeanor. You and Tao joked around some more and before you knew it the classroom was neat and tidy. It was time to go, but oddly, you didn't want to leave. You had work off on Wednesdays. "Want to hang out?" You asked Tao without even thinking about what you just said.

"Sure.." Tao said. You guys went and got some ice cream. 

***

"Late night ice cream! The best! My mum would come and take me sometimes when she got off of work late and hadn't seen me the whole day." You said smiling happily, the strawberry flavored ice cream.

"My mum never had time for me. It must be nice, huh? To have parents that care about you a lot." Tao said looking up at the starry sky.

"Yeahh... its not that simple though.." You said looking up at Tao. The way his eyes sparkled and.... "Oh, not again!" You thought. In that moment you just wanted to hug Tao. Tao looked down at you. 

"I want to kiss you so much, you have no idea..." Tao thought, "control yourself.." You smiled at him and looked away hoping he hadn't seen you blushing.

"Lets go!" He said and he walked you home. "So this is where you live?" 

"Yep." You said. "Well bye." You said waving and turned to go inside. You could have sworn you felt Tao touch your finger tips but you shrugged it off.

"I wanted to hug her goodbye. No, I really wanted to kiss her goodbye. Tao pull yourself together!" Tao thought as he walked away.