The entire class fell into a quiet commotion while Mr. Park takes out a baseball cap from under his desk. "Inside here," he begins, "are all your names written on pieces of paper. I'm going to randomly pick two names."

There was a mixure of reactions. Some looked worried, while others were suddenly interested. 

"Okay first group..." Mr. Park announces, unfolding two small pieces of paper. "Jeonghan and...Jisoo"

I puffed out a breath of air. Honestly, I wasn't too worried. From what I remember, I've always been pretty good at managing group projects.

"Next group..." Mr. Park scrambles his hands inside the hat and takes out more papers, "Mingyu and Wonwoo."

"Ohh interesting..." Seungcheol utters from behind.

A hint of anxiousness suddenly craws over me, which is totally uncalled for. Working on a group project isn't too bad. Well...as long as my partner isn't-

"Seungcheol."

I flinch at the name. Looking up, I could see Mr. Park unfolding the second paper. Okay, there's no way right? I mean, what are the chances?

"Your partner is..." Mr. Park eyes the crowd dramatically. "Seungkwan."

I quietly exhale in relief. I should probably stop worrying so much.

"Wait a minute sir." A voice shouts from behind. Along with the rest of the class, I turned around to see Seungcheol with his hand raised.

"What is it?" Mr. Park asks.

"Seungkwan lives really far from me, so it'll be hard to work on a project together." Seungcheol says. 

"Yeah, and the two of us probably wouldn't get anything done if we were partners." Seungkwan announces from his seat, where some students laughed in agreement.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see Seungcheol smiling and nodding reassuringly at Mr. Park, who also raised his eyebrows in agreement. "Yeah, I almost forgot putting you two together is a bad idea." The teacher exhales and puts his hand back inside the hat. Here we go again. Even if there's no point in worrying, that same irritating anxiety was flowing back into my system.

I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder. "Hey, you okay?" Seungcheol whispers from behind. I was taken aback for a few seconds before quietly turning to face him. "Yeah, I'm fine-"

"Ahri." Mr. Park's voice booms.

My head immediately snaps forward. "Yes?" I answered. However, the teacher just blankly stares back at me. "Nothing," he says, waving a paper with my name written on it, "You're Seungcheol's partner."

I felt my jaws slowly fall while trying to process this reality. Did he seriously just pick me? Really? Just as I thought I couldn't be any more stuck with this guy?

"Please take care of me." Seungcheol whispers, to which I slowly let out a defeated sigh.

I had prepared myself for an in flux of useless verbal shenanigans, but interestingly enough, Seungcheol didn't bother me for the rest of the period. Soon, the bell for second period rang, and I reach through my bag in search for my math books. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I realized my math workbook isn't inside my bag. Well this isn't good.

I could already hear the sound of heels clacking down the hallway. Soon enough, Ms. Choi, our math teacher from hell entered the classroom.

"Okay everybody you know the drill. Take out your math books or come stand in the front." She announces. "Quickly!" 

And then it suddenlt hits me: I left the book on my bed this morning...not that this helps with anything. I sighed for the billionth time and accepted my fate of hearing another one of Ms. Choi's life lectures. Just as I began pushing my seat back, a book suddenly lands in front of me. I froze for a split second before noticing a figure move past me. I looked up, only to see Seungcheol walking towards the chalk board.

For some reason, I felt strange. There is absolutely no reason for this, but my heart rate somewhat accelerated. Or maybe I'm just imagining things. I drew in a breath, and before I knew it, I uttered Seungcheol's name.

I didn't think he would hear it, yet he briefly lifts his right hand and continues walking away. My gaze shifts to the book in front of me. Indeed, the name 'Choi Seungcheol' is scribbed on the corner. 

"You again Choi Seungcheol." Ms. Choi announces. "And I was hoping the kid who shares my last name knew basic responsibilities at the least."

I mentally winced in preparation for her upcoming criticisms. Needless to say, I felt a huge wave of guilt wash over me. Even if Seungcheol makes my life difficult from time to time, I'd still chose his nagging over being roasted by Ms. Choi in front of a live audience. 

I brush my fingers over the cover and slowly peeled opened the first page. But right as I saw the contents of the next page, I almost bursted out in laughter.

There are doodles. Lots and lots of doodles.

My eyes scanned over as many drawings as possible, and most were either scribbles of food or dinosaurs. Wow, Seungcheol is an actual twelve year-old. 

In the background, I can vaguely hear Ms. Choi passionately mocking other students, but my mind is too intrigued by what I'm seeing. I flipped to the next page, and there are sticky notes with all sorts of things written on them.

'do questions 1, 5 and something...ask Jeonghan later.' One of them read.

Another note looks like a conversation between Seungcheol and Mingyu, arguing over whether Ms. Choi looked more like a potato or a pear. At this point, it is starting to become kind of difficult not to laugh.

I flipped to another page, and I immediately spotted another doodle. Strangely, the picture looked like the back view of a girl sporting a pony tail. I stared at the doodle for a few seconds before I realized my name was written right beside the drawing. Oh great, he even draws me. I felt a weird urge to look at my own hair, and indeed, I had my hair in a pony tail. So it this what I look like from the back?

My eyes continued to hunt for more, and I noticed a line of words written near the page corner. 'What does Ahri look like with her hair down? I really want to see it.'

I quietly scoff and shake my head, mostly at how he's basically treating this book like a diary. I carefully looked up towards the chalk board, where Seungcheol stood casually with his hands in his pockets. His eyes were wandering around, and right as he looked my direction, an idea popped into my head.

With one hand, I reach back towards the elastic on my hair and pulled it off, letting the strands of my hair fall onto my back. After fixing my hair a little bit, I looked up again.

The expression Seungcheol had is something I have never seen before. He looked surprised, but at the same time, he looked calm. For some reason, he didn't blink for the longest time, which almost had me worried.

I then took out a piece of paper and wrote a big "Thanks" on it. When I held the paper up to Seungcheol, he seemed to finally snap back to his normal self. He checked to make sure Ms. Choi isn't looking before winking at me in response. Thank goodness for the paper in front of my face, because I suddenly didn't know how to react, which...is kind of weird.

Seungcheol's gaze was still fixed in my direction. I flipped over the paper and wrote the words 'potato or pear?' before holding it up again. To my utter surprise, Seungcheol actually chuckled out loud, and the whole class turned to him. Seriously, what an idiot.

"Do you have a problem?" Ms. Choi snaps her head at Seungcheol. 

“Ahh no," Seungcheol replies, "just...reflecting on my failures as your student." He pats his chest dramatically. 

Seungcheol please.

Ms. Choi gives him a clearly unimpressed look and goes back to her math formulas. Seungcheol quickly looks back at me and mouths the word 'potato' with a small nod. He then holds out his arms around his body, attempting to do an actual impression of a potato.

This time, a good half of the class erupted in giggles, including me. I'll give him credit. Choi Seungcheol really is something. Now that I think about it, I'll probably never know how to deal with a guy like Seungcheol sitting behind me. But, at this moment with him in front of me, might be something I can get used to.