"I like her as a friend, Sunghee," Sungjae smiled at his sister. "And nothing more."

"It would be fun if you like her as something more but I'm not going to force you to like eonni," Sunghee crossed her arms. "I know I have no control over you after all." 

"Good," Sungjae chuckled. "Call Jaesung and tell him to hurry up. We all don't want to be late for school after all."

"Okay, oppa!"

"Hey, Joy!"

Joy stopped talking to her sister for a moment and turned her head. When she saw who it was, she signalled her sister to go on without her and she did. Joy waited for Sungjae before starting to walk again to her classroom. 

"Who was that girl with you?" Sungjae asked.

"My sister," Joy answered. "She's a freshman here."

"Oh right, you told me about her before," Sungjae snapped his fingers. "Why did you let her go ahead?"

Joy shrugged, obviously not wanting to answer the question. Sungjae just noticed how Joy's eyes don't stay still whenever she talked about her sister. She mentioned the young girl before, not naming her ever. She referred to her sister as "my sister". Joy described her as her complete opposite but never did she look like she was comfortable talking about her.

"Anyways, you look like you're cool talking to me," Sungjae said, changing the topic. Joy raised her fist in the air and smiled triumphantly.

"I'm doing my efforts," she said. "I don't want to be awkward with you after all. I want to talk to you a lot. I want you to know me better after all and who knows, you might consider me as a potential mate."

Sungjae wasn't sure if his ears were deceiving him but did Joy just directly flirt with him for the first time? It wasn't the usual flirting with compliments, it was the Joy-styled flirt, weird but cute. Sungjae could only chuckle as a response. He wasn't sure how to reply to that after all.

"I'm sorry for the lame--" Joy covered her face. "Forget it. I'm embarrassing myself in front of you."

"Don't worry," Sungjae ruffled Joy's hair. "I'm looking forward to lunch later on."

Joy stood still in front of her room's door as she stared at Sungjae. Sungjae only kept on walking towards his room, not looking back at the lovestruck teenage girl. Joy managed to walk towards her seat, wobbling a bit and bumping into a few chairs. Seulgi immediately noticed her friend and caught her before she fell on her knees.

"Was what I saw real?" Seulgi asked. Joy hugged Seulgi tightly. 

"Omo, omo, omo," was all Joy could say. Seulgi laughed at how her friend was acting and let Joy calm herself down. Joy looked up to Seulgi with furrowed eyebrows. 

"He touched me, Seulgi," Joy waved her hands. "He touched my hair, oh my." She covered her face with her hands. "What saintly thing did I do to deserve this? Oh my god."

"What else? Girl, I saw you walking into school with him," Seulgi said. Joy slammed her hands on the desk with an exasperated sigh. 

"Oh god, the world felt like it stopped rotating and like time stopped and god, I had confidence talking to him. I flirted with him, Seulgi! I flirted with him!" 

"What did you say?" Seulgi raised an eyebrow.

"The... The... mate thing..?" Joy hesitated saying it but it was Seulgi and she trusted Seulgi a lot. 

"What?" Seulgi laughed. "At least you didn't use your pick-up lines. It may work on girls but I'm sure it won't work on Sungjae."

Joy nodded.

"I know, Seulgi. That's why I am never going to use pick-up lines on Sungjae. God, that would be an embarrassment," she sighed before smiling at Seulgi. "But still, at least our relationship improved. I never thought I'll get this far. Think about it, Seulgi. I was never able to approach Sungjae before."

"I'm proud of you, my friend," Seulgi patted her back. "Well, he did tell you before that he didn't want to be awkward with anyone. Just do your best and you'll snatch that guy's heart."

Seulgi raised a fist with a determined expression on her face. 

"Do you really think so?" Joy asked. "You know, I'm just you know... The best I can get is his friendship but that's better than nothing right? At least I'm able to talk to him."

"That's a wise decision, Joy," Seulgi clapped. "Don't keep your hopes too high or else, you'll get hurt. Anyways, let's go and find the others!"

Sungjae raised an eyebrow at Joshua who was staring at him. Sungjae was about to ask why he was behaving like that, but Joshua raised a hand to stop him. Sungjae felt weird. Though he was used to Joshua's company more than anyone in the classroom for some reason, Sungjae thought it was queer for him to behave like that. 

"Something's different," Joshua remarked. Sungjae didn't talk to have him elaborate but Joshua stayed quiet for a few more minutes. 

"What's different? Don't tell me the same thing as Taehyung tells me. And don't act like Hyuk, okay?" Sungjae spoke up. Joshua snickered before breaking eye contact with Sungjae. He slumped on his seat and grinned. 

"I don't want to tease you like Taehyung. I don't want to scold you like Hyuk. I'm just curious," Joshua looked up to Sungjae. "Just curious about some things."

Sungjae knew Joshua very well. Joshua was a smart student, someone Sungjae depended on when it came to English and Math. Though Sungjae was, himself, a great mathematician, he couldn't avoid copying from Joshua most of the times. He depended on the boy and Sungjae knew he should answer each of Joshua's questions. 

"Do you know who Joy is? As in, her reputation and everything, in this school?" Joshua fired his first question. Sungjae furrowed his eyebrows. Most of his batchmates studied in the same school during middle school, including Taehyung, Joy, Joshua, Seulgi, and Hyuk. He still had a good guess though, since he studied in that school for nearly three years. But he never confirmed if ever these rumours were true. 

"Joy and I never became classmates before and we never directly talked to each other. I saw her in the corridors and she saw me. We know each other's names because of the people around us. Hence, it's not unlikely that you know her better than I do but when it comes to reputations, an outsider sees it more. I know more and I see more," Joshua said. Sungjae couldn't agree more. He knew Joshua knew more about rumours than him. Sungjae was a quiet man, he didn't like dwelling in other people's business, including Joy's. But with the matter and relationship they have at that moment, Sungjae thought twice about Joy. 

"Why? Are you planning to tell me anything?" Sungjae asked. Joshua smirked once again and stood up before patting Sungjae's back. 

"She's bound to tell you something and by something, I mean everything. She's an open book, Sungjae. You just need to ask questions for her to open up. You need to ask questions for her to know which to tell you and which to hide."