I was out of breath. I had no idea how far and long I had been running but judging by how painfully sore my feet were, it sure was a long way.

I kept on running without intention on stopping. Looking back apparently wasn’t the best option available out there as I stumbled where I was going.

I watched what’s coming after me with eyes full of horror. There was a pup which I found earlier when I went for a walk, strayed and lost. Thought it wouldn’t be painful if I kept it until the owner came to find it. But that little guy suddenly started to shift into an ugly large dog, saliva drooling from the tips of its canines and I undoubtedly thought that it could be rabid. And what’s throwing me off more was when I looked at the face.

“What the f... Professor Jung? What are—” I shuddered. The hell was my professor doing here and...transformed into a beast?

I panicked. Raking my brain I started recalling what I had for dinner and I was sure I had nothing alcoholic whatsoever that could make me hallucinate and see things.

“Give it to me now,” he growled.

I gulped, feeling my hair rise at the horrid, deep sound. “What? What do you want? My life? No!”

Hair flailing off the side of my face as I picked up my pace when I noticed he gained on me with every wild leap he took.

“Your last revision. Now!” he snarled, saliva still dripping off his mouth, paws coming out ready to pounce on me.

“What? What rev— ,” I swallowed hard before speeding my heels to run for hills. Oh my God, no. I’m still 20. I didn’t have a boyfriend and I still wanted to live and I didn’t want to die in the nasty claws of a rabid dog that was my professor.

“Please, Professor! I didn’t forget about your assignment and I absolutely...” I said, stumbling once again when I looked back, “will hand it in today. Please don’t kill me!!”

His growl became louder this time as he leapt through the air, looking like he’s gonna maul the living out of me. Who’s gonna tell my mom I loved her and I’m sorry that I didn’t do dishes last night if I was to die here now!? I was screwed.

“Ms Kang!!” he barked.

I whipped my head around and the grotesque picture before me made me sick. I shrieked, “Nooo! Please don’t kill m— AHHH!!!”

“Holy that geezer of a professor freakin’ shifted in front of my friggin very own eyes and he’s gonna eat me alive, tear my skin, poke my eyes out, and I never be able to attend his class anymore because I’m dead in his hands—ow, what the?!”

I jolt up from bed, panting. Huh?

What the hell happened?

I tap check all over my body to see if my limbs stay intact or if I’m being skinned alive. But, no. I am alive. Holy freaking geezus.

The blaring alarm goes off on the bedside table, making my head pound. I hiss in annoyance as I try to reach over to turn it off. I look at the clock, and scream, “Oh , 8:37am?!”

And I remember I have to turn in my revision my life was on the line for at 9am sharp. I suddenly wish I had amnesia.

I jump out of bed, not caring the cover tangling my legs knocking over things on the table. “I’m gonna be dead for sure.” I slam the bathroom door shut and turn on the shower. “WHY DIDN’T ANYONE WAKE ME UP?!”

--

“God, please save my life I promise I will be a good girl,” I chant, fixing my cardigan as I rush downstairs. My mom is already at the table setting up what seems to be bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast, but forget breakfast! I am freaking late!

“Oh, honey, you up,” she smiles, and then eyebrows furrow, “Where are you going? I thought you told me you had no classes for today.”

“Yeah, not until the doofus told me last night the class was pushed forward and I had to stay up late for my sketches due today that’s why dishes undone, Mom, I’m sorry,” I snatch a sandwich from a plate, kiss my mom goodbye, and bolt out of the house after grabbing my keys.

“Be careful on your way!” I give her an ‘OK’ sign. “And you’re not supposed to call Jackson that!” I grumble with my sandwich in my mouth. Yeah, whatever.

So, my classmate slash cousin Jackson decided to screw me over and when I asked him why he didn’t give me a heads up way earlier, he told me that Prof Jung also called in late. So, that dog.

I grunt, hitting the acceleration so I can make it in time to class.

The light turns red. I sigh before turning down the sun visor and trying to look presentable. My sagging eye bags make me wince. At least I’m trying. I double check in the mirror, lightly brushing my fingers through my short hair, and flip it over.

My eyes move to the rearview mirror and fleet to the back seat when I realize something is missing.

“Gosh, my planner!! Seriously what a great day!” I holler before making a sharp U-turn that could shake my brains out of my head.

--

“What’s with the long face?” Youngji quips from behind me when I practically drag my feet to my locker.

I turn around and scrunch my nose at the sight of my best friend’s bright, beaming face.

“Did you ever nearly have your head up on stake first thing in the morning?”

Youngji raises an eyebrow, “No, why? You’re weird. By the way, manage to hand in your sketches? I swear to God, I could, like, see the hairless old fart grow a pair of evil horns on top of his head when there’s some dude leaving his drawings at home. Tsk, dude asking for a death wish,” Youngji blabbers, not reading the situation I am currently in.

“Why...” I heave a heavy sigh, “why is being an architecture student becoming this hard? This is far from what I have expected it would be where I only wanted to draw rainbows and fish and mountains like I did when I was a kid,” I let out tiredly, thumping my head against my locker door. This is too frustrating.

“Are you starting to regret it now because you make it sound like you bite off more than you can chew, you know.”

“It’s not that I am not capable...” I tune Youngji’s annoying voice out when she keeps on babbling.

“Anyways,” she starts again, “do you have afternoon class after this?”

“No, done with today’s class. Why?”

She pushes herself off the locker beside me to open hers on my right. “Good, because Jaebum’s been looking for you since morning. Probably for your project due next week.”

“What other projec—wait, what?”

Youngji turns to me with a blank face. “Your next project for Prof Jung’s class. Well, your group project. Have I... Ah, right. You missed out on it last meeting.”

“I skipped to work on his other assignments, geez.” Such an important issue and no one bothers to tell me about it. Tell me what friends are for again. “Why does that have to do with Jaebum anyways?” I ask, still bewildered.

“Well, so, Mrs Min took her maternity leave for three months and for the time being, as conveniently as it sounds, she asked our teacher to merge classes so, yeah,” Youngji explains, kindly filling me in.

“But I skipped class when they decided for the groups and, oh, do you know how many heads there will be if our class merged?”

“Yeah, I know right,” she shrugs. “He suggested we work with students present but apparently Jaebum had another idea. So, we didn’t sit you out on this and that you’re paired up with him.”

“...” I mumble. I don’t exactly like to hear that.

“Why!” Youngji chirps, a little too eagerly that she starts shaking my shoulders hard, making me dizzy. “Giddy up, girl, now move your and find him and get it over...” I raise my eyebrow when she stops talking. “I guess you ain’t need no more. He’s heading over to you here.”

I’m turning bleak. Before I can reach out to the girl and beg her not to leave me, she already sprints with a cheeky grin. And that annoying wink of hers. Youngji smiles so wide at me that I probably can fit my fist in .

I brace myself and when I turn around to close my locker, he is already in front of me.

“Hey, Ji,” Jaebum greets with a bright smile, so blinding I am sure I’d go blind.

Kang Soo Jin, class A-3 year ‘15, an architect aspirant in the works who puts GPA on second priority because let’s be real, keeping up with subjects already seems too much, has a major crush on a guy named Im Jaebum. Well, it’s not like he’s a campus heartthrob, actually he is, or some kind of kingka who every girl’s swooned by.

Jaebum and I first met last semester, summer precisely, at the get-together held by Jackson when he just came back repping our university for a fencing tournament in Hong Kong; he won first place. My cousin brought him over to introduce to me and we hit it off pretty well. And being the idiot Jackson is, he even made us pit against each other chugging down beers—Jackson’s responsible driving me back home. In a nutshell, we have gotten along since then.

I learnt a lot about Jaebum on our second meeting, third, and so forth. He’s the only child of the family and sometimes when bored or lonely, he wouldn’t mind driving 45 minutes to my house when he’s not hanging out with his friends. He’s also a lefty which I find cool, I just really have some sort of weird for lefties. One time I was lounging in his room and I found a notebook that I knew what it was when Jaebum told me that he makes music at leisure. He doesn’t play sports, though when Jackson called us over to the court, Jaebum wasn’t that bad.

It was Sunday afternoon. We were lying on our stomach talking about the lyrics he wrote from one of his old songs. He shared the earphones with me. And I swore by all cotton candy and unicorns in the world, his singing voice was so heavenly.

When we were both lazing around, he showed me some music magazines and told me about his favorite band—which name was difficult to remember. We had gotten comfy with each other when I accidentally poked at his side and he suddenly sprung.

Aha, he’s ticklish. So, I pounced onto him and tickled him mercilessly, brushing off his plea for me to stop.

“Oh my God, Kang Soo Jin, stop!!” He let out an ear-piercing, girlish shriek and I snorted. He was so cute.

We both go to the same university, sharing the same major, same year, he is actually one year older than me. He’s one of Mrs Min’s students and despite different class, he still hangs around with our circle of friends; Jaebum basically befriends everyone. And he makes it easy for them to love him; handsome, smart, amiable, a man full of talents. All in all, Im Jaebum is perfection.

Jaebum is a social butterfly, so it’s not that hard for him to hook up with popular girls in campus. I know and even memorize every one of his girlfriends’ faces. It’s not like I can’t get myself a boyfriend. Don’t want to sound snooty but I’ve actually got the looks, too, at least Youngji said so. There’s literally like 3-4 guys lining up my locker, fighting over who could confess to me first. Youngji made a big fuss about it and I didn’t miss something in Jaebum’s eyes glazed over his friendly smile as he passed by me.

That’s when I realized that I have been harboring more feelings for him than I do for a friend. Is Jaebum not a friend now that I like him as a man? I don’t know. I smile wistfully at the thought.

“Ji, are you there?”

I snap out of it. Jaebum is still in front of me flicking his fingers to grab my attention. His smile never dims.

“Oh, o-oh… yeah, so you were saying?”

“Our project. In studio… right now? You’re free, right?” Jaebum squints his cute, small eye. He adjusts the strap of his bag over his shoulder. “But, uh, you kinda have to head over there alone. I’m going to Mark’s class Jackson told me to give him this. I’ll be there in a bit.”

I stare at him, stunned. Mainly because of his good looks.

He clicks his tongue from the lack of my response, and reaches out to grab my wrist and drags me along with him. “Never mind.”

--

I sit on a big desk. It is 3:42pm now and I only had snacks for lunch. I am still hungry but I’m being held ‘hostage’ by Jaebum here in our faculty studio for assignments. I don’t mind, though.

“No, it’s not right,” I hear Jaebum mutter. He is sitting by Jackson on another desk across the room. “I don’t think you set the angle right. Here, give me your mouse.”

I scoff. No matter how many times he teaches him, Jackson never seems to be able to get the hang of operating the computer software. The dimwitted has brains of a bird.

“Ahh, thanks bro!” Jackson shouts out, making me startled. “You’re such great help. At least someone’s helping me out instead of being a meanie and mocking me.”

I spin my chair around, ticked off. “Oh, yeah? At least I try to figure it out myself instead of always troubling someone else.”

“Who says it’s you, though?” Jackson smirks.

“I am not stupid to know that you’re just being shady, Jacks,” I retort, getting more annoyed. I see Jaebum snicker to himself. Great now he has to witness me quarrelling with my cousin. It’s not the first time actually.

“No, you’re not stupid. You just don’t have the guts to ask Jaebum for help since you’re confused and too occupied about it with yourself that you actually—”

“Shut up, Jackson!” He’s cut off and winces when I reach out for Sharpies nearby I can get my hands on and throw them at him.

He feigns innocence and shock. “You haven’t told him, have you?” Jackson whispers yet loud enough for the other being to hear. What a tool of a cousin.

I am boiling inside.

“Dude, she’s not in the mood,” Jaebum chuckles.

“So boring. You better move fast, cuz, or I’ll do it,” Jackson says so devilishly. I swear to God, if he wasn’t my best friend’s boyfriend, I would knock the living out of him.

Jackson annoyingly laughs out loud before leaving. I swivel back around facing the desk. I try to clear my mind off the things and breathe it all out.

I pull my stuff out of my bag and take out a scalpel from the set.

Jackson knows about my feelings for Jaebum. Thanks to my mom who brought it up during family’s dinner saying I slept talking and unconsciously confessed to him. I had to endure mom’s childish teasing and Jackson’s been constantly using that to threaten me—he would reveal it if I was slow in making moves.

Like, what is there to make? Jaebum is my close friend, first very close guy friend. Jaebum only views me as that as well. And it’ll stay that way.

Screw it when people say falling in love with a close friend of yours will ruin your friendship. Jaebum doesn’t even seem to like me like that to begin with. Also, it is just incredibly awkward when I know I am the only one who’s keeping this blossoming feeling Jaebum knows nothing about.

I begin tracing and scraping the materials for our maquette absently when I feel someone place a hand on top of mine and start guiding me along the lines.

“You could hurt yourself if you’re not paying close attention to it,” Jaebum says to my ear, voice as smooth as silk.

I blush and let Jaebum do it until the finish point.

When I don’t speak, Jaebum continues again. “I scouted out the place.”

“You already went to the site?” I look at him, our faces are so close and my heart skips a beat at that.

“Yeah. It’s pretty nice, but we have to contact the manager for details of the building.”

“Oh...” We continue sculpting a new line, our hands still on top of each other. “I’m sorry for missing the class. You had to do all preps on your own,” I meekly say.

“Don’t worry about it. I already got the first 35% of our work done. We can do the rest together.”

We’re done with the second line, now onto the third.

“So,” he clears his throat. I suddenly have a feeling I won’t like what he’ll say next. “What was it that Jackson talked about?”

I tense. Jaebum seems to notice when he stops moving our hands.

“O-oh, that... I-I...” I stutter unsophisticatedly. There’s no way out of it.

I hear him sigh softly before pulling the scalpel out of my grasp and setting it aside. He spins my chair around and pulls it close to him, snugly tucking his knee in between my legs. I feel stuffy from our proximity...in a good kind of way.

He leans forward, taking one of my hands into his. “You’v