“Oh, Sooyoung! Y-You have to help me with this, please!”

“But what do I get from this?”

“I can get you anything you want! A year supply of fried chicken? C’mon, I can hook you up with that.”

“I don’t always eat fried chicken, Joohyun unnie. I’m kind of offended you think that.”

“B-But Sooyoung… please….” Joohyun was almost on the floor in front of Sooyoung, kneeling. She was holding onto one of her hands with both of hers, tightly clasping onto it as if the younger girl’s assistance was a matter of life or death for her. “I-I don’t want to say it… but… but… I’m….”

Sooyoung raised a brow, patiently waiting for Joohyun to continue. Joohyun nervously swallowed and her eyes were wildly darting all over the place.

“I’m… desperate.”

Sooyoung gasped and yanked her hand back from the older girl, stumbling a few steps from learning that Joohyun had fallen so deep she couldn’t exactly get herself back up with no help.

“Desperate?!” she exclaimed and made a face of disgust. “Ugh, no wonder the air around you is so murky and just plain terrible!”

“But Sooyoung!” Joohyun practically screamed out in the school hall.

Darn, they were lucky it was after school hours now with no other students to witness this pathetic scene of Joohyun on her knees, begging Sooyoung.

“S-She’s… so cute,” Joohyun said with a small voice, her head dropping down after that revelation. She sat back onto her legs and timidly played with her fingers. “A-And so nice and pretty and—I just want to be with her, okay?!”

“And why are you asking me? Why not Seungwan unnie? Or Jongin oppa? Or even Soojung unnie?”

“I thought you are the most attentive out of all of them…. I mean, you do know everything that Seulgi likes and whatnot, right?”

Sooyoung shrugged her shoulders. “Well, that’s actually Seungwan unnie. She definitely knows everything about Seulgi from what she does in the morning to how she eats some of food to which direction she turns whenever she sneezes—oh, my God, I actually do know stuff about Seulgi unnie. A-Am I creepy…?”

“Never mind that, Sooyoung!” Joohyun hastily intercepted before Sooyoung could fall into a slump of her own. She scrambled up to her feet and made her way over to the other girl. “So, what will it be? Will you help me or not?”

Sooyoung heaved a sigh and crossed her arms. She stared at Joohyun for one good, long moment, a string of words flying by her head—should she do it?

Well, what was there to lose anyway?

Only Joohyun’s dignity, and none of hers.

Eh.

Sounded great, actually.

“You said a year supply of fried chicken, right?”

**

Kang Seulgi could effortlessly be considered as one of the most desirable girls here at school. However, fortunately for her (and for Joohyun), she was not exactly bombarded by love letters, chocolates, or flowers from her secret admirers. She did have a select few, but at least they were more understandable than the more “rabid” fans of Kim Jongin, who was a third year, the same year as Seulgi. Joohyun, on the other hand, though, could probably say that the boys who admire her were just as delusional and lustful as Jongin’s.

Love letters, heart boxes of chocolates, flowers, explosion boxes of tiny gifts.

Wait, how exactly did these get inside my locker?

Joohyun was not able to ponder any longer on that thought when she observed Seulgi gradually strolling down the hall, a hand in her phone with earphones plugged into her ears—the ears that stuck out more than the average ears, which Joohyun found so darn adorable. She could watch Seulgi walk all day long if it was not for the latter looking up from the phone and catching her gaze. Seulgi immediately brightened at the sight of her senior by one year and she gently bowed to her before taking off her earphones.

“Hi, Joohyun unnie,” Seulgi softly greeted and stood next to her at her open locker.

Wait, wait, wait, I was just taught on how to approach Seulgi, not on what to do when she approaches me!

“H-Hi, S-Seulgi.”

Great, a blubbering mess.

Just exactly what we need.

Seulgi did not seem to mind, though. She was giggling at the sight of Joohyun hitting her forehead with the palm of her hand.

“Are you heading home right now, unnie?”

Joohyun rubbed the reddening mark on her forehead and glanced back and forth from Seulgi to her locker. Somewhere in the pile of love letters and other gifts were the textbooks that she needed, and she was planning on studying at the library for one of her upcoming exams.

“I was just going to head to the library to get some studying done.”

“Oh, test coming up?”

Joohyun grimaced and nodded. “Yeah, sadly.”

Seulgi hummed and nodded in understanding as well. They awkwardly stood there afterwards, not one of them knowing what to say to continue the conversation.

“Um, well, I was just wondering if we could walk home together, but since you need to study, I’ll leave you be. I’ll see you tomorrow, unnie!”

Lesson One Failed.

Seulgi left and Joohyun banged her head against her locker.

**

“You see, that was an opportunity to get to know Seulgi unnie more.”

“You don’t think I know that?!”

Sooyoung shrugged. “Well, who cares about Biology anyway? Should’ve ditched that study group to walk home with her.”

“I just… I just didn’t expect that she would want to walk home with me all of a sudden!”

“You two are on speaking terms and have mutual friends, a.k.a. me, so it’s actually not all that unusual.”

Joohyun dropped her head against the desk. “If I had known that, Park Sooyoung, wouldn’t you think I walk home with her?”

“Yeah.”

“BUT I DIDN’T KNOW THAT, PARK SOOYOUNG.”

“Oh.” Sooyoung was unfazed from the older girl shouting at her. “…Anyway, let’s just get on with lesson two.”

Joohyun gradually rose from the desk and heaved a heavy sigh while watching Sooyoung write down bullet points on the white board. She propped her arms up on the desk, resting her face on her hands.

“Alright,” Sooyoung started, turning around. She brought up the long ruler to the list of things she had written down.

• No sudden skin contact
• No sudden outbursts around her; she might just run away
• Don’t stare at her for too long; she’ll get creeped out
• Talk to her first about the positive stuff of her day

“These all seem like very basic understanding on getting to know any person, but trust me when I say that these will fly over your head when you’re head over heels for someone,” Sooyoung stated. “As for the last bullet point, if you just ask someone how their day went, they will tend to focus on the negatives. So just ask her what good things happened to her that day and maybe you’ll see that smile you have fallen for since day one.”