There was a loud scream coming from the other side of the room. I jolt up, looked everywhere, every direction, only to find my best friend laughing while lying on my bed. He was hugging my favorite pillow while smiling since he knew how much I hate letting anyone touch it. I meant to take it away, of course but laziness took over and I just turn my face the other direction and groaned.

“I hate you,” I hiss, standing up to stretch. I look down at my desk and saw my notebook blank.

“How’s homework?” I hear him ask; I glance at him and groan again. “Let me guess. You haven’t done anything.”

I mentally curse. I slept staring at my homework. Again. I reached for my phone while rubbing my right eye and looked at the time. 5:30 AM. I only have 30 minutes to get my together and finish this. I just need to focus.

“Hey, are you even listening to me?”

I gasped as his hands immediately settled at my waist. I turn around to face him and saw his face structure that I have memorized long before. I smile and pinched his cheeks.

“Don’t sneak up on me!”

“You’re not listening!”

“What are you talking about?”

“I asked you if you wanted to watch the dead pool movie tonight.”

I removed my hands from his cheeks and wiggled my way out. I noticed how his face changed a split second, and it made wonder why. But since the need to finish the homework that’s due at 6 AM, I ignored it. I pushed him slightly away from the chair and sat and think and write answers that I don’t even know if it’s true.

“Wrong. The answer’s 178.”

“You sure?”

“Positive,” He takes the pen from my hand, push me slightly so that we’re both sitting on the same chair and took also the pen and checked the other questions. I would have taken it back, but since I knew he was smarter than me in terms of mathematics, I let him.

After a minute of two of staring at him, he laughs. What’s the matter now?

“You go and take a bath and fix yourself.” This time he pushed me fully. I fell, and glare at him.

“No way! I need to know how you did it!”

“We don’t have time, and besides, I could teach you this later after class. Now go.” He took my phone and opened it to check the time. “Time’s running!”

I would have objected, but seeing that it wouldn’t do me any good, I followed. I walk towards my closet, took my uniform, my underwear and my towel before heading out to the bathroom. Once I’m done, I went inside my room again to find him holding my phone, my bag and my socks. And without uttering any words, he pulled me from my room and out of the house.

“Breakfast,” I tried to say it as a complain, but he ignored me my while still holding my hand pulling me.

We arrived at school at exactly 6AM, and if it weren’t for the students staring at us, I wouldn’t realize our hands are still intertwined. I tried ignoring it, tried reminding myself that this is normal. This is normal for us. We’re best friends. We normally hold hands.

“What’s wrong?” I hear him ask, I glance at him.

“What?”

“What’s wrong?” He repeats.

“Nothing,” I shake my head and smile at him. “Let’s just go.”

He nods, tightens the hold on my hand and pulled me to our room. Once the door opens, we were met by people chatting all over the place. I saw his other friends near the window, talking and waiting for him, and on the far left of the room, I saw my friends forming a circle using the chairs and eating. You wouldn’t actually think they’re eating if you were in my position right now, but knowing them and knowing precisely how they move, I could easily tell.

I gave one last squeeze at our intertwined hands and smile at him before heading to my friends. I placed my bag first at my seat before sitting next to Hyerin, the blonde-skinny girl sitting beside the wall.

“Hey, what are you guys eating?”

They all look at me before handing me the chips.

“What is this? Some meeting?”

Yuri, the only pure Korean among all of us smiled before gesturing me to come closer. I obliged, and when our face were just centimeters apart, she said, “I like you.”

It took almost one minute before what she said settled in my head, and when it did, I laugh, followed by the others.

“Dude stop, I’m not interested.” I joked, winking at her. “Though if you did change, I might re-consider.”

“Ewe!” All of them scream in disgust.

“Too gross. You’re gross!” Yijeong, the only male, and youngest among all of us screamed, while looking at me in disgust. “I can’t believe you would even do that!”

I scoff. “I’m fine with what I am now, thank you very much.”

“Yeah you are. you got the prettiest man alive as your best friend.” Hyerin glanced at him before looking at me. “And it doesn’t take long before you two become a couple.”

I laugh.

“Laugh now while you can, but if one day he did ask you to be the mother of his children and you said yes, we’ll be here saying ‘we-told-you-so’.” After Yijeong said it, the other two girls nodded eagerly.

Isn’t there anything more interesting than my love life?

“That will happen in another life, my friends.” I say. “He likes someone else.”

“Now. He likes someone else now. You won’t know when he’ll hit his head and realize that you’re the right girl for him.”

The only response I could give them is a laugh.

I don’t know how I should act about knowing that there was a possibility that we could end up being together, I had thought of it before, when we were still starting, when we were still trying to get to know each other, but now, that thought just passes my mind like math equations.

“Oh my.”

I shake my head when I heard Yuri say those words. I look at her and saw how intrigued she is about the thought of me getting together with my best friend.

Seriously. There are a lot of things that is far more interesting than my love life.

Like the elections.

Or the math homework.

Or even what we’ll eat later at lunch.

“Good morning,” We all heard the professor greet. We all stand to greet her too while walking towards our own seats. “How’s your weekends?”

I smile at the thought of what I did last weekend. It was just me, my sister and my parents trying mountain climbing. It was so much fun that even my sister, who doesn’t love to getting her hands dirty try climbing and cooking manually.

“Okay enough with reminiscing, let’s get started with your homework.”

Our class went by so fast, I don’t think I remember any of what my professor taught. I walked with Hyerin and Yijeong towards the cafeteria since Yuri had Drama club to attend to. We were all talking about food as we pass through the hallways filled with a lot of people and when we got to the cafeteria to sit our usual spot, he beat us to it with his set of friends.

“That’s our spot.” Hyerin said matter-of-factly. The boys only looked amused at her sudden declaration.

“We don’t see any of your names here, missy. Why don’t you just seat with us instead?” Ho Seok, the brown-haired guy that looks intimidating at first said, before patting the seat next to him and smiling temptingly at Hyerin.

“You’re still at it.” Hyerin points out. “I don’t go out with guys like you Ho Seok. I thought I have made that clear.”

Ho Seok laughs, but I can see his eyes filled with disappointment. He really likes her. Sincerely. And I couldn’t understand how she can’t see that.

“I’m hungry.” Yijeong and I said, making everyone look at us.

He smiles, raises his tray filled with all my favorite food and I didn’t actually have any second thoughts of sitting next to him and digging in, ignoring my friends who are actually objecting right now.

Yijeong rolls his eyes once he realized I wasn’t going to stand up and pulls Hyerin to the line followed by Ho Seok who still wants to talk to her and leaves us with Jimin, the youngest kid among all of us.

“So…” Jimin starts, looking at the both of us. “How is everything?”

We both looked at each other before turning to him. What is he talking about?

But Jimin didn’t let us ask him about his sudden question and just left us to follow the other four. He wanted to follow him, but didn’t when I held his hand. We could ask him about it together later. For now, eating is the top priority.

“Your friends are interesting.” I said, amused. “Ho Seok's determined and Jimin looked so shy. Where did you find them?”

“Don’t forget about Suga and Nam Joon. They’re fireballs as well.” He lets go of my hand and begun eating the fruit salad. “I didn’t find them, they found me.”

“Ah,” I nod my head. “Suga’s the one with the swag and Nam Joon's the mature one?”

“Yeah, and I’m the cute one that holds this group together.”

I laugh. “Idiot. Without even one of you, this group will fall apart.”

“I know that.”

 

---

 

After classes, we usually have this tradition of going to the coffee shop near our school. We both loved this place because it has a vintage vibe radiating from it and their coffee is the best from all the coffee shops I encountered.

“The usual?” He asks.

“Yeah.”

I’m a self-proclaimed writer. I have a blog with all of my ideas and my followers choose what they like best so that I could continue writing about it. And while he gets our coffee, I went to seat at our usual spot and wait while staring at the people passing by.

“Okay, I got what you wanted.” My thoughts suddenly disappeared as I look up to see him smiling at me while holding two lattes in hand. “And for the record, I did not flirt with anyone in there.”

“Flirt?” I ask, looking at the latte.

“You okay? You seemed dazed.” He sits in front of me. “So what’s up with your blog? Any good comments? Any suggestions?”

I raise an eyebrow and shake my head. “Yeah, actually there was. My followers really wanted me to continue writing about the deaf queen.”

“Nothing else?”

“Nope.”

“Really? There’s nothing else?”

I laugh. “I am not going to continue about the wet dream, okay? You’re the only one who even commented on that post.”

“Well I am one of your followers. I’m also one of those people who would really comment on your posts rather than stare at them.”

 “True, but that still doesn’t count. I am not going to write about wet dreams.”

“Why?” He whined, putting his drink down before pouting at me.

“Well, for starters, that would be so weird. And second, nothing comes to my mind when I hear those words. No scenarios, no situations, no extravagant plots that could wow me.”

The pouting didn’t stop even after a whole five minutes had gone by. I know I should stop him from doing that but a lot of girls were staring at us-him and they all looked like they were going to win a prize or something. A few girls seated not far from us even tried looking seductive whenever he glances their way, but whatever their doing doesn’t seem to have an effect.

“Stop it,” I say, glaring at him.

“Why?”

“You look stupid.”

He faked hurt, pouting some more. I heard girls giggling and it kind of irritated me. I glance at my back, glared at them for a second before giving my best friend one too.

But that didn’t seem to have an effect on him too.

“Do this face really look stupid?” He asks innocently.

I nod my head. “Yes, it does. So stop it or I’ll leave.”

He didn’t stop.

I stood up, walked a few steps away from our table, only to be stopped by the man who just passed by. I hurried my pace towards the window, trying to know what direction he was heading to, but before I could even know that, someone forced me to turn around.

“I was just joking. I’m sorry.”

It took me another whole minute to register what he just said. “Sorry? Sorry for what? I’m not mad at you.”

He looked so confused. “But you stood up and, and when I saw you walking towards the window, I thought you were serious.”

“Oh.” I glance at the window and tried looking for that man again. No luck. “I just thought I saw someone familiar.”

He nods his head and pulls me back to our seat. He kisses my forehead before making me seat and handing me my latte. I take a sip, glad that the latte still is hot, and stared at my journal which was still blank.

I placed my latte back at the table, took the journal and my pen and started writing about the dream I had last night.