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Taking a deep breath, I stop in front of the gate that would lead me towards the campus and to another day of school. After a week, it still hasn't gotten any easier. Students keep passing by me, some not noticing me and some giving me short curios glances. I mostly kept to myself and only a few knew why.

Out of nowhere, I get pushed on my shoulder. I brace myself from falling by stepping forward. 

‘’What are you doing out here?’’ Lee, one of the few people I still had in my life, has a satisfied smile on her face, knowing exactly how much I disliked being sneaked up on.

Ignoring her, I cross my arms over my chest pretending to be annoyed with her and continue my way inside, climbing the steps with Lee in tow. ‘’Don’t follow me.’’

She laughs out loud. ‘’Idiot, we are in the same class.’’ She reaches into her backpack and pulls out an umbrella.

It’s only then that I notice the light raindrops drizzling from above, as they slowly increase. Lee shields the rain from both our heads and At that moment, I feel a sense of gratefulness of still having her in my life. She was the one who took care of me when I forgot to do it myself.

‘’Thank you.’’ For everything. I don’t say, but I feel like she knows anyway, she is my best friend, who else would know me better than her.
Lee smiles warmly and puts her arm around my shoulders guiding me softly away from the pelting rain. It is moments like these, where I just want to cry and let it all out. It really hasn't gotten any easier.

We walk into class and my eyes land on the small crowd of people gathered around my seat. After closer inspection, I notice that they were not I didn’t even know that there was supposed to be someone sitting next to me.
Is it okay to be missing so many days of class, right at the beginning of the year? Maybe they were in a similar situation as I had been in fact huddling around my seat but the seat next to mine, which ever since school started had always been vacant. 

Following Lee, I stay at her desk, not wanting to even attempt to squish into my seat with all of them hovering over it. I wish my seat was next to Lee’s but the teacher had randomly formed the seating plan.
Talking of which, the teacher just then steps into the classroom, so I quickly walk to my seat and take off my coat revealing the yellow blazer. When the teacher clears , the girls around us scatter to find their seats not wanting to get in trouble. This person must be popular, but apparently not popular enough to get in trouble for.

Curiosity getting the best of me, I sneak a glance to my right and find him already looking at me, and for a second something like recognition flashed across his eyes.
Do I know him? Or does he know me?

As I was trying to figure out where he could know me from, I totally forgot about the fact that I was still looking at him.
When I finally realize, I snap out of it in embarrassment and look back at our homeroom teacher.

There was a sudden sense of déjà vu. 

I frown and try to get rid of it by shrugging my shoulders but the feeling was still lingering making me feel puzzled.

Our teacher starts calling our names one by one to make sure that we were present. After that, she fills us in on next week's school trip when I hear my seating partner, whose name I found out to be Jungkook, quietly coughing next to me.
I peek at him and notice that he looked incredibly tired. His eyes were slightly bloodshot, probably from lack of sleep, and he had been rubbing the back of his neck repeatedly. Shouldn’t he be home in bed in this condition?

“A-are you alright?” I almost whisper, worried for him, not wanting him to collapse or something like that.

He stops coughing and glances at me surprised, almost alarmed even. He looks at me with his round eyes and even if he might be exhausted, there is no doubt that he is handsome.

Finally, what seemed to me like an eternity, he responds with a nod and a bow with his head.
Déjà vu, here we go again.

Wanting to get to the bottom of it, I turn to him again. “Sorry, but have we—” Before I can finish my question, my words get swallowed up by the students’ talking around me and in the same moment I get pulled to my feet by Lee as she moves to drag me away.

“Ya, why?” I jerk at my arm and stagger back unexpectedly when she loses her hold on me and painfully collide with the desk by my hip. Wincing in agony, I brace myself on the table and rub at the stinging pain, I look up at Lee and glare at her. Showing no concern for me at all she just laughs and tells me to hurry.

Dumbfounded and brooding, I turn around still rubbing my now tingling and slightly numb hip to gather my belongings. Just before leaving, I glance over my shoulder and find Jungkook looking amused, while silently packing up his own things.
But before I can think anything of it my view gets blocked by a handful of girls surrounding him again, I frown but turn to leave class with Lee.

~ ~ ~

Having changed into a pair of black leggings and black baggy shirt, I walk into dance class and find all the girls huddled together while talking amongst themselves. As I’m not very close with them, I look around spotting Joon on the other side where all the guys are usually at and unexpectedly see that Jungkook was in the same class.

Slowly, I walk towards Joon, not wanting to disturb him because they were in a conversation, and quietly sit down a little bit further away, giving me a chance to observe Jungkook.
Although he didn’t seem familiar, the way he had looked at me in class just won’t leave my head. I'm pretty sure it was recognition that crossed his face.

He, too, changed out of his school uniform and is now wearing a loose black shirt and gray sweats accompanied by a pair of sneakers. He still looked fatigued but more relaxed than he was in class. I saw him in art class earlier and he seemed to have enjoyed it, more than me at least.

His aegyo-sal (under-eye fat) pushing up whenever Joon said something funny made him look like a little boy, his cheekbones lifting, his entire face smiling.
To put it simply, he was really nice to look at. His small gauges giving him an edgy look totally contradicting with his sweet smile. I can't stop myself from wondering if he's been skipping school or if he's an athlete on the rise. 

I secretly watch him a little bit longer until the dance teacher joins the class, forcing me to face away from them and focus on the teacher instead. We greet him in unison and bow respectfully.

‘’Today, we will be doing something fun.’’ He begins and claps his hands. ‘’I want you to find yourself into two groups. One group will be covering a dance of a boy group while the other group will be doing the same to a girl group. I won't be limiting you to the genders, you are free to decide which group you join.’’

While I didn’t mind being in either group, I had a feeling that the girls in this class were going to be in the girl group dance cover team, and since I still don’t know them well, I felt reluctant to join them. Unless…

Before I can finish that thought, I find myself in a light headlock, getting pulled back from my sitting position on the floor.
No questions asked it can only be Joon, he is just as bad as Lee. They make the perfect pair, now if only they could realize that themselves and get together already, that would be awesome.

‘’What’s wrong with you guys today, huh?“ I ask while patting his arm around my neck, wanting him to release me.

He loosens his grip but his arm stays around my shoulder, I glare at him. “Why? What did she do this time?’’

‘’Because of her, I’m going to have a bruise for at least a week,” I reply, struggling to remove his arm from my shoulder so I just push his head away making him snicker annoyingly.
‘’Ah, really. This isn’t funny.“ When it causes him to laugh even more, I sigh in defeat and turn away. From the corner of my eye, I could see Jungkook again smiling in amusement, and without noticing the corners of my mouth lift as well.

One girl raises her hand ’‘Teacher, can we form smaller groups?’’ We were only twelve people in class, how much smaller does she want the groups to be?

After considering for a moment, the teacher agrees but only for the purpose of learning the choreography.

‘’Ah, yes. Want to join our team?’’

I turn back to face Joon with a hopeful smile. ‘’The girl group dance cover team?’’

‘’No, never.’’ He declares.

I pout and rub my hands, begging. ‘’Please.’’

He shakes his head back and forth repeatedly. ‘’Not in this lifetime. Never.’’

I glare at him, irritated. “Why are we even friends, then?”

‘’Let’s do Rock, Scissor, Paper,’’ Jungkook suggests, joining in on our nonexistent debate.

It gives me chance to win this but there is the fact that I had no luck whatsoever, I don’t think I’ve ever won and looking at Joon’s smug expression, I’m pretty sure he knows.

‘’Ah,’’ I exclaim, crushed yet again. ‘’But I always lose.”

Joon claps happily like a seal and laughs at my expression. In that moment, I really wanted to throw something at him and my shoe posed as a very tempting option.Sighing, I look up to find Jungkook watching me, his hair covering the top of his eyes. I blink a few times, I’m sure I looked like an animal caught in
headlight.

‘’I’ll do it for you.’’ He suddenly says with confidence.

Joon looks at both of us exasperated. ’'You want to do the girl group cover?’’ Jungkook shrugs and smiles slyly.

I slowly slide over to him, taking his side, and smile at him as he watches me, taken aback. ‘’Hwaiting.’’ I put my hands into fists, showing him my support.

He turns to Joon, and from his side, I can see that he is pressing his lips together, most likely suppressing a smile.

My gaze drops to the ground, he really is handsome no matter from what angle.

They both hold out their hands and get ready. ‘’Rock, Paper, Scissor!’’

~ ~ ~

We lost.

It wasn’t that bad
to be honest, the only thing bothering me was the pompous look on Joon’s face.

Smiling reassuringly, I tilt my head to the side and focus on Jungkook instead, ignoring Joon. ’'It’s OK, don’t worry about it.’’ He had a smile on his face but looked regretful nonetheless. It was a nice gesture anyway.

After that, the teacher gives each group their dance and respective song, getting into the explanation of how to start, he lets us organize a little more until the class ends.
Dance class is like that, a lot of freedom. This teacher was great for relaxing after classes like Mathematics.

‘’Is this dance hard?’’ I ask not particularly to anyone.

Jungkook, who had been looking at his phone, snaps his head in my direction surprised by my question.

I look at the sheet of paper we were given. “'Beast’ that’s their name, right? How many members do they have?’’

Jungkook’s face was adorable, still in that astounded state. ‘’You don’t know?” He questions as if not believing that I really didn’t know.

‘’I don’t.’’ I confirm innocently, ‘’I don’t really know any musicians.’’ Whatever it is that I said made him look relieved. My eyebrows rise in confusion.

‘’Don’t mind her, she’s not normal.“ Joon teases me, flicking his hand at me.

My eyes instantly find him and fire back. ‘’How can I be when I’m with you all the time.’’
I push myself up from the hard dance floor walking as he puts his hand on his heart feigning being hurt, making me snicker silently.

With Jungkook having kept his eyes on me as I stood up, I somehow felt a little self-conscious.
I continue making my way towards my backpack looking for my coat since the air con was making me a little chilly.
Not being able to find it after a while, I think back to when I took it off before class and realize that I had left it on my seat when I left with Lee.

I return to my position on the floor and shiver, so I wrap my arms around my legs. I get cold easily but I'm also stubborn because I could always put on the yellow school blazer but I hated the color.
Joon was engrossed in the dance practice video on his iPad and Jungkook had scooted over next to him doing the same with a concentrated look on his face, intensely focusing on the screen.

I sit there motionless with my head resting on my legs, my thoughts drifting, I close my eyes almost dozing off in the middle of class when the bell rings, signaling the end of class.

Opening my heavy eyelids, my eyes spot Jungkook sitting by himself without Joon, his head rested against the wall he was leaning on.
And in that moment all I could do was stare in awe. From this angle, I see the other side of him, he had looked cute before but now from where I sat, I could see just how attractive he is. His face is more defined than I thought.

Surprisingly, his soft round eyes matched very well with that trait. Even though he was wearing loose fitted clothes, I could tell he was built athletically. Everything was well balanced and fit together nicely.

Totally forgetting again that I was blatantly staring, I snap my eyes back to his face wanting to make sure that he hadn’t caught me.
But he had.
I look away sheepishly, flustered at being caught but I can’t help and sneak a glance to see him smiling like a little kid.
One second he has got the most endearing smile and the next he looks incredibly charismatic.

Before I can make more of a fool out of myself, I stand up and grab my backpack, quickly bowing to the teacher, telling him he has worked hard even though he hasn’t really, not in this class at least.

Rushing out after the other students, I slow down when I see Lee leaning against the wall, deep in conversation with none other than Joon.

Ah, so that’s where he went. Shaking my head at my friends’ eagerness to abandon me like that, I return to homeroom and grab my coat not even bothering to change since I had to be at work anyway.

Another day almost over. Another day almost survived.


~~~
Thx for reading ^^  -K