It’s now Thursday morning, and as I skate into the school gates, I suddenly feel myself being crushed by a pair of arms.

“Hyeri-yah, where have you been?!” questions a voice, which further startles me.

I let out an alarmed squeal, as I try to regain my balance. “Minah, I’m going to fall over, if you don’t stop shaking me!” I frantically warn.

She immediately stops her yanking, and then tries her best to help steady my stance. “Your mom told me that you were sick,” she says, with a frown. “But I know you better than to believe that, so what happened? Seyong couldn’t have scared you that much, to make you miss school for three whole days, right?”

My eyes avoid her own, as I awkwardly clear my throat, “Well...”

Minah studies my face for a bit, where her lips then gradually form into a circle of surprise. “Omo, that’s why you’ve been at home?!” she exclaims, with astonishment.

I let out a nervous giggle. “Yeah,” I shamefully admit. “I had a lot of thinking to do, but I know what to do now. And by the way, I think you should reconsider Gunwoo’s feelings.”

Taken aback by the last part of my comment, Minah gives me a weird look. “And why is that?” she asks, looking a tiny bit suspicious.

I shrug my shoulders, and then show her a smile; “He’s a good person, who seems to like you a lot...so why not?”

Minah blinks at me for a bit, as though she really is thinking about it, and this makes me snigger. I then snap her out of her thoughts, by telling her how I desperately need to go to my locker to put these heavy textbooks away, and she gives me the affirmative. During our short trip there, I slowly begin to fill her in on my liking for Seyong, and at first, she's ecstatic, happy to know that I've found an answer, but then that cheery smile then turns into a sly one, as she begins to playfully nudge me, where her constant teasing makes me feel shy.

"Aigoo, look at you; all pink in the face," she giggles. "This is really cute, since it's about time you guys got together!"

Taking off my rollerblades, I ignore her blush comment, and then crease my brows. "What do you mean 'it's about time', were you hoping for this before, or something?" I sarcastically query, while putting on my school shoes.

There's a slight pause, and when I return my attention back to her, her sheepish smile greets me. "Eheheh...sort of?" she meekly squeaks out.

"What?!" I exclaim. "Did you make a bet or something or—" The increase in her nervous tinkling laughter makes me gasp; "Oh, what the hell Minah, seriously?!"

My best friend quickly waves her hands at me in defence. "But we mean no harm!" she hastily replies, while still in her giggling fit.

"And who is this 'we'?" I sternly demand, with a pointed look.

Minah eventually regains her composure, and lets out a satisfied sigh. "Me, Junkyu, and Chaejin," she perkily lists.

My eyes slowly narrow at her, as she goes back to snickering away.

I'm not sure why, but her response makes me imagine the three of them, sitting in a dark garage somewhere, playing poker. My mind then continues on with this scenario, where Chaejin will then tell them that he doesn't know the rules to the game, so then Junkyu will suggest for them to play blackjack, or something. And as they're dealing out the cards, Minah will randomly ask them if poker and blackjack is the same thing, and so the three of them will eventually sit there in a silence, wondering what to do, since they’re all equally confused.

The scene will then suddenly change, as the three of them are now in a karaoke room, with Minah and Chaejin singing their hearts out, underneath a disco ball light, as Junkyu is in the corner somewhere, with a tambourine.

And because I realise how ridiculous my imagination is becoming, I force myself to snap out of it, and return back to reality.

"Anyway," I begin, and then ask; "Have you seen Seyong around?" 

Minah shakes her head. "No, I haven't," she answers. "I arrived a minute or two just before you, so—oh! There he is!"

Heart racing with anticipation, I then quickly dart my gaze over to where she's pointing at, to see him casually entering the hallway. He gives a friendly wave to one of the younger students, and for some reason, that interaction is enough to have her and her friend squealing with excitement, as they then skip away together. I suddenly find myself take a sharp intake of air, as his eyes then meet with my own. He stops where he is, and surprise is evident on his face, as our eye contact proceeds on.

But then I feel my unusual shyness take over, and this causes me to stick my head inside my locker.

"Oh my God," I yelp out, hearing my voice being echoed through this metal box. "Is he still there?"

"No," says Minah.

I blink, and then slowly withdraw my head out of my locker.

"We just waved at each other, and then he walked away?" she says, sounding a little confused.

"That's..." I can't find the words to describe my disappointment. "Oh," is all I end up saying, with a frown.

Minah returns her attention back to me. "I thought you were going to go and talk to him?" she asks, with a somewhat puzzled expression.

"I was!" I blurt out. "I really was, but then...ugh, I don't know, I kind of panicked."

A comforting smile appears on her face. "It's okay," she reassures. "You can always talk to him during lunch. And if that doesn't work, then there's always after school?" 

I give her a nod, and then force on a smile to help ease myself; "Yeah..."

———————————————

I'm not sure if it's my imagination, but I feel as though Seyong's ignoring me.

We only have two classes together, and that's History, and Cooking. But even so, during the time when the bell rings, to let everyone to move towards our next class, I would somehow see him somewhere along my walk, but that didn't happen today. During our history lessons, he would usually sit somewhere near me, but for this lesson, I saw him take a seat at the opposite end of the room. I found myself often glancing over to him, and would either see him happily chatting away, or just quietly completing his work. It strangely made me feel a little upset to feel him not acknowledge me in anyway, and when I saw him whisper something into Ahyoung's ear, making her giggle, I forced myself to finally turn away.

Ugh, the stupid J word is overflowing in me.

But thankfully, I can tell myself to forget about that stupid feeling for a while, as it’s now lunch time.

With my food in my hold, I go and take a seat down next to Minah, and just before my touches the chair, I can't help but find my eyes scanning for a certain red-head.

"Hey, welcome back!" greets Insoo, as he occupies the seat in front of me. "Where did you disappear off to?"

I give him a small smile, but it doesn't really reach my eyes. "Oh, I've been feeling unwell," I reply, with a little laugh. "It was like this huge combo of cramps and headaches and...yeah?"

Insoo makes a face, scrunching his nose slightly. "Ouch, that sounds bad," he says. "But thankfully you feel better now, since it was a little quiet, without you around."

This time, I show him a genuine beam; "Thanks."

As I go to pick at my food, wondering where Seyong could have disappeared to, Chaejin suddenly perks up from out of nowhere. "Hey, has anyone seen Seyong hyung around?" he asks, which successfully grabs my attention.

Insoo lets out a laugh. "He's scored himself a detention in maths, so he won't be eating with us, until later on," he explains, with a snicker.

My shoulders plummet down a little, as I mentally sigh.

Stupid Seyong, why is it now that I want to talk to him, that he's nowhere to be found?

Pushing these thoughts away for the time being, I try to occupy myself with my lunch and everyone else. We laugh and talk, and I find myself laughing more at Insoo's struggle to keep on a straight face, during our fruit game*. Time quickly passes by, as we go on to name as many fruits as we know in English, in the weirdest voice that we can think of without laughing.

Soon, the bell eventually rings, signalling the end of lunch, and the start of our second last period of the day.   

"Hyeri-yah, are you okay?" asks Minah, once it's just the two of us.

I let out a sigh, and then show her a frown. "Minah...I'm not sure if I'm being paranoid, but..." My eyes search the place one last time, for any signs of a specific butthead. "I feel as though Seyong's ignoring me?"

She gives me a weird look. "How so?" she questions.

I shrug my shoulders, not sure how to word this strange knot in my stomach. "I don't know, I just feel like he is," I lamely say.

"Well, he has been acting kind of weird," she admits. "But maybe he's just having a bad day? You have the last two classes with him now, so you can ask him then, yeah?"

I give her nod, "Mm, I guess so."

With a bright beam of encouragement, Minah waves me her goodbye, and then turns around to head towards the opposite side of the building, for her music class. I then begin to make me way over to the cooking classes, as a mixture of excitement yet nervousness stirs within me. The corners of my lips find themselves twitching up into a silly smile, at the thought of seeing him, and talking to him. I let out a small subtle laugh, as I try my best to shake the giddy feeling away, realising just how ridiculous I was being, at the mere thought of being around him.

Ha, I bet if I travelled back in time to last year, and told myself about this happening, my old self would laugh at my current self, calling me crazy.

As I enter into the kitchen-like classroom, my eyes immediately roam over the place, but once I realise that he's (once again) missing, I frown.

Seyong, where the heck are you?!

Inwardly groaning, I go to take a seat down at an empty table, hoping that the open seats would bring him over, when he arrives.

Out of nowhere, the sound of a folder suddenly landing on the table in front of me, straightens up my posture, but the person greeting me, isn't who I'm waiting for.

"Long time no see," says Zico, with a grin.

I show him a smile, but it felt more like with my teeth, than with me genuinely happy to see him too; "Hey Jiho."

"How have ya been?" he asks, while taking his seat. "I haven't seen you around lately, and you're normally not one to skip school, unless you're dying or something."

I give him a nod, laughing a little. "Yeah, it was something like that," I say. "A mixture of cramps and headaches; it was the worst."

"Damn, that must have been one heck of a virus," comments Zico, with a slight cringe.

The two of us continue to talk, until the teacher enters the room. At the sight of Mrs Choi taking out the class roll, I begin to search around the classroom, and once my eyes at long last, finally manage to find who they're looking for, I feel an uneasy twist in my stomach again.

Seyong is here, (he must have come in when I was too busy talking to away to Zico to have not noticed) but what makes me really think that he's avoiding me, is how far away from my table he is.

And just like how he was during our history lesson, he seems to be pretending as though he can't see me.

I'm so distracted by wondering just what's going through his mind, that Mrs Choi's lecture on the lesson, had completely whizzed pass me.

Now with a recipe sheet in front of me, I blink at it for a bit, only to realise that everyone is already putting on their aprons, and lining up over at the sink, to wash their hands. I quickly get up from where I am, tie on my own apron, and then head over to wash my hands. And when that's done, I then make my way over towards my working bench, to see Seyong already taking out the needed mixing bowls and measuring equipments.

I quietly make my way over to him, and as I realise that he's not going to say anything soon, I force myself to be the one to speak up first.

"Hey," I cautiously greet, with a small smile.

Without taking his eyes off the instructions sheet, he responds with a simple, "Hey."

I watch as Seyong continues on with the work, and find myself becoming more awkward. "Um, so how have you been?" I warily start off.

"So-so," he replies.

And that's it.

I can feel the knot in my stomach form into a bigger and more uncomfortable one, at his short responses.

Taking in a deep breath, I then force myself to tell him my thoughts about his confession. "Look, I've been thinking about what you said, and—"

But he suddenly cuts me off, and the sudden interruption makes me flinch with surprise. "No," he firmly says.

I blink, with wide eyes; "Huh?"

"I don't want to hear you say it," mutters Seyong.

I continue to stare at him, feeling completely baffled; "Uh...?"

Seyong stops mixing the butter, and lets out a sigh, as he finally looks at me, for the first time all day. "I don't want to hear you say it, because I'll be the one to say it," he states.

I'm still so very confused, as I watch how his eyes crease with sadness.

"I'm happy to just be friends, okay?" he says.

My heart halts for a second, but as he continues on, I don't know if I should hit him for being an idiot, or cry, because he's...well, an idiot.

An idiot, who clearly saw the wrong thing, at the wrong time, and has managed to interpret it in the most misunderstood way.

"Your mom told me that you were sick, so I went to visit you yesterday," he begins. "But then I saw you laughing with Gunwoo hyung, and I realised...I realised that no matter how much time I spend to get closer to you, in hopes of you feeling the same way with me, it will never happen. It will never happen, because your heart is so set on Gunwoo hyung, that no matter what I do or say, you just always go back to him." 

I feel my heart drop, as he gives me a bitter smile.

"Actually, you know what?" he suddenly pipes up. "Just say it. Go on; tell me how you don't like me, and want us to go back to how we were. Tell me how you don't want our friendship to be all awkward and stuff, and just...just hurry up and tell me how you don't like me, like I like you. Come on," he beckons. "Hit me!"

I gawk at him for a bit longer; "Well, the thing is—"

And before I can actually finish off my sentence, he suddenly bolts outside the classroom door, leaving me there, to feel even more confused than I already am.

———————————————

A/N: Since the last two chapters have been really short, and that I've taken a while to post this up, (life has been getting in the way, so I apologise .__.) I've decided to make this chapter a bit longer~ And because I enjoyed all of your reactions to Gunwoo's little ~act~ I've made sure to have this update filled with just as much confusion, and mixed feelings! Hehehe >:D

Oh, and by the way, the fruit game* mentioned up there, is a really funny game (I think it was Seyong who made it up, I can't really remember), where each person in the circle will list a fruit in English, in their most crazy voice. Chaejin ended up laughing at himself LOL and Seyong killed everyone when he said "Fruit cocktail" LOL, if you guys haven't seen this, it's in their 'Ta-dah! It's MYNAME' show, hahaha.

Anyway, see you all (hopefully soon) in the next chapter, and thank you so much for reading and commenting! ^^