The prettiest pair of eyes is staring into his eyes when they open. They are so pretty that he is shocked and springs up too quickly for her to get out of the way. Bam!

“Oww . . .” they both groan in unison, hands clutched to their foreheads.

“I’m sorry,” they both say in unison, eyes meeting in apology.

“No, I’m sorry,” says Steph. “It’s all my fault. Too fast to react. Like always.” She sighs. “I hope you can forgive me.”

“Er, yeah, you can forgive me.” Taeng shakes his head. “I mean, I’ve already forgiven you.”

Steph smiles sheepishly. “You’re nice. I knew you’re nice. I just—” she sighs again, “I suppose there’s no excuse for hitting you with the bone. I shouldn’t have done that. No matter what.” Her fingers touch Taeng’s temple with care. “Does it hurt?”

Taeng can’t feel any hurt. All he can feel is the magnetism of Steph’s stare as she looks at him. It would be nice if he could look into them forever . . .

“Taeng! Are you alright?” The loud voice snaps Taeng out of his dreamy cloud. He turns and looks. It is the girl who had found them in the shed. A wet tongue his hand. It’s Prince Fluffy. Absently, he pets the smiling dog and replies, “I’m alright. But who are you?”

“I’m Hyoyeon.”

“Hyoyeon explained everything to me. That’s how I know you didn’t tell Ha Min anything.” Steph pouts. “I should’ve known Ha Min would do something like that.”

Taeng’s eyes widen in alarm. “Ha Min sent Hyoyeon to spy on us?”

“Yeah, she asked me to follow you.” Hyoyeon grins as she leans against the wall. “You’re an easy target. Totally unsuspecting.”

“Why would Ha Min ask you to follow me?”

“She’s a . She wants to know everybody’s secret so she can control them.”

Taeng shudders. “That sounds scary.”

Steph nods. “She is.”

“I don’t think I want to be her friend.” Taeng turns to Hyoyeon. “Please don’t tell Ha Min about Prince Fluffy.”

Hyoyeon rolls her eyes. “I’m not her minion. I only sit at her table to get out of trouble.”

Taeng smiles. “So you won’t tell her about Prince Fluffy?”

“Of course not.” Hyoyeon squats and ruffles Prince Fluffy’s fur with a smile. “Prince is such a cute dog. I invited Steph to bring Prince to meet Barbara.”

“Who’s Barbara?”

“My poodle.” Hyoyeon’s smile sweetens. “You can come with if you want.”

Taeng’s smile is wider than ever. “Yes, please. I wanna go too.”

|\/\/|

“As classmates . . .” Seo stands in front of the mirror and smiles. “Hi, I’m Seo. I’m saying hi as a classmate—urgh. No. That’s not right.” He checks his notebook. “Friendly . . .”

Looking at the mirror again, Seo clears his throat. “Hi, I’m friendly Seo. I’d like to be your friend.”

“You can talk to me. I’m friendly.”

“Let’s talk as friends.”

“Can we be friends?”

What if she says no?

Seo sighs and sinks to the floor. Why is this harder than any stoichiometry problem out there?

A wet tongue Seo’s hand and he smiles. He can’t help it. His dog is too cute. “Bbobbo, if only you could help me with this problem . . .” says Seo as he picks up his little white fluffy dog and hugs it. “But I guess I have to do this one my own. Somehow.”

|\/\/|

“Grandpa Kim, I promise I’ll be back before it’s too dark.”

“Don’t say it just to get me to agree to this. You have to be on time,