The next day at school, everyone, and I mean everyone, was either avoiding me or wanted to be my new best friend. All I heard was, "Can you introduce me to your friends? They're so handsome!" I was seriously missing the days when nobody paid me any attention at all. But at least the bullies were leaving me alone.

 

  Bopping out to EXO’s new comeback, I took a little extra time getting ready this morning; a little extra makeup and a few extra curls from the curling iron. All I could think about was the night before. That starry-eyed silly grin was still plastered on my face. It felt like it had been stuck there all night.

 

  Of course, the guys never let me live it down. Every chance they got, they would tease me about it. But I could tell deep down they were supporting me. Jackson was the most excitable. He would randomly let out fanboy squeals. It was the funniest thing ever.

 

  My heart was floundering in my chest at first sight of Micah in English Lit. He was sitting across the room with his sports team, reclining in his chair and laughing at some unknown joke being told. Our eyes met briefly and he waved in acknowledgement, sending me a heartthrob smile.

 

  I swallowed hard. I hadn't really realized until now, but I was totally hooked. What little time I had spent actually getting to know my long time crush, I had fallen hard and fast for him.

 

  Blushing, I found my seat and dropped my books down in front of me on the desk. Feeling a light tap on my shoulder, I turned, surprised to see Katrina standing there with a nervous look on her face.

 

  "Can you give your friend this for me?" She shoved a piece of folded up lined notepaper at me.

 

  "My friend?" My confused mind was running through the long list of possibilities.

 

  She looked exasperated. "The cute one with red hair."

 

  Jimin. I should have known. Wow...is she actually blushing?

 

  I nodded awkwardly and stuck the note in my bag.

 

  “Thanks.” Katrina mumbled and ran off to join her gang again.

 

  Out of curiosity, I fished the note out again and unfolded it carefully. It read…

 

  HEY Y<3

WANT TO GO OUT SOMETIME?

 

  Oh yea, off to a great start. I rolled my eyes and shoved it out of sight, absolutely sure I would conveniently lose this somewhere along the way home. No way was I giving Jimin this note and tangling him up with that girl ...then again, maybe it’s her safety I should worry about.

 

  The teacher prattled on about the last chapter of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and talked about the week's final exam before summer break, while I halfheartedly listened and doodled in my notebook. Glancing down, a smile crept across my face at the cute little pumpkin chibi wearing Micah’s face.

 

  All this talk of summer was making me antsy! Imagining all the adventures the boys and I would have had me itching to escape the confines of school. Then I felt eyes on me. Peeking a glance to the left, I realized Micah was staring at me again. I stuck my nose back in my textbook to hide my blushing cheeks. If I was really honest with myself, school wasn't all that bad.

 

  The closer the clock ticked towards 4 o’clock, the more jittery I became. And surprisingly not because of the last day of detention. I wasn’t even nervous about detention anymore. My mind was preoccupied with possibilities and plot twists of what the evening’s study session might bring. Every time I thought of Micah sitting on the couch staring back at me, I blushed beet red. Let’s just say, I gained a lot of odd and confused stares that way.

 

  Detention was weird. Chase was avoiding me like the plague, which really wasn’t too unusual considering what happened. But then there was Katrina, who kept looking at me and smiling. I don’t think she meant to be creepy; but it totally came across that way. Teddy has a thing for Katrina and since she was basically ignoring him at the moment, I was on the receiving end of a very jealous evil eye from him.

 

  Walking up to the teacher’s desk, I handed in the Judicial System assignment; the one Chase and I had been working on. We only got halfway done before he went AWOL, so I had to finish the rest by myself. Hopefully I would get the credit points to knock my score back up from detention.

 

  T minus 10 minutes and counting. My foot bounced under my chair as my thumb nervously clicked the pen in my hand. Freedom was just around the corner. And so was Micah.

 

  Deep breaths. I still had to get home and change before he arrived. Oh yea… and eat. I forgot that last time. It might help me from losing consciousness, which is seriously where I felt I was headed if I didn’t get my palpitating heart under control soon.

 

  Before the final bell even finished echoing off the walls of the school, I was out the door and running down the sidewalk towards home. Goodbye Detention! Bursting into my bedroom, I startled BEATWIN and a few members from BTS who were hanging out playing Call of Duty on the Playstation.

 

  “Where’s the fire?” Namjoon asked, which immediately had Taehyung and Hoseok singing the chorus of Fire.

 

  I hunched over to catch my breath and only got out one word. “Micah.”

 

  “He’s coming over again?” Sunhyeok asked, standing up from his spot on the floor.

 

  I nodded.

 

  “Do you need our help again? You know, with makeup and stuffs?” Taehyung asked in cute Korenglish.

 

  I shook my head, and finally stood up straight. “Thanks. I think I got it this time.”

 

  Taehyung, in a very competitive mood, was trying to get as many points as possible. His fingers flying across the buttons of the controller as his eyes searched the TV screen for the opposing team. I’m assuming Jungkook was on that opposing team, because he put his hand up in front of Tae’s face to throw off his aim. Taehyung wasn’t even phased. Without missing a beat, he Jungkook’s hand and kept on firing. The poor maknae screamed out in disgust and dropped his own controller.

 

   “YESSSS!” Tae shouted at his victory, while the younger pouted.

 

  I opened my closet to get out a new shirt to change into and oddly enough found Yoongi asleep on the floor. Staring down at him in confusion, I glanced over my shoulder at Namjoon. “Is he supposed to be in here?”

 

  The leader walked over and looked inside my closet. “You’re right, that’s totally normal.” He raised an eyebrow. “Yoongi man, whatchu doing in there?”

 

  “Hiding from you guys.” The rapper spoke without even opening his eyes. “I can’t ever get a moment's peace around here.”

 

  “Mianhae.” Chuckling awkwardly, I pulled a shirt off the hanger and closed the closet door again, leaving him in the dark.

 

  Namjoon shrugged and shook his head with an amused expression, going back over to join the rest of the group in front of the TV. I hurriedly disappeared into the bathroom to change.

 

  I had just finished touching up my makeup, when there was a knock on the bathroom door. “Who is it?” I called out.

 

  “It’s your mother. Who else would it be?”

 

  I clambered to open the bathroom door. “Oh, hi!”

 

  “Are you expecting someone?” She looked down at my dressed up appearance.

 

  “Yea, Micah is coming back over to work on our end of year project.”

 

  She got a twinkle in her eye. “Oh? Is that all?”

 

  “Mom!” I was appalled. Not because she was wrong, but because she might be too close to the truth. I blushed.

 

  “Mhmm. I thought so.” She teased. “He is pretty cute… and well mannered.”

 

  I rolled my eyes, walking past her out of the bathroom. “Arasso Mom.” Suddenly remembering the kids hanging out in my bedroom, I asked nervously, “Did you just get home?”

 

  “No, I’ve been home for a while now.”

 

  “Oh.” Gulp. I hope we weren’t too noisy.

 

  We heard a tiny meow from down below. Looking down,we found Chanel rubbing on my shoes, trying to play with the laces.

 

  “Ah she’s probably hungry.” I reached down and picked her up, ready to go downstairs to get both of us some dinner.

 

  “I made some baked chicken and there’s salad in the fridge.” My mom turned to walk downstairs herself. I didn’t fail to notice though, that she glanced back at my bedroom door.

 

  After filling up on a yummy home cooked meal and giving the kitten some food as well, we sprawled out on the sofa waiting for Micah to arrive. Chanel sat atop my stomach making biscuits and her whiskers happily. She was purring like a tiny diesel engine. It was very relaxing. In fact, I almost drifted off to sleep. Before I knew it, the doorbell rang.

 

  Scrambling to get up, I answered the door. “Hi!” I grinned groggily at Micah.

 

  He gave me an amused look and stepped through the open door. “Hi yourself.”

 

  “Hello again young man.” My mom said cheerfully, coming out of the recesses of her bedroom. She was carrying her briefcase.

 

  He bowed again. “Hello ma’am.”

 

  “Oh sweetie, I have to do a really important conference call here in the kitchen. Do you mind taking your friend upstairs?” She opened her laptop and plugged her wifi adapter into the internet jack by the pantry.

 

  “Um ...ok.” I looked over at Micah. “You don’t mind, do you?”

 

  He shook his head. “Lead the way.”

 

  I climbed the stairs nervously. Have the boys disappeared? Did I remember to pick up my books off the floor? What would Micah think of my room? Clearing my throat, I slowly pushed open the door. The room was empty and everything seemed to be in order.

 

 “Wow! Sweet room!” Micah exclaimed, looking around at all my Kpop memorabilia. “And you have a playstation? I didn’t know you played!”

 

  “Um, yea!” I chuckled. I do now. Mental note: get the guys to teach me.

 

  He was browsing through all of my Kpop albums displayed on the bookshelf. “Amazing collection! Aw, sweet! I don’t have this one yet!” He held up K.A.R.D’s debut album. I still can’t get over how we have so much in common!

 

  Chanel bounded up the stairs and slipped through the open door, taking a running leap onto my bed. She meowed expectantly, waiting for us to pet her.

 

  “Oh, hello again!” Micah grinned, reaching his hand out to her fur. He sat down on the bed, and the kitten immediately climbed right in his lap.

 

  “Chanel! Have you no decency?” I chuckled in mock surprise.

 

  “It’s ok. She’s cute.” Micah laughed.

 

  I sat down at my desk and pulled out some notebook paper and a pencil. “Yes, because that totally makes it acceptable.”

 

  He laughed again. Chanel jumped down to inspect his folder when he laid it open beside him on the bed.

 

  Once we began actual work on the project, discussing more about music and culture over in South Korea, we learned we had even more in common. We shared the same interests for not just music but everything Asian, including their traditions and customs. He scribbled down ideas as fast as we could come up with them.

 

  “I wish we could go to Korea to experience it ourselves. It would really make this easier.” He stated thoughtfully. Just then, his pencil broke. He sighed and looked up at me. “Do you have a pencil sharpener?”

 

  “Oh, yea. It’s in my book bag in my closet.”

 

  Micah stood up and opened the door, letting out a girlish shriek. “Why is there a guy sleeping your closet? Is that...is that Suga?!?!”

 

  Crap. I had forgotten he was in there. “Um...about that...”

 

  “S’up.” Yoongi stood up unphased and extended his hand.

 

  Micah looked from the Kpop star to me like he had just checked into the mental institute.

 

  “What’s all the screaming?” BamBam stuck his head out of the GOT7 poster and looked around the room.

 

  My crush let out another fanboy shriek. I could tell he was losing it. Seriously, how was I supposed to explain all this?

 

  “I really have no clue how it happened, but for some reason my posters are magical and GOT7, BTS, AND BEATWIN hang out here most days.” Well that wasn’t too bad. Easier than I thought it would be. But the look on Micah’s face told me he was far from ok.

 

  Some more of the guys appeared, stepping out of my wall like it was the most natural thing in the world.

 

  “Yo! What up man!” Jackson shouted enthusiastically and held up a hand, ready for a high five.

 

  “This is insane.” Micah mumbled in a daze.

 

  “So you want to know more about Korean culture and music? Who better to ask than the natives themselves?” I grinned.