Today Minsun had a meeting with the Math Club members. It had been a while since they held meetings at the library. Recently, even though there were so many supporters of the TaecSun couple and there were no more reasons of worrying about Minsun’s antis, the Math Club didn’t plan on returning to the library, since the two juniors in the club never had any complain; in fact they were enjoying the meetings at the gym while the basketball team practiced there. Plus, Taecyeon didn’t seem to approve the idea of letting Minsun out of his sight yet.

It was nothing new to see the Math Club members burying their faces into the thick reference books with calculators in their hands while the basketball team having their drills. Both clubs were so used to each other’s presence, including Coach Cho. From time to time, he would push Wooyoung into the study circle as well.

However, today, something out of ordinary happened. Usually, even after the meeting ended, Minsun would continue with her studying, not paying much attention to the basketball team. But today, it wasn’t the same. Wooyoung’s sharp eyes caught her closing her book, and putting them aside. She stood up from her spot, and headed towards the bench that was closer to them, usually occupied by Munhwa, the coach, and from time to time, Gohee. Minsun casually said hi to Munhwa and then sat by her side.

“Psst,” Wooyoung whispered to Taecyeon who was standing beside him. They were practicing on their passing skills. The whole team formed two lines and passed the ball in a zig zag motion.

“What?” Taecyeon replied, not averting his eyes from the quick passing.

“Did you see Minsun?”

“What?”

“Minsun is watching from Munhwa’s bench,” Wooyoung whispered harder, but Taecyeon only heard words with lots of air in them.

“What?”

“Minsun is watching you!”

“Huh?”

“I SAID MIN-OUCH!!”

“Hey!” Taecyeon shouted. The passing stopped immediately when Wooyoung tumbled on his back after a ball hit his head.  Taecyeon quickly crouched by his side and pulled Wooyoung up. Munhwa and Coach Cho quickly ran to him too and crouched by Taecyeon’s side.

“Hey, you okay?” Taecyeon held Wooyoung’s head with both his hands and checked it carefully to find any possible bruises.

“Ouuuch…” Wooyoung rubbed his forehead and nodded. “Yea, I’m fine…”

“Are you sure?” Munhwa asked.

“Uh, yea…” Wooyoung squinted his eyes, and from the gap between Munhwa and Taecyeon, he could see Minsun shook her head from her seat. 

Darn it. It was all her fault.

“Sorry, dude. I didn’t know you weren’t looking.” Chansung said, scratching the back of his head, looking sorry.

“It’s okay, I’m fine.”

“Okay guys, let’s take a break.” Coach Cho announced.

Both Taecyeon and Chansung helped Wooyong up and brought him to the benches. It was then when Taecyeon finally realized what Wooyoung was trying to tell him. He saw Minsun sitting gracefully at the bench, and smiled at him when he looked her way.

“Chansung, can you take Wooyoung to the bench?” Taecyen asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

With that, Taecyeon let go of Wooyoung, and then straight away headed towards where Minsun was. He managed to pass a look at Jaebum, and the vice-captain understood right away. Jaebum called for the team members, including the coach and pretended that he had something funny to tell them to get them focusing at somewhere else but Taecyeon. Jaebum couldn’t stop them from prying on the shy couple though, but Taecyeon was thankful enough that they don’t have to be near him.




“Hey,” Taecyeon said as he sat by her side, at the side where the rest couldn’t fully see Minsun behind his big body.

“Hi,” she replied. When Taecyeon was finally settled down, she handed him a tumbler.

“What’s this?” Taecyeon received it, and started to screw open it’s cap. 

“It’s a ginseng drink. I brew it last night for you. Halmeoni helped me. She said it’s good for energy.”

Taecyeon carefully took a sniff of the drink. From the smell, Taecyeon had a feeling that the drink was going to be bitter. He poured a small amount into the cap, and tasted it first. His face immediately scrunched up from the extreme bitterness. The taste wouldn’t leave his tongue and throat even after he swallowed the drink.

“Bitter, huh? But you’ll feel energized next morning.” Minsun asked, smiling, as if laughing at him that he had to drink it.

“God,” Taecyeon stuck out his tongue, letting the air dried his tongue first so the bitter taste would go away.

“You have to drink all of it.”

“Is that a challenge or what?”

“Depends on you,”

Taecyeon smirked. “Well, since you brewed it for me,” he shrugged and then poured the whole content of the small tumbler into his throat like it was water. In one shot, he finished all of it, not leaving even a drop. 

“GAH!” He wiped away a drop of the ginseng drink dripping down his chin. His brows scrunched up so much that Minsun laughed at his face. Instead of feeling annoyed, he felt better. It felt so much better to hear her lovely voice laughing gently like that. She almost reminded him of Subin but he quickly brushed the thought away, and laughed along with her.

“There, I drinked it. All of it.” He said as he turned the tumbler upside down, proving to Minsun that there was no water left.

“Great. I’ll bring it again, everyday from now on.”

“Everyday?” His eyes widened, but then quickly followed by his hearty laugh. Naturally, Minsun picked up a towel from the bench and then wiped away his sweat for him. His forehead, his temple, his neck,  as he casually chat away about how there was this sunbae from the basketball team he looked up to had a special drink of his own that he brought everyday too. Minsun nodded from time to time while she did that, and he didn’t really respond to what she was doing either, it was as if he was used to her doing that for him, because it just felt right.




“Hey, hey, guys! Isn’t that Minsun wiping his sweat?” Coach Cho narrowed his eyes to have a better look at the new couple, at the same time trying to look subtle, but obviously failed.

“That’s a good observation, sir!” Junho complimented, and then quickly took out his phones to snap some pictures while Chansung eagerly waited behind him.

“Guys,” Munhwa weakly protested. She kept pulling on Junho’s sleeve but the boy ignored her. Ever since TaecSun had become widely accepted, he and Chansung had been blatant about spying on them. 

“Guys, can you at least not look obvious?” Munhwa begged but could only sighed when there was no response from them, or even the coach who kept trying to figure out what Taecyeon and Minsun were doing or talking about.

“Heh, he’s not so bad after all,” Jaebum commented while crossing his arms. He turned to Gohee, asking for her opinion, “Don’t they look good together?”

Gohee smiled, but she didn’t reply. She seemed to be thinking about something. Suddenly, she reached out for his hands and then clasped their fingers together.

Smiling gently, she said, “How about we go on a date this weekend?”

Jaebum smirked. Usually, Gohee wasn’t mushy or clingy or always asking for attention like how girls were supposed to, but when she showed that she needed him, he always felt like kissing her. It was moments like this he had to hold back from cursing out loud, because he couldn’t do that – kiss her.




“Goodbye,” Taecyeon waved to Minsun who was already in her seat at the bus. Minsun waved him back and watched him disappear as the bus started moving. It was a new routine for them both, and it just naturally happened. Everyday after practice, Taecyeon would walk her to the bus stop and waited until she got onto the bus, even though Wooyoung was always around if he wanted someone to keep an eye on her.

Wooyoung couldn’t help but felt like he was born to be the third person in everybody’s story. He always had to be the one to see or hear everything, he guessed he couldn’t really blame himself for being naturally nosy, but people kept telling him, ‘Stop being nosy, Wooyoung!’. 

And that annoyed the hell out of him.

Wooyoung left his seat and went to the front. He took the seat behind Minsun. Whenever he had to talk to her, he always sat behind her, instead beside her. He guessed it was easier to speak honestly without having to face her. She didn’t seem to mind, so it was all good.

“Seems like everything is going well between you and Taecyeon hyung.”

“I guess so,” Minsun replied casually, as if she was expecting his comment anyday.

“And I thought you have no feelings for him?”

“I’m still trying to figure that out. Whether I really have no feelings towards him, I mean. He’s a nice guy, though.”

“You sound mean,”

“Do I?” Minsun rested her elbow by the window pain and rested her chin on her palm. Wooyoung couldn’t see her face, but he guessed she was worried when he told her that. Wooyoung secretly cringed. He should have been a bit more sensitive. She was still a girl after all. A bit dull and mysterious, but still a girl nonetheless, he made a mental note. And it wasn’t easy to forget the guy she liked if she had to see him everyday.

“But you make a good girlfriend for him.” Wooyoung tried to make up for his previous comment.

“I see,”

Wooyoung sighed. “How do you change so easily? Aren’t you always the cold, quiet, ignorant girl with an emotionless, sometimes mean stare? How can you be such a caring girlfriend within days?” Was that too much? Wooyoung wondered. But he was always bold and honest whenever he was conversing with Minsun. Ah, girls are such difficult beings.

“Because I’m his girlfriend. Of course I have to be nice to my boyfriend.”

“You make it sounds easy.”

“Why don’t you try?”

“Huh?”

“Start being nice to Munhwa.”

“You’re changing the topic.” Wooyong narrowed his eyes, looking at her suspiciously. It wasn’t like she could see it though.

“I thought that was the topic to start with.”

Wooyoung leaned his body on the back rest as he heaved a sigh. Whenever she talked about Munhwa, it felt as if a big, burdensome rock fell onto his shoulders. He liked Munhwa, yes, but she hated him for always bullying her. He didn’t want it to be awkward between them if he suddenly showed her his interest towards her.

“Maybe you could start by carrying the first aid kit, or even her bag for her.”

“Thank you for the suggestion anyway,” Wooyoung said flatly, obviously not approving her suggestions. Munhwa would freak out if he ever did that. Worse, she might not let him touch her stuffs at all, thinking he was trying to pull a prank on her.

“You’re welcome,”

Wooyoung could see her smile just from hearing her slightly sing-song reply. Was she having fun teasing him with Munhwa?






The next day, Minsun had lunch with Taecyeon again, under that big tree at the field. Smiling and laughing with him. Probably talking about Math again. Or basketball. Them meeting under that tree was like it was their prominent sign that they were seeing each other, and Wooyoung still couldn’t grasp the fact that a girl whom he seen as emotionless, sometimes a bit mean could be such a person now. A couple of boys from his class started to dub her as the ‘dream’ girlfriend, a girl who would only stick to one guy, look at one guy, and talk to one guy. There was some truth in that, Wooyoung wouldn’t be surprised if the whole school started to call her that next day.

Back in class, like always, Wooyoung was hanging out with his guy friends. Without him realizing, he was watching Munhwa the whole time. It was all Minsun’s fault for bringing up her name yesterday, he ended thinking about her the whole night, or rather, how to take a step further in their relationship. His conscience kept saying it was impossible, but that just made Wooyoung think harder. 

Wooyoung kept staring at her, secretly, pretending like he was listening to whatever his friend was saying. From his seat, he saw Munhwa laughing with her girlfriends, one of them the loudmouthed girl who said she liked Wooyoung the most from the basketball team. And then, a boy stopped by her desk, said something to her, and her expression brightened. She never looked like that when he was talking to her. Except that one time when he told her that he passed his entire reseat exams.

Tch.

The guy looked into her lunchbox, and from the movement of her lips, Wooyoung could tell she was offering him some of her lunch. The guy picked up an egg roll, and then commented on it, and then she looked happier. Next thing the girls began exchanging the contents of their lunchboxes.

@^(*3$4v7w*6&($#.




After the class ended, both Wooyoung and Munhwa walked together to the gym. They were a bit late because it was their duty to clean the class that day so Minsun had left first, with Taecyeon. Wooyoung mentally rolled his eyes. As usual, when Wooyoung hadn’t started his prank on her, she would stay in a positive mood, and chatting happily on the way to gym, even with him. She was talking about something like a hurt kitten she found or something. And since the kitten had really small eyes she said it reminded her of him. Wooyoung groaned, but she laughed carefreely. But then, Wooyoung noticed something. The folders she hugged to her chest. He could guess that those were reports that either she or the coach made on the team. The coach probably asked her to bring older folders for him to have a review on their development. The folders didn’t seem heavy, but since they were rather large, it seemed difficult for her to hold all of them.

Should he ask her if he should help with them?

Or maybe he should just snatch them away from her. But then she might mistaken him from progressing into a ert from a prankster.

“Hey, guys, wait for us!” 

Wooyoung heard Chansung’s voice from behind. He must be with Junho since they were from the same class, two classes down from his and Munhwa’s. Sometimes they all walked together to the gym.

“What’s those, Munhwa?” Junho casually asked her.

“Ah, these are copies of the previous records on your practice. Coach wanted to keep them.”

“Let me hold them for you.” Chansung said, smiling. He reached out his hand, and Munhwa willingly handed the folders to him.

“Thanks, Chansung. My arms started to get stiff holding on those large folders.”

“My pleasure,” Chansung flashed his casanova smirk, which often drove a lot of girls in the audience wild during their matches.

@^(*3$4v7w*6&($#.




They divided the members into two teams and had a practice match. It was always fun whenever they do this. It was like playing games instead of practicing. Usually during a practice match like this, Coach Cho wasn’t as strict either. He just went along and had fun with the boys. Wooyoung on the other hand seemed to have lower energy than usual. He was always the one who enjoyed a practice match like this  the most, but today he just seemed uninterested.

Wooyoung was dribbling a ball towards the goal post, but Junho suddenly passed by him and stole the ball from him, quite easily and it surprised Junho either. But that didn’t stop Junho from going through the defenses of the opposite group and finally got near the goal post. He bent his knees as he was about to jump and make a lay-up shot, only to fool the defense from the opposite team and passed the ball to the best shooter in their team, Taecyeon.

Wooyoung who was standing nearby quickly averted his attention to Taecyeon and attempted to block him from making a successful shot. Taecyeon with his height and confidently went for a three-pointer shot. Feeling extremely annoyed at Taecyeon - for some reason he didn’t even know though - Wooyoung jumped as high as he could, and with his good reflex, he managed to slapped the ball to another direction, hoping that a member from his team who had been covering him would snatch the ball away from the opposite team.

But then, in the quick five seconds of his life, Wooyoung turned around with a big grin on his face only to find that the ball found its malicious way to Munhwa’s arm. Everybody rushed to her, asking her if she was okay and all; while he stared in shock at what he had done to a girl he had a deep crush at. And then, as if he was seeing things in slow motion, he saw Munhwa looked up and stared at him with anger, and maybe a bit tears in her eyes. She must be thinking that he did that on purpose.

@^(*3$4v7w*6&($#, there wasn’t a single second for him to act nice to her!




Everyone was bidding goodbye to each other, and then one by one left the gym. Minsun and Taecyeon left together, walking side by side until they part at the bus stop in front of the school. Wooyoung purposely be the last to leave, pretending that he had so much to do before leaving, like mopping the floor and put the ball cage inside the storage room again. He usually was the first to run away from such task at every chance, except when Taecyeon punished him for it. However, Munhwa who was always the last to leave didn’t pay any attention to him at all, instead she kept herself busy checking on her notes for the day to make a report for that day’s practice. Wooyoung already ran out of reason to stay any longer, so he had to leave anyway before she did. After a while, when she was finally satisfied of her records, she shoved all her stuffs into her bagpack and then picked up the first aid kit to return it to one of the discipline teacher’s office, who was also the manager of the gym.

Munhwa nonchalantly walked past the entrance door, but quickly took a step back and let out a shriek when she saw someone she didn’t expect waiting, standing against the wall outside.

“Yah, you didn’t have to be that surprised.” Wooyoung frowned and straightened his back.

“Sorry, I just, I thought you already left.” Munhwa let out a relieved sigh and placed her hand on her chest. She turned around to lock the door of the gym, and then had to return the key to the office too.

“So, why haven’t you left yet?” she asked casually as if the little incident just now didn’t happen, while locking the door.

“Just because.” Wooyoung looked at the ground as he kicked a little stone there.

“Huh? Why?” Munhwa’s eye brows rose in wonder, and then scrunched up together. Her eyes looked a bit rounder as she started paying her attention to him though she looked ridiculously cute all confused like that. If Wooyoung was a bit bolder, he would have take a step forward and steal a peck from her lips.

After she finished locking the door, Munhwa walked closer to him and stood by his side. Wooyoung who was staring at the ground saw the first aid kit in her hand, and remembered something about what Minsun told him before.

“Maybe you could start by carrying the the first aid kit, or the even her bag for her.”

“Wooyoung, do you hear me?” Munhwa tilted her head to the right so she could see his face better since he was looking down the whole time.

Without replying her, without even a word of warning, he snatched the first aid kit away from her hands and started to stride away into the teacher’s office direction.

“Hey!” Munhwa jogged a bit to catch up to Wooyoung’s fast, wide steps and quickly put her hand over his, trying to grab back the first aid kit from its handle.

“Hey, return that back to me!” she tried to pull his hand away from the box, but obviously failed.

“Aish, this girl! Would you let go?! I’m taking this to the office!”

Munhwa’s eyes became wider and rounder when she heard that from Wooyoung’s mouth. Was he telling her the truth or was it another prank he was planning on her? 

“Are you sure you’re not… planning, anything funny…?” Munhwa stubbornly, but a bit timidly tugged on the first aid kit.

“What do you think I would do with a first aid kit?” He did had a bad reputation with first aid kit, but Munhwa or the rest of the basketball members were still unaware of that story.

“I… don’t know… Something not… nice?”

“Ugh.” Wooyoung turned around and continued his way to the office.

“Hey, wait for me,” she shouted from his back.

Wooyoung secretly grumbled that he had to have Munhwa following him from behind, watching his every move with suspicious eyes. 

@^(*3$4v7w*6&($#






It was Saturday, and that meant no practice session for the basketball team. On days like this, Minsun didn’t go straight home either. She would stay seated at her desk solving mathemathic problems. She loved it more when there was nobody in the class. There was nothing to worry about, no one to feel awkward at her being quiet. The solidity made her feel secure.

“Why aren’t you home yet, Wooyoung?” Minsun asked without even looking up from her practice book, it had been almost 20 minutes since school ended but for some reason Wooyoung didn’t leave. Instead he sat there at his desk, resting his chin on his propped hand and stared at her the whole time.

There was a sigh being heaved, and that made Minsun to pause, put down her pencil and looked up. She adjusted her glasses a bit. And there she saw a moody Wooyoung, which wasn’t any better than the mischievous Wooyoung. He might want to talk about something with her.

“I did it.” He said, looking bored when he was actually feeling upset. There was something in his eyes which made him seemed like he was being angry at her too. 

“Did what?”

“Being nice to Munhwa.”

“Oh, you did?”

Silence.

“It didn’t turn out good?”

“You knew?”

“I guessed,” Minsun laughed, which annoyed Wooyoung further.

“I knew it wasn’t a good idea to start with. She thought I was trying to pull a leg on her. She was being really careful that she had to walk 2 meters away from me!”

“Well, if I was her, I would be like that too.”

“So now what?”

“Well, keep doing it.”

“Are you crazy?!”

“Or at least, just stop bullying her.”

“I think you’re just making it awkward for me.”

Minusn shrugged, as if saying, ‘Fine, take it however you want.’ Wooyoung stared at her suspiciously but suddenly, Gohee appeared at the door. She was looking for Minsun but her eyes quickly caught Wooyoung.

“Oh, Wooyoung, hi! Why are you still here?” She asked as she welcomed herself into the class, walking towards Wooyoung.

“Uh, nothing. Just asking some questions at Minsun.”

“Oh,” Gohee looked at Minsun’s direction. Minsun smiled at her while packing up her things. “It must be about homeworks, huh? Good for you.”

“Uh, yeah…” Wooyoung replied weakly. He awkwardly massaged his neck since it was a far-fetched lie, though not on purpose.

Minsun already done packing up and in gentle, calm steps, she stepped closer to Gohee with a gentle smile adorning her small, pretty face.

“Are you ready?” Gohee asked.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” Minsun nodded.

“Hey, where are you guys going?” Wooyoung suddenly back to his nosy, cheerful self. Minsun smiled to herself knowing this boy would not stay depressed for a long time unlike how he claimed to be. He was the type who would move on quickly instead of wasting his time dwelling in the past that cannot be returned.

Minsun looked at Gohee, smiling, telling her to answer Wooyoung’s question for her.

“Well, if you’re really curious about it, why don’t you come along?” Gohee said for the last time before the girls ignored Wooyoung’s questions and complains afterwards.