“Achoo!”

Jiwon cracks her neck from left to right before looking back down to the pink scented paper she’s writing on. With her half-opened eyes, she smiles while rereading the first few sentence she just wrote. There was a sudden knock on her door which made her stop. “Come in, Aunty.” She replies in between coughing. “Jiwon-ah, why are you still up so late? You have school tomorrow.” Aunt Hayoung walks over to her desk before touching her forehead without hesitation. “Been hearing you cough and sneeze, take a rest now. I’ll call your teacher, don’t go to school.” She suggests right away. Jiwon shakes her head before putting a random text book over the love letter she’s writing. “No, I’m okay. I just left my window open last night, got a mild cold, I closed it now I should be better by tomorrow. It’s nothing serious, you go back to sleep, Aunty.” She declines with a light smile.

“Aigoo, lately you’ve been attending school religiously. I’m not complaining but what’s with you, huh?~”

Jiwon grins while glancing down to the pink box on the edge of her table, inside are three packs of protein bar that has random notes hand-written on each wrapper and a small Spongebob keychain that she bought from a thrift store. “Nothing, just kind of inspired lately.” She briefly answers while holding a grin from coming out of her. “Well that’s good then. Anyway, if you don’t feel better by tomorrow, we have a cold and cough medicine in the medicine cabinet. Take them okay? I’ll go to work early tomorrow since one of my staffs is going to be absent, it’ll be busy.” Aunt Hayoung reminds before giving her a kiss on the top of her head. Once the older woman left, Jiwon removed the book from the letter right away while grinning.

She had to re-write the letter a couple of times before finally getting satisfied with it.

She went to bed at exactly 2AM, passing right out on her bed as soon as her body landed on it.

“Mr. Byun, where’s your lab partner?”

Baekhyun confidently shakes his head while fixing his lab gown. “I don’t need one, Sir.” He answers before sitting down. The teacher blinks while looking around the classroom, everyone all ready for their experimentation with their chosen partners, there’s a group of three students since Baekhyun declined a partner.

“Okay, class. I know this is the last period and you’re all tired from your previous P.E. class but bear with me, this experimentation will be fun, I guarantee you.” The teacher announces while looking at the students who look rather sleepy. “Baekhyun ssi, you were in a meeting last time do you want me to give a brief introduction to the experiment first, for you?” The teacher offers which Baekhyun politely declined. He bows before shaking his head. “I’m well prepared, sir. Thank you for the concern. I’ll probably do better than everyone.” He confidently answers and being the BYUN BAEKHYUN, no one dared to react negatively, they even nodded in agreement. “Very well, we should begin. Remember, listen to my intstructions carefully and don’t be ahead of me or you might cause a mess.” The teacher declares while fixing the papers on his table.

So eventually, their experiment began and just as Baekhyun expected, he finished first. He easily followed every instruction, doing it effortlessly without getting any errors on the first try. The other students on the other hand had trouble following the instructions, some of them even making a mess on the floor. “Impressive.” The teacher compliments while observing Baekhyun’s work. “Well, answer the experimentation test sheet and don’t forget the conclusion at the bottom, a lot of students leave that out sometimes. It doesn’t have to be an essay, you know that Mr. Byun, straight to the point. I don’t think I need to further explain. Good job. If you have any Student council-related work, you can leave after submitting me your answer sheet.” The teacher pats his back before walking to the other side of the classroom, to help the other students.

In fact, his teacher was right.

After his chemistry class, he needs to go straight to the student council office to finish off the floor plans of the field and the auditorium for the foundation week that will officially start next week. The other officers’ job is to check on each class about their booths and confirm all of their concepts so nothing would overlap. he grabs the sheet from the teacher’s table and started answering it, occasionally glancing at his work for the answers. It took him about fifteen minutes to finish off the sheet before submitting it to the teacher. “Okay, you could leave your work in my lab office and then you could go. Good work, Baekhyun ssi.” The teacher says while grabbing the paper. “Yes, I will. Thank you. Good day, sir.” Baekhyun bows politely before rushing to his desk, grabbing his work and walking out.

He glances in the classroom again and smirks. “Idiot.” He mouths seeing his classmates struggle on their works. As he walks to the teacher’s lab office, he arches his back to stretch while cracking his neck from side to side. Today, he had three makeup classes, two special exams that he missed last week, another three special quizzes in a single subject and a very tiring P.E. class. His chemistry class would be the least tiring for him today. Arriving in the lab office, he places his work the desk beside the shelves before walking straight out.

“I really like you. . .”

He closes his eyes as irritation grows inside of him. That voice, that phrase began replaying in his head again. He taps himself on the forehead as if waking himself up.

“You’re so cute.”

“Ahhh—no, no I’m not hearing anything.” He covers his ears this time while shaking his head. “This is not the first time that someone said they like you and that you’re cute. This is nothing special, Byun Baekhyun. Nothing new.” He continuously reminds himself while walking faster. As he was going downstairs, he begins hearing her voice again. He continues doing so until he arrives downstairs in their office. He rushes to his desk before sitting down the chair with a slight force. He slaps his own cheek before turning his computer on. “Focus.” He tells himself before glaring down the monitor. He opens the file for the floor plan and continues where he left off.

“I saved your life when we were young. I’m your first crush.”

He purses his lips when he heard that voice again and this time with a random sentence. “Okay, woah.” He lets the chair roll away from the desk while shaking his head. “She didn’t even say that to you—oh god. What the heck, Byun Baekhyun.” He covers his face trying to supress the urge to scream in frustration. “You’re not my first crush. You’re not my first crush. You’re not my first crush.” He begins blurting out non-stop while still glaring at the monitor that’s almost a meter away from him now.

Suddenly, the door opened. “You’re not my first crush.” Baekhyun automatically exclaims while looking at the door. It was one of his officers, Chanmin. “Oh wow, that’s good to know. I’ve been worried these days, President.” He jokes, still keeping the honorifics, before walking to his own desk to get something. Baekhyun realized what he did and tapped his own mouth before twirling his chair to face the dude. “I-I wasn’t talking to you, I was memorizing a s-script for my English play. A-and. . . and don’t ever joke with me like that, I did not allow you to be all that comfortable with me I’m still your senior and your president. I’m letting you off today so be careful next time, is everything clear? ” Baekhyun makes up an excuse while clearing his throat, ending it with an authoritative order. He folds his arm on his chest while awkwardly glaring at the boy. He was too embarrassed and bothered. “It was a play.” He couldn’t help but to repeat while blinking rapidly.

Chanmin grabs a bunch of papers from his drawer before looking over to him.

“I’ll keep that in mind, sir. Oh and keep practicing, President. Hwaiting!” He says with a grin before walking to the door. Baekhyuun sighed in relief until the younger guy turned again. “But, president. Shouldn’t the play be in English then? Your line was in Korean.” The boy asks while blinking. “I-it was, it was a tragic love story of—” Baekhyun looks away while awkwardly scratching his cheek. He clears his throat before looking over to the boy with a cold stare. “—of some, Korean man and a foreigner. Yes, that’s right.” He successfully finishes off his lie while nodding, as if convincing himself that it was convincing enough. “Then shouldn’t be the Korean man be speaking in English?” Chanmin continues asking making Baekhyun frown even harder. “You don’t understand the story—can you just leave? I’m busy and you’re annoying me. Get out of my sight!”