“I like you. A lot more than you know. And yeah we barely talk and you won’t even look into my eyes half the time but I want to get to know you, can I please please take you on a date?”

“Why…”

Hands clasped behind her back, the girl with lightly coloured brown eyes teetered back and forth on her feet.

“I just like you, I can’t explain it but I do, please?”

“...Sorry.”

***

“Hey, can we talk? Please stop avoiding me, I really don’t know what I did wrong, why won’t you look me in the eyes? I take it back...if you’re going to be like this then I’m the one who’s sorry…”

“...”

“I won’t be like that anymore, so can we at least be friends?”

“Sana I really can’t-”

The latter her heels and made her way out of the room before the girl could even finish.

***

“Dahyun…”

The girl looked up and sighed, putting her head in her hands, “What could you possibly want from me now?”

“This will be the last time, I promise…so think about it hard and decide because after today I really won’t do this anymore.”

“Sana…”

***

Two hands swung back and forth, two pairs of sneakers walked in perfect sync, and hushed whispers were exchanged between two young girls as they crossed the street.

“Could you be any more obvious about skipping class?” Dahyun leaned in and whispered into Sana’s ear before moving away again to eye the girl’s school uniform. She pulled her baseball cap over her face when Sana pouted in her direction and smiled secretly, turning away from the girl.

Sana huffed angrily and nudged her shoulder into Dahyun’s, “Well you could have at least told me you were going to make me skip today then!” She complained, loosening her hold on Dahyun’s hand but the latter had already strengthened her hold and laughed lightly.

“I didn’t think you would agree…” Dahyun admitted, turning them around a corner so that the school was finally out of their view. She looked around warily, taking in their surroundings and relaxed when there seemed to be no students in sight. Everyone was already in class anyway so there was no way they would get caught or be seen.

“Why are you so nervous? So what if someone sees us…” Sana whined and pushed into Dahyun who laughed anxiously.

“I mean…I don’t want our school to have a bad reputation with you flaunting our logo so openly…and it could be bad for you to be seen with me too…”

Sana sighed and stopped and Dahyun didn’t realize until she walked just a little too far and nearly tripped because Sana’s hand that she was still holding tugged her backwards. She looked at the girl confusedly and then quickly noticed a girl wearing their uniform sprinting across the street before coming to a stop and staring directly back at her.

“Sana, there’s someone-”

“Dahyun.”

Sana let go of the girl’s hand and put her hands on the girl’s cheeks, looking into her eyes quietly almost as though she was searching for something. Dahyun didn’t move, her eyes following the girl across the street who looked shocked for a split second and then continued sprinting towards the direction of their school. Sana shook Dahyun’s head lightly between her hands and frowned.

The girl’s eyes trailed back up to the light brown ones staring back at her and she gulped, “I didn’t go chasing after you for weeks all for it to come crumbling down because of stupid reputations and expectations people have of me.” She put her forehead against Dahyun’s and sighed.

“We haven’t even gone on that many dates…let’s just have fun freely, the two of us okay? Who cares about the kids at school,”

Dahyun stared directly back at Sana. The girl was sort of right. They actually hadn’t talked that much until Sana decided to randomly tell Dahyun one day that she liked her. While most would be flattered to have received such a confession, Dahyun avoided her for a while. Despite that, Sana practically followed her around and bothered her with continued confessions until the latter couldn’t take it anymore. And then, several days ago she finally gave in and let Sana take her on a date. Skipping class today would kind of be considered their fourth date. And still, Dahyun’s biggest worry was ruining Sana’s reputation at school and destroying her chances of getting into a good university. But she couldn’t just ignore the girl’s wishes. So she nodded her head and smiled brightly.

“Well, let’s at least get you out of uniform, take off that awful blazer-” Dahyun paused and looked at it thoughtfully, “Although you do pull it off quite well, as much as I hate the uniform.”

Sana rolled her eyes and shrugged the blazer off her shoulders and loosened her tie just enough to make herself look a little bit less uptight and proper. Dahyun took the blazer and grabbed Sana’s hand. “We’re going to your house first so you can change, but we’ll take a secret path.”

The two followed a strange trail made up of narrow roads and alleys that were awfully dark despite it being so early in the day. “Are you taking me here to kill me?” Sana joked when they turned a corner into a dead end and Dahyun stopped confusedly.

Deciding to jokingly play along, she turned around with a devilish smirk on her lips. “Of course, how did you know?”

They laughed until their stomachs hurt and their hands were busy wiping tears from their eyes. Then, Dahyun turned them around and found the right turn, continuing to lead them along. When they finally stepped out of a dark alley, Sana found herself just a few minutes walk away from home.

“How-” She gasped,

Dahyun smiled bashfully and scratched the back of her head. “Secret, I said.”

The other girl rolled her eyes once more and then led the two towards a large apartment complex split into several buildings. She stopped in front of the door, “Come in with me?”

Dahyun shook her head, “It’s okay, I’ll wait here. Make sure you don’t dress like a high school nerd.”

She laughed but the latter didn’t look too happy and slapped her arm, “See you in a few, .”

The laughter died down when Dahyun was left alone and she hummed quietly to herself, leaning her back against the wall. A couple people passed by, in and out of the building, each of them ignoring her completely except for an elderly woman who smiled at her and looked like she was about to ask for help. But Dahyun had already picked up the grocery bags that the woman had dropped to the ground.

“I’m only on the second floor, if you can just help until the elevator it would be perfect-”

Dahyun shook her head smiling and let the woman lead the way, following her into the elevator, and then out and into the very front steps of the large apartment. She dropped the bags to the ground and scratched the back of her head, the elderly woman thanking her and patting her arm softly.

“Have a nice day!” Dahyun waved quickly and jogged back to the elevator.

The number above the elevator doors showed it coming down from several floors up. It stopped on the number two and opened to reveal Sana opposite her, wearing a red dress with a white ribbon tied around the collar into a bow. Dahyun walked into the elevator, whistling and looking her up and down.

“Looks too expensive for me to touch,” Dahyun joked.

“It’s a Red Valentino dress,” Sana shot back, “So yeah, probably.”

They laughed and Dahyun put her hand out for Sana to take, “Well, let’s get going then?”

***

They stopped at a convenience store because Sana was hungry and refused to settle for anything other than cup ramen. Dahyun followed her in, complaining that they could go somewhere nice.

“Your family is literally made of money, why would you want to eat something from here?” Dahyun whined, following Sana towards the aisle stacked with different brands and flavours of cup ramen. She watched the girl put her hand to her chin and look indecisively between the various choices that stood before her. Sana had completely ignored Dahyun’s complaints and only turned to her when she couldn’t decide between two different flavours.

“Pick one for me,” She pouted and held both out to Dahyun watching the girl let out a deep sigh and nod towards the one in her left hand.

Sana looked happy for a moment and placed the other back on the shelf, “Perfect! That’s what I was thinking too!”

Dahyun followed behind Sana who paid for the ramen before making it and taking a seat on a stool near the front of the convenience store. They were facing outside and while Sana ate quietly, Dahyun observed the way the streets seemed to empty out by the time everyone seemed to have made it to work or school. The occasional car would drive past or person would scurry along the sidewalk but the streets were nowhere near as busy as they had been when the two girls had initially met up earlier that morning.

“So what do you have planned today?” Sana asked, slurping a noodle and then putting her chopsticks down. She watched Dahyun who’s smile grew wide,

“Oh you’ll see, we have an adventurous day ahead of us…” The girl chuckled while Sana threw out her garbage and eyed her worriedly.

“Should I be scared?”

“Definitely not, let’s go.”

Dahyun stuck out her hand and Sana took it only to get pulled suddenly right out the convenience store. The bell above the door rang as it closed behind them and Dahyun started dragging Sana towards the direction of a bus stop and only slowed down when Sana whined from behind her.

“Dahyun slow down, my wrist-”

Dahyun let go immediately and turned around, gently taking Sana’s hand into her own and inspecting the girl’s skin, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry I didn’t even realize, I should’ve been more careful, are you okay? Does anything hurt? Did I hurt you? Oh my god I’m so-”

Dahyun froze feeling Sana’s lips on her cheek and she could have swore that it had been imagined but Sana was smiling shyly and looking back at her expectantly and she gulped.

“Did you just…”

“The bus is here!” It was Sana’s turn to pull Dahyun away and the two girls hurriedly got onto the bus and swiped their bus passes before sitting near the back. Sana took the window seat and Dahyun settled com