It took up to three moments of eye contact for Sohyun to finally notice his existence; and they weren’t in quick succession either.

            The first time her eyes locked with his was during a practice volleyball game between the girls and boys in PE class. She never intended to meet his eyes—he was just in the way of where she wanted to spike the ball over the net. It wasn’t too much of a significant interaction; he was just someone in the other PE class, so she didn’t really pay special attention to him—if any.

            The second time she held eye contact with him was a year later when she was walking down the hallway to head towards the cafeteria. Books clad in her hands, Sohyun didn’t have much in her thoughts besides deciding what kind of food she craved the most at that moment. Though, she was quick to snap out of her thoughts when she watched someone accidentally slip on a wet paper tower left carelessly on the ground. Small laughter erupted from around the poor guy, who simply laughed along to ease the embarrassment. After making sure that he was okay, Sohyun naturally moved her eyes back towards the front of her path, but not before stopping before another pair of brown orbs just like hers. He was behind the guy who slipped, having almost been the victim instead if he was just a step ahead. Eye contact didn’t last long—there was no reason for it to exist anyway—and Sohyun continued on her way towards the cafeteria having decided that clam chowder was the best way to go for such a cold afternoon.

            The third time her eyes stayed connected with his was when he was randomly assigned to sit next to her for their quarter seat shuffle in the spring of their sophomore year. With a small slip of paper adorned with his assigned seat number, his eyes momentarily roamed to find his row until they met with hers. Quickly glancing back down on his paper to affirm his seat, he stuffed it into his pocket and clambered through the aisle of seats. Stopping by his new one, he placed a hand on it before turning his head to face Sohyun. The tiniest of polite smiles graced his lips as the word “hello” escaped through them. She returned the polite greeting with a small “hi” of her own before she directed her full attention on the teacher that just walked into the classroom.

            “What a lucky number you got,” her friend Kora from another class said near the end of break. Sohyun closed her locker shut and raised an eyebrow out of genuine curiosity. She didn’t really get what she was hinted at and frowned slightly.

            “Hm?”

            “Nothing,” she giggled back in return. Kora her heels, leaving Sohyun to ponder her words. However, she didn’t for too long and simply returned to class.

            Upon entering her class, she was met with the sight of some girl occupying her seat. Confused at first, Sohyun wondered what kind of business the girl had with her—she didn’t even know her—before she realized that it didn’t concern her at all. Just her seat partner she didn’t even know the name of.

            “Baekhyun, you should totally come see the soccer game tonight. School spirit, you know?” Sohyun heard him let out a small hum of thought as he messed with his pencil. She found it funny how he wasn’t really looking at her—simply just eyeing the movement of his pencil in his hand.

            “I’m kind of busy tonight. Homework.”

            “Spring quarter just started though?”

            “Other things too.” With a dejected look, the girl opened to say more, but nothing came out when both their attention landed on Sohyun, who wasn’t being very patient anymore. The girl raised an eyebrow at her, ready to just question why she was just looming right over them before she realized the time and sighed.

            “Think about it?” Baekhyun hummed once more, and it was then Sohyun figured that he was definitely not interested.

            “Maybe.” With a final look, the girl finally spared Sohyun her seat. Tentatively taking a seat down, Sohyun concluded that her seat partner sure was an aloof guy. She opened her pencil case and got ready for lecture.

            I forgot to ask him for his name.

            During lunch, Sohyun and Kora sat out at one of the benches outside of the cafeteria. Enjoying the sun, the two of them ate their food in a peaceful silence, which Sohyun didn’t mind at all; she liked comfortable silence. She wasn’t sure if Kora liked it, but she too knew that Sohyun wasn’t much of a talker to begin with.

            Inside, a rather large group of boys sat at a circular table, wolfing down their lunch as if they were racing. In reality, they were just that hungry. At this table sat Baekhyun, who was definitely not as mongrel-like as the others—if at all. He simply wafted his spoon through his soup with one hand while the other supported his chin. Seeing this, one of his friends decided to poke at him to elicit some sort of response from the always-quiet boy, since he failed to ever look alive.

            “Baekhyun, you okay, dude?” Baekhyun shrugged and sipped his soup.

            “Just tired.”

            “Gaming late?” A small smile appeared.

            “Yeah. Ran a bit too long. You too, Chanyeol?”

            “Let’s not point me out.” Baekhyun left it that return to his idle state, having nothing else to say in response. Chanyeol sighed and followed his gaze. He had noticed that Baekhyun had been staring out the window pointing towards the outside, but had no idea what he was looking at in the first place.

            “Am I seeing something special?” All he saw was just people eating outside. Baekhyun shrugged.

            “Maybe.” He laughed at Chanyeol’s response to his ambiguous answer and shook his head. “Not really.” He let out a hum. “Not really,” he repeated.

~.~.~

            Sohyun finally figured out what Kora meant by lucky number by the third week of spring quarter—and it took a lot of deductive reasoning too. For some mysterious reason, she always found girls—a wide variety of them—approaching his desk from time to time. It wasn’t super obnoxious or anything; it just happened so often that even Sohyun, who didn’t really pay attention to her surroundings too much, noticed the pattern. And his speech was always the same.

            Aloof, unresponsive, and distant.

            Sohyun figured he didn’t do it on purpose; he was just like that. Sometimes she would steal glances to his desk just to look at the window by his side, and she would always find him propping himself up with an elbow, dead asleep. It was a funny sight to see, especially when the teacher always ratted him out about it.

            Baekhyun. She didn’t learn his name through introduction; she simply learned eventually by the numerous times people have called for him. The one time they ever interacted was the day they got their seats. Ever since then, there wasn’t much reason to talk to him.

            But she jinxed it the moment she had that thought.

            “Oh!” she let out softly as she started in her chair in surprise. The sleepy boy stood up a bit too quick right after the bell rang and bumped into her desk. Placing one hand on the table to balance himself, he shook the sleepiness out of his head and blinked.

            “Woops. Sorry.” Sohyun couldn’t help but giggle a bit; his hair was atrocious. He wasn’t ashamed to finally just lay his head down on the table to sleep. He propped an eyebrow up slightly, which caused Sohyun to instantly shut up.

            “Sorry.” She offered a finger towards her own hair. His hand instantly smoothed out the strand that was sticking out.

            “For?” She didn’t get what he was asking at first, but it didn’t take too long for it to click.

            “Laughing.”

            “It’s okay.” He paused for a slight second. “I think it’s kind of cu—” Sohyun gave him a worried look when his mouth suddenly snapped shut. His aloof expression didn’t really change, however.

            “Yes?” He shook his head.

            “Slip of the tongue.”

            “What?”

            “Nothing.” She couldn’t help but laugh again—the conversation was so awkward. He seemed to make everything around him awkward at how brief he was with his words.

            “Alright.” He let out a hum and straightened himself up.

            “See you.” She offered a small wave.

            “Bye.”

            The next day, she was surprised to suddenly see him look at her the moment she entered the class. At first, she thought he was just looking at whatever was behind her, but when he gave her the tiniest of smiles as acknowledgement, she guessed that he was truly was looking at her. The thing that unnerved her was that she could not read his expression at all—it never was readable to begin with. Taking the safe route, she simply gave him a polite wave when she reached her desk.

            “Hey,” he greeted.

            “Hi,” Sohyun replied back, putting her bag on the ground. Baekhyun leaned the side of his face against a hand and tilted his head to the side as he faced her.

            “Did you do the homework?”

            “I did. Did you?” She did not know why he decided to suddenly talk to her, but she wasn’t complaining; it was actually pleasant to finally be able to talk to her desk partner.

            “Mhm.” Although, she could tell he wasn’t much of a talker; his decision to talk about homework was an odd one. She laughed. In response, he gave her a confused look.

            “Sorry.”

            “Hm, for what?”

            “Laughing again.” Once again, a small smile graced his lips. This time, his eyes seemed to twinkle a bit.

            “That’s fine. It’s nice to see you laugh.” Sohyun knew he probably didn’t mean too much by that, but she couldn’t help but get caught off guard by the suddenness of it. She felt a slight twinge in her chest and smiled.

            “Thank you.” The bell rang, signaling the end of their out-of-nowhere conversation.

~.~.~

            “Baekhyun, you’ve been spacing out a lot.” Chanyeol stuffed his face with a hamburger while the others simply glanced over at the quiet boy.

            “When is he never spacing out?” His friends didn’t really give him another second of attention after that statement though; they always left him alone when he was in “the zone.”

            However, they were kind of taken aback when he decided to answer.

            “There’s this cute girl.” Baekhyun simply stirred his water with a straw, the ice clinking in the glass. “I think I like her.”

            Chanyeol dropped his entire burger onto the floor.

~.~.~

            Sohyun stared at the daunting, gray skies and wondered why she didn’t check the weather in the morning. Heavy drops were already trickling down, tainting the dry lands. She attempted to calculate the chances of how sick she could get, but sighed.

            “How am I going to get home here?” She sighed again and put on her hood with a slight edge in her movement. This .

            She took a step forward out from underneath the school’s roof and felt a few cold drops splash onto her skin and clothes. However, the feeling disappeared as quick as it came when a sudden shadow loomed from behind her.

            “No umbrella?” She turned around and a breath in out of surprise. She was not expecting Baekhyun to approach her at all. Clad in his school uniform and a jacket on top, he looked all snuggly and dry with his black umbrella above his—and hers now—head.

            “No,” she said, a bit embarrassed. “But my house isn’t too far.” Baekhyun glanced up at the sky, looked at the ground, and let out a small hum. He then pushed the umbrella into her arms, which she fumbled with, and put a hood over his head.

            “Stay dry,” he said. Sohyun caught off guard by the slightly playful tone and wasn’t able to say anything in return before he disappeared past the gate.

~.~.~

            Sohyun held the umbrella in her hands and peeked from the corner of the door. She would’ve really liked to return his umbrella at that moment, but it was kind of difficult with the girl chatting at his desk. He always seemed preoccupied with someone. She wondered why.

            Sohyun was a bit slow to realize that he was actually popular.

            She sighed and looked down at the umbrella in her hands. Guess I’m going to spend another day with you.

            “Not going in?” She jumped and whipped her head up to see Baekhyun right in front of her. His eyes held small curiosity. Realizing she was blocking the entrance, she stepped to the side.

            “Sorry.”

            “For?”  She shook her head and, realizing that this was the perfect opportunity, handed him back his umbrella.

            “Nothing. Thank you for this.” He took it within his hands and gave a small smile.

            “Yeah.”

            “Hope you weren’t too wet without it.”

            “Mhm.” She was expecting him to go back to his business, but she was a bit thrown off when he did not. He just kind of stood there. She didn’t notice how he had left the girl when he spotted her near the door.

  “Um,” she took a step back. “I’m going to go now.”

            “Wait.”

            “Yes?” She tilted her head to the side, beckoning him to say what he needed to say. His mouth moved slightly, but no words came out.

            “Never mind.” And he turned his back towards her to walk back inside the classroom.

~.~.~

            “No one’s going to get out of their seats until two people get assigned to clean-up duty.” Everyone groaned; it was a Friday afternoon and no one wanted to stay after. Sohyun glanced around the room before hesitantly raising her hand; it was obvious that no one was going to volunteer, and she didn’t want it to stretch out into an awkward silence.

            “Cool. That problem solved itself pretty quickly. Everyone else is dismissed.” People took their time to pack up their bags as the afterschool chatter immediately sprung up. Sohyun sighed and walked over to the chalkboard, eraser in hand. She sighed again.

            She should stop feeling bad for the teacher.

            She stood up on her toes, eraser held at the very edge of her hand so that it could reach the very top. Being on the shorter side was something she found to be very annoying, especially for library duty.

            “You shouldn’t strain your toes like that.” In one clean swipe, the marks where she was trying to erase vanished. She jumped at the sudden appearance of a hand above her head and turned around to see what was up. Her eyes nearly widened to the size of plates as she watched Baekhyun nonchalantly stretch his hand up and erase the area above her head with the other eraser. He didn’t seem to know what the definition of personal space meant as he sandwiched her between the board and his body.

            “It’s fine, thanks,” she said hurriedly. It wasn’t his presence that shook her; it was the large number of stares people were giving her—attention wasn’t something she was fond of, especially when it was specifically on her. She wondered why in the world no one was leaving the classroom yet. It was Friday, for goodness sakes.

            “Do you like volunteering for work?” He took a step to the side when he realized how uncomfortable she looked and erased the side of the board.

            “Hm, not really, but who else is going to do it?” She shot him an eyebrow. “Do you like volunteering for work?”

            “Hm, not really,” he repeated after her. He erased the nasty math formula on the side. “But I wouldn’t mind if it was with you.”

            She nearly choked on her