“Hey, Sura, what are you doing?”

An annoying voice appeared when you were in deep thoughts...

...FOR THIS MATH HOMEWORK.

It was 8:55 and the next math period would start at 9. You literally had 5 minutes to solve this equation and this guy just decided to mess with you at a time like this. You couldn’t even focus on Sungjong’s voice, who was explaining the answer to you.

“What does it look like i’m doing?”, you turned your head around and glared at the familiarly annoying face.

Woohyun stood there, smiling. “Like an idiot”, you thought. It was autumn but sweat was running down, forming a damped circle around his white uniform’s collar shirt. A few drops were falling from his hair. It was apparent that this boy had been playing football before school. You, being his childhood friend, couldn’t even understand what was so interesting about this so-called king of sports that Woohyun even more than once solemnly swore he would die without it.

Woohyun took a glance at your notebook. His eyes immediately widened in disbelief and everyone there could feel he was slowly panicking.

“ THERE’S HOMEWORK?!”, he screamed, startled, while you burst out laughing. At school, Woohyun always tried to maintain his composure especially in front of juniors. He said he had to “protect his image and reputation”, which you thought was bull. But, still, you had to admit that he was pretty popular. “He’s good at sports. He sings well. Funny. Kinda handso- wait, did i just say he’s handsome”, you thought to yourself, “scratch that. i guess he’s kinda good looking”. But he has this one flaw “NOT GOOD AT STUDYING” /ctrl B, ctrl I, ctrl U/.

“Why did noone tell me? You guys are all cancelled!!!”, Woohyun exclaimed as he pulled out his notebook and sat next to you.

 “It’s not our fault you’re stupid”, Sungjong commented, ignoring Woohyun’s glare.

“Hey, sweaty, stay away. You stinks!”, you said as his sweaty arms touched your cardigan.

“Huhhhh?”, Woohyun gasped and looked at you as if he was hurt. Looking at his face, you could clearly see what was coming: lips pouting, puppy eyes, puffed cheeks, and you decided you don’t have time for this.

“CUT IT OUT! AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT”, you snapped. You were still trying to understand all this exercise. “Who the hell thinks putting letters and numbers together is a good idea? Who invented algebra and calculus? Come fight me”, you thought as Sungjong didn’t stop explaining the solution.

On the other hand, Woohyun, aspiring to become an Oscar winner, did not give up easily and continued his serious act instead.

 “THIS!”, he said loudly and confidently.

“THIS!”, he repeated again to have everyone’s attention. “This is NOT sweat. It’s holy wat- RINGGGGGG“. Woohyun couldn’t finish his sentence because the bell rang. You rolled your eyes when he just outright took Sungjong’s notebook and ran to his desk to copy it at lightning speed. Sungjong hit him once but let him take it anyway.

Sungjong, your best friend, is a straight a student and has an amazing personality. He’s reliable and is someone you always come to and confide in. He moved to your neighborhood and attended the same highschool with you 3 years ago. Fate is a series of strange coincidences when Sungjong has been friends with Woohyun since primary school (their parents are close) and  you first met Woohyun in kindergarten. Woohyun moved here and there and so you only met him again when you both were in secondary school.

- “This kid was cute then. NOT NOW!”, you thought as you looked at Woohyun’s back during the lesson.

Autumn was already here and the gentle breeze made your hair brush to your face. It tickled. When you first met Woohyun, the weather was probably like this too. 4 years old – probably too young to remember everything – but you did remember baby Woohyun was a really cute and sweet frriend and also, already an attention seeker.

===KINDERGARTEN===

“Whoaaaaaaaaaa”, the little boy broke into tears as you poked and pinched his cheeks with your hands. His little snaggletook peeked out. You had never seen anyone with such chubby cheeks and especially that tooth. That tooth was so different and cute that you kept pinching his cheeks just to see it.

Before the teacher came and picked him up in her arms, you were able to steal a glance at that tooth and decided that it could be one of your favorite things in this world, besides candy, puppy and rainbow.

“Woohyunie, what’s wrong?”, the teacher gently said while patting his back and his hair. He was still crying, even a little harder than before. The little boy raised both of his hands to wipe his eyes and cheeks as tears flooded down.

“S-su-ra kept pinching. It- it hurts”,  4-year-old Woohyun cried loudly. To be honest, it didn’t even hurt that much. He just thought you saw THE tooth. He hated it – that pointy tooth.  

“I... I .... I”, you couldn’t utter a word. You just thought he was cute, soft and fluffy. He looked like a puppy. And with that hair tied on the top of his head, he also looked like an apple. To be very honest, you had restrained yourself so much from biting his cheeks every time his lips formed a circle when he called your name. But under the teacher’s  stern look, you had no choice except to apologize. The teacher kept explaining to you that Woohyun was cute but it was not right to hurt him.

“Sura wasn’t hurting him”, you thought, “Sura just wanted to see the tooth. Woohionie is such a baby”.

You had never got into trouble at daycare. That was the first time teacher gave you that look. It was all Woohyun’s fault. You decided that for the rest of the day, you would not talk to him or play with him anymore. “That babo apple can just play alone”, you thought and left both the teacher and Woohyun, then joined a different group to play.

Then, the teacher gave Woohyun a strawberry lollipop and he played for about 5 minutes with other kids until he realized you were not there. After looking around to see you were across the room, he came running and sat next to you. Currently coloring this huge drawing with other kids, you suddenly felt heavy on your left so you turned around as a tuft of hair was tickling near your eyes. When that round head turned, you can see a circle – Woohyunie’s face – near yours. His puppy eyes were swollen red, they weren’t big as yours but they were round, brown and twinkling with some tears left. His cheeks were still red, not sure if it was because of your pinching or maybe the rosy color just meant the “apple” was ripe. There was no doubt that he was extremely cute, may even be the cutest in class, but you remembered how his crying got you into trouble when you had always been the nicest student. Woohyun made the situation look like he was bullied by YOU. As anger rose, you decided to stand up and go to the other side of the drawing to finish painting the sky blue.

“Su-“, Woohyun pushed out his lips and called your name when your sudden move made him lose a little balance as he was still leaning on you. But less than a minute after you ignored him, Woohyun was again next to you. This time, he was lying on his stomach like you, but on your right.

“Suraaaa~”, he called again with aegyo so it sounded more like “Dura” instead of “Sura”. You didn’t respond.

“Duraaaaaaa~”, Woohyun whined and brought his face closer to yours. His breath brushed your cheek. “Play with Woohionie”, Woohyun would not give up easily. He wanted attention so he rubbed his head to your shoulders. His hair, again, tickled your face and neck. Still, you didn’t budge an inch.

Suddenly, to your surprise, he grabbed the crayon out of your hand.

“Ah ah give it back!”, you said angrily but you realized the anger of a 4-year-old girl was nothing more intimidating than a cat’s hiss because Woohyun, who was 2 months older, pouted while sulking, “I SAID PLAY WITH ME”.

He was stubborn, but so were you. You hated people disturbing and stopping you when you were in the middle of something and this boy kept doing it (apparently he didn’t change at all even in high school).

“And I said GIVE IT BACK!”, you screamed as your little hand reached out to grab the rest of the crayon while Woohyun was holding it. Your little fingers were somehow weaker than him as you could feel him pulling the crayon to his side so both of your hands were desperately trying to get the blue crayon back. The tug war began to see who could get the crayon. It was the only blue----

CRACK!

It broke. The sound echoed in the whole room as the only blue crayon in the box broke in half. The room began to be filled with utter silence. About 15 pairs of round wide eyes turned to the place where it happened while the two culprits froze after the big fight.

Startled, you looked at the part of the crayon you were holding, then the other part on Woohyun’s hand, then Woohyun’s face and back to the crayon again. A few seconds passed before you realized what had happened. That was the only blue crayon and you hadn’t finished coloring the whole sky on that giant drawing. Frustrated, disappointed, and furious, you could feel tears welling up in your eyes before you broke down crying.

“Whooooaaa..... ahhhhhh”. It was a bad day for you and all of your feelings bottled up from before suddenly overflowed. You kept crying as you shook your head, refusing to believe the situation.

If Woohyun’s hair was tied up on the top of his head, yours was longer so the teacher decided to tie them into two buns, making it look like cat ears. And as you cried harder and harder, you shook your head more and the “ears” kept bouncing. Little did you know Woohyun was completely caught off guard, he never expected the crayon would break and he also never thought you would be this cute when you cried.

You felt a tiny hand touched your cheeks, which were all wet. The little fingers carefully caressed and wiped away the tears. You can smell a strawberry-flavoured breeze on your face. It was such a comforting and soothing feeling that you slowly stopped crying and tried to open your eyes to see Woohyun’s face in front of you. His round brown eyes were shining with tears but he didn’t cry. Woohyun looked worried. He was puffing his chubby cheeks to blow gently on your eyes and your face as if it would dry all your tears and blow away your sadness. This made him look even more adorable, just like a chipmunk.

“Hionie is sorry. Sura, stop crying. I’m sorry”, the five-year-old boy kept saying until his hands suddenly left your cheeks. He stood up and ran to the shelf with the broken crayon in his little hands. He tripped a few times but the carpet was thick and soft so it didn’t hurt. You didn’t understand where he was going so you just sat there and felt a bit at a loss because Woohyun’s warmth were no longer on your face anymore. You watched his little back while wiping your nose and feeling tired from all the crying.

A moment later, the little boy came back and put something in your hand. You realized it was the blue crayon with a strawberry sticker around it. As you looked at it more, another surge of tears suddenly came again. You didn’t know why but you felt so sad. Tears suddenly streamed down your cheeks and dropped down to the crayon.

Woohyun was shocked, again. He didn’t know what to do.  He wiped your tears, he apologized, and even fixed your crayon but you kept crying so hard. He panicked as you began to whimper. He was confused but he remembered the teacher patted his back and hair when he was crying before so he sat down and hugged you in his arms. A four-year-old’s arms were so small that he had to sit really close to you until there was no distance in between. His hands then touch your back lightly, then went to the back of your head and your soft hair.

“Sura ah, i’m sorry”, he said softly so only you could hear. It was always him who got the teacher’s attention whenever he sulked or cried. Now all he wanted was for you to stop crying and play with him again. Woohyun remembered how you poked his cheeks earlier, so he pushed and rubbed his cheek against yours.

“Sura, poke my cheek, pinch it if you want, okay?”. Woohyun had always hated his cheeks being pinched because his weird snaggletooth always showed when someone pinched his cheek. Now his cheek was near yours and he felt like he liked this better. You wouldn’t be able to see his snaggletooth, plus, your cheeks were soft and squishy too. He liked the feeling. He liked your cheeks even better than strawberry candy.

“Woohion likes Sura more than strawberry and kitty...”, he paused a little and peeked at your hair buns. “Sura looks like a kitty”.

You liked it. You liked the soft feeling on your cheek as it brushed again his squishy mandu. You liked his voice when he comforted you with aegyo. Maybe you liked him too because he was adorable. But he kept talking when rubbing your cheeks so his breath tickled, and his lips were wet just like any other baby; besides, you felt heavy as his whole body was leaning on you so you pulled away.

“Hmmff”, he let out a small sound showing he was unhappy when you pulled away. One side of his cheeks was pink. You bet yours were too. But Woohyun soon realized this wasn’t about him. “Sura is okay now?”, he asked while bringing his face near yours, looking in your teary eyes and putting his hand on your forehead as if to check your temperature to make sure you were alright.

“Uhm. Th- thank you Woohionie”, you blushed. Still seeing the worries in his little puppy eyes, you said: “Let’s play together!”.

Right at that moment, you thought you literally saw many twinkle little stars like in that song you liked. His eyes sparkled while the corners of his lips curled up (“oh babo Woohionie has dimples! Many!”, you thought).

You looked at the crayon on your hand and peeled the sticker off it before lying down on your stomach again. Woohyun followed. He was surprised when you sticked the sticker on his cheek.

“Here. Color the sky with me~”, you put the other half of the crayon in his tiny hands and watched his smile become wider until you could hear his giggles. The strawberry sticker moved up and down with the movements of his cheeks. It looked delicious so you put your lips on it. Just a quick peck was enough to feel Woohyun’s soft squishy cheeks against your lips. He smelled like strawberry – the flavour that you lov- WAIT! LOVE?

======

“Lee Sura”, someone called your name.

“Lee Sura”. it’s the teacher!

“Y-YES!”, you stood up as a reflex and answered. One moment of silence passed before the whole class, including the teacher, suddenly burst out in laughter. Sungjong turned around to laugh even harder at your face so you looked at him for help but he was obviously not helping. As a matter of fact, there was probably nothing to help.

“I was just checking attendance but now I know someone hasn’t been paying attention in my lesson”, the teacher said, half joking.

“I- I’m sorry”, flustered, you felt your ears and cheeks burning so when the teacher allowed you to sit down (you didn’t have to stand up anyway), you could do nothing but keep your head low. “It’s all his fault!!! THAT BABO APPLE”, you screamed in silence. You wished you could just disappear to the ground and noone saw you.

However, you were not the only one who wasn’t paying attention in class.

Woohyun sat in the next row to your right, just an aisle away. His desk was the third one from the front row while yours was second from the back. You two were just one row apart. During the whole 30 minutes after the teacher had checked the students’ homework (he copied everything in time; even though his speed handwriting was bad, it couldn’t be worse than his bestfriend Dongwoo), Woohyun was busy on his phone. He didn’t play games or text during class. Instead, he turned to the back of the phone, which he often used as a mirror. He borrowed Dongwoo’s pencil case to stabilize the cellphone (Woohyun never had a pencil case; he thought it was unnecessary and took up a lot of space in his bag but now Woohyun thought maybe he should get one after school).

And just like that, your every movement was in his watch. His lips curled into a smile as he saw your chin rested on your hand. He knew your mind had probably drifted to somewhere in your own world and he felt somewhat proud that he was not wrong. You always had this little smile at the corner of your mouth and those starry eyes when daydreaming.

“Please tell me you are thinking about me. Please think about me. Sura, think about ME!”, Woohyun repeated the words over and over again to the reflection of you on his phone. He whispered so no one could hear but literally screaming  with all of his soul at the top of his lungs.

Hi there~ thank you for reading till here. Some heart-fluttering moments are waiting in the next chapter. Enjoy <3