“What the hell are those?” you asked Jaemin pointedly as you condescendingly eyed the couple of rusty bikes he was pushing towards where you stood waiting at the empty parking lot of the children’s hospice you visited for the day’s volunteer work.

“It’s the best they have,” he said in defense to the obviously rickety pieces of scrap metal and rubber. He pouted at your reaction to them, but eventually smiled. “Oh, come on, Y/N. You said you didn’t know how to ride bikes. We’re free for the rest of the afternoon, and I’ve got bikes. What do you say?” He stood beside you and elbowed you gently, wiggling his eyebrows.

Swatting his arm away, you walked towards the things he brought, running a finger on the chipped paint of the handlebars. “Thesebikesare death traps. Do the brakes even work?”

“I tested them before bringing it here.” He clucked his tongue and took one of the better-looking of the two bikes, positioning it beside you. “I won’t let you get hurt.”

You narrowed your eyes at him. In the course of two, blistering hot months that you had to endure his presence, you found yourself slowly warming up to the idea of being friends with him although he is one of your cousin’s stupid friends. He was a rather warm person and you found him kinda cute although he could be really silly at times.

“You’re paying the insurance company if I get as much as a scratch, Na. Keep that in mind.”

He just laughed at your statement and excitedly helped you to ride the bike despite your reluctance. The afternoon went by with you cursing loudly and screaming every single time you failed to balance the bicycle, progressing to the both of your cheering as you were able to ride the bike around the lot without falling. A few bruises, scratches and giddy laughter later, the bike lay before the two of you as you sat on the elevated walkway side by side, enjoying vending machine drinks.

“How does it feel to be able to ride a bike?” he asked as you were taking a sip from a juice box.

You eyed him, pretending to be pensive. “It ain’t bad.” You cracked up after saying that, realizing how silly you were moments ago insulting his rusty bicycles.

Jaemin guffawed at that. “Come on. You were having the time of your life. Stop denying it. It’s okay to admit it if you’re having fun, you know.” He reached over and ruffled your hair, eyeing you intently. “You look pretty when you smile. You should smile more.”

You just glanced at him and looked away, brushing his comment aside with a snort, but inside, you knew you’ve never been that carefree for a long time.

**

“Ugh! Stop butting into my brain!” you growl in pent up frustration as, for the millionth time, Na Jaemin crossed your mind like a cinema rerun. You would usually be plagued by that moment you caught him smiling alone as he bit at the tip of his pen during Math. It annoyed you incrementally as the days went by. Ironically, that image was imprinted in every cell of your being since having the unfortunate (or was it fortunate) chance to witness it. It never ceased to haunt you in your waking hours, and it wasn’t so different in your sleep. You don’t know how but, one day, you woke up and it was that same image of him that you immediately saw through your mind’s eye, and like a lasting plague, it never left.

Jesus, woman, get a grip!you thought angrily to yourself, wishing you have never given him the time of the day that one spring day. That day, Jaemin shamelessly walked over to your clique’s table, and without preamble, announced to everyone close enough to hear that he liked you. Taking it as his usual silly antic, you responded with a very sarcastic, “Who doesn’t?” which made your friends chortle, to which he smiled and said, “I know.”

Everything went downhill from that moment, and not a day went by when he wouldn’t bug you at least once a day. At times, he would just sit quietly beside you and smile at you whenever your eyes would meet his. Sometimes he would be meddling with your school work, pointing things out. Well, he usually pointed out what you are doing wrong. He’s one of the smart ones after all, and though you hated it when he does that and pretend not to have heard what he said, when he wasn’t looking, you would follow his advice grudgingly. He was aggravating that way.

There were also times when he would prattle nonstop about this and that, mostly random things he could conjure, or he would be leaving either drink or snack on your table then depart with a flirtatious wink which always leaves you agape in astonishment. Not everyone had the guts to actually do that to you. If anything, almost everyone at school would either do anything to get to your better side or simply not want to get to your bad side if they wanted to preserve their social life. Na Jaemin was different. He didn’t seem to care how anyone thinks of his actions or of him in general. He just does what he wants. He doesn’t even care if you are ignoring him for more than half of the time, and since his existence in your life wasn’t exactly significant, and you honestly thought he would fade out just like anyone else.

You couldn’t have been more wrong in your entire existence.

Like an invisible force, he made his way under your skin, and it did not help that he was the only one you were stuck with the whole summer. You were banned from going on a pre-planned vacation with your school peers after being grounded for throwing a huge party that caused your mother’s favorite Ming vase to be broken after a brawl broke out between your now ex-boyfriend, Jaehyun and the transfer student Lee Taeyong who hit on you, in the private drawing room at your place. Nothing would convince them otherwise that it wasn’t your fault that the vase broke since you were the one who asked to throw a year-end bash. Eventually, you were forced to do volunteer work at your parents’ favored charity with all of your finances cut off and your car locked up in the garage. Your father also emphasized on the fact that you should be exposed to the things that involved their philanthropy so you would understand how it was to give back to the society to which they owed their success as tycoons. You soon realized they were right. With their status in society, you cannot possibly end up like the delinquent brat everyone thought you were if you were going to take on the role of heiress.

Because of that, you were stuck with Jaemin since one, he was the only one who actually had the courage to talk to you as if you didn’t look like you were going to bite his head off any time, two, he loved volunteering and his parents were avid supporters of your parents’ charity, and three, you were not able to convince Jisung, that spawn of the devil you called your cousin, to join you so you wouldn’t be bored, at least. All of it turned out for the best, but then, school came around and it was as if nothing happened. Summer ended and along with that, your association with Na Jaemin.

You came back to school at the beginning of fall, pretending that he never existed in the first place, only to notice him smiling so prettily at god-knows-what, looking so candid and serene that it made you gawk for a full minute until he met your gaze and you had to look away and pretend you did not see anything. Your decision to stop ogling him that day stems more from your attempt to save your pride than your actual desire to stop looking at him. You found herself sneaking glances at him moments after that, not completely certain if you were doing so because you wanted to see him looking like that again or if you simply couldn’t believe he made your heart stop for a split second by simply appearing so candid and carefree. The next day, you woke up to that image ingrained in your brain like the mark of a branding iron. You sat up abruptly on your bed, screaming when you realized just what you were doing, feeling all warm and fuzzy all over at the thought of that face: NA JAEMIN’S FACE! You went to school that day torn between being in a bad mood and feeling giddy whenever you think about him.

It was getting out of hand. You know so.

Why did he have to look like a living personification of the sun anyway?you asked yourself, thinking of how ridiculous it was of you to be perceiving him in such a manner. It has got your brain fried and unable to function properly throughout the whole time since then, and to say that it was interfering in your usual routine was an understatement.

You hated how everything was turning out since all the things you used to do well are yielding nothing but subpar results. First, you was too distracted and hyper-aware of the boy’s existence in your class that you failed your Math quiz as if you weren’t already bad enough at it. You weren’t usually so dumb at the subject, but you were performing lower than your average abilities.

Then, you were scolded by your fencing trainer when you got distracted one second and lost your footing. The fencing team decided to practice in the gymnasium while repairs on the floor of the training room were carried out, and of all the people who could enter the gym while you were doing serious exercise matches, it had to be Jaemin. Stupid Jaemin.You were thinking of parrying but then he crossed your line of vision through your head gear, and accidentally stepped back. You were already fuming when you finally stood up from having fallen in the most ungraceful manner, but Jaemin had to look all concerned about you when your eyes met after you removed your head gear. His intention to approach you was evident, but before he could, you stormed out of the gym and drove home wearing your fencing attire. He wasn’t even doing anything, and you knew it wasn’t his fault, but being the brat that you are, you eased yourself by thinking it was his fault.

“Who’s butting into your brain?” that familiar mellow voice suddenly assaulted your auditory senses, sounding so real in your head that you almost dropped the beaker you were holding, startled beyond comprehension. What the hell…You froze in place and breathed in and out as you carefully set the fragile apparatus down on the table, not trusting yourself to actually handle it properly. You sunk down on your seat and removed your safety glasses, burying your face in your hands. It was Chemistry class, and the worst thing one could do while handling chemicals was to get distracted.

“Jesus, I can even hear him now?” you muttered under your breath.

“Hear who?” that voice asked.

“You, goddammit!” you practically screeched. You stood up from your chair, your head abruptly snapping towards the direction of the voice where you thought you heard Jaemin speak. You initially thought you were hearing things, but then, he was standing beside your table clear as day. You blinked and swallowed hard upon seeing him there, brows arched in confusion.

“What?” he asked, scratching the back of his head. “Are you okay?”

You shook your head and sunk down on your seat, actually relieved to see him there. At least you were not actually hearing him inside your head. You looked at him in apprehension, not satisfying his questions with a proper answer.

He pulled a seat for himself, positioning it on the side of your table. “You don’t look okay,” he commented, a slight frown marring his usual jolly countenance. “What do you mean you can hear me now?”

You glared at him openly, but that soon turned into a confused look when you saw him smiling like he knew something you did not. To say it was endearing was the understatement of the century. Without a warning, you stood up, startling him. “What have you done to me?” you hissed at him. Before he could answer your question, you took her stuff and started to walk away when he suddenly latched a hand onto your wrist, the playful look on his face gone.

“I don’t know what you mean…” He sighed, not letting go even as he saw you eyeing his hand on you pointedly. He met your rather pained gaze then. “What did I do to you?”

You shook your head and broke loose from his grip and walked out of the room only to be met by your so-called friends who eyed you as if there was something fishy happening. “What’s going on?”

**

It was getting harder for you to avoid the questions and quizzical looks you had been getting from your friends whenever you and Jaemin would interact. As usual, he was the one who initiated it, and as opposed to how you usually reacted to him before, you couldn’t seem to just ignore him. You were not exactly nice to him. You was rather hostile to him as usual, but you seemed to find satisfaction in simply prolonging your arguments and childish banter by satisfying his teasing with actual responses when you used to pretend he was air. At the same time, you wanted him to get pissed off and stay away from you so you can stop explaining yourself to your haughty friends who did not seem to like the idea of you hanging out with Jaemin. The confirmation to your thoughts came sooner than you were initially expecting.

At first, you thought they were simply concerned about who made you so upset, obviously blaming none other than the clueless boy. They seemed pretty much as upset as you were.

“What did Na Jaemin do to you?” Nara, asked, obviously fuming at the fact that you seemed to be affected and by somebody she considered a nobody at that.

You looked at the blond girl, arching a brow in wonder at her question, feigning innocence. “Na…Jaemin?” You smirked at that. “What could he possibly do to me?”

“You just seemed so upset after Chemistry the other day, and you were talking to him, so we thought…”

You shook your head. “Yeah, enough assumptions. I’m starving,” you told the other girl and walked ahead towards the cafeteria, leaving the group.

“Hey, we’re going out of town this weekend, in case you’re forgetting!” she called after you, but you pretended not to hear anything.

**

“Hey, pool party. You up for it?”

That would be Jisung, unceremoniously entering your bedroom during the weekend. You have already declined three invites to go out, planning to sleep the whole day or just dilly-dally at home, get some reading done or study the documents your father have e-mailed to you the previous week. You were not really in the mood to go out since you felt annoyed at the fact that some of the people who sat with you during lunch made fun of you for declining their offer to go out of town, saying you were gonna be stuck with your kid cousin again. They did not really consider Jisung as one of the group although he was popular in school for being a great dancer for the reason that he was a grade lower and “no sane senior would hang out with little kids.” That was just something you cannot stand for although you did not retaliate to their words and merely shrugged them off. Also, you’d rather hang out with your cousin whom they considered an outsider than be with them for one meaningless weekend of senseless conversations over drinks. It’s a vicious cycle, something you were growing sick of.

Still, you were not really expecting him to come for you that very weekend. It also annoyed you that he just barged in noisily. You sat up on your bed, yanking the eye mask you were wearing and throwing it on the floor. “Park Jisung, I swear to god, I’m gonna strangle you if you do that again!” you growled at him, regretting it when you saw three other figures flanking him at the foot of your bed.

“Good morning, princess,” Jaemin, one of those three people, teasingly greeted you with that wide, idiotic grin again.

“Damn it, don’t I get reprieve from you brats?” you muttered under your breath, getting out of bed. “Get out of my room,” you told them, and they did except for Jisung. Your tired eyes shifted to him. “Your place?”

He sat down on the divan. “Nope. We’re going to Jeno’s this time. They have a jacuzzi.”

“Who’s gonna be there?”

“Just us and a couple of kids we invited from our grade…some seniors from the dance club.” He shrugged. “We didn’t invite any of your friends, if that’s what you want to know.”

At that, you laughed sardonically. “They’re just kids who sit with me at lunch. They’re not my friends.”

Jisung laughed at that. “You should just sit with us, but I like that coming from the Queen Bee herself.”

You tossed a pillow at him. “Shut up. Besides, they’re not in town.” With a fond smile, you looked at Jisung. “You’re my only cousin, so I can’t say no to you.”

“Yes! We’ll wait for you downstairs.”

“Fine, but don’t ever let your dumb friends come to my room ever again,” you told him, heading to your bathroom.

Jisung just laughed.

You went down to the front of the house to find Jisung’s yellow Jeep. Haechan was already at the passenger side while Jaemin was at the backseat. “The seven-headed monster is missing four heads today,” you commented, referring to the term you used to refer to their group. “Where’s Jeno?”

“He went to fetch the others,” Jisung answered as he was opening the door to the backseat. “You don’t mind sitting with Jaemin, right?”

You eyed Haechan who firmly sat down on the front seat. You were not in the mood to argue with the equally y boy so you just nodded and climbed up to the backseat with Jaemin although you wanted to yank Haechan out of the front seat.

“Hi, Y/N.” Jaemin leaned forward, invading your personal space and making you stop breathing after being assaulted by his minty, clean scent.

You rolled your eyes at him. “We’ve gone through this already, Jaemin. Can I have some peace and quiet, at least for the duration of the ride?” you snapped at him.

“I just said hi!” he retorted and pouted that pout you loved a bit too much.

You looked away and flashed an annoyed look at Jisung who said, “Play nice, kids.”

The drive started rather noisily with you and Jaemin engaged in yet another argument when you took the small pillow that Jsung kept in his car. “I was using that,” Jaemin told you.

“Are you complaining?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

“Mean,” he murmured as you were leaning against the window with the pillow between the glass and your head. “Come here, you’re gonna have stiff neck if you lie down like that.”

“If you’re so intent on helping…” You swatted his arm off his lap and placed the pillow there. You smirked at him. “Now make yourself useful and don’t move. I’m gonna sleep.”

He scoffed but cradled your head on his lap just the same. “You just woke up and you’re going to sleep again?”

You closed your eyes, leaning your forehead against his stomach as if it was something you did naturally. “You can’t tell me what to do. Besides, you disturbed me,” you said with a slight chuckle, but then you stiffened when you felt his fingers brushing through the strands of your hair.

It was his turn to chuckle, having felt your whole body go rigid. “Just relax, will you?”

Your eyes flew open and you found yourself staring up at him. A ghost of a smile played at the corners of your mouth as your eyes traced the planes of his face, those bright, sincere eyes and those lips… You just found them so pretty.

“What?” he asked, pulling you from your reverie, to which you responded with, “Nothing.”

**

You did not know how long you have been sleeping, but your state of unconsciousness was filled with pretty things and the comforting feeling of warm hands playing with your hair, only to be disturbed by that familiar voice telling you to wake up.

“Hey, princess, wake up. We’re here,” the voice said, and you were brought back to the reality that you were not in your bed and there was actually someone shaking you awake. You opened your eyes slowly and the first thing you saw were several pairs of eyes from the open door of the backseat right where your shoe-clad feet were.

You blinked slowly, confused as to why they looked like their eyes were about to bug out of their sockets. “We’re here,” you commented, still a bit disoriented.

“Like I was saying,” you heard Jaemin say near your ear.

“Hmm.” You looked at him and realized you had your arms wrapped around his torso, practically making a human bed out of him. When your eyes met his, you jerked away from him, almost falling off the seat but he held you securely by the waist, preventing your fall.

“Careful.”

You sat upright and straightened your hair and clothes, arching a brow at