"HE DID WHAT?"

If Kai was asleep two seconds ago, he was definitely awake now. We were sitting in our usual spots on the school bus. When we took the bus together, Kai would always hog the window seat and I knew it was because he wanted to sleep against the window.

"I'm not even kidding," I answered, "Would I kid about something like that?"

"I don't know about you," Kai said, somewhat tauntingly. "You love your fiction so much your sense of judgement gets clouded sometimes."

I slapped his arm. "I'm a woman of science. Or I will be. One day."

Kai snorted at that. Who was I even trying to kid at this point?

"So tell me again, why did Yeonjun bring you to Jisu's house?"

"It wasn't Jisu's house though, it was her cousin's."

Kai nodded. "The one she mentioned to us last time."

"Yeah exactly, from the sound of it, Yeonjun has been trying to reach him, and Jisu was helping him."

"Hmm..."

Kai frowned in thought.

I took the opportunity the turn around and eye the seniors at the back row. A senior called Han Jisung and Yeonjun's notorious other best friend, Hwang Hyunjin were bickering over something quietly. Soobin was dead asleep against Yeonjun's shoulder, the latter was half awake, perhaps from Jisung and Hyunjin's banters. He caught my gaze and raised his eyebrows, as if asking which one of the seniors I was checking out. He probably assumed it was Hyunjin I was looking at, because my eyes darted back to him after I noticed that his brown hair was lighter and longer than usual. I didn't think much of it, though. Light coloured hairstyles seemed to be the trend these days. Even Yeonjun came back from the summer with a lighter hair colour, but it was almost all grown out by now. I turned back around to feel Kai tap my arm.

"I think I get what's going on... but still, none of this explains Yeonjun and Jisu's relationship."

"What's actually going on, though?"

"Well... don't quote me on this, but doesn't it seem like Yeonjun just wants Jisu to help him reach her cousin? That's why he's been joining us for lunch since mid-terms." Kai crossed his arms and leant back against his seat. The static of the headrest caused a few strands of his hair to stand up. I found that more amusing than it was supposed to be.

"Speaking of which, who actually is Jisu's cousin? Did he already graduate? That's why he's not at Myungeun high anymore?"

"Choi Beomgyu..."

... and that was pretty much all I knew about mysterious Jisu's mysterious cousin. When Yeonjun and I went to his place that other day, he wasn't at home. Jisu offered for us to come inside and warm up, but Yeonjun politely declined and walked me home. There was nothing weird about their interaction, but it was certainly not what I expected.

Even so, we really weren't getting anywhere with trying to match Yeonjun and Jisu. Things weren't as easy as it seemed. This wasn't just a boy meets girl, kiss kiss, fall in love kind of situation.

Kai was giving up. I could tell. I could tell by the way he sighed every few moments when we'd try to figure out what their cryptic relationship actually was. I could tell by the look he gave me whenever I shared my theories with him.

As for me, I didn't want to give up that easily yet. We barely started to do anything. I didn't want to have joined the volleyball team for nothing.

"I think we should..."

"No, don't say it. I don't want to give up."

"What?" Kai laughed. "No, I was gonna say, why don't we just ask Jisu to tell us more about her cousin?"

"Oh." It was my turn to chuckle. "I thought you didn't want to play matchmaker anymore."

I watched as the corner of Kai's lips curled up sheepishly. There it was. I wasn't wrong.

"Do you reckon we should just give up...?"

"No."

"But Soojin," he leant closer and lowered his voice. "Why do we give so many pickles about who Choi Yeonjun dates?"

"Hueningkai," I shot back, "If we give up now, all those months I've spent trying to get closer to Jisu through volleyball would have gone to waste. You might think that's fine, but not I."

Kai laughed at that. It was truly pitiful how much effort I've put in just to ship Yeonjun with Jisu. Jisu was a riddle I couldn't solve, but I knew Yeonjun. He didn't seem to hate her given how he'd bug her from time to time. I just had no idea what was actually going on between them.

My best friend's voice cut through my thoughts.

"Hey but you're so much fitter now. Look at you, you're even able to be the runner for your mathletes team, huh."

I groaned. Right. There was still Mathletes to worry about.

Regional mathletes was happening at the end of the next week and I was finally starting to feel anxious. Before meeting up with my team, mathletes felt like a faraway promise; something that I wasn't really a part of. I met with my team of one senior, one junior and two other sophomores not too long ago, and that was when it really all started to hit me.

It wasn't like I wanted to back out, since I did make a trade-off with Mr Hong and it was my turn to keep up my end of the bargain, but I really felt like I had no worth to my teammates. I was just a spot-filler. A bargain replacement for Class A's Shin Ryujin.

Our team leader and senior, who was called Arin from Class B, was the kindest one. When I was too slow, she would finish off my questions for me too so we wouldn't fall behind.

Wooyoung, the junior in our team rarely came to our meetings on time, but he was alright too, I suppose. We called him Youngwoo because he would switch our names around. Arin was Rina, I was Jinsoo, and the two other sophomores, Taehyun and Chaeryeong were Hyuntae and Ryeongchae.

Speaking of Hyuntae, he and Chaeryeong were both in Ryujin's class. Despite being two classes below them, Taehyun was extraordinarily good to me. From the few meetings we had, we would always end up walking to our next class together because class was "in the same direction". That was an excuse on his end, though. I knew Class A normally had their labs in the East wing whereas we had ours in the West wing, but still, he seemed adamant about walking me to class, and I didn't have the heart to turn him down.

Chaeryeong was nothing but kind as well. Like Arin, she would also finish off my questions for me so I wouldn't bring the team down with my inadequate skills. As someone who belonged to lousy Class D, my inferiority complex was so real at times. Even aloof Wooyoung was in junior Class A.

Later in the week, I was called to an emergency meeting at Mr Hong's office. On the way there, I bumped into Taehyun, who also had no idea what was happening. By then, mathletes was just a weekend away and it sent shivers down all of our spines to hear that there has been changes in group membership. At first, I thought Shin Ryujin was coming to take her position back from me, but when Taehyun slid the door open, I was even more surprised to see that it was our team leader, Arin, who was missing.

Chaeryeong and Wooyoung were already waiting nervously in the classroom as Mr Hong fumbled through class lists in frustration.

"What happened?" Taehyun asked the others in a low voice as we took our seats next to them. Wooyoung shrugged, and Chaeryeong looked like she had a lot to say, but she too, frowned and nodded in Mr Hong's direction.

"Soojin, you go to him." Taehyun whispered, turning to me. "You're closer to him than we all are."

"Me?"

Chaeryeong caught my gaze and nodded urgently.

I stood up and walked over to the front desk where Mr Hong was. When I glanced down, I realised he was scrutinising over my class list. His forefinger was pressed hard against Kai's name.

"Mr Hong?"

It took him a second, but he cleared his throat and turned to me while moving the papers away.

"Yes. Thank you all for coming,"

It was a bit odd. He seemed a bit frantic just a second ago, but now, he was good once again.

"You can take a seat now, Soojin."

I did as I was told and he started to explain why this emergency meeting was called.

Apparently, Arin dropped out of mathletes due to personal reasons. We were all shocked, especially Chaeryeong, who looked like she was about to cry. Mr Hong didn't explain Arin's case any further, but continued to present the next problem we were faced with.

Taehyun was appointed team leader for the time being, and we had to find a replacement for Arin as soon as possible. All of the seniors and juniors with a keen interest in mathematics were already allocated a mathletes group for regionals next week, so we were told that our best chance would be to find a sophomore.

The problem was, all of the math nerds in the sophomore class were also already allocated a team, so our chances were slim.

We had to find a maths nerd who had not been allocated a mathletes team just yet.

When I met Mr Hong's gaze, I suddenly remembered the promise I gave him about recruiting Kai into one of the teams. I never got back to him on that even though I said I would.

"Hueningkai." I blurted out as Taehyun and Chaeryeong started going through a list of potential recruits from Class A.

"Huening?" Chaeryeong frowned. "The one who played the Fat Mandarin in our Willow pattern story play in Grade 5?"

"Oh my god."

If we weren't in a state of emergency right then, I would've been on my phone that instant, texting Kai the following message:

LMAOO YOU'D NEVER GUESS WHO REMEMBERS YOU AS THE FAT MANDARIN

Even Taehyun started laughing, but the three of us calmed down quite quickly because Mr Hong was still in the room. I glanced over and saw that Wooyoung was seated across from us, scrolling through his phone. Huh, he wasn't even gonna help us at all.

"Is Hueningkai good at maths?" Taehyun asked me, and I nodded.

"He's not as great as you guys are, but he got an A for mid-terms."

Taehyun let out a whistle and reached for his phone. "In that case, I'll see if I still have his Kakao..."

Before I could answer, Wooyoung slammed a hand down on the desk we were all crowded around. I jumped, and looked up. His eyes were still taped to his phone, but he had the widest grin on his face.

"I found us another replacement." he announced.

At that, Mr Hong perked up and walked over to us, eager to know who else we were talking about.

Taehyun, who had his phone out already, asked if he should still message Kai. Chaeryeong said it depended on who Wooyoung's friend was. I was just surprised Wooyoung was helping us after all. He was more loyal than I made him out to be.

Wooyoung tutted and gave himself a pat on the chest. "You guys don't trust me? My friend's a senior from Class B."

"A senior?!" Taehyun, Chaeryeong and I exchanged excited glances. Arin was from Class B. We could have someone just like her join our group.

Our dilemma was solved before the bell for next class rang. Although the four of us were happy to just let Wooyoung's friend fill in for Arin, Mr Hong seemed more keen on Kai joining our team, and quite understandably so, since we were supposed to be a sophomore level team.

Taehyun promised to talk to Kai with me during lunch, so I invited him to join us.

Little did I know just how much things were about to change.