Yerin arrived at the classroom, it was 6am in the morning. She was there early to prepare for her math test later. She sat down and took out her math notebook and pencil case. She plugged her earphones in and hummed to the music. 

 

She enjoyed being alone in this big classroom, birds were singing, and the sun came out to greet her. Yerin took her time as a class only started at 8.30 am.

 

She swung her legs left to right as she finished solving the last math problem she needed to do. 

 

“ And..done!” She said to herself. Then, looking at the clock, it was nearly 7am.

 

Yerin looked around the classroom, usually, there should be a student who was in charge of cleaning the classroom before others came. 

 

“ That’s weird, where are they?” Yerin said as she walked towards the blackboard. She found the student who was supposed to be on duty. Her name was written by white chalk, it spelled Hwang Sinb. 

 

Yerin thought for a while, Sinb was the athletic one in her classroom, the girl who would always play basketball with other boys. They are not close friends, but they do talk to each other, only if they have to. There was this one time they helped their biology teacher mark papers. Sinb was a quiet person when she was with Yerin since they weren’t that close. 

 

Yerin smiled at the name and decided to help her out a bit. She started to move chairs up on to tables, she then took a broom and swept the floor. Then, she took down the chairs and started to clean each desk. Afterward, she adjusted every table that was out of their original position, made sure every lined up. 

 

Yerin checked that she had finished everything on the cleaning list, she was satisfied with her work and nodded as she scanned the room. 

 

“ Was it you?” A voice called out. 

 

Yerin then turned to the owner of the voice. It was Hwang Eunbi. She was in her usual uniform, her tie was loose from her collar, she had her headphone resting around her neck. Sinb was holding her school bag that was swung behind her with one hand, and over her shoulders. 

 

“ I’m on duty today. Did you clean everything already?” Sinb said as she placed her bag on one of the desks.

 

“ Ah..yeah.” Yerin could only say. 

 

“ Why?” Sinb asked.

 

“..I got here early..and I had nothing to do.” Yerin explained. 

 

“ Ah..” Sinb said as she listened to her. 

 

“ Sorry.” Yerin said as she gave her an apologetic look. 

 

“ For what?” 

 

“ It’s just because..for not telling you..I’m sorry.” Yerin apologized again. 

 

Sinb knitted her brows as she thought she didn’t make sense. “ Why are you sorry? I should thank you instead.” Sinb argued. 

 

Sinb then thought of something, “ Ah, then, are you busy right now?” 

 

“ No, not at all!” Yerin smiled at her. 

 

“ Do you want to go to the school store? I’ll buy you chocolate milk.” Sinb suggested. She then looked for her wallet in her bag. 

 

Chocolate milk, it was Yerin’s favorite drink, she drinks it day and night. In fact, she already had one in her bag for lunch. 

 

“ Sinb.. you would?” Yerin asked carefully. It was not that she wanted to turn her down, but it was really nothing helping out a classmate. 

 

“ Yeah, I should repay you.” Sinb said as she looked around the clean classroom. 

 

“ You don’t have to though.” Yerin said, she just wanted to help Sinb anyways. She would do it for any classmate. 

 

Sinb went a bit closer to Yerin as she stepped on the stage where she was. 

 

“ Then, how come you only drink chocolate milk? So cute.” Sinb said as she smiled at Yerin. 

 

Yerin blushed as she heard how Sinb told her that she is cute. Sinb only smiled and grabbed her hands.

 

“ Come on, it’s my treat.” Sinb then dragged the now dumbfound Yerin out of the classroom. 

 

They then arrived at the school store, Sinb took two small cartons of chocolate milk and paid for it. Yerin was waiting outside for her as she covered her still redden face. 

 

Cute. Was the word that Sinb described her. 

Yerin couldn’t think straight as she wonders how, how can a person not faint when Hwang Sinb calls you cute???

 

Then, she felt something cold touch her cheeks.“ Here, one chocolate milk on the house.” Sinb said cheekily. Yerin laughed and took the carton. 

 

“ Thanks, Sinb. I’ll drink it well.” Yerin said as she took out the straw and stabbed it in the container, while Sinb did the same. 

 

“ Want to go for a walk before class starts?” Sinb asked. Yerin nodded and follow her to the sports field. They both sat down on the bleachers as they watched the soccer team clean up the field after practice.

 

“ So, why do you like chocolate milk so much?” Sinb asked, then sip on her straw. 

 

Yerin was embarrassed as she bit on her straw, “ I-I just like them.” 

 

“ How did you know I like it?” Yerin asked. 

 

“ I-I just always see you drink it.” Sinb laughed awkwardly and looked away. 

 

“ Always? Were you watching me?” Yerin teased. She didn’t know that she was capable of teasing Hwang Sinb. She didn’t know where the courage came from. 

 

Sinb laughed nervously again, “ Ha! Y-you wish.” 

 

Yerin only hummed and nodded. Then Sinb scooted a bit close to her, she then extended one hand as if she wanted something. 

 

“ Why?” Yerin asked. 

 

“ Give me your phone.” Sinb said. 

 

“ Oh okay.” Yerin then took out her phone from her pocket, unlocking it, and gave it to her.

 

Sinb took her phone and pressed into the contacts app. She started typing something and once she was done, she handed Yerin’s phone back to her. 

“ Here.” 

 

“ What did you do?” Yerin asked out of curiosity and browsed through her phone. 

 

“ Nothing much.” 

 

Then, Yerin opened her contacts. There was a new number showing up on the top of the page that was listed with a star mark. 

 

Name: Hwang Sinb

And below that was her phone number. 

 

Sinb looked at Yerin who was now with red ears, she smiled gently and whispered, “ So cute.” But Yerin didn’t hear her. 

 

“ Call me when you want chocolate milk. I’ll buy them for you.” Sinb said as she got up. Yerin looked at her confusingly.

 

Sinb then sighed and smiled, “ What I meant was, let’s hang out more from now on.” Sinb then offered her hand to Yerin. Yerin gladly took it and stood up. 

 

“ I want to see you drinking chocolate milk cutely again, just because I like it.”