There’s only ten minutes of lunch left, so Bomi is practically sprinting around the school to find Chorong. Bomi almost crashes into said girl when she finds her in the hallway. She grabs her arm to keep from toppling over and says, practically heaving, “You’ll never believe what just happened.”

“I believe you almost pushed me over,” Chorong huffs as she straightens her clothes and closes her locker. She eyes Bomi for a second then asks, “Why do you look so happy?”

“I have a date with Eunji after school,” Bomi tells her, smiling so wide that her face feels like it might split in two. She shakes Chorong’s arm and says, “Can you believe?”

Chorong laughs and pulls Bomi’s hand, so they can link arms instead. She starts walking them down the hall and asks, “So, you finally asked her out?”

“Actually, she asked me out,” Bomi replies smugly. She can’t stop smiling. She just can’t. She’s so excited. She’s not sure how she’s going to be able to focus for the rest of the day. 

“What happened to you saying she has no idea you exist?” Chorong asks curiously. She’s laughing at her, but Bomi can’t bring herself to care. She has a date with Eunji, and nothing can ruin her day now. Not even Chorong clearly making fun of her. “I thought you said she was... What was it? Oh, she’s ‘the hot, popular athlete’.”

Bomi blushes and looks around to make sure no one overheard. She nudges Chorong and says, “Shut up. I only said that, like, once.”

“You said that too many times to count,” Chorong says with a roll of her eyes. “So? What happened?”

For a moment, Bomi considers telling Chorong about the notebook. She’d been walking in the hall when she saw it fall out of Eunji’s backpack. She’d rushed to pick it up, but by the time she had, Eunji had already been gone. Bomi had flipped through the notebook, not to be nosy, but to see if Eunji had written her teacher’s name. Bomi had thought she’d return it that way, by dropping it off with her teacher. Imagine her surprise when she saw her own name in Eunji’s notebook with lots of hearts.

Bomi felt her whole face flush when she read what Eunji had written about her. Like Chorong said, she didn’t think Eunji knew she existed. Not to mention, she thought Eunji, who was one of the school’s star athletes, was way out of her league. The notebook had filled her with a kind of confidence that sent her walking up to Eunji with way more courage than she thought she had. 

Now, here she is. With a date. It’s kind of crazy.

“She just asked me,” Bomi finally says.

“She just asked you,” Chorong repeats with narrowed eyes, clearly not buying it. “Just like that?”

Bomi nods, “Just like that.”

Chorong stares at her for a long moment before shrugging, “Okay. Tell me how the date goes.”

“Of course.”

By the end of the day, Bomi is practically shaking with nerves as she walks to Eunji’s homeroom. She absently tries to straighten out her clothes, suddenly wishing she’d taken the time to properly iron her shirt this morning. Bomi is so busy messing with her clothes that she walks straight into someone.

“Sorry,” Bomi says, only to look up and realize it’s Eunji. She blushes and says, “Oh, hey..”

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter