Spring. March.

“I’ve reached a conclusion,” the girl proclaimed with excitement evident on her face. Her three friends peered at her, all too aware where this was going and waiting for whatever absurd verdict she had come to this time.

“Do enlighten us.” Hana sarcastically muttered from across her, biting down on her sandwich.

“Kai is in love with me," she stated as if it were a fact, her serious expression unwavering.

The three all turned to glance at each other with knowing looks, a non-verbal conversation taking place, before settling their stares back on their friend.

“Not this again.” Yuna sighed, as Hana let out sniggers from between her stuffed mouth, almost choking in the process.

“And how exactly did you come up with this?” Yeri put down her fork from beside Hana and stared at her friend in amusement, deciding to entertain the conversation out of pure boredom.

“Noeul, sweetie, we’ve already been through this before; just because someone makes eye-contact with you, it doesn’t mean they like you,” Yuna explained as if she were talking to a child, which was completely justifiable given the fact their seventeen-year-old friend had the tendency to be awfully simple-minded at times.

Noeul furrowed her eyebrows as she turned to face the girl beside her. “But I’ve caught him staring at me, like, a hundred times lately, plus he’s always going out of his way to talk to me.”

“That’s called having a conversation. Something we’re literally doing right now.” Yuna deadpanned as she picked out the tomatoes from her burger.

“But it’s super weird and un-Kai? You get me?”

Yuna shook her head. “No, we don’t. How is that ‘un-kai’?”

“I-I don’t know. It just is.”

Yuna raised a brow at her response.

“Noeul, you need to stop romanticizing everything. Seriously.” The girl in question pouted in response to Yeri. “Now hurry up and finish your food, lunch is nearly over.”

Now, it wasn’t that Noeul's friends couldn’t believe a guy could fall for her, but more to do with the fact that Noeul believed that almost any guy who maintained excessive eye-contact, or any sort of human contact really, was in love with her. Her overactive imagination led to baseless conclusions, which she would act on impulsively – a recipe for disaster to say the least.

The only thing her friends could do was to state the reality, however harsh it may be, so not to feed into her illusions.

Sighing deeply, Noeul muttered a ‘fine’ and complied.

But this only lasted a full thirty seconds before the girl perked up again, unable to maintain her curiosity.

“But why else would he be staring at me?” she questioned, earning three collective sighs.

She just couldn’t understand it. Kai had never looked at her as intently as he had been recently. In their three years of friendship, not once had he paid as much attention to her as he had been the past couple of weeks – and it was strange – which in Noeul’s mind could mean only one thing; he was head over heels for her.

“There’s a huge chance he wasn’t even looking at you,” Yuna replied.

“Maybe every time he was daydreaming, your face was in the way,” Yeri suggested, waving her fork around.

“Or maybe you had a booger sticking out of your nose!” Hana snickered.

“Hey, that was one time, one time!” Noeul whined, red tinting her cheeks lightly. “Anyways, I’m serious about this. I think he actually likes me. Either that, or he finds me extreeeemely pretty.”

“Noeul, I love you, but the way you reach to conclusions is like-” Hana began to explain but gave up halfway when she realized the girl wasn’t even listening. Sighing, she muttered, “-Oh forget it. You’re just delusional, darling.”

Noeul smiled to herself, letting out a small chuckle of disbelief as she voiced her thoughts. “This is literally those friends to lovers situations. You know, the ones in those romance mangas and novels...in which case, doesn’t this mean I’m the main character? Me!” she exclaimed in realization.

“She’s officially lost it, girls.” Yuna shook her head with a bemused expression.

“Just leave her be, she’s on cloud nine and it’ll take a while for her to return.” Yeri waved off Noeul, who was lost in her imagination again. They were far too used to this.

“Yeah, but let’s also hope she doesn’t do anything rash, like that time with-”

“I can still hear you, y’ know,” Noeul interrupted, not wanting to remember her previous escapades.

“-Whatever. All we’re saying is please don’t humiliate yourself. I’m begging you.” Hana warned, wiggling a finger at her.

Noeul pushed away her finger. “Don’t worry, I won’t. You’re acting like I’ve embarrassed myself before.”

“Because you have,” they all said in unison. They seriously needed to put a leash on the girl for damage control.

“I’m not going to do anything,” she reassured.

They didn’t believe her, and they had good reason not to.

Noeul on the other hand was planning to defy their expectations; she was going to wait for him to make the first move.

 

............................

 

Noeul let out a small giggle as she headed out of the ceramics club room and down the empty hallway, skipping giddily.

Kai was staring at me the whole time, like seriously. Could he be more obvious? Even I feel embarrassed if anyone stares at me for too long. I hope I didn’t blush. Oh, that sneaky little bastard. If he’s being this clear does that mean he wants me to realise his feelings? Wow, at this rate I might even get confessed to soon.

She stopped in the middle of the empty school grounds, rocking back and forth on her feet and gripping the straps of her backpack. Her long black hair, tied into a ponytail, swayed in tune with her body, while a goofy smile was etched across her features as she got lost in her internal monologue.

Kai, you lucky boy, I’m feeling pretty gener