"Maybe I shouldn't have agreed to playing basketball with the boys so early in the morning, especially before classes." Serena mumbled to herself once she stepped onto Hyebi University's campus.

"This is what I get for replying after waking up."

She sighed.

"I knew I should've ignored Seohoo's call."

She sighed once again while heading towards the school's gymnasium. On her way there, she thought she heard a familiar voice calling her name, but ignored it upon thinking she was just hearing stuff. Then, the voiced called out for her again and this time around, Serena turned her head to see Heeseung in the distance, waving at her with a smile. She paused in mid-step to wave back with a blank look and for him to unconsiously catch up to her.

"Good morning, Jinae." Heeseung greeted with a bright smile, but noticed the expression she wore.

"Um, are you okay?"

"It's just my face and I'm up earlier than usual. That's all."

Serena rubbed at her face to take the opportunity to fix her expression before she cast him with a small smile before greeting him back.

"But um, yeah, good morning, to you, too, Heeseung."

"Are you headed towards the gymnasium?" Heeseung asked her a moment later as the pair continued walking in the same direction.

"Uh, yes. You?".

Heeseung nodded as he .

"Don't worry. I'm not stalking you or anything."

She eyed him while playfully slapping at his arm.

"Shut up."

Heeseung cocked a brow as Serena realized what she had done. She patted his arm.

"Sorry, sorry."

She immediately stopped and kept her hands to her side.

"Anyway, you're not by chance going there to play backsetball are you?"

"I am. Why do you ask?"

"Just asking."

Serena inwardly groaned as thought to herself that she should maybe stop teasing her sister and cousins about their love life and crushes. So lost in her thoughts, Serena wasn't paying attention to where she was walking as she almost tripped up the steps to the gymnasium until she felt herself being pulled back by Heeseung and from falling forward.

"Whoa there, be careful." Heeseung cautioned her as Serena glanced at him.

"Um, thanks, and sorry."

"No problem."

Serena quickly removed herself away from his grasp, bowed her head at him as she continued up the steps in a hurry now. Heeseung soon followed afterwards with a hint of a smile as the pair entered the gymnasium. When Serena entered the gymnasium first and before she could even have time to scope out her friends, she was playfully tackled to the ground with someone screaming her name.

"PARK JINAE!"

She groaned before slapping at the person to get off of her.

"Get off of me, Song Hyeongjun."

"Aww, but I miss you!" He cooed, hugging her annoyingly.

"I messaged you yesterday."

"But I didn't see you yesterday."

"You're so annoying."

Hyeongjun laughed before getting off of Serena and helping her get back to her feet, but not even a moment later, Serena was playfully tackled to the ground once more with the other person laughing at what he had done.

"PARK JINAE!"

"Yah! Baek Seohoo! You did that on purpose!"

Seohoo laughed, still lying on top of her to keep her pinned down.

"And if I did?"

She eyed him, annoyed.

"Get off."

"No."

Serena began wrestling with the male and he finally got off of her once he knew she was about to put him in a headlock.

"Okay, okay."

"Dumb brat."

Seohoo laughed once again as he helped Serena to her feet while she playfully punched him for knocking her down. However, a second later, Serena was enveloped into Yeonjun's arm as he aggressively hugged her.

"My lovely Jinae."

"Yah, Choi Yeonjun!"

Serena tried to pry herself out of his arms, but that was proving to be futile.

"Let go of me."

"No."

Yeonjun held her tightly with a laugh as Serena unconsciously whined cutely.

"C'mon. Why do y'all keep doing this to me?"

"Because you're fun to tease."

"Ugh. you're so clingy."

Serena continued to struggle within Yeonjun's embrace as the latter laughed at her futile attempts. Meanwhile, Heeseung watched the whole interaction, feeling some type of way once Serena intereacted with the three males although he winced upon seeing her getting tackled to the ground twice. He remembered that time in the dance room with Jungwon and wondered how constant was it for it to happen so often.

"Hey, Heeseung." Kyungjun greeted as Heeseung greeted his friend.

"Hey, Kyungjun, so how many of us are playing this morning?"

"Quite a bit that we can actually play a five on five game while being able to rotate members before classes start."

"Okay, cool."

Heeseung glanced around, but noticed it was all males and Serena was the only female present.

"Are there more coming?"

Kyungjun looked about them with a shake of his head.

"No. We're all here."

He glanced at his friend.

"Were you expecting anyone?"

Heeseung shook his head.

"No, no. Just curious."

"Anyway, c'mon, I'll introduce you to the others if you haven't met them yet."

"Mmhmm."

Heeseung nodded as he followed Kyungjun, wondering if Serena was gonna play with them despite being the only female here. He noticed Serena being drag to the same friend group by Yeonjun while she tried to fend off Yeonjun's affection alongside Hyeongjun, Seohoo, and a few others. Maybe she was here just because the others invited her over to watch them. Serena ended up not playing as she wasn't in the mood to play after all.

"Thanks for walking me to class, Sunghoon." Linna thanked him as they reached the door of her first class of the day.

Sunghoon flashed her a bright smile. The two decided to keep up this couple facade until they discuss how to go about things in person. Sunghoon would rather talk face to face about the situation at hand instead of messaging one another. However, he didn't have an issue discusing through text about keeping up with the couple facade though.

"You're welcome, Yiseul."

Just then a piece of her hair fell into her face and just as Linna was about to brush it aside, Sunghoon took the initiative and brushed the strands behind her ear. Linna froze in her spot at his action and almost forgot to breath. Despite her crush on Sunghoon, she remained calm and collect a few seconds later. Maybe the initial shock of all of this was letting her process that he was just a regular person and not someone to idolize in an unhealthy way.

"Thanks."

"Welcome. I'll see you after class, okay?"

"Um, yeah. See you after."

"Oh, by the way."

"Hmm?"

Sunghoon pointed to something on Linna's backpack.

"You'll need to take that off once I give you a different one."

"What do you mean?"

She swung her backpack forward as the bear keychain came into sight as she held on to it.

"You mean RanGom?"

"RanGom?"

"Mmhmm. That's his name."

"Okay, but yes. Him."

"But RanGom was a gift."

"Yeah, but others would think you have a boyfriend that's not me."

"Because I don't have a boyfriend."

However, Linna didn't miss the way that Sunghoon indirectly referred to himself as her boyfriend though.

"You do. I'm your boyfriend. Anyway, I'm going to give you a new one and you'll have to replace it."

Linna didn't know if to believe her ears or not with how Sunghoon just casually and direclty claimed himself as her boyfriend. She didn't questioned it and just left it.

"Okay, okay. Once you get me a new stuffed toy keychain, then I'll replace this one with that one instead."

"Good. Do you have a preference?"

"A preference for what?"

"The keychain?"

Linna shook her head.

"Not really. You can get me whatever you want."

"Okay, then. Now, I'll see you later."

"I'll see you later, too."

The two bid one another goodbye as Linna entered her class still wondering if she could go through with this and hoped that she and Sunghoon could have that talk. As for Melanie, the situation was more or less the same.

"How long are you planning on holding my hand, Jake?" Melanie whispered when he dropped her off at her first class.

"I dunno, Chaewon, but it seems nice." Jake commented with a laugh as he didn't let go despite already being in front of the door.

"Maybe we should mention how long hand-holding should be."

"Aww, don't be like that. This is quite fun."

"I see we can talk about this, but can't have that other talk though." Melanie remarked as Jake laughed.

"We can talk about that later, Chaewon."

"How long would 'later' be though?"

Jake shrugged.

"Dunno, but we shall see."

"Right. Anyway, you have to let go so that I can get into my class."

"Just a few seconds more to make all this believable."

Jake swung their intertwined hands with such a big smile and Melanie glanced down at their hands, never thinking she and him would be doing something like this. However, Melanie needed to get to class and the stairs from the other students were making her slightly uncomfortable from all the attention they were receiving.

"Okay, that's enough."

Melanie le go and Jake pouted at the lost contact, but recovered as he smiled at Melanie.

"Alright. I'll come pick you up for our class together."

"See you then, Jake."

"See you, Chaewon."

The pair bid one another goodbye as Jake waited for her to enter her class.

"What?"

"I'll watch you enter your class before going."

"For real?"

"Mmh