*beep *beep *beep

I groan and reluctantly reach out to shut up the alarm. Time for school…. I do my daily morning routine. Get up, eat food, shower, put on clothes, make my lunch, etc... I look in the mirror…wonderful. My cheek was slightly swollen and pink from last night. I touch the wound. It stings a little but not too bad.

I leave the apartment. Su Min’s not here. Oh well, maybe she’s already gone. I start the walk to school. I hear hurried footsteps behind me.

“Ren! Wait for me! Ren!”

I thought I heard someone call my name. I turn around. It’s Su Min. A bagel was in one hand and her coat was buttoned up all wrong. Her dark hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail and her back pack threatened to fall off her left shoulder any second now.  She catches up to me and pants.

“Hey there*pant* Ren*pant*…..”

She almost falls over. I grabbed her shoulders propping her up. I take her backpack off of her shoulder and swing it around mine. She makes a move to object but is too tired to do any more.  

“You’re buttons are all messed up.” I laugh.

I reach down and re-button them so that each stud was fastened in its corresponding hole. When I look up she’s looking at me, eyes big and wide. She sees me staring and quickly looks down, her cheeks pinken a little.

“Oh, ah thanks.” She takes her backpack off of my shoulder and nibbles on her bagel. She looks up at me again and gently touches my swollen cheek. Her fingers are warm, it doesn’t hurt at all.

“What happened?” she asks softly.

“Oh…um…I kinda …fell yesterday at work. No big deal.” I turn and start walking for school. I don’t like lying to her but then again I don’t want her wasting her time worrying about me either. Su Min follows beside me. I feel her staring at my cheek. I look at her. She pretends to be looking elsewhere. I chuckle and ruffle her hair.

“Su Min, don’t worry, I’m fine.”

She makes a face, a mixture and uncertainty and worry, and then nods. We walk into school. Chin Ho is at his normal desk. He sees me come in and looks down. Neither of us really know what to do after yesterday’s apology….

Su Min and I walk to our seats in the back and sit. Class starts. I make an effort to actually listen today. It’s so boring…. I look over at Su Min. She’s taking notes. She looks so concentrated, it’s cute… I can’t take my eyes off her. She catches me staring and smiles. I smile back. I should probably take notes too…I take my pen and notebook out and start scribbling down the teacher’s words. Before I knew it I had fallen asleep again. Fail.   

I wake up to lunch. Su Min and I go to our tree. The day is nice and sunny so we decide to sit on the grass. When I’m done eating I yawn and lie down on my back, watching as the white clouds move steadily along the blue sky. Su Min joins me. Her hair sprawls around her head like a crown.

We lie there for a while, just watching the sky and feeling the breeze tickle our faces. I love this feeling of tranquility, of being beside her…

“It’s pretty…”she sighs happily and closes her eyes.

“Mhmm…” I agree but I’m not looking at the sky. I’m looking at her… I noticed the first day that she was pretty but it’s only now that I realize exactly how gorgeous she is. Her hair is dark and shiny, her lashes are long, her lips are pink and plump and her skin is beautiful. My hand subconsciously starts inching towards one of her locks.

The bell rings. I realize what I was doing and immediately retreat my hand. Su Min groans.

“Ughhh, time for class again….”

My face is hot. I can’t believe what I was about to do….I’m going crazy. We head in for class. It’s time for science.

“Students, today we are going to pair into groups of two. Now I have already assigned your partners….” She begins reading off the pairs.

I look over at Su Min. She’s looking at me too. She lifts up hands exposing her crossed fingers. I laugh and cross my own. She giggles back.

“Su Min and… Mun Hee.” Su Min drops her hands and looks at me sadly, puffing up her cheeks. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed myself.

“Last but not least, Yoon Ji and Ren. Everyone, get with your partners now.”

Yoon Ji finds me before I even start looking for her.

“Hey Ren! How ironic, we’re partners!” she says cheerfully.

I force a smile and agree. I look around the room. Su Min and Mun Hee are sitting on the other side of the room. Yoon Ji follows my gaze.

“Oh, looks like Su Min and Mun Hee are together.”

I nod. Mun Hee is known as the manliest guy in our class. He’s really tall, extremely athletic, and according to the girls, he’s really “handsome”. I sneer at the thought. He’s not that great…..

“I heard he thinks she’s cute.” Yoon Ji says. I snap my head towards her, surprised.

“Oh really….” I try to keep my voice steady.  

“Yup, he might even ask her out.” The statement makes my fist tighten. My jaw clenches. I really don’t like the sound of that.

“So anyways, let’s get working. So we’re supposed to make a list of eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell traits…”

I nod and force myself to look away from them. He might ask her out… Would she say yes? Does she like guys like him? Wait…why am I so worked up about this? It’s not like she’s my girlfriend or anything…

I feel myself blush at the thought. No, no, no, focus! I grab my textbook and start looking through pages that might be of importance. No matter how hard I try I can’t focus. I sigh in frustration. Yoon Ji giggles.

“Try looking on page 253” she says. I flip to the page.

“Thanks.”

“Sure.”

I hear Su Min’s laughter. I turn. Su Min is giggling, her head is tilted back and her hand is over . Mun Hee has his head propped up on the palm of his hand, he’s looking at her as if she were the only person in the room.

“They’re cute…” Yoon Ji says, looking at them enviously.

“Hmph. Not really.”

Yoon Ji looks at me and laughs.

“Of course you don’t think that, you’re a guy.” She gently flicks my head with her finger. I force a laugh.

“I guess…”

She tilts her head and looks at me.

“Do you like anyone right now?”

I immediately think of Su Min…

“I don’t know…” I say.

To be honest, I don’t know. I’ve never liked anyone before. For all I know, maybe Su Min just feels like a sister to me. I’m an only child. I wouldn’t know what having a sibling felt like so that could be it. Maybe I’m just feeling really protective…yeah, that’s probably it…  Ughh, I don’t know. I just know I don’t like seeing them so happy together.

Yoon Ji doesn’t say anything. It’s getting uncomfortable.

“How about you? Do you like anyone?” I didn’t really care but I felt like she wanted to be asked.

She slowly turns her head towards me and smiles.

“I actually do…now.”

I don’t know what she means by that but I nod as if I understood.

Su Min’s POV

Mun Hee’s not bad. In fact, he’s really nice and funny! We didn’t get a lot of work done, but it’s alright. The teacher’s giving us a lot of time.

I glance over at Ren. His partner is Yoon Ji. She’s in the student council. She talked to me the first day I was here. She’s really nice and really pretty….I take it a lot of guys like her…  She’s beautiful, smart, tall and thin. I heard she did some modeling in the past too… I wonder if Ren thinks she’s pretty…

The thought kind of irritates me. No. If he thinks she’s pretty, that’s his choice. I have no say in who he choses to like. I mean, it’s not like Ren belongs to me or anything…

“Hey, Su Min, I found a nice section about the prokaryotes on this page.” Mun Hee shows me his book.

“Nice! I’ll write it down.”

I look over at Ren and Yoon Ji. He asks her something. She tilts her head and answers. She’s looking at him in this way…the way girls look when they’re flirting. My pencil snaps. I gasp, looking down at what used to be a whole pencil.

“Are you okay?” Mun Hee looks over at my hand.

“Oops, yeah, I’m fine, thanks.” I smile. He turns back to his book.

The bell rings. I pack up my things. When I look up Ren is standing there. He’s in the little space between Mun Hee and me. If I didn’t know better I’d have thought he was trying to put some distance between us. Psshh, what am I thinking…crazy mind of mine. Why would he do that? 

“Hey do you want to walk back together?” he asks nervously.

I smile. “Of course!” He looks kind of relieved, he’s so cute… I can’t resist and gently pinch his cheek.

I look behind his shoulder and see Yoon Ji standing on the other side, staring at us. I force a smile.

Come on, Su Min, she’s really nice. Don’t look for reasons to dislike her. I say to myself.

She smiles back. As we turn to leave I think I saw her glare from the corner of my eye. Probably just my imagination…. Even though I know I should be more open-minded…I don’t really want her hanging around Ren.