Lee Hyukjae knew that his feelings towards you wasn't normal. They were weird feelings, feelings he's never experienced prior to meeting you, but he had read enough books and seen enough movies to realize that he was infatuated with you. It was a logical conclusion, considering the multitude of behavioral changes he exhibited whenever you were near him.

You make eye contact with him, his breathing shallows.

You talk to him, his heart flutters like a nervous baby butterfly.

You smile at him, his brain releases millions of pleasurable endorphins that run through his blood stream and give him the intense desire to touch you, or heaven forbid, hug your body against his own.

Those rare encounters with you were like his sinful little trinkets he kept to himself, relishing them every night in bed, assuring himself that you wouldn't acknowledge him if you hated him for his mindless kissing or his phase of obsessive stalking. That was all he asked for at that point, really. Just a simple acknowledgement of his presence.

But as time passed, as he saw you getting closer to Kris or that rascal GD while your relationship with him was still at a standstill, he allowed himself to become a little bit more selfish. He would think of the perfect scenarios for you to become aware that he was desperate for more of you in his life, regardless of whether it would once again deter you away from him or not.

One time after he was done showering, following a grueling water polo practice, his teammates were bombarding him with sloppy cheek-kisses, expensive yet useless gifts, and rounds of off-key happy birthday songs in the lavish team locker room when you walked in, unaware that you had walked into the wrong room. The boys immediately noticed the bewildered girl in their midst, and started hooting and hollering, inducing your body to tense up and freeze. Your eyes eventually found Hyukjae's round, surprised orbs before traveling down to his body.

His torso was deathly pale as if he were allergic to the sun, and you could faintly see his ribs poking out of his chest. Your eyes automatically flew down farther, seeing an innocent towel wrapped dangerously low around his hips.

Hyukjae slowly sauntered towards you. "Are you lost?"

"I'm... w-well, I-"

"Shh. I won't tell anyone if you came here on purpose." 

You felt his hot breath hit your face as he caressed your flushed cheek.

"I'm fourteen today. You should wish the birthday boy a Bon anniversaire," he whispered the last bit in French, hoping that you would fall for the language of ultimate romance.

"Hap-happy birthday, Hyukjae."

His lips curled into a satisfied smile as he leaned in closer to you and gently kissed your neck. "I hope this kiss won't offend you too much. Think of it as a birthday gift. For me."

He felt your arms encircle around his slim waist as you shyly tipped your head up towards him, silently begging for—

"Uh, well. This is awkward. I'm going to pretend I never came in here, and you guys are going to forget this ever happened okay?" you asserted, turning around to leave the room. Hyukjae heard the door slam shut and debated whether or not he should go back and take a second shower.

His lower region urged him to do so.

*

Another time in Foods Class, everyone was split up into groups and given assignments to design an original recipe with any of the given ingredients supplied by the teacher Mr. Shim. Hyukjae, Kris, and Kai were in one group, and surprisingly enough, none of them had any idea how to work the kitchen or make food from scratch. They employed the help of very willing female classmates to help, but Mr. Shim yelled at them from across the room and told them that if they cheated on the project one more time, he would whip up a lovely concoction of banana slug and mud smoothie for them to drink.

He probably wasn't kidding when he said it either. Mr. Kim's Biology room was right next door.

The dorky Chinese student Hangeng and his buddies laughed at Hyukjae's group as they started scraping their finished creation of authentic vegetable fried rice out of the pan and onto a plate of strategically-placed cucumber slices. They even squirted some ketchup in a fancy-pantsy way on top of the rice and added a pinch of basil at the top to pull the whole dish together. Mr. Shim nodded his head in approval as he bent down and sniffed the food.

"A+ for Hangeng's group," he said after swallowing a big spoonful of it. "I could marry this rice."

Everyone rolled their eyes, knowing Mr. Shim took a major favoritism towards Hangeng. The kid could make cow poop taste like heaven.

Hyukjae looked to your counter behind him and saw an equally delicious strawberry shortcake sitting there, your partners adding little blueberries on the side as you squirted a generous helping of whipped cream onto the shortbread.

"I love whipped cream," Hyukjae commented as you saw him not-so-sneakily taking a dollop of cream on his finger. 

"Great, now you just contaminated our food. Nice going jerk," you narrowed your eyes.

"A jerk am I?" Hyukjae asked, smearing the cream on your lips.

His agile finger flirted with your lips until you grew agitated and opened your mouth, getting ready to bite his finger off. Hyukjae then seductively let his finger slide in your mouth while it was still open, teasing your tongue with pokes and swirls. As if in a trance, you closed your eyes and started and on his finger, ridding it of the sweet cream as you heard him ever-so-softly let out a deep, lustful sigh—

"A+ for the strawberry shortcake!" Mr. Shim announced again, chewing on a ripe berry. He looked towards Hyukjae's group, where Kris and Kai groaned at the mayhem they had created. They burnt the chicken strips to a charcoal black and the spaghetti was completely dried out in the pot.  

"This is so sad," Mr. Shim frowned, wrinkling his nose at the awful burnt smell. "D- for the group of three hopeless boys who couldn't cook to save their asses from catching on fire."

The class erupted in laughter as you patted Hyukjae's shoulder sympathetically. "Don't worry, it's Kris' first time getting anything below an A."

Hyukjae looked at the forlorn glob of whipped cream on his finger and wiped it away with a napkin.

*

The annual Azure Halloween Party was the icing on the cake for Hyukjae, so to speak. Like any other school tradition, House Halloween parties within the House dorms were loosely chaperoned, with no adults supervising the event. The upperclassmen prefects and students were trusted enough by administration not to get out of control and wreak havoc, so as long as there were no drugs, tobacco, or alcohol involved. But that never stops students from smuggling in restricted goods, though they know to have the decency to do the deeds in their own rooms away from the main lounge.

Each year, committees ranging from decorating, catering, music, and photography are set up to help facilitate the organization of the party in a timely and efficient fashion. What usually impressed the House residents the most were the selection of accessories and racks and racks of costumes wheeled into the House lounge a couple of days in advance for students to pick from. There were fairies, Disney princesses, big furry monsters, cops, nurses, flight attendants, pirates, superheroes, sailors, schoolgirls, vampires, witches, animals... a little bit of everything for everyone.

As cheap as the holiday was supposed to be, private boarding school rich kids really knew how to throw a spectacularly luxuriant party whenever it is called for.

Tombstones, coffins, carved out pumpkins with eerie lights, skeletons, ghosts, grim reapers, and random decapitated heads peppered the lounge and hallways as fog machines added tendrils of ambience and drama that curled into the darkest corners of the House. Gossamer canopies surrounding bubbling cauldrons of blood-red iced punch, bowls of candy, and chocolate fountains were enhanced with mood lights and dark strobe lights as the walls and floors vibrated along with the deafening bass music mixed and scratched by a professional DJ.

Standing with a large group of his friends, Hyukjae undid the zipper of his firefighter jacket to reveal a black wifebeater underneath, using his fireman hat to fan himself. It was unsually hot in the lounge with all the bodies jam packed into one confined space. 

"You're such a y tease," an upperclassmen in a skintight playboy bunny costume purred as she sidled up to him, giving him a clear view of her ample s.

"Thanks?" he replied good-naturedly, though his face was scrunched up in distaste as he tried moving away from her. 

"Dance with me!" she exclaimed, rubbing her and furry tail against him with her arms up in the air, totally immersed in the techno music pumping from the speakers. He grabbed a random friend whom he knew would enjoy the attention of an older girl and pushed him into her as a means of escape. The bunny didn't seem to mind and started grinding against the friend. 

Hyukjae grimaced, weaving his way towards the food table in search of a nice cold beverage. 

It was there that he saw you beside the chocolate fountain, laughing at something Yuri said as you adjusted your one-shouldered Greek goddess wraparound toga that had a long slit at the side to show off the length of your long, beautiful legs.

Hyukjae caught your eyes and made sure you were watching him as he moonwalked to where you were standing.

You low-whistled. "Nice moves Firefighter Lee."

"Good thing I'm a firefighter because you are smokin' hot," he said huskily, leaving feathery touches on your thigh.

Your eyes crinkled in amusement. "You're not going to sweet talk me into doing whatever it is your devious little mind is thinking right now."

"And what am I thinking right now?"

Your index and middle finger deliberately walked up his chest, leaving delicate tingling sensations on his skin before you pulled his wifebeater towards you.

"You tell me," you murmured, deliberately breathing through your mouth in his ear before your nose traced the edge of his masculine jawline—  

Someone near you drank in a lungful of helim from a stray balloon and started singing in a high pitched tone, giggling like a goon with his friends who were fighting for the balloon for some of the funny gas.

"Yeah, I've been dancing since I was in my mum's womb," Hyukjae said as he reached in the candy bowl and tore open a Twix wrapper.

"It just comes naturally huh?"

"What can I say?" Hyukjae pursed his lips, tossing invisible hair over his shoulder.

You laughed. "You should teach me someday."

"It's a date."

You nodded, tipping your flute of sparkling cider in his direction. "Deal."

"Hey! You promised you would teach me how to dance way earlier!" Yuri whined from the side, unaware that Hyukjae was going beserck in his mind over the fact that he had actually solidified a date with his dream girl.

*

The scenarios he formulated in his mind in the end turned out to be in hindsight more of a failure than success on his part to get closer to you. Yet, with a prospective date, along with those shameless fantasies of his, they have instead become an appealing source of stronger motivation for his determination to get you for good.

Not as a friend, though.

No, he was too greedy for just friendship now.