You freeze as those words exit his mouth. You don’t know how to reply, and your mouth won’t move. Since you fail to give a response, Kai makes one for you and says, “Then it’s settled. We are.” Breezily, he brushes past you and strides into the classroom, leaving you to stand alone in his apathetic wake.

Wait. What just happened?

You're tempted to chase after him, but your original intentions to enter class have been disregarded. Now, you no longer wish to enter that classroom. Not when Kai is there, with his incredibly fluffy hair and frank words. It's way too much pressure, and that's not including the girl, who is practically staring daggers at the back of your head.

Actually, maybe being in the classroom is a better idea.

"I'm going in ... " you mumble, and enter the classroom before you can change your mind. You close the door shut behind you and are greeted with judging stares. The teacher gives you a hard time, but once you're seated, class resumes. Unfortunately, the only seat that had been left was one of the seats in the front row - right next to Kai.

You try to focus, but you can't help but allow your mind to stray. You can't stop thinking about his straight forward words and the ease with which he said them. 

When class ends, the teacher requests that you and Kai stay behind. Nervous, you wait for your classmates to exit before the teacher shuts the door and leans against his desk with a sigh.

"So can I have a reason as to why you were late?" Your teacher asks. He takes off his glasses and peers through its lenses before returning them to the bridge of his nose.

Kai promptly replies, "She's a transfer student here. She lost her way around the school."

"I can believe that," the teacher responds. He sighs, "But, Kai, you're always late to class. So I'd like you to give me a plausible reason."

Kai shrugs half-heartedly. "I go when I want to."

You in a breath. He has a lot of gall to say that.

The teacher merely shakes his head and is about to say something disciplinary when the warning bell rings. He raises up a hand, as if in defense, and says, "Go on. You might be late to the next one." With that, he sits on the chair behind his desk, and Kai takes this opportunity to rush out of that classroom.

You follow him, and once more you find yourself in a hallway with few people. You open your schedule to find the location of your next class, only to realize that it's on the first floor. You pick up your pace, realizing that you could be late if you don't hurry. But when you look up, you run smack into Kai's back.

"Sorry," you stutter, half of you wondering why he's simply standing in the middle of the hallway. You timidly move to the left to pass him, and catch a glimpse of his face as you do. 

He's dialing a number on his phone, and looking very serious as he does it. You turn around and walk forward, but caught with a sudden pull of curiosity, you spin around and, despite the fact that you know you could easily be misconstrued as blatant or rude, ask, "Did you mean what you said back there?"

He slowly takes his eyes off his phone. Carefully, he hangs up and tucks it into the pocket of his pants. "What?" He drawls.

Is he going to make you say it? Because that's what it looks like.

"Um ... before we went to class, did you ... mean that?"

He smirks. "Of course not. It just seemed like a good thing to say at the time." Your heart drops like a stone, and you try your best not to let your emotions show as you watch his careless reaction. "Unless ... did you actually want to date me?" He shoves his hands into his pockets and his head to the side in this annoying yet attractive way. "I'm not interested in girls like you. Sorry." With that, as if he hadn't just taken your heart, twisted it, stomped on it, and burned it, he nonchalantly walks by you, the echo of his shoes claiming an ominous sound in the hallway. You stand there, clutching your schedule, and try not to get upset.

How stupid are you, to have dared ask him that? Obviously, extremely stupid.

The next few classes pass by easily enough, and thankfully Kai isn't in any of them. Once lunch rolls around, you head down to the school's snazzy cafeteria, picking delicious entrees and sweets. You find a seat next to the girls you had met earlier (the ones who had fawned over Kai and had been disappointed to know they had no classes with him) and sit next to the girl who is obviously the 'leader'.

"Hello," she says perkily as she takes a sip of her drink. "Wait. You're ... ?" You introduce yourself to her, and she nods. "I'm Hyunsoo. Sorry about early this morning. We kind of have a thing for Kai." She pulls out her extremely large backpack from underneath the table and starts ping the main compartment. Pulling out a laptop, she puts it on the table and flips it open. You don't know if she's intentionally ignoring you or not, but she's instantly immersed in the contents of her laptop. You watch her open certain tabs and close others until she opens a bookmark and, with flair, looks to you with a pleased smile and says, "Look how much I'm getting from him."

"What?" You ask, peering at the screen of her laptop. It's an online shopping site, where buyers have the option to bid or purchase something. You stare at the little icon - a photo of a piece of paper with some sort of fancy signature on it - and at the price listed next to it: $100.

"That's Kai's signature," she grins happily. "It's going up, guys!" She says, and her friends clamor to look at the price. They cheer themselves on when they see it, and you stare at the screen, confused.

"Is he ... an idol?" You ask, and Hyunsoo shakes her head. 

"Not quite. He's the son of the guy who owns all the hospitals in this city. And that family, I swear ... they're worth big bucks. They're practically walking millionaires. Anyway, we like to sell his stuff. He's super famous for being the rebel, because rumors have it that his dad wants him to take over the business position, and Kai doesn't want to. But his name, and his stuff? It's worth a lot."

So Kai is ... a business prospect for these girls? That's actually pretty hilarious.

"So you don't ... like him?"  You venture.

"Oh, of course we do," she explains. "But we also like the money he gets us."

"Does he know you sell his stuff?"

"I'm sure he does. He loves to hand out his signature." She scrolls down the screen, showing you all the other things of Kai's that are for sale, like a Calvin Klein tie he once used. 

That explains why he had given you his signature yesterday, then. He had thought you had wanted it to receive some sort of income. Now that you think about it, it's sort of embarrassing that you had been assumed to be that type of female.

Not that it's going to warm your heart and suddenly make you feel sweet to him, or anything. He's still a jerk.

An irritatingly attractive jerk.