Aclaire’s POV

I felt a flow of electricity run through my body and my face started to heat up.  Immediately, I shot up away from Joon.

“I-I’m so s-sorry,” I stuttered while I touched my lips with my fingers and ran to the bathroom to cool down.

I washed my face and looked at my reflection in the mirror. It was as red as a tomato.

“Aclaire! That was your first kiss!” I quietly said to myself. How am I going to face him now?

I gently touched my lips and the feeling when we made contact still lingered. My heart raced rapidly when I replayed the moment. I inhaled deeply several times. It was his birthday, how could I stay in here the whole time?

Joon’s POV

My throat was dry and I didn’t know what I should say to her. I quietly laughed to myself. Is this what they called a birthday kiss...? It was just so unexpected. I took several deep breaths and thought it would be best if I left to make things less awkward between us. Aclaire had suddenly entered the lounge room. I straightened my shirt and wiped my sweaty hands on my pants as she approached me. Clearing my throat I managed to say, “Thank you for the crystal piano and well this,” I said and awkwardly swung my arms around the area.

“You’re welcome,” Aclaire said with her head faced down, “Um... I’ll cut the cake,”

I put my arm in front of her to block her path, “There’s no need. I should get going. Let’s do our best tomorrow at the Sports Carnival,” I said while getting my stuff.

Aclaire looked up and then looked straight back down again, “Yeah, you too,” she said just audible for me to hear. I nodded and left.

I arrived at my apartment and touched my lips. Sure it was shocking but yet so innocent at the same time. A smile sneaked across my face. Judging by her reaction it must’ve been her first kiss. Well it was my first birthday kiss too so I guess that makes us even. I held up the crystal piano in front of my face and stared admiringly at the lights that reflected off. I sighed, I should leave early tomorrow so we wouldn’t coincidentally walk to school together.

Aclaire’s POV

I sat down awkwardly at the dinner table and tried to erase what just happened in the last five minutes but I couldn’t. The scene just kept on repeating itself and every time I thought about it I would unconsciously turn red. That night I couldn’t go to sleep at all! I just kept thinking about it.

“Aclaire, stop it. He doesn’t care and either should you. Just fall asleep so you can have the strength to do your events tomorrow,” I whispered to myself, “Ok, I’m going to wake up extra early tomorrow so I don’t bump into him while walking to school,” I decided and closed my eyes.

~~~

Morning had arrived and I was still tossing and turning in bed. Not a wink of sleep at all. How was that even possible? Everything that happened last night kept repeating in my head. I unwillingly got out of bed and got dressed into my PE gear. I peered in the mirror and noticed I had dark circles around my eyes. Ugh. Today is definitely going to be a long one.

It was 7am and I entered the elevator to go down to my apartment building. The elevator came to a halt on the 7^th floor. Horrified, I prayed. Please tell me that it wasn’t Lee Joon behind the door. Please. Please. Please! The doors slid open and it slowly revealed a female on the other side. I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly a hand shot through the door and a figure swiftly slid into the elevator. He had his back to me and was wearing Aiquiss High’s uniform. You know how you wish for something to never happen and it happens! Well, this was one of those moments. He slowly turned around and I quickly darted to the furthest corner of the elevator away from him while hiding my face with my bag. I heard Joon snicker and regretted my actions. Hopefully he didn’t see my face. The lady that entered earlier eyed me weirdly and I just felt the urge to rush out the elevator. A light bulb in my head lit up. Oh my god. Aclaire, you are a genius!

Joon’s POV

What is this? I was supposed to avoid her today... but here she is standing there behind me. It was so obvious that Aclaire was trying to hide herself... but being the gentleman I am, I pretended to not recognise her. We stood there in silence until she suddenly darted in front of me and sprinted out the elevator when we reached the next floor. I was totally taken back. Was it really that embarrassing to share a kiss with me? Furthermore it wasn’t even a kiss it was more like a peck. I stood there nodding in the ‘I see how it is’ way to myself and noticed that the lady in the elevator witnessed the whole scene. I looked away awkwardly and started observing the ceiling.

“Young lovers these days,” she said and rolled her eyes. My ears perked up when I heard the word ‘lovers’, we were not lovers! I was beginning to get annoyed with this person and decided to get out at the next floor. The elevator was about to reach the next level and I prepared to exit when I felt it shake. The lights flickered and it didn’t move. Crap. Don’t tell me I was stuck. I pressed the emergency phone button and reported the issue.

“Stay calm, we’ll be sending help in a minute,” the person across the speaker said.

I was perfectly calm but the lady next to me was freaking out. She had grabbed hold onto the handrails with the expression of fear written across her face.

“Middle aged women these days,” I said in a loud enough whisper so she could hear and quietly laughed to myself. I heard her growl or something like and immediately restrained myself from continuous laughter.

~~~

I ran out of the elevator when it was finally fixed. Glancing at my watch I noticed that I had stayed in there for like three hours. I picked up my pace and arrived at school at last.  The events had started and I quickly ran up to the change rooms to get dressed into my PE uniform. On the way I heard some girls snickering menacingly. Curious, I hide behind a wall and listened.

“She's so dumb!” a voice said.

“I know right. I mean how could someone be so gullible? We totally tricked her into believing that we were actually sick so she could do our events for us,” someone else said.

Gosh. These girls were scarier than Rain hyung. I decided to mind my own business and walked away when I heard one of the girls say Aclaire. Confused, I continued to listen.

“...You know I just wish Aclaire wasn’t related to Jin, she’s always around him. Hopefully today would teach her a lesson...” someone explained and then laughed.

Wait so the girl they tricked into doing their events for them was Aclaire...? That idiot! I quickly got changed and raced to the field.

Aclaire’s POV

I was totally exhausted. I already didn’t sleep for the whole night and now this.

“Aclaire, are you ok? You don’t have to do all this. We can just forfeit,” Hyosung persuaded.

“No we can’t forfeit. Everyone is working really hard to win this year. Besides it’s just a few events,” I said in between breaths.

“A few events? Aclaire you’re basically doing everything! You need a break, at this rate your legs are going to fall off. Why did you even promise those girls anyway?” Hyosung asked.

“Well they weren’t feeling too well so I thought I would help them out,” I replied.

“Why didn’t you discuss this with me first?” Hyosung asked. She sounded like my mother.

“You were busy doing your own event, that’s why. Anyway I got to go, my next event is coming up next,” I said and walked over to the 200m sprint starting line. My foot ached from blisters and I felt fatigued.

“I can do this. I can’t let my class down,” I said determinedly. The sound of a gun shot fired and I sprinted to the finish line. It was a close race, I came third but luckily my teammate made up for it and came first.

After the race I was finding it difficult to breath. Everytime I swallowed, it felt like daggers were stabbing my throat. Hyosung and Himchan raced over.

“Hey, Hyosung told me you’re doing everything. You need to stop,” Himchan said.

“B-but there’s only one more, I can handle it,” I managed to say. Himchan pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.

“Here I got you some water,” Hyosung handed me the bottle and peered at me worriedly as I drank.

“Thanks,” I said, “I’ve just got the relay to go,”

They helped me walk over to rest and I was flat on the floor. I inhaled deeply and tried to conserve the energy I had left. Just one more event to go and then I’m done.

After a ten minute break I prepared to go to the field again.

Himchan’s POV

Hyosung and I looked at each other worriedly as she left. I scanned the area for Jin and noticed him running towards the field. I waved him over at us. He seemed to be looking for someone and didn’t notice my wave. Instead Kikwang, Daehyun and Jongup spotted us and came to sit down.

“Hey Hyosung,” Kikwang said.

Hyosung smiled and waved. Did they know each other? Anyway the relay was about to start. Aclaire was the last relay runner. The race started and it was head to head. The baton finally reached Aclaire and we cheered.

She was almost there then our cheers died down... we watched as her legs gave way and she collapsed to the floor. Everyone raced towards her.

Joon’s POV

Where on earth was she? I looked on the field and noticed Jongup and the others surrounding someone. I darted over to them to see who it was. I arrived and saw Aclaire on the ground.

“Hey Aclaire, you ok,” Hyosung said while she gently shook her.

“I’m ok,” She said and tried to stand up but failed. I extended my arm to catch her but she fell into Himchan’s embrace instead. That girl really is troublesome.

“Hey, I’ll carry her to the Nurse’s Office,” Himchan offered.

I don’t know what happened but I suddenly opposed to this idea.

“It’s ok I’ll carry her,” I said.

****

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