“DongJoon, get up! You’re late, again!” My mom screeches at me. I scramble out of bed, quickly dress myself, and get my things.

“Bye Mom!” I call as I run out the door and down the street. It’s spring, and the sun is shining warmly on the earth.

She’s standing there, waiting, holding her schoolbag and lunch at the end of the lane, like she does every day. And I greet her, like I do every day.

“Hey ____ . Is it just me, or have you gained a little weight?” I ask, looking her up and down.

“I’ve gained as much weight as you have brains,” ____ retorts.

I grin. She makes it so easy to sometimes. “Must have been a lot, then,” I chuckle.

She pouts and begins to storm away. “You annoy me,” she huffs.

“But you love me anyway,” I continue to tease as I follow her to school.

This is our routine every single day. She waits. I come late and . She gets mad and says, “You annoy me.” And I wallow in my self-satisfaction as I tell her she loves me, and ramble on about other nonsensical stuff.

However, today I feel like mixing things up a bit. So I jump in front of her, then move my face closer to hers. Our noses are only a few centimeters apart, and I can feel her breath on my face.

She starts sputtering and turning pink, and I almost can’t contain my laughter, but I manage to keep a straight face as I slowly inch my hand towards hers.

I feel the smooth, cool skin of her fingers. For a second I forget what I’m doing, but then my hand snaps down and grabs her brown paper lunch bag.

I’m guffawing as I rush towards school, ____’s lunch in my hand and her screams not far behind me.

I arrive breathless at my classroom. A red-faced ____ comes seconds later, and is about to explode in fury at me when our teacher reprimands us for being late. I smile and shrug it off, but ____ turns redder than she was before.

When I get to my seat, I stuff my books and ____’s lunch into my desk, then slump into a comfortable position. The girls sitting behind me giggle, but I don’t pay much attention to them.

My friend sitting next to me fills me in on what I’ve missed from the lesson so far, then asks me a completely random question. “Dude, you’re dating ____, right?”

My mouth drops and my eyes bulge. I almost fall out of my chair! Me, with ____?! The very idea seems so ridiculous. I spit out a denial. “No way, not at all! Where did you get that idea?”

He just shrugs and turns back to the lesson.