She's always hated boys, ever since the age of five they pushed girls and laughed at them. A few years later, they'd think that girls are pretty and they'd avoid those thoughts by implying they have cooties. When middle school hits, so do hormones. When middle school hits, boys hit on girls endlessly and they suddenly become a currency. "How much do you want for Hara?" "Wanna' bet to see who can get Tanhi first?"

It's despicable, so Sunmi hates boys.

Except one.

Rather than a low and tough voice, he's got a soft voice. Not exactly like a girls, but it's a long comparison. She could talk about his voice for days, as well as his small build and his bright personality. For some reason, she was okay with him. Jongin, the only boy she could see in middle school.

From the sidewalk, Sunmi was walking home with Hara after school had ended when she heard Baekhyun's voice from the other side. 

"Rock beats paper! You're it!" He let out a roaring laugh when he turned around when someone tapped on his shoulder.

Sunmi looked at him with a little smile, "What are you playing?"

Baekhyun smirked and put on a little bad-boy image, "Mega hide and seek, why? Do these cute little girls wanna' join?"

Rolling her eyes, Sunmi looked over at Hara and nodded. "Yeah, it sounds fun!" When she looked over at the group of boys, she saw a few of the other rowdy boys from her class as well as -- Jongin. He smiled softly, his dark hair moving with the wind while he talked to Sehun and laughed. He turned his head and then made eye contact with Sunmi who then, looked away to Baekhyun. Hara stood quietly next to Sunmi, a lot of the boys knew she liked Sehun except for Sehun himself. So when he looked over and saw the two girls, he then walked closer to speak to them.

"If you want you can be on my team," He looked at Sunmi before nodding over at Baekhyun. "-- then you can join his team."

Sunmi shook her head, "I'll stick with Baekhyun's team, Hara can go with you." She winked softly at Hara and smiled before watching her go over with Sehun. She smiled and she actually spoke to him, Sunmi sighed. If only she had that kind of courage, ironically, courage from the quietest girl in the school.

"You sure? Isn't playing with the boys a bit -- weird?" Baekhyun snorted.

"Shut up, I don't mind." Sunmi's eyes drifted over to Jongin who was now turned around.

Suddenly another boy shouted behind them to start the game. "The first team can go run! We're counting to fifty before we go seeking!"

It had been quite a few years since Sunmi had played this game, running and tagging wasn't really in the resume to be a middle school girl. It was now the start of makeup and cute hairdo's, but a part of Sunmi was always stuck with the days that she used to play with the boys without getting outcasted. She ran back to the school and hid behind the janitor's shed, there was a tight space behind the lumber that she thought she could fit in.

Once she climbed over, she caught sight of a boy there already. He turned his head and gave her a look of surprise, it was Jongin.

Flustered and quite surprised herself, Sunmi turned around and apologized quietly for no reason. That is, until he took her hand and softly pulled her in. He nodded and put a finger over his lips to tell her to keep quiet, he pointed to the corner and patted the ground next to him. "They're over there." He whispered.

He was still holding her hand, but he didn't seem too concerned. Sunmi, however, felt as though her heart was going to up to her ears as she could hear her heartbeat so clear that she was worried Jongin may hear as well. She was close enough to Jongin to where the tip of her nose grazed over the back of his shirt as he remained crouched, he held her hand and then pulled back to bump into her.

"Woah -- that was close." He hissed quietly to himself as he hid away from the seekers.

Sunmi was even closer now, her lips were pressed against the back of his shirt as there wasn't much space and he was pushing back. She could see the nape of his neck and his ears poking out of his overgrown hair-cut, she smiled softly somehow and liked the image, the position. She began to think to herself, is this what all boys smell like? It was a smell she couldn't put together, it wasn't cologne or deoderant. Maybe it was, but whatever it was she liked it. No, wait -- is this a erted thought? No, no. Oh wait -- can he hear her heartbeat? It seems so loud--

He looked back at Sunmi as he felt her so close to him, as he was about to ask what she was doing he heard voices on the other side of the shed. 

"Did you check behind this thing?" 

"Oh, good idea. You take one side and I'll ta--"

At that moment, Jongin whispered to Sunmi softly. "Stay here."

In the next insant he  sprinted forward and let go of Sunmi's hand. She listened intently and heard voices accompany the sound of squeaky rubber shoes hitting grass and dirt.

"Surround him! He's over here!"

"Got you!"

"No way! Did you seriously tag me? I wanted to stay in longer, man!"

"Hah, Jongin I thought you said you were good at this!"

"Dude, your shoes are so loud I be Jongin heard you from a mile away."

"Shut up! These are brand new!"

"Head over to the playground, that's the prison. Someone has to tag you to free you, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Damn, you are fast though."

Sunmi was still crouched in a small space, she didn't bother to move forward to where Jongin sat beforehand. He ran over to the boys and got caught so that she wouldn't have been found, she nodded to herself and caught sight of his jet black hair over by the slide. When she could no longer hear the boys' voices or their squeaky shoes, she sprinted in determination. Across the grass and gravel, she headed towards hi--

She sat on end of  the curvy slide quietly as Jongin was across from her on the same slide as he hadn't moved since he was caught. "I -- I was trying to help." She stuttered.

"Yeah." He said quietly, she wondered if he was shy or if he found her pathetic. "Thanks."

Sunmi blushed, she caught sight of his ears while he scratched his head awkwardly. They were cute somehow, was that a dirty thought?

"I saw you running towards me -- it was pretty, uh -- " He hesitated. " -- cool."

She thought to herself how she didn't dislike Jonging, how she was totally okay with him. "Yeah, thanks."

"No, thank you."

Sunmi smiled to herself and looked down at her hands. "Yeah."

Jongin smiled softly to himself and looked the other way, "Yeah."

Ever since then, whenever Sunmi and Jongin caught each other's eyes they'd look away immediately. But after a little while, after a thought or a doubt, their eyes would meet again.

Always.

Two Days Later

School had ended again, when Sunmi closed her locker she turned and caught sight of Hara running towards her.

"Hey, is it okay if you walk home alone today?"

"Hm? Yeah, sure." She wondered for a second. "Do you have to stay after?"

"I -- " She played with her fingers, she tried to speak but then a figure came up and put his hand on top of her head. Sehun smiled gleefuly and looked at Sunmi.

"I promised a date later today, but I got detention."

"I said I'd wait! So I will!" Hara spoke loudly and with determination at Sunmi, it surprised her and caused her to laugh while nodding.

"It's fine Hara, I have try to get home early today anyways." Sunmi nodded at Hara's comments and smiled at the sight of Sehun's tall figure next to a small Hara. His arm around her shoulders, as shy as she was it wasn't easy to contain happiness like that. Hara smiled and leaned into Sehun a little, there was no doubt that those two would be dating sometime soon.

Sunmi headed for the entrance door and thanked God that she lived fairly close to the school, the sky darkened slightly since lunch time and the teachers warned about rain forcasts. She was a few minutes into her walk and then she swore she felt a rain drop on her arm, when she looked up and put her hand out, the rain got slightly harder. She took her backpack and put it over her head as she ran down the street, but by the time she was about two minutes away from her house, the rain had her hair and clothes soaking wet.

She moved over to the neighborhood bus stop a few steps away and looked down at her clothes, she told herslelf she'd have to wash this tonight and with babysitting that'd be so much of a hassle. When she looked up she saw Jongin looking at her, then they looked away. But this time when Sunmi looked up, Jongin wasn't looking.

"This is a lot of rain, huh?" Jongin spoke quietly, was he blushing?

"Yeah -- yeah, it is." Sunmi spoke with a little volume, the rain suddenly had fallen harder and hit the metal roof to then become rather noisy. She suddenly thought of her reply, she could have come up with something better than that. What kind of response was that? She had to back that up somehow, a question? A conversation? Would that be a burden to Jongin?

"Are you going to the spring festival?" She asked briskly and with a loud volume. 

Jongin jumped slightly and smirked to himself, he knew she always had that tendancy to speak loudly when she was nervous -- blurting whatever was on her mind at the moment. He looked over at her and saw how she was contemplating with herself, it made her kind of cute. The internal conflicts, he wondered what she was thinking about right now.

That was humiliating, that sounded just like an invitation. She had to cover this up too? God, how could she do that? What clever response is there to cover an invitation? Oh!

"I hope it'll be a nice day for the festival! I'll have to ask Hara if she's going, I bet she's going with Sehun. They'll have fun -- I hope." Sunmi smiled but internally hit herself, seriously? She's going to mention a couple right now? She grew a little embarassed until she felt something fall soflty on her head, when she looked up she saw a long sleeve shirt. Jongin was right next to her and he zipped up his bag as he used his gym shorts as a future shield from the rain. 

"Use that for now," He said a little more confidently.

"Your gym clothes?"

"Yeah, I haven't used them --"

Sunmi smiled softly, he gave her clean clothes to --

"-- more than once."

"What! Ew!" She pinched her nose and looked over at Jongin, he was laughing.

Laughing, it was seriously beautiful if he was doing it. She put her fingers down and looked at him, eye contact. He looked away again, and he didn't look back, again.

"Thank you." She murmured.

"Yeah, you can give it back whenever." He put the pants above his head and looked briefly over his shoulder before sprinting, just like behind the shed. "See you."

"Here."

"Oh, thanks."

"Yeah, I washed it. And thank you too."

"Oh, thank you."

"Yeah." Sunmi scratched the back of her neck and smiled bashfully. "Then I guess I'll just get goi--"

"Are you, " Jongin paused, why was he feeling so nervous? " -- the spring festival. Are you going? Er, did you make plans with Hara and Sehun yet?"

"Huh?" Sunmi was taken aback, so much to where she couldn't even blush. "I -- no, not yet."

"Six o'clock by the fishcake stand." He looked away, he was positive that he was blushing.

She blushed at the sight of Jongin blushing, it was adorable but she could feel the heat really rise to her cheeks. That -- was it an invitation? He did it so much better than she did.

"Oh?" Baekhyun came out of the classroom and saw Sunmi and Jongin on the other side of the hallway. "What are you guys doing? Wait, are you two alone? Woah -- Jongin are you guys,"

Jongin turned away and headed into the classroom while grabbing Baekhyun's wrist to pull him back inside, "She was just giving me something back."

"A shirt?! Jongin, do you have something to tell me?! JONGIN --" Baekhyun was being dragged down but then another boy came out as he overheard him.

He walked over to Sunmi and smirked, "Are you guys dating? C'mon, there had to be something going on between you two. What is it? A date? The spring festival?"

"Can you shut up?" Sunmi snapped.

"Why? I'm interested, c'mon just tell me!"

"This is why I hate boys, you're idiots." Sunmi murmured and turned to walk away but then she caught sight of Jongin looking at her. He was different, somehow he looked different. Maybe dissapointed, he didn't hear that -- did he? He wasn't an idiot, she knew he knew that. She didn't think much as his eyes met hers, then he looked away.

Six o'clock by the fishcake stand, she simply focused on that and shot a look at the boy that confronted her.

"I hope not." She spoke to herself. Sunmi had her favorite dress on and her mom curled her hair a few hours ago, it was seven o'clock by the fishcake stand. He must have misunderstood, it was a joke, this wasn't an invite to the festival. If it was he would have come an hour ago.

"Hey, school girl." The old woman in the fishcake stand pointed at her. "Are you going to eat?" 

Sunmi sighed softly and took out her wallet, she was going to be eating alone.

The weekend passed and she spent it all wondering what Jongin meant, but the moment she entered the school Baekhyun ran over to her, panting. "Sunmi, you're not -- " He let out a breath. " -- you're not going to believe this."

"What? What happened? Is something wrong?" She suddenly felt worried.

"Jongin transferred schools."

She later learned that he also changed his cellphone number and email address, he no longer lived at the same house. He literally disappeared and she was the first to witness it. She spent her days this whole month without crying about him, she felt hurt that he couldn't tell her and just left her like that at the fishcake stand. She participated in gym and could care less about how she smelled after sweating a little, she put her hair up in a pony tail or a bun every day, she was louder and she spoke a little more like a boy every day.

It was raining again today, she ran with her backpack over her head and could only manage to get to the bus stop due to her clothes being soaking wet. She took the hair tie out of her hair and tried to shake the rain out of her hair before putting it up again. When she looked up at the sky, she then looked over to where Jongin once stood. It was empty. The space became irrelevant as she looked up to the sky again, tightened and she tied the ponytail too tight. It hurt.

Her ponytail and her heart hurt, a lot.

Was he laughing now? She let out a little whimper, her hand made way to to hold in her cry. But tears fell, they fell heavily and she looked down. The end of her ponytail tickled her cheek, she wiped her eyes and thought of his laugh. The only laugh she got to see out of him, she wondered if he was even thinking about her. She wondered what kind of expression he was wearing right now. 

She wondered where he was and if he was really cruel enough to not tell anyone, including her, that he was leaving. 

Hi guys! Thanks so much for reading!

I remember that I was inspired by a manga for this first chapter, that's probably why it seems so -- fantasy/cliche. BUT. I have lots of twists and turns in store, especially in the next few chapters. 

I hope you enjoyed this! The second chapter should be coming soon! Thank you again for reading! School starts soon, so I'm going to make sure I get this thing going so I'm motivated this year! c: 

Comment below if you're liking the revamp so far! No hint for today, and Kris is coming up soon don't worry. I actually thought of making Kris in the role of Jongin, but I have a better idea for him. Hopefully, you guys will too!