She was staring at him.

She made no moves to get up. She made no noises. She simply stared at Minho for the longest possible time as if she was frozen in ice, wide-eyed and mouth open in silent words. Minho found himself getting pretty comfortable under her weight. She shifted only a little, but the effect it had on Minho was incredible. His hand on her back came into contact with the bare skin of her midriff.

Minho really shouldn’t be allowing the smirk to grow on his lips, but he did anyway. Gwiboon frowned.

“Is something funny?” she asked harshly, as if she just found him around the corner, snickering at her. She seemed to have forgotten just how she was lying on Minho.

Minho didn’t register those words that left her lips because he was too busy staring at those rosy buds as they moved. Minho caught himself trying to map out the lines on her lips and looked back up into her eyes. She must have noticed his shameless staring.

“Don’t go getting the wrong idea!” she said, her eyes darting flittingly to Minho’s lips as well.

“I’m not,” Minho answered honestly. He wasn’t going to try anything. He was content just the way he was. Gwiboon, however, seemed to be having an internal dilemma.

“It’s not like-“ she stared at Minho’s lips for a little while longer, “-I fell on you on purpose…”

“I know, but you could-“ Minho was silenced by Gwiboon leaning in ever so slightly, her eyes undecided on where to look- Minho’s eyes or lips? Minho’s breathe got caught in his throat. Everything he has ever only dared dream of was taking place right before his very eyes.

“I see that Mr. Gil had already fetched a couple of extra tables for us. You, go get the other boy before he carries back more tables…”

The speed at which Gwiboon scrambled off of Minho could be considered inhuman. She stepped on one of his leg in the rush and she quickly picked up her papers without even apologizing for it. Then, she walked away like nothing had happened.

Minho had been simply dumbfounded by everything that happened in the blink of an eye to move.

“If I may ask, why has Mr. Choi here decided to turn our classroom into his place of choice for an afternoon nap?” Minho heard a familiar teacher’s voice say. It brought Minho back to earth and he stood up so fast that his head whirled in confusion.

Mr. Soo Man, the physics teacher who was also a part-time music teacher, was looking at him curiously. Gwiboon was making herself busy with something behind him at the teacher’s table. A few students were beginning to enter the class and they were very interested in what the school bad boy had to do in the music room.

Minho his lips nervously, partially annoyed that this teacher had just interrupted him in the middle of what could have been the best thing to happen to him.

“I just came to…” Minho couldn’t complete his sentence. He looked around the room and saw a few students snickering. He couldn’t find even one familiar face, save for Gwiboon and the red-headed boy who was back in the class.

“Perhaps, you were interested in the position open in our band,” the teacher suggested. Mr. Soo Man has always been the easy-going type when it came to his students. However, he could also be quite scary when he was serious. Minho had always been ‘better’ behaving in his classes to avoid his full wrath (which he has experienced anyway more than a couple of times.) Right now, Minho had a feeling that he was about to face another.

“I… I don’t play…” Minho said before bowing awkwardly and shifting to leave the room.

“Not so fast, Mr. Choi. Once I catch you in my class, you stay in my class. It’s okay if you can’t play. I believe that the triangle doesn’t need that much of skills anyway…”

“Look, Mr. Soo Man. I don’t have to listen to you. I’m not interested in your stupid music lessons,” Minho said rudely, with no regards of how scary the teacher was. Gwiboon looked up at that, obviously shocked by Minho’s choice of words. Some of the students inhaled loudly to express their shocks as well.

“Wrong move, Minho…” Jinki’s voice warned him and Minho observed Mr. Soo Man’s face morph into one of a vengeful person that was about to rip someone’s liver out of their body.

Minho’s end had arrived, apparently.

“Just what is going on in that head of yours, Minho? Please enlighten me because after you explaining it to me about fifty times this year alone, I still do not understand,” the middle-aged woman with the features of someone beyond her years said. She pushed her spectacles to perch on the bridge of her nose properly, before clasping her hands on the table in front of him.

“I don’t understand why I’m here. It was Mr. Soo Man who humiliated me in front of his class by making me play the triangle for an hour to ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star.” Shouldn’t he be the one here for mentally scarring a student?” Minho asked her back. He has been in here enough times to talk so casually with this woman.

“You threw the triangle at another student, Minho,” she deadpanned.

“It’s not my fault that his head was in the way-“

“ENOUGH!” she said, shutting Minho up of his further protests. He prepared himself for another hour of lecture.

Jinki chose that moment to appear behind his principal and he stood there formally like he was her assistant or something. She began to give him the usual nagging of his responsibility in life and and Jinki was nodding, agreeing with everything she was saying. He wore an extremely serious face that didn’t suit him at all as he nodded and it was simply comical to watch him like that.

Minho might have accidently chortled inappropriately watching Jinki. Jinki broke into a grin as well. His principal, on the other hand, was not amused with being interrupted in the middle of her sentence. She lifted an eyebrow questioningly and sighed deeply.

“Okay, Minho. We’ll do this differently this time…” she said, removing her glasses and placing it on the table. Jinki looked down at her and gestured for Minho to pay attention to her as well. Minho did, listening to Jinki without objecting only because….

Why? Why did Minho want to listen to him?

“In a few of months, you graduate. What are you planning to do after that?” she asked.

“Find some jobs, earn some money,” Minho answered indifferently.

“I meant, what are you going to do?” she asked again, stressing the last word. Minho knew exactly what she was talking about. She was talking about college and degrees and crap like that. That was not for Minho. Minho’s life is going to be a free one in which he would do whatever he liked, whenever he liked. No more of this studying business for him. He had strength and he could work to earn money. Money that he would spend on having fun. Besides, who was his father earning all that money for? For Minho, of course.

Minho shrugged, dismissing the question as an unimportant one.

“Let me try to help you. Perhaps, you’re interested in a future in soccer, being the school soccer captain and all?” she suggested and Minho had to give her credit. That was not a bad idea at all. His hobby would become a source of money this way, right?

“Oh wait! You can’t do that because you would need the recommendation of your coach to earn sports scholarship. I believe that Mr. Cho is not willing to do that for you. I recall him telling me that you may have the talent but you do not have the qualities of a good athlete,” she said flatly, playing Minho’s indifferent game now.

Ouch…

 Minho winced internally at that biting remark. He knew he had screwed up his chances of getting on his coach’s good side when he had done nothing as the soccer captain to help his team win the tournaments this year. Sure, he had had the drive to win. Unfortunately though, soccer is not an individual sport and Minho’s drive alone was not enough. He never once helped build a good team spirit among the players, only managing to keep them in check by exploiting their fear of him.

Minho knew he could have done so much more as the team captain. But he had failed to do so, much to the disappointment of his teammates, coach and their entire school, in fact.

“Perhaps, you would like to pursue a career in the intellectual field. But there seems to be a problem with that as well as you’re not particularly bright,” the principal continued. Minho frowned at her. She didn’t have to point that out so bluntly.

“Oh she’s good at this! I ought to learn from her…” Jinki commented irrelevantly.

Minho ignored him and stared at his lap instead. He didn’t want to listen anymore. He is usually able to tune ou