I looked across the room and smiled. Minsoo looked just as god as usual. Minsoo is the boy in my class I’ve had a crush on since first year. He’s one of the kingkas at my school who normally goes by C.A.P but he lets me call him Minsoo, a luxury not many people are given.

He’s really good friends with my cousin Chunji, and that’s how we met. Chunji and I have always been really close and before high school I was close with his friend Niel as well. When we got to high school, Chunji and Niel became instant pals with Minsoo and his friend L.Joe.

They were totally inseparable after about a month, so I hung out with them all the time. Minsoo was always really kind to me and despite the fact that I knew he wasn’t really serious with girls, I fell for him anyway.

Upon noticing I was looking at him, Minsoo gave me a small wave and a smile. I returned the gesture and looked away, desperately trying the focus on the lesson and not be creepy.

--

“Hey guys,” I said as I sat down next to Niel in the usual place we eat lunch. I received a greeting back from three of the four boys, as Chunji was busy stuffing his face already. “Hi Sojin,” He managed once he’d swallowed most of it.

“Charming.” I mumbled. Chunji tossed some of the bread he was eating at me. “Yah, I’ll have you know I happen to be one of the kingka in this school. I don’t appreciate your sarcastic tone.” He said in a mock-elegant voice.

“You’ve also never managed to get a girlfriend. I rest my case.”

Niel laughed out loud and high-fived me, Chunji pouted. “Sojinnie, that was so mean! How can you do that to your flesh and blood?!” He wailed.

We all ignored him.

“Minsoo, did you forget to bring food again?” I asked, noticing he was staring intently at my lunch box. Guilty, Minsoo gave me a sheepish grin and nodded.

“I was just going to buy something from the cafeteria, but I left my money at home and these,” He gestured to Chunji, L.Joe and Niel, “stingy jerks refused to share.”

I chuckled at his childishness. “Here, take the rest of my food. I packed extra because I knew you’d forget.” I told him and got up to hand it to him. Minsoo’s face lit up. “Where would I be without you, Sojin?” He said wistfully.

I shook my head at him. “You’re so greasy. By the way, you owe me for that.” I said sweetly. Despite my calling him greasy, his words made my heart skip a beat.

“I try my best. I’ll pay you back tonight if you want, we can go to a movie or something.” Minsoo said before practically inhaling a mouthful of rice.

The first thing that rushed to my head was the word date. Maybe Minsoo’s finally asking me out! Be cool, Sojin. “Okay, but I have to study so not too late, ne?”

“Study? Oh, right! The math test. How about we study together as well then?” He asked. My heart slammed hard against my chest. A movie and a study date?!?!? Not trusting my voice to sound coherent, I nodded.

Minsoo flashed me a toothy grin and I tried really hard to hide the obvious blush in my cheeks. Luckily he didn’t notice or if he did, he certainly didn’t let on.

The rest of the time during lunch, we all chatted away aimlessly and I pushed the thought of hanging out with Minsoo tonight out of my mind.

--

I didn’t want to make it look like I was trying too hard, so I wore a pair of dark denim skinny jeans, with a white V-neck and black converse.

Minsoo and I had just gotten out of the movie theater. He’d been really sweet to me the whole time and I was beginning to feel like we were on an actual date. Truth is, I’ve been thinking of confessing to Minsoo for a really long time. I’ve had a crush on him for nearly three years now and I just want to get it over with.

As we walked side-by-side to the library, I decided I might as well just say it now. Things have been going really well tonight, so why not? I stopped walking.

“Um, Minsoo?”

He noticed I was no longer beside him and he turned around to face me. “What’s up, Sojin?” He asked.

I took a deep breath and tried to ignore my shaky hands and my heart that was now beating rapidly. “W-well you see, the thing is… I like you. I’ve had a crush on you since first year, and I wanted to know if you felt the same way.” I said quickly.

Minsoo looked taken aback. “Sojin… I’m really sorry but, I don’t really want a girlfriend.” He said after pausing for a little. My eyes went wide. What else did I expect? Great, he’s probably so uncomfortable.

“Oh, um. It’s okay! I just kind of wanted to get it off my chest is all. Anyway, I should probably get home.”

“Home? We were supposed to study together.”

“I’m sorry Minsoo, I don’t feel well. Please study without me.” I lied.

“But I-”

“Seeya.”

--

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry for hours on end last. I would also be lying if I said I wasn’t cranky due to lack of sleep from said crying. The sight in front of me didn’t help lift my mood either.

“Yes, please, flirt with some more girls the day after you rejected me!” I grumbled, plopping down next to Chunji. Minsoo decided that he’d spend his lunch break flirting with some girl from our class who’s got the I.Q of a toddler.

Of course, why should that matter when you wear tons of makeup, dye your hair and hike up your skirt? Who cares about brains and personality these days?

“Sojin, you know how he is. That boy has never been serious about a girl in his whole life.” Niel said to me. Chunji nodded.

“I know. I just thought he might have been like that because he liked me.” I said quietly.

“You read too much.” L.Joe said. “I won’t deny that. I’m just annoyed. I’m around Minsoo all the time, but the only girls he seems to notice are ones that wear makeup and dye their hair and don’t play tons of sports.”

“Yah, Sojin. You’re a million times prettier than those girls Minsoo goes for and he’s an idiot for not realizing it. You’ll find someone else.” Chunji assured me.

“But I want Minsoo,” I whined. I knew I sounded extremely childish, but I didn’t care. It was true.

“Maybe you should get a makeover and try to look like one of those girls, heaven knows they all pretty much look the same.” Niel joked.

I looked over at him. “You think he’d actually fall for me if I tried to look like them?” I asked him.

“Oh no...” Chunji mumbled.

“Okay the makeover thing was a joke, but I don’t see why not. You have something those other girls don’t; personality. You’re funny, kind, really smart and really pretty. I don’t think you should change yourself completely but maybe if you colored your hair or something to get his attention, he’d actually realize what a big mistake he made.” Niel said.

“Sojin, don’t listen to h-“

“You know what? Maybe I’ll do just that. I mean I don’t really have anything to lose, right?” I said, thinking about it.

“Exactly! I think light brown would look really good.”

“A pair of idiots is exactly what the two of you are.” L.Joe

--

I walked into class somewhat nervously the next day. I decided to take Niel’s advice and teach Minsoo a lesson. Surprisingly, Niel was right about the light brown hair looking good. At least, I liked it. I even experimented with make up a little bit. Nothing crazy, but I felt pretty.

When I noticed Minsoo was already sitting down, I avoided eye contact and walked to my desk on the other side of the room.

The day passed by quickly and I received a few compliments on my hair from fellow classmates along the way. It was lunchtime and I was just about to sit down at the usual area when I was tapped on the shoulder. I turned to find one of my classmates, Jiwook, standing in front of me.

“Hi Jiwook, what’s up?” I asked.

“You forgot your notebook in class.” He said, passing me said notebook.

“Oh, thanks for bringing it over to me.” I said, giving him a small smile. “You’re welcome. By the way, I like your hair. You look really, really good. Not that you didn’t before, it’s just a nice change.”

His words made me blush and I unintentionally let out a giggle. I’m glad someone noticed. “Thanks, Jiwook.” I managed eventually.

“See you around,” Jiwook said, flashing me a smile before going back the way he came.

As usual, Niel was the first to speak up. “Well, well, well. Getting awfully bold, are we Sojin?” He asked, winking at me.

“Shut your abnormally large mouth before I kick you.” I warned.

L.Joe and Chunji laughed. “Same old Sojin,” Niel said with a happy sigh.

“You are so weird.”

“You love it.”

“Screw off.”

“On.”

“EW! Okay seriously, shut up.” I muttered. “All jokes aside though, you do look good Sojin, I like the hair.” L.Joe said. “Why thank you, I try.”

“The light brown was my idea-OW, what the hell?” Niel began, his sentence cut off by a well-placed punch to the arm. “I’m not going to apologize for that.”

“Don’t apologize for that.” Chunji and L.Joe said at the same time. During the entire lunch, Minsoo had been silent and it was really putting me on edge.

“Are you okay, C.A.P?” I said. Upon getting rejected, I decided I would no longer call Minsoo by his name.

He said nothing for a while and simply stared at me. “No. Can we talk?” He asked eventually.

“We are talking.” I stated. So what if I’m being a little mean, he broke my heart.

He narrowed his eyes. “Alone. I want to talk alone.”

“Fine, lead the way.” I grumbled, standing up. Minsoo grabbed my hand and lead me to an unoccupied area behind the school. I should be carrying my head high but I’m internally freaking out because he’s holding my hand. I am truly pathetic. But I mean what girl changes her appearance for a guy when she isn’t?

“Why didn’t you call me by my name? Also what’s with the whole flirting with other guy’s thing? I thought you liked me.” His last comment made me angry, all tingly “oh my god we’re holding hands!” feelings put in the past.

“Why does it matter to you if I flirt with people? You rejected me. I didn’t call you by your real name because I decided it might help me get over you faster if I wasn’t so friendly anymore. Everyone else calls you that and since I’m no one special, I figured I shouldn’t either.” I told him.

“Yeah, I did reject you. I also regretted it as soon as I saw the look on your face.” He said, avoiding eye contact. My heart leapt, but I kept my cool.

“Clearly you didn’t regret it very much if you were able to completely ignore me yesterday and flirt with other girls.” I spat. Minsoo recoiled slightly at my words.

“I wasn’t flirting. I went and talked to that girl to tell her I didn’t want to hang around her anymore, that I had someone I was serious about. I spent so much time talking her because she was helping me come up with a way to apologize to you for being such an idiot and not accepting your confession right away.” He explained.

My cool was definitely not kept. How was I supposed to keep my cool if he said things like that?! “B-but why didn’t you accept my confession right away?” I managed to ask.

He sighed. “I was just scared. I thought that if we ended up going out, you’d realize there’s probably a better guy out there for you or something. That’s why I never confessed to you. To tell you the truth, I’ve been crazy about you since first year. I’m just too big of a coward to let it show.”

I smacked him on the arm. “You’re an idiot, you know that?”

“Trust me, I know. When you came into class today I honestly thought my heart was going to explode. I’ve always thought you were the most beautiful girl in school, and I didn’t think it was possible for you to get even more beautiful, but that hair really suits you. Honestly, I planned on chickening out and not saying anything to you today, but after seeing Jiwook flirt with you like that… I got so jealous I couldn’t stand it. I want you to be mine, Sojin. I want everyone to know that you’re my girl so they think twice before flirting with you. That should be my job.” I could tell Minsoo was nervous, because he said all of that so fast I just barely understood him.

Unlike I used to, I didn’t try and hide my blush. I just looked up at him and smiled, because he was blushing too. “Well… I think I’m going to have to see a resume first.” I said playfully.

He chuckled. “I think I left it in my bag, please accept this for now.” He said before he bent down and planted a soft, long-awaited kiss on my lips.