Previously on It's Just Another Love Story: Suho looked teasingly at Jong-in. He was busily waving at his playful father who was walking backwards waving at his son. Suho laughed and asked, “Girl problems?” When his parents arrived at the car, Jong-in’s face flushed red and shook his head violently. “No no no! Why would you think that?” Suho laughed and led Jong-in to his car. “Let’s talk about it at the mall. Your friends are there, right?” Suho asked. Jong-in, still a bit flustered, just nodded. He thought about the message from his friends. Who is that new girl?

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“So so so!” Suho said dragging Jong-in to the arcade, “Where’s D.O. and Sehun? Haven’t seen them in a while!” “Uncle Suho!” D.O. boomed. They all greeted one another like close friends who haven’t seen each other for a very long time. Sehun wasted no time and explained to Suho about the new girl and Jong-in’s favorite game. Sehun laughed in amusement and gave them all a nod. “We’re going to beat it again!”

After a little encouragement, Jong-in finally started playing the game. He sweated in determination to beat the new high score set by the new girl. Why did she have to beat my high score? Jong-in thought. Who is she anyway? Why did she beat my high score? Of all games, why this one? Many things ran through Jong-in’s mind that moment and he didn’t realize that he had already beaten her high score. He was so indulged with the thought of the girl that he had forgotten he was there to beat the high score.

“Uh… Jong-in? You’ve already passed her high score” D.O. said, staring at Jong-in’s concentrated face, “You’ve passed it already, man!” Jong-in snapped out of it and stared at the game like he had no idea what he was doing. Game Over! “Yeah!” Sehun and D.O. cheered. Suho patted his back with a laugh. “Satisfied?” he said. Jong-in just stared at the words on the screen. He simply nodded but the fact was he wasn’t at all satisfied. Beating the girl’s new high score didn’t satisfy him as much as he thought it would.

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“Bye uncle Suho. Bye Jong-in!” said D.O. waving at them, “Thanks for dropping me!” Suho and Jong-in waved back at D.O. and Suho drove off. Suho looked at Jong-in’s confused face and smiled. “Jong-in” he started, “Seriously, what’s bothering you?” “Nothing!” Jong-in said, startled at the sudden question imposed by his uncle. Suho simply smiled and said, “I’ll be back next week. Update me when I’m back?” Jong-in simply nodded.

Back home, Jong-in laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. He thought about his uncle Suho’s question. What was bothering him? He pondered on the question when, knock knock! “Can I come in?” his father said from behind the door. Jong-in laughed and answered, “Yes, dad!” Tao entered the room to see his son’s confused face. Instead of asking his son questions that would disturb him, he sat down beside him and calmly asked, “How’s football going?”

This lit up Jong-in. He quickly sat up and started telling his father all about how lucky he was to be in the team. Not a lot of 2^nd year high school students got to be part of the team that was officially allowed to compete with other schools. Jong-in wasn’t exactly big built or skilled in football like the rest of the guys in the team but he was fast and just the perfect guy to take the defense. Tao likes to joke around, saying he got the strength from him. The ‘like father like son’ joke.

Jong-in laughed and suddenly, he remembered about the new girl. “Dad?” he asked shyly. His father gave him a warm smile, lending an ear to his son. “When you first saw mom, what did you think?” Tao chuckled at the question and answered, “Well son, I thought she a pretty weird lady. I actually saw her by the lake.” Tao paused and chuckled again.

Jong-in could see the light his father’s eyes. “She was funnily weird. She talked to the lake a lot. When I first saw your mom, I was the most confused person in the world. There was something about her that kept me coming back. That is why I kept coming back to the lake- to see her. But she doesn’t know that.” Tao chuckled again and looked at his son with a warm smile. “This is going to be our little secret.” Jong-in’s face lit up and he nodded.

Knock knock. “Son? May I come in?” his mother said. Jong-in smiled wider. He always enjoyed his parents company after a long week and his mother’s timing was perfect. “Come in, mom” he said sweetly. She opened the door to see Tao sitting there. “There you are!” she said in a funny tone. She made her way to the other side of the bed beside her son. Jong-in, overall, had a good day. But he couldn’t quite get the new girl out of his head. Questions still ran through his head, over and over again.

  A/N: Note that when I say ‘football’, I mean the real football, not American football/rugby. It’s otherwise known as soccer but I prefer saying football.