She fixes the last few crinkles upon her shirt before slipping on a pair of her casual heels. Smiling genuinely at her reflection in the full length mirror, she spins around feeling pleased with the outfit she has put together. She feels beautiful and she knows it too, like the spitting image of Cinderella or so. The only thing missing was her prince charming.

The time is 11:30 PM and the sad reality is that Sooyoung’s the sole loner of her group that had absolutely no plans on a Friday night…nothing. The least she could do she figured, was to treat herself to a good cup of coffee and not just one that was half heartedly made by herself. Some one on one time focused on no one but herself is time well spent in her mind and nothing can take the imaginary amazing night away from her.

She carefully picks up the steaming hot coffee, the brims of the porcelain cup sending warmth to her chilled body of the late autumn night. Taking a sip of the sweet delight, a small smile curls up upon her pink lips.

“Well look who we have here.”

His voice as she remembered it was just as annoying like always. Her soft smile disappeared in an instant, replacing it with a scowling stare as she faced him.

--

FLASHBACK

Sooyoung’s POV

“The next assignment requires groups of two. I’ve randomly paired everyone up so there shouldn’t be any problems. Soooyoung and Kyuhyun…you’ll form one group.”

Kyuhyun?

I take a moment to stare at the lifeless body collapsed atop the desk. He just about looks dead, except for the fact that his nose whistles just a tad bit as he snores. You have got to be kidding me. I can see my perfect grade crumbling into pieces all because of this dude.

Gathering my belongings, I head over to the empty seat next to him. I throw my stuff down harshly, but not a single reaction comes from him. I grab my pencil and start poking his side like my life depended on it. Finally, his lanky body starts to uncurl, but not long before he hits me straight in the face with his hand.

“YAHHH!”

“Oh, mianhae. I was stretching you know…maybe if you weren’t so close to me you’d-”

“Too close? This is the average distance between desks! If you weren’t sleeping, there wouldn’t be a need to stretch in the first place.”

“Someone’s obviously cranky…maybe someone needs a little beauty sleep of their own…I’m just saying.”

He throws his hands up in defence and all I can think of is landing a clean shot to his face right then and there.

“Maybe you belong somewhere else…with Snow White and everything, since you’re basically that sleepy dwarf.”

I shoot him a deathly stare that could cut anything into measly shreds.

“Now just shut up, wipe that bit of slobber off the corner of your mouth and listen arasso?”

“Neh…”

It’s funny how easy he listens, he’s like a lost puppy and I’m the trainer.

“We’re partners for the assignment so we’re going to have to get along better than this right now. So I think we-“

“Converse!”

The idiot screams out loud as he jumps out from his seat; all eyes on us. Can anyone say embarrassing?! 

“Yah! Can you just sit down?”

I pull at his arm dragging him back to his seat. His clueless face tells me that he doesn’t even understand how awkward the whole situation was. I let out a sigh, knowing that the next few weeks of us being partners will probably be more difficult than when I’ll go into labor in the future.

I’m stuck with a toddler trapped in a teenager’s body…

 “Don’t you think this is getting to know each other waaaayyy too fast?”

I draw my eyes up back to him and he’s playfully smiling.

“What now?”

He points to his arm with the tip of his chin, my hand still holding onto his forearm.

“Skinship already I see. I’m quite impressed.”

Sneaky bastard has got the whole thing backwards. I quickly release my grip off him and straighten myself up by shifting my chair a few more centimetres away from him and his dirty thoughts.

Feeling content of the further distance apart, he surprises the hell out of me as the next thing I know he tries to throw his arm over my shoulder.

The light bulb in my mind turns on in an instant and I remember my self defence lessons: scream and punch!

…and that was exactly what I did.

My high pitch screech rattles throughout the classroom, bringing the stares of classmates straight on back towards us two once more. This time, the picture looks nothing less than a mess. While I basically jump off from my seat, Kyuhyun is covered in ruby red as little drops of blood fall from his nose.

You know what I’m cursed with? --the beauty of precisely hitting the bull’s eye when it comes to danger. Sadly, the target that time was his nose and I was just about sure that I had broken that poor er.

Oops, my bad.

In other words, that little mess we got tangled in was an express way ticket straight to detention. 

So fast-forward and here we are, just the two of us in the all too big emptied classroom –a place that shouldn’t have anyone in it way after school had ended.

“Pssstt. You in the front!”

He still has the nerve to just blatantly call out to me like that. Ugh, why are we paired together? The professor says that no problems will arise? Well, it hasn’t even been a good 24hrs since us two have been put together and yet one of us has a bloody nose already!

If that doesn’t spell out problems, then goodness I might just check myself into rehab…I must be crazy.

“Please don’t talk to me Kyuhyun-ssi. I’m trying to finish the day off with my mind at ease.”

~!@#$%^&

He’s throwing paper planes at me…oh how mature of him.

“What do you want Kyuhyun-ssi?”

I give in to him with emotionless eyes as my tired self can’t take it anymore.

“Do you wanna leave?”

“What do you mean leave?”

“Leave…as in get out, no longer staying here, no more detention, as in me and you ditch this place.”

“It’s not time yet. Just because the teacher in charge is occupied in a meeting doesn’t give us the right to walk on out…”

“Yah, tell me are you always such a goody-good?”

I hear him get up from the back seat as the sounds of footsteps towards me gets louder and louder. It doesn’t take him long before he places himself right in front of me. Leaning forward with just mere inches apart from each other, he waits for my reply…which I thought was just a rhetorical question in the first place.

“It’s called following the rules…”

I answer back with a low tone of voice. I squirm away quietly as the distance between us is unbearable.

Laughing like a stupid lunatic, he pulls me up and drags me out towards the exit of the school. Much to my dismay, his strength is too much for me to combat against.

“IT’S-NOT-YET-TIME-TO-GOOO!!! STOP THIS IS WRONGG!!”

I repeat continuously as I dig my heels down onto the floor, but the only response from him is his annoyingly slight chuckle that causes the hairs on the back of my neck to sprawl up.

Finally stepping foot outside the premises he releases my wrist and flashes me his cell phone. The time reads 4:15 PM, fifteen minutes over our required punishment time.

“How did you know?”

“I thought everyone knew that our classroom clock was behind, but I guess it’s everyone EXCEPT YOU that is…”

“So basically you were trying to trick me or turn me into a hoodlum of some sort by making me think I’d be breaking the rules.”

“You can call it whatever you want, but the fact is that it sure was pretty darn funny miss goody good!”

“Psh, whatever…”

I puff my cheeks out slightly before quickly walking away from him and his foolish acts.

There are only two things that pop into my head.

Right now I want the comfort of my bed and something to eat.

I make it a couple steps away before he jumps ahead of me, blocking my way.

“Here take this Soo-old,”

He simple says before walking off nonchalantly. Wrapped in a thin plastic bag are mini chocolate chip cookies which are equivalent to gold in my eyes at that moment as my stomach start doing somersaults as a result from hunger. 

“My name is Sooyoung!!!!”

I scream out to him. How many years have we been in the same school, yet he still doesn’t know…

“Neh, I know…but Soo-old for today because you punch ruthlessly like you've lived through much hardships!”

He says all this without once looking back at me. I watch him aimlessly drifting into the horizon as the pack of cookies lay in my hands. All I can think of is how odd the guy is…

End of Flashback

--

“Soo-old~” He sings playfully.

“Kyuhyun-ssi…” she replies with barely any enthusiasm.

Pointing at the empty seat he asks, “Can I sit with you?”

“No not really…”

“I’ll take that as a yes then”

“Of course you would…”

He plops himself down comfortably before cheekily smirking at the familiar face.

“Haven’t seen you around school these days.”

“Neh, well eventually we would end up in different classes over the years so it’s a given. Plus I'm living as trainees these days so yeah…But it’s all for the better since I see your nose is in one piece.”

“Hahaha sarcasm, I like this new you.”

“I’m guessing that’s sarcasm on your part as well.”

“You’ve always been such a smart one Soo-old.”

It’s slightly awkward in her mind with that itch of annoyance as well. She wonders if he would ever be able to figure out when a situation was odd, but Kyuhyun never did.

He’s a happy go lucky fellow with nothing but clear skies in his mind so technically everything was alright, no matter how much it differs from actual reality.

They sit there for a couple of minutes, their time mainly composing of Kyuhyun’s continuous chatter of randomness while Sooyoung ignores the whole thing as she stares out the window.

It’s the sound of abrupt buzzing that interrupts the two.

“Annyeonghaseyo?” Sooyoung answers.

He stares at her with great curiosity from his seat sipping on the hot chocolate that is close to finished.

“So you met him? What are their names? Hmm Siwon? And you think he’d match with me? Neh, neh, haha…really? Alright I’m on my way now. I’ll see you soon then.”

He quickly diverges eye contact by pretending to stare at the framed picture upon the walls before innocently asking,

“Who was that?”

“A friend, Hyoyeon. She doesn’t go to our school. I’m going to meet up with her right now. It was interesting to see you I guess…”

“One tip for ya before you head off. If you want the match maker contestant to fall for you, don’t be 'Soo-old'. Us dudes don’t really fall head over heels for girls who show their violent aggressive side on a first encounter, especially if it gets us a bloody nose.”

His tone of voice is that of playfulness with unknowingly hidden seriousness and jealousy on his part.

She raises her eyebrow at him before letting out a tiny laugh, the very first that had ever escaped her from his company since knowing him.

“Soo-old catch!”

He tosses a bag of mini chocolate chip cookies at her once more, déjà vu kicking in, before she walks off out the café.

She quietly walks down the sidewalk on the semi chilly day with only two things popping in mind.

…the interesting name Siwon, and the sultry taste of how well Kyuhyun’s cookies always seem to be.

The time is now exactly 12:00 AM and the brisk air of the night hints out that this year, Cinderella will have her prince charming.