“Hyukjae, I just want to know how best to ask him out. I’m scared he doesn’t know who I am, or worse, he knows and he’ll reject me.”

“Look, Donghae, you’ll never know until you try, right? Just man up and do it, or Sungmin’ll never know who you are.”

One day, Sungmin received a red rose in his locker. It’s the first time this has happened – he’d always thought he was relatively unnoticed, after all. He wasn’t exactly one of the popular jocks, but neither was he one of those sad geeks who had no life. He was just Lee Sungmin, someone stuck in the middle. The rose, though, was pretty – bright red with lush-looking petals. All the thorns had been removed by the considerate person who placed it in his locker, preventing them from pricking him. Smiling, Sungmin slipped the rose into his school bag, smiling and setting off for English class.

The next day, he found two roses – one more than the day before – the stalks gently pressed between his geometry textbook under his desk. Taking them out, he noticed that once again, the thorns were gone. He wondered who exactly would have been kind enough to do so, his thoughts wandering over every possible person, but the teacher chose that opportune moment to start the lesson. Shrugging, Sungmin decided to listen to the lecture instead.

On the third day, he found three roses lying on his desk, looking especially bright against the dreary pale blue of the school tables. His eyes darting around the classroom, he wondered who exactly would have bought six roses all for him before bothering to pluck out all the thorns.

He was touched – whoever this mystery person was, he sure was a nice guy. Or girl.

 

2

“Do you think he liked the roses? He didn’t seem overjoyed or anything….”
“Why don’t you try something else, then?”

The next week, Sungmin found a little note to him stuck onto the corner of his desk with a cutesy little sticker in the shape of a fish. As he picked it up and opened it, he realised the paper only had six words written on it – will you go out with me? There was no name, no number, no nothing.

Sungmin wondered if it was the same person who sent the roses, and if so, who. The little sticker, though, sat on the corner of his desk, as if taunting him. He wondered if the sticker was a clue to the sender’s identity, though.

Sungmin slipped the note into his folder and kept the sticker on his desk, refusing to peel it off.

“You know, donghae, when you ask him if he wants to go out with you, you’re supposed to leave your name so he knows who to reply to!”

“…. Oh. I forgot. Still, I used a fish-shaped sticker… he should be able to guess who I am, right?”

“Doubt it. Let’s just move on to plan C.”

3

“Do you think he likes chocolates? Or candies?”

“How would I know? I hardly ever talk to him!”

“Come on, you guys are in the same biology class. Just help me ask?”

“Donghae, you’re in the same biology class as me. Do your own dirty work.”

“But I’m shy!”

“Sungmin,” Sungmin looked up from his textbook, his mind not on the anatomy of a human body but rather on the notes and roses. He was greeted with the sight of Hyukjae, a skinny boy who’d always sat at the back of the class. Idly, his mind wondered what Hyukjae wanted, since they’d almost never spoken before.

“Yes?”

“I was wondering… if, uh, you like chocolate. And candies. And what type.”

Perplexed, Sungmin wondered why he was asking all this, but kept his mouth shut. “I like milk chocolate, and I don’t really like sweets.” Warning bells were beginning to go off in his head, wondering if hyukjae was perhaps the person who’d sent the notes and roses, but deep down, a gut feeling was saying no no no no no no not hyukjae please not hyukjae and Sungmin wondered why.

“Thanks.” And with that one single word, hyukjae trudged off, looking almost like a slave returning to his master.

Sungmin wondered what that relieved feeling in his stomach was. Turning back to face the front, his fingers absentmindedly traced the sticker still on his desk, tracing the fish shape over and over.

“Thanks, I owe you a billion!”
“Yeah, got that right. He probably thought I was his admirer instead of you.”

 

4

The next day, Sungmin found a bar of dark chocolate on his table. Sighing, he wondered if hyukjae was deaf or just stupid. Still, he opened the wrapping and ate it anyway, for reasons unknown even to himself.

“Donghae, you idiot, I said milk chocolate, not dark! He doesn’t even like dark chocolate!”

“What? The packaging of the chocolate at the store was in Japanese! How was I supposed to know?”

“Maybe because there’s English translation at the other side?”

“You know I never paid attention in English class, right?”

 

5

“Do you think I could bribe jungsu to let me say something over the PA system after morning announcements?”

“Aren’t we taking things a bit too far?”

“Well, this is Plan Z. We’ve exhausted everything else on our list!”

“You could just go up to him and talk to him, you know.”

“You know what? That’s gonna be plan Z, okay? This PA system thing is Plan Y.”

“… Whatever.”

“Hello Lee Sungmin!” the announcement rang out over the PA system, startling Sungmin from his stupor. He’d just been walking to class, rushing slightly because he was going to be late, but this announcement stopped him stock-still in the almost-empty hallway. The voice, he noticed, was different from jungsu’s (the prefect who normally read the announcements), but it was also a pretty familiar one.

“Will you go out with me? Just in case you don’t know, I’m –“

There was a sudden burst of static, and the mic went dead. Probably yet another technical mishap since their school was ancient. This also meant that technically, the identity of the person was still a secret, but Sungmin knew. He knew who it was. He smiled, then started running off to biology class.

 

0

“Donghae, you idiot, you could’ve just asked me from the start, without all of that secret admirer stuff. I would’ve said yes.”

Donghae pouted as hyukjae mouthed I told you so from the sidelines. “But I was afraid you’d say no.”

“Well right now, I’m telling you yes, I’ll go out with you. Is that good enough for you?” but sungmin was laughing and donghae figured, maybe it was okay.