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"Hyesung, if I beat you on this next test's performance, go out on a date with me."

The voice came from in front of my desk. Against any will I might have had, my heart skipped when I looked up to the face of Eric.

"Excuse me?" I replied, even though I had heard exactly what he said.

He pressed his lips together in raw determination and confidence, crossing his arms. "I said, if I beat you on this next test, go out on a date with me."

"Why?" I demanded. "I told you already. I don't like you. I don't have any reason to go on any date with you."

Ever since we were fifteen years old, he'd been following me around and professing his supposed love for me. At first it had been a burden; if I wanted a social life, it wouldn't help that I had someone tailing me practically every minute of the school day. Over the next three years, I slowly got used to his presence.

And, as much as I hated to admit it, sometimes I thought I was less of adapting to it and more of developing an attachment to it.

Eric leaned forward, placing his hands onto the corners of my desk. I pressed myself backwards, my spine against the back of the chair. "Just this once," he said. "I swear. If you still hold number one, or anything higher than my placement, then I'll leave you alone."

I stiffened. Leave me alone?

"For you, it's a win-win situation," he continued. "You win, I won't be on your tail ever again. You lose, you just go out on a date with me. I follow you around anyway, so it's not like a date would be any different from what you go through every single school day."

He had really thought this through before bringing it to my table. I didn't respond for a few moments as I turned what he said over in my head. He was right, of course. In the worst case, I'd have to spend a few extra hours with him. Even though I didn't want to go, it wouldn't be complete torture. But if I did as I usually did on the next test, then I could be free from a pair of overly-attached eyes.

...Did I actually want that, though?

I shoved that thought aside and instead weighed the sides of the deal. I had always placed first in our grade on every single test. Just because a bet had been placed on it, it wouldn't change that. And even though Eric could be a tough opponent, there was no way he could possibly score higher than me. This would be too easy.

I glanced up at him before saying, "Alright. I'll agree to your deal."

His face lit up at my response. Not only with excitement, but with a greatly obvious cockiness. "Good," he said happily. "In that case, since the test is tomorrow..." He thought for a moment with his eyes turned to the ceiling. "After school the day after tomorrow, I'll meet you at the boardwalk."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why should I do that?"

He grinned at me. Oh, how I hated that confidence. "For our date, of course. Because you're going to lose."

--

I stood in front of the bulletin board, at the list of top one hundred scores from the test. As I stared at the top two names, one phrase flitted through my head:

Oh. Damn.

A figure approached me and stood close to my shoulder, looking up at the same list and clicking his tongue. I didn't have to look to know who it was.

"Oh, what a shame," Eric said triumphantly. "I haven't seen your name next to the number two in our whole high school careers."

"I was sick," I told him snappily. It sounded like a very poor excuse, but at least it was...true. "Have you ever tried to take a test while tears are coming out of your eyes from sneezing too much?"

"I see," he said, half-laughing. "So on the day of the test that we placed a deal on, you just happen to catch a bad cold and it just happens to affect your test performance."

I turned to glare at him, his annoyingly content expression remaining unhidden on his face. "That's why I'm saying, the deal should -"

"-be void?" he finished for me. I bit my lip; he wasn't going to let these test results slide by.

He looked at me, obviously having a ton of fun, and said, "No way. The deal was that if I beat you, then we had a date." He nodded up at the list. That dreadful list. "If I had gotten number three or lower, the date would not happen since you placed second. But you aren't blind. That number one says 'Eric Mun' right after it, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," I muttered regretfully. "It does."

He patted my back. "So. Today at the boardwalk. And don't bother dressing nicely. I'm not that picky."

He skipped away, and somehow I knew that for the rest of the school day he wouldn't be clinging to me. Because after school, we'd be walking together along the beach or something. There'd be plenty of time for him to spend time with me later.

I wanted to sink into a hole and die.

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Hello everyone! ^^ So basically this is a little intro or whatever because the real drama begins in the last part, which I'll be posting as soon as I finish it. Hopefully this keeps your attention despite being so short ;-;

Happy reading~!