Jihoon’s laughter broke the silence lingering in the gym, “Hahaha! Soonyoung, you’re stuck together!”

Horrified at what they just heard, Soonyoung and Choyoung scrambled to get back up, only to fall back down again. The two were sitting an an awkward position, Choyoung on Soonyoung’s lap with her legs on either side of his legs. The other students stopped their games and began crowding around the two. Choyoung felt her face grow warm, but it wasn’t coming from her, it was Soonyoung. This made Choyoung’s heart beat a lot faster. The boys in the class snickered, whispering amongst themselves about how Soonyoung was, “Getting’ it,” while the girls were mumbling about how embarrassing it must be for Choyoung. Coach Kim bent down and attempted to untangle the wires only ending up to call the school nurse. By the time the nurse arrived from the other building, both Choyoung and Soonyoung were completely red in the face. Jihoon and Bee helped the two up on their feet, and led them to the nurse’s office as quickly as possible. They could only imagine how flustered the two were; literally locking lips with a stranger.

It took pretty much the rest of the period until Nurse Lee was able to unhinge the two; asking them to tell her what exactly happened. Soonyoung gave a basic outline of what happened while Choyoung pitched in. Upon hearing their story, Nurse Lee explained to them that they had gotten stuck because a bracket on Sooyoung’s braces popped while a wire came loose on Choyoung’s. This was because of the force that was involved causing the braces to pop. Choyoung could swear that Nurse Lee was stifling back a chorus of laughter. She attempted to put the unhooked wires back in their places, first Choyoung then Soonyoung. The two couldn’t hank Nurse Lee enough and asked if she could just not tell their parents. Thankfully, she agreed. They bowed and left her office, keeping their distance from each other. Jihoon and Bee were waiting outside the office and immediately bombed the two with questions.

“Are you okay?” Jihoon asked, wrapping an arm around Soonyoung’s shoulders, “You’re not hurt or anything, right?”

Bee mirrored his actions, “Is Nurse Lee going to tell your parents?”

They were caught up in their own side conversations for a while. Soonyoung glanced over Jihoon’s shoulder and made eye contact with Choyoung. He figured that it was rude to not say anything so he cut Jihoon off mid-sentence.

“Sorry about that,” Soonyoung apologized, rubbing the back of his neck, “Are you okay?”

Choyoung, still dazed, simply nodded her head. The two didn’t say anything to each other, they just looked. Jihoon and Bee exchanged uncomfortable glances. None of them knew how to break the silence. Choyoung got the feeling that Soonyoung might have been annoyed with her while Soonyoung thought vice versa. Luckily, they didn’t have to grace each other with their presence anymore because the final bell of the day rang. They two pairs awkwardly parted ways, neither one initiating a “goodbye.”

Choyoung and Bee were picked up immediately after school since they didn't have any extracurricular activities. Unlike the rest of the students who would stay on campus until 5 or 6 at night because of tutoring sessions or studying. Among those who stayed late were also athletes, National Honors Society Members, and Student Council. When they arrived at Choyoung's house, they ran up the stairs to Choyoung's bedroom and made themselves comfortable.

“I can’t believe your first kiss was taken by that guy!” Bee exclaimed when they were in the comforts of Choyoung’s bedroom. Bee always went to Choyoung’s house after school because her parents would pick her up later. She would often do her homework and eat dinner there before her dad came by to pick her up. Choyoung unpacked her textbooks from her bag, keeping her back turned to Bee. The younger figured that Choyoung didn’t hear her so she continued on with her nonsense.

“So how was it?” Bee asked, “The kiss I mean.”

Choyoung furiously opened up her Geometry textbook, mumbling to herself, “It wasn’t a kiss. We just got stuck together. That’s all.”

“Yeah, but your lips had to touch before your teeth made contact!”

Choyoung ignored her yet again and continued to scribble in the answers to her homework, working her way through them at a fast pace. Whenever she was angry, she always found that doing math helped her vent out her frustration. One question. Two questions. Three questions. The entire page was done within minutes. She reached over to work on another subject.

“Oh my God, Cho,” Bee gasped, pointing to Choyoung’s mouth, “Your lips are busted!”

Raising an eyebrow, Choyoung picked herself up from the floor and walked over to the full-length mirror hanging on the back of her bedroom door. Her heart skipped a beat. Cuts from the sharp wires and streaks of dried up blood covered her lips and she had no idea how she was going to hide something like that from her parents.

“What am I going to tell mom and dad?” Choyoung frantically asked. She was scared that her parents might found out about what happened. She wasn’t scared about her parents getting mad about her braces cutting her teeth but moreso, how her parents would react if she found out made contact with another boy’s mouth. Her parents were the suspicious type ones and would keep poking and prodding at you until you break down and tell them what actually happened. The worst part was that they, most especially her dad, threatened to ship her away to a remote island if she made physical contact with anyone of the opposite gender.

Bee held her hands up defensively, “Don’t look at me!”

As if on cue, Choyoung’s mom called from downstairs telling them dinner was ready. Choyoung yelled back at her mom saying that they’d be there in a couple of minutes after they dressed up. To make it seem believable, Bee quickly grabbed her purple Nike duffel bag and slipped out of her uniform and into grey sweats and a navy tee. Choyoung did the same and walked out in a set of black sweats and a light blue tee. She bit her lips as she approached the dining room, hoping that her parents would be too oblivious to notice . Overall dinner wasn’t bad. She complained about the braces cutting up the insides of so that it was raw and her jaw was hurting but nothing that would trigger any suspicion in her parents. Luckily, they took her story and continued on with a regular dinner.

Choyoung dreaded going to school the next morning. Mrs. Kwon literally had to drag Choyoung out of bed and onto the floor for her to actually get out of bed. News of yesterday’s happenings had already spread throughout the school and everyone was talking about some. They weren’t anything negative but they weren’t positive either. Everyone seemed to sympathize with her, even some of the older girls came up to her and told her that when she gets older, she’ll find it laughable. Choyoung wasn’t comfortable with the attention she was getting and wished that everyone just dropped the subject. Just wearing braces was enough torture already. She glanced at her watch – 7:30AM. Class started in about half an hour so she decided to stop by her locker to pick up a few of her books. She was also running out of pens. People always borrowed them but never returned them. Buttholes.

At her locker, she grabbed a few items, fixed her hair, and replaced a rubber band that had snapped earlier that morning. She dropped all her books once she closed her locker.

“What the heck? Soonyoung? What are you doing here?”

Choyoung was confused as to why Soonyoung was even in the first year hallway in the first place. Soonyoung explained that he had followed her to her locker when he saw her pass the second year hallway. He peered over his shoulder at the first years who had been staring at him and flashed them his signature eye smile before turning his attention back to Choyoung.

“Hey, I’m really sorry about yesterday.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Choyoung asked, confused, “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Yeah but I feel that it was my fault! I just have that guilty feeling!”

Choyoung pulled a face that was in-between ‘judging you’ and ‘what the actual .’ Soonyoung couldn’t decide which was more evident. Without saying anything, she started to bend over the pick her fallen items, but Soonyoung held his arm out to stop her.

“No, I’ll do it.”

Choyoung looked up at him from her bent structure and rolled her eyes, “You’re not in debt to me, Soonyoung. Stop making a big deal out of it!”

“But I want to do something nice or helpful to get rid of my guilty feeling!”

When Soonyoung pouted, Choyoung realized that he had similar cuts on his mouth as well. She hadn’t noticed it earlier but his bottom lip was puffy. She stood up properly, cupped his face and pulled it down close to her face. Soonyoung’s 10:10 eyes doubled in size and he immediately took her hands off his face and pulled back, “No I don’t mean ‘owe you’ in that kind of way! Besides, I barely even know you! I think we’re going a little bit too fast…”

Choyoung blinked once before she realized what he was talking about. She couldn’t believe what he was implying. She leaned against her locker, “Oh my God, you’re funny!”

“What?”

She pulled his face to hers again and examined his swollen lips, “I just wanted to see what your braces did to you.”

“I have cuts like yours too,” Choyoung pulled her bottom lip out to show him, “My braces didn’t have mercy on me.”

“Do you want me to kiss it better for you?” Soonyoung innocently asked, unaware about how weird he sounded.

“I think you’re going a bit too fast.”