Aha! He found her.

“Jihoon, c’mon! I found Choyung!” Soonyoung whispered from behind the glass door of the library. He waved his hand to the escaping Jihoon, who rolled his eyes in response.

“Bro, she’s in the library for a reason. She’s probably studying,” Jihoon whined, but still walking over to Soonyoung’s side, “She’ll get mad if we bother her,”

“But what if Choyoung needs help?” Soonyoung countered, itching to sit down on the seat across from Choyoung. It was empty; practically tempting him to come over and sit down.

“Then she’ll tell you if she needs help," Jihoon reasoned, “Which she probably won’t do because she’s Choyoung.”

Jihoon had a point. Choyoung had a lot of pride and rarely ever, if she even, asked for any help. She could be hanging off the edge of a cliff, and refuse to take Soonyoung’s hand if he were the only one there to save her. What a stubborn first year. Soonyoung shrugged it off and entered the library; it would be fun to annoy her anyway. He had just made it past the reference desk when someone appeared from behind the Reference aisle and sat in the chair across from Choyoung. Without hesitation, Soonyoung turned heel and walked right out the entrance.

“Jihoon, someone’s sitting with her!” Soonyoung tattled, pulling repeatedly on Jihoon’s blazer sleeve, “And I don’t know who!”

“Well, you aren’t the most social person on this planet you know,”

Soonyoung lightly smacked Jihoon’s upper arm, “That’s not what I mean!”

Dragging the younger one back to the library entrance, he put his finger on the door and pointed to the boy accompanying Choyoung, “Look, it’s a boy that’s sitting with her,”

“That’s Lee Chan,” a familiar voice came from behind them, causing Jihoon to crinkle his nose. He did not like who that voice belonged to.

The two turned around and were greeted by the bright, smiling face of Lee Moon Bi. She held a pile of textbooks in her arms and was hunched over to keep her protruding backpack from tipping her over. Jihoon wasn’t the biggest fan of Bee, in fact, he wished he would disappear right now. He could read her like an open book; she was obviously into him and he didn’t return those feelings. Soonyoung, not even noticing how his best friend stiffened up beside him, crouched down whispering as softly as he could, “You know him?”

“Yeah, they sit next to each other in homeroom. They’re lab partners too,” Bee chirped, happy to be able to help her seniors, “If you want, I can introduce you to him,”

Jihoon stepped in and pulled Soonyoung away before he could say anything, “No, that’s fine. Thank you anyways,”

“No problem,” Bee said, flashing her cutest smile at her elementary school crush before heading into the first year hallway, “Anytime,”

The two waved goodbye, Jihoon shuddering once Bee was out of sight. He sighed and turned around, only to see Soonyoung with his face pressed onto the glass again to get a better look at this ‘Lee Chan.’ Without anything better to do, Jihoon did the same. The two watched Choyoung cheerfully converse with her schoolmate, often taking quick peeks at him whenever he would put his head down to write something. She seemed very interested in whatever he had to say. Soonyoung refused to believe that she was actually interested in Cell Biology. Soonyoung’s eyes never strayed away from the table. When Choyoung smiled after Lee Chan said something, Soonyoung had to keep himself from storming into the library. Jihoon chuckled to himself as he noticed Soonyoung’s ears turning redder the longer he watched the two.

“What’s so special about Lee Chan?” Soonyoung mumbled under his breath, earning another stifled laugh from Jihoon.

“Hey, we should probably go,” Jihoon suggested, pulling Soonyoung up from his knees, “Choyoung will probably get mad if she catches us spying on her date.”

He made sure he stressed out the word ‘date’ as to aggravate Soonyoung more. Soonyoung was more annoyed than ever. He wasn’t sure whether he was annoyed because of Lee Chan or if he was annoyed because Jihoon was teasing him. Either way, he was irritated. Seeing Choyoung laugh with someone else other than himself, bothered him especially since he knew he was still in debt to Choyoung. Soonyoung knew that if that guy continued to hang around Choyoung, he would never be able to get rid of the guilt feeling he had no matter how many years pass.

“It’s not a date,” Soonyoung reassured himself, remembering what Bee had told them earlier, “They’re lab partners so maybe they’re just working on a project together,”

“Sure, because you flirt when you have to do a lab project,”

“Do I need to remind you about Park Baeji?”

“Let’s not talk about that,” Jihoon said, wrapping an arm around Soonyoung’s shoulder as they walked, “That never happened,”

Choyoung waved goodbye to Lee Chan and headed out onto the courtyard. The courtyard was very large and extended into the different sports playing fields. To the right was the soccer field and to the left was a softball/baseball field. The baseball diamond also led upwards to their gym. The treacherous gym. She stretched her neck to check to see if her dad was here to pick her up yet. Nope. The car wasn’t there. Sighing, she headed towards the soccer field.

Choyoung wasn’t interested in whatever was going on in the soccer field; she just liked doing her homework there while she waited for her ride because the breeze was cool and refreshing. There were no trees or anything, just plain, crisp, open air. And, there were cute upperclassmen who played soccer. It was weird seeing guys on the same campus as her. This was her first year in a co-ed school and it was a bit overwhelming to see sporty, and might I add often good-looking, boys.

She chose a spot on the second row up from the bottom of the bleachers. Slipping her backpack in-between the first seat and second seat, she pulled out her science textbook and began reading. Of course, it was hard for her to concentrate because of the group of girls fangirling about their ‘cute and awesome oppas’ on the bleachers to her right. They were pretty loud. Choyoung wouldn’t be surprised if any of the boys, or even the coach overheard. Eventually, she gave up with Cell Bio and replaced it with her Korean Language book. Might as well start with the native language, right?

An hour and a half passed and the sun was slowly setting over the horizon. It was nearing five o’clock already and still, her dad wasn’t here. He had texted her earlier saying that he was in a meeting and that he would pick her up a little later, in which she responded ‘okay.’ It wasn’t his fault that he was called into a sudden meeting. No, her dad wasn’t a well-known business man. He was a video game developer who worked alongside major labels. He wasn’t famous or anything, moreso, he’s the reason why there were graphics on your screen. He was the behind-the-scenes guy.

Closing her English workbook, she slid her Japanese workbook onto her lap and flipped to her assignment. This was her last homework for the day. Five thirty came around and still, she was on question number five. The soccer team’s practice was coming to a close and they were heading out of the field to the locker rooms to change. Some of the boys, dripping with sweat, stripped off their shirts and slung it over their shoulders; this made the girls watching go wild. Choyoung wasn’t the least bit interested in a boy’s body. Abs just didn’t make a big impression on her. If anything, she just liked it when a boy was lean, not muscular, not obese. Average.

“I’m surprised you haven’t looked up yet.”

Choyoung’s pencil tip broke at the sound of that voice. She lifted her head, and it took all her willpower to keep her jaw from dropping all the way to the floor. There, in front of her, was a smirking Soonyoung, drenched in his own sweat. His bangs stuck to his forehead messily and his shirt, which he had kept on, stuck to his body revealing what Choyoung made out as slight ab lines. She brought her eyes back down to her workbook and furiously worked through the remaining questions on the page; she didn’t care if she was right or not. Her cheeks burned.

“What do you want, Soonyoung?”

“I should be asking you that actually,” He returned, sitting on the first seat of the bleachers where her feet were propped up on, “Are you checking me out?”

Choyoung cringed; how did he even come up with that conclusion? She tucked a lock of hair that fell out of her ponytail back into place, “Excuse you, I didn’t even know you played soccer until right now.”

“Or did you?” Soonyoung said, raising his eyebrow with a smirk playing on his lips.

“Look, if you’re flirting, you’re doing it wrong,” Choyoung defended, as she quickly gathered her things and stuffed them into her backpack, “I’ll be going now,”

Soonyoung was at her heels when she began walking away. It was gym class all over again. Her moving forwards and him catching up. She was getting real tired of this game. Choyoung stopped halfway from the center of the courtyard and looked up at Soonyoung, “Are you going to take a shower or not?”

“Oh you actually care about my health?”

“I’m just saying,”

“You probably like what you see, don’t you?” Soonyoung teased, wiping the sweat out of his hair with a small, yellow towel, “That’s why you keep turning around,”

This left Choyoung speechless. She stuttered for a bit, trying to come back with something better but she couldn’t. Eventually, she gave up and furiously stomped away from him.

“Just – just…just go to the locker room and take a shower!” She yelled at him, as she got further away with Soonyoung laughing as she walked away, “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

This shocked Soonyoung enough to make him stop laughing, “She’s actually looking forward to seeing me tomorrow?”

author's note : thank you all for your support! i'm very happy to hear that you all enjoy reading my story. also, i'd like to thank those who have commented and upvoted htbf! it's nice to hear from all of you and know what you think about it so far. your comments, though i don't expect them, motivate me in writing. hahaha i believe i've said this many times before but again, thank you very much! i hope you will continue to support this story c: