It’s the first day back at Seoul Academy after the summer holidays, and Krystal is already late.

She bursts into the dining hall at a quarter past eight to see the majority of the people in the room sitting at the long tables, with only a few left milling about and still getting food. Some heads swivel in her direction from her loud entrance, but she doesn’t even have time to feel fully embarrassed about it before she hears someone yell out her name.

It’s Chen, grinning at her from just a few tables over. Next to him is Lay. And next to Lay – Krystal tells herself not to look, but it’s no use. Her gaze is pulled to him and every single whirling thought in her mind goes still.

She stands there stupidly, motionless, unable to do anything except think of how much more grown up Jongin looks. Krystal isn’t sure how many seconds have passed until Chen his head to one side in puzzled amusement and waves her over. With an embarrassed flush spreading over her cheeks, she fixes her gaze on the ground and forces her feet into motion.

When she reaches their table, Chen immediately jumps up to give her a hug. He’s changed, too, a little taller, his face slightly more narrow. But his arms still feel familiar, and Krystal leans into him for a moment, trying to will her resolve back. He greets her cheerfully and it’s with a wide smile that she replies to him.

She’s not as close with Lay, but obligation makes her hug him too.

When Krystal is left facing Jongin, it completely floors her when he pulls her close. Suddenly her cheek is pressed against his crisp white button-up, every unspoken rule between them is broken, and her heart is jumping in her chest. The two months they’d been separated evaporates into the air and the butterflies, thankfully absent during that time, come flooding back into her stomach.

She can’t stand it, the effect he has on her.

She pulls away quickly, too quickly, and averts her gaze even as he gives her a lopsided grin.

“What, forgot how to read a clock?” asks Jongin.

“I was late because there was traffic,” answers Krystal indignantly. She sits down in the safest seat, the one across from Chen and as far away as possible from Jongin.

His grin only grows bigger in response.

Krystal spends the rest of breakfast asking Chen about his summer and steadfastly avoiding Jongin’s eyes, all too aware of her racing heart.

-----

Krystal has always disliked Jongin. She isn’t sure when, exactly, it began, but somewhere along the line she started to find his words, his actions – his very presence – completely insufferable.

It’s his easy arrogance that she despises, but what truly rankles her is the way he charms girls off their feet left and right – including their female professors.

Worse still is the careless ease with which he sails through his schoolwork. Him and his best friend, Chanyeol, are clearly trouble. They’re trouble, and everyone, certainly the giggling girls who stare after them with smitten gazes, knows it. And yet, their academic brilliance – their undeniably superior scores coupled with their consistent inattention – constantly make a complete mockery of Krystal’s careful and methodical studying.

It drives her mad. Absolutely mad.

The only thing worse than Jongin himself is the fact that she’s in love with him.

-----

Krystal is fourteen when she meets him, and there’s nothing extraordinary about their first encounter. She had just switched middle schools, and he turns out to be in her art class and her science class. They don’t speak to each other until at least a few weeks of school have passed, and even then it’s only in passing, to ask for a pencil or help on a homework problem.

The first time they truly speak to each other, their conversation revolves around a science project they were paired together on.

It is around then that her dislike begins. It’s a quiet, private little dislike, but it’s still there nonetheless. Jongin’s arrogant even at that age, and he constantly fights with her to phrase things in their lab write-up the way he wants them to be. And he’s irritatingly smart, especially for someone who doesn’t even try.  

Krystal is fifteen when she notices the good in him. It doesn’t cancel out the bad, and it doesn’t make her dislike go away, but she does feel a grudging sort of respect for him at times. Like when he stands up for his friends or challenges a dumb opinion.

Krystal is sixteen when she realizes that Jongin can be sweet at times. He’s still arrogant, of course he is – more arrogant than ever, really. He’s grown taller and even more good looking, and he’s learned the effect that his smile can have on the female population.

But sometimes he’s sweet. Sometimes he opens the door for her or walks her to class or offers to hold her books. It’s those little things that get to her, despite his endless teasing and his stupid mocking grins. Before she knows it, they’re friends, sort of, even though she still thinks he’s unbearable.

By the end of the school year, her heart isn’t fully hers anymore and her knees have a tendency to go slightly weak whenever he’s around.  

She hates herself for it. She used to laugh at girls who fell for him, for heaven’s sake.

Now Krystal is seventeen and she wishes her traitorous body would listen to her for once.

-----

“Hey, wait up!” he calls after her.

Krystal whirls around, barely able to hide her annoyance and simmering anger. She should’ve known that he’d catch up to her quickly. Whether her volatile emotions are directed at him or herself she isn’t quite sure, but she faces him with blazing eyes nonetheless.

He notes her sour expression with a raise of his eyebrows.

“You disappeared after breakfast pretty fast,” he says.

It’s an understatement, and they both know it. Krystal all but ran from the dining hall.

“I had to get my schedule from the office.” She glares up at him. “Late, remember?”

“Krystal?”

“Yes?”

“Look,” begins Jongin, “I’m sorry that I made fun of you earlier for forgetting how to read a clock.” The corners of his lips quirk up. “I know it’s not your fault, and reading clocks is hard for some people. Especially digital ones. I get it.” By now, his grin is practically threatening to split his face in half. “Will you forgive me?”

Krystal tries her very best to hold on to her anger – it’s her only refuge against Jongin – but it’s hopeless. She can’t help but crack the tiniest smile. He takes it as a victory and laughs, falling into step beside her.

“My locker’s over there,” he tells her, pointing vaguely across the hall. “Come with me, and then we can go to English together. Okay?”

No. We aren’t friends, is what she wants to tell him, but they are friends. She nods.

They walk in silence for a few seconds, until he turns to her and asks, “How was America?”

“It was fun,” she answers. “I visited a lot of relatives.”

“You got me a souvenir, right?” Jongin looks at her expectantly.

Krystal feels her anger surge up again, because she did. She stupidly got him a souvenir from a gift shop in the airport. She got ones for Chen and Sulli and the others too, but she stupidly spent more time picking Jongin’s out.

“Yes,” she admits, and she feels herself blush. “I got you one.”

Jongin grins. “Good. Because I got you one too.”

They’d been apart for two months in the summer because of the trips they each took. Starting near the end of June, she had gone to visit America with her family, and Jongin had gone to some camp in Jeju Island. She was glad for it. She was glad that her heart didn’t race and her cheeks didn’t blush during those months.

And Krystal thought that maybe those two months would change things. That maybe her heart wouldn’t race and her cheeks wouldn’t blush at all in his presence anymore.

“Do you have it with you?” he asks. They’ve reached his locker and he bends down slightly to enter in his combination.

Krystal shakes her head. “No, I – “ she begins, but she’s interrupted by Jongin grabbing her hand. Soon enough, his warmth is replaced by something smooth and cold, and Krystal looks down to see a slim gold pen lying across her palm. It shines and glitters even under the slightly dim hallway lights.

Before she can say anything, Jongin touches the back of his neck slightly self-consciously and clears his throat. “Because you’re always writing in that black journal,” he explains. He nods at the pen. “I saw it and thought of you.”

She’s more touched than she would ever admit to him, and the inside of her chest feels all strange.

“Thank you,” Krystal says genuinely. She closes her hand around her gift and smiles. “I love it.”

He smiles, too. “Good,” he replies. Then he raises his eyebrows at her. “What were you saying before? That you didn’t bring mine?”

“Hey,” she protests defensively, “I wasn’t sure if I’d see you, and besides…”

“Besides what?”

I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to force myself to give it to you. Krystal shakes her head. “Nothing,” she tells him, in a tone that she hopes will discourage any further prodding.

“Can you at least tell me what my souvenir is?”

“Of course not.” Krystal fixes him with a disapproving stare. “Then it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

Jongin rolls his eyes. He’s about to reply when Krystal sees a familiar flash of motion and dark hair in the hallway ahead and, sure enough, it’s Chanyeol. It’s her chance to escape, and she grabs for it desperately.

“Look,” she says quickly, pointing.

Jongin follows her line of vision. “Chanyeol!” he yells when he catches sight of his best friend and partner-in-crime.

Chanyeol turns and grins when he sees Jongin. “Got here too late for breakfast,” he shouts in reply. He waves a sheet of paper in the air. “I just got my schedule.”

Krystal turns to Jongin. “I should go find Sulli,” she says.

“I – you don’t want to go to English with me?”

“Well, no, it’s not that,” she denies. “Don’t you want to talk to Chanyeol?”

He nods, looking confused. “Can’t we talk to Chanyeol together?”

“It’s just, I have to find Sulli,” Krystal insists, gritting her teeth. “I’ll see you in English.”

And with that, she turns and marches in the opposite direction, willing her anger back and trying to ignore how special the stupid gold pen feels sitting there in her hand.