Zelo glanced at his watch and winced. He had exactly two minutes and thirty seconds to make it to the broadcasting room before they started this morning’s announcements. He hoisted his book bag over his shoulder and ran down the hallways.

            He skidded into the room just as Jongup was about to make the daily announcements. “Hey, Hyung!” he called out.

            Jongup turned in his chair and looked at the out of breath boy. “Why are you here? I’m going to make announcements. You should be in homeroom.”

            Zelo took away the microphone. “I need you to do me a favor.”

            “A favor? I need to do my job and then get to class!”

            “Please, Hyung. I promise, it won’t take super long. You see, I came up with a brilliant idea last night. I’m going to confess to this girl over the loudspeaker.”

            “What if she doesn’t like you?”

            Zelo grinned. “She does.”

            Jongup rolled his eyes. “And what do you want me to do?”

            “I’m going to let you do the morning recital that you always do and then you hand the microphone to me. Except I need you to set up a stereo system because I’ll be rapping for her too.”

            “What? I don’t have the time to do all this!”

            Zelo pouted and placed his palms together in a begging motion. “Pretty please with a million cherries on top?”

            Jongup sighed. “Alright. What do you want me to do?”

            “Go start your thing but take a while with them okay?”

            As Jongup the microphone, Zelo dropped to his knees and started to rummage in his bag. He pulled out speakers, an iPod and started to set things up. Behind him, Jongup was speaking as slowly as he could.

            “And, for today’s final announcement, we have a special guest.”

            Zelo looked up and panicked. He needed his speech paper. Where was it? He patted down his pockets and looked through his bag. “Our special guest,” Jongup prompted and Zelo was near tears.

            To help him, Jongup reached over and the stereo. Music started to blast throughout the speaker system of the entire school and he whispered, “Just wing it. The best speeches are from the heart anyway.”

            Zelo took the microphone and cleared his throat. He started rapping to the song first before lowering the music and saying, “Hey everyone, this is Zelo. How’s everyone’s day so far?” He waited a little and then started speaking again.

            “Today, I wanted to show a really special someone how much they mean to me. Can we please give a large hand to _____?”

            There were shouts down the corridor and Jongup laughed. “You’re doing well. But hurry before the principal decides we’re taking up too much time.”

            “I just wanted her to know that I really super like her and that if she liked, I can be the cheese to her macaroni.”

            Jongup gave him a weird look. “Her favorite food,” Zelo hissed.

            There was a loud shriek of laughter and Zelo grinned. “That’s her.”

            “I like that I am able to make you laugh and I hope to be able to continue to do so. Be my girlfriend?”

            The entire hallway of the school resounded with a massive yes as the listening students answered for her.

            “I can’t hear you!”

            “YES!”

            Zelo grinned. “This has been Zelo and I’ll be signing out. Meet me after school, you know where.” And leaving the rest of the school to contemplate on that little bit of mystery, Zelo turned off the intercom.

            Jongup slapped him on the shoulder. “Good job. I think she’s definitely going to say yes now.”

            Zelo grinned and hoisted his bag over his shoulder. “Gotta go to math before she decides she doesn’t want a tardy boyfriend.”

MrsToTomato