“Hyung, what happened to you!?” my cousin asked the moment he opened the door and saw me “you’re so dirty! You can’t come in!!”

“Don’t be choosy Hyuk, I’ll just clean up the floor later,” I said as I carefully stepped inside the house.

“What happened to your head?” Hyuk panicked when he saw the few droplets of bloods at the back of my head.

“Ow ow, don’t touch it” I said when he poked the area where the rock hit.

“Go clean up Teuk hyung and I’ll treat that wound later,” he said as he followed my footsteps with a wet mop.

That night, Hyuk stayed at my room and treated my wound. I flinched every time he pressed the iodine against my head. He claimed that it was just a light press when I complained. He placed a small gauze on it afterwards.

“Thanks Hyuk,” I said before sleeping.

“Next time just be careful, okay hyung?” he said before leaving my room.

I closed my eyes that night and an image flashed in front of me… that guy. His adorable smile and those sharp raccoon eyes that he had. Will I be able to see him again tomorrow? I wouldn’t mind being bumped or hit by a rock anymore. And with that, I dozed off, still holding the rock tight in my hand.

The next day, I arrived at school in time. Our classes went by the same as yesterday… but for some reason I couldn’t focus my attention on the lessons. My mind flew elsewhere.

“Class,” Professor Choi said “we’ll be starting our experiments next week.”

There was an excited buzz among my classmates.

“For now, choose a partner because we’ll be working in pairs…”

Heads turned and whispers erupted as everyone seemed shy to ask for a partner. But I noticed that two of my classmates are already comfortable with each other.

“Come on class, don’t be shy. We already did introductions yesterday, didn’t we? Choose a partner now ‘cause we’ll be familiarizing ourselves with the tools that we’ll use next week.” Professor Choi said “the last one without a partner will start the demonstration of our experiment!”

With that order, we all panicked.

“Very good, here’s our first pair!” Professor Choi announced after a few seconds “Ryeowook and Jongwoon, I’ll give you additional 10 points for our exercise next week.”

They high-fived at the front after passing a piece of paper with their names written as “YeWook”. Our other classmates managed to find partners as well because of Professor Choi’s extra points, and of course the fear of demonstrating for the experiment. I looked around and realized that they all had partners already. Great. I was left all alone at the back of the room.

“So it seems only Jungsoo’s the one left without a partner,” Professor Choi said after collecting the papers of the pairs “I’ll just pair you up with Youngwoon, who’s still absent today.”