"All right class," the teacher clapped her hands loudly, trying to attract attention from the class. "No talking in the lab and listen to me!" Everyone begin to settle down outside the lab. "Geez, you guys are already sec 4 students and yet still don't know how to behave." I heard the teacher mumble. I threw Jovonne a sideward look before focusing my attention back at the teacher.

"Anyway, your lab sitting arrangement will differ from last year's. This time, we have decided to pair a guy and a girl together for lab sessions. Although I said 'pair', you are going to do individual work in preparation for you 'O' level SPA this year..." the teacher continued to drone on about how our SPA practical would be carried out, and how we were supposed to carry out the given assessment once we entered the lab. I stifled a yawn and tried to look interested.

"Okay, about your seating arrangements..." the teacher finally talked about it. "Ashley, you'll pair with Winston..."

"There goes all your chances of being able to sit with Kris," a classmate commented and Ashley sighed loudly.

"I'm willing to sit with anyone, as long as it is not a guy," I whispered to Jovonne.

"Didn't the teacher say that we're supposed to sit with someone of the opposite gender?"

"There are 28 girls and 26 guys in our class, right?" I asked.

"Yeah... Oh, i see what you mean."

Jovonne and I waited for our turn to have our pairing announced.

"Next, Jovonne and Baekhyun, please sit at the second last bench, towards the right," The teacher barked, trying to overpower the voices of the students. "Amirul, please sit..."

Vonnevonne waved her hand at me sadly and walked away with her lab partner. I waved back and pretended that I was crying. Jovonne laughed before she headed to her seat.

"... And the last two pairs will be Jacklyn and Kris, and then Yunee and Jiwon," the teacher slammed the attendance list shut and the class fell silent. "Please make you way to your seats now."

I was dumbfounded. Just as I was about to protest, Yunee and Jiwon beat me to it.

"But Miss," they whined in sync. "By pairing Jacklyn and Kris together, you'll only be torturing Jacklyn, since she doesn't work well with guys." They paused and looked at each other.

"Why not one of us-"

"No. Jacklyn has to learn how to interact with boys, so no."

Yunee and Jiwon made a face and shuffled towards their bench. They glared at me and I shuddered. I looked at the rest of the girls in class, and they were all either glaring at me or had their eyes fixated on my partner. I looked at Jovonne, my eyes pleading for help. Jovonne gave me a worried look and shrugged her shoulders.

There's nothing I can do about it, said her actions. I sighed softly and sadly.

We began to do our experiments. Neither me and Kris spoke to each other, and I was glad that I was able to do my experiment in silence. Chemistry was my forte, and experiments were my favourite thing to do. I enjoyed seeing precipitate forming in the test-tubes, and I love testing for gases evolved (excluding ammonia.). I loved how pretty copper (II) sulfate crystals looked, and I was so easily fascinated by chemical reactions that I lose myself, my obsession with anime bishies and my hatred for people of the opposite gender. Just as I was about to place a little bit of  the unknown salt into a clean test-tube, someone spoke to me.

"Jacklyn," a deep voice spoke. "How do you do this?" Kris held up his test-tube, with the salt at the bottom and a clear solution at the top.

"Oh," I started to speak happily, completely forgetting that I was speaking to a male. Kris placed his test-tube at the flame of his Bunsen burner, indicating that there was a flame. I avoided the flame and pointed to Kris' test-tube rack. "Put the lime water in a separate test-tube from the salt, and then take the test-tube with the salt and heat it. As you heat it, take a dry dropper and the gas evolved from the salt and bubble it into the lime water like this," I demonstrated to Kris and he nodded.

"So, I'll have to put the mouth of the dropper into lime water and squeeze out the air?" Kris removed his test-tube from the flame and turned off the Bunsen burner.

"Yep! Like this!" I demonstrated the action again."Keep doing this repeatedly!"

Strange, why is my hand feeling numb and painful at the same time?

I looked down at my hand and widened my eyes. Kris, seeing my expression, also looked down.

The hot test-tube that Kris just removed from the heat was resting on my hand.

Kris hurriedly removed the test-tube from my hand and apologised profusely. I stared at him and nodded.

I looked back at my hand, completely stunned by what had just happened. A whitish bump was forming in between my knuckles. I looked up and stared at Jovonne, whose face grimaced and hurriedly told me to keep my hand under cool, running water. I rushed towards the sink and held my hand under running water.

Ah... It feels better.

"I'm so sorry!" Kris apologised again hurriedly. "I honestly did not notice that my test-tube was so close to your hand... Does it hurt a lot?"

"No." I lied. Although I felt a tad bit better after cooling the burn, my hand was still throbbing with pain. I continued to do my experiment with my injured hand. Pain started to spread to my other fingers and it became intolerable. I spilt lime water all over my worksheet and I became flustered. Clumsily putting down my apparatus, i reached for the rag with my injured hand...

... And his hand grabbed my wrist.

He pulled me away from our bench and out of class. I saw the rest of the girls in my class throwing me dirty looks as I was being dragged away against my will.

What the...

Suddenly, i grew conscious about the fact that Kris was a male. I couldn't speak and I felt faint. He was grabbing my wrist.

HE.

I felt light-headed and I out.

My eyes flew open, but then I shut it again because bright light pierced my eyes. Slowly and cautiously, I peeked a little and opened my eyes while adapting to the light.

"Took you long enough to regain consciousness."

I turned to see who spoke. Kris was casually sitting on a chair beside my bed and looking at me with his arms folded across his chest. "You okay?"

I hurriedly turned my body to face the wall and threw the covers over my head. "Go away," I ordered. "I hate boys."

"I'm not going anywhere," Kris answered me. "I'm not leaving you alone, especially when I'm the cause for your injury."

"Just go. I can take care of my own injury. It's nothing serious, so I don't need to depend on you to take care of me," I hesitated for a moment. "Especially undependable guys like you popular people."

I heard the dragging of the chair across the floor and I squeezed my eyes shut, preparing myself for a beating. I curled up into a ball like I always did, to protect my stomach.

But, for what?

"You don't have to curl up into a ball and shiver crazily," I heard Kris say, his voice unusually low. "I'm just going to get your belongings and mine for us, so we can leave school. It's already 5 p.m , just so you know."

"WHAT?!" I shrieked as I sat up quickly. "5?!" I hopped off the bed and rushed out of the infirmary. "I need to fetch Teppei from the nanny!"

"Already done that for you," I heard a familiar female voice and I spun around and saw Jovonne carrying Teppei. Behind Jovonne was Chanyeol, carrying my bag and what I assumed to be Kris' bag.

"Teppei!" I rushed over and carried the child from Jovonne's arms. I cuddled Teppei and kissed his round cheeks. Teppei gave a cute laugh and I pinched his button nose.

"Cute kid," Kris commented."I assume that this is your..."

"Her baby brother." Chanyeol cut Kris' sentence while giving him a death glare."You're that person that burnt Jacklyn's hand, right? I am so going to kill you." Chanyeol rolled up his sleeves and prepared to land a fist on Kris, but Jovonne stopped him.

"It was unintentional. I saw it," Jovonne stood up for Kris and then turned to Kris."Although it was accidental, how are you going to make up for her injury? It may be small, but it's going to take a while to heal."

Kris contemplated for a moment before asking Jovonne.

"She hates guys, right? And she views them as 'undependable creatures', yes?" Chanyeol and Jovonne nodded.

Well then, I'm going to make it up to her by taking care of her and her injury, and also help her get rid of that negative mentality."

"Okay, deal." Jovonne said and I widened my eyes.

"I don't need a guy as long as I have you guys!" I wailed.

"We can't watch over you all day," Jovonne spoke. "Leaving you at home alone with Teppei makes us worried. Besides, that apartment of yours is not even properly maintained. You'll also need Kris to help you take care of household chores and Teppei while your hand heals."

"Are you saying that Kris is going to stay at Jacklyn's place?" Chanyeol asked, his face full of shock. Jovonne nodded.

"THAT'S ABSURD!" Both me and Chanyeol exclaimed in unison.

Kris raised his hand and said with a poker-face. "I don't mind."

Jovonne clasped her hands together in glee and both me and Chanyeol stared at her. We heard footsteps approaching and we all turned to see who was approaching. I froze on the spot and hurriedly turned around, hiding Teppei protectively.

Jun.

Jovonne's eyes gleamed with mischief and took the chance to announce loudly that Kris was to stay at my place. As much as I wanted to protest, i couldn't because I was shaken with fear.

", allowing a guy to sleep at your place at 16, have you no shame?" I heard Jun casually commenting as he walked past us. I hung my head in shame and my tears were b my eyes. I felt a firm hand being put on my shoulder and I looked up.

Kris had his arm swung over my shoulder protectively.

"I would punch you if I could,Jun," Chanyeol gritted his teeth. "However, it would be bad for you if I damaged your face, since you need it to earn money to feed your girls."

"Oh?" Jun glanced back at Chanyeol, raising one brow haughtily. "Hit me then. Oops, I forgot, you're probably afraid that if the school finds out that you hit me, you won't be able to participate in the volleyball tournament."

"Shut up,Jun, just be on your way already. You're an eyesore." Jovonne hissed at Jun, her voice full of venom.

"Ah,Jovonne," Jun sauntered towards Jovonne and carassed her jaw. "You're the only girl so far that hasn't fallen for my charm. But don't worry, my darling, i will work my magic on you soon, and you'll love me to no end."

Jovonne slapped Jun's hand away. "Bugger off. I don't pick up other people's trash."

"Ah... But they say that one man's trash is another man's treasure," Jun slurred. "But very unfortunately, your pathetic friend there," Jun pointed to me. "will always remain a trash." With that, Jun stalked off, leaving behind a trail of his cologne. I felt wetness on my face and I wiped it off with a free hand. I felt deeply humiliated.

Chanyeol and Jovonne sent me and Teppei home, and I cried my eyes out alone in the toliet while Teppei was asleep. The doorbell rang, and I quickly washed my face before I opened the door. The person at the door walked into my house and made himself comfortable.

That was when our chemistry started.