When I woke up and walked downstairs, I only saw Chen watching TV in the living room.

“Are you walking me to school?” I asked.

          “Yeah,” he answered. Chen hasn’t walked with me to school in a really long time. “I forgot how ugly you look when you wake up.”

He walked over and lifted a chunk of my hair. “You should comb this,” he said, smiling.

I slapped his hand away.

          I got ready for school as fast as I could, tying my hair as I ran down the stairs with my backpack on. When I met Chen at the door he laughed at my hair.

“What?” I asked, “I combed it.”

“The way you tied it,” he said, grabbing my shoulders and turning me around, “it’s all chunky. Here let me do it.”

          “I don’t trust you,” I accused as I turned back around and glared at him suspiciously, “Why would you want to tie my hair anyways? Do you even know how to tie hair?”

              “I don’t know. I just want to try tying someone’s hair. You know Haeun and Yeeun won’t let me,” he said. Haeun and Yeeun were his older sisters, twins. They were both married and had their own families now.

“Fine,” I said, “but if people start looking at me like I’m an idiot, I’m punching you.”

“Okay,” he said and grinned.

 As we walked we chatted about school and our classes and classmates.

“So today’s the big day, huh?” he asked.

“What big—oh,” I answered, “Yeah, Minjun’s really worried about it since the guy’s going to be sleeping in his room.”

“If he starts hitting on you I can come over and put my arm around you and play the obsessive boyfriend,” Chen offered.

I glared at him.

His hands shot in the air and he said,” Or brother. Protective brother works too.”

Chen walked me to my locker and I took out my binders. I was just about to close it when he stopped me.

“What?” I asked.

           He took me by the shoulders from behind and turned me the mirror inside of my locker door. I didn’t get what he was going for until I noticed that he tied my hair perfectly. I turned my head around and looked up at him, grinning.

He grinned back and said,” I did pretty good, huh?”

I turned back to the mirror and replied, “Yeah, you did.”

Then I heard someone whistle and almost turned around to punch them but it was just Yoonhee.

“Ooh, look at the two love birds,” she cooed.

Chen took his hands off my shoulders and said,” We’re not love birds,” to Yoonhee with a straight face.

He turned back to me and said,” I’ll see you later” and walked away.

I turned to Yoonhee and said,” See what you did? You scared him away.”

“It’s sooo obvious that you two like each other,” she replied.

“We don’t like each other,” I groaned, “We’re best friends.”

“Ahhh, that’s always the excuse,” she said.

           I didn’t know how to answer her. Even if I denied it she would keep pressing it onto me. I knew I had no feelings for Chen. But Chen… did he have feelings for me? Was it normal that he had tied my hair this morning? The more I thought about it the more afraid I was of him liking me. Before any of us could say anything, the bell rung. I threw Yoonhee a fake smile and walked quickly in the direction of my class. Phew, saved by the bell.

           I wanted to tell Naeun about my fear of Chen liking me but I didn’t want anyone else to hear. Professor Onew had already started his lecture so I passed a note to her saying:

          Hey, can you come to my house after school? I have something important to talk to you about. And please don’t tell Yoonhee. She’ll be disappointed if she finds out she wasn’t invited. I’ll meet you at your locker after school.

          She read the note and looked up at me and nodded. Today Kai wasn’t behind me. I was grateful because I didn’t have lasers going through my head for once.

          I dreaded chemistry with Yoonhee. I was afraid she would bring up Chen again. And of course she did, instead of doing her worksheet.

“So what happened this morning between you and Chen?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I replied.

“Oh of course there was something going on. I saw the way you two looked at each other,” she said.

 I glared at her. She was really starting to annoy me.

 She smiled back and said,” It’s okay if you want to keep this thing a secret. I can totally keep a—“

“You don’t know the first thing about Chen and I so you don’t have the right to say anything about our relationship.”

            Her smile faded. I could tell she was going to apologize but I broke eye connection, turning back to my paper. I felt kind of bad but this has happened before and no matter how many times she apologized, the same thing would happen again. 

            Lunch was quiet after my argument with Yoonhee. Naeun’s eyes shifted back and forth looking at our faces. She could tell something was up but she waited until gym class to ask me about it.

“What happened between you and Yoonhee?” she asked in the locker room.

“The usual,” I replied,” she accused Chen and I of being ‘lovebirds’ again.”

“Again?” Naeun asked,” I thought the last three times she said she would never do it again.”

          “Exactly,” I said,” that’s why I didn’t give her the chance to apologize today. I actually wanted to talk to you about that after school today. About me and Chen.”

 Her eyes widened, “You don’t actually…”

“It’s not about me,” I said quickly,” It’s about his fee