Letting Jongin be as he pleases proved to be one of the biggest mistakes Hana has ever done for the other few hours of school. Because of her granting his permission to do anything, he had fully taken advantage of the situation.

For the rest of the school day, he had already asked her to fetch his books in his locker outside of the class, taught him everything that the teacher obviously told specifically and clearly that even a middle school student could understand that and made her wait for him for class duties after school, knowing that she wanted to get back with Sehun.

She didn’t even wait for him as once Sehun headed back and all the other students were not in sight, he threw the long red broom to Hana, ordering her to sweep the place up with the excuse of his arms being sore from helping the teachers move loads of books after break.

Looking at his calm, smirking expression on his tanned face, she couldn’t even tell if he was lying, teasing or telling the truth.

“I know you’re lying, Kim Jongin,” she remarked, handing him the broom back, her eyes boring holes into his skull, “Do it yourself.” Seeing that he wasn’t going to take the handed broom, she leaned it against the table beside him, crossing her arms as she side eyed him.

“Aw, please, Hana,” pleaded the boy, giving her a look that could make even puppies follow his orders, “I’m telling the truth,” he softly told, jutting out his lower lip in a pouty look. Even with this, she shook her head and denied his request, slightly scowling at his expression.

“You really need to do some these work by yourself, Kim Jongin,” nagged Hana, her hands gripping her hips in a gesture of authority, still not giving in. This boy seriously needed some lessons to teach him to do chores by himself. I bet he relies on his sister most of the time at home, she thought, rolling her eyes just thinking about it.

Presuming that Jongin would do the work himself, Hana strutted out of the class, her backpack slung over her shoulder as she informed Jongin loudly that she’d wait outside of school since they had no other partners to go back with.

Making sure she was well out of his hearing, Hana made a sharp turn to the right and leaned onto the wall beside the green plant, her small hand resting atop her chest as it expanded and contracted in beat with her racing heart. However, it did nothing to slow her thumping heart.

For a minute there, she swore she could see Jongin’s eyes widened for a while. Out of fear of his next action which would probably be to trap her between his arms like what he did in his room during that summer, she ran away the second she realized what she had said to him.

After what seemed like a few minutes, her heart was beating back to its normal pace. Maybe standing beside a plant releasing oxygen every time she breathed out was helping in keeping her breathing normal.

~.~

Walking back home had never been this awkward for Hana than it had ever been. Due to the fact that they’d only wandered together either in the darkness of the night or with the accompaniment of Sehun, Hana couldn’t even turn her head to look at the boy on her left, his bike in his hands, its wheels turning counterclockwise as he pushed it forward with them.

Now that they were walking side by side, with the sun almost touching the horizon from their left side – its beams of light illuminating the boy’s figure, creating a slight silhouette, Hana tried her best to keep her head and eyes facing forward, avoiding looking at Jongin. This was one of the moments she wished that it would be dark because of the blush that began to creep up her cheeks as she felt him glancing her way every now and then, trying to start up a conversation.

Whenever she knew he wasn’t looking at her, she would shift her eyes towards him, trying to figure out what he was thinking of or what he was feeling. She was dying to know if he was actually mad at her for ignoring his request, or maybe he was just tired by the almost emotionless face he was projecting, his eyebrows once in a while twitching.

“Jongin,” was the first word she said after a long 5 minute walk, “would you still want to practice tonight?” carefully she asked, keeping her eyes on the spinning wheel of the bike. She paused for a moment, waiting for him to reply in any sort of action.

“I mean, you look tired and-” she began reasoning when he wasn’t answering but was cut off with a soft voice.

“Of course I would. Wouldn’t miss a day of it,” Jongin gently spoke, keeping his gaze on her when their footsteps came to a halt. He gave a soft, warm smile and the both of them stared at each other, unsure of what to say anymore. Not that there were anymore words to be said. Breaking his gaze, Jongin jerked his head forward whilst shifting his eyes to the house behind Hana.

“Your house,” clarified Jongin as he turned his head to face Hana once again. Realizing what he meant, Hana turned towards her back and muttered an ‘oh’ before facing Jongin.

“So, umm,” sheepishly she spoke, “see you tonight?” a hint of uncertainty was heard from her words.

“Yeah,” replied Jongin before slowly making his way back up the hill, heading back to his house. Unknowingly, he turned his head back to see if she had entered her house and was a little surprised to see her still watching him. With a slight wave of his hand, they bid their goodbyes before he continued his way back home.

~.~

Hana threw her body on top of her single bed after placing her backpack beside her, her arm covering her eyes as she heaved a long heavy sigh. There were already two big black plastic bags in front of the door when she got back home and, as per usual, her father was out with no sign of him being in the house except for the few cans of beers strewn across the living room.

Dropping her arm to her side, she stared at the white ceiling, mentally organizing her thoughts and whatever she was going to do after this until the following day. Should she do the clothes tonight? Or maybe just go practice with Jongin first and then do the work? A sudden memory flashed in her head as she thought about it.

Jongin slung his arm around her shoulders, gripping the right side of her arm in front of two people who started to approach her a moment ago, pestering her with questions she couldn’t quite hear. The dim orange light from the lamp post behind them made it even harder to identify them.

Hana’s sleepy eyes were practically inclining to close the gap between the eyelids, ready to give in to the tiredness, but she somehow got the idea to stay awake for that particular time though being under Jongin’s arm was quite burdensome. She was too restless to even think about anything when he poked her cheek, telling her something about going alone.

When Jongin tried to support her to go, they were suddenly stopped and she could hear muffled voices; a conversation between him and the two figures was exchanged with the other side sounding more aggressive than theirs. The urge to interrupt or speak up was building up inside her, but she was merely too weakened from fatigue to pick up the words said by both parties.

Through her unclear vision, she saw Jongin lifting up his arm up, showing the two guys – that was the only thing she could guess from the deep voices,  and surprisingly, the object that was presented to them made it enough for them to leave.

Her legs were already very wobbly and her head felt really heavy from her exhaustion catching up to her that when Jongin loosened his grip on her, both her legs gave way. She didn’t even feel the hard, cold gravel that was supposed to hit her hard if she fell, instead, Hana experienced being caught and lifted up by strong arms.

By this point, she could already feel herself going into a deep slumber as cradled in his arms. It was quite comfortable and cozy to be in that position. All she could remember before giving into the exhaustion was that she showed him the way to her house.

“I am not going to repeat that mistake again,” muttered Hana in determination as she stood up from her bed to change her attire. Although it was fun to practice at nightfall, she came to a conclusion to not do that when she has a lot of work to do. On a side note, she felt it was unnecessary to stay there too long after the middle of the night.

Texting a simple text of ‘Practice in 20 minutes’ to Jongin, she moved into the living room to clean it up before heading out.

~.~

“You look terrible,” spoke Sehun.

She felt worse than she appeared; her hair was tied up in a messy bun, the dark bags were more evident than usual under her lower eyelid, her eyes were drooping, making it seem as if she could just fall asleep right there and then, and her shoulders were hunched inwards as she slowly trudged into the school, her backpack slinging on her right shoulder.

Under the white bandage wrapped around her knee were light red scratches. Her head was also throbbing like mad. Who would’ve thought that someone who has a clear vision of eyesight and a decent amount of agility like hers to trip over a rock under the bright orange light of the lamp post on her practice night, specifically when she was heading back home. Because of the fall, she managed to scrape her knees on the hard, cold gravel. And if that wasn’t enough, she somehow accidentally hit her head on the wall right beside the frame of the house door and that caused quite a big lump on the top of her forehead.

Miraculously, she just had to do half the duties at home since she assumed her father did half of it. And that was a surprise that she did not expect, seeing that all these years, she has been doing almost all the work.

But even with just that little amount of work, it didn’t help her in getting a good night’s sleep. Her whole body felt sore, the pain from the cuts and bruises she received from all the incidents that night being the main reason for it.

Raising her hand up and making a brushing off gesture, Hana said, “Just fell down on the way back home, nothing too bad.” She let out an awkward chuckle as she spoke.

Glancing down, trying to avoid Sehun’s worrying gaze, she caught sight of the time on his brown wristwatch. Realizing that they had a few more minutes before school started, Hana immediately clasped Sehun’s arm and tugged him with her as she ran towards school, hoping that they wouldn’t be marked as late.

Although they were trying their best to weave through the walking pedestrians from the opposite direction, being in her grip and running with her brought a smile on Sehun’s face as he thought of his plan. He made sure that today would be perfect, even telling Jongin about it to make sure he won’t bother them too much until the afternoon.

~.~

The night before

The last green digit on the small screen of his black digital clock changed its number, marking that it was already exactly 10pm. Sehun looked down to his Samsung phone in his right hand, his thumb swiping across the rectangular display as he contemplated on whether it was fine to contact Jongin now.

He has been trying to call him for a few nights before, but it would always end up in his voicemail box. Maybe this time, thought Sehun as he gently tapped his thumb on Jongin’s contact number.

Seeing that it was trying to connect to the contact, Sehun brought the phone up to his ear and waited. The beeps kept on ringing, two at a time. A surprised gasp escaped Sehun’s lips as the beeps stopped and Jongin’s voice came out.

“Sehun?” was the first word that was said by Jongin from the other line, “What is it?”

“I want to confess,” spoke Sehun in a quick manner. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as he continued, “I want to confess to Hana, tomorrow.”

Sehun could hear a soft cough through the telephone line before Jongin asked curtly, “how?”

“I don’t know how exactly,” he started, crossing his legs under him as he sat on his bed, “but I know I want to do it tomorrow, before we go back home. To be honest, I have planned to confess since the end of summer but I couldn’t do it because I didn’t exactly know what the precise plans then. I figured I’d do it when school started.” explained Sehun, pausing slightly every time he finished a sentence.

“Oh,” Jongin responded tonelessly, “and why are you telling me this? Because I support whatever you want to do.” questioned Jongin, slightly stuttering as he said ‘support’.

Thinking about it for a while, Sehun replied, “Well, because you’re my best friend and see if you’re okay with that,” and to make sure you’d help me get some alone time with Hana.

With a short ‘Cool’ and ‘See you again tomorrow then’, they hung up.

Lying back on his soft bed with his arms spread out, the corners of his lips tugged upwards. He turned his head to the left and gazed at the photo in the blue frame on his bedside table; it was a candid picture he took of Hana reading, the back tip of the pen in her hand touching the side of her forehead.

Grabbing the 15cm by 15cm photograph, Sehun spoke quietly, “I guess it’s about time you’d know my feelings.”

~.~

Meet me right after school at the rooftop.

-Jongin-

That was what it was written on the small blue stick-it note stuck on her table when she got into class after lunch. Scrunching her eyebrows together in confusion, she headed to the flight of stairs that led to the roof. She tried to ask the tanned boy when she got it, but unfortunately, the history teacher had already entered before she could say anything.

Hana had told Sehun to wait for her and she had to go check on something for a while. Hoping that maybe this was one of Jongin’s pitiful requests and possibly he’d actually not be there, she fastened her pace up the stairway, taking two steps at a time as the squeak of her sneakers against the tiled floor resounded through the small area of the staircase.

Finally reaching the end of the set of steps, she stood in front of the heavy white door as she breathed heavily from the running. Hesitantly, she placed a hand on the knob and twisted it, pushing it out. Sunlight slowly seeped through the gap, gradually widening in sync with the opening of the door.

There, by the edge of the balcony, stood Jongin, his crossed arms on the railing supporting his hunched body as he relished the feeling of the cool afternoon early autumn breeze. Hana swore that she was staring at his silhouette for far too long than she wanted as she noticed him turning around to smirk at her.

“Enjoying the view?”  Remarked Jongin amusingly, letting out a soft chuckle as he pushed himself away from the railing, walking towards her.

“What is it that you wanted to say?” letting out a slight cough out of nervousness, Hana asked, trying her best to mask her embarrassment from the staring. She crossed her arms across her chest as she approached him.

Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “I just felt like being up here with someone.” He turned his head around him, eyes shifting everywhere as he took in a inhaled deeply. “I also have a request.”

Scoffing in hilarity at how honest he was and at how she could already predict him asking her for something, she raised an eyebrow, telling him to go on with whatever he wanted.

“Do want to dance, here?” asked Jongin.

“Now? Right now?” questioned Hana.

Nodding in approval, Hana tried to explain that she was tired and there wasn’t even any music to dance to. “Even if we played some music, there’s a possibility that it would attract the people down there,” she clarified as she pointed to the edge of the balcony, mentioning the leaving students and teachers. The rooftop wasn’t even that high up as it was just on the fourth floor.

Jongin kept a serious, blank expression plastered on his face as he listened to everything she said. The moment she finished, gently, he grabbed her hand, slowly dragging her to the middle of the roof.

“Why don’t we do this to-” she tried reasoning to do it tonight when suddenly he placed a long digit upon her lips, quieting her.

Pulling out his black mp3 player from his front pocket along with earphones, he plugged in the earpiece in the player. In silence, he placed one of the pieces in her right ear and the other in his left ear.

“And how do you suppose we dance with the earphone in our ear? It constricts the movement if you haven’t figured out yet.”

Tenderly pulling her close to him by the arms, he wrapped his hand around hers. “I guess we have no choice but to waltz then?” smiling softly, he played a soft song from the player.

Skinship was something that Hana didn’t realize they were used to already. She could’ve just swatted his hands away and leave but her body reacted the opposite way. Sheepishly, she placed her left hand on his arm as he held her by the waist while the other hand was safely enclosed by his.

Step by step, they danced around the roof, carefully avoiding the edges unconsciously. Hana had never been this close to Jongin or any other boy before that she could feel the warmth from his body. It felt… nice. Soon enough, she let the smooth, slow music flow through her as she closed her eyes, a hint of a smile grazing her lips.

They were both too absorbed in each other’s presence that they didn’t even realize that the song played had stopped as they continued to dance with the rhythm they obtained, mentally repeating the song over and over in their heads. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up to see Jongin gazing at her in a way she hasn’t seen him before; it was that type of stare that could melt your insides instantly, and that was what she felt right then.

Observing each other’s features, their feet suddenly stopped moving, hands still on each other. Warily, Jongin slowly ducked his head, closing the gap between. Somehow, instinctively, Hana’s eyelids drew to a close.

Just as his lips were about to brush hers, Hana’s phone suddenly sounded; a Super Junior ringtone coming out from her pocket, indicating she was receiving a call.

Snapping back to reality, she pushed him away, mentally questioning herself of what was about to happen just now. Staring at him with her eyebrows furrowed, she fished out her mobile from her pocket. It was Sehun.

“Where are you?” he asked from the other side of the line, worry obviously painted his voice. Hana shifted her eyes towards the blue tainted orange and red sky and noticed that it was almost Sunset. Giving Jongin one last confused look, Hana ran down the stairs, telling Sehun that she was just caught up in the moment.

Unconsciously, Jongin gripped his hand in a fist as he watched from the rooftop as Hana ran towards to the waiting Sehun at the school gate.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then, Sehun,” Hana said as she lightly bowed her head, giving him a smile of appreciation. Sehun decided to walk Hana home from school since it was nearing Sunset and there were only a few people by the roads.

Watching her turn her back and started moving back into her house, Sehun ran up to her as she was about to put in the key into the doorknob and grabbed her wrist. “What were you doing at school?” asked Sehun, pulling back Hana towards him to face him.

“I was doing some school work,” she replied, her eyes trying their best to avoid his curious stare. It was a habit Sehun had grown to know that she was not telling him the truth. Gripping her wrist slightly, Sehun tried looking into her eyes as he asked again, “I know you’re not telling the truth, Hana.”

“Just some work with the teachers,” she lied again. Hana didn’t even know the reason why she felt like she couldn’t tell Sehun about Jongin and what they did and almost did on the rooftop. She felt… protective. “I got to get going,” she said in an attempt to wriggle out of his strong grip. Lying to Sehun sent a guilt wave over her too.

“Hana,” Sehun softly spoke, her name smoothly rolling out of his lips.

“I got to- .” she tried reasoning when suddenly, Sehun slammed his hand on the wall behind her as he shouted her name, causing her to stare at him with wide, shocked eyes.

“I know you were with Jongin on the rooftop,” he said furiously. He took a deep intake of oxygen before continuing, letting his anger or whatever it was that made him shouted fade away, “I don’t know what you did up there,” lies. He somehow felt hurt at seeing his best friend and his one and only crush dancing on the rooftop like they were in their own little world, “but, please, don’t lie to me, okay?”

Slowly, she nodded her head in agreement. To be quite honest, she doesn’t really know if she could stay that truthful.

“I better get going,” she faintly told him as she pointed to the door. Just as she was about to move, another hand blocked her from going.

“One more thing before you leave,” his husky voice coming out as he gazed at her intently before he steadily ducked his head, softly placing his lips on top of hers.

Author's note:
I know, I know. All of you probably hate me for updating so so so so late! I'm sorry. School caught up and procrastination took over me like a wrecking ball XD So, to make it up to you guys, here's a whooping 8 page update! So many events on one chapter :3 This is just the first bomb. I have lots of other twists and shocking things for you guysssss~~~ So, please don't leave ^^ Anyways, I have a question that I would like all of you to answer: Would you prefer I update late but with long chapters (7-9 pages) or fast with normal-length chapters (4-5 pages)? Please answer :) I would really appreciate to get all the feedback I need ^^ Till then, see you later ^^