Jung Hye POV

I looked to the back of Jonghyun, who was sitting a few tables in front of me as he seemed to be attentively listening to the teacher, while I wasn’t. Of course, in my books, Jonghyun? Being attentive and listening to the teacher when he’s actually busy talking about random mathematical equations, and I’m not? Hah! Never!

But now.. ever since he started doing all the random Ignore-Jung-Hye Plan, he no longer slept in class. He started to diligently doodle maths equations instead of teachers as gorillas. Of course, not as if I ever looked at him, but...

... my eyes were still glued on him. From the back, his dyed brown hair (WHAT A REBEL) fell perfectly near his ears, looking as smooth as a blanket. The sunshine fell generously on his hair, giving it and his golden earring poking through some hair, a golden shine. From the backside, he looked perfect, and the way he only slouched slightly when he had to bend over to write something-

“OOOOOOOOOOH~~!!!” The whole class chorused which woke me up from my Jonghyun staring trance – WAIT, NO, WHY WAS I STARING AT JONGHYUN?

“Jung Hye, you were staring at who?” Yoo Mi asked cluelessly.

Dammit, did I just think aloud? “Nuh-uh? What?”

Yoo Mi eyed me suspiciously for a few seconds before breaking out into a grin and clapped her hands together. “I’m excited! Jung Hye~~! Aren’t you?”

Uh oh. I had totally not been listening to whatever the teacher was talking about. “Uhhh. Yes. Of course. Now what did he say...?”

Yoo Mi raised an eyebrow at me before saying. “You weren’t even listening? No, not Mr Shin! Did you hear what Jae Ri said?”

“Jae Ri?”

“Yes Jae Ri! She’s in the school committee and guess what she just said?? THE SENIOR PROM NIGHT IS GOING TO BE HAPPENING SOON!!”

“... That’s all?”

“No – what! What do you mean, ‘That’s all?’ Aren’t you excited? Everyone’s chatting right now! I’m so excited!!”

I sighed inwardly. Our school has always made a huge deal out of dances, formals, proms and the likes because unlike other events, the school committee actually puts a lot of effort into planning the event, so the results are usually spectacular. Because of this, girls would have their outfits planned weeks before the actual event and the talk of the school before the event would always be who was taking who to the dance.

But I, for some reason, was never really into it. I mean, sure I went, and sure it was fun, but I would never describe it as ‘the best night of my high school life’ as some people do, you know? Of course, this year, the event would be even bigger for us because it was the senior prom.

“Psh, that’s only cause you know Onew’s going to take you! Then you will have your lovely lovey-dovey cheese fest there.” I jokingly.

“Oh, do you really think he would ask me? Really?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course he will!”

Yoo Mi blushed and giggled, “I hope so! What about you Jung Hye? I’m sure plenty of guys will ask you!”

I found my eyes glancing in the direction of Jonghyun. Would he even attend something like this? Or would he think he was too great for it?

Noticing where I was glancing, Yoo Mi grinned slyly, “Ohh I see you already have someone in mind~”

Immediately, my eyes snapped back to Yoo Mi’s, ahh Jung Hye, what was wrong with you?? Stop looking at him! “What? Noo! I was looking at the teacher!”

“Suree! Whatever you say Jung Hye! But either way, you must come! It’s going to be absolutely epic! Ahh I can’t wait, we must go shopping together! And do our make-up together AND-“

Yoo Mi’s spazzing was abruptly cut short by Mr Shin’s loud claps, “Class! Calm down! I know you are all very excited, but it’s still class time!”

“Jae Ri! What’s the theme?” Someone called out from the back of the classroom. Almost immediately, the noise in the class down died as everyone waited to hear the answer.

“Oh right! I forgot to tell you, as a change, for this year we would have the students come up with an idea and whoever’s idea gets chosen will win two free tickets plus have a limo come pick them up! So please write down your ideas and place them in the box outside of the prom committee room, winners will be announced next week.”

Right away the class began buzzing with excitement again.

BRING! BRING! As if on cue, the lunch bell sounded.

“WOWOW! A limo ride! WOOOW!” Next to me, Yoo Mi started spazzing as she got out of her seat and packed her things away.

I smiled and tried to concentrate on our conversation as she continued talking about possible themes. But as I left the room, I couldn’t hope but notice the large swarm of girls who had gathered around Jonghyun’s desk.

Taemin POV

I.

Like.

Jung Hye.

I like Jung Hye.

I like Jung Hye.

Does she like me back?

No, I don’t think so. I don’t think she does.

It felt so hard to fathom in my mind, but at the same time... everything completely made sense. Jung Hye’s smile when she laughs with me (AND AT ME, TOO), her fluttering eyelashes when they blink because too much sun is in her eyes, her electric touch-

“What’s wrong Taem? Is it hot? You’re so red!” I jumped at Minho’s voice.

“Me? R-red? Hyung! W-what are you talking about?” I stuttered. OOPS. I was red? Thinking about... Jung Hye? Oh man, and I was just caught red-handed...

Minho raised his eyebrow. “Um. Yeah. Dude, are you overheating or something? Do you need to sit out of soccer practice today?”

“What?! Me, Lee Taemin, the awesomest fullback in the world, star player of the soccer team, who bashes up all the opponents like WOAHHH-“

“UH UH? In your dreams, Taeminnie!” Minho playfully rolled his eyes and ruffled my hair, disrupting me from my joking rant. What he said was, kind of true, especially coming from Minho who was the real star player, the striker of our team. “Join whenever you want, okay? You’ve been looking like a confused lost puppy the past few days. You can talk to me about anything if you’ve got a lot in your mind.”

“Okay,” I replied, looking down at my shoes and thinking of Jung Hye again.

“You can talk to me about anything. Anything you want.” Minho repeated.

“Sure, hyung.”

“Absolutely anything.” He repeated again, slowly emphasizing his words.

“Okay, hyung.” I replied casually, and a silence fell over us, because Minho looked like he wanted to say something.

“... anything! Talk to me about anything! Have you learnt about puberty yet?! I can tell you about that! Girls’ puberty too!”

“HYUNG!!!” I yelled at him and hit him softly. “I’m almost seventeen! I know this stuff, and I know about girls’ too!”

Minho shrugged. “Well I didn’t know anything when I was sixteen.”

“You only turned seventeen two months ago!”

He shrugged again. “I just wanted you to know you can talk to me about anything, alright? So, spill it!”

I narrowed my eyes at him, down to a glare.

“No pressure. You know, none at all. Just tell me what’s wrong. No pressure at all, yeah?” He said casually, acting as if that whole sentence made sense.

“Hyung, I’m leaving.” I sighed exasperatedly at his useless antics and threw my duffel bag over my shoulder and my heels.

“HEY- WAIT! It’s girl problems right?”

Even though Minho was stupid sometimes, this time he hit right on the jackpot. I turned back to him solemnly. “Uh huh.” I nodded once.

“... oh. Really?” He asked incredulously, as if sounding like he didn’t believe me.

I nodded twice.

“... oh, man... oh... OH, DUDE!!! WHO’S THIS LUCKY GIRL?”

Ha, lucky girl? And me, the not-so-lucky guy? Ha! “Well---- ermm... sh-she’s, J-” I started fiddling with my fingers. Suddenly it became so hard to talk as Jung Hye’s name could not roll off my tongue.

“Jae Ri?”

I thought of Jae Ri, the loud, popular girl in class who’s in the school committee every year. Surely Minho wouldn’t pair her with me, the shy boy who likes banana milk?

OH, MAN... WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MANLINESS! LEE TAEMIN, YOU ARE A MAN! YOU ARE NEITHER SHY, NOR A BOY, NOR LIKE BANANA MILK!

Actually no, men can like banana milk too, right?

I switched to my Taemin-the-man mode. “No.” I grunted incredibly low as a reply. “It’s J-J-Jung- Jung Hye. Hyung... I think I like her. What should I do? You have a girlfriend, right?”

Everybody has this sneaking suspicion that Minho has a girlfriend, even though he always denies it. But that is a story for another day.

“I- what?! I do not have a girlfriend! What nonsense – anyways, man, are you serious? Jung Hye? Jung Hye, Jonghyun and Key’s fri-“

“Hey! She’s my friend too!” I pouted.  “Anyways, hyung, since you are experienced and you are a man, what should I do about these feelings?”

Minho’s lip twitched. “Don’t you already know?”

“I- I don’t know.”

“Taem... there’s no other way to go than let her know you have the hots for her. Duhh.”

“... that simple?”

“How else are you going to get anywhere?”

I considered Minho’s rhetorical question. “... oh.” I replied in realization.

“Well,” Minho grinned. “Maybe she likes you back, I mean, you guys are tight, right?”

“Tight? I don’t know... we’re close, though. I think. Does that mean it’s a high chance she will like me back?”

“Uh huh. Look, Taem, I have an awesome idea.”

“Yeah?” I started concentrating my ears on whatever he was going to say.

“Ask her out for senior prom.”

Jonghyun POV

“Um, Jonghyun??”

I look down wearily at the nervous girl standing awkwardly in front of me. Behind her, were a bunch of her friends giggling and whispering.

Not again.

“Yes?” I answer nonchalantly, if she didn’t hurry up, I was going to miss my bus to the city!

“W-would you go to the p-prom with me?”  A deep red blush had spread across her cheeks as looked at me, her eyes rapidly blinking. The moment I looked back, her eyes instantly went down to the floor.

I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. What would be a nice way to reject her? What would be a nice way to tell her that I just wasn’t interested?

“Uh..”  Damn it, I didn’t have time for this!

Her eyes looked hopefully up again.

“Uh, sorry-“ her face fell, “I don’t think I’m going.” I glanced at my watch again-I have exactly 3 minutes to make it to the bus stop.

“O-oh, that’s okay- um okay..” The girl in front of me mumbled more to herself then to me, as she bowed her head again.

Oh please don’t tell me she was going to cry. This was so awkward. Every single time. Now her friends were glaring at me like I was the worst scum on Earth. Arghh. If I left now I would look even worse, but I had to catch my bus!

“ Er- I really have to go, bye!”  I quickly side stepped out of her way and sprinted out of the school.

No wonder girls think I’m a jerk!

 

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A/N:

Thanks everyone for reading! I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, though it dragged out quite a lot. Is the story going too slow?

Honestly, after every chapter when we read the comments, you guys all make us smile like idiots! But it when we read this in class and we have to try not to make the teacher suspicious haha!

ALSO, WHO'S SEEN THE TEASER FOR SHINEE'S JAPANESE JULIETTE? :D