“What did you say?” Jongin scoffed at one of his friends – Sehun – the boy with platinum blond hair and slightly irrelevant expression on his face.

“Are you deaf? I heard that Luhan hyung is thinking about asking Minzy out”. Sehun stated.

“No way.” Jongin burst out in laughter and continued playing with his phone.

“Don’t be surprised later. When she’ll be taken already.” Sehun replied calmly and himself started unpacking before class started.

“Tch.” Jongin scoffed and turned away to look through the window. He loved the warm weather today. Blue sky with only few white clouds made him already think about asking Minji out for ice cream after school.

He smirked evilly when he noticed her running to the school’s gate. This morning Minji paid a bit more attention to her outer appearance that when he came to pick her up on the way, she told him to go ahead without her.

To be honest Minji didn’t want him to know that she was trying to look pretty and cute for that one guy – Luhan, who seemed rather nice and kept loitering around her ever since she accidentally met him at the grocery shop.

Luhan seemed really caring and even laughed at her corny jokes. He transferred to Seoul not long ago and after meeting Minji at the grocery at 10PM, nearly a week ago – he told her that he got lost. Being a nice girl Minji was, she walked him around and by talking the two of them grew unexpectedly close.

Minji even curled her black hair today, and put some makeup on  – which she rarely did before. She knew that he had his basketball training today and eventually if he was going to ask her to come watch him, she wanted to look cute.

Jongin and Minji were close too. They knew each other since being in diapers. She even saw him when as kids, the two played inside the pool during summer, at the backyard of her house.

However she felt awkward with just a thought of telling him that she felt attracted to someone. Jongin would’ve laughed his off if he knew about it, or maybe even told everyone at school about my pathetic struggles of looking somehow girly. Minji thought.

After fixing her hair and uniform in a hurry once more, she dashed through the school’s yard.

Minji had no idea that Jongin’s been staring at her the whole time. ~Mingkki~ he thought and felt the immediate need of talking to her – but to be more exact, to .

Minji pursued her lips in a tight line when she met eyes with Jongin after entering the classroom. Avoiding them was the first thought that came to her mind, but no matter what she kept her head high.

“Wha~ looking cute Minji-yah~” Sehun turned away when she sat behind him and even gave her a playful wink.

“Thanks.” She answered cutely and waved at him with naturally long eyelashes.

Sehun smiled even wider and after a moment glanced at Jongin, who’s been looking at Minji in silence.

“Aren’t you going to say hi?” Sehun asked him.

“What? Why … I already talked with her today.” Jongin turned his gaze away from Minji and with pouty lips on his overly surprised face looked at Sehun.

Minji felt like snapping at him, but in the end decided that his behavior wasn’t worth it.

Usually Jongin would’ve turn back and grab/”borrow” something like her eraser, pencil or anything Minji got and he needed at the moment. But he did nothing today and it felt awkward to her to just look at his back all day.

Not to mention that just seeing them made Minji feel weird?

She blushed at the memory of what kind of thoughts filled her mind when she was walking home together with him few days ago. After that day she decided to put some distance between her and him and not tell him about everything.

Just like it usually was, she was around two steps behind Jongin, when the two of them entered the street at which their houses were. Somehow she started to think about how much both of them grew up.

Of course Minji saw girls circling around him, but she never heard him talking seriously about being in a relationship or saw him being intimate with any of them. She couldn’t deny that it made her kind of happy that Jongin  – one of the most attractive guys at school he grew into, was still willingly hanging around with her. 

Minji had to admit that she enjoyed looking at him. Who wouldn’t have though? But when a thought of touching his back while he kept walking in front of her crossed her mind, Minji got scared.

It was convenient to have such a friend as Jongin. Even though he a lot and knew all her flaws, Minji could always count on him.

If she touched him in such a ‘inappropriate’ way, what would’ve he thought? Would he feel disgusted? Weren’t they treating each other as siblings? Or maybe he would’ve laughed at me and called out what I did at any possible occasion?  Minji thought.

She couldn’t risk that.

After meeting Luhan, Minji couldn’t help and find the difference in the way the two of them treated her. Luhan was way more delicate and considerate to her and to be honest she wanted to experience more and more of it.

At the same time she couldn’t really understand about what Jongin thought sometimes. After she caught him looking at her while she was doing random things at school, only the image of his dark, round and unshaken pupils triggered shivers alongside her skin.

After classes Minji couldn’t find Jongin anywhere and remembered that he was on duty this week. The fact that he pretty much didn’t talk with her today, made Minji decide that she’ll be going home alone today.

What’s more she didn’t see Luhan during breaks either.

Minji plugged one earphone inside her ear and headed outside. At the main gate she heard someone calling out her name.

Oh~! Minji internally squealed when she noticed Luhan running towards her in his gym clothes at full speed.

“Hi!” He greeted her with a smile that made Minji’s knees weak.

“Hi…” she replied and unknowingly combed hair behind one of her ears.

“Going home alone?” he asked while panting a bit.

“Yeah… I guess.”  Minji felt her cheeks heating up and hoped that makeup was be able to cover it properly.

“If… if you could wait for few minutes I could’ve… maybe walk you home?” he asked seriously.

“Really?!” Minji burst out and felt embarrassed about it immediately.

“Yeah~ so are you willing to wait?” he asked with a grin on his face.

“Sure.” she nodded after a moment and squealed when he run back to the school’s sports hall.

Meanwhile Jongin looked at Minji excitedly checking her reflection in her phone’s screen and angrily tightened his grasp on the chair’s backrest.

He was ending cleaning when her talking with a guy caught his attention. But most likely the way how she acted in front of his hyung, made him furious.

“What’s with the hair thing?” he couldn’t stop commenting inside his head about each of the moves she made.

He realized what was happening and when Luhan left Minji alone at the yard, he dashed alongside the corridors to the sports hall and waited for his ‘rival’ in front of the men’s locker room.

His hand formed a fist when Luhan finally walked out. Being already in the thoughts about Minji, Luhan didn’t notice Jongin at all and headed to the exit.

“Yah!” Jongin called out and with a deathly glare walked towards Luhan.

“Oh? Hi?” he looked at him surprised.

“What are you trying to  accomplish by playing with Minji?” Jongin scoffed.

“Accomplish?” Luhan smirked at him “Oh, right! You’re that childhood friend that keeps wandering around her, am I right?” he asked and triggered another wave of anger in Jongin.

“Tch! Me? Wandering around her?” Jongin snapped in response. I know her all her life and now you’re appearing, thinking that you can take her