“Ready to go?”

“Wait, now?”

“Of course! You said it yourself, we don’t have rehearsals, which means we have the rest of the evening to enjoy~”

Yongguk lead her off the stage until they were out of the auditorium and into the hallway, making their way to their respective lockers, quickly taking out what they needed before leaving campus.

On their way to the parking lot, the quarterback lead Jieun to his car and opened up the door for her before climbing to the driver’s seat, ready to go. “Are we really leaving my bike here?”

“I told you not to worry about it, I’ll bring you back home.”

“O-okay…”

The ride was smooth with both of them carrying a light conversation while the faint music of the radio was their background. Down the streets towards the diner, Jieun spotted a telephone company store, making her remember about the new mobile she needed to get. “Hey, is it okay if we make a quick stop before going to eat? I have to get something…”

“Oh sure, where do you need to go?”

“Just here, the shop is on the other side of the street.” Parking his car, Yongguk took notice of the name of the store and looked back at Jieun who was about to get out of the car. “____? Do you need to renew your contract with the company?”

“No, I have to get a new cellphone.” Before giving him time to reply, she was already crossing the streets, leaving him be. He quickly followed her as he jumped out of his car and ran across the streets until he entered the store, right behind Jieun. She turned her head and said nothing about his presence, not really thinking much about it.

Once again, she felt his hand on the small of her back, almost having his fingers hold her by her waist; she bit down her bottom lip, her shoulders tensing upwards as she wrapped her arms around herself, walking towards the main counter.

Talking to an employee about procuring a new phone, she was about to pick the same model she had last time before being stopped by Yongguk who asked, discretely – rising Jieun’s curiosity – if she could get a specific model. Glancing at the ‘couple’, he let out a slight smirk with a nodding head before walking to get the order and coming back, placing the box on the glass counter in front of them.

“That’s not what I asked for…”

“I know but this phone is better than the other one you had.” Yongguk looked at her, sly smile on his lips as he opened the box to show her the new phone.

“It does look nice…”

“If you want a different color, we have a variety of them.”

Thinking about the color she wanted, she shyly responded with ‘baby pink’ leaving Yongguk to chuckle light heartedly, which made Jieun blush while looking away. Once the man came back with her request done, he boxed it back and explained to her the necessities. Thanking him, she was ready to pay when Yongguk, passed in front of her making her protest at his gesture. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Making amends.”

“Yah! Get back and let me pay-”

“Too late~”

“Ugh! You’re such a pain!” She hit him right on his shoulder but just earned a laugh on his part, amused by how angry she tried to be. “Come on, let me take you to dinner.” Thanking the worker once more, he swiftly turned Jieun around and held her by her shoulders as he lead her to the door and out to his car, once again, opening the door to let her climb inside before he made his way back to his seat.

Until they arrived to the diner, she was staring down at her new phone while he was quietly driving until she broke the silence. “Why did you buy me the phone?”

“I told you, I wanted to make amends.”

“I thought you were doing that with the dinner?”

“Dinner is not enough of an apology… Especially since you did nothing wrong and I’m the one at fault.”

“Still, the phone is too much-”

“It’s not. And look at it this way, at least we have something else in common besides chem class~”

“Huh?” Taking it out of his pocket, he handed her his phone and that’s when Jieun realized what he had meant. “Couple phone? Really?” His gummy smile plastered on his face, she only showed him her annoyance as she hid the slight tingle of sweetness she found towards his gesture; she tried to stifle it with a scoff but half way through, it became half a chuckle, making him laugh in enjoyment. “You’re welcome~”

“Why though? I was perfectly fine with the phone I had before.”

“Eh~ I thought it would be a nice change.”

“You’re a strange man Bang Yongguk. Very, very strange.”

“And I know for a fact that you like that Ssongjji~”

“Yah! Who said you had the right to give me a nickname, hmm?” That smile was definitely stuck on his face, finding their little moment completely diverting. Looking at him, she sigh in defeat and gave up her so-called ‘fight’, with her frown disappearing. “Did your mother ever tell you you’re a pain?”

“Meh~ Not really.”

“Pfft! It’s hard to imagine that.”

“You really think I’m a pain?”

“Meh~” Mimicking his shoulder shrug from just seconds ago, he shook his head, enjoying how easily things were hitting off between them.

Just then, he turned to the parking lot of the diner and stationed his car at the closest spot he could find before they both made their way inside, going to their ‘spot’. As they walked in, the same waitress as last time flashed a smile, recognizing both of them, and made her way to their table to hand them out the menu before taking their order.

“Do you want to take the same thing as last time or do you want to try something new?”

“I’m good with the burger and fries… Can we have an extra plate of French fries though?”

“Of course! And how about you sir?”

“Hmm, the same for me, please.”

“Coming right up!” With the waitress leaving the two of them be, Jieun took this chance to take out her new phone, wanting to fix it up until she got it snatched away by Yongguk making her pout. “What are you doing?”

“I’m putting my phone number back… I kinda got bored since your last phone broke and we couldn’t text.”

“Such a sweet way to say that you missed talking to me~” Looking down at the screen of the device, he smiled at her words as his heart raced faster with his cheeks tainted in a light pink, blushing his shyness. “I did, actually…” He glanced up at her and saw her tenderly smile at him, flattered by his compliment.

Taking out his own phone, he placed it on the table and  removed it from its protective cover to place it on the girl’s phone. “So it won’t break again.”

“What about yours?”

“I have plenty of them at home, don’t worry.”

“Thanks.” He took a picture of himself and entered his phone number before giving it back to her, leaving her perplex about the selfie. “And the picture was for?”

“You’ll see~”

She was about to look down her screen when the waitress came back with their order. Placing the mobile back in her bag, they thanked the lady and started to eat to their hearts content while embarking in a new random conversation.

The rest of the evening went by like this, with the comfort of being in each other’s company growing by the minute.

For the boy, there was something about just talking to Jieun that kind of gave him the sense that he could be himself, his real self. Not the popular quarterback of Seoul High, but just a normal teenager with normal teenager problems and such. He didn’t have to prove to her anything besides his sincerity and he knew that it was a challenge because of the night they had spent together.

It was still on his mind though, and he couldn’t deny to himself that he wanted to relive it; he may have been drunk, but he could certainly remember the blissful feeling he got. It still tingled his skin whenever he would think about her that way.

Don’t blame him though.

He’s a hormonal teenager after all… right?

Nevertheless, he enjoyed her company more than having to spend time with his group of friends back on campus. Maybe because he was crushing on her or maybe it was because of how different she was to the rest of the people he knew, but one thing that made his heart beat was to just gaze at her and admire how breathtaking she looked to him.

And for Jieun in all of this?

It was pretty much the same. I mean, she is crushing on the boy too~

Either way, she tried to seem ‘cool’ about being in his company since in her head she was still seeing him as the infamous captain of the high school football team, even though a part of her kind of knew that he wasn’t displaying this image in front of her but instead was trying to be ‘normal’… whatever that is.

She was starting to feel guilty about how she had stereotyped him from being the typical ‘dumb’ quarterback that every high school has. Now that she was getting to know him better, she could see that she was wrong about thinking that way about him and the moment she was spending with him now was his way of showing her the Yongguk that nobody gets to see but her.

Something she was strangely pleased about.

He was hoping that it was doing the trick because he knew the image he had, not only for Jieun but also for the entire school.

But for now, the thing that mattered to him was to make Jieun understand that his label could be easily taken off whenever he wanted; though he just wanted her to be the ‘privileged’ one to see him like this.

Does it make sense to you?

I’ll take that as a yes then. Now moving on!

With dinner complete with a chocolate dessert, they were back on the road with Yongguk bringing Jieun back to her place, refusing to listen to her protest about bringing her back to school for her bike.

“How am I going to go back to school in the morning?”

“I’ll come and pick you up.”

“Huh?! Why?”

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, his eyes still on the road. “Because I want too. So we could be… better friends, right?”

“Sure…”

It was clear that it was more than to be a ‘better friend’; he obviously wanted to be closer to her, romantically speaking, but being the naïve girl, she believed him and it did a strange somersault inside her chest as it left her heart to faintly squeeze at hearing him say the ‘f’ word.

Worse than the other so-called cursing ‘f’ word. Especially when a guy you really, but really like, wants to be friends with you… It hard.

She brushed off the feeling the best she could by turning her head the other way to look at the scenery through the window, letting the music take over the silence that was between them.

With the sun of the next morning climbing up, Jieun was sneaking her way out of her house since Yongguk was waiting for her just a few feet away with his car. She was holding her backpack against her chest as she ran towards him, not wanting to have her head on a platter by her step-sister.

Jumping inside his car with heavy breaths out of her lungs, she turned her head to look at Yongguk and greeted him good morning. The agitated person sitting next to him got him to laugh making her blink her eyes in confusion to him. “Why are you laughing?”

“You’re stressing too much! Relax, Bong Cha isn’t going to do anything to you.”

“Pfft, that’s proof right there that you don’t know her.”

“As long as you’re next to me, I won’t let her harm you.” The genuineness in his words made her relax as she leaned back against the car seat, softly thanking him. “How about we go and get breakfast before heading to school? I’m sure you’re hungry with that marathon you just ran~”

“Yah~” She playfully hit his arm as he laughed at his own joke before turning on the car and leaving the house to make their way to their diner for a quick pick up before making their way to school.

From one place to the other, they finally arrived on campus with Yongguk parking his car at his usual spot. From the other side of the lot, I bet you guys know who was watching, hmm?

Out of anger and jealousy, the ex-girlfriend sneakily slashed the tires of Jieun’s bike and got back up on her feet with a sigh of satisfaction escaping her lips as she fixed her cheerleading uniform before walking away with her posse - as always – leaving the owner clueless as she was too busy finishing up her breakfast while walking next to her friend.

Before they could part ways to go to their respective morning classes, Yongguk walked Jieun to her locker, trying to muster the courage to ask her a favor. “I have practice after school, would you like to come and watch… again?”

“Hmm, yea sure. But we do have rehearsals afterwards~”

“I won’t skip out on it today. Promise.”

“You better not, or I’m really going to be mad at you.”

“I’ll try not to disappoint Cinderella~”

“Yah! Song Jieun!”

Turning her back around, the girl in question let out a curse at the sight of Bong Cha stomping her way over, clearly furious. “What do you want?” A rough push by the shoulder from the cheerleader, Jieun slightly stumbled backwards, taken aback by the sudden violence. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

Facing off Jieun closer, it made the girl shrink backwards, not really liking the abrupt closeness from the other one, leaving her slightly scared. “ off somewhere else, okay? You need to get your dirty hands off my boyfriend. Clear?”

“Or what?”

“I’m just saying. Watch your back.”

“Is that a threat?”

Things were starting to heat up in hatred and spite between the two siblings when everything got interrupted by Yongguk’s presence as he came from behind Jieun and coolly placed his arm around her shoulders, ‘curious’ to know what was going on. The sight got Bong Cha fuming in rage as she let out a hissy fit before stomping away from the couple.

“Are you okay?” Still holding onto her, Jieun looked up at the boy as she nodded her head, reassuring him that she was fine. “She was just being a baby. Nothing serious… Is it okay if you give me a ride home? The tires of my bike are ruined and I’m 100% sure she’s the one that slashed them…”

“No problem at all. It could become our new thing~” The smug smile on his face made her chuckle as they went away from the locker room towards the auditorium for their play rehearsals.

Jealousy is a and when you go as far as what Bong Cha had in mind… You better be careful~

A/N: We're already halfway through the story! Whoaa! :O

I hope you guys are enjoying it so far :)

I'll have to admit this chapter was......... fluffy and not at all what I had planned but a small scene turned into the title of the chapter *whispers* kinda got carried away, hehe >.<

Lots of love, xo