Yoona stepped into school with her heavy bag weighing down on her shoulders. She had an exam today, and it would be disastrous had she failed it.

Without warning, she felt someone tug on her bag from behind. It was Yunho. He grinned at her and tugged once more, gesturing for her to slide her arms out. “I’ll take this for you. Heavy, isn’t it?”

She let her arms out from the straps of the bag. “Thanks.”

“You have an exam today?”

“Uh, yeah, how did you know?”

“I’m a stalker,” he responded, holding up two fingers to do the ‘cheese!’ sign.

Yoona giggled at this cute action. “Have you finished your exams?”

“Mine ended last week.”

“What? You didn’t even show any signs of nervousness… I didn’t even know you had exams! Did you panic at all?”

He shrugged, grinning again. “It’s just an exam, I shouldn’t worry so much about it. If you can do it, why worry? And I’m sure you can do it too.” He held up a thumbs-up sign for her.

She smiled and did the same sign. When they reached her locker, she opened it and took out several books. She heard a lot of shuffling in the near distance and peeked out past her locker. Several girls, with different shades of red painting their faces, were holding boxes wrapped up with beautiful wrappers and ribbons adorning the tops. Yunho slung Yoona’s bag over his shoulder and took the boxes, thanking them sincerely. As he turned back to Yoona, another lot of girls came to shower him with gifts. He took them all and gave an apologetic smile to Yoona. Yoona smiled back at him and watched as the gifts in his arms piled up.

When the girls stopped crowding around Yunho and finally dispersed, he turned to face Yoona. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Is it… your birthday?”

“Uh… Yeah, it is.”

The gears in Yoona’s mind worked fast as she nodded. And he didn’t tell me it was his birthday, aish…

Yunho half-expected some sort of congratulation from Yoona, but she merely turned back to shut her locker.

She continued down the hallway, taking her bag from him. He stayed at his spot and stared at her retreating figure.

As she increased the distance between her and him, she smiled to herself. You’ll be in for a surprise tonight!

= = =

Taeyeon and Yuri sauntered down the hallway to the cafeteria. Yuri was reading her textbook and Taeyeon was staring at her cellphone. Suddenly, she raised a hand and slapped Yuri on the arm to get her attention.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“I need to talk to you!”

“Don’t you use your mouth to talk? Like, not your arm?! Because you just hit me and it actually hurts!”

“Aish, sorry, sorry. I wanted to talk to you about Jaejoong.”

“Don’t you dare ask me to talk to him. I’m still peeved at him.”

“No, I won’t expose you to the temptation of killing him! I want to discuss my situation with him.”

“What situation?”

Taeyeon took a deep breath. With a quiet tone, she neared Yuri. “I think… I should consider Jaejoong.”

Yuri choked on her saliva and did a double-take. “WHAT?!”

“Shush! I just think I should consider Jaejoong… And, like, go out with him.”

Yuri gasped for air and stopped in her tracks. Grabbing Taeyeon’s shoulders, she twisted the girl up to face her. With a similar quiet tone, she stared at her with her most serious expression. “Kim Taeyeon, are you kidding me?”

Taeyeon stared back, her pupils dilated as Yuri’s face was suddenly inches away from hers. After a few moments of being stuck in that position, she pushed Yuri away and straightened her back. “No, Kwon Yuri, I am not kidding you.”

Yuri bit her lower lip and stared at her with a puzzled expression. “Are you sick? Fever? I mean, of all the people on earth, why him?”

“Yah, you were the one who suggested that I just consider him. You said it rounded up the situation perfectly!”

“Well, yeah, but that was—“ …before I found out that Junsu liked you… “—that was before! Before he got me into trouble!”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean to create trouble for you, right?”

Yuri blinked several times, mind working quick as she tried to find a roundabout way to end the situation. She couldn’t just let her best friend pass by this perfect young man (Junsu, no doubt) who felt the same way for her as she did for him. She couldn’t just reveal the details, but she couldn’t possibly just let it slip like that. She couldn’t possibly let her go to Jaejoong, whom the shorter girl barely felt an inch of feelings for.

She stared at Taeyeon, who prompted her to continue speaking by nudging her in the ribs. Coughing to clear , she grabbed Taeyeon’s arm and dragged her down the hallway to lunch. “Come on, Taeng. Let’s go to lunch. I’m sure your mind would clear by the time lunch ends. And maybe you’ll see that Jaejoong isn’t the one you should date.”

Taeyeon groaned in frustration. “Then who, Junsu?”

“N-no, but not Jaejoong too! Let’s go date Mister Food now, okay?”

= = =

In another corner of the school, Junsu was out and about on the hallway holding a sandwich for Jaejoong, who had got forbidden to go to lunch when he failed to submit a long overdue homework to the Ruler guy (his teacher).

Junsu turned several corners until he found himself on the same stretch of classrooms he was on in the morning. He peeked into each classroom, but failed to find anyone, not even the teachers.

“Aish, did Jaejoong kill the teachers… Where the hell is he?”

He decided to head into the classroom to wait for his best friend, but as he stepped into the classroom, he felt someone pounce onto him from behind, wrapping him in a bear hug.

“Ow! What the—Kim Jaejoong! Let go of me!”

Jaejoong, behind Junsu now as he finally let go of him, started squealing and giggling like a little girl. He hopped up and down as he wrapped Junsu in another hug, this time from the front. Junsu shrugged him off and stared at him in bewilderment. “Did you hit your head on something? Are you okay?”

Jaejoong could not stop squealing and barely even uttered a single audible word.

Junsu sighed and chucked the sandwich into Jaejoong’s face. “Yah, calm down, stop acting like a little girl. What’s up with you?”

Jaejoong took a few deep breaths as he caught the sandwich that was sent flying right into his face. He could not stop the huge grin that kept forcing its way out onto his face each time he took a deep breath to calm himself down.

Junsu shifted his weight onto his left leg as he waited for Jaejoong to go back to normal.

Finally, Jaejoong calmed down and stared at Junsu with crazy eyes. “Kim Junsu, do you know what I just heard?”

“What?”

“Tae—Tae—Taeyeon said she would consider dating me…”

Junsu stared at him.

One moment passed. Two moments passed. Three moments and Jaejoong started going crazy again. He leaped onto Junsu for the second hug.

Junsu stood frozen, stiff, his mind and his heart freezing over too. He stared into the empty space in front of him.

I guess Taeyeon does like Jaejoong after all…

“I’m so freaking happy, bro! I’m going to be dating the woman of my life! Come on, celebrate with me!”

Junsu got shaken back to reality as he forced a smile out for Jaejoong. “Con… Congratulations, Jae.”

Yuri, your hint was wrong…

= = =

“Okay, Taeyeon. Lunch is over. Have you cleared up your head yet?”

Taeyeon was giving herself a quick check in the mirror when Yuri tried to put on her sweetest tone to, hopefully, get Taeyeon to wake up.

“Yul, I told you… I’m trying to open up my heart to more opportunities and possibilities. If Junsu doesn’t like me back, I could wait, but I’m young and I’m maturing, so I think I should just go with the flow, not wait and stall myself in the same spot.”

Yuri stared at her questioningly. “So, you’re convinced that Junsu doesn’t like you back?”

“Look at him. He’s so cool and calm all the time. Do you think he’ll fall for a girl like me?”

“Really, Taengoo. You really think he wouldn’t ever like you?”

Taeyeon nods in response, eyeing Yuri’s countenance carefully. “Yul, you’re being oddly persistent today. Do you know something I don’t?”

Yuri was careful not to let anything else show. She deepened her frown and stared at her. “No, I’m just asking. Why do you think this way, anyway?”

Taeyeon kept her eyes fixated on Yuri as she shrugged Yuri’s question away. “I don’t know. I just feel that way.”

“Right…”

Aigoo, Taeyeon… You would be surprised if you knew what was going on…

= = =

Late at night, Yunho made his way up a small hill behind the institute. He held on tight to the green-colored piece of paper, on which the words ‘Meet me tonight on the hill behind our school’ were scrawled.

He didn’t know who it was and he expected it to be from one of the crazed fangirls in the school, but something about the note and the handwriting made him think that this special admirer wasn’t just anybody else.

As he laid his final step on the tip of the hill, he saw a girl sitting on the grass just inches away, legs crossed. He neared her step by step, but she sprung up to surprise him just in time.

“Boo!”

Yunho stepped back in surprise as Yoona’s face loomed into focus. “Oh, Yoona, it’s you!”

She smiled. “I thought you weren’t going to come.”

He grinned at her. “I had a feeling this note was from you.”

“You liar!”

“Anyway, what did you ask me here for?”

Yoona stared at him, her expression unreadable. She shut her eyes, her message too difficult to deliver had she left her eyes open. “Here goes nothing…”

Yunho stared at her, completely clueless as to what she was about to say.

“Happy birthday, Yunho. I’m sorry I didn’t get you a present or prepare anything a best friend should have… But I do have something I need to tell you.”

Yoona took a deep breath again, letting her eyes open, having decided to face the situation bravely. She glanced at him from time to time and continued her speech.

“I know I rejected your Valentine request that day. I told myself I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t worthy enough to date you. You’re Jung Yunho; I’m just Im Yoona. But… I realized that it wasn’t as simple as my mind had put it out to be. And…”

She stepped closer to him now. His lips twitched now that he had a rough idea of what she was about to say.

“I want to take back my words that day. Yunho, will you be my Valentine?”

His eyes narrowed as his lips broke into a smile. As if he was giving his answer, he reached out his right hand to hold her left hand. She stared up into his eyes, unable to comprehend this answer.

His expression grew serious. “Even if I could choose from every girl under the sky, I’d still choose you. You’re the only worthy one. Because you are Im Yoona. The beautiful and wonderful Im Yoona.”

The grin spread out again. “With that said…”

“I’ll definitely be your Valentine.”