A few days later, in the midst of one of their study sessions, Yoongi was reading out loud from a magazine article.

“…he said that she reminded him of a binus because she was so…”

Yisun burst out laughing.

“What?!” Yoongi stopped, indignant, but she just kept on laughing.

“Venus, not … binus! Hahaha…”

“biiinus…hmmm… bbbbvvvuinus…” Yoongi tried again, to more laughter.

So he put on this this fake, bad English voice and slithered up to her going, “What is it, eh, baby, eh? My English good, no? yeah?” with an over-the-top macho swagger, causing her to laugh even louder. “Come on, now! I am cool American boy, yeah!” he stood up, flexing his muscles and posing left and right, and ending it with a wink.

She was in tears. Grinning, he walked back to sit down next to her, waiting for her to stop.

“Okay, okay… let’s get on with it…” she said, trying to catch her breath, but when she looked up, he was looking up at her, hands interlocked under his chin with big blinking puppy eyes and she burst out laughing again.

He pouted, puffing up his cheeks, “isn’t it time for a break?”

‘Why is he being so adorable?’ wondered Yisun, chuckling at his silly face.

Yoongi wasn’t being any more or less adorable than he’d been in the past few weeks though, it was just Yisun’s first time noticing it.

Not waiting for her answer (or assuming it would be a yes), he got up and walked over to the window, pulling his hands over his head and behind his back in a huge stretch.

“Aaah… I’m so sore…” he complained while rotating one of his shoulders to try and ease the pain.

“How come? Too much action last night, big shot?” Yisun wriggled her eyebrows and gave him an exaggerated wink.

He looked at her in shock but then burst out laughing – a full hearty laugh. And Yisun felt her heart stop for half a second. His shoulders shook and his hair fell in his eyes and for one moment she just stopped and thought ‘damn… was he always this cute?’

“Yeah… my many mistresses won’t let me get any sleep, you know…” he grinned back at her with another wink.

Yisun smiled.

"Nah, I took a bad fall the other day at practice. Still feeling it" he answered, more seriously, rubbing his shoulder again.

“Practice for what?” she asked, puzzled.

“Oh. I took your advice”

“You stopped skipping school? Smoking? Terrorizing middle-schoolers?” She asked innocently.

“No.” he answered, unimpressed, “I joined a basketball team.”

“You did?” she looked up at him in wonder.

“Yeah… turns out the gym near my house has a house team and they play real games every weekend, and actually have matches against other gyms…  it’s pretty cool” he answered her, more eagerly than usual, trotting back over to their table.

“Wow, Yoongi that’s awesome!” she gave him a super bright smile. He was surprised by how happy that smile made him.

“Yeah…” he answered, “I hope they let me play next week… though I’m a newbie so I don’t know…”

“They have to! You’re pretty good, right?”

He smiled in an embarrassed way and scratched the back of his neck “I guess so…”

“Tell me if you ever have an official match. I’ll go cheer for you!”

Again she flashed him that bright smile, but unlike the last time, this one gave rise to a very different sensation in his stomach. At first he was happy, but then he caught himself thinking that the last thing he wanted was for his bros showing up at a game and seeing Yisun cheering him on.

“hum… yeah… I’ll let you know…” he answered awkwardly, but Yisun didn’t notice. Then he looked at the clock in the back of the room and added, “shouldn’t we get on with it?”

***

Later that evening, Yisun was walking home, humming along to a song on her iPod. She jumped when she felt a tap on her shoulder, but relaxed when she saw it was only Jang-mi.

“Hey, what are you doing out here?” she asked her friend.

“Mom sent me to buy milk” she gestured to the plastic bag in her hand, “you?”

“Oh, I’m just coming home.”

“From school? It’s like 8 o’clock.” exclaimed Jang-mi, surprised.

“Oh, is it? I hadn’t realized” she looked at her watch that indeed read 20:04. “Oh well…” she shrugged and smiled.

Jang-mi looked at her suspiciously, “You’re awfully peppy…”

“What? No more than usual” answered the teenage girl, cluelessly.

“How come you’re back so late?” asked Jang-mi, walking alongside her.

“Tutoring ran late”

“An hour late?”

“I guess so… ” said Yisun, raising her arms like it was obvious.

“You got that idiot studying for an extra hour and he didn’t even notice?!”

“He’s not an idiot…” Yisun frowned, “and we did finish earlier, just… I’m not sure?” she finished with a small laugh.

“Wait, what?” Jang-mi stopped walking

“We were talking and lost track of time” explained Yisun.

“No, you defended him.”

“What?”

“You said he’s not an idiot”

“So?”

“Oh my god.” said Jang-mi, realization dawning upon her.

“What?”

“You like him!!”

“I do not!” exclaimed Yisun, offended.

“Oh, come on, you are sooo in love with him!”

“Stop talking nonsense…” Yisun replied, embarrassed.

But she started replaying this afternoon’s lesson in her head again… Yoongi smiling at her, Yoongi being silly,  Yoongi laughing, his eyes crinkling as he did, Yoongi’s lips turning into a smirk when he thought she was funny but didn’t wanna admit it, or Yoongi winking at her as he pretended to be American…

“You’re in luuuuuuuuuuvvvvv…..” Jang-mi and started chuckling again.

“Shut up!” shushed Yisun, starting to walk again.

“Luuuuuuuuuuuvvv!!!!” her friend called back behind her.