"Snap out of it!" Cha Eun Sang chastised herself as she walked out the campus. "What he said didn't matter. It doesn't matter. It shouldn't," she thought.

She took out her ipod from her bag and put her earplugs on as she walked away from Jeguk High. She still had time to kill before her shift starts; she did not have any idea where she wanted to go so she just walked aimlessly. Besides, she needed a distraction. She didn't want to be thinking about what Choi Young Do said earlier.

She scoffed. Choi Young Do likes her? "Get over yourself, Cha Eun Sang," she thought as she walked further away from the campus to nowhere. She didn't mind walking aimlessly as long as she listened to music. Music has always calmed her; it amazed her how music can wound or heal someone. It amazed her what music can do when done beautifully. She smiled when she heard the intro to Passion Pit's Take A Walk. "How appropriate," she thought. She smiled then turned volume all the way up and continued walking, her head bobbing to the music blasting off her earplugs.

She whipped around when she felt someone grab her left arm. "What the fu—"

"Language, Cha Eun Sang."

"Choi Young Do," she heaved a sigh as she took her earplugs off with her right hand. "What?"

Choi Young Do didn't let go of her arm but held her by the wrist instead. He smiled at her; it was a laughless smile and it reeked of mockery. Yet there was something in his eyes, strikingly black—the color of the skies full of stars—and the way they contrasted with his white complexion that made her pause. He looked very handsome today. So handsome she could practically feel a physical pain in her chest.

"Handsome? This guy?" she thought. "What are you thinking, Cha Eun Sang? Snap out of it!"

He was not supposed to be handsome! She was not supposed to find him handsome! He was a bully, he was rich, stupid, repulsive! This one . . . this . . . how unfair of him to be rich and beautiful.

She shifted on her feet as he frowned down at her, surveying her in turn.

"What?"

She blinked and took a step back. "What what?"

"You're staring, Cha Eun Sang."

She almost apologized, but stopped. He was an arrogant, high and mighty yet utterly impudent rich kid with a sense of entitlement. "Let go of my hand."

"I'm not holding you by the hand, technically."

She rolled her eyes and yet again shifted on her feet. "Let go of my wrist.”

Choi Young Do let go of her hand and she raised a hand dismissively as she started walking towards the bench nearby.

Cha Eun Sang felt him walk behind her and she rolled her eyes when he sat on the opposite end of the bench she was sitting on. "Could you please leave and let me enjoy listening to music in peace?"

Choi Young Do's lips peeled into a smile and moved closer, clearly ignoring what she just said. "You look rather pretty today, Cha Eun Sang."

She shrugged. “I’m pretty every day.”

Choi Young Do chuckled. “And surprisingly humble, too.”

“Hey,” Choi Young Do nudged her.  She raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

“I wasn’t kidding about what I said earlier,” Choi Young Do said almost quietly.  At that moment, she couldn’t hear anything, not even the music blasting off from her headset, but the deafening sound of her heartbeat.

She scoffed. "Okay. Let’s pretend I didn’t know better and that I believed you."  She almost laughed but her laughter died in her lips when she saw him clench and unclench his jaw. A look passed over him and if she didn't know any better, she'd think that he was hurt.

"How about I pretend I believe you mean that," Choi Young Do chuckled, his annoying grin back in place.

Cha Eun Sang looked at him sideways and crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you mean by that?"

Choi Young Do smiled.  “What do you think?”

She smiled sweetly at him and added, "I don’t know. But I know that right now, I want to squish your eyeballs under my feet.”

"Do you want to go to a concert with me?"

She almost choked on her laugh. "What?"

Choi Young Do took an intake of breath, heavy and reeked of irritation. "Are you deaf?"

“Okay. Let me process that,” she said in between laughing. "Did you just ask me out? Did the high and mighty Choi Young Do ask Cha Eun Sang out?”

“Yes, Choi Young Do did,” he answered, referring to himself in the third person.

“There was no need for you to answer. That was a rhetorical question,” Cha Eun Sang responded in between laughing.

Choi Young Do smiled as if he knew something she didn't. She frowned, "what?"

Choi Young Do shrugged but didn't say anything so she slapped his arm. "What is it?"

He didn't say anything and just looked at her. Cha Eun Sang looked intimated by Choi Young Do for a moment and sat slightly further away from him. His eyes, an impossibly deep shade of black, looked at her, as he cocked his head slightly to the side in a distractingly charming way.

"Do you, by any chance, like me?" His voice was low and slightly husky.

She was taken aback by the absurdity of the question that she didn't know what to say. When she recovered, she laughed almost hysterically. "Allow me to process that," she said in between laughter.

"That doesn't answer the question," Choi Young Do remarked.

Then his words hit her. Her dark eyes bugged out and she openly gaped at him. Then she started laughing. "Oh my god, are you serious? Is that a serious question?"

She was laughing openly now but her laughter died in when she saw him start to smile.

Choi Young Do crossed his legs as he started to laugh. "It's funny. You, trying to dodge the question."

Cha Eun Sang rolled her eyes when she finally stopped laughing. "No, Choi Young Do. I don't like you in whatever way you're insinuating."

He shrugged. "I'm not insinuating anything...or any way. What do you think am I insinuating?"

She smirked. "Whatever, Choi Young Do. I don't even like you as a person, let alone like you in that way."

"What way?"

She raised a hand dismissively and put on her ear pods. "Whatever, Choi Young Do."

But Choi Young Do wasn't done yet. "What are you insinuating?"

Okay. This wasn't going anywhere. Cha Eun Sang got up from the bench and started walking further away from Choi Young Do.

"Hey, Cha Eun Sang!" Choi Young Do called out from behind her.

Cha Eun Sang didn't look back but she waved her hand as she walked away. She turned the volume of her ipod up so she could lis—

"If you don't stop walking, that means you have a slight crush on me."

Cha Eun Sang abruptly stopped, restraining the urge to keep walking. "I'm going to rip your hair out," she thought, her heart pounding like crazy.