**

They were polar opposites – Mino and Chorong. She was cold as ice while he was warm as the sun. She was stoic, emotionless and quiet while he was cheerful, energetic and loud. She was gentle while he was brash. She was like the wind during spring, tender and soft, while he was like the rain during monsoon, rough and careless.

They were different from each other, completely and utterly different. They had nothing in common. Well, except their classes.

They were in the same grade, in the same class, and even in the same club. It was funny actually, how the north and south pole of the school were breathing in the same confined space of their classroom. It gave amusement to everyone around them.

“Yah! Song Mino!” Chorong shrieked at the sleepy figure slumped on the desk.

The said figure lazily turned to the seething girl and raised an eyebrow. “What?” he asked, uninterested.

Her eyes turned into slits as she shoved a piece of crumpled paper onto his face. “What is this?” she said through gritted teeth.

Mino grabbed the paper from her hand and stared at the caricature drawn on it. “It’s my drawing,” he simply answered.

Chorong glared harder at the male.

Everyone in the classroom had gone quiet as two stared into each other’s eyes, death and venom obvious in their orbs.

The two also shared a common hatred towards each other by the way. They would always argue, banter, insult, and exchange glares – that was how they would greet the other. Everyone was already quite used to it though.

“How. Dare. You. Make. Fun. Of. Me!” Chorong seethed as she accusingly poked a finger on Mino’s chest word after word.

Mino grabbed her hand and clicked his tongue. “I wasn’t making fun of you! I was just trying to make the guys laugh!” he snapped.

“At my expense!” she quickly fired back.

“Lighten up, why don’t you! It was just a drawing for freaking sakes!” he said, exasperated, as he threw his arms in the air. “It’s just a freaking drawing, Park Chorong!” he looked at her with slanted brows. “It’s no big deal!” he added, pure annoyance clearly laced in his voice.

The seething girl turned bright red even more. You could almost see the steam coming out of her ears.

“No big deal?” she said in disbelief. “No big deal?!” she repeated, her voice slightly raising. “It’s a freaking big deal when you’re making fun of someone, Song Mino! Do you not know that?” she exploded at him.

Chorong crossed her arms on her chest and looked indignantly at the male. “You think you’re all that! You think you’re the genius class clown or whatever, but you know what Song Mino! You’re not funny at all! Your jokes aren’t gag material. Your laugh is annoying! Heck, your mere existence is annoying! It’s an insult to every comedian out there to have you go around the school and make jokes! You. Are. Not. Funny. You. Freaking. Dimwit!” she screamed her lungs out.

Everyone in the room gaped at her words. They were harsh and seriously mean but they also rang true.

Song Mino wasn’t that funny, they all knew that. Yet they still laugh at him and with him. You just couldn’t help it. He just has this charm you see.

“Do you think embarrassing someone like that in front of the whole class is fun? Do you think insulting my humor would make you look good? You wretched witch of the West! Take your words back! Take it back!” Mino screamed at her.

He stared at her venomously. His fists were clenched tight and he was shaking all over. He was angry. He was seriously and tremendously seething with rage. No one has ever insulted him like that before. Well, there were some but Chorong’s words hit him like a blade to the heart. Her words hurt him. She hurt him.

Chorong scoffed at his words. She looked at him, amusement flashing in her eyes. “Humor me then,” she smirked at him.

Mino, and most probably everyone in the room, looked at her like she had grown three heads.

“Humor you?” the male repeated her words. He scrunched up his face and stared at her with creased brows. “Why should I humor you when you said I wasn’t funny at all?” he asked, obviously perplexed.

“Just humor me, Song Mino. Try to make me laugh,” she told him, a small smile playing on her lips.

“Or do you have no confidence with your humor at all?” she added as she challengingly raised an eyebrow at him.

It was Mino’s turn to scoff at her words. “Confidence is my middle name, babe,” he spat at her.

Chorong simply raised an amused eyebrow. “I’ll be waiting then,” she said before turning her back on him and exiting the room.

Everyone then turned to Mino and stared him apprehensively.

“You know you could just ignore her words…” Seungyoon, a close friend and classmate of his, voiced out as Mino sat down on his desk.

“But she insulted me, Seungyoon! She insulted me!” Mino huffed as he rubbed his cheeks exasperatingly. “I could take it if other people would insult me but that girl downright made fun of me face to face! How dare that horrid human being!” he ranted.

“What did I even do to her?” he thoughtlessly mumbled.

Seungyoon snickered at his friend. He patted Mino on the shoulder, trying to at least comfort him. “Just make her laugh then,” he advised him.

Mino obediently nodded his head and stared out the window.

“This means I need to step up my game a notch,” he mumbled to himself as his mind whirled with different gags he could pull off for Chorong.

A slight smile had appeared on Mino’s face unbeknownst to him. He didn’t even notice the collective eye rolls and amused looks his classmates did as they continued to observe the male.

He didn’t notice a lot of things to be honest. He didn’t notice because he was a fool – he was a tremendous and foolish idiot.

Song Mino was a pabo and they all knew it.

**

It had been a week since Chorong challenged Mino to make her laugh and every attempt of his was futile. He tried doing traditional jokes such as slipping on a banana peel and sitting down on a whoopee cushions. He also tried impersonating people and things too. He showed her various funny faces and many other embarrassing things but Park Chorong did not bat an eye.

She was stoic. Her usual impassive face never changed even once when he tried to make her laugh. There wasn't even a slight upward movement on her cute lips. There was no amused spark in her dark brown eyes. She didn’t warrant him any expression at all. And it seriously irked him.

He knew the cold girl could laugh. She was his classmate ever since their first year and he had heard her laugh a couple of times with her friends. He had heard her childish giggles, her soft chuckles, her amused snickers, even her absurdly cute guffaws – he had heard them all.

But