I found myself in the library again, reading another of Shakespeare’s works. I liked Shakespeare a lot.

“Knew you’d be here.” A familiar voice piped up from behind me.

“Don’t you have better places to be? I don’t know, with—"

“Nope. I have no other better place to be.” Minho smiled and looked over my shoulder.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like to have friends; I just preferred to be alone. For the past few days I’d avoided the cafeteria, because I would have had to sit with Yuri and her crew, which, even though I loved them all, was very pressurizing. I wasn’t part of the popular crowd, but I had popular friends.

Minho was different. He was handsome and popular, but he didn’t like to hang out with them popular people. That’s why he became friends with me in the first place.

I rolled my eyes and replied, “Sure.”

“Shakespeare again?”

I laughed. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“No, I just thought you would’ve given up on Shakespeare after reading his books a gazillion times. “

“For the record, I’ve only read each one thrice, and they’re not books, they’re plays.”

“You are so weird.” He flicked my forehead gently and chuckled.

“As if you’re not weird yourself.”

And then we settled into a silence. He watched me as I paced around the shelves, flipping pages and reading intently. Occasionally he’d peek over my shoulder to see which page I was at, and then take out a book from the shelf only to put it back again.

The bell rang. It was the first bell, the you-don’t-need-to-get-to-class-ASAP-but-you-should bell. Putting back the play on the shelf I took it from, I headed out of the library to my next class—music.

Every term we were allowed to learn a different instrument of choice. The previous term I had chosen the flute, and this term I chose the guitar. I thought it would be nice to learn. Minho chose the same instrument, so we had the same period next.

“Hey,” he said, sticking his hands in his jeans, “what do you think of that new student? Um… Gunwoo, or something.”

“I don’t like him.”

He turned to look at me, but I continued walking. “Why?”

“I just don’t.”

“But why?” He asked again.

“Because he has that smirk that I want to claw off his face.” I replied.

He nodded, and looked ahead, and made a left turn. I went with him since we were heading to the same place. See, the thing with Minho was, even though he was persistent about things, he would shut up once he got an answer, even if I didn’t provide any explanation.

He wasn’t like all the other people in the world. He understood me.

The second bell rang just as we stepped into the class. It was the get-to-class-now-second-last-warning bell.

“I’d like you all to get into pairs now.” Mrs. Song instructed.

I looked around and spotted Gunwoo sitting by the back. The thought of being partners crossed my mind for a second, but then Minho nudged my shoulder, bringing me back to reality.

“Don’t you have some other girls to partner with? Some of them are giving me dirty looks, you know.”

“I do, but I want to partner you, so… I don’t really give those girls a damn.” He smiled.

“Some day, you’re going to have to get a girlfriend.” I reminded him gently.

“Not today though.” He replied.

I couldn’t say more as Mrs. Song began with another one of her instructions. “So class, now that you’ve gotten into pairs, I would like you to work on a duet. Pick a song, any song, and one person plays the piano while the other sings. You will be presenting this at the end of the month, as a music assessment for your grade. You have the rest of the period to select your song, come and tell me, get it approved, and then begin practicing. You may proceed.”

“What song should we do?” He asked.

“Do you know that song, ‘If’, by Kim Taeyeon? I’ve always loved that song.” I replied, smiling softly.

“Oh, that. Yeah, I know that song. So you want to do that?” He asked, immediately walking to the computer to look for the sheet music.

“Mhm.” I said, nodding and following him.

As he checked the computer, I scanned the room, looking to see if others had already made their choices. Most of them were still discussing, but my gaze fell upon Gunwoo. He was seated on a chair, wearing headphones, listening to a song. His partner was Jessica, a nice girl, but too bubbly and enthusiastic for my liking.

“Yoona, listen to me.”

Minho’s voice was distant as my eyes focused on Gunwoo. He looked peaceful, and he didn’t have that smirk on his face. I knew Minho was calling me, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Gunwoo, no matter how hard I forced myself to do so.

It was not until Minho roughly grabbed my arm and made me look at him, did I stop gazing at Gunwoo.

“Yoona, what were you staring at?” He asked, trying to follow my gaze.

“Nothing!” I shook my head and replied a little too quickly. What the hell is wrong with you, Im Yoona?

“I hardly believe you, but since we have more important things to do, let’s get started. So I was looking at the sheet music…”

As he rattled on about the song (in which none of his words registered in my mind), I found myself having the urge to draw Gunwoo again, in that calm state with headphones. Balling my hands into fists behind my back, I forced a smile as Minho spoke.

But as much as I tried to pay attention, all I thought was Gunwoo, Gunwoo and more Gunwoo.

Oh crap.