"I didn't see him today morning. I wonder if he's okay." Jia said, nervously.

"Relax, I'm sure he was just late." Mina replied. She sat comfortably on top of her desk, staring out the dusty window.

"Yeah. That's probably it." Jia assured herself. "What if he's avoiding me?"

Mina rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Min Yoongi doesn't seem like the guy who'd get shy and ignore you after confessing his feelings. Especially with the way he did it. He really had you wrapped around his fingers huh?"

Jia groaned and pressed her forehead against the table. "I am still so embarrassed."

Mina laughed at her. "I bet. If anything, you should be the one hiding from him."

"Yup. Helps a lot, Min." Jia grumbled.

"But it's cute! You're a know-it-all with me but one word from him and you're a complete mess. I didn't know you could like anyone other than your precious fictional characters and idols." She snickered.

"Ouch." Jia lifted her head and narrowed her eyes. "Do you think he'll ask me out?"

"Didn't he already?" Mina tore off a tiny piece of paper from her notebook.

"No, I mean... ask to be in a relationship."

Mina tore the piece into further small pieces and crumpled them into tiny paper balls. "He has to. Given that it's him and you're a smitten kitten, he'll probably be the one to ask. If not, you ask." Shrugged Mina.

Jia shook her head nervously. "I don't know, Min. That sounds scary."

"What's the big deal. You like him. He likes you. Now, date and make-out." She threw the paper bits out the window one by one.

"What?!" Jia nearly fell off her chair. Her ears were bright red.

"Innocent little Jia." Teased Mina.

Jia turned her head away from Mina, embarrassed. Across them, sat Jungkook and Namjoon. Jungkook was sleeping while Namjoon suddenly turned away, staring at the opposite wall.

Jia narrowed her eyes and questioningly looked at Mina who was still teasing her. Subtly, she looked again and sure enough, Namjoon was looking over at them.

"That day, when I fell into the pool, where did you go with Namjoon?" Jia asked, lowering her voice.

Mina thought for a while as if she had no recollection of such an event. "Ah that! Mrs. Kim called us because there was some mess up in our last assignment. That evil woman somehow manged to lose them; just mine and Namjoon's. I had to write it again."

"Oh." Jia replied disappointed.

"What's wrong?" Mina raised an eyebrow.

"Well. Don't look at him now but I think Namjoon is looking at us." Jia said, subtly.

"Huh. Really?" Mina snapped her head at his direction, doing the exact opposite. A flustered Namjoon fumbled with the pages of his physics text book. Mina chuckled under her breath.

"Why would you do that?!" Jia asked horrified. Mina shrugged her shoulder in reply.

"Do you think maybe..." Jia trailed off.

"Maybe?" Mina prompted her.

"That maybe he has a crush on you?" Jia held her breath, anticipating her friend's shocked reaction.

Mina looked at her and shrugged again. "It's not a maybe. He definitely does."

"What? You knew?!" Jia asked in disbelief.

Jia was quickly distracted by someone who entered the class. She had expected it to be their teacher but it was a boy from the next class. He was their same batch but a different division. He had deep brown hair that fell over his black rimmed glasses. A quiet kid that she's seen around but never knew the name of. She watched him curiously as he looked around the chaotic class. With their teacher away, her classmates were doing all sorts of things. He uncertainly approached the first desk and mumbled out something. Her classmate turned around, looking straight at her.

"He's asking for you." She said curtly before going back to her work.

"Me?" Asked Jia bewildered.

"You're Yun Jia, right?" He asked, his brown eyes wide.

Jia nodded her head.

"Miss Na asked me to get you."

Jia raised an eyebrow, wondering why. She nodded at Mina and got up from her seat, following the boy. He stopped right in front of the threshold and turned around to face her. "I almost forgot. She's asking for Jeon Jungkook too."

Jia groaned internally. 'This probably has something to do with the detention.' She thought. She walked over to his table and called his name out. He didn't budge. She poked him and called out his name again. He groaned and looked at her with narrowed eyes. Seeing her, he quickly rubbed his eyes and wiped his mouth. There was a purple bruise by his cheeks where she'd hit him

"Miss Na is asking for us. Come out." She said and walked over to the other boy. Jungkook quickly got up, almost stumbling over his own feet. He hurried his away over to them and walked ahead of her, along with the other boy. The boy with glasses looked over at Jungkook and smiled at him; Jungkook smiled back uncertainly. They walked through the left corridor and halted in front of a classroom. The boy asked them to wait and walked inside.

Jia looked over at the yawning Jungkook and down at her feet. Her big toe was wrapped up in a ball of white bandage. Neither of them had spoken after the incident. It was like he erased her existence from his memory. No pranks, no snarky comments, no bickering. Heck, he won't even look at her; he simply ignored her. Jia felt a little weird. She was happy about the 'no prank' part but she'd hoped to get things straight between them. Otherwise, it'd just be awkward. Like how it was now. He kept her distance from her and looked everywhere around but her.

"Hey." She called him out.

"Y-yeah?" He asked unsure of whom she was talking to.

"I uh..." She said awkwardly. "I'm sorry for that." She gestured at his cheeks to indicate the bruise.

"Oh. It's fine." He nodded.

Jia nodded back in reply. She waited for him to say something but nothing. She looked away uncertainly and then back at him. He stood a little further away, leaning against the railing that faced the basketball court. 'Huh.' She thought. He was back to ignoring her. Jia narrowed her eyes. 'Shouldn't he apologise too?' she asked herself. Considering how he was the one who started it all, it was rude of him to not apologise. 'He should be thanking me too.' She thought back to his fuming mother's face.

He drummed his fingers on the railing and kept staring at the empty court. She was on the verge of saying something when the boy emerged out of the class with Miss Na.

"Jia and Jungkook!" She said cheerfully. Miss Na taught them English. Despite the lack of interest for the subject, everyone loved her. She was smart, young and knew how to handle cranky teenagers. If it weren't for her, half the class would have been asleep for the hour. She was definitely one of Jia's favourite. Knowing her interests, Miss Na had even gone to the extent of lending Jia books from her own personal collection. 'Please let her be in charge of detention.' Jia prayed desperately.

"Aren't you two lucky?" She beamed, flipping open her notepad. "You've been exempted from cleaning duties. Instead, you'll be a part of the drama team." She found the page she was looking for and asked for a pen. Both Jia and Jungkook stood, watching her cluelessly.

"Taehyung, write their names down, will you?" She asked and the boy with glasses obliged. Jia looked at Jungkook and he shrugged, equally confused.

"We don't understand. What drama team?"

"You didn't know?" Enquired Miss Na. Seeing their lost faces, she decided to explain. "I had called for an audition last week. We're staging an English drama and I'm in charge. I'd put up a notice and even announced on the intercom."

"Oh." Jia replied. "The speaker in our class is being repaired and I must have missed the notice board."

"No wonder. I was expecting you there. Anyway, the Principal really wants to see if we can pull this off and he suggested putting you both down for this instead of the chores. I still need more people to participate, actually. I'll make one more announcement and if I still don't get the team I need, looks like I'll have to handle more detentions."

Jia smiled happily. Any job involving Miss Na already felt more like a reward than punishment.

Jungkook on the other hand was not happy. "Miss Na, do I have to act?"

"If you get past the audition, yes." The young teacher nodded.

"And if I don't?" He asked cautiously.

"You'll be given off-stage duties. They're just as equally important as on-stage." She replied.

"Oh, thank god." Jungkook heaved a sigh of relief. "Then, I'm good."

Miss Na narrowed her eyes. "How are you so sure that you won't get past the audition?"

"It's just, I don't know how to act and I'm not sure I can speak much in English." He said matter-of-factly.

"Well, if I were you. I wouldn't count on it too much. You might surprise yourself." She smiled.

"Trust me, I'm sure about this." He said confidently.

Miss Na cocked her head to one side. "Have you acted before?"

"No...?" He replied hesitantly.

She chuckled as though to point out she just proved her point. "The first time I got on stage for acting was in college. And like you, I was a hundred percent sure that I couldn't do it..." She trailed of, a nostalgic smile playing on her lips. "Turns out, you end up surprising yourself when you least expect it."

"Miss Na, I know a few students who told me they were interested. Shall I write down their names too?" Taehyung asked, holding out the notepad.

She nodded her head and turned back to them. "You can go back to class now. Taehyung is the student coordinator and he'll let you know when the next meeting is."

They greeted her politely and were dismissed back to class. Jungkook walked a few steps ahead of her, keeping a fast pace. She gave up trying to catch up to him and called his name out instead. He turned around wearily.

"What?" He asked, uninterested.

"Why are you being like this?" She asked.

"Like what?" He had resumed his quick pace.

Jia sighed audibly. "Shouldn't we talk about what happened that day?"

"Which day?" He asked nonchalantly.

He was getting on her nerves. If he was going to act ignorant, she decided it wasn't worth talking it out. "Never mind." She stopped in her tracks and turned left, taking a detour towards the girl's washroom. She walked silently along the noisy corridor and perked up at the sight of Yoongi's classroom. She walked casually by the window and found it without a teacher. She searched through the class and found him writing intently. Not wanting to disturb him, she made her way to the washroom.

She dried her hands and checked the mirror before heading back out again into the corridor. She walked past his classroom and onto the main corridor again. A few seconds later, she felt someone grabbing at her elbow. Surprised, she turned around to find a smiling Min Yoongi. They walked a few steps back and settled by the deserted end of a corridor, out of sight from his classroom.

"Free hour, huh?" She smiled widely at him.

"Yup. I had a few notes to complete." He replied. "You?"

"It was free when I got out, I don't know if there's a teacher now."

"Oh. You can go back if you want." He offered.

"Na, it's okay." She said despite her inexplicable fear of missing classes. "How's life?" Jia asked awkwardly.

Yoongi burst out laughing. "Life is great. Life is good." He said matter-of-factly. He paused and looked straight into her eyes. "Are you free next Saturday?"

"Next Saturday?" Jia thought for a little while. "Yeah. It's the day of your competition, right?"

"Right." He nodded.

Jia observed him for a while. He touched the back of his neck, looked down and then back up at her. She raised an eyebrow.

"Aww. Do you want me to come cheer for you?" She teased him. For what he did to her the other evening, she had to get back at him in one way or the other.

"Huh?" He asked, suddenly flustered. Jia chuckled, triumphant at his reaction. He looked at her for a while and then laughed to himself.

"Actually..." He began. "I need you to do something more than just cheer."

Jia looked at him in confusion.

"I need you to cheer for me as my girlfriend." He shrugged.

Admittedly, Jia's jaw dropped. "Wha- I- You can't just."

"I can't just what? Ask you to be my girlfriend?" He smirked.

Jia understood then that there was no winning against him. She was what Mina called a 'A flustered mess. A smitten kitten.' And he would always have control.

"I love seeing this look on your face." He chuckled. "It's really cute."

Jia blushed and looked away, unable to stand the shyness that had suddenly caught hold of her.

"You'll be there, right?" He asked, a bit of seriousness creeping into his voice.

"Yeah." She nodded, unable to say more.

"Good." He smiled. He looked around and found the corridor still empty. He reached out his hand and patted her head as though she was a puppy.

"You better get back to class. I don't want you getting into any trouble because of me." He told her.

She said her goodbye and walked back into thelong corridor. She turned back, just in time to see him waving at her. Jiasmiled to herself yet again.