"Ew, Licorice ice cream?"Jae's brows furrowed as his nose wrinkled in disgust. "How can you like that? It's disgusting." He stuck his tongue out and gave a fake gag.

   Catalina's lips stretched into a thin, unamused line before she punched his shoulder. "You're such a snake."

   "What ?" He whined.

   "It's disgusting? Yeah ! Says a grown-ass boy who still likes strawberry shortcake." She glared daggers at him, holding the small plastic spoon tightly in his her hand as if she were about to shatter it.

   "Excuse me , Cat," he hissed, "everybody likes strawberry shortcake." He defended, holding a hand to his chest while the other held unto his ice cream protectively, fearful she'd knock it to the floor just by staring at it.

   "It's for children," she deadpanned, "aren't you old enough to have something else? Something more... mature , ya know?"

   "Oh yeah, I forgot to get myself the regular suitcase flavoured ice cream with a hint of sprinkled road salt to go with my salty businessman attitude this time. How forgetful of me, oh my !" He snapped.

   She gagged at just thinking about someone eating road salt, she usually had a very visual mind. "I'd prefer eating garlic flavoured ice cream again than whatever you just described."

   His face twisted in disgust once more and he choked, " Again ? What the hell? What do you mean again ?"

   "Drea dared me to eat it once and...it was...it was..." she couldn't finish as she shivered.

   He too shivered. "I don't even want to know..."

   "Can I have some?" She asked, reaching the tiny spoon out to his ice cream cone, trying to forget about whatever disgusting ice cream flavours they'd come up with.

   "I thought you said you didn't like children's ice cream," he smirked slyly, pulling the cone closer to himself.

   She frowned and gave him a glare. Pouting her lips, she looked away in disappointment, mostly of herself since she managed to say what she did, lowering her changed of getting a taste of what he'd ordered.

   With a sigh, he offered her a bit of the ice cream and she took a chunk out of it, to his instant regret. He wanted to argue but refrained from doing so as he saw a smile light her face.

   "Oh, wow , this is really good!" She smiled at him, "Can I have a little more?" She clapped her hands together in a plea, hoping he'd give in.

   He grimaced, not wanting her to take anymore of his ice cream, but being conflicted as he didn't mind sharing it with her. He had an internal conflict; his stomach said 'screw her' and his heart said 'sharing is caring'. He felt impatient, upset even.

   "You can have a bit of mine." She blinked her puppy dog eyes and that was enough to convince him that just a little bit wouldn't hurt anyone.

   He nodded, "Yeah, okay."

   She took another scoop, this time not big enough to make him regret his decision. Once she ate it, she gave a small hum of delight before she dipped the spoon in her licorice ice cream and offered it up to him, leading the spoon up to his mouth. "Try not to puke all over your ice cream," she warned.

   He didn't think twice for he acted on impulse. He leaned towards the spoon full of ice cream and took it into his mouth with a bite, teeth crunching down on the plastic spoon, nearly cracking it.

   Catalina burst into laughter as he covered his mouth, face paling slightly as he swallowed the ice cream in one gulp and doubled over, shivering and coughing. "Why did you bite the spoon, idiot?"

   After calming himself, he stood straight, amazed he hadn't toppled his ice cream over unto the floor. His cheeks were pink and his heart was racing all over again. He was afraid that she'd heard the erratic thumping, but by the look on her face, she was still in the dark about that.

   "Aw," she cooed, "you don't have to be embarrassed, Jae-Jae." She landed a hand on his shoulder and he flinched under her touch, as if her hand was a burning hot pot.

   "How can you eat that, it's disgusting," he grumbled under his breath and looked away from her.

   She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "You can't appreciate true tastiness," she drawled, shrugging her shoulders.

   "You have no sense of taste. I swear, that thing tastes bitter. Ice cream shouldn't taste bitter."

   "And people shouldn't bite plastic spoons, but hey, to each their own." She made nothing of his remark.

   He stuck his tongue out at her and blew a raspberry before standing up and finishing off his ice cream before he offered her a hand. "Let's go home, it's getting late."

   She nodded before she took his hand and they walked towards where he had parked the car.

   Jae couldn't help but think how much they'd looked like a couple and his fingertips tingled at her touch the as his heart began beating just a tad bit faster. He could almost feel the her warmth spreading from her hands all the way to his heart. Oh god, how could liking someone hurt so much? How could he feel high and low all the same? 

   What he didn't know was that Catalina didn't feel much, her thoughts still remained on Philip.

———•———

   Click!

  Click!

  Click! Click! Click!

  Click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click!

  The otherwise silent lab room was filled with the annoying clicking of a pen, and of course, Jae couldn't help but slowly become more and more irritated with every click. He threw his pen against the table and crossed his arms, trying not to sound too annoyed.

  "What?" Jae groaned, looking over to his right where Daniel clicked his pen away, as if he were all alone and not in the middle of a lab room. "Can you stop that? People are glaring at us," Jae demanded, poking Daniel in the arm so he'd face him.

  Daniel's eyes languidly landed on Jae, reluctantly looking away from their subject somewhere beyond the board of announcements, as if he was seeing something that Jae couldn't. "Hn?" He blinked, head rested aimlessly on his hand. "Yeah? What's up?"

  "Stop clicking the pen. You got everyone annoyed," Jae hissed, clearly annoyed by the way his brows were furrowed and his lips were stretched in a thin line.

  "Hm?" He looked down at the pen in his hand. "Sorry, sorry," he apologized while he looked away from Jae for a second and then brought his gaze back. The lab had not even begun for them as half of the class was using the equipment in the next room and their half of the class was seated doing the write up as best they could with no data.

  "What's wrong?" Jae asked, knowing that Daniel wanted to talk about just by the way he sat, facing Jae almost completely, leaning on his hand and taking even breaths.

  Daniel rolled the pen around his fingers and shrugged. "Nothing." He fidgeted around.

  "Doesn't seem like nothing to me," Jae replied and then decided that if Daniel didn't want to say anything, he wasn't going to force him.

  Daniel took a deep breath and sat back on his chair, glancing around the class for any eavesdroppers. He turned his head back to Jae and went back to fidgeting with the pen (not clicking it, albeit). "I just..." he wandered, "Cat said you guys went out and had ice cream last week, right?"

  Jae lifted a brow. "Uhm," he murmured, "yeah...why?"

"She said she told you a bit about Philip, yeah?"

  "Yes..." Jae wasn't exactly sure what to say, or rather, what he was expecting Daniel to say.

  "She said she still liked Philip, or at least, that's what she told me." Daniel then spun around his chair once.

  Jae nodded, "Yes, she told me. Why? Why is that a problem?"

  Daniel scoffed. "She didn't tell you anything about Philip, did she? You wouldn't be saying that if you knew."

  "If I knew what?"

  "Sometimes I wish I was as innocent as you, Jae, not knowing anything. Well, they do say ignorance is bliss."

  Jae crossed his arms over his chest, curiosity sparking in his heart but he tried his best not to show it. "It's not like anyone wants to tell me what's going on or what happened. How am I supposed to know something I wasn't there to see."

  "Exactly," Daniel pouted, "honestly, I think you kind of need to know."

  "It really isn't any of my business, ya know," he clicked his tongue and then went back to his notes.

  Daniel was silent for a while until he took a deep breath and gave a prompt nod. "Yeah, maybe you're right...Anyway, what'd you get for number four?"

  Jae rolled his eyes and answered the question, he didn't like people leeching off answers but Daniel had helped him with a number of questions before, he wasn't exactly leeching off him.

———•———

  "Maddie, Maddie, Maddie," Daniel shook his head as they reached the cafeteria table. "How did you manage to get all this free pizza?"

  Madeline shrugged. "A girl has her ways." She managed to pull off the best innocent look and a smile.

  "You stole them from the Student's Union, didn't you?" He gave her an even look.

  She shrugged, "A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do," she defended all nonchalantly and then offered pizza to the boys. Gladly and without any hesitation whatsoever, they boys each took a slice of pizza.

  "You know, Jae," Daniel smiled as they both sat down next to one another in front of Andrea and Madeline.

  "What?" Jae blinked.

  Daniel's smile grew wider and he took a sigh of relief and contentment. "It's so nice to have another guy in the group, that way the girls can't bully me when I try to steal Cat's slice."

  "You shouldn't steal Cat's slice," Jae nagged.

  At the given moment, Catalina wasn't sitting with them in the cafeteria, she'd texted that she'd be late as she had something quick to do after her class. They were all expecting her to pop up soon and so her pizza was in safe keeping, with Madeline.

  "What ? Not you too ! Honestly, all I want is to eat something that isn't going to be eaten."

  Andrea lifted a brow, "Why would you say that? Cat's definitely going to eat it."

  "Because she went out for lunch with Philip, duh," Daniel deadpanned and it didn't take long for him to regret his statement once Andrea gasped.

  "She what ?" Andrea all but yelled out, catching the attention of a few people that sat in the neighbouring tables. "And you didn't stop her?"

  Daniel rolled his eyes and scoffed. "What was I supposed to do? Tell her she couldn't and if she did she was going to get grounded? Pft ! Come on, I couldn't stop her."

  "When did she tell you?"

  "Yesterday," Daniel replied Madeline's question as he nibbled on the crust of his pizza.

  "Oh , is this why you were staring at the wall the entire lab?" Jae asked, everything falling into place. "You were in a moral dilemma."

  "Well, yeah, look," he sighed, "I told her that I didn't think it was a good idea, I told her that she shouldn't trust him again, clearly she should know first hand but she just... she said he'd changed and he was different and whatever other crap she could come up with. Guys, you know Cat, once she settles her mind on something, she's stubborn as a mule."

  Andrea couldn't argue with Daniel's remark and so gave a nod. "If she thinks she could get away with lying to us, yeah , not happening, honey ."

  "The more you guys mention this problem, I swear that my opinion on Philip sours," Jae remarked.

  "Well, it should." Madeline crossed her arms over her chest. "He was an outright asshole."

  "Maddie ," Daniel gasped, surprised with her language. Madeline barely ever swore, that's why he was so shocked.

  "What?" Madeline shrugged. "It's true, isn't it?"

  "Yeah, but you don't have to say it."

  "Why? You think you might have a crush on him too?" Her sarcastic remark was not taken lightly and Daniel gave her a glare.

  "Shut up ," he hissed between clenched teeth, "You know I'd stab him with a plastic spork if it's all I had."

  "Is anyone ever going to tell me why you all hate Philip with a burning passion? Like, what the hell did he do to make you despise him so much?" Jae thought he'd been left in the dark much too long and maybe he'd wished, even for just a moment, that they'd tell him everything he wanted to know, all the little questions that had been eating him up for nearly a month now.

  Andrea sat back on her seat, playing around with the plastic fork in her hand. She also agreed that Jae had been neglected for quite some time now. In fact, if he had a crush on Catalina, it was best for his own heart that he knew what he was up against. Call it evening the plane-field, if you may, or Andrea's pettiness for Catalina having lied to them. "If you really want to know...ask away."