༄ THE basketball had to be picked up by Sam and thrown into a boy's arms for the millionth time.

"Minho, pay attention! We're not going to win much if all you do is let go of that ball!" A frustrated coach stood watching on the side, and blew on his whistle another time. "Again!"

Now she was sure there was something wrong with Minho. Each time he caught the ball in his hands, he let go right away and his face tensed.

She glared over her book. The curiosity made her feel guilty, but she couldn't help it. Sighing, she tried to concentrate on the pages.

"Alright, that's it!! Take a break!"

Ah, three seconds later, some sweating boys stood in front of her again.

"Maybe you gotta give your boyfriend a kiss so he's motivated," Thomas hinted.

"And so he will at least play normally," Alby added.

"I don't feel the exact need to watch my sister kiss my friend, who I still refuse to believe are dating, but yeah, give him some motivation."

Hell no.

With a bright red face from embarrassment, Sam shook her head. She peeked at Minho, who drank from his water bottle in another corner. "No, not in front of everyone."

"Damn, y'all really suck as a couple." Thomas palmed his face. "Where is the spice? My life is so boring already. Now my best friend got a girlfriend and he doesn't even treat her right. Toxic!"

"Yeah, go give him a lil' kiss," even Newt encouraged. "Will give me some bloody hope in this hellhole."

"Why would watching two people kiss..." She murmured, then let go of that. "Too awkward."

"This." Jeff pointed at Sam. "Is not my sister. My sister is a girl who's life quote is 'yolo' and I don't know what has changed since you joined this school, but I'm not sure if I like it."

Okay, he had a point. Sam indeed had been way riskier last year and now that she thought about it, Jeff was very right. The last time she said yolo was at the party when she kissed Minho, and he had kissed her back... drunkly, but still.

"Fine." She got up, pushed her book in Thomas's hands, whispered a threat about cracking the spine, and then walked closer to Minho.

"Your friends gave me this advice," she told him, just like she had done at the party.

Minho raised his eyebrows. "What advice?"

She glared at the group of boys, who were watching the couple, and then triumphantly turned back to Minho. "Try not to overthink it."

Minho pulled a face after she kissed him so gently they barely touched.

"Told you, try not to overthink it."

"If you're gonna come over here and kiss me-," his eyes squinted, "-then at least make it a real kiss. 'Cause if I would compare your way of kissing to what you read—"

She cupped his face and kissed him harder than before, now moving her lips and actually touching his body as he took her waist.

"Good acting."

"You too." Slowly, she moved her lips to his ear instead of his mouth. "So now you better go try harder with basketball, 'cause I'm not doing this again today."

He crooked a smile. "Tomorrow, then?"

The urge to slap the back of his head was big, but she didn't do it. "Funny, Minho."

"Look, if you want to make this relationship seem realer, you better try harder too. Give me your phone."

"No."

"Your phone," he repeated. His eyes focused on her bag.

Sam tilted her head. Lifted an eyebrow.

"Please," he added fast. With that, she handed him her phone.

And cleared her throat. "Password is 71526483."

"Who has a password like that?" Minho sighed. "Also, what the hell is this?" He showed her her Lock Screen.

"Now that, is Hayden Christenen."

"Yeah, as long as I'm your boyfriend, you're not having Christ Of Hay as your Lock Screen."

"Now isn't that possessive." 

"Hand."
With a roll of her eyes, she allowed him to take her hand. Minho made a picture of their intertwined fingers and then typed something else in.

"What are you doing?"

"No girl on this earth has her boyfriend's real name as his contact name." He frowned. "Why does your camera roll only exist out of... men."

"Because some men, unlike you, are amazing." She tried taking her phone, but he turned away. "Hey, give it back! You've done everything—"

"What's Character AI... why do you have twenty missed texts and what the shuck is Wattpad?"

"Enough." She snatched the thing out of his hands. "If you're gonna change my contact name for you into..." She looked down. "Min with a heart, then I want to know what your contact name for me is."

He said something she didn't understand.

"No salami?"

He repeated it.

"Naui salang?" She also repeated, but way slower.

Minho took her arm and walked until they arrived at his bag. He grabbed his phone. Handed it to her.

나의 사랑 <3

"The what?" Her eyebrows furrowed, causing her nose to scrunch up.

"It's 'my love' in Korean." A sigh left his mouth.

"No one here understands Korean so I don't understand the point in changing my name into that—"

"They'll get the point, Nerd." He bit his lip. "Are you going to give my phone back?"

"Subway Surfers? Minecraft?" She covered a snort up. "Interesting. You bought bandages and rubbing alcohol and—"

He took his phone out of her hands and stuck it back in his bag. "You need books, I need that."

"I never judged, did I?"
But his reaction made her curious.
"Why did you buy those?"

"Basketball often gives me injuries," he said firmly. "Well, coach is waiting. I've got to go."

"Hey— we're still meeting up this weekend, right?"

"Yeah."

❤︎︎

"That jogging yesterday sucked," was the first thing Teresa said when she entered their dorm.

"Certainly does if you go smoke in the bushes," Sam murmured, not too interested because she had homework to make and things to study.

"How was your day?"

"Well, no one died." Sam marked a few words.

Sonya plopped down on her bed. "Lovely standards you have. What're you doing?"

"Decorating my Christmas tree." She readjusted herself on her bed. Stuffed a pillow under her legs. "And using sarcasm."

"It's finally starting to make a little bit of sense that you're dating Minho." Teresa chuckled, and Sam nearly dropped her marker. "Except, he does not study."

"I am well aware," she commented. "And I hate to ask this— never mind."

It was a dorm. She couldn't expect her roommates to be silent because she had to study. It was for her to move somewhere else, not them.

"I'll go study in the lounge."

"No! Don't worry," Sonya quickly said. "Teresa and I were about to invite you over in the woods tonight. You know, to catch up with our friends. But if you've got to study... choose whatever works."

Sam hesitated. Did she want to make fun and get to know people more? Yes. Did she want her mom to tell her she was a failure after she got a bad grade? Nah.

"I'll come with you guys another time. Sorry. But have fun!" She forced a smile. Watched as the girls left, and continued studying.

About an hour later, there was a knock on the door. It opened before Sam even had the chance to reply, causing her to still sit on her bed when the unfamiliar lady walked in.

Sighing, she looked around. "Always a mess in this room."

Sam watched with a questioning look.

"Clean lady," she explained. "Either go somewhere else or don't interfere as I do my job."

...alright.

Sam went back to work, shrugging. It kind of distracted her when the woman was taking their trash away or mumbled more about the mess.

"Next time, I'll tell them to clean this up before I sanitize." She put a hand on her forehead. "Please share that with your roommates too."

"Will do," Sam promised. Then her stomach made a flip.

The woman held up a package of cigarettes. "What's this?"  

"What does it look like?" Sam murmured. "Look, I know we're not allowed to have those but—"

"Are these yours?"

"We'll clean up next time—"

"I asked if these were yours."

Well, no.
But she wasn't gonna snitch on Teresa. "Could we forget about this? Let it slip for once—"

"Is it yours?" She repeated, now slower. "Sorry, kid, but this is my job. I can't allow this."

Sam lowered her head. "Yeah, that's mine," she lied. Gosh, Teresa better be grateful.

"Then please put your stuff down and come with me."

With her mouth shut, Sam did as she was told. No going back now, and she didn't want things to get any worse than they already were.

She followed the woman all the way outside, where the coldness of the night hit her bare legs. Luckily, the cleaner didn't ask anything about where her roommates were, even though it was almost past nine.

"May I ask why we're going to the boys' side?" Sam made a little sprint to catch up with the woman. "We're not going to—"

"Yeah, we are."

Awesome. Her mom would have a word with her.

That's how it went. Any not-allowed things in the room and you would have a talk with the principal, but Sam's mom wasn't the principal of her school. 

"Why? There's a principal for the girls—"

"Principal Gray will be the principal of Etril's girls school soon, too. Your principal is busy enough, so I'm sure it won't be a problem to bring you to principal Gray."

Shit.

Her mom never shared that piece of information. But why would she? It wouldn't surprise Sam if she loved this even more, because she would have an even better look at her daughter's school life.

"Sit down and wait for your turn." Sam got placed in a room with at least a dozen boys, and awkwardly sat down.

The walls were white. A few benches were spread around the place and in the middle, was a door with 'PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE'.

Sam sighed. Took the book she sneaked with her and opened it. Caused a few snorts from the boys. She held her middle finger up without looking.

"Feisty much."

"What'd ya do, girl?"

"Something that made me go here," she replied. "You?"

"Tried to stop a boy from going inside a place where he shouldn't have been going. But my push was too hard and now... well, I'm here and he's getting bandages."

Sam looked up at that story. Her eyes met a pair of blue ones, then she examined the boy. A grown out, dark blonde buzz cut, some light hairs above his lips, a brown sweater, and dark jeans.

"What're you reading?" He made a head movement toward her book. She held it up. "Damn, that's a nice one."

Sam's back straightened. "You know A Good Girl's Guide To Murder?"

"I like the crime books, yeah." He nodded. "Mind if I sit?" And he pointed at the seat next to her.

Sam shook her head. "You've read this book, so you're certainly allowed to."

Chuckling, he sat down. "So, you wanna tell me why you're here now?"

"I took the blame for a pack of cigarettes in my dorm." She closed her book. Rubbed her chin. "What's your name? I think I've seen you before."

He held out his hand. "Gally."

"I'm... Sam."

Come on, he read AGGGTM. He was allowed to call her Sam!

"I've seen you before too. You watch our basketball trainings. With your books." He smiled, causing a part of his face to light up.

"Yup."

At least he didn't start about Minho. Literally every new person she met could only talk about Minho and her.

Three seconds later, they were full on talking about book recommendations, school subjects, and the adventures they already experienced.

"Yeah, I'm with Brenda for the PE project," he confirmed. "She hates me already. But I can't do anything about the fact that my lungs don't work well."

Sam snickered. "But you can do basketball?"

"Basketball's different, man." He ran a hand through his hair. "And it hits different. You should totally try it out. Best sport."

"I'll stick with... running." She smiled, a bit of a twinkle in her eyes.

"Ah, come on!" He threw his hands in the air. "No one's ever on my side."

"Your teammates will be," she assured with another laugh. "I'm sure—"

"Sam."

Her smile faded as she looked up at a taller figure.

"And Gally." Minho's eyes flashed to the boy.

Gally gave him a nod. "Minho."

"Sam." Another voice. Her mom's.

"Mom." Sam gave her a nod too. "Lovely reunion."

Her mom didn't reply to that and commanded another boy to follow her inside her office. That honestly pleasured Sam more than it should have.

"What brings you here?" Minho folded his arms.

Sam swallowed (holy shit his veins were not bad). "I could ask you the same thing. I thought you were gonna do better this year."

"Just a little mistake can't miss, can it?" He looked at Gally again. "And you?"

"Pushed a kid."

"Typical."

"Offensive," the boy shot back.

Minho was looking at Sam again, curiosity spread over his face. "Need to negotiate with your mom?"

She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. "No, with yours."

He barely seemed impressed. "Funny. What rule did our nerd break?" 

"Blamed myself for having a pack of cigarettes in our dorm," she said.

"Are there any couple miscommunications here? Do I need to get y'all a couple therapy sessi—"

"Shut up, Gally," Minho snapped.

"Just sayin'. I've seen happier couples. Ah, it's my turn." He got up once Sam's mom appeared again. "Hope to see you again, Sam."

The second the door closed Minho sat down on Gally's place. "What did he want?"

"To recreate my book scenes. We're doing it tomorrow night."

Minho's sigh proved he had enough already.

"Hey, if you're so moody, why don't you go to bed? I'm not asking for your presence."

"And since when are we enemies," he leaned closer, "while we're supposed to be dating?"

"Since I found out you're kind of a prick and we might not fit together as good as we thought," she said.

"Well, if you want this to work," he leaned even closer, his voice chancing to a low whisper, "you better act like you like me. That's the whole point of fake dating, Samuel. Pretend."

She lay her hand on his thigh, the annoyance somewhat bursting off her face. "Sure. I'll pretend."

His hand tried to wipe hers off, but she wouldn't allow him and pressed down on his thigh even harder. "Touching my thigh isn't gonna show people more of our," Minho coughed, "so called love."

"Oh, yes it is."
And when the door opened, Sam got up so roughly her elbow was forced to smash against Minho's stomach. Cough, 'forced'.

"My apologies, Honey." She patted him on his head. Damn, this was way more fun than pretending to be in love. Teasing Minho. "But I've got to go. Hope that leaves more room for your ego."

Slightly proud, she walked into her mom's office.

Yeah, you could expect her grin disappeared after that.