y/n pov

a loud bang on the table filled my ears, causing me to jolt up from my quick classroom slumber. out of reflex, i punched whoever was in front of me, and half awake, i laid my head back on the table.

an inhumane groan came from the ground, mumbling curses and yelping out ouches. he then sat on his seat which was in front of mine, leaning on my table.

"what was that for?" he mumbled in complaint, putting his chin on my table.

"hmm, for disturbing my sleep, gyu." i replied, burying my head deeper into my arms.

"oh yeah? what if i tell you the teacher would come in five minutes and you look really messy. like, really messy."

i quickly got up and check the classroom clock far behind only to see that it was still fifteen minutes until the first class. a high-pitched laughter immediately came from him, and i turned towards him as i scowled.

"oooh i'm gonna kick your ass later, mister." i approached him and playfully hit him on the head before sitting down, exhaling a really long breath.

"damn, you hit me too many times already." he chuckled, complaining cutely as my attention went elsewhere.

"hey, um... have you written it?"
"what?"
"you know... your crush's name."
"hey!"
"sorry. have you??"
"not yet, i was planning on buying a new eraser first."
"ooooh, raising your luck, huh?"
then they chuckled when suddenly beomgyu poked my shoulders.

"what're you looking at?" he asked, curious.

"nothing." i bluntly lied as i took out my stuff from my bag.

you see, in this school, we have this cute little belief. if you write your crush's name on your eraser, he or she will like you back.

yeah, i know, kind of stupid right?

but believe it or not, a lot of cute love stories happened because of this. some even ended up married.

so, ever since then, a lot of students in this school wrote their crush's name on their eraser, almost everyone did. but sometimes it became a disadvantage. wanna know why?

because you could see who their crush is by simply opening the paper cover of the eraser. that's why i never wrote mine on my eraser. because i knew someone would see it then make fun of me.

and all i want to do is just to survive high school.

just as i started to wander off into my thoughts, the school bell rang just in time for the teacher to walk in. i snapped out, quickly opening my notebook when the teacher said her greetings.

"have fun studying." beomgyu suddenly looked back, sarcastically giving me a word of encouragement after we greeted our teacher back.

i tilted my head up in surprise, beomgyu smiling warmly at me. i got flustered from his sudden pep talk, and i just simply replied, "yeah, you too."

i flashed him a smile before sitting down, hiding my red face.

little did i know, a pair of eyes were watching us.

_

as days passed, i couldn't help but to think about the conversation i eavesdropped on the other day.

"ooooh, raising your luck, huh?"

that final line drived me insane. as i laid down on my fluffy bed, i stared at my phone as i scrolled down my timeline.

but i still couldn't get it out of my head.

"ugh, fine!" i groaned out to myself, walking over to my study desk as i took out my eraser from my pencil case, taking out the paper cover.

i took my pen and slowly wrote the name of the person i liked. then i sighed, wondering as to why i eventually did the stupid belief.

choi beomgyu. it wrote.

slightly smiling, i covered the eraser again with its paper cover, tidying up my desk before throwing myself onto my bed again.

"let's hope this works." i mumbled, feeling at ease as i opened my phone again when suddenly a notification came in.

i frowned at the fact that a message from an unknown number just came into my phone. and i never gave my phone number to anyone in school. i hesitantly opened the message.

unknown
hey! pls come to the gym after school
tom. we need to talk about sth

you
umm im sorry who's this?

unknown
it's aena , i want to ask you
abt sth. is that okay ?

you
yeah sure i'll come :)

unknown
omg thanks !! <3

you
np sis

there was a weird feeling lingering in my stomach, but i decided to go there since aena sat behind me. it didn't hurt to visit her. right?

_

as my mind wandered off to the text message i exchanged with aena since it was almost after school, beomgyu suddenly snapped me out of it, swiftly turning to face me.

"yo, have you done your homework?" he whispered, desperation obvious in his tone. i scowled at what he said.

"um, the one due tomorrow?"

"no, due right now."

"tell me you haven't done it." i teased.

"well, you just stated the obvious?"

i scoffed and rolled my eyes at his stupid attitude when the teacher hollered from across the room, "beomgyu! y/n! clean the classroom after school!"

we replied in unison, "yes sir."

i internally groaned since beomgyu was the one who caused it in the first place. he caught eyes to what i did, and he said a simple sorry before looking forward again.

and finally, the bell rang.

i almost banged my head on the table, hair covering almost the entire table as i tried to calm down. i felt a soft tap on my shoulder and i saw beomgyu offering to hand in the homework for me.

i gave in and eventually got up in exhaustion, giving him the homework as i put all the chairs in.

yeah, no one ever does that.

i got suddenly reminded of aena's request, sighing contently before making up an excuse to get out of the classroom, "gyu, i need to go to the toilet first. i'll come back okay?" i said as i exited the classroom. of course, i left my stuff there so beomgyu wouldn't suspect a thing.

i quickly jogged towads the gym, and i quietly opened the door to prevent echoes, but i wasn't able to see a presence of any human being there.

the vast gym felt empty without its students, and i didn't know where to walk to so i ended up in the center, looking around me as my gut feeling says there's something wrong.

i felt a really harsh pang on my back in a flash, followed by the coldness of water seeping through my uniform onto my skin. i shivered and flinched as more water balloons came right at me.

after a few of them, it stopped. but what came after was sinister laughter that made goosebumps crawl all over my skin even more.

"wh-wha-"

"oooh shh, don't worry, it's just ice water." the familiar voice of aena sarcastically told, and i caught eyes on her face, but this time she looked... different.

along with some girls circling around me, she folded her arms and help up an eyebrow. "you deserved it anyways." she retorted and let out a dark chuckle.

"aena you-"

"look, if you ever lay your hands on the boy sitting in front of you again, i will make sure that i throw water balloons at you in front of the whole school." she threathened as she walked closer to me with confidence.

"what ar-"

"oh of course you know who i'm talking about."

her short figure somehow towered over my shivering body, and i gulped in nervousness because i actually knew who she was talking about.

"don't act so innocent, slut."

"who are you calling slut?!"

the door banged close really loudly, its echoes rang in my ears. aena slightly flinched at the person who just yelled at her from the door and purposely threw it close.

"b-beomgyu?" slight fear was laced in her tone, eyes wide as she stuttered in shock.

he stomped furiously towards her, up to the point where each step he made banged and echoed throughout the gym. the more he got closer, the more aena shook. as she started to step back, he grabbed her wrist with all his might.

"it's her right to do whatever she wants, aena. you have no right to stop her from doing what she wants. i think you're the real slut here." he scolded, and aena was in a verge of crying.

but surprisingly, beomgyu's harsh stare softened, and he sighed as he let go of her arm. "don't be a slut again, please." he requested gently. aena looked at him in disbelief, and eventually left the gym panicly along with her friends.

now i was alone in the gym with him.

he stood there for a while, staring elsewhere with a lot of thoughts in his head. but after a while, he ran towards me and looked at me in concern.

"you okay?" as he asked, he urgently took off his blazer and wrapped it around me before i could react.

his gesture would've made me blush, but due to the fact that i was covered in ice water, my cheeks were too pale to even show any tint of color.

"y-yeah, thanks gy-gyu." i said while shivering, my teeth gritted together.

"no problem."

"anyways, how did you find me here?" i suddenly thought of how he got here in the first place, and he looked down at his feet before staring right into me.

"i was kinda worried, you were going to the toilet for too long." he shrugged, smiling warmly.

"oh... sorry about that by the way."

he went silent at my apology, stepping backwards a little to pull out something from his pocket. he looked at what was in his hand, i furrowed my eyebrows as i got curious.

then he playfully threw the object in the air, landing safely in his grip. my eyes grew wider at the object.

my eraser.

"h-how did you-"

"well before i went out to look for you, i took it." he casually replied, staring at my eraser as he played with it.

"did you, um... see inside?" because if he did, i'm doomed.

"why don't you look at mine to find out?" beomgyu threw another eraser at me that seemed to come out of nowhere. but thanks to my reflex, i managed to catch it.

i hesitated for a moment, looking between his eraser and him, over and over again. i eventually sighed, both hands holding the eraser as i slowly opened the cover.

he anticipated it with a smile, and as soon as i saw the name, i looked up to him and returned his smile.

because it had my name on it.