Hello Stranger

Part 5- "You like him, don't you?"

1231 words

"You like him, don't you?"

Your stomach dropped at his simple question, your binder hitting inside of the locker harshly as it tumbled out of your fingers.
"W-What?"
"Hyunjin, you have a crush on him right?" You cleared your throat, pulling out your math notebook.

"I don't."

"You totally do!" Minho laughed in disbelief, surprised that you would even dare deny it after the scene that played out in front of him.
"Why do you care?" you huffed out, slamming your locker shut.
"Because if I didn't know any better, I would have assumed that you were uncomfortable around him and I would have gotten us out of that awkward situation," he explained calmly, checking his watch. "But then your face started turning all red and it became obvious that that's why you were stutter-"

"Okay okay, no need to go into detail, it was embarrassing enough," you hid your face and turned around, heading in the direction of your math class.

"...I thought it was cute." he mumbled under his breath.
"What?"
"What?"
"Are you going to ask him to the formal?" He quickly asked, brushing off his earlier statement and following behind you.
"I don't know, I can barely talk to him..." you hugged your binders to your chest, suddenly feeling shy at the thought of even talking to Hyunjin. How were you going to get through study hall?

"Just pretend he was me," Minho suggested, grinning as you scoffed at him.
"Oh, so you want me to yell at him?"
"Hey!" He faked a butthurt expression and crossed his arms while you laughed. "I'm really not that bad."

"I know."

Those two words that escaped your lips caused an inexplicable rush of giddiness to surge through Minho's body, and you failed to notice the way his cheeks darkened as he followed you into math class.

...

You could do this.

All you had to do was sit down at the table in the far corner of the library, the one next to the window that let the soft light of the overcast sky into the room. It was a very simple task, and it would be very easy to perform as well.

That is, if a certain blonde haired boy wasn't sitting 3 feet away from any seat you decide to pick.

Hyunjin sat at the wooden table, eyes focused on his laptop in front of him as he chewed on his bottom lip. His fingers glided across the keys for a split moment before he turned his gaze to the window, admiring the somewhat gloomy scenery.

You checked your phone.
Oh shoot, you were already five minutes late.

Some unknown force pushed you into walking towards him, sneakers timidly meeting the carpeted floor as to not alert him that you were drawing nearer.

"Just pretend he was me."

You slid into the chair across from Hyunjin, tossing your bag on the floor and placing your laptop on the table in front of you. His face seemed to relax at your presence, letting a sigh leave his lips as he tilted his computer screen.
"I was starting to think you had bailed on me," he chuckled, watching you take various things out from your bag.
"I could never do that," you smiled at him, and his eyes disappeared into little crescents, filling your stomach with little butterflies. He glanced down at your laptop.

"Were you able to get anything done?" he whispered, nodding towards the black lid of the computer.
"No...have you?"
"I keep rewriting the first sentence."

You both laughed, relieved and also feeling a bit hopeless as you seemed to have your work cut out for yourselves, which happened to be a lot.

Hyunjin reopened his computer lid and sighed, tapping away on the keyboard.
"We better get started then huh," he glanced between his screen and your face.
"Yeah, chronic procrastination can only go so far," you chuckled, and he tried his best to hide another smile.

He was right.
It was a study date after all.
Just getting schoolwork done, nothing else.

But a second later he looks up at you, eyes full of wonder and mischief, and you can't help but humor yourself with the idea that those weren't his only intentions.

...

"Soooooooo how did your study date go?" Jiyoung chimed, practically skipping down the hallway as you walked alongside her.
"I think it went great," you let out a childish squeal, and Jiyoung joined in, both of you sounding like a group of middle school girls at a slumber party.
"Tell me everything." she drawled, and you complied, easily listing out the events of the afternoon.

"...and he started to tell me something about his dad's company stock and I pretended not to know, because let's be honest everyone in the school knows that Minho's dad is a computer software engineer-"
"Wait, wait," Jiyoung interrupted, eyes squinting at your rambling. "Minho? The cute boy from the roof?"
"Who said anything about Minho?" you quirked an eyebrow at her and she stopped walking.
"You did," she said slowly. "You just said Minho's dad is a software engineer-"
"Did I? I meant Hyunjin, anyways-"

"Why are you thinking about Minho, hmm?" Jiyoung walks closer to you with a sly grin on her face, at which you turn around and speed walk to the door.
"Oh no, I know better than to start this conversation with you," you push the door open, the slightly chilly air greeting your face harshly as you step outside.
"Why is he on your mind y/n? Yah!" she jogs to try to meet your pace but you weren't having it, breaking into a sprint towards the school parking lot. You couldn't answer that question, especially when you didn't know the answer yourself.

The low rumble of a onyx Dodge Challenger pulling up to the curb brings a smile to your face, knowing that you could evade Jiyoung's pestering questions, at least for today. You jogged up to the window, tapping on the tinted glass for the driver to roll down.

"Well you're not my sister," the cheery eyed boy snickered, and you greet him with a smile.
"Good to see you too Changbin," you laughed, and gestured towards his relative that was barreling towards his automobile. "Care to take her off my hands?" He didn't miss the look of desperation in your eyes and granted your wish immediately, tapping on the horn twice to tell Jiyoung to get inside.

She catches up to you two, cherry-faced and lacking oxygen.

"You're...so lucky...I don't...take the bus," she panted, swinging the passenger door open frustratedly.
"Have a nice day Changbin!" you yell to the boy before turning on your heel and leaving, mentally chuckling at Jiyoung's annoyed mumbling.

The walk to the nearest bus stop seemed longer than usual. Perhaps it was because you were admiring the scenery. Maybe your walking had slowed to match the pace of the lofi beats that crackled in your ears. It could have been that you went out of your way to step on every leaf that seemed crunchy enough to demolish using your beaten up converse.

Or maybe, you were meandering as much as your mind was, desperately trying to find a good reason as to why the boy from the roof had been plaguing your thoughts so much recently.