Mystery Girl

First Love 1

Tae's POV

There was a girl I had fallen in love with before. Well, that is what I believed it was at the time. Now, I reflect on the naivety of the situation, the way I let her wrap me around her finger and use me to get what she wanted. We met in school when I was 14, I was young and uninterested in love, instead, spending my days with my school friends, reading comics, and playing down the park.

She joined my year from another school, and at first, I was unaware of her presence, going about my usual business and chatting with my friends about frivolous trends and irrelevant arguments. Eventually, our chatter centred onto the topic of girls, some of the boys blushing as they murmur about their crushes. One of my friends mentioned the girl and how pretty she was.

After hearing his excited blabbering about her pretty features and nice smile, I was curious to see the girl for myself. I didn't let my friends on about my intentions to get close to the girl myself, and so we walked down the hallway to class, giggling about nothing and playfully shoving each other before entering the classroom that I had become so familiar with. 

Sure enough, after scanning the classroom for new faces, my eyes landed upon a girl I had never seen before. Her hair was long and straight, halfway down her back, the black reflecting the light of the classroom. Sensing eyes on her, she then turned around and I was met with her dark brown eyes, that seemed to be looking right through mine. They were almond-shaped and fit her face well, the type of eyes that are easy for someone to get lost in. 

Noticing that I wasn't instantly looking away like she expected, the girl smiled softly, her lips pulling up slightly, revealing small dimples in her cheeks. Blushing, I had smiled back before turning away, not used to the feeling of my heartbeat pulsing with such vigour against the walls of my chest. 

Suddenly self-conscious, I looked around me to assure that my friends hadn't noticed my sappy behaviour, letting my shoulders relax when I saw a couple of them having a friendly argument whilst the rest of the group hyped them up, laughing and cheering. 

Wanting to escape from the girl's confused stare, I had strolled over to my friends and joined in with their scuffle like I would usually do, except, my gaze kept travelling over to the girl as she sat talking politely with another girl, seemingly starting to make friends here already. 

From that day on, I made sure to scan every room I entered to catch a glimpse of the girl. In class, I would watch her from across the classroom, as subtly as one can in a class full of people, at lunch, I would watch her grab her food from the cafeteria before heading towards a table with a small group of new friends, smiling when she laughed at one of their jokes. I even waited for a little after school, so that I could watch her walk past, completely oblivious to my obsession.

After about a week or so of doing this, those around me started to become suspicious. My friends would nudge me in the corridor after I had watched the girl walk past without blinking. They would whisper to me questions about what I was looking at and whether I liked the girl. When I came home a little later, my grandma would raise her eyebrows at me and attempt to subtly ask why I wasn't coming home so early anymore.

Maybe I was behaving better, maybe I was becoming more smiley, I don't know, but my grandma definitely picked up on it quickly. Way faster than I had realised at the time. One night at dinner, she spoke from a moment of quiet thought. I had been stuffing ramen into my mouth and paused to look up at her as the words fell from her mouth. 

"Tae, I think you should talk to her." Choking, I placed my chopsticks down. My voice was a squeak and I could feel my palms sweating. "The girl that you like, don't play dumb with me mister. I can tell you like someone." In the moment, all I could think about was how embarrassing it was to have a conversation like this with my grandma. 

So, with a little nod and an "Of course, I will try my best.", I stood up and excused myself from the table. I rarely did this, when I was younger than 10, many a time I had stood up to leave and been scolded for leaving the dinner table without permission. After a while, waiting until I was allowed to leave became a habit of mine and only special occasions saw me walk away without asking. 

This was one of those times. I half-expected my grandma to be angry and call after me, but as I left the room, I could hear her turn back to eating, letting me leave. Even though my heart was racing and my pride was hurt, not being told off was a bonus for me. It made what I was feeling slightly better. 

The next morning, I had woken up with an objective. I had a mission to complete that day, and I had every intention of fulfilling it. I was going to talk to the girl. I was going to say hi and then introduce myself, and then hopefully get her name and if that was the extent of the conversation, so be it. However, if all went well and the conversation went further, maybe we could become friends?

The voices inside my head had sneered at me. Fourteen years old and still can't talk to the girls he likes. She is too mature for you anyway, leagues ahead, you're way above your station. The negative thoughts had continued to swirl through my mind, but I was determined. I was determined to complete my mission.

(1013 words)

Author's Note

Hiiiii! How is everyone? Lil detour, thought that I would fill you guys in about the backstory to the girl Tae liked before that Jimin mentioned back in the fan-signing. Tell me what you thought about this chapter and vote if you enjoyed it. Love you guys 💜