MISSION: Love

+ four +

I held Jay's umbrella tightly as I walked through the hallway. My heart started to beat rapidly when I realised I was getting closer to the classroom. I stopped at the doorway and peeked inside, seeing him copying Sunghoon's homework.

"Are you not going in?" A familiar voice asked from behind. I jumped in surprise when the owner's voice was Heeseung. He waited for me to stand aside so that he could walk into the room. He glanced at me and then searched for the person I was staring at. I was too clueless about what he was doing until he gasped loudly.

"You like him!" He screamed in shock. I widened my eyes and looked at Jay who was already giving us weird looks. I grabbed Heeseung's hand and pulled him away from there to avoid any more embarrassment. We both went to an empty hallway and exhaled heavily.

"Since when?!" He asked again. I took a deep breath, "Three years ago."

"Wait, wasn't that when Jay and Yurin started dating?"

"I know," I brushed my fingers through my hair. I felt stressed that one of Jay's friends knew one of my deepest secrets. I was afraid Heeseung would either tell him or think I was a bad friend for liking my best friend's boyfriend.

"How did you even like him?"

His question made me think for a while. When I recalled the memories where I started falling for him, I smiled. Heeseung rolled his eyes, "I guess you remembered, huh?"

"It started when..."

[ three years ago ]

"Okay, class. I want you to prepare a talk about any topic and present it to the whole class. The talk must be three to five minutes. I hope this task helps you to build confidence so that you can talk in public without pissing yourself," the English teacher explained.

I chuckled and thought about what topic I was going to talk about. I began writing the topics in my notebook when the teacher suddenly said, "Jay, I want you to get a mentor. I know you can talk but sometimes your pronunciation and grammar is not good. Let me see," she examined the whole class until her eyes landed on me.

"Ah, Hana! I hope you can be Jay's mentor and help him improve on his public talk. If he fails, I'll fail you too. So you have to make sure he succeeds in the task. I frowned and glared at him. I had never even talked to him let alone taught him something.

He was this guy who didn't complete his homework and always skipped school whenever they held extra activities. And I have better things to do than listening to his bullshit. I raised my hand before asking, "What if he doesn't cooperate, teacher?"

"Well then, tell me when he does that. I'll deduct his classroom marks."

Jay gave me a death stare before mouthing, "Fuck you."

I grinned, "Fuck you too."

A few hours later, I sat alone and ate my sandwich since Ahrin had a netball practice. I sighed and closed my eyes, "He won't even come to me to practice for his talk. Screw him."

Suddenly, I could feel someone blocking the sunlight from me. I opened my eyes and saw Jay standing in front of me with a paper in his hand. He sat next to me and showed me the paper. He had written all the topics he thought would be great for public talk.

"You really like basketball, huh?"

"Yeah," he smiled, "I like volleyball also but basketball is just my thing."

I nodded and chuckled as he grinned widely when he talked about something he loved. "Let's go with that. It's easier to talk about something you love," I said and put my things on the table. We both started writing things to talk about basketball and the facts.

"Thank you for helping me," he smiled softly before the school bell rang, signalling it was time for the next class. He left me at the table and I watched as his figure disappeared from my sight. I didn't know what was happening. I felt my heart beating at an unusual pace. I touched my chest and exhaled heavily to calm it down.

I would never like him. He was definitely not my type. I am the type to obey the teachers' orders, score every time exams are held and never disobey the school rules. He was the type to play around and get bad grades. So if I like him, what would happen?

No, that would be ridiculous. I brushed away the thoughts and gathered my things before heading back to class.