MISSION: Love

+ five +

I put on my face mask and made sure it was placed nicely. I exhaled heavily and plopped myself on the bed, opening a book to read. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. I frowned and closed my eyes before hearing, "Hana! Can you please open the door?! I'm having an online seminar with my students!" My mother yelled from her office room. I got off the bed and hurried downstairs towards the entrance door.

As soon as the door opened, my eyes widened when I saw Jay standing in front of me with a container of desserts. He looked at me up and down, "My mom told me to give these desserts she made to the neighbours..."

He was too speechless to see me with a facial mask. He was scrutinising my cartoon pyjamas before averting his attention to somewhere else. I snatched the desserts and slammed the door close in front of his face. "Mom!" I ran upstairs, panicking. My mother went out of her office with a frown on her face, "What's with all the shouting?"

"Never tell me to go open the door to strangers ever again! I'm so embarrassed! Shit! Shit! He saw me in this state!"

"Who?"

"Jay! It was Jay!"

"Who's Jay?" My mother asked as she watched me storm into my room and locked the door. I took off my facial mask and laid down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. I could feel my cheeks reddening and warming up. Why do I feel so embarrassed like this? It's not like I have a crush on him that I feel the need to always look pretty.

Park Jay. What are you doing to me right now?

"Fucking jerk," I cursed under my breath and closed my eyes.

💌

The next day was the last day to practice Jay's talk. I waited at the usual place I would always eat during recess and silently read my book. He was probably busy playing with his friends. To my surprise, he did come with his flashcards that contained his talk. I averted my attention to his friends that were following behind him. They all looked like little ducklings following their mother.

"What are they all doing here?" I asked as I gave his friend confused looks. "We're planning to play volleyball after this so I thought in the meantime, they can stay and listen to my talk?"

I nodded and arched an eyebrow, recognizing some of them since they were also my classmates. But some of them were from other classes so I only knew them by their faces and not their names.

"Can we join, Hana?" One of them asked in fear. I chuckled, "Of course. Why are you scared?"

"Because you look scary and we feel like you don't enjoy us joining Jay."

My smile faded and I touched my cheek, contemplating his words. I glanced at Jay, asking myself if I really looked too scary. "She doesn't look scary, Jungwon. She looks nice to me," Jay said as he continued reading his flashcards.

That was it. The only sentence that could make my heart burst at any moment. I wanted to run around the school and shout, scream, roll around the floor and jump off the building. My cheeks started to redden and I looked away to maintain a composed expression.

"Here," Jay said as he placed my favourite candies on the table, "These were the last ones I found at the shop. Your friends said you like these candies so I thought I'd buy them as a 'thank you' for being my mentor."

"Thanks," I said quietly as I took the candies. My lips slowly curved into a small smile as I felt a garden of roses bloom in my heart.

I hate falling in love too quickly. Because I found myself falling in love with him. Too soon.

It was finally the awaited lesson. The teacher arrived early in our classroom and wanted to get straight into the talk. She grinned at me before saying, "How about we have Jay start first? I want to see whether he has improved on his pronunciation or not."

Jay gave me a worried look. I smiled and assured him that it was going to be fine. He went to the front and held his flashcards with his trembling hands. The teacher sighed and looked at me, "Why don't you stand next to him, Hana?"

No! It won't be good for my heart.

I cleared my throat nervously and went to stand next to him. He was so nervous that he dropped his flashcards. I immediately squatted down to help him but stopped when our hands touched. We both stared at each other for a while before standing up properly. The teacher narrowed her eyes and asked, "Hana, do you like him or something?"

"No! No, teacher! I'm just helping him as a mentor," I lied. I saw Ahrin giving me weird looks but decided not to ask. I backed away and assured Jay to start. He took a deep breath and started talking about the history of basketball and why it was one of the best sports.

After five minutes of his talk, he thanked everyone for listening and looked at me before smiling brightly. My heart melted and I clapped my hands, cheering for him.

"I can see that he has improved so much. Good job, Hana. You both will get full marks."

He approached me before giving me a high-five. I stared at my palm that touched his hand for a while. I smiled and went back to my seat.

💌

"Hana, can I ask you something?" Ahrin asked as we both walked through the hallway. She took a deep breath, "Do you like Jay?"

"What? No!"

"You can't lie to me. I've known you for years already. I saw the way you looked at him."

There was no way I could lie to her. She knew everything about me. I sighed and pouted, "I don't know. People won't believe me if I say I do like him."

"I couldn't believe it at first but I wouldn't judge you. Did something happen during the mentor session? What made you fall in love with him?"

I smiled softly at the question and answered, "He was unexpectedly kind. He wasn't what people describe him to be. He was–"

My eyes widened when I saw Yurin and him standing together in an empty hallway. He was lowering his gaze to hide the blush that was forming on his cheeks. I stopped walking to listen to their conversation and widened my eyes in shock when I heard him say, "I've liked you for a long time, Yurin. And I hope you can accept my feelings."

"I feel the same way about you too," Yurin smiled. Ahrin's lips curved into a frown as she put her arm on my shoulders. She immediately brought me away from there, "Let's go have some fun, hm? You don't need him anyway, Hana. It's okay."