What Are We Searching For, Really?

7.

—3;39pm.

"Pack your things up now. It's the end of lesson. Have a good winter break!"

I cheered as the class broke into chatter. Finally, no more math and English.

"Won!" Mason called from the other side of the table as we packed our bags. "Let's go down together." He gestured to everyone else in his gang in our math class. I scanned the corridor outside the classroom -nope, Levi wasn't waiting for Mason.

For some reason, although he was Mason's closest friend, he wasn't in the popular group.

"Eh?" I zipped up my bag hastily, feeling too awkward to walk down with Austin-he was giving me a reproachful look, his head slightly tilted upwards.

I gulped.

"Umm...I have to head to my locker! To put down my books. So I'll head off alone," I babbled, taking a step forward to run.

Mason stretched his long ass hand and caught my bag deftly before I ran for it. "Nope, nu-uh. It's on the way. Let's go."

"Ey, Mason. We have uh...something to ask the teacher, right guys??" Daniel shoved everyone else a little too hard and grinned, murmurs and oofs coming from the crowd.

"Yeah, yeah, you guys go on," Brian said in a rush, pushing everyone towards the teacher's desk. "We'll catch up later-"

"No, I don't have anything to s-" Austin immediately got shouted over by his friends, practically trampled over and dragged away from us. I bit back a laugh and Mason shrugged, pushing me on. "Come on, hurry up Ms. Lee."

I jabbed his arm with my elbow and strode away, trying to get away from his monstrous long limbs. "Shut up, Seok."

He stayed silent as we walked down the stairs, weaving through the loud crowd easily since we unfortunately attracted a lot of attention and murmurs, and headed down to where my locker was.

As soon as we were in a less populated place, I started rambling. "Did you see those faces on the stairs? Their gestures? They all think we're god damn dating. What the hell? Even your friends are in this? Like, look at them lie about having to ask the teacher something they obviously wanted us to go alone. What a bunch of bad liars. Plus-"

"Chill, it's not like they're wrong about us dating," Mason cut in a little bit too loudly.

Everyone's eyes fixated on us and my hand froze in place, unable to open my locker.

"What the hell??" I shoved Mason away forcefully, kicking his shin. "Do you think that's funny?!"

My heart was jabbing painfully quickly at my rib cage and I thought my legs were going to melt from how tingly they felt. I almost clawed at my chest. What the hell is happening to me??

"Oh, it's just a joke," he threw back his head and laughed loudly, as if he didn't care at all about the people staring at him.

"Shut up!" I growled, slamming my locker open and shoving my books in. "You're not funny! Fucking jerk. Couldn't you have at least spoken a little softer?"

"Oh?" he teased, his lips curling up into a grin. "What's this? You didn't want our secret getting out?"

"NO!" I swung my backpack at him, knocking him perfectly in the face. "You could be quieter in general, you loud idiot."

"Nah." He leaned against a locker a few lockers away, huffing out warmness into the cold air and rubbing his cheek where I slammed my bag in. "Why should I try to be better when people already love me?"

I glared at him as intimidatingly as I could, closing my locker and fixing my passcode. "Yeah, more like everyone loves your looks."

Mason openly flinched and ducked his head down. My head suddenly started hurting, a buzzing noise ringing in my ears going on and off. What the hell is wrong with me??