grape flavor

five

"here's your grape drink, as usual," the male grins,
plopping down beside yerim while
placing the bottle of drink in front of the girl,
who is burying her nose in the
pile of worksheets before her.
"study hard," he says, as she looks up from her work, shooting him a scowl.

"math is hard, i swear, it is the death of me," she whines, uncapping the drink to take a sip
to calm her nerves down,
that have been triggered by the different mathematical formulas,
"how the heck are you even doing advanced math?"

"guess i'm a genius at math," he shrugs his shoulders, peering at her work, before pointing
out a careless mistake
of hers, chuckling as she grumbles out
in frustration, rubbing her
answer away as the male guides her from the top again.

with her finals coming, yerim is doomed for she
has been failing her math tests for the
entire year, and to promote
to the next level, she needs to at least have a decent pass for math but math and her simply can't get
along. their relationship
is worse than jeongguk and hers, at the start.

"fuck this," she swears under her breath,
throwing her pen down against the book,
slumping against her chair, while shutting her eyes. jeongguk laughs, as he nudges her foot, cheering her
on.

"come on, if i can do it, and graduate from school in a few weeks, so can you," he states, as she
arches an eyebrow at his statement,
the corners of her lips curving downwards
slightly at the mention of his upcoming graduation.

"you take fucking advanced math," she grumbles,
rolling her eyes, while thinking
of his graduation. in a few weeks' time,
the male will no longer be bugging her as he used to,
he won't be around to treat her to grape drinks or help her with her math work,
or even make fun of her careless mistakes.
everything will be different without jeon jeongguk,
and she suddenly realizes how lonely how she will be.

"yerim, yerim!"

she raises her head, as the male's loud voice breaks
her train of thoughts, as she dumbly replies,
"yeah?"

"are you alright? you've been spacing out for like two minutes," he points out,
looking at her worriedly while reaching forward,
placing his hand on her forehead, to check for a fever, which is rather ridiculous to her.

"i'm good," she mumbles, feeling the sudden drop in her mood. as she spins the pen, yerim looks
at jeongguk, who is still checking for a fever.
"jeon, will you forget about
me when you head off to university?"

her question catches the male
by surprise, as he widens his eyes slightly, and somehow, he never pictures her as the one, to be asking question in relation to his graduation.
"no, never."

"how sure you can be? i mean,
you will meet tons of new people there, and i'm
still a kid, in high school, while you're
an adult, meeting matured people, matured
girls. why will you even remember me?"

"because matured ladies aren't exactly my style,
if you're worried about that. and next,
the university that i'm going to
is just a few streets down from here. heck,
i be waiting for you outside your school gate as usual, and trust me,
you be regretting asking me this."

yerim stares at the male for a few seconds,
hearing her heart thumping wildly,
and loudly, before lowering her gaze back onto the books as the numbers and alphabets of the question
begin to float around.
she's aware that of her feelings for the male,
somehow, along the way, she has fallen for the male
and yet, she does not want to tell him, for she's afraid that their friendship may change
for a worse.  

"okay," she replies softly, pushing all sorts
of thoughts away to focus on her work
when jeongguk asks her  a question, that catches her by surprise too.

"will you forget about me, and start
looking for some other dudes to hang out with and
fight over grape drinks?"

yerim laughs softly, shaking her head as she looks at him, "heck, no. trust me, jeon.
you be the only male i will spend my time and
effort to fight over grape drink.
other males can just kiss their  ass goodbye for
touching what's mine."

"tell me if they do, because i hate it
if they touch or fight over what's mine too," he states, and unknowingly, his statement
has a second meaning. jeongguk then
adds on, "and you know,  i'm always one call away, right? i'm not that far, so don't worry yerim."

"i'm not."

"liar."

"i swear!"

"pft, you ain't that good at lying, especially to me!"

yerim scoffs, not knowing what to reply
as she scribbles down a number as an answer.

"wrong."

"what the fuck. this is my third time doing it,"
she hisses, throwing her eraser at the male,
who catches it easily.

"math, or perhaps, calculus.
just bring the power  down and minus one, idiot.
not let the power remain."

yerim stares at her workings,
before making an 'o' shape with her mouth.

"goodness, drink more milk instead,
it helps to boost your intelligence."

"oh shut up. just graduate now."