Prestige

| 16 |

"Amara!" My professor called out as I was walking out of class. I turned around to face him, "Yes?"

"As you might have heard, there is a new student in school, his name is..." I cut him off, "Jaehyu, but you can call him Jae."

"He will be sitting beside you in lessons, and I need you to help him catch up. And do inform him about the creative writing challenge." He instructed me. I nodded in compliance, making a note to tell Jae later. "But there might be an issue with that." Chris added, grabbing my attention.

"And that is?" I asked.

"They might not accept late solo applicants." He explained.

"And what would happen if he agreed to partake in the competition?" I interrogated.

"He might have to pair up with someone." Was all I heard before being dismissed for the promising break. I sighed as I walked down the corridor, only to jump when someone called out my name, "Amara!" I turned around and found Jae walking towards me happily.

"Jae." I whispered his name to myself, a satisfied smirk rose to his face as he stopped in front of me.

"Yeah, hi." He smiled in a jerky manner. I started to feel nervous and small in front of him, this wasn't me, what was happening to me? "Have you seen Z anywhere?" He asked me, looking at me expectantly. I shook my head since I didn't know, "No. Not since this morning, when he was with you." I looked up at him and he looked agitated, "Why?" I asked.

"Just that we have a lot of catching up to do." He briefly explained, looking around and seeming distant. Almost as if he didn't want to actually tell me, not that I desperately wanted to know. I just wanted to know him better.

Out of nowhere, I placed my hand on his chest, bringing his mind down to Earth, or wherever mine was. Our eyes locked as we stared at each other, trying to get closer without actually moving. His lips felt soft against mine and shoved me butterflies into my stomach, it was overwhelming. Without notice or any realisation, he was less than an inch or two away from me. I tried to focus on my breathing but failed since his pink lips brushed against mine lightly. We were moving close to each other until an abrupt sound echoed through the hallway. We both jerked and came back to our senses before running to where the disturbing bang came from, which was from the currently slightly empty gym room.

"How dare you?" Luna practically screamed while Zero held his hand to his face. I looked around and noticed that Talia was the only other person in the room. It looked as if my twin just got slapped by my best friend.

"What's going on here?" Jae asked, while wearing a mixed expression of confusion and irritation.

"He tried to kiss me!" Luna accusingly shouted in response. At that moment, we were all turned speechless.

"Umm why?" Was all Jae could say on behalf of us all.

"She kissed me first two days ago, so I was testing something." He unemotionally answered. I bit my lip, completely confused and taken aback by the drama that was being unfolded.

"Testing something?" Luna loudly questioned in a mocking tone, "You are a fucking dick. I hope you know that. You think that you can just kiss a girl and get away with it? You wouldn't have even let anyone do that to your sister if someone forced her into what you put us both into." She harshly blurted before storming out of the gym. The expression on her face was unfamiliar to me, unrecognisable to any of us. Even Talia was shocked by the sudden outburst. I turned to look at Talia and mouthed to her, asking her to go after Luna, which she quietly did, slipping through the cracks of the tension built by the two.

"Testing what?" Jae asked, as if he knew my brother better than I did and knew there was more that Ro had to say, which was actually the case.

"If her drunk kiss was just a kiss." He whispered loudly. I stood frozen in my place, not knowing how to react to the implicit revelation that he was indeed catching feelings for Luna. I had no idea of what expression I was wearing until my brother rudely called me out for showing my disapproval of the possibility them being a couple, "If that is really how you feel, then don't think about getting close to Jae as anything more than friends." His cold words left us both in a time lapse that we had no way of escaping. I spun on my heels, watching Zero slam the gym door as headed out.

"That was... unexpected." Jae loudly announced, walking to my side.

"You should go after him. I'll deal with Luna." I told myself, loud enough for him to hear.

"Are you against him and Luna dating? If they ever did date each other?" Jae asked, curious more than anything else he could possibly be at this very moment.

I turned to him, "I guess I just didn't want to deal with that. But now I don't know anymore."

He sighed before faintly smiling at me, "People fall in love with each other all the time, but sometimes you can't help but fall for someone unexpected." I looked up at him, "Just promise me to not kill him if he does end up falling for her."

"Why not?" I curiously asked, trying to be mischievous.

"Because I don't like hypocrites and don't want you to ever be scared of falling for someone you like, even if they are your brother's best friend." He explained, clearly knowing about my barely premature crush on him. I blushed as he jokingly said the words, before leaving the gym to go after Zero. I sighed, realising that I owed both my best friend and brother an apology, especially Zero. But first, I had to fix the mess that we managed to entangle ourselves in.