"Minho?"
"Typical. I'm too tired to explain what happened, just ask him yourself." James responded.
"Never mind," I muttered.
Why would he do that though, he's mad at me right? I think? Anyways, what time is it?
"James, what time is it?
He grinned. "It's time for you to love me," he said, forming a beating heart sign with his hands. I blinked at him with zero amusement. He noticed. He chuckled awkwardly, checked his watch, and said, "It's almost 1:30 PM."
What? It's still that early? I thought it was nighttime already. No wonder I told Nana I barely eat during dinner—turns out it's still lunch.
""Hey, shouldn't you be in class right now?" I asked.
"Nah. I'd rather be here." He replied.
"And why's that?"
"I wanna spend time with you."
"Eww. Idiot. Stay away from her," Nana said as she entered the room with a tray of food in hand.
"I was kidding!" James defended.
"Back to class, James."
"I'll think about it."
Nana narrowed her eyes at him. He sighed. "Fine. Bye, Elise."
Once James left, I stood up from the bed.
"Where are you going?" Nana asked.
"I should be in class." I responded.
"You sure you're feeling okay?"
"Yep. Back to 100%."
"Alright, and your food?"
"Oh right... I— Can you put it in the fridge for me, Nana?"
"Sure, sure. Take care, girlie."
I left the room and made my way to school. At the gate, I spotted James again.
"James?"
"Oh, hi, Elise."
"Why haven't you gone in yet?"
"If I walk in now, I'll be marked late."
"Oh..." I awkwardly looked away. This felt like one of those cliché slow moments in a drama.
"You're so cute."
"Seriously?"
"It's true," he shrugged.
"Whatever." I tried to look annoyed, but the way he smiled—ugh. I might've smiled a little, too.
"Guys, what are you doing here?" We both turned to see Mr. Saejima approaching us.
"Sir—"
"Oh great, I came to check on you at the dorm, but Naoto said you already left," he said to me, then glanced suspiciously at James. "What are you two doing here?"
"There he goes again," James muttered.
"Actually sir, James said if we go in now, we'll be marked late."
Mr. Saejima raised an eyebrow at James, who just smiled all innocently. "You won't be marked late if you have a valid reason," he said, clearly not buying it. "Elise, go back to class. James, I need to talk to you."
I nodded. As I walked away, I glanced back. James was frowning, probably getting another lecture from his dad. Typical.
...
When I returned to class, Twan rushed up to me. "You okay?"
"I'm fine, Twan."
"Good! And guess what? You're coming with us to the café later!"
"What?" I barely got that out when Minho suddenly appeared, looking mildly irritated that Twan invited me as if I was already part of the group for a long while. "She's coming with us?" he asked.
"Of course she is." Twan replied.
Before I could argue, someone threw an arm around my shoulder. James. Minho scoffed and headed back to his seat, shoving his headphones on dramatically.
"You know, he should really stop wearing those. He's gonna go deaf," James said, then snatched the headphones off Minho's head and bolted.
"HEY!" Minho chased after him. The class was now in chaos. I just ignored them and made my way to my desk beside Travis, who was (surprise, surprise) reading. While Twan plopped onto Travis's desk.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Oh nothing," he smirked. "I just think it'd be nice if you got to know us more, so things aren't as weird."
"Get your filthy ass off my desk," Travis muttered without looking up.
Twan snatched his book. "Stop reading and have some fun. Our parents didn't raise nerds."
Travis yanked it back. "Speak for yourself."
"Nerd," Twan whispered.
"I heard that."
Twan grinned. "So, Elise, are you coming or not?"
I sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll go."
"Nice!" he said, then returned to his seat.
The classroom settled again, though I could still feel eyes on me. Hmm. It's been 40 minutes... and still no Mr. Saejima. Or Minho and James.
...
A minute later, finally, they arrived—dragging their feet behind our teacher like they were returning from war.
"So I'm guessing these two troublemakers are getting worse," Mr. Saejima muttered, eyeing them both. "Community service. Clean up the mess you made." Everyone laughed while Minho and James grinned at each other like little devils.
What mess...? I wondered. I glanced at Travis, who—gasp—was actually laughing. I'd never seen him laugh before. It was weirdly... nice? But then he caught me looking and immediately shut it down, turning back to his book like the moment never happened.
"Sorry," I whispered and focused back on my desk.
"Anyway," Mr. Saejima said, "since there's not enough time for football today, we'll head straight to the court after the bell for our last period."
...
When the bell rang, we headed to the court. I was blown away—it was massive. Six basketball hoops. Real pro-level stuff.
"Alright," Mr. Saejima clapped. "Six groups. Count off." The class groaned. "It's to make teams fair," he added.
I ended up in Group Three.
"Group three, over here!" someone shouted. I climbed up the bleachers and spotted Ryan... and Minho.
Of course.
Ryan offered me a kind smile as he scooted to make room on the bench. I took a seat between him and some second-year kid whose name I hadn't caught yet and another third-year kid. James wasn't in my group. Thank God.
Minho, however, looked up just as I sat down. His expression? Annoyed. Great. Just great.
Coach Saejima began explaining the rules of the 3-on-3 match-ups, but I was too distracted. Minho wasn't even pretending to hide his displeasure. He tapped his foot like he was waiting for someone to offer him an escape route. From me.
Still, I wasn't about to let him ruin this. I was here to prove I wasn't just "the girl" in a school full of jocks. Even if I was sweating buckets already. As Coach called each group onto the court for warm-ups, Minho suddenly stood up and looked down at me.
"Just try not to slow us down," he muttered, then hopped off the bleachers.
Oh, that's it. I clenched my fists, determined not to let that smug jerk get to me.
If he wants war, he'll get it...