"Can I have my notebook now?"
"No."
"Why?" I grumble as I take a bite of my lunch. I look up to see him ignoring my question and I grunt again.
"Please?" I beg again. I actually missed writing and drawing nonsense in my notebook, my only getaway from the demons - teachers, sorry - in class.
"Only if Jaehyun stops looking at you," he whispers under his breath, I didn't quite catch what he said.
"What?"
He looks up from eating. "Maybe if you stop being ugly, I'll give it back."
"Are you really serious?" I roll my eyes at him and eat my lunch. Joochan victoriously grins.
It seems that the days wherein Joochan notices me and talks to me gets more frequent than before. It was still hard to decipher, especially because I get surprised at times whenever he showed up in my face. My heart never failed to beat faster whenever I'm with him.
I don't even know why I liked him in the first place. Yeah sure, we shared some memorable moments when we were kids. But, I knew it wasn't because we had a background together. I guess it was because he changed. He wasn't that much of a scaredycat now, he wasn't shy and timid anymore. He wasn't that strict with himself anymore.
I guess changes do bring good sometimes. He's now confident and strong, proud and diligent, free and silly, a personality he gained over the years when we grew apart. I was shocked when I first saw him in college when I transferred. That day I saw him being funny, making his friends laugh with him. He's now the one who brings smiles to other people's faces, not the killjoy person he was before. He was already confident with himself, an air of pride you can easily sense whenever he's in the room. Not to mention, he became very hardworking and diligent, making him have the highest grade in our batch, and also earning him a place in the student's council as the president. It was like a different version of his young days, a complete opposite of the Hong Joochan I remember when we were kids.
The fact that he changed, it made me curious. It got me intrigued, how much did he change? I suddenly had this craving to learn about him more, to be close to him again, to know about him once again. It was like a do-over. Things in the past didn't end that great, I knew that and probably the man sitting in front of me right now knew that too, and now that he changed, I thought we could try to be close again but this time it's different.
I look at Joochan again and smile to myself.
"Wha eo yu shmiring?" He mumbles in between bites, muffling his voice.
I straighten my back as I come back to my senses. "Oh! U-uh...nothing."
He shrugs and continues eating. He looks so cute nibbling on his food, and I didn't realize I was already staring at him.
Until someone spoke up, taking Joochan and I by surprise.
"Taking a picture of him would help," Jaehyun says from behind. I literally bolt up from my seat, my cheeks getting pink.
"Whut?" Joochan tilts his head, still busy easy eating. Good thing he was oblivious.
I slap Jaehyun's arm as he annoyingly laughs, annoying me. "Why do you like to make fun of me?"
"Because you deserve it." Jaehyun pulls the chair beside me and sits down, placing his tray on the table. Joochan eyes him questioningly as Jaehyun does so.
"Why are you sitting here?" My eyebrows crunch together, irritated again because Jaehyun is here. I was already having quality time with Joochan (if I can even call it 'quality' time) but Jaehyun had to ruin it.
He looks at me as if I had asked the most stupid question in his life. "Am I not allowed to? And we're close, it's fine."
Joochan swallows first and then asks, "When did you two get close?"
"Funny story right there, you see, I saw MM in the classroom moaning out lo---" his voice gets muffled when I cover his mouth, my eyes wide open, afraid I'll be made fun of these two guys.
I give him a menacing glare, one that would make him shut up. And it did, thankfully. When I removed my hands, he did stop talking about it and instead put in a lot of food in his mouth, earning a weird glance from Joochan.
"MM? What is that?" Joochan asks again. Jaehyun looks at me first to confirm whether he should answer or not, and I just sigh.
"My nickname for her."
"Why MM?"
"Stands for 'Moaning Minhee'." Jaehyun smirks at my direction, and it took all of my strength to not kill him on the spot.
I close my eyes in embarrassment, wanting to get out of the cafeteria.
"Why moaning?" The more he asks, the more his eyebrows cross, and all the more his tone rises. Jaehyun's smirks get even wider, and I feel getting even smaller by the minute.
I get my drink. Probably drinking might help me save myself from them.
"She likes to...moan?" Joochan continues.
My eyes are wide open as he asks.
Jaehyun looks to my side and looks back at him. "You...could say that."
I never knew my eyes could bulge out this much.
"Did you two ever had sex already?"
I almost spit out the drink, bringing it down to the table. My cheeks are full on red now. I've never been so attacked and embarrassed.
Why am I stuck with these annoying guys?
"That's it!" I yell angrily, fuming. Jaehyun obnoxiously laughs at the question. I glare at the two buys in my table.
Jaehyun was laughing too much: he almost fell from his chair, his eyes brimming with tears from too much laughing. Joochan is more confused than ever.
"As much as I want to, we didn't," Jaehyun states, not affected by my piercing glares.
"Yet." He adds cheekily and I literally kick his thigh under the table, tired of his bullshit.
Joochan's face was remarkable. His face was full of relief after Jaehyun said that we didn't, but then his eyebrows meet again when Jaehyun spoke again.
I abruptly stand up, getting my tray. "You two are such pains in the ass. I'm going."
I leave the two dumbfounded. I finally sigh in relief when I get to the classroom, surrounded by peace and with no one to bother and humiliate me anymore.