“Millie!”

I yell my best friend's name in annoyance. Millie turns her attention to me from her basketball team. “What?” she asks, having no inkling what she has done.

I show the screen of my phone to her. “Explain.” I demand but i want to yell at her for spoiling everything.

Millie takes a closer look and then her expression turns to jovial. “It worked, didn't it? You should buy me dinner as a thank you, Gracie” she grins.

I gape at her. “Thank you my ass! Why didn't you tell me you were going to text him? No, why the hell did you even text him in the first place?” I am aware of my sudden rise of voice, I can sense a few eyes on me but I don't care. I'm too mad to care about others right now.

Millie gives me a weird look as if this isn't the response she was expecting. “Calm down, Gracie. It's not like you didn't have thoughts of asking him out anyways.”

“No! I mean, it's only been two talking to him. Do you seriously expect me to ask him on a date already?”

Millie and I have known each other for more ten years, yet she does something that makes me question our friendship timeline. It even makes me regret telling her about Alex in the first place.

“Um, I thought you were being shy so I just…helped you out.”

Unlike me who has never been on a date with a guy, Millie has her love life blossoming. It makes me feel like an amateur whenever she tells me the tales of her time with boys. And now that I am going to give it a try, Millie pokes her nose.

I rub my index finger on my temples, letting out a groan. “You did no help. Alex will probably think I'm a desperate skank” I mutter.

I met Alex on Namebook randomly. We started chatting and it turns out that he lives in Crestdon Street as well. I don't go around talking to guys online, but Alex seems to be a nice guy.

A day later we exchanged numbers and had a great chat. I wanted things to go slow and Alex seems to be having the same mindset as well. I have no expectation of going on a date with him any sooner, but with the text Millie sent to him an hour ago, he will probably be removing me as his friend as well.

“If he dares call you that, I'll break his nose” Millie says, giving me a dead serious look. I roll my eyes at her drama.

“Whatever, he will probably be crossing me out from his list after the stunt you pull. Forget it, I know I'm unlucky when it comes to boys.”

I pout, feeling a bit upset. I know Millie didn't want to ruin anything; she is the most protective towards me after my parents, but I cannot help but feel that I perhaps missed out on something good.

“Ow!” I hiss in pain when Millie flick my forehead. I have to crane my neck to meet her eyes because of her damn good height. No wonder she is on the basketball team.

“Don't be silly, Gracie. Gosh, why do you always have pessimistic thoughts? And I bet this guy will be saying 'yes' to you with no problem” she smiles.

I narrow my eyes on her. I don't believe her. “Yeah, we'll see. I'm heading for my Spanish class. I'm already late because of you” I tell her and turning off my phone, I keep it inside my bag.

“I'm your good luck charm, you know that right? Don't fret too much, it's gonna be all good.”

“Te patearé el trasero si me rechaza'' I say in Spanish and turn around to leave. Thankfully, I can actually use the language without looking for the words in my textbook. Miss Melanie— our Spanish teacher— will be proud of me.

“Hey! What the hell does it even mean?” Millie yells from behind and I smile to myself.

Without pausing or turning, I answer her, “Google it!”

**

I stare at my phone screen for three minutes straight. I can't believe Alex isn't calling me desperate weirdo or anything. Instead, the guy has responded just the way Millie told.

I'm surprised, honestly lol.

Sure, let's give this a try!

It's what his reply says. I'm confused as to what I should reply to him. Should I just tell him that it's a stupid prank my friend played on him? No, it will be embarrassing for both of us. Or should I say I said it for fun and that it means nothing to me? Gah! It sounds cheap. Argh! What should I do?

“What's with that face?” a familiar voice taunts me. I don't look up to give him any sort of reaction. Joo-hyuk sits opposite me and takes a bite of my tuna sandwich.

“Hey! That's mine!”

He ignores my words and takes another bite before placing it back on my tray. This guy seriously is so shameless— I literally want to rip his hair!

“You weren't eating anyway. What are you doing sticking your nose in your phone like that?”

“None of your business” I snap at him, but of course he gives zero fucks to that.

Joo-hyuk smirks wickedly and placing his arms on the table, he leans forward. “Is that so? I'm curious now.”

“You—” Before I can say anything, he snatches my phone in a swift action from my hand. Argh! This guy! “Give me my phone!” I hastily lurch forward to take my phone from his hold but he leans back.

Joo-hyuk smirks, looking at my phone's content interestingly. My face reddens in embarrassment. Out of everyone, I don't want this guy to go through my phone!

“Alex, huh.”

I finally manage to yank my phone from him and throw him a dirty look. “Why are you such a dickhead?”

He shrugs. “What's wrong? It wasn't anything personal.” He has to be kidding me. Joo-hyuk Lee and I have a frenemy kind of relationship. We met when I was in my third grade; he was a transfer student from Korea along with his twin sister Jug-yeong Lee.

He was much decent and cute back then but as we grew up, he is more of an asshole now.

“It is personal. Don't sneak into my phone next time for heaven's sake.”

I sat down on the chair and let out a sigh. I still don't know what to say to Alex. Should I agree? But the idea of going with Alex as his date kind of scares me. Mostly because I have never been on a date before.

“Hey, what's wrong?” Joo-hyuk asks, his expression serious from before.

My first thought is to tell him nothing but I know he will pester me all day if I don't tell him.

“You read the conversation?” He nods. “Well Millie asked him out for me because she thinks 'I'm too shy to do that'” I air-quote the last word. “Anyway, I wasn't expecting him to agree on that. Now, I am confused about what to do.”

“Do you like him?” he asks with no playfulness in his doe-shaped eyes.

“Um, yeah. I do like talking to him.”

“If you like him you shouldn't be having any doubts. Just go and see, you might be surprised. Who knows.”

“You think so? It's just…it's only been two days we started to talk. Don't you think it's too early?”

Joo-hyuk takes my sandwich again and this time, I don't scowl at him. “It's never too late or early if you like someone. Just go once and if that guy doesn't pleases you, dump him. There's no harm” he says.

Even if he is an asshole, he does give me good advice sometimes. Taking his words, I send a reply to Alex and keep my phone aside. I feel tingles at the tip of my fingers and there's a hurricane going inside my stomach.

“Where's you sister?” I ask him. Usually, the two of them are together but when they aren't, that means they are fighting.

He finishes the sandwich and answers, “I don't know. Probably with her friends somewhere. Hey, pass me that.” He points to the cranberry juice but I don't give him.

“Go and get yourself one. You should be glad I'm not asking you to pay for the sandwich you just ate.”

Joo-hyuk rolls his eyes and mutters something. I almost jump when I hear the notification. I instantly open the inbox and see the message from Alex. My heart is thumping anxiously and when I read his message, I cannot help but smile.

See you at the Arcade Aos at 5.

;

“Look at you. Do you like him that much?” Joo-hyuk taunts, crossing his arms before his chest. I must be smiling stupidly for him to make that face.

“None of your business, honey” I give him a fake smile and he rolls his eyes again.

I must have been too into my phone to realise what's going around me. The cafeteria is suddenly quiet. Not even the jocks are howling like they usually do.

“What's going on?” I ask, my eyes looking at what's happening ahead. I cannot see anything because of the crowd of people in front.

Joo-hyuk gets up and goes ahead to take a look.

“You are such a bitch!” I hear the scream of Ivy McKinnon. If she is involved, then there is going to be some drama— no, a lot of drama.

I go up to Joo-hyuk who is watching from behind. “Hey, what's going on?”

Instead of answering me, he grabs my wrist and pushes me forward amongst the crowd. I swear I'll kill him for doing this. Can't he have just informed me about his next move? Even though I'm pissed at him for pushing me like this on people, I can now see the drama going on in front of me.

There's Ivy McKinnon, Sheryl Woods and then there's… shit. My eyes go wide to find a familiar figure standing opposite to Ivy. What's Millie doing there?