"What is this?"

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I say, referring to the baby pink-coloured carton of strawberry milk that Sunghoon placed on my desk.

"It's a gift. From me." He flows his hand through his silky hair as everyone else looks around in hysteria. Some of his friends cheer him on as he walks back to them. I'm left flabbergasted as everyone else around me gives me astonishing looks.

"Are you two... Dating?" Soobin asks, his confounded face leaning in towards my desk as everyone does the same.

"What? No!" I say as everyone groans in disappointment.

"Are you going to drink that?" Beomgyu points his finger towards the milk. "I'll take it if you don't want it."

"No, I'll drink it..." I mumble under my breath, taking the straw and jabbing into the carton. How did he know that it's my favourite?

"I feel like I'm in a fever dream... I swear you two hated each other last week!" Heejin observes out loud.

"I knew that making them sleep together was a good idea. Now Scarlett may be getting her first boyfriend." Jinsoul and everyone else snickers like some gossip girls as I send scowls in their direction.

"Wait, so is Sunghoon courting Scarlett?" Beomgyu asks once again. I feel like my friends are more invested in my love life than I am.

Speaking of love-life. I'm sad to realize that Beomgyu is in fact correct. Sunghoon is courting me. It's a little weird how the boy I swore to despise is now my not-so-secret admirer. I can even see him giving me sparkling eyes from across the room.

I'm sorry Sunghoon. I just don't like the idea of a romantic relationship.

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The next day, I walk to school with Beomgyu. we always walked to school together with Soobin since we all lived in the same apartment complex. But Soobin has been having to go drop off his "cousin" which really means he's sneaking off to walk to school with Heejin.

We arrive at the school. We're about to go to the classroom when a teacher stops me. She asks me to send some papers to a different 3rd-year classroom. After dropping the papers, I head towards class.

I was around 10 minutes late since those papers ended up being a lot heavier than I expected. I arrive at the classroom, panting for air as I had just run a 100-mile run.

I walk in, catching the attention of the class. "Before you yell at me for being late, just know that I was giving papers to a 3rd-year class."

Ms. Kim gives me an apathetic smile. "Yes, I know, the secretary called me.."

I make my way to my desk but am caught off guard by something. I see someone sitting on MY desk. It was a girl. She looked nice enough. Her hair was dark brown and was in a ponytail. Her lips were thin and her eyes were small.

"Oh, by the way. We have a new student. Her name is Lim Minseo. Greet each other, please." Ms. Kim says from behind, but I was still pissed because I don't want some random girl on my desk.

"You're sitting on my desk," I say. It didn't mean to come out cold, but I happen to have a resting-bitch face and I really wasn't in the mood for smiling right now. The girl gives an awkward smile as all of my friends have "sorry, we can't do anything" written all over their faces.

"Um, Minseo has an allergy to chalk, so she can't be near the chalkboard. I hope you understand." Ms. Kim tries to ease the tension.

"I don't understand. You couldn't have asked me if she could take my seat?" I turn around and look at Ms. Kim, who looked very flustered. She's still young at teaching, so she probably hasn't dealt with many situations like this.

"M-ms. Heo, please take a different seat somewhere else and don't cause a scene." She tries to put on her sternest face while pointing to an empty desk next to Beomgyu. I feel my ears start to get red. I give a passive-aggressive smile before sitting down at the seat. I send Minseo one last glare before taking out my textbooks.

Allergic to chalk? But won't she have to come in close contact with the chalk when walking out the door, doing math problems or talking to the teacher? Also, I've never heard of an allergy to chalk. I guess I'll have to just research more on allergies later today.

"You good?" Beomgyu whispers over to me. I guess he also noticed my red ears.

"Just a little pissed off, that's all."

Yeah, just a little pissed off. And besides, it's not like Minseo is at fault. I'm sure she's a good person who just happened to have an allergy. Poor girl. Thankfully I'm not allergic to anything, allergies look like they suck.

After class, I sit at my desk, fumbling through the piles of math homework that were assigned to us. I tune out the voices of other students talking about who knows what. I start to head out with the other girls who wear heading towards the cafeteria.

I notice that Heejin was nowhere to be seen, but I just shook it off. We took a table near the wall and get some food before sitting down. After a minute, Heejin joins the table along with Minseo with their trays of food.

"Hey guys, is it okay if Minseo joins us for lunch?" Heejin asks. We all nod our heads and start introducing ourselves.

"Thanks, guys. I've always had trouble finding friends at my old school, so I'm thankful for you guys including me." Minseo starts speaking in a sweet voice. She starts talking to me. "Also, I'm sorry for taking your seat, please understand."

"It's all good. Allergies are a pain in the ass probably. I'm Scarlett Heo." I introduce myself with a smile.

"Omg, I follow you on Instagram and Tiktok! Aren't you the girl who snuck into that school a few months ago?" She asks excitedly as I laugh.

"Yep, that's me."

We all got to know Minseo better during that lunch. Turns out she's actually a lot more cooler than I expected. And she's really cute, too. Her personality makes up for her taking up my seat.

She's really nice. I think we'll be good friends.

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