A demanding math assignment lay open between you, the white paper glaring under the desk lamp. You leaned in closer, tapping the tip of your pencil against a particularly stubborn algebraic equation, completely prepared to break it down step-by-step as you always did. But the moment you opened your mouth to speak, you realized Ji-Won wasn't looking at the paper at all. He was miles away, his intense gaze fixed entirely on the movement of your lips. Every single time you paused and blinked up at him, a sudden, dark flush crept up his neck and flooded his cheeks, forcing him to look away in a flurry of nervous flusters before his eyes inevitably drifted right back to your face.

Across the room, the quiet scratch of pencils did nothing to dull the heavy weight of envious glares drilling into your back. Near the lockers, a popular girl and her tight-knit clique whispered harshly, her eyes narrowed with pure resentment because she had spent months trying to get Ji-Won to notice her. Just a few desks over, a group of boys watched the two of you with the exact same bitter envy, irritated by how easily you held the attention of the guy everyone else wanted to be close to. Oblivious to the mounting social tension suffocating the classroom, you simply tapped the pencil harder against the notebook, entirely focused on the numbers and completely blind to the fact that your best friend was falling head over heels right next to you.

(Sorry I haven't posted so long! A lot has been happening, time is absolutely thin! Please bear with me.)