LOWKEY

21

"You know you're good enough; you're just not used to letting it all out." Jaemin spoke, stacking the five books back on the shelves. "And for your information, I may not excel in English, but attracting me with the first stanza is hard to achieve, and you did."

"Oh, stop, you're just saying that just to boost my confidence or whatever." Eula breathed out, trailing behind the pinkette like a lost child.

"But something did bubble up inside you." He looked over his shoulder to send a wink and slid the last book in. "You're already good, Eul. Trust me."

"Yeah, I might have a problem with that word."

Jaemin turned on his heels with a frown. The girl is smiling, but her eyes say otherwise.

He sighed, running his fingers to straighten the stubborn strands of her hair, and bent down to align their faces.

"Say that you're not good again, and I'll kiss you."

"Oh, please," she scoffed, rolling her eyes, though the male remained stoic. "You're serious."

"As I've ever been," he said, standing back up with a grunt like a 70-year-old man. "Jeno's schedule has been hot lately, so since I have errands to run for mom, I suggest you have to wait for him at the gym. I can't walk you home today. I'm sorry, baby girl."

"For the last time, Na Jaemin, please stop calling me that!"

"Not until I kick Jeno's patience with that. Bye baby girl!" he ran away with a giggle, almost tripping over the trash bin at the wall side.

Eula just let out the most heavy sigh she could, walking over to the doors while greeting the librarian.

The preparation is hectic as time goes on. Not just that, but when October hit the calendar, she started receiving birthday messages from her distant family. Knowing that it's a family habit to literally bombard one of them when their birthday month came, Eula just replied to them with a happy heart.

I can't believe I'm turning 20, she sighed for the billionth time that day, her shoes softly padding on the cemented hallways to the east gymnasium, which the table tennis team owned.

Entering the huge space with a little push of one of the double doors, Eula already heard the smashing of the balls and the exhausted groans of the players.

Her face lit up seeing Jeno on the far right table, also recognizing Donghyuck on his opponent side. She excitedly skipped on the bleachers on their side, glad that no one had trashed her out.

As usual, the ravenette looks dreamy. His reflexes are admirable, and he is a literal ace in everything he does physically.

Eula started to melt in the practice game, her eyes continuously bouncing between the two. The brunette is a hard player too.

The girl can only feel sorry for the competing schools.

"Your girl at the side," Donghyuck suddenly said.

"Huh, what?" though his question dropped when he met with the said girl's eyes and immediately got distracted.

"Boohoo! Loser!" the brunette yelled in victory and collapsed to the ground, all sweaty.