𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘-𝗛𝗔𝗧𝗘﹕ni-ki

－ 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

Third person.

"The incredible best dancer of class 4-2 has entered the room!"

Yunmi froze on her spot as she enters the classroom when her classmates welcomed her. She looked at them bewilderedly while slowly making her way to her table.

"You were awesome yesterday, Yunmi!" Someone behind her said to her ear. She flinched and abruptly turned around causing her to hit the person's face with her hair.

"Ow!" They winced rubbing their face.

"Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean to do that..." Yunmi trailed off, covering her mouth. Averting her eyes to his seatmate, only to see them laughing to their death.

Yunmi faced back in front, pulling her chair forward. She shouldn't have come to class this early today if she knew. She won't deny liking the attention though.

"Hi, Yunmi." A guy had walked to her table with a friendly smile.

"Minseong? Hi." Yunmi greeted and smiled.

"You are familiar with me, right?" The guy named Minseong asked absurdly.

"Obviously- I mean, you are in my class so..." Yunmi stammered with a weirdly questioning look as Minseong only chuckled.

"Oh, by the way, your seatmate's not coming to school today- just to inform you." Minseong told her making her nod. No surprise, that girl barely goes to school anyway, leaving Yunmi more alone than ever and with no single friend in class.

"And like, Mr. Ha doesn't care if his students change seats all the time. I was wondering if maybe I can..." Minseong implied referring to the vacant table beside her.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Yunmi nodded. The guy's smile grew wider and didn't hesitate to sit beside her.

'This is odd.' Yunmi thinks, glancing awkwardly at the boy now sitting next to her. Why would someone like him with whom she had never formally interacted just shows up and ask if he could sit next to her for the first class?

"You were partnered with Nishimura Riki from the other class, right?" Minseong asked, opening another conversation again.

Yunmi is not in the mood to talk. However, she can't just ignore Minseong, so she tilted her head and thinly smiled.

"Yeah." Yunmi replied casually.

"Funny. I have seen you argue in the hallway or canteen, seldomly." Minseong laughed.

"Eh, perhaps we've gotten used to that already." Yunmi joked.

"It's like you two have now become friends, though. Frenemies?" Minseong pointed out.

Choi Yunmi thinks so too.

━━━━━

At the cafeteria, Ni-ki was having lunch with his friends. He was listening to their conversations while eating but at the same time, he seemingly couldn't stay still as his eyes have been wandering around the area looking for her.

Usually, Yunmi arrives at the cafeteria just a few minutes later after the bell. If not, Ni-ki would suspect that she's either staying in the garden or rather the library to avoid people.

Ni-ki thought of the second idea until he finally saw her figure stepping inside the cafeteria. He was staring at her without being aware, his food long forgotten.

Just then, a male he wasn't familiar with came up to her, gifting her something he wasn't able to see. Ni-ki's eyes darkened in an instant, irritated by the smiles on their faces as they talk to each other.

Noticing the smooth gestures and the way he was looking at her, Ni-ki knows the meaning behind it. He frowned, only he gets to look at Yunmi in that way, nobody else.

All he wanted was for him to leave. And when he did, Ni-ki left his friends to go to Yunmi.

"Yah- where the hell is that kid going?" Jay turned to the rest of his friends as he asked dumbfounded.

"Let him be, he's prioritizing his own love life." Heeseung responded unconcernedly, nudging Jay with his hand.

Yunmi saw an empty table and sat down. Feeling the presence of someone caused her to look over her side to see Ni-ki.

"Hi." Yunmi muttered eyeing him. Ni-ki sat down beside her, his gaze looking down to the juice box in her grip.

"Who was that guy who came up to you?" Ni-ki asked without hesitation.

"Oh him? That was Minseong, someone in my class." Yunmi answered.

"Okay, cool." Ni-ki replied in relief that he didn't see any sign of interest coming from Yunmi while talking about him.

"Have you eaten?" Ni-ki asked a second later to change the subject.

"Not yet. That reminds me, I was about to go get lunch anyways until Minseong came to give me this. Not gonna lie, I despise this strawberry-flavored juice, but it wouldn't be nice of me to reject this from him." Yunmi blabbed, whispering her last statement for no one else to hear but Ni-ki.

"That sounded mean, didn't it?" Yunmi inserted in realization, causing Ni-ki to snicker.

"You can have it if you want?" Yunmi offered.

Grabbing the said juice from her, he got up and went back to where his friends were, leaving Yunmi confused.

"Hey, your back." Jungwon said without any enthusiasm.

"No, I just need to get these. Hey, does anyone want strawberry juice?" Ni-ki raised his hand holding up the said juice box. Everyone made shook their heads.

"Thanks, Jay hyung." Ni-ki passed the juice to him and replaced it in his hand with the chocolate milk he bought earlier and some food.

"How dare you leave me. Where were you?" Yunmi questioned seeing Ni-ki come back.

"Just went to grab these. Here." Ni-ki tossed them to her, causing her face to lit up in an instant.

"Wah, thank you, Nishimura." Yunmi grinned.

"Eat." Ni-ki demanded like it was an order.

"Yes, grandpa." Yunmi said teasingly by his strictness, yet obliged and unwrapped her burger.

Ni-ki rolled his eyes annoyed at her response, but didn't fight back. Instead, he smiled fondly while watching the girl eat.

Having a light conversation as Yunmi eats, Ni-ki couldn't ignore the fast beating of his heart each time he glances at her.

━━━━━

Minseong who? Heh.