There was something different about that day. He was sitting in his usual place, with his best friend, Kim Teume sitting right next to him, but Park Jeongwoo could feel it. He knew it. There was something weird. Something had changed. Kim Teume looked as every other day: same school uniform, same hairstyle, same makeup, same perfume. But this time, there was something about her that made that particular word fill his whole brain, not leaving his thoughts.
Pretty. That day, Kim Teume looked particularly pretty.
"Are you okay? You look like an idiot." Kim Teume said, which made Park Jeongwoo gently hit her with his elbow, and ask her to mind her own business.
Teume laughed it off, but did just as Jeongwoo had asked, and thus, she proceeded to get busy chatting with a female classmate that was sitting right before her. That, until the teacher arrived, and now they all had play attention to the front of the class.
Half-way math lesson, Teume gave Jeongwoo a note. He ignored it, but she insisted. Making sure the teacher hadn't noticed a thing, Jeongwoo took the paper that silently waited over the desk they both shared, and hurried to unfold it, and read it.
"Want to have lunch together?"
Jeongwoo wrote a huge "NO", which Teume could easy read, and so, the paper ended up in the bottom of his pocket. No way in hell. Last time he and Teume had had lunch together, he was trapped 30 minutes in a conversation with three other girls, who couldn't stop discussing about who was the most handsome guy in their class. And none of them girls had mentioned him.
The friendship between Teume and Jeongwoo worked best when they were alone. When they walked home after school, when they visited each other's house and spent hours in either of their bedrooms, watching Netflix or wasting their time in YouTube; when they went out during the weekends, and simply had fun. But at school, Jeongwoo had his male friends, and Teume had her female friends. And it didn't matter how much his best friend insisted (despite annoying each other asses on a daily basis), nothing was going to change that.
So Jeongwoo ended up spending those 30 minutes with his friends, talking about sports and videogames. Teume surely had spent her lunch break talking about makeup and doramas, which to be honest, he didn't mind. As long as her and her friends didn't talk about who was the hottest guy in their class (and didn't care to mention him), he had no problem at all. However, when the bell rung indicating lunch break was over, and he saw Teume walking back to the classroom with that idiot, he couldn't help but feel his blood boiling.
He was the guy Teume and her friends had ranked as the most handsome boy, not only of their classroom, but of all of third grade. What did that idiot had that Jeongwoo didn't? He might be tall and skinny, but Jeongwoo was also tall and skinny. And mind you, Park Jeongwoo was part of the basketball team, so extra points on him for being athletic and muscular. Or was it because that guy had to wore glasses and thus looked like an intellectual? Well, Jeongwoo was not a stereotypical jock, he was also the 2nd smartest student of the whole third grade, and he was also very respectful not only with the elderlies, but with everybody.
That was the reason he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as he saw how him and Teume smiled at each other. Whatever shenanigans she, him, or both of them were planning, they better forget it.
"Bell already rung." Jeongwoo said, visibly annoyed, as he stepped between them, and held Teume's arm, making her walk into the classroom. He basically pushed her towards their shared desk, where he made her sit down, and hurried to also claim the seat next to her.
"What are you doing?" Teume growled at him, as she rubbed her own arm, at the exact place where Jeongwoo had held her, which now made him feel uncomfortable due the fact that maybe he had been too rough and probably he had actually hurt her. He hadn't meat it at all.
"Don't speak to that idiot." Was all he could say. "He's no good for you."
The teacher stepping into the classroom haltered the conversation once again. When the bell rung once more, finally indicating school was over and it was time to go home, Jeongwoo stayed by Teume's side, making sure that idiot, or any other of the fifteen idiots that were part of his class, wouldn't even dare to look at his best friend.
"Oh, I get it." Teume said, visibly amused, as they walked side by side, on their way home. "You're jealous."
"You're crazy." Was Jeongwoo's answer. "I just want to make sure no idiot with very bad intentions gets too close to you. They're no good for you."
"And why is that?" Teume insisted, unable to hold her smile. "There're just too many boys that are either handsome, or kind, or caring in our classroom... They're all a good catch."
"Don't even think about it." Jeongwoo interrupted, as he pointed Teume with a finger, to which she hurried to push his whole hand out of her face, and proceeded to be the one pointing her finger towards him, which made Jeongwoo take a step back, and ended in him cornering himself against a wall.
"Are you not allowing me to date some other guy?"
Jeongwoo couldn't reply. Was that really it? Teume had female friends. He had male friends. But Park Jeongwoo would never dare to have other female friends besides Teume, and now that he had to think about it, he was quite uncomfortable to the idea of Teume having other male friends beside himself. Especially when he knew his own kind, and knew boys couldn't be trusted with just being friends. Any guy would want to be more than friends with Teume.
"Or are you jealous?"
"I already told you I'm not." He proceeded to defend himself once again, although unable to hold it in any longer, he soon added. "How can I be jealous when we both know I'm the only one that makes your heart flutter?"
Teume looked at him, visibly surprised. She wasn't expecting that confession, at that time, and in such a way. But now that he had shown his hand, it seemed it was also time for her to reveal her game.
"You just have to say it, Jeongwoo. Say it out loud, and then there will be no need for me to try and make you jealous with any other boy. Come on, say it. Confess your feelings."
But he wouldn't do it. He knew he couldn't. Teume might be his best friend, but becoming vulnerable in front of her was something he would never ever dare to do.
"If you don't do it, that means you set me free, Jeongwoo." Teume whispered, getting closer to him, in such a confident way that Park Jeongwoo hadn't even imagined. "If you don't do it, that means we'll remain forever as friends, and there will never be another chance to be more than that."
Knowing words wouldn't come out of his lips, Jeongwoo rushed and kissed Teume on the lips. Teume was his, his only. No other guy could make her as happy as him. No other guy was even allowed to try.
"Don't flirt with any other boy so to make me jealous, understood?" He finally said, as soon as the kiss was over, and both of them were heavy breathing. "And starting today, they most handsome and hottest, boy in our class is me. At least for you."
Teume did her best not to burst out laughing. Yes, to her eyes, Park Jeongwoo had always been the most handsome and hottest guy of them all. But if his jealousy would always end in him kissing her so passionately, Kim Teume was willing to play her cards again, just to make his best friend, and boyfriend, claim her all for himself.
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This was the most hard of them all to write! I had to rely on my beta's ideas, and actually had to re-write it like 2-3 times, cuz I wasn't sure of which POV to use, among other things.
It's not my favorite one, that's true, but still I like it since I worked hard on it :)
