There was not one bit of cheesecake left. Not one piece. It had always been like this in this company. Well actually if the boys hadn’t been there, surely there would be cake left. Perhaps even the whole cake.

                She sighed hopelessly as she put the plate in the sink. Her stomach demanded food but there seemed to be none left in the fridge. Then an idea popped up in her head. It was dark out but not too late and there was also a convenience store nearby…

                “Noona!” A cute voice filled the silent room.

                “Over here, Samuel,” the girl replied as she sat, head on her arms, staring at the empty plate on the sink.

               A young boy, around the age of eleven, had appeared in front of her, blocking the view of the sink and next to him stood another boy with a much taller height and lighter complexion.

               “Hey Samuel, Hansol, ‘sup?” she greeted emotionlessly.

               “Noona, look, we brought you ramyun!” Samuel smiled cheerfully as he took out ramyun cup noodles out of the plastic bag that hung around his arm then placed it in front of her face. Her expression changed immediately and she jumped up in delight to hug the two boys.

               “Ah! Thanks! I was starving!”

                “Yeah, we finished the cheesecake and the hyungs told us to buy you something cause we all knew you’d be hungry,” Hansol joked. “When are you never hungry?”

                “Good point there, there’s two though, I don’t think I can finish two,” the girl said. Hansol and Samuel looked at each other, understanding immediately, and burst out laughing.

                “You? Not able to finish two cups?” Hansol snickered.

                “Noona, you’re so funny!” Samuel teased and laughed again.

               “Are you two implying I’m a- you two, seriously,” she sighed, then showed surrender by laughing with them. “No, but one of you share with me.”

               Samuel smirked and looked at Hansol devilishly. The older boy glared at him, shaking his head. Oh I’m so going to kill him later, Hansol thought.

               “Noona, I’m sleepy, you can share with Hansol, bye bye!” he faked a yawn and a stretch.

               And with that, he left. It was unbelievable how fast that boy can run. The girl stared at Hansol and he gulped and looked away. Everyone but her knew that Hansol liked her. It was really obvious though he was thankful she couldn’t notice. How the hell was he able to confess to her if every time they were alone, he couldn’t even utter a word?

              “You gonna eat or what?” the girl smiled at him and motioned for him to sit in front of her. He smiled back awkwardly and pulled the chair to sit.

              “Uh, yeah, okay, uhm, it’s okay if you don’t share with me, you know,” he replied though he was already sitting down. The girl’s lips turned upside down a little, she always did that when she felt offended. “I mean, if you don’t want to, cause I know you’re hungry.”

              “Gosh, not that hungry! I have homework to do and I can’t eat and write at the same time, I need my slave to feed me,” she laughed and raised an eyebrow at the boy.

              “Me? What? Since when was I a slave?! I’m your bestfriend!”

              “Slash slave!”

              “I won’t feed you unless you promote me to a higher position, like-“

              “A bodyguard?”

              “No! The general of your army or something,”

              “General of slaves,” she chuckled. Hansol rolled his eyes. There was no winning with her.

              “Ah fine, whatever, but I can’t feed you,”

              “Why not?” she immediately pouted, repeating those two words over and over again. He looked away because he knew he couldn’t say no to her if she had that face on. However, in a minute, his head turned back towards her.

              “Aish, this girl,” he laughed. Who was he kidding? He could never avoid her. He grabbed the noodles and heated up the water while she went to her room to take out her schoolbooks.

              It’s probably time to tell her. Samuel is really smart for a kid. He left us alone, with two ramyun cup noodles. Or maybe one of the hyungs told him to do it. Ack, whatever. It’s probably time to tell her. Even if she says no, at least this will be off of my chest.

              The girl came back, three books in one hand and her pencil in the other. Algebra, Geometry, and English were the three subjects she excelled at so this homework would take a short time. She sat then started to write down the answers as Hansol made the noodles.  After doing so, he sat in front of her, the cup beside him with chopsticks on top of it.

            “It’ll take two minutes, don’t worry,” he said. Okay here we go. “In the meantime, I have something to tell you.”

            “Yeah?” she replied, not looking up from the books. Oh wow, so she doesn’t sense it.

             “It’s really important.”

             “Oh,” she muttered and, this time, looked up to meet his eyes.  Hansol gathered up his courage to try and say it. It was going to be a really hard thing to do but he felt he had to finish this. He certainly couldn’t turn back now.

            “I,uh,I,” he stuttered. Well crap.

     “You?”

            Hansol sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought.

            “Did anything happen to your family?” she asked, her eyes full of worry as she came closer to him.

            “What? No! It’s just…”

            “Then what is it?”

            “Never mind.”

             Thwack! The boy instinctively covered his head to protect himself. Of course she would do that. That was what she always did.

            “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ah, HAJIMA!” he pleaded as the girl continuously hit him with her (luckily) 50 page workbook.

             “You don’t just say something then say never mind! That’s really irritating!”

             “Okay, okay, jeez!”

             “Tell.Me.Now!”

             Hansol sighed in defeat. He really had to say this otherwise he’d be regretting this in the future. And he didn’t want to get any more hits from a Geometry workbook.

             “Look, I like you, and I don’t mean as a bestfriend, I really like you. I’ve started liking for a month after we met. You’re a really amazing person and I couldn’t help but fall for you. I always feel nervous around you, and it doesn’t help that you’re really pretty and talented too. You probably just see me as a friend but I just wanted to tell you that. And I think you’ll never talk to me again after this.”

              The boy sat back and crossed his arms, a mixture of sadness, embarrassment, and nervousness mixed in his expression. Instead of being speechless or trying to find words to reject him, the girl started laughing. Hansol stared at her in confusion. What?

             “You idiot,” she laughed. “I like you too!”

             His eyes lit up followed by a smile and a short laugh. “Yeah, I kind of am an idiot,”

             “Not kind of, you really are! Pabo!”

            They both laughed again. Boy was he relieved. Suddenly, Hansol’s face turned serious. “The ramyun! Oh my gosh, I forgot to take the lid off!”

            That only triggered more laughs.

            “Okay, now feed me, slave!”

            “Really? I’m still your slave?”

            “Okay, slave slash boyfriend?” she blushed.

            “Fine, fine,” Hansol said in defeat. He took the chopsticks and started to feed her and feed himself.

             Suddenly, a white flash caught their attention. Both of them turned to where it originated from. By the door stood Samuel with a camera in his hand, clicking away. Hansol’s eyes widened, and the girl just chuckled more.

            “Wait til I tell Mingyu-hyung about this!”

-

THE NEXT DAY

       Hansol and the girl walked to the practice room together, talking about everyday life as usual. They were an item now but they don’t act like those love-birds in movies. In fact, they treated each other as if they were just bestfriends but just much much closer now.

      When the doors opened, all the other Seventeen members and girl trainees started to tease them. The two awkwardly looked at each other. Oh God, they both thought.

      “Oh my God, just hold hands already or kiss or something, it is NOT that hard!” a voice, Mingyu’s (Hansol assumed) shouted from somewhere behind the crowd that surrounded them. The two looked at each other again and sighed with a smile, gave up to the crowd’s demand, and intertwined their hands. The crowd cheered and became even more chaotic. Mingyu running around screaming with Wonwoo, Doyoon and Seungcheol spraying string spray around (which Hansol wondered where it came from), Samuel taking pictures, the older female trainees squealing for their fellow friend and the rest of the Seventeen members clapping and teasing them.

      “We expected that,” the two said in unison and laughed with the others.