From Five to Six | Michaeng

Chapter 2: Theory first

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Her weekend passed uneventfully. Other than marking done dentist appointment from her board and cellphone. There was no news about any boy either, which made her feel better, maybe it had been just a one-night thing. She exercised, she studied, she advanced homework, she had burgers and smoothies with Dahyun, they held hands, they cuddled, and everything seemed back to normal. Chaeyoung felt at ease, they belonged together.

When Monday came, she was ready to learn. And not from school. She thought about everything and when the school bell rang at 4:30 she was ready to get two coffees and head to the west door. She told Dahyun she had some business with the student council and it was enough excuse to part ways.

At 5:01 she worried Mina had stood her up. How embarrassing would that be.

At 5:02 she started tapping her feet against the white tile.

At 5:03 she started sweating. 'of course she is not coming. Teach me how to kiss what a stupid request, she must be laughing at you with all her senior friends and—'

"Hey, there."

"There you are," she sighed heavily and handed her her coffee.

Mina looked at her wristwatch and stated, "I'm only three minutes late."

"Well, I said five." Chaeyoung hated unpunctuality. Mina mumbled something she couldn't hear and then started drinking her coffee. Both had started walking without knowing where to.

"I'll remember to be punctual for next time." 'next time? do I look like I'm such a bad kisser I'll need a next time?' Chaeyoung worried but Mina didn't feel she had said something wrong. "This machine is always stealing my money, I gave up using it," she said in reference to where Chaeyoung had got the coffee.

"Ah, yes, I lost the first two tries."

"And you tried again?"

"Yes, I didn't want to wait for you empty-handed."

Chaeyoung found out that Mina stared at her a bit more than necessary. "Where are we going?"

"My place." Chaeyoung doubted if that was a good idea for some time but then she heard Dahyun was going out with Tzuyu and Momo so it was okay. It's not like she was hiding Mina but, well, maybe she was. "Is that okay?"

"Unless you want to kiss me on the street, I guess so."

Chaeyoung laughed. It was weird but she liked Mina's answers, maybe because they weren't obvious to her. With everyone else she always knew more or less what was coming. Mina seemed surprised at her reaction but kept quiet. Then after walking many blocks, they got there not fifteen minutes past five. That worked for Chaeyoung's agenda.

Her parents worked, which made the house alone. It's not like she needed the house alone but it did make her feel comfortable and it had this little feeling of doing something forbidden, which she wasn't. Maybe the secretive part produced something on her. But she dismissed it.

They walked upstairs to her bedroom and she glanced discretely at Dahyun's door before closing her own.

"You have a nice room," Mina said looking carefully at every side. Chaeyoung had cleaned her room just for this, although there wasn't much to clean since she always has everything perfectly placed. Her room didn't have many things in plain sight either. It was all white. She had her desk and bookshelf with school stuff and books of her own entertainment near a window. Her big board with dates nearby. She had many post its on one side too and her cactus added a subtle green to all the white. On the other side, her bed was a twin-size bed with one nightstand, her closet was white as well and the only thing that showed a little bit about her free time was her backup pair of boxing gloves hanging from the closet door. "So, Mina said turning to her. "You want to learn how to kiss in order to beat that guy that kissed your crush, is that right?"