Innocence // STRAY KIDS' Han Jisung

twenty-seven

"A hook up, you mean."

"What's that?" he frowned.

"A hook up," she repeated in English, now Felix nodding.

"Oh, yeah, that. So I lied when you guys asked me about her. And we agreed on not being too close on school just in case it would bring, uh, what's the word... ah! Just in case our behavior became suspicious."

Mirae went 'ooh' as she nodded, "And so what's the next step?"

"On what?"

"On your relationship with her, what else?"

"Oh," Felix look down at his hands and shrugged, "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Don't you want her to be your girlfriend?"

"I do," he nodded, "but since technically none of you know anything, we can't really do anything. And I already thought on how to ask her and everything."

Mirae pursed her lips, thinking on a way to help him out. She might not know much about the situation between Nora and Felix, but she knew he cared for her friend. Just the way with which he talked about agreeing on keeping their thing a secret spoke a lot about how much he wanted things to work with the half-Latina.

"What if..." she trailed off after a few moments, "what if I help you two sneak out so you can ask her out?"

"Have you ever snuck out?"

"No."

"Then how are you planning to help?"

"I don't know. But I'll figure out something."

Just as Felix laughed at her inexperience, the homeroom teacher walked in. Mirae couldn't help but notice how different he looked wearing a casual shirt instead of his formal one-color shirts. Both she and Felix sat properly on their seats and she realized the rest of the students had already arrived.

The teacher welcomed everyone and told them to start going outside with all of their things since the buses were waiting on the main door. He asked for people to help him with some donations for the owners of the farm where they would be staying before everyone ran to get their own bags.

Sadly, Felix got picked to help the teacher, so waved goodbye to Mirae before having to carry a big box of who-knows-what donations to the bus. The girl looked around and went to where Soyeon and Nora were standing.

But to her surprise, that day she found them talking with Seungmin, Hyunjin and Jisung, which was oddly enough to make Mirae raise her eyebrows in surprise. "Hello, hello."

"Dude, I never get tired of seeing you in caps," Soyeon chuckled.

"Wait, so how are we going to sit on the bus?" Seungmin asked.

In the span of a blink, Nora held onto Soyeon's arms as she claimed she was sitting with the tall girl. Mirae pouted and looked at the other three boys, but found Seungmiin and Hyunjin calling out for each other. Oh, have mercy...

"So it's you and Jisung, then," Hyunjin smirked and shared a significant look with everyone except Mirae and Jisung, who were avoiding the other's look.

"Wait, what about Felix?"

"He's a big boy, he won't be lost," Soyeon shrugged it off and led the way out of the classroom.

Mirae took a deep breath and hung her bag properly on her shoulder as she walked down the stairs, feeling her hands starting to shake and her heart pounding on her chest. Ever since the previous day, she had not spoken to Jisung, and now that she had to sit next to him for at least two hours gave her almost anxiety.