I wasn't even ready when Jennie pulled up in my driveway and began honking like a madwoman. Every time she would honk my mom would yell at me to hurry the hell up. I was doing the best I can! After finally winning the battle that was going on between me and my bangs, I threw my bag over my shoulder and bolted down the stairs.
"I've been waiting for 20 mins. Jesus Lisa. Were you doing a really intense shit or something?" I shook my head as I threw my bag into the passenger seat and climbed into the car.
I scoff, lowering the mirror in front of me and patting down my ruffled up hair, which was the reason for my tardiness. "Yes, Jennie! That's exactly what I was doing!" Jennie shifted into reverse and drove out of the driveway and onto the road.
"Well, how would I know? You're comfortable enough taking a shit at my house and I know how long they take!" Jennie aggressively points an accusing finger at me, but I could tell she was just trying to get a reaction out of me. "Also since when do you care so much about your hair? I swear you've been trying extra hard lately".
"Okay, can we stop talking about my morning shits, please? Are we picking Jisoo up today?" I don't even know why I asked. For some reason, I thought Jisoo would want to avoid Jennie. But Jennies confused face that she shot at me made me realise that this probably wasn't the case.
"Um, yeah? Why wouldn't we be? We pick her up every morning?"
"Well, I don't know! I was just asking. Calm your tits" she chuckled at my comment and took off down the road.
It only takes us about 3 minutes to reach Jisoo's house when driving. So there's not much time for me to mentally prepare myself or strain my mouth from smiling when Jisoo gets in the car. Her and Jennie would be so fucking cute.
I had spent the entire weekend planning what I could do to get Jennie and Jisoo alone. So far, I've decided to simply leave them alone in the cafeteria halfway through lunch break. Just ditch them every day and they'll have to talk to each other. My brilliant mind was suffering a little at the moment and couldn't produce anything better than that.
"Lisa" Jisoo pipes up from the back seat. "Can I borrow your phone for a second? Mine is flat and I just have to look something up."
I toss her my phone and it lands on the seat beside her with a thud. When she asked for my phone. I didn't even consider the fact that -
"Oh my god, Lisa. Why do you have Miss Park's number? And why is there a little smiley face next to her name?"
Shit. I forgot to close the text messages between Miss Park and I last night. We had been sending little messages to each other all weekend. All about my English assignment and what we were going to cover over our next session.
"She um- she emailed me on Saturday morning. And because she dropped me off at your house on Friday, Unni, she wanted to make sure that I got home okay. So then she suggested that I have her number so we can organise tutoring and stuff like that." I blurted that all out so fast, I'm sure I've set a new record or something.
"So this is purely for tutoring?" Jennie whips her head around and looks at me, losing her focus on the road.
"Yes. Focus on the road, Jennie."
"And all you two message about is English?" Jisoo's deeper voice calls out from the back seat.
"Yes."
Well... English and a few possibly flirty (that or I just suck at flirting) messages about running in the mornings.
"Then why didn't she give me her number?"
I falter. Why didn't she give Jisoo her number? Jisoo so far has had 4 weeks of tutoring with her. She would have been the one to get the number first if anyone. Why did she only offer it to me?
"I- I don't know."
"Exactly" Jisoo smirks and sits back in her seat with her arms folded over her chest while Jennie is silently shaking from laughter in the driver seat.
———————
When lunch had finally come I had decided that I was going to sit with them for about 10 minutes before I made up some excuse so that I could leave the two of them alone.
"What is taking her so long? All she did was go up to ask for a fork?" Jennie complained. She was waiting for Jisoo to come back with her fries so Jennie could hook in and she was starving.
"She'll be back in a sec, Jen." I entertained myself by opening my bag and placing all of my belongings on the chairs beside me, forcing Jisoo to sit next to Jennie.
"Okay so... I have news! Lisa you know that new girl? Her name is Mina?" Jisoo climbs into the seat beside Jennie and plops herself down. Jennie immediately hooks into the fries Jisoo had promised her and lost immediate interest in the conversation. My ears, however, pricked up at the new topic of the girl I had met a few days ago.
"Um yeah.... I met her on Friday. Why?"
"She's been asking about you all morning. She said that she hasn't seen you since Friday. But she thought you were really cute."
"She thinks I'm cute? Why?"
Jisoo dropped her fork and gave me that look you get from your best friend when you put yourself down. "Lalisa Manoban. You are freaking gorgeous. Why wouldn't she like you?"
I just shrugged, not too sure why the pretty girl thought that I was cute. "I don't know... wow! It's already been 10 minutes! I have to go guys!" I sprung up out of my seat and packed my back in record-breaking time. Jennie and Jisoo just sitting there with baffled expressions.
"Where do you have to go?" .... Lisa- You're not going to see her are you?"
"See who?"
When they both folded their arms and gave me a teasing look, I knew exactly who they were talking about. "Oh no! No, I'm not. Seriously. Jackson asked me to help him with his leg placement for his performance at the end of term. That's it."
Jennie's "okay" was really dragged out and I know they don't believe me. "Tell Mina we said hi".
I roll my eyes playfully and take off down the hallway.
"Lisa, hey!" The same soft voice that I was introduced to on Friday stops me on my path. I twist my head and there is Mina, sitting with a few kids that were from our grade. I had spoken to a few of them once or twice and they left good impressions, sweet girls and kind boys. Mina definetly fit in to the friends she had made.
"Hey Mina," I turn and head over to the group when Mina beckons me with her hand. "Charlie, Julia, hey". I nodded to the two other people at the table that were paying attention to me, the rest were engrossed in whatever conversation they were having.
"Did you want to join us?" Charlie offers, pointing to the vacant space next to Mina. The girl blushed furiously, nudging Charlie under the table with her leg before turning to me shyly.
Smiling, I look around quickly and realise that if I sat here, I wouldn't be able to keep and eye on Jennie and Jisoo. "I'd love to, but I've actually got somewhere I need to be. Raincheck?"
Mina nods, showing off all her teeth. "Yeah sounds good, I'll see you later".
I give the group an awkward wave and take off again. Only stopping when I am sure that they are no longer looking at me. I sneak back into the cafeteria around the other entrance and sit very far away from Jennie and Jisoo, but close enough so I can watch them. I also managed to snag a table that hid me in view from Mina's group too. Winning.
I set my sights on the two brunettes. They're both laughing, and Jennie keeps gripping Jisoo's arm and throwing her head back. I found myself smiling at the scene in front of me.
"Eating alone?" A low voice from behind me causes me to divert my attention to the speaker. And there she was again. The person that I had been thinking about pretty much all weekend. Miss Park had her hair tied up today. Her soft blue dress went perfectly with the sandals she had chosen to wear. She always looked so simple, yet so beautiful. She had put a blue ribbon in her hair and she was wearing simple stud earrings.
"Well Yes... But I'm eating alone on purpose, I'm not weird" God I'm just babbling now. Shut up. "I'm actually spying on Jennie and Jisoo. I'm trying to force them to admit their feelings. I just haven't figured out how yet."
"Wait, Jisoo likes Jennie back?" Her eyebrows shoot, excitement glistening in her eyes. She pulls up a chair beside me, which takes me by surprise, but I try to ignore the growing nervousness.
I nod, turning to face her. "Remember Jisoo's emergency the other day at tutoring? Well, she wanted to tell me that she liked Jennie. But, you can't tell anyone."
"And so you're making them sit alone every lunch time together? While you sit here by yourself?" She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear that had fallen out of her pony tail. I've noticed she's very fidgety today.
"Pretty much."
"Well if you don't want to be alone you're more than welcome to come and have lunch with me. I don't usually eat in the staff room. A few teachers actually eat in their classrooms." If she only knew how much of an impact this simple offer had on me. My heart was pounding in my ears as I had a silent freak out.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I think that I've made it clear by now that I really like your company. Come on then" She turns away and marches down the corridor. Taking a break by the drink taps to turn and wait for me. I jump out of my seat and try to fix my shirt as I follow her down the corridor. Students chattered from every direction, but I focused on her petite figure in front of me and drowned everything else out.
She walked into the room and took a seat at her desk. I, on the other hand, stood at the door, awkwardly peering into the room.
"You can come in Lisa... I wasn't planning on inviting you to eat lunch in here then leaving you standing out in the hallway."
I shuffle into the room, closing the door behind me with an awkward smile. I take a seat in front of her desk and take out my lunch that I had started eating earlier.
"So..." she sits up straighter in her chair. "Jisoo likes Jennie?"
I can feel my own smile tugging at my lips.
"Mmhmm, I've literally been listening to Jennie talk about Jisoo for 3 years. I've had so many cry sessions with her over the fact that Jisoo didn't love her back. But now... everything is different."
Miss Park let out a fangirl squeal. "This is like a movie! I'm literally acting like a 16 year old girl over this. Not professional at all. I might have to make a seating plan in class. Would it be awful of me to put them next to each other permanently?"
We both laugh, and she gets up from her desk, walks over, and pulls up a chair in front of me. She moves her coffee from her desk to my table, tucking her chair into the desk on the other side of me.
I take out my water bottle and unscrew the crappy plastic cap. The second the rim of the bottle touches my lips, her leg rubs against my own. I make an awkward choking sound and my drink catches in my throat. I force it down and try to act as though nothing happened.
"Are you okay?" She reaches over and grabs my shoulder and forcing our legs to press against each other.
I nod frantically and assure her that the water just went down the wrong pipe. But although I've told her that I'm okay, she doesn't loosen her grip on my shoulder and her legs are still gently rubbing and pressing against me.
We're just staring at each other. There is complete silence. Her legs rubbed against mine, and her hand was wrapped around my shoulder, nails pressing against my skin. But I don't feel awkward for some reason. I don't want her to release her grip or stop touching me. I can smell her perfume so strongly because I'm so close to her, I love it.
Her eyes flicker down to my lips for a split second and then reconnect the stare just as quick. Did I see that right?
I mimic her action and quickly but noticeably flutter my eyes down to meet her full, plump lips. The second my eyes came into contact with her mouth, she parted her lips slightly and let out a shaky breath. Fuck, I want to kiss her so bad right now.
Is it strange that I'm so turned on right now, but my heart is also racing at a rapid pace? I take a deep breath and raise my head to meet the beautiful, piercing gaze that makes me weak.
I shouldn't be having these thoughts about a teacher.
~RING~
We both jumped out of our chairs as the bell rang, jolting us out of our little world. While she drank the last of her coffee, I packed my bag. I needed to get out of there as soon as I could.
"Thanks for lunch Miss, I'll see you later!"
She sat down at her desk and leaned back in her chair. "Anytime Lisa. I'll be here all this week if you plan on ditching Jennie and Jisoo again?" It comes out as a question. And she sounded hopeful.
"I'll see you then"
"Bye, beautiful"
The small smile I gave her was nothing compared to the grin on my face as I shut the door behind me and walked down the long corridor.