I sat in math class trying to figure out the solution to a quadratic equation.  But to be honest, I was having great difficulty concentrating.  Why, you ask?  Because Jungkook was sitting right in front of me.  So every time I looked up at the board to go over the teacher’s notes, his dark head would distract me.  

What would it feel like, I wondered, to slide my fingers through his hair?  Silky soft, I’m sure!  Just as I was pondering this, Jungkook turned around.  I blushed, feeling like my thoughts had made their way into his head.

“Can I borrow a pencil?”

A pencil, you ask?  Sure!  You can borrow a pencil!  My book too, perhaps?  Need some paper?  A kidney?  I snapped out of my reverie, and I handed him my pencil.

He looked intently at me, then at the pencil in his hand, and then down at my desk.

“Is this your only pencil?”  His gentle voice was music to my ears.  

I gazed adoringly at him.

“Eun?  Is this your only pencil?” He was peering closely at me.

“Huh?”  I awoke from my stupor.    I shrugged.  “It doesn’t matter,” I responded.

“What do you mean ‘It doesn’t matter’?  How are you going to do your math without a pencil?”

I don’t know.  Write in blood, perhaps?  

“Here.  I’ll ask someone else,” Jungkook held the pencil out toward me.  

“NO!” I shouted.

Jungkook’s eyebrows flew up and I could have sworn his hair was plastered to his head by the force of the wind coming out of my mouth.

“Keep it.  I have another pencil in my bag,” I spoke more calmly this time since I already had his attention.

Jungkook shrugged, and, sadly, turned away from me.  I looked mournfully down at my math paper, wondering how I could get his attention again.  I didn’t have long to wait.  A minute later, Jungkook turned around again.

“Do you have a big eraser?  This math is really hard, and I think I totally messed this problem up.”

Just then the solution to my quandary presented itself!

“Would you like some help?” I asked sweetly.

Jungkook glanced down at my paper.  My paper that had no answers written on it yet.

“Yeah.  It seems like you really know what you’re doing,” Jungkook responded lightly, yet sarcastically.

Hey, I can’t concentrate here, you know?  It’s not every day you decide to sit in front of me with your beautiful hair sticking itself all up in my face!  How on earth can you expect me to concentrate when at any moment you might turn around and ask me for a pencil?!  

But I couldn’t exactly say that to him, so instead, I said, “I just finished writing my notes.  I’m about to work the first problem.  Which number are you on?”

“Number 1,” he replied.

“Want to work it out with me?”  I glanced hopefully at the empty desk next to me.  “You could pull that desk closer and sit next to me,” I suggested, holding my breath the entire time.

Jungkook shrugged.  “Sure.”  

He got up, grabbed his book, notebook, and my pencil, then plopped them down on the top of the desk before shoving it over until it ran into mine.  Then he deposited himself in the chair.

He leaned forward to look at my paper, and I caught a whiff of his cologne.  That’s when I fainted, or at least, I felt like I fainted.  I sat, transfixed, staring at the lights glinting off of his dark hair.  That’s when he raised his eyes, and they collided with mine.  

Fireworks, you say?  Yes.  There were fireworks.  At least on my end.  

“Are you ok?” Jungkook asked me, completely oblivious to the tumult he’d set off inside my heart.

I dragged my eyes away from his while I straightened my paper.  I tried to focus on writing problem number one.  But then he leaned closer and peered over my shoulder.  I turned my head toward him, and our lips almost touched!  I sat frozen, eyeball to eyeball with Jungkook, my crush since the first grade!  

His eyelashes lowered as he looked at my lips.  My heart raced like a galloping stallion.  Was he going to kiss me right here in front of the entire eleventh grade class?

Suddenly, he leaned back a little as his right hand came up and brushed my lip.  

“I think you’ve got some mustard here,” he murmured, while every nerve ending in my face exploded with joy.

I simply stared at him in wonder.  He stared back.

“So, are we going to do problem number one, or what?”  

That’s when my very discerning brain picked up on the fact that Jungkook was beginning to believe he’d get more problems done without me.  The fear this created in me caused me to focus enough that I managed to copy down the first problem on my paper.  Then I looked into his dark eyes to find him smiling at me.  I smiled back as I began to relax.  

Then I said something that made him laugh, and his nose crinkled up in the cutest way while he showed off all of his beautiful teeth to me.  And I relaxed some more.  So then my math brain began to kick in, and I began to explain quadratic equations to Jungkook.  He hung on my every word.  He even took some notes.  And he proceeded to work five problems in a row correctly.

“You’re really good at this!” He exclaimed, his praise washing over me like a healing balm from heaven.

“Thanks,” I mumbled.  “I love math.”  And then suddenly, I questioned the wisdom of that statement. I sounded like a total nerd.  Would he ever talk to me again?!

“Can you help me with number six?” He leaned toward me and looked at my paper. 

My heart exploded into singing as I realized that Jungkook actually liked me for me. I sat daydreaming for a minute, picking out the name of our firstborn child.

His soft voice broke into my reverie as his hand came up and brushed across something I had written on my paper.

“What did you do here?”

His head was bent over next to mine again.  I sat frozen once more, this time staring at the bridge of his nose.  Until his eyes distracted me.  Once again they were gazing straight into mine.  I could feel my heart pounding in my chest.  I moved suddenly and my lips collided with his cheek.  And then I am sure I turned bright red.  I could feel heat rushing into my cheeks.  Was my entire face crimson?  I felt slightly better when I turned toward Jungkook to see a matching blush on the cheek I had just inadvertently kissed!

I sat frozen once again for a moment unsure of what to say.  Then I stuttered, “I – I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to do that!”  Was that a lie?

Jungkook just looked at me.  I glanced down at my paper and tried to make sense of all the letters and numbers that were flying around.  And then I began to speak as my jumbled brain finally translated the math into Korean.  Jungkook nodded his head and began to scribble on his paper.  We worked for the rest of the hour.  As we finished the lesson and began to put our books into our backpacks, Jungkook turned toward me, a smile in his eyes as he handed me my pencil.  My fingers grabbed ahold of it, but he didn’t let go.  I raised my eyes from the pencil to stare into his dark brown orbs once again.

“What were you thinking when your lips brushed my cheek?” He asked me.  

My heart pounded…and then, mercifully, the bell rang.