#l.mk

I looked behind me, specifically at the black shiny clock and realised that we had 30 minutes left. “Damn it” I muttered a little too loud for my liking. Head’s turned towards my way and I wanted to sink into my chair and disappear. Uneasily turning my head to face the teacher—getting ready to get scolded, my eyes connected with students who immediately looked away but then one didn’t.

Mark Lee.

Our eyes locked—for I guess three seconds, our faces neutral, completely showing no emotion, I looked away with my signature scowl. “Miss Y/n, please wait for me outside” I scurried off with my grey bag. Time went slowly, my body rested on the white wall, eyes threatening to shut and hands rubbing on my arm, it was winter in a week's time. The open hallway was chilly.

The sound of the door opening snapped me back into my senses, unknowingly straightening myself, I was expecting Ms. Park to come out and give me a lecture of a lifetime, and she did come but she was not alone. The quiet boy from the back row who had jet black hair walked out, our eyes connected once more and the already-visible scowl on my face worsened.

“I’m letting you off with one condition” My brows perked up, more on bewilderment than anticipation. “The student who gets the higher score for tomorrow’s test won’t have to clean up our three science labs”, I turned my head to see Mark’s reaction but he was already looking out for mine.

“Alright” I agreed and Mark nodded in her direction.

________

The pencil twirled around my fingers, teeth sunken into my lips, brows furrowed and my nose scrunched up every now and then, I was definitely focused. I didn’t want to win because I didn’t want to clean the lab, in fact I wanted to because I learned and discovered new things——I wanted to win to see the little look of disappointment appear in his face.

Me and Mark Lee always had this quiet rivalry between us, we’ve never spoken, only sending tense looks at each other’s way occasionally. “5 minutes left” I stared at the last question wondering how I didn’t know it.

“Come on” I muttered, the bite on my lip only hardening. I re-read the question about ten times already, my brain was searching for the file, I knew it was there somewhere, I never got anything wrong. My eyes glanced to the side, to see Mark Lee, sitting in the corner, eyes trained outside the window, hand’s empty and test paper turned upside down. He was done but it didn’t mean he was right.

With a new sense of motivation, I stared at the paper and the answer flew across my mind. “There you go!” I squealed quietly, not enough to catch the attention of anybody in class, I did make eye-contact with Ms. Park and she saw the little excitement in my eyes meaning that I’ve got the answer.

I scribbled down on the paper, hands excitedly writing it down knowing all too well that I was going to ace this. “Fucking beat that Mark Lee” I muttered under my breath as I boxed my finally answer. “3 minutes left” the sound of groans and people speedily writing was all I could hear as I bent down, placing my head on the table, hoping for a short nap.

______

We were in the same hallway as last time, my hands were crossed over my chest, the worry of what might come next was all I could focus on. “I’ve gotten your scores” Ms. Park smirked then pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. The thick white paper on her hands held what I would feel for the rest of the week, though I was confident, there was still a chance of him one-upping me and I didn’t like the thought of that.

“Congratulations Y/n—“ she started and I smiled in relief, “—-you’re cleaning the science labs” then my world stopped. “What?” The words flew out of my mouth, it didn’t sound like a question at all, it sounded like a little girl who got her ice cream taken by her mother. “But how?” I felt my cheeks heat up, fire seemed to crawl up my throat, I didn’t want to lose. As I turned my head to the side, I saw the faint smirk resting on his lips and the glint of mischief in his eyes. “Whatever” I took the paper from Ms, Park’s hands and walked away. 

_______

The clear glass door in front of me felt like an entrance to a theme park, a theme park I’m cleaning for the next—2 hours. “Damn it” I pushed the knob down, then the door opened. I scanned through the room, it was pretty decent, not much dirt on the tables like usual. I walked around, the floor wasn’t piled with blood or remains of burnt magnesium, though there were dusts on some corners, it was an easy job.

As I reached the small brown cabinet in the back corner of the room, I opened it and pulled out a feather duster, a colourful one, I snorted at my ‘weapon’ of choice but then got back in character, posing like a kung fu master getting ready to attack my enemies then glaring at the dust centimetres away. “Hiii-yaaa!” I screamed as I aggressively wiped the dust off the black table in front of me.

“Looks like you're having fun” I stopped in my tracks, turning my head to the door. There he was—Mark Lee. “I was having fun but you ruined it” I scrunch my nose in annoyance. He smirked, his arms crossed over his chest, his body leaning on one side of the door frame. That was the first time we ever talked.

“Why are you here?” I twirled the feather duster on my hands, good luck to my asthma. “I wanted to see what you were up to”, I raised my brow, “and why is that?” He scanned the room, “you looked pretty pissed out there”

“That’s cause I was” I pointed my feather duster to him, “get out” I demanded. He didn’t move, not even a little. “Get out you—-“ I was cut off by an incoming sneeze. His brows furrowed wondering why I stopped and then it came. 

“Achoo!” He chuckled and I glared at him, my face partly red because of embarrassment and the allergy. He walked gracefully towards me, then pulling the duster off my grip. “I’ll clean it” he volunteered and I shook my head. “Go out and do something else”, “You have allergies Y/n, I’ll do it” I still shook my head.

“Come on!” He uttered, completely annoyed as I pulled the feather duster back, I wasn’t letting this guy do my work. “I’ll do it”, “no you won’t”, “it’s my job”, “you’ll get sick”,”I’ll be alright, just——“ I was cut off again but not by an incoming sneeze.

I was cut off when I realised that I was corned, in between his arms, his face just centimetres away from me, his hot breath hitting my lips. My grip on the feather duster loosened and I felt him pulling it off my hands. “I’ll clean it” he said firmly as he turned back and started at the other corner away from where I was standing frozen...like a statue.

-cut-