Jayjay'sPOV
I was rudely yanked out of my sleep by a combination of aggressive shouting and painfully loud music blasting from downstairs. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I dragged myself out of bed and stumbled out to the hallway. By the time I reached the top of the grand staircase, I was met with absolute madness.
Honey, Rakki, and Ella were standing near the couches, tightly covering their ears with both hands and screaming at the top of their lungs. Meanwhile, Aries, Percy, Yuri, and Keifer were dancing around like total idiots in a giant circle. Aries had a massive, heavy Bluetooth speaker propped directly on his shoulder, completely unfazed by the volume.
"What the hell is going on?!" I shouted over the noise, but the boys completely ignored me. Frustrated, I hurried down the stairs and turned to the girls.
"The others left earlier this morning! And since the four of us just wouldn't wake up, they decided to resort to this!" Honey shouted at the top of her lungs. She had to scream just so I could understand a single word over the vibrating bass.
Ella glided forward, her eyes narrowing furiously at her boy. "MICHAEL ARIES FERNANDEZ MARIANO!" she screamed.
Aries paused for a split second, casually raising an eyebrow at her, and then immediately went right back to dancing with a smirk.
"Percy, if you don't stop this right now, I am literally going to kill you!" Honey threatened, but Percy just danced right past her, completely ignoring the warning. The sheer audacity! Honey was definitely going to deal with him properly later.
"Yuri Hanamichi, stop this right now, you freaking idiot!" Rakki shouted, stomping her foot. In response, Yuri just immaturely stuck his tongue out at her and kept moving.
I turned my gaze to the final culprit. "Keifer, stop it, man!" I yelled.
To my surprise, Keifer stopped instantly. He broke away from the circle, looked up at me, and flashed me a bright, incredibly sweet smile.
"Bro, stop being so lovesick!" Aries barked, reaching out to drag Keifer back into their stupid dance routine.
But Keifer didn't join back in. Instead, he lunged forward, grabbed both of my arms, and forcefully dragged me straight into the center of the chaos.
"MARK KEIFER WATSON, LEAVE ME ALONE!" I shouted, trying to pull away. He didn't let go; instead, a rare, beautiful laugh escaped his lips.
Slowly but surely, the boys managed to corral every single girl into the very center of the room, forming a tight, rotating circle around us. Despite how incredibly annoying it was, we all just ended up laughing at how completely ridiculous they were being.
"Seriously?!" Ella asked, shaking her head while laughing through her frustration.
"Are you kidding me right now?" Honey muttered under her breath, a smile breaking through her angry expression.
"Guys, come on, stop! Let us out!" Rakki demanded, attempting to sneak through a gap in their circle. But Yuri instantly blocked her path, forcing her right back into the center.
"Keiferrrrrr," I whined, looking up at him as he stood right in front of me, smiling widely.
"Good morning," he whispered, his dark eyes sparkling with amusement.
"Good morning?! This is a completely chaotic morning!" I shouted back over the blaring lyrics. He just laughed.
"What the hell, Aries!" I heard Ella scream. I whipped my head around and saw that Aries had mischievously brought the massive speaker right up to her ear, laughing like a maniac.
"Percy, I am going to hit you. This is your absolute last warning!" Honey snapped as Percy playfully tried to force her to dance with him.
"Yuri, we are completely done!" Rakki suddenly yelled at the top of her lungs.
Miraculously, everything froze. The boys stopped dancing, and Aries even hit the pause button on the speaker, plunging the room into sudden, echoing silence.
Yuri blinked, looking genuinely hurt. "Huh? What did I even do?"
Rakki blinked back, suddenly looking a little guilty as she rubbed the back of her neck. "I... I was just saying that so you guys would finally stop."
Yuri's dramatic expression instantly flipped into a smirk. "Oh, okay then. Here you go!"
He smacked the play button, and the loud music exploded through the mansion once again. Rakki let out a loud groan of pure despair.
"Keiferrrrrr!" I complained again, slamming my hands over my ears as the bass shook my chest.
"Jayyyy," he mimicked playfully.
Gently, he reached up and removed my hands from my ears, instantly replacing them with his own large, warm palms to block out the noise. Holding me close, he expertly guided me through a gap in the boys' circle, and we successfully sneaked out of the living room entirely.
"Thank god," I muttered in relief, immediately wrapping my hand around his arm as he led me into the pristine, quiet kitchen.
"What do you want to eat?" Keifer asked smoothly, pulling a pan out of the cabinet and placing it onto the stove.
I let out a heavy sigh, dropping myself onto a high stool by the kitchen island. "Anything edible at this point."
He chuckled softly at my exhaustion, turning the flame on.
"Want some help?" I asked, looking at the ingredients laid out.
Keifer nodded. "Put everything on the table."
I quickly hopped off the stool and began transferring the plates and silverware to the dining table. "Just that?" I asked, turning back to him.
He nodded again. "Yeah. We actually made breakfast for everyone before we started the music chaos. We tried waking the four of you up normally, but you wouldn't budge, so Aries came up with that brilliant plan."
Keifer finished warming up the food, brought the platters over, and sat down at the table. I quickly slid into the chair right beside him. Just a few minutes later, the rest of the squad finally stumbled into the kitchen. The girls looked thoroughly annoyed and disheveled, while the boys were still snickering and laughing under their breaths.
Still grumbling, everyone took their seats around the large table and dug into the delicious breakfast.
Keifer'sPOV
"Okay, Jay, get up. We're leaving right now," Aries announced the exact moment we all finished eating.
I looked over at Jayjay, who wasn't paying a single shred of attention to him because she was still happily chewing her food.
"She's still eating," I told Aries, gesturing toward her. "You guys can go ahead. I'll drop her off myself."
Jayjay looked up at me, her cheeks puffed out completely like a cute little squirrel since her mouth was totally full of food. She gave me a massive smile, nodding her head repeatedly in agreement.
"Okay, then we'll head straight to the university," Ella said, standing up.
Yuri checked his phone, a look of sudden panic crossing his face as he turned to Rakki. "Rakki, your dad is calling us right now because of that stupid dare from yesterday."
"Oh no! We should leave immediately. Bye, guys!" they both shouted in unison, sprinting out of the mansion before anyone could even say goodbye.
Honey stood up next, turning a fierce, icy glare toward Percy. "You," she said, pointing a finger directly at him. "You have a lot to answer for today."
Before Percy could even attempt to defend himself, Honey reached out, firmly grabbed him by his ear, and ruthlessly dragged him out the front door while he whined in pain.
"Let's go, Aries," Ella chuckled.
"Bye-bye, lovebirds!" they called out, waving as they walked out together. Jayjay just cute-waved back at them, her mouth still completely occupied with breakfast. I couldn't help but chuckle softly, taking a slow sip of my coffee as I watched her.
"Done!" she announced proudly a few minutes later, wiping her mouth.
"Go get ready for the university," I told her, setting my coffee cup down. "Your clothes are already laid out in the closet of your room."
"My room?" she asked, tilting her head.
"Yeah, the one where you stayed a while back," I replied gently.
She nodded happily. "Okay!"
She spun around and walked upstairs to her room while I headed to mine to change. After getting dressed, I made my way down to the living room and sat on the sofa, patiently waiting for her.
A little while later, the sound of soft footsteps echoed from the stairs. I looked up, and my breath was instantly caught in my throat.
Jayjay was walking down the steps, and she looked absolutely breathtaking. She was wearing a sleek brown skirt paired with a matching brown tank top, layered with an elegant cream button up shirt with golden buttons. She wore delicate golden earrings that caught the light, and a thin, elegant golden chain rested beautifully against her neck. Her hair was tied up into a effortlessly loose bun, secured with a pretty little cream scarf on top of her head, and she wore matching cream high heels. She had a glossy coat of lipgloss on her naturally rose-pink lips. Her eyelashes were so naturally long and thick that she didn't even need a drop of mascara, and her chubby cheeks were flushed with a faint, natural pink hue.
She stopped right in front of me, noticing my stunned silence. "What?" she asked, tilting her head.
"Nothing. You just look..." I paused, shaking my head because I honestly couldn't find the right words. "I can't even describe it in words."
A playful grin broke across her face. She reached out, gently poking my cheek. "And you look incredibly handsome yourself... fiancé."
I felt a smile tugging at my own lips. "Thanks... fiancé."
She burst into a sweet laugh. Hand in hand, we walked out to the driveway, got into the car, and I started up the engine.
"Jay," I called out as I shifted gears.
"Hmm?" she murmured, looking over.
"Seatbelt," I reminded her gently.
"Ohh, right!" she giggled, quickly clicking it into place.
During the entire drive, I found it almost impossible to keep my eyes off her. When we finally hit a red light, she was staring out the window, quietly giggling to herself about something. Unable to resist, I quietly pulled out my phone and secretly snapped a few pictures of her.
When we finally arrived at the school, I walked her directly to her classroom.
"Bye, Keifer!" she said, waving at me as she stepped inside.
"Bye," I replied, waving back with a smile.
She smiled warmly and immediately walked over to the back of the room, joining the large table her friends had made by pushing four desks together. Satisfied, I turned around and headed to my own classroom. As I walked down the corridor, I couldn't stop staring down at my phone screen, completely captivated by the picture of her I had just taken.
"What on earth are you smiling at like an idiot?" David's voice suddenly boomed beside me. He tried to peek over my shoulder, but I instantly locked my phone screen and shoved it into my pocket.
"None of your business," I said flatly, pushing past him to walk to my seat.
Aries immediately began to holler from across the room. "Ohhh! Look at that! Someone is secretly smiling all to himself!"
"Shut up, Aries," I snapped, though I couldn't stop the small smirk on my face. The entire group erupted into loud laughter at my expense.
Soon after, our professor walked into the room to begin the lecture. He cleared his throat and made an unexpected announcement. "Class, please listen up. We have officially completed three months of our six-month business course. As you know, there are technically no senior or junior rankings in this program. However, because a few students joined the semester late, they were temporarily placed in a separate group and referred to as juniors until they caught up."
The professor smiled proudly. "But as of today, those students have completely covered the entire syllabus, matching our exact pace. Therefore, this senior-junior division officially ends today. From this moment on, you will all be classmates in one single room."
My heart jumped. That meant Jayjay and I were finally going to be in the exact same class.
"Take your bags, everyone. We are moving over to the old classroom permanently," the professor instructed.
We all quickly packed our things, slung our bags over our shoulders, and followed the professor down the hall to Jayjay's classroom. The second we walked through the door, Jayjay looked up from her textbook. Her eyes widened into huge circles, and her face instantly lit up with pure joy.
She immediately leaned over to her friend, whispering something excitedly. In a flash, the girls all stood up, quickly unlinking the four tables they had joined together and rearranging the desks into separate tables.
I walked straight down the aisle, pulling up a chair right next to Jayjay and sitting down.
She leaned in, a mischievous smirk on her face. "So... you're officially not my senior anymore?"
I shook my head, smiling back at her. "And you're officially not my junior anymore. But seriously, how did you guys manage to cover that massive amount of syllabus so quickly?"
Jayjay proudly tapped her index finger against her temple. "Well, you happen to have an incredibly smart fiancé."
We both burst into a shared, happy laugh.
"Hey, how many months have we actually been studying this stupid business course anyway?" she asked, her tone suddenly turning into a whine.
"Three," I answered.
"And how many months is this entire course supposed to last?"
"Six," I replied.
Jayjay let out a dramatic groan of pure agony, completely leaning her body back against her chair. "Ugh! Three more whole months of surviving this—OWW!"
She winced loudly as her head forcefully collided with the wooden back of the chair because she had leaned back way too fast. I immediately reached over, gently rubbing the back of her head to soothe the pain, and she looked up at me with a grateful, sweet smile.
Before we could say anything else, the professor stood at the front of the room. "Alright, class. This particular period is going to be free. You are not allowed to leave the classroom under any circumstances unless you need to use the restroom. Enjoy your free time." With that, he turned on his heel and walked out, leaving the room to erupt into excited chatter.
The exact moment the professor stepped out of the room, all of us guys grabbed our desks and dragged them toward the back of the classroom. We pushed them all together, creating one giant, makeshift table big enough to comfortably fit the twelve of us.
Once we all settled into our spots, everyone immediately grew busy with their own worlds. Ella and Aries were already bickering over some lecture notes, while Yuri and Rakki were completely absent from the room. Grace was happily scrolling through Denzel's phone while he focused on studying his notebook, and Mica and Calix were quietly chatting with each other. David was leaning in, desperately trying to convince Freya of something, while Jayjay was completely locked into her own notes. As for me, I was just casually texting my mom.
Suddenly, my phone vibrated in my palm. Keiran was calling.
Knowing how loud and chaotic the classroom could get, I slipped out of my seat and walked out into the university garden to get some privacy. The second I swiped to answer, a loud voice erupted from the speaker.
"Hello, Kuya!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Why the hell are you shouting, and why did you even call me?" I asked, pulling the phone slightly away from my ear.
"I was just super excited, that's why I was shouting! And I called you because of—ATE JAY!" he suddenly squealed.
Before I could even turn around to see what he was looking at, someone forcefully smacked my arm from behind. Jayjay materialized right next to me, dropping down onto the lush green grass.
"Why are you being so rude to a little kid, silly?" she scolded playfully, seamlessly reaching over and swiping my phone straight out of my hand. "Hii, Keiran!"
Keiran enthusiastically greeted her back, his voice completely shifting into a sweet tone. Within seconds, the two of them were deep in conversation, laughing and giggling like best friends.
"Ate Jay, when I was over there, why weren't you coming to visit me at my playschool?" Keiran asked suddenly, his little voice turning a bit pouty.
"Aw, sorry, baby. Ate Jay was just really, really busy," she cooed softly.
My brows furrowed instantly. Baby? She had never called me that.
"Why exactly are you calling him baby?" I interrupted, staring down at her.
Jayjay looked up at me, a look of pure disbelief on her face. "Are you seriously jealous of your own little brother right now?"
"No. Just don't call him baby," I mumbled, crossing my arms.
"Why not?" she asked, bursting into laughter at my reaction.
I rolled my eyes, looking away from her teasing grin. "Fine. Go ahead and call him whatever you want to call him."
Jayjay's POV
Oh great. Now my this giant baby is officially sulking.
"Keiran, I'll have to call you back later, okay? Bye!" I said quickly, cutting the call before he could ask any questions.
I turned my full attention to Keifer, but the second I did, he deliberately turned his back on me, staring out at the garden.
"And now you are sulking," I sighed, leaning closer. He didn't answer. "Keifer."
"..."
"Keif."
"..."
"Babe," I tried softly.
He whipped his head around to face me instantly.
"Ohh, look at that! Now you finally turned around," I teased, a victorious smile breaking across my face. I reached up, cupping his warm face in both of my hands so he couldn't look away from me. "Are you mad at me?"
"Nope," he said flatly.
"It really doesn't seem like you're not mad," I countered, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm not," he insisted again.
"Really?" I pressed. He just gave me a silent, stubborn nod. Well I think keifer is right, one day Keiran needs to grow up and what will he think his sister in law used to call him baby? No way not from now on.
"Really" he replied.
"You sure?" I asked again.
"Sure" he said.
"Look, I know what happened," I said gently, softening my voice. "I called Keiran 'baby.' I won't call him that anymore, okay? But listen, he is literally only five years old. I was only calling him baby because he's a tiny little baby, Keif."
Keifer stared into my eyes for a long moment before finally giving a slow nod. "I just don't like sharing what's mine."
A small chuckle escaped my lips. "But I'm not a thing, Keifer."
"Yeah, I know, but you are my fiancé," he said, his voice dropping into a serious, possessive tone. "And you will always be my fiancé."
"Keif..." I murmured, my cheeks warming up.
"And I am your fiancé. Always yours," he added firmly, sealing his words.
I smiled, my heart doing a little flip. "Okay, come on. Let's head back to class."
He nodded, and the two of us stood up from the grass, shaking off a few stray leaves before walking back into the classroom. We slid back into our respective spots at the giant table. I pulled out my statistics notebook, staring blankly at a formula that looked like a foreign language.
"Keif, I seriously don't understand this one," I groaned, pointing my pen at the frustrating problem.
"Okay, look here," he said smoothly. He leaned in close, pulling my notebook toward him and carefully breaking down the step-by-step process.
Unfortunately for me, one single problem somehow multiplied into thousands of other sub-problems. By the time we finished, my brain felt completely fried.
"I'm officially done! It's a good thing I don't want to do any more of this today," I sighed loudly.
Keifer chuckled softly at my dramatic exhaustion. I quickly closed every single textbook and notebook on my desk and shoved them aggressively into my backpack. Feeling completely drained, I let out a heavy sigh and let my forehead drop onto the hard surface of the table.
THUD.
"Ouch!" I winced loudly, immediately snapping back up and rubbing my forehead in pure agony. Damn it, that seriously hurt! First, my head had violently collided with the back of the chair earlier, and now my forehead had slammed straight into the hard wooden table. My luck was absolutely not working today.
Before Keifer could even comfort my bruised forehead, the loud, piercing ring of the university bell echoed through the hallways. A second later, Professor Kim-Se-Young walked into the room. Yeah, you guessed it—we actually have a Korean professor at our university, and he definitely doesn't tolerate any slacking off.
Right in the middle of the class, the classroom door creaked open just a tiny bit. It was a small movement, but absolutely everyone noticed. I squinted my eyes, leaning forward to see who it was.
RAKKI AND YURI!
The two of them were bent low, trying their absolute best to slide into the room completely unnoticed. But Professor Kim-Se-Young caught them instantly. She crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her foot as she watched them practically crawl inside like guilty toddlers. She cleared her throat loudly.
"Ahhh!" they both shrieked in fright, jumping straight up into a standing position.
The entire classroom instantly burst out laughing at their expressions.
"The second lecture has already started, and you guys are just deciding to show up now?" Ma'am asked, raising a strict eyebrow.
"Yes, Ma'am... we're only coming now because we had a major emergency," Rakki replied quickly, trying to sound serious.
"Yeah, Ma'am. A total emergency," Yuri chimed in, nodding like a bobblehead.
"And what exactly was this emergency?" Ma'am questioned, completely unimpressed.
I smirked, staring at them from the back table. Oh, go on, Yuri. Go tell her the truth. Tell her that you guys pranked Rakki's dad by telling him she was pregnant. Go on, tell her!
"Umm... Ma'am, uhhh. My dad... yeah, my dad called us because..." Rakki stammered, her brain desperately searching for a lie.
Before she could freeze up completely, Yuri jumped in to rescue her. "Because we stayed over at Keifer's house yesterday, Ma'am! We completely forgot to inform her dad beforehand, so he called us out of worry."
Professor Kim-Se-Young shifted her gaze over to Keifer. "Did they?" she asked.
Keifer didn't say a word; he just gave a calm, silent nod to back up their story. Our entire friend group was violently biting their lips, desperately holding in our laughter because what a completely ridiculous, made-up reason!
"They are so doomed," I whispered to Keifer under my breath. He just chuckled softly, his eyes full of amusement.
"Since the two of you love being late so much, come up to the board and solve this problem," Ma'am commanded.
Instantly, the color drained from Yuri and Rakki's faces, and they looked absolutely terrified. Seeing their miserable expressions, David couldn't control his laughter anymore and let out a loud snort.
Unfortunately for him, Ma'am's sharp ears picked it up instantly. "Oh, you're laughing? Come on, you join them too," she said, pointing a marker at him.
David's laughter died instantly, and he let out a miserable groan as he dragged his feet to the front of the room.
So there they were—Rakki, Yuri, and David—standing at the whiteboard to solve three entirely different business problems. Now, David is incredibly smart, so I already knew he could handle his problem easily. But seeing how much Rakki and Yuri actually study these days? Yeah, I couldn't say much about their chances.
As the three of them began writing, Yuri secretly nudged Rakki's arm. Rakki glanced around cautiously. Seeing that Ma'am was busy attending to some other students at the front desks, she quickly leaned over toward Yuri's board and hastily wrote down the correct steps for him.
Except, Yuri's final answer was still completely wrong. Seeing this, David shaking his head, quickly erased Yuri's incorrect answer and wrote down the actual correct one to help him out. But instead of being grateful, Yuri glared fiercely at David and forcefully kicked his leg under the board! Then, Yuri aggressively erased David's correct answer and proudly wrote Rakki's wrong calculation back on the board.
Our entire table burst into a loud fit of laughter. Yuri was seriously so madly in love that he would rather fail with Rakki's answer than pass with David's!
"Class, quiet!" Ma'am barked, and the room instantly silenced itself.
Ma'am then walked over to inspect the solutions provided by our three idiots. Yuri's entire math solution was a total disaster from start to finish, but for some miraculous reason, Ma'am just sighed and let it go. David's solution was, of course, completely perfect, so he got away quickly and scurried back to his seat. As for Rakki, her entire methodology was absolutely right—it was just the final main answer that was slightly off due to a minor calculation error. Luckily, Ma'am let her go with a warning too.
The three of them marched back to our big table, aggressively glaring at one another and furiously whispering under their breaths. They were definitely trading some hilarious curses.
The End 🌸.