seven

Aren't You Tired?

With her hands in her puffy jacket pockets, Soojung took small steps towards her local store, grasping her 10,000 won bill in her palm. It was a Saturday so she didn't have school. Before entering the building, she peered into the large, dirty glass window, wondering if anyone was in there. Apart from the female worker and a boy who was wearing ordinary black clothes and a beanie, with his back facing towards the entrance, the place was practically empty and there wasn't any noise that she could hear. Shivering from the cold, she pushed the door open and walked towards the counter.

"Excuse me; do you guys have any ink cartridges left? Black ones - my printer ran out." She asked the girl behind the counter. She looked like a high school student to Soojung but she didn't dare ask which school she went to, as she showed every sign of a girl that would shout at you for every little wrong thing you had done.

"Cartridges?" She hopped off the small work top behind the counter and stood up straight, rolling her shoulders as she became fully awake. Now that she was up, Soojung saw her name tag, she was Amber. "One second." She turned around to examine all of the things hanging on display. Standing on her tiptoes, she reached for the ink at the top. Throwing it to Soojung, she walked back in front of her. "7,000 won." She concluded.

Soojung was about to hand her money when she realized she had to buy a glue stick seeming as hers had ran out. This bull project is costing me a lot of money. She rolled her eyes as she looked at all of stationary stacked on the selves. Picking up a glue stick with her fingers, she suddenly felt something hit the back of her head. "What the h-" She quickly turned around to see Lee Howon (Hoya) looking at her with lollipops in his left hand.

"What's this? Jung Soojung?" He asked, "You realize this is your fault, right?" He scoffed, pointing to the bandage wrapped around his head with a red patch towards the right of it. "Aren’t you going to say anything? The hospital bill was so ing expensive I almost felt like killing someone because of the burden on my grandmother's shoulders, and it's all because of you. Dongwoo even told me about how he got hit by car when you were around him, and now I've got this bloody scar on my head when I was around you. What's up with you, huh? Are you some sort of goddess of destruction?" Hoya took a few steps forward, limping a bit. "Yah." He breathed out. "Answer m-" Suddenly, the whole wine shelf behind him fell, causing the bottles to bleed onto the slippery floor. From his knees downwards, he was soaked with his jeans torn from the sharp edges of the bottle. Anyone looking was able to decipher that he probably got cut and was bleeding. Hoya didn't show it though; he just hissed it pain.

"Pardon me." Amber suddenly said in English, taking her lollipop from out of . "You're going to have to pay for that." She walked out from her little space towards Soojung, snatching her 10,000 won bill and pushing the ink cartridges into her hand that didn't have a glue stick. "Go home." Amber mouthed, before turning to Hoya. "Yah, kid, didn't you hear me? I'm expecting payment for all of those wine bottles." Cocking her head, she counted them all roughly in her head. "That's twenty bottles so I'm expecting 250,000 won right now."

"Shut the up." Hoya spat, beginning to get ready to go after Soojung who was already out of the store. The girl furrowed her eyebrows and walked towards the door and blocked it with her body.

"Yah, you want to die? Pay for all of the ing bottles or I'll call the damn police." She didn't hesitate to take her phone out of her jeans pockets, dialing the Korean Police Force's number. Holding up the screen, she showed it to Hoya.

"Do you think I care about that? Don't try to act like a big girl now; you're probably younger than I am." Hoya tutted, slapping the phone of her hand, causing it to crash onto the floor. Like a flame had ignited inside of her, Amber suddenly kicked him in his lower region, raising an eyebrow and chuckling as she saw him topple to the floor, shrieking in pain.

"What happened to your harsh words? Don't make me laugh, Hoya. Shut up and pay for the wine bottles by Tuesday otherwise you see those cameras over there?" She pointed towards the corner of the store. "Whatever footage on there is going directly to your grandmother then the police, you understand?" Opening the door, she pointed for him to leave. As he got up, he walked towards her and asked her,

"Yah, who are you? How do you know my name?"

"That was Jung Soojung and you’re Lee Howon. You both go to Nabi High school and you’re students of class three. We'll see a lot more of each other in the future and when we do, make sure you don't mess with me then, okay? Otherwise I can still send that video to the police on accounts of stalking and harassment." She raised her finger and pushed his forehead, targeting the blood stain, causing him to feel pain. "Now leave."

"Weirdass ..." Hoya said under his breath.

He proceeded to leave the store in a staggering motion as Amber flipped the 'open' sign to say closed. Scratching the back of her head, she sighed, going to the store room to check the CCTV footage because she knew that shelves don’t fall by themselves randomly. Clicking rewind, she sat down in her spinny chair. Skipping the bit where Hoya was confronting Soojung, she looked closer and squinted her eyes as she saw a person push the shelf. He was wearing all black and beanie. Shortly after the incident, he fled quietly. Furrowing her eyebrows, Amber leaned back resting her head on the top of the chair.

"Boy, this really isn't it." Amber groaned.

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daexnight
#1
Chapter 5: cries a river
daexnight
#2
ive only read the foreword and i'm loving this story already
mierolzafri #3
Chapter 12: Poor myungsoo
CroixJean
#4
Chapter 11: She seems to be nice to literally everyone who have been s to her instead of the one who was actually cool from the get go and didn't screw her over or picked on her. How does this girl's mind work, lol.
mierolzafri #5
Chapter 11: confuseeeeedddd
shimmyshimshong #6
Chapter 9: So confused about dongwoo but!!! seems like a good guy . but soojung :( noooo don't let her get blamed sniff
AFishandeer #7
Chapter 8: It's so upsetting to see Soojung get blamed for everything. Ugh.
And I don't know why but I have a good feelling about Dongwoo. Yes he is evil but he also has done somethings that protect Soojung. That last scene too, I bet he protects her from that guy
simplykrystal #8
Chapter 8: Wow, why does Soojung get blamed for everything? It's so unfair and they can't prove she did it so why is she automatically proclaimed as guilty? Here in California, we can't easily point fingers like that to one another.
CroixJean
#9
Chapter 7: I hope that "cousin" Myungsoo mentioned isn't who I think it is, but I'm suspecting it. After all, he went into the hospital with flowers as if about to see someone there and walked in Dongwoo's room. Then asked Soojung to leave while he took care of her "boyfriend". There's a reason why Hoya seems to know Myungsoo and his past as well ("pa-"..."parents"). Something tells me the parents having gone bankrupt wasn't an unfortunate twist of fate and it was done to purposely ruin them. Or maybe it was just that, an unfortunate event. It's just Myungsoo's uncle owning a travel agent firm too gave off red flags to me. Was it a family business?

I got so excited when reading about Sunggyu being his older brother since I love their brotherly relationship in INFINITE and hoped to see it here, yet you had him die :(. Or is he...? I'd really like to know who the guy fleeing from the market is. Would he be the same one who dropped the wine shelves as well? Another INFINITE member? Lee Jinki?

Anyway, you got some interesting stuff going on here, air of mystery and whatnot. I'll await your update.
Myungstal759 #10
Chapter 7: Pls update!! ☺