Chapter Three

I twirled the pen in my hand and flipped the waxy page of the textbook.

The library was dead silent.

I could feel the menacing stare of the librarian pierce my neck, making my skin tingle.

“A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another…” I murmured to myself.

“Hey little fan girl…” a raspy voice breathed into my ear.

"HOLY MOTHER OF- HyukJae?"

He quickly covered my mouth, “Shhh…that old lady is gonna come kick us out!” he whispered coarsely.

From the corner of my eye I saw the librarian get up from her seat and she adjusted her glasses, glaring in our direction. She cursed under her breath before returning to her desk.

HyukJae sat down in the chair next to me and lent over curiously to read what I was studying. The beige woolen fibers from his knitted jersey brushed against my arm, making the hairs stand on end.

I looked up at him; his golden fringe covered part of his left eye as he lowered his head, and with a little flick it rested naturally above his eyebrow.

He lent against the table with both arms crossed and his right hand the crocheted material on his left elbow.

His unpierced ears picked up on the long silence.

He glanced at me with his coffee colored eyes and smiled, revealing a small dimple on his left cheek.

I quickly diverted my eyes to the floor and shuffled uncomfortably in my seat.

“W-What are you doing here? I thought appa told you to start work today” I asked in the quietest voice possible, breaking the awkward silence.

“I’m working right now. Your appa sent me here and told me to read up on internal hardware” he replied in a whisper.

“You shouldn’t have to do that, you graduated with an associate’s degree in electronics didn’t you?”

He shrugged, “I’ll just listen to your appa, I don’t want to know what happens if I don’t…besides, this revision might be beneficial to me”

“Well I’ll be fine here by myself, go look for something to read” I suggested.

He nodded and disappeared behind the first shelf. I sighed and rested my chin on my arm, slouching over the desk, and drawing a little heart in the corner of my notebook.

“Excuse me oppa, can you please help me find this book?”

I turned and stared through the gap in the metal shelves. A beautiful young student had directed the question at HyukJae.

Her caramel brown hair was dead straight without a single hair out of place. It flowed right past her shoulders and rested peacefully at her waist. Her facial features were equally pleasant, but who knows whether she had gone under the knife or not. Her petite body and curves were complimented by the white floral summer dress she wore. It draped a little above her knees and was elasticized below her full chest. Her legs were long and slender without a single imperfection in sight, and its length was emphasized by her navy blue six inch platforms.

He took the piece of paper in her hands and studied it. “Oh I’m sorry, I can’t help you. Maybe you can ask the librarian over there” he answered
politely.

The girl took a step closer to him and held onto his arm, “I don’t want to ask her…I want you to help me oppa” she begged, her voice poisoned with aegyo.

I scoffed, who is she to call him ‘oppa’?

HyukJae scratched his head with his free hand and sighed, “Alright, I will help you”

My mouth gaped open. Had HyukJae really been blinded by her seductive appearance and equally hypnotic voice?

Her eyes beamed with delight and she hugged HyukJae tightly. His eyes widened with surprise, but he awkwardly pat her back anyway.

She grabbed his wrist and pulled him away to search the second isle.

Through the gap between reference ‘C’ and ‘D’ HyukJae looked at me desperately with pouting lips.

“Help me!” he mouthed through gritted teeth.

I smiled and shook my head in amusement before sneaking around the shelves.

“Oppaaa~ I was looking everywhere for you! You promised to help my study today” I exclaimed, possessively taking HyukJae’s hand and pulling him to my side.

HyukJae went blank for a second, wondering what the hell I was doing.

But he finally let out a relieved breath and nodded in realization.

He caressed my cheek, “Oh jagiya~ I’m so sorry! I promise I’ll never do it again!” he said playing along.

HyukJae pulled me into his arms and I traced little circles on his firm chest, “Oppa…who is she?” I asked innocently.

He chuckled, “Oh I was just going to help her find a book but-“

The girl let out an irritated ‘hmph!’ and was totally speechless. She shot one more dirty look at the both of us and stormed away.

 

“When you said ‘oh jagiya~’ I was trying so hard not to laugh!” I exclaimed as we exited the library together.

“Hey, it tickled when you drew circles on my chest, you know?!” he said, shivering at the thought.

“And I just don’t understand how girls can be so confident about guys, she even called me ‘oppa’ on our first meeting…” he continued as we crossed the road.

“Not all girls are like that you know, but maybe you’re more for the shy type, am I right?” I asked, clutching my books tighter in my arms.

“Yeah I guess so, shy girls are cute” he smiled.

I bit my lip and blushed a little, “Then how about-“ but before I could finish my cell phone rang.

“Yeoboseyo?”

“Honey, it’s umma. Where are you? Are you coming home for lunch?”

“I’ve just left the library with HyukJae and I’m coming home now”

“HyukJae? What are you doing with HyukJae? A date?”

“No! It was a coincidence we were both at the library, gosh umma”

“Did he help you study?”

“A little, he explained chemical reactions to me. I understand it now” I said, smiling at HyukJae.

“Well then, why don’t you ask him to be your tutor? We’ll just increase his wage from your appa” she suggested.

“Aigoo…he’s busy enough with appa breathing down his neck, I don’t think it’s necessary”

“It doesn’t hurt to ask, plus it’s your final year and everything HyukJae says manages to stick in your head. You can’t afford to lose this opportunity”

“Ngg…hold on”

I placed my hand around the receiving end, “HyukJae, do you wanna be…my tutor? Umma says she will increase your wages for it” I asked hesitantly.

“Oh of course, if you really think it will help you. I’ll be glad to be your tutor” he agreed.

 

“HyukJaaae~ I just finished school, I’ll be at the library soon ^^”I said through text message.

As soon as the message was sent out my phone rang again to an incoming call.

“Yeoboseyo appa?”

“Come to the store now, I need you to do something for me here”

“B-but…I have tutoring with HyukJae today, he’s probably waiting at the library already”

“Since when did you have tutoring?”

“Umma suggested it…appa, I know how much you want me to be independent, but I really think HyukJae will be able to help me revise better. Finals are coming up soon”

“Well if tutoring is what you want I’ll find a proper tutor for you tomorrow”

“But HyukJae-“

“He’s doing overtime today, so he can’t tutor you anyway”

“So what time-“

“Just come now, don’t be slow”

 

I took in a breath before pushing open the door to Lee’s PC Repair.

The store was small, with a wide counter as the reception and a visible repair workshop stretching all the way to the back of the premises. There was only a small divider near the front of the area that acted as father’s office where he did all his paperwork. In the centre of the workshop was a single stainless steel table where all the completed repairs were stacked, and around the edges were portable countertops for the ‘messy work’. Wire nibs, clamps and welders were scattered all over the concrete floor, father never bothered to clean up after himself.

“Appa…I’m here” I called emotionlessly.

There was no response.

Suddenly a blonde head popped up from behind the counter, “Oh hey little fan girl, you’re here!”

“HyukJae, where’s appa? He told me to come here to do something for him” I said, opening up the latch and stepping behind the reception.

He took my backpack from me and stored it under the desk, “Lee sunbaenim is out on an emergency errand right now, but he told me what to do with you” he said, handing me a piece of paper with father’s scribbled instructions.

“He said there’s a stack of handwritten invoices over there, so you just have to type them all out and print them, then return them to his office” he explained, pointing to the far desk at the other end of the workshop.

“Can’t I just use this one here?” I asked, referring to the computer at the reception.

HyukJae shook his head, “Lee sunbaenim insisted you use that one, maybe it has the software that this one doesn’t”

I shrugged, “Well okay, you better get back to work though. It looks difficult!” I said, looking at the pile of metal and wire spewing out of the crashed system.

 

I let out a frustrated shout, “Gah! Stupid computer!”

HyukJae swerved around the central table to check out the problem.

He took one look at the screen and tapped the top of the monitor twice, “It’s dead alright, did you save everything?”

I pulled out the black USB flash stick from the socket and held it up to HyukJae, “Luckily…”

“Then why don’t you try out the one at the reception? It should be fine” he suggested.

I nodded and shifted all the papers to the front desk.

I tapped the space bar once and the computer awoke from sleep mode. “I don’t understand why appa didn’t tell me to use this computer in the first place, the settings and software are exactly the same as the other one”

HyukJae shrugged and took a seat next to me, fiddling around with the faulty system, “He’s a tough man to understand, and quite hard to satisfy too”

“Who’s hard to satisfy?!” boomed a voice from the entrance.

“A-Appa…welcome back”

“Lee s-sunbaenim, I hope your errand went well”

He glared at HyukJae, then back at me.

“You were supposed to use the computer down the back so you didn’t distract HyukJae, didn’t you know? And you, kid, were supposed to tell her that. Didn’t you give her that piece of paper?!” he scolded, slamming his fist on the front counter.

HyukJae and I flinched simultaneously.

His eyes diverted back to his new employee, “Or…did you purposely tell my daughter to work at the front desk so you could be closer to her?! Wasn’t that first ‘playtime’ enough for you?!” my father accused, his voice growing louder with each syllable.

The innocent shook his head and hands quickly, “No no, sunbaenim! It’s not like that, really!”

“Appa, please don’t blame HyukJae. It was my fault. The computer overheated because I had too many windows open at once” I confessed, guilty that HyukJae had to take the blame.

My father crossed his arms and clicked his tongue, “Well why didn’t you use the laptop in the office? That one works perfectly fine!”

HyukJae stepped forward with his head bowed, “Uh…I’m sorry sunbaenim, that laptop doesn’t connect up to the printer, remember?”

He tapped his foot agitatedly and gritted his teeth together. It was obvious he was trying to find the right comeback.

“Well…you…I…AISH! You go home and help your mother with dinner” he demanded, drawing a direct line between me and the exit with his unsteady finger.

I pouted and looked over at HyukJae. He gave an uneasy smile back and waved me goodbye.

“And, kid, you stay put. I need to speak with you” 

A/N: Ooo...HyukJae in trouble for hanging out with little fan girl/you again tsk tsk. Naughty anchovy! Wonder what kind of punish he's going to receive. OH AND BEFORE I CONTINUE, sorry about not updating as quickly this week >_< I've been working on something for my Secret ELF shhh...are any of you participating in it too? Anyway...I wanna have Hyuk as my tutor ^^ but I don't think I'd learn well lol...I'd be too distracted by his single eyelids, lips, jaw line...EVERYTHING. AND OMG THAT GIRL. How dare she try to seduce Hyukkie?! At least little fan girl/you came to his rescue with the classic "he's my boyfriend bi@tch" act. 
 

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