Jonghyun’s POV

I am going to kill her.

I felt the anger rise in me, as my eyes flickered to the empty seat that was usually occupied by a loud and obnoxious girl named Lee Jieun.

I couldn’t believe that I had actually believed that she had meant what she had said about not screwing up my scholarship. She hadn’t even shown up for school since she had made the promise.

I had known that this was how it was going to be. I stared at the blank page in front of me, because I couldn’t even make a plan of what to do without her here. So I was sat here like an idiot.

My jaw tightened just thinking about Jieun ditching school. Didn’t she understand how important this was to me? I had made myself perfectly clear in the car park, which brought me to the one logical conclusion left.

She didn’t care.

And that annoyed the hell out of me. I had even gone as far as to ask the receptionist to give me her home address so I could track her down and force her to do the work with me. But apparently they weren’t at liberty to give me that information.

I would have gone around school asking everyone if they knew a way to contact her, but she didn’t have any friends I could ask. It was frustrating as hell. Whenever I asked something about her I always got given the same response over and over again.

She’s a .

That seemed to be the only thing anyone knew about her. It was the only thing I knew about her. Besides she likes to sit curled up in dark alleyways for no reason. Clenching my hands into fists, I felt like a prick sitting here doing nothing, whilst everyone else was working on their projects. Because everyone else’s partners bothered to turn up to school.

Frustration boiled through my veins. I needed this scholarship so badly, but I couldn’t get it unless I got straight A’s. My teacher was shooting me sympathetic looks from across the classroom.

He knew how hard I worked for my grades.

I let out a deep breath. She had looked sincere when she had sworn she wouldn’t mess up my chances on a scholarship. Okay maybe that was a lie, she looked angry. But she hadn’t sounded like she was lying.

My thoughts went back to Monday. I could remember how pale her skin had been up close. Had I imagined the way that her arm had shook under my hold? She looked so weak. Just like she had in the alleyway. I had found myself being concerned for her, even feeling guilty for being too mean.

But apparently I hadn’t even gotten my message across. Her skipping lessons just proved that. She had just been messing around, probably to get me to leave her alone.

When the bell rang, I stood up angrily, stuffing the useless sheets of blank paper into my school bag. Taemin was leaning against my locker, waiting for me, when I had gotten out. I was still in a really bad mood.

“Another no show?” He asked me with a small frown.

I just nodded my head, spinning in my locker combination

“Who’s another no show?” I recognised Mi Kyung’s voice as she stuck her nose into our conversation.

“Lee Jieun” Taemin answered for me, as I stuffed my books into my locker.

“That y girl?” Mi Kyung asked confused.

My shoulders stayed stiff, as I slammed my locker door shut.

“Yeah.” Taemin nodded. “Jonghyun here got stuck being partnered with her for English Lit. And she hasn’t shown up for any lessons since.”

Mi Kyung considered this for a minute. “Why don’t you go to Sunshine Cafe, see if you can find her there?”

“Sunshine Cafe?” I asked, making sure.

Mi Kyung nodded her head. “Yeah. She’s got a job there. I’ve seen her a few times when I’ve gone.”

“Seriously?!” Now that would have been helpful information to know sooner.

Mi Kyung nodded her head, her ponytail bouncing as she did so. I felt relieved at finding a new way to contact her.

“Yep.” She popped the P.

I grinned happily. “You are a life saver Mi Kyung.”

 

Lee Jieun’s POV

My stomach jolted with pain as I walked to Sunshine Cafe.

He had been really mad this time.

The phone call from school apparently had put him on edge. He’d gotten mad enough to use a knife. I winced as I remembered the feeling of the cold blade running across my stomach, digging into my hips.

Luckily the wounds he had given me hadn’t been too deep. There had been no visit to the hospital. Those explanations were always really awkward. They were always standing to close to me. Watching me, trying to spot a lie. I had managed to bandage myself up, fairly well. It just hurt like a to move.

I took in a deep lungful of fresh air. I had spent the last two days locked in my room as punishment. And my stomach had been too bad for me to be able to climb out my window.

I hadn’t minded missing school so much. It wasn’t like I understood what the teachers said anyway but it was better than the visits my dad had made to my room, with his knife.

I was his stress reliever.

When he got stressed, he kicked me. I knew my back was riddled with bruises, probably the shape of his shoe. Thankfully he had only left one visible scar this time. There was a nasty fist sized bruise on my face.

When I entered through the door of Sunshine Cafe, the first thing I saw was Min running towards me. I stepped back a little, forcing myself not to flinch.

“Omo, look at your cheek!” She gasped. “Did you get into another fight again?” She asked reaching out to touch it.

I flinched away from her hand, my heart jumping wildly in my chest. She gave me a hurt look.

“It’s still tender.” I said, trying to find a way to explain why I had evaded her touch like that. Hurt faded from her expression as she gave me an understanding nod.

“Darling, do you want some ice?” She asked. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“Just my stomach a little. It will fade.” I said knowing she would let it drop, because she always did. She gave me a motherly stern look.

My stomach twisted, and I clenched my fists together.

I wanted this feeling to fade away. But I had already gotten to close to them long ago. I had been working here since I was twelve.

“Yumi will get you some ice.” She said kindly.

Nodding my head I went through to the kitchen, picking up an apron from where it hung by the entrance. Yumi turned to look at me. Her eyes flashed over the bruise on my cheek.

“Another fight? Seriously?” She asked, more annoyed than Min had been.

She got mad at me for starting fights. And from her point of view I got into a lot of them. I shrugged my shoulders. Without even asking, she went to fetch me some ice. I smiled gratefully at her as she passed me the bag.

“Thank you.” I said hoarsely.

I don’t know what I had done right to deserve such nice people to be concerned about me, but I was both grateful and upset about it.

“Your shift starts in fifteen minutes. Sit in here with that until then.” She said.

I didn’t have the will to argue with her. I was just glad to be out of the house.

Five minutes later Min’s head came through the kitchen door. Her eyes landed on me and she gave me a small smile.

“There’s someone here to see you.” She said cheerfully.

I frowned. In all my years working here, there had never once been someone her to see me. That was probably why she was smiling so creepily at me.

“Um…” I didn’t know how to reply.

“I’ll be out in a minute.” I decided on.

She nodded her head and I slipped off me stool, putting the bag of ice on the counter. Exiting the kitchen, my eyes scanned around until they landed on the one person I probably wanted to see least right now.

Twice. Twice he’d seen me weak.

That didn’t seem to matter though, thankfully, because as soon as he saw me his expression formed into an angry scowl. He’s pissed at me. I sighed, brushing my hair out of my eyes.

“Jieun.” He greeted coldly.

“Can I speak to you for a moment?” I ran a hand through my hair, thinking back to the car park.

“I’m figuring I don’t really have much choice here.” I said rolling my eyes. Turning to Min I gave her a small apologetic smile. “I’ll be back in time for my shift.” I told her.

He probably wanted privacy and I guess I owed him that much. I had made a promise and completely fallen through on it. I nodded my head at him to indicate to follow me as I walked towards the back entrance. I made sure to keep a fair amount of distance between us, not wanting a repeat of last time.

“What do you want?” I asked, ignoring my nerves.

I didn’t like that I was alone. He was pretty big. If he wanted to attack me I’m not sure how much of a fight I could put up. That thought wasn’t exactly helping me to calm down. His eyes scanned over my face, stopping on my bruised cheek.

“What happened to you?” He asked.

“I got a guy much bigger than me very angry.” I said flatly. It was the truth.

“A guy did this?” He asked incredulously. “What kind of guy hits a girl?” He asked sounding annoyed.

I found the corners of my lips twitching upwards in an almost smile. I laughed lowly.

“One with a very short fuse.” I answered, letting my hand trail over my cheek. “I’ve had worse. This will fade soon.”

He looked at me in disbelief. “You’re used to this?” He asked loudly.

“I make a lot of people angry.” I said. “Apparently some people haven’t gotten the message about violence not being the answer yet.” I joked.

He smiled a little, snorting. It was a small smile, but contagious. I found myself wanting to smile with him. My whole posture stiffened and I cleared my throat. Keeping my face expressionless.

“So, why did you hunt me down to my work place? Feeling a little bit stalker-ish today?” I asked.

His smile disappeared just like that.

“I’m not a stalker. And if I was, I wouldn’t stalk you.” He spat.

Ouch.

“Just going with the facts I have, Princess.” I smiled coldly at him.

He scowled. “Don’t call me that.” He sneered

“Whatever you want Princess.” I goaded but making sure I kept a distance between us.

“Was there some reason you wanted to talk to me?”

He glared throwing his hands wildly in to the air. I flinched back, but he was too annoyed to notice.

“You said you would actually try, but you haven’t been to school once! And obviously you’re fine because you came into work. So you were just ditching!

“What’s it to you?” I asked, not going to deny it.

“I already told you! I need this scholarship. And I can’t do any work because you’ve just been ditching lessons. We’re miles behind everyone else and I need an A!” He yelled.

My heart thudded loudly at his shouts. my lips I threw him a careless smirk.

“It’s fine. I’m back to school tomorrow. I’m pretty stupid anyway so if you really want an A I’m not going to be much help.”

“I have to have your help.”

“You’re smart. You’ll be fine.” I shrugged. “Why don’t you talk to the teacher and ask him to do the work alone. I’m sure there must be some kind of strings he can pull. You’re the teacher’s pet aren’t you?”

He hissed through his teeth, angrily. “I already asked him if I could work alone and I can’t. You’re the only person I’m allowed to work with on this.”

I sighed running a hand through my hair, wincing when it put strain on my stomach to move my arm that high. I felt bad for him.

This is my fault.

“Look I told you. I’m going to be in class on Friday. I’m sorry I missed this week but there’s nothing we can do about it now, so just build a bridge and get over it.” I snapped.

“That’s not good enough. We need to make up for lost time.” He persisted.

“Oh and when can we do that exactly?” I asked sarcastically.

He chose to take it as a real question.

“I have football practice on Tuesdays and Fridays but I’m free every other.” He said shrugging his shoulders.

“Well good for you. But I have other things to do. I have detention after school for a week and I work on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.” I told him.

He huffed loudly. “Why do you have detention?”

I smirked at him. “For the stunt I pulled in the classroom on Monday.” I quoted his words to me in the parking lot.

He let out a loud sigh. “Okay so we should do it after my football practices.” He said eventually.

I frowned at him. Didn’t he give up? I opened my mouth to tell him to go screw himself and tell him it wasn’t my problem. Because that’s who I am. I was a . Plain and simple. But then I remembered how badly he wanted this scholarship and I couldnt make myself do it.

“Fine.” I sighed.

He looked a little surprised at me reply, but relieved.

“But Jonghyun.” I called to him before he could say anything else or walk away. I took in a deep breath.

“Sometimes I can’t make it into school, and-“ I cut myself off.

I was debating the next words in my head. But I felt I had to say them.

“I’m apologising in advance.” My eyes flickered up to his so that he could tell I meant it.

He was looking at me with an unreadable expression.

“I’m sorry if I mess up your chances. I’m sorry if I’m too stupid to get you an A. I’m sorry you got stuck with me.”

He was staring at me like I was someone else entirely. And that scared me. Rearranging my expression to be completely blank I gave him an emotionless smile, as I straightened my posture.

“Now Princess, get lost. I do actually have to work.” I told him.

I pointed to my wrist, even though I wasn’t wearing a watch. His eyes narrowed again.

“Stop calling me Princess.” He demanded.

“Not going to happen.” I told him.

“We’ll study at my house after your detention.” He told me, daring me to challenge him.

“Going to study at your house? Sounds suspicious. Should I be worried?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

A part of me wanted to reject the idea. I couldn’t go with him to his house.

He couldn’t be trusted.

“Don’t flatter yourself. If you’re that worried, don’t be. My mum and little brother will be in the house too."

That actually put my mind at ease a little bit.

“Awesome.” I said.

“Just make sure you’re there tomorrow.” He said.

“Sure thing, Princess.” I winked.

He turned and left after a quick glare. Sighing quietly to myself once he rounded the corner, I ran a hand down my face. I turned to go back to work, repeating the conversation I had had with him, and the promise to work with him after school.

Pushing my hands into my pockets I clenched my jaw.

How was I going to be able to do this? I could barely have a ten-minute conversation with him. But he needed me too. It wasn’t his fault that he had been force to pair up with me and I couldn’t ruin his chances at a scholarship. I wasn’t that heartless. The guilt would eat me alive.

I’m not smart. I’m not a good student. I’m basically useless.

Pushing the worries away, I walked back into Sunshine Cafe, getting ready to take my shift.

I’m sorry that I’m so pathetic.