like always, feel free to voice out your thoughts on this chapter! <3

 

  It was a Friday, and the ringing of the last bell echoed through the hallways of Hanguk High. The students in Seul's class were eager to pack their things as their maths teacher reminded them of their assignment, his anouncement falling on deaf ears. Merely a minute later, some boys dashed out of the classroom with their sport kits and the girls left in small groups chatting amongst themselves.   Seul knew that Joshua had already left the classroom along with Seungcheol, since they'd informed her that they were heading to the clubroom first. What she didn't know was that there was another person in the classroom with her. The boy leaned against the lockers at the back of the classroom. He watched Seul pack her things without making the slightest audible sound.   "You're really slow."   The voice did make Seul widen her eyes in shock because she thought she was alone, but when she could recognise who it belonged to, her face slowly grew unamused. She slung her bag over her shoulder, pushed in her chair and turned to face Taehyung who had a grin plastered on his face. Why is he still here?   "What are you doing? You should be on your way home, not loitering around. Like you said before, school is the last place anyone wants to be."   "You don't get it, do you?" Taehyung lifted himself off the lockers, sauntering over to her with light steps. He overtowered her with his height and upon noticing this difference, he lowered his head a little. "I'm waiting for you, Mong-mongie."   "You don't need to. I'm going to be staying back late today." Seul told him monotonously, she couldn't believe her heart had almost been swayed by the way he said his nickname for her.   "Then, I'll still wait. If it gets dark, who's going to walk you home?" Taehyung noticed the look on Seul's face which meant that his suggestion did make sense. "So, that means I can wait for you  "   "Seul noona!"   Both Seul and Taehyung turned their heads to face the back doorway of the classroom to find Hanbin standing there. He hurried over to her, grabbing her hand out of nowhere. Hanbin's hands were warm and sturdy around hers. Seul saw the expression on Taehyung's face change, he was slightly irked at what he was seeing. She gulped, clueless if whether she should shake the junior's hand off or to let it stay. But just when she was about to open , Hanbin was a second faster than her.    "Noona, I wrote up the main article! You have to go see it! After all, it's going to be a success for sure." Hanbin announced, excited.    "Yah, I was talking to her first." Taehyung was dead serious as he stared at Kim Hanbin. "She's my girlfriend."   "But your relationship isn't real anyways." Seul's eyebrows creased, how does he know that? "When there aren't any other people, can you just act like you don't know Seul? It's clear that she still thinks you're behind the publishing of the article. Right, noona?"   "H-huh?" Seul blinked.    "Kim Hanbin, you're really crossing the line here." Taehyung's eyes fell on Hanbin's hand still holding on to Seul's. "You should let go of Seul now. She doesn't need to be dragged by you."   "Fine." Hanbin released Seul's hand. "Come on, noona. Let's go."   The younger boy had exited so quickly Seul didn't even have the chance to tell him to wait for her. She gave Taehyung one last glance, taking notice of his now sullen expression which worried her a little. Sighing, she went to catch up with Hanbin.         "Hey, Kim Hanbin! Hanbin, stop!"   Seul wished she had longer legs. She was running to catch up with Hanbin, but even when the younger was walking it seemed like she needed to sprint or maybe that was an exaggeration. By now, they were in the middle of the right wing corridoor of the first floor near their clubroom. It was then that Hanbin stopped walking and Seul caught up, sweating bullets.   "Finally, you listened to me and stopped..." Seul fanned herself using her hand. "What's up with you?"   "I'm sorry," Hanbin said, "about what I told Taehyung just now. I was rude, I admit that. I don't know why I blurted it out so carelessly, but I just hope he isn't having too much fun enjoying this fake couple thing when you aren't."   The boy reached his hands up, placing themselves on Seul's shoulders. She had barely known him for two months, so she wondered what was with this unusual contact between them. Still, her heart beat rapidly in her chest; it felt as if she could hear its loudness in the silence. They were like booming drum sounds repeating, and repeating, and repeating.   "I know this happened last month, but I still feel bad for not being able to protect you that time, at the nightclub. I felt so guilty, and I blamed myself for taking you there in the first place. If I'd known you were risking your safety, then I would've went to get the information myself. I know we haven't grown very close since I'm a new member, but I want to grow close to you, noona. I don't want to leave you like last time..." Hanbin pulled back, drawing circles on the ground with the tip of his shoe. Seul had never seen him this apologetic before, because other times she'd seen him as a daring, coolheaded guy. But that didn't mean he couldn't feel emotions like sadness or guilt.   "Don't beat yourself up because of that." Seul patted him on the shoulder. "People make mistakes, and I know if that nightclub scene happened a second time, you'd be there for me, wouldn't you?"   Hanbin nodded slowly. "Of course I would. I don't want something like that to repeat itself. And Seul noona, you look pretty hot headed at times, but you're actually a nice person on the inside."   "Is that a compliment or an insult..."   "Well, you could take it as both!" I swear another rascal like him   "Come on, you need to review the main article! I made sure to write it up real good."         Three hours had passed. By now it was already three thirty in the afternoon and all Seul wanted to do was to go home and take a shower. She had the whole Friday to herself. After these ten minutes of proof reading articles her member's wrote, she would be able to relax. She sat at her desk, her eyes going through the words as fast as she could.   Some of her members had already left by now. In the clubroom with her were Hanbin, Sana and Seungcheol. Sana was busy designing the front cover for the edition they were going to publish. Seungcheol was writing up the recent events that had happened in the school like the latest sport matches and achievements of other students. Hanbin was making some finishing touches on the main article. They still had a week left until the end of April. By that time, Seul hoped her plan would work and that Taehyung would cooperate with her.   "It feels a bit quiet..." Sana pointed out, spinning around in her chair to finally face the remaning of them.   Seungcheol rolled his eyes as he clicked away at his mouse. "It does, but isn't that a good thing for us? I need silence to concentrate, not Jungkook and Mingyu's distant shouting."   Seul nodded at Sana's point. Usually, the clubroom opposite them would be bursting with noise, but it seemed that today there was nobody in it. She wondered why she was starting to miss hearing loud music opposite them and having one of the members of 'It's Trending' poking thei