Chapter 8 – Dumb, but fortunate

Jongin doesn’t know how or when it happened, but somehow, somewhere, for some time, he came to realize that he’s probably a fool for Kang Seol. So stupidly in love, that it’d seem fitting to say that his attempts are comparable to self-murder.

Such as gluing his eyes at a seemingly moody Kang Seol—not the wisest thing to do if you want to go back home in one whole piece. I mean, he did break his nose last time.

“Jongin,” Baekhyun sighs exasperatedly, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Stop staring at her, she’s looking at us,” he whispers as he turns away his head cautiously.

“That’s exactly what I want, Baekhyun!” Jongin exclaims as he continues to gaze at the girl sitting at the corner of the cafeteria, glancing from her phone to him with a frown.

“He’s gonna get us all killed,” Chanyeol who was turning away along with Baekhyun whispered, fear dripped through every pores of his body. “Out of all the girls in this school, why does he always fall for the weird ones?”

“Apparently in his eyes she’s an angel,” Suho stirs his lemon tea before taking a sip.

“You mean an angel with horns?” Sehun chuckled, but his voice was quivering out of fear since he too was intimidated by the girl.

“With a cold heart too,” Kyungsoo added, opening a bag of chips.

Jongin suddenly slams a hand on the table which caused them to flinch, “She’s staring back at me,” he tries to keep the composure of his facial expressions but his feet and hands were struggling to keep his excitement to himself. To Jongin, Seol was staring at him, but really she’s just scowling at him. Jongin smirked and gave her a wink, to which caused her to stand up and approach him.

The rest of the boys quickly stood up and picked up their lunch off the table, “We’re screwed, we’re screwed, we’re screwed—“ Baekhyun hastily grabs his bowl of chili and ran out of the cafeteria for his dear life. Just when he was out of the cafeteria, he realized that his jacket was still on the table. “Oh—damn it!” he stomped his feet before passing his food to Sehun since he standing next to him, “Hold my chili,” he mutters before running back inside.

However, Baekhyun didn’t expect to hear a loud smack when he rushed inside. He halted and narrowed his eyes at the sound of it, seeing Kang Seol standing in front of Jongin with her hand in the middle of the air after slapping Jongin on his face.

“… —“ and before he could finish cursing, Chanyeol and Sehun were already in the middle of saving his life before he could comment anything out loud as they pulled him by the collar and retreated back to the safe zone outside.

Jongin and a few other students stared at Seol who retrieves her hand, “If I catch you winking at me again, don’t blame me if I bruise your face,” she muttered before walking calmly to the exit.

The students awkwardly stare at a dazed Jongin before they went back to their own food, whispering and mumbling about the recent scene.

Then all of the sudden Kris sat beside Jongin, putting on a hand on his friend’s shoulder, “Jongin, I’m telling you, it’s okay. I was once slapped by Kang Seol too, so—“

“Hyung,” Jongin grabbed on Kris’ hand, eyes full of hope. “She said that if I winked at her, she’ll probably punch my face,” he says.

“Uhm… So?” Kris frowns.

Jongin turns his face to stare at the apple of his eyes walking out of the cafeteria before smirking, "That means she's okay with me just staring, right?"

"... You're an idiot,"

Jongin didn’t agree nor disagree to his comment, because he’s going to come up with stupid plans to catch the attention of his little love interest, which may or may not be idiotic. 

“Jongdae,”

The said male flinched when a certain someone slammed his locker. He whipped his head at Jongin and scowled. “What was that for?!”

“I need your help,” Jongin pointed out before fishing out his phone. “You’re quite close with Kang Seol,”

“Uhm, yeah, so?”

“So, I need your help.”

“… Don’t tell me you want me to hook you guys up together.”

“That would be awesome, but I know that it’s impossible unless I’m in the Lord’s good graces. So, I just need some information.”

“What would they be?” Jongdae chuckled, folding his arms across his chest.

“What annoys her the most?”

“… What?”

“I need to know things that would annoy her the most.”

“So that you won’t do them? Wow, Jong—“

“Of course not, I need to do them.”

Jongdae frowns at him, full of concern. “Dude, I thought you want to be on her good side?”

“If I were to be on her good side, then I’d end up used and/or avoided like you,” Jongin clicks his tongue. “So, what annoys her the most?”

Jongdae stared at him with a stoic expression before sighing. “She hates it when somebody touches her ears,”

“Her ears?”

“Yes, and also when whip cream gets into her lips or nose when drinking coffee or when somebody keeps on tapping their foot on the ground,”

“And?”

“And she’s allergic to idiots like you.”

“Perfect!”

Without even saying anything else, Jongin ran across the hallway, leaving a confused and worried Jongdae behind. Yixing and Minseok came a few moments later, staring at a slowly disappearing Jongin.

“What did you guys talk about?” Minseok asked him.

“I don’t know, but it’s not going to end up pretty.” Jongdae shook his head, opening back his locker.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Seol so lively, though.”

Minseok and Jongdae turned their heads to look at Yixing. “What do you mean?”

“When was the last time you’ve seen Seol doing trick or treat, or even waste her breath on people she doesn’t like?”

“… So, you’re saying…”

“Jongin might be right,” Yixing shrugged. “Seol might just like him.”

Jongdae clicked his tongue. “Well, not with what I’ve just told him.”

Minseok frowned at him. “Why?”

“Because he just asked me about things that ticks Seol the most.”

“… Don’t tell me that fool is going to annoy her to catch her attention.”

With a sad, yet somehow excited smile, Jongdae nodded at Minseok.

Honestly, Jongdae doesn’t know why Jongin even asked him those things in the first place, because he seems to be doing none of the things he told him.

One time when Jongdae gave Seol some coffee—whip cream included—Jongdae saw Jongin passing by them before turning around at the edge of the hall to come back to where he came from. Only this time, he didn’t forget to nudge the bottom of the cup so that coffee would spill down to Seol’s chin.

The other time during English, he also saw Jongin moving to sit down behind her. However, instead of just tapping his foot on the ground, he had to go as far as kicking the girl’s chair and asked if he could borrow her eraser every time Seol glares back at him.

According to Yixing—who lives close by to Seol’s house, he saw Jongin circling around Seol’s hosue with his bicycle after he we