Chapter 8 – Hidden Underneath

Loud snoring came from the large bundle of blankets in Yonghwa’s room. After Jang Woo had taught him a lesson in self-respect, he was knocked out cold as he hit the bed. He had a rough night and a full night of sleep was something he was in desperate need of. Luckily for him, his brain was much too clouded by the large amount of alcohol in his bloodstream for him to him to remember the fact that Seohyun hadn’t shown up the night before.

*Ding-dong* rang the doorbell to the apartment. Jang Woo ran out from his shower, towel still in his hair, to open the door. To his surprise she was met with a clear eyed, black haired girl holding what seemed to be a container for food. “Hey Seohyun…” he greeted in confusion. “What are you doing here this early in the morning?”

“Eun Jung called me to tell me that Yonghwa had a rough night,” she began to explain. “She told me that one of his friends from Busan came to Seoul last night and they had one too many drinks.”

Jang Woo looked at Seohyun as if he was hearing her speak French. What the hell was she going on about? Last he remembered Yonghwa was drinking out of rejection, not because he was out having fun. Plus, Seohyun would have to be stupid to believe that since it didn’t make sense for Yonghwa to be out drinking even though he invited her over to celebrate her birthday.

“Seohyun ah!” Eun Jung cried from down the hall. “Thanks for coming over. Yonghwa got trashed last night and I can’t cook to save my life. I thought he would need a little bit of hangover soup so I’m kind of using you for your cooking talents.” Jang Woo just continued to stare at both girls without even saying a word. The two women blabbered on about this and that for god knows how long. He still didn’t understand why Eun Jung was so nice to Seohyun even though last night she was mad at her for standing Yonghwa up.

“Anyway, can you go into his room and wake him up for us?” Eun Jung asked. “I would do it but I’m afraid he will throw a punch at me.”

“Oh so I’m also your punching bag too?” Seohyun giggled. The two girls gave each other a quick hug before Seohyun made her way through the narrow passageway that lead to her best friend’s room. Jang Woo finally snapped out of his thoughts and twirled his lover around to look at him.

“Michyeosseo? Are you insane? Why did you bring her here?” he asked in a whisper. Eun Jung stared back defiantly into his eyes, her gaze telling him she was going to hold her stance without faltering. “Eun Jung, you were mad last night that Seohyun stood him up. Why did you change your mind so quickly?”

“Jang Woo, I was never mad at Seohyun. I’m sick and tired of everyone hating her!” she yelled. Jang Woo looked over his shoulder to see if the girl they were talking about was around and sighed in relief when she wasn’t. He grabbed Eun Jung by the wrist and forcefully pulled her out into the stairwell on the other side of the building. They couldn’t have Seohyun, or even worse, Yonghwa, get in on the conversation. It would not be pretty.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Eun Jung continued to raise her voice. She tried to get away but his strong hold on her wrist was not something she could break out of. “Jang Woo let me go now.”

“Eun Jung, answer my question first. Why are you bringing her here? You know what happened last night. Yonghwa went ballistic. I had to hit him…” Jang Woo remembered sadly. When he saw Eun Jung still had the same fiery look in her eyes he finally released his vice grip on her arm. The slight red marks he left from the force he used were obvious, but the pain was much too small compared to the severity of the situation.

“Jang Woo why are you so angry with her?” Eun Jung asked.

“What?” he asked in a half-chuckle, half-serious tone.

“You heard the question right. What gives you the right to ask me why I brought her here as if she’s someone I picked up off the street?” Eun Jung asked in a still angry tone. Jang Woo wanted to rip his hair out as he ran his hands through it and sighed. He wasn’t in the mood for this. He didn’t need this.

“She’s hurting Yonghwa! Everyone sees it. Everyone wants to keep them apart. Krystal does too, you’ve seen the way she speaks about Seohyun,” Jang Woo defended himself. In his mind it was crazy for someone to bring Seohyun into their house so she could hurt Yonghwa again. “The best way to keep that girl from hurting him more is to keep them apart.”

A slap echoed in the dark stairwell, leaving both people present surprised. Jang Woo’s head was now facing away from Eun Jung as the force from her slap had forced it to do so. He brought a hand up to his cheek and gently rubbed the painful area that was sure to have a red mark on it in a few moments. Eun Jung still continued to hold her ground in front of him. Having him call Seohyun “that girl” with such a negative tone had set her off the edge.

“You are a bastard. Seohyun has been one of our best friends for ages. Why the hell do you think it’s okay to talk that way about her? I just don’t understand.”

“Eun Jung, look. We’re all a little cranky from last night-” he began to reason.

“No, you look,” she countered. “You have no right to judge Seohyun. You may really like Yonghwa, that’s fine. You can’t hate Seohyun because she doesn’t like Yonghwa. She doesn’t know she’s hurting him. In fact, she’s not even hurting him at all.”

“What? Are you blind or are you just oblivious?” he angrily spat back. He was trying to keep his cool and avoid fighting over something that didn’t even have to do with them but there was a limit to his patience.

“No, you’re the oblivious one. Seohyun isn’t hurting him. He’s hurting himself. Now please stop treating Seohyun like she’s the biggest on this planet and open your eyes. Everyone has to stop blaming her as if she were toying with him. She has absolutely NO idea of what’s going on.”

Jang Woo had to admit that Eun Jung had a point. There was no use in getting mad at her since Yonghwa liked her of his own accord. He realized that if she did know that he liked her, she would try her hardest to stop hurting him and make it up to him. “The only person we can blame here is the circumstances. It wasn’t Seohyun’s fault that she didn’t fall for Yonghwa. And it’s not Yonghwa’s fault for loving a girl he shouldn’t.”

“Eun Jung, I’m really sorry,” he apologized as he finally let his tense body relax. “I’m just really tired of this. Even though I’m not Yonghwa, I just want this to be over.” Eun Jung closed the gap between them and patted him on the back. She wanted to avoid all these problems too.

“Let’s just leave this to fate and hope for the best. For all we know this could do a complete spin and end up working out,” Eun Jung naively hoped.

“Yeah… let’s hope so.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Back in the apartment, Seohyun carefully treaded into the room where she had cured Yonghwa’s lip a week or two ago. The girl tip toed since she figured that Yonghwa might try to punch her in order to get back for standing him up. She let her guard when when his loud snores could be heard, indicating he was sound asleep. “You must have had one hell of a night if you’re still this deeply asleep so late in the morning,” she whispered to him. Remembering last night, she began to feel horrible. The call from last night still rang through her ears and made her tear up.

After four years of not being able to celebrate her birthday together like they used to, she ruined it. As much as she loved Joon, she couldn’t get the guilt out of her heart for having stood Yonghwa up. Even worse was the fact that the guilt wasn’t the normal kind she was used to. It hurt an awful lot more than she thought it would. It almost felt like it hurt more than when she would let Joon down. The more she thought about it, the tighter the feeling in her chest would get.

“Why is it so hot in here?” she asked herself. She wished she hadn’t been thinking about last night since it was just leaving her upset and feeling like she was suffocating. Turning her attention back to the situation at hand, she grabbed a chair in the corner of the room put it next to Yonghwa’s bed. She pulled the blanket that rested over his face away and admired his sleeping form.

She hadn’t ever been this close to him as he slept. Usually he would wake up really early in the morning, even before the earliest birds. Yonghwa was usually the one that had to rush up to her room and wake her up. She supposed it was an honor to catch him in this state. It made her even want to take a picture. She brought out her light pink phone and set it to the camera mode. As she held it up to his face, she began to examine him more closely.

Seohyun never noticed how handsome he really was, probably because A. she was never this close to his face and B. because she never felt the need to point it out. To her Yonghwa was just Yonghwa, nothing else to it. Somehow though, he was making her change her thoughts. His features were pretty well defined, with a hint of innocence. He didn’t look as manly and chiseled as Joon did, but there was something about him that wanted her to get a closer look.

She slightly stepped back as he shifted closer to her and mumbled something unintelligible. This only gave her an excuse to survey him closer. The confused girl didn’t even have the brain power to question her actions at the moment. Her instincts were getting the best of her. Slowly, her hand reached over to brush the awkward strands of his messy hair out of his face. The hair on his head turned out to be silkier than she thought, making her wanting to run her hands through it but she restrained herself. The hands roaming over his head traveled to his chin that had a slight bit of stubble from not having shaved in a day or two. It was a stark contrast to the feeling his hair had given her.

When she finally looked over to his eyes, she found herself staring deep into a pair of brown orbs. Immediately, her body froze, preventing her from retracting her hand. Even though she thought it would be awkward for her to be caught in that state, there was nothing awkward about it. They both stared each other down, waiting for one another to give in. Seohyun for some reason felt a weird flop in her stomach as she continued to stare. It felt familiar, but foreign at the same time. Finally, she realized things were going to become awkward if she continued so she broke the silence.

“Good morning sleepyhead,” she greeted with a smile. Yonghwa rubbed his tired eyes and gave out a slight chuckle.

“That’s my line,” he replied in a groggy voice. “I would have to tell you that every other morning since you would always sleep until 5 minutes before we had to head out for school. I can’t believe I had Sleepyhead Seohyun just call me that.” The weird warm feelings in Seohyun began to resurface as she remembered all the fun they had in the past. Once again, she tried to clear her head of those strange thoughts she couldn’t make sense of.

“It seems like you had a good night,” Seohyun joked in hopes he wouldn’t be angry because she didn’t show up. At least Joon called to warn him, or so she thought. Yonghwa hadn’t even seen the text message that Joon had sent the night before.

“Yeah, it was great,” he lied as he remembered everything from the night before.

Some parts were missing here and there but he remembered drinking out of anger. His thoughts on anger then brought him to the mistakes he made with Hyuna. The hung over young man silently thanked Jang Woo for showing up when he did or else something would have happened that he would regret in the morning. The anger inside of him last night was almost enough for him to actually have gone all the way with that girl.

“Um, so are we cool?” Seohyun shyly asked, still in a slightly dazed state as she tried to dispel all those weird thoughts she was having.

“About what?” Yonghwa asked in feigned confusion. He rolled out of the warmth of his bed so he could try to look a little more presentable. Seohyun almost flinched once again when she heard his words come out so harshly. Then again, it was probably expected with the way she acted the night before.

“I stood you up. Or did you get so drunk you don’t even remember that part of the night,” Seohyun explained. “I’m really sorry that I didn’t come. It was a really important night and I ruined it. I wasn’t happy with Joon pulling his little stunt.”

“It’s fine Seohyun. I’m going to live. I ended up finding something else to do so it will be okay,” he defended. For some reason, his words continued hurt her even though they shouldn’t have. That night was going to be something special for both of them. Why was he so nonchalant about it?

Yonghwa stared at the girl with a bit of anger in his eyes when he realized he was being a little cold to her. He was so angry about last night that he wanted to tell her that he had almost gone all the way with Hyuna. For some reason he felt that he might be able to make Seohyun jealous with his comments. Then he realized that it would be too childish of him to do that. He said he was going to stop crying over her, he never said he was going to be mean.

“Um okay, if you say so,” she replied while trying to hide her slight disappointment. Seohyun mentally slapped herself to snap out of it. Those weird thoughts squirming into her head were starting to really piss her off. Yonghwa finished changing into a more comfortable shirt and sat on his bed facing the dark haired girl.

“I know so. Anyways, I know you didn’t come here empty handed. I smell the food,” he joked. Seohyun’s face lit up a little as the atmosphere became lighter with his stupid comment. “Let me go brush my teeth really fast and I’ll be right out. That food better be worth waking me up so early in the morning.”

“It’s 11am, this is hardly early in the morning.” Yonghwa got up and ruffled her neatly pinned hair while heading out to the bathroom. As she tried to fix it and keep the stray stubborn strands back in their place, Yonghwa’s phone began to vibrate. Seohyun looked over to see that Joon had texted and noticed something strange.

Two unread messages from: Lee Joon

Received: 11:03am June 29^th

Yonghwa! Bro! I have some good news. Come over to my place as soon as you can – Joon

Received: 11:34pm June 28^th

Hey buddy I have a message here from Seohyun. She says she’s sorry she can’t come. I invited her out to a surprise dinner and she says she can’t leave her boyfriend at a time like this. I didn’t know that you were going to meet her so sorry. I want to let her go but she doesn’t want to. You understand right?  – Joon

“What the hell..?” Seohyun asked herself. “Joon said he called, not left a text.” The now distressed girl felt like she was invading Yonghwa’s privacy but the message was unacceptable. She looked through his call history and found out that the last time Joon had called Yonghwa was three days ago, not last night. To make matters worse, the text he sent was all bull. She hadn’t said any of that. In fact she wanted to leave and come meet Yonghwa.

She quickly went back to the messages and deleted the lies Joon had sent last night. Even though it was wrong, it was alright since he hadn’t seen the text anyways. Joon would definitely hear a few colorful words coming out of when they next saw each other. However, Yonghwa had said Joon called him even though he hadn’t. That part of the story didn’t add up.

“Hey you ready to feed me?” Yonghwa asked while poking his head through the door.

“Ah!” she squealed. Yonghwa noticed her jumpiness and the fact that she dropped his phone on the floor didn’t exactly help her either. “I swear I wasn’t going through your phone!”

“I wasn’t going to accuse you of that,” he stated matter of factly. “Now I’m a little suspicious though. Curiosity is getting the best of me so it’s better if you come clean right now.” Seohyun shifted awkwardly in her seat as she desperately tried to think up a lie. She never was very good at it and it was obvious to anyone when she tried.

“I saw that Joon texted you and I wanted to text him back a joke response,” she spat out quickly. The guilt she felt before was now growing bigger as she was hiding things from him now. Seohyun heard herself swallow in fear that Yonghwa wouldn’t buy the lie and she would have to confess what she was really doing. Her fingers gripped the wooden chair hard enough for a small creak to be heard and it didn’t help that she was feeling so hot still.

“Relax, I know you wouldn’t do anything serious. Come on, let’s go get some food in us. I’m starving!” Yonghwa happily yelled.

 Eun Jung and Jang Woo came in just in time to see the pair walk out of the room and sit at the kitchen table. The couple looked at Yonghwa and gave each other a reassuring glance. He didn’t seem to be too affected by the events of last night with the way he was currently ravaging the plates of food in front of him. The sound of chopsticks clattering against the porcelain dishes, coupled with his happy eating sounds, indicated he was actually in one of his better moods.

“Chill out with the food bro,” Jang Woo warned with a more gentle tone than the one he had just been using with Eun Jung.

Seohyun had politely set the table for all her friends to join them. The sparkling white plates were all filled with a steaming hot red liquid that had such a home-like aroma to it. It was almost as if his mother herself had served him the food. The gesture made him feel even more ashamed to have ever felt anything negative towards her.

The group of four quietly, except for Yonghwa’s eager noises, finished their meal as if it were their last. As Eun Jung and Seohyun left Jang Woo and Yonghwa for some “man-talk” they tidied up the plates that had now lost their shine and luster as they were covered in a thin film of food. “Eun Jung, what really happened last night?”

“Eh? What do you mean?” Eun Jung asked, trying to seem as confused as possible. She couldn’t have Seohyun finding out what really happened last night. It would only make her feel worse than she already did. “Yonghwa drank and had a good time with his friend from Busan.” Hyuna could for sure not come up in this or else things would get even messier than they already were.

“Yonghwa’s acting really weird today. He’s got something going on I know it,” Seohyun pointed out while examining the boy they were speaking about closely. Eun Jung had to admit she was impressed with Seohyun’s observations. They were best friends for a reason. “I’ve seen him drink before and he’s not once been like this. He’s usually a wreck when he wakes up. Even for an easy going guy like him this is too weird.”

“Nah, you’re just imagining things,” Eun Jung tried to dismiss. “Besides, he told you he was fine right? Why would he lie to you?”

“He’s lying when he says he’s fine. I know he’s really mad at me I can feel it. His words don’t have that usual smile behind them like they used to towards me,” Seohyun noticed. Eun Jung couldn’t help but let out a small laugh when she saw Seohyun like that. “I know I really hurt him Eun Jung.”

“You’re just… imagining things…” Eun Jung mumbled. Eun Jung figured Seohyun knew Yonghwa better than she did so it was better to just keep closed. As she stood next to Seohyun, it almost felt like the worried girl was acting like a girl whose boyfriend is ignoring her.

“Okay well I still don’t feel good about this. I’ll talk to him later.” For some reason unknown to her she really wanted to set things right with him. It was normal for her to be guilty since she was always trying to keep everyone happy. However, this time it was going above and beyond what she normally felt. This time it felt like she had especially screwed up.

“Hey you okay? You’ve been staring at Yonghwa for almost a good five minutes,” Eun Jung pointed out. Seohyun shook her head of messy hair and planted her feet back down on planet Earth.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine sorry.” Eun Jung continued to watch Seohyun for her strange behavior. She knew the girl well and there was definitely something up. Either way, the damage was done and she hoped Seohyun knew how to help Yonghwa get out of whatever it was that was wrong with him.

“Hey Joon is asking if we all want to go on a weekend trip with him tomorrow after I get out of the research lab,” Yonghwa spoke out. Everyone ran over to his side to hear the details of a trip that was something they all desperately needed.

“A trip to where?” Jang Woo inquired.

“He says Busan,” Yonghwa continued. “He’s got some business to do down there for a few hours and he wants to unwind before the hectic school sessions start up again. Is everyone down?”

“YEAH!” the group yelled in unison.

“Oh god, guys count me out,” Yonghwa cried once he read the next text from Joon.

“Why? You have to go and show us around Busan. Your parents live there after all,” Eun Jung whined. It wouldn’t be the same if they all didn’t go together.

“Joon invited Hyuna to go along ugh…” Yonghwa groaned, prompting Seohyun to throw a punch at his arm.

“Hyuna is a sweet girl that just likes you too much. You’re going; I don’t care if I have to drag you there with me!” Seohyun angrily demanded.

Yonghwa stuck his tongue out at her and made a farting noise in her direction. Seohyun did the same except with much more force. Jang Woo and Eun Jung could only sit back and watch while the two childish adults flirted with each other without even realizing it. All the thoughts Yonghwa had of being stronger and a little colder to Seohyun changed when he saw her cutely fighting back.

“You’ll have to catch me first!” Yonghwa yelled while running away to his room. Seohyun bolted out of her spot to catch him before he locked his door.

“Yah!” she shrieked as she flung the door open just in time for her to see him hide under his blankets. “You’re such a choding!” Yonghwa moaned in pain when he felt the weight of a 22 year old girl on top of him.

“Hahahahahah stooooop! That Ti-iiickles!” he squealed through ragged breaths. “Please I beg you to stop.”

“Are you going to come with us to Busan?” she asked in the most menacing voice she could produce. Which, if you really thought about it, wasn’t all that menacing.

“Yes I’ll go! Just get off of me!”

Seohyun stopped her tickling but instead held his arms down with all her strength and straddled him. It felt rather empowering to keep him pinned down like that, but she wouldn’t admit it verbally.  Once again the strange heat began to creep up on her. The room fell into a dead, but comfortable, silence as they once again were staring each other down. It was already the third or fourth time that had happened since Yonghwa had gotten back.

“You… can you get off please?” Yonghwa begged her.

This wasn’t because he didn’t want to be in that situation. In fact he kind of liked being under her. But it was those exact words, “under her,” that were making him uncomfortable. The calls were starting to get far too close for comfort. It took all the strength and willpower he had to not make a mistake he would regret forever. The heat rising up in the pit of his stomach was trying to get him to pin her down and do things only married couples should do. He hoped to any gods out there that Seohyun wouldn’t notice the problem he currently had in his pants.

“Would it be weird if I told you I kind of like this?” she boldly asked, surprising even herself for being so direct.

“It would be a little,” he chuckled. He felt the muscles in her arms release the tension in them and took advantage in order to gain an upper hand. With a forceful pull and a push or two she found herself pinned under him. The roles had been reversed and now he was in charge.

“I’m glad you’re back Yonghwa,” Seohyun whispered to him in a voice that indicated she was truly happy. Yonghwa blushed when he realized that he was back to his old self for a second.  His harsh words disappeared and he was playing around with her like old times.

“You better keep quiet or else,” Yonghwa threatened while trying to sound cold like before but it didn’t seem to be working.

“Now, this is something I find a little weird,” Seohyun joked back. She tried in vain to get him to release his death grip on her but it was all a front. She still couldn’t shake off the ‘good’ feeling she had inside her at the moment. Part of her really wanted to stay under him, but she still didn’t know why.

“Seohyun can I tell you something?” Yonghwa began to ask. He was in a bad situation. His mouth was moving but he didn’t know what he was saying. It was his instincts, his needy inner self, doing all the talking.

“Yeah…” Seohyun responded quietly.

“I…” Yonghwa hesitated. He had to stop himself and fast. Something was coming out of his mouth he didn’t want to say. If something didn't stop him now he would probably even confess to her on the spot.

“Ahem… So do you guys want to start, like, getting ready to go or something?” Jang Woo awkwardly asked when he found the startling sight of them wrapped around in a blanket together while Yonghwa was basically in position to do anything he wanted to the girl under him.

“Y-yeah, that sounds good,” Yonghwa replied. He tore his hands away from Seohyun and he felt like he could finally breathe. His senses slowly returned to him, keeping him from further humiliating himself in front of Jang Woo.

“I’ll meet you guys tomorrow before we head out to Busan,” Seohyun shyly stated. The frazzled girl quickly dashed past a still stunned Jang Woo without even bothering to take a second glance.

“You alright there buddy?” Jang Woo questioned. Yonghwa’s behavior was surprising since he would never imagine finding him in such a compromising position.

“Whew I am now. Thanks for coming in here. I almost messed up big time,” Yonghwa casually admitted.

“So this is what a stronger Yonghwa was?” Jang Woo asked expectantly. “I thought you were just going to be mean to her so you could get back at her.”

“I realized that’s not the way to go about it. I think I’m just going to try my hardest to forget about her and maybe find someone else out there for me,” Yonghwa replied. Jang Woo smiled and walked over to give Yonghwa a manly pat on the back. Even though he was angry at Seohyun too, it wouldn’t be right to be mean. After all, there was no point in being childish since it wouldn’t get Yonghwa anywhere.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Yay! I can’t wait to get on the beach. It feels like we’re going to a faraway place even though it’s just plain old Busan,” Seohyun happily squealed. Joon, Jang Woo, Eun Jung, and Hyuna just stared at her skip giddily across the red brick sidewalks of the university. The yellow orb known as the sun shone down brightly on the young adults as they made their way to the research labs where Yonghwa was working with some lab instructors as an intern.

“Oh I can’t wait until we get there,” Hyuna declared. “I have a bathing suit I’m going to wear at that beach that will knock the swimming shorts right off of Yonghwa.”

“I hope for everyone’s sake you mean that figuratively,” Jang Woo joked, eliciting a laugh from the small group. “I’m sure Yonghwa would love to have his pants off around you so I hope you don’t tempt him too much.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not that easy,” she said in Seohyun’s direction with a wink. Seohyun stepped back a little to walk beside Joon and flashed her friend a brilliant smile. Deep down inside, Seohyun knew there was a certain part of her that didn’t want to see Hyuna with Yonghwa. However, there was no way she would ever admit that.

“You better keep that one under your radar at all times. I’m sure he’s going to try to run as far from you as possible,” Seohyun pointed out.

“Yeah, well I’ll be sure to use every weapon at my disposal as bait,” Hyuna shot back. Normally it would unnerve people to hear a woman talk so casually about seducing a man, but everyone knew just the way Hyuna was from experience. Nothing from what she was saying was new to them.

Eventually they made it to the building where all the medical research took place to wait for the last member of their group to arrive. Joon insisted they come out to find him even though Yonghwa had already put his bag in the car earlier the night before. Soon enough they saw a lab coat-wearing young man exit the building, indicating that it was almost time for their trip to start. Before he could head their way, however, he was stopped by a young woman also wearing a lab coat.

“Who is that girl?” Hyuna asked absentmindedly. Although she wasn’t exactly jealous, she did feel a little competitive spark light up inside her. Much to Seohyun’s distress, the exact same thing was happening to her even though she had Joon by her side. That little spark inside of her made her frown as she noticed the way the two were interacting.

“I don’t know but I think I’ve seen her once before when I walked into the building with Yonghwa,” Joon pointed out. “That guy is the heartthrob of the entire health sciences population. The halls were crawling with girls that would whisper his name as we walked through.  He’s not even all that hot…”

“Women like intelligence,” Eun Jung cut in. “Besides Yonghwa is a really handsome guy. He’s like the complete package so there’s no reason for girls to not like him. From the looks of it, that girl is really cute though.” Even though Joon hated to admit it Eun Jung was right. There was no reason while the dark haired and charismatic student couldn’t be liked.

“Hold on guys, I’ll be right back,” Seohyun assured everyone as she made her way over to the entrance of the building where Yonghwa was having what seemed to be a personal conversation. The girl was giving him an eye smile and her body language told anyone that watched her that she was embarrassed. Her foot shyly dragged across the rough sidewalk and she was slightly inclined towards Yonghwa.

“…I’m really impressed by the way you’re handling things amongst your group,” Seohyun heard Yonghwa praise. “That experiment was going out of control but you managed to make it all work in the end.”

“Aigoo, it was nothing,” the girl timidly responded. “You helped me out with all the hard parts, Yonghwa oppa.”

“Yonghwa oppa?” Seohyun quietly asked herself. Yonghwa was a teaching assistant in one of the labs for fourth year students that wanted to go to medical school. That girl seemed to be one of his students so why was she calling him oppa?

“Aish… I told you not to call me that. It’s embarrassing,” Yonghwa sheepishly replied while scratching the back of his head.

“Yonghwa!” Seohyun called out. “Are you ready to go?”

“Oh hey there Seohyun,” he greeted absentmindedly. For some reason she was offended he had just called her ‘Seohyun’ and not ‘Seohyun ah’ like she wanted him to. From up close the petite girl was much prettier than expected. She was slim, had clear porcelain skin, and she had a killer eye smile. It almost made Seohyun feel threatened, but that was ridiculous. There was no reason for that thought to even go through her mind.

“Hey we have to go now,” Seohyun insisted while dragging him away from the girl. “Joon is waiting and you know how impatient he is.”

“Hey hey… I can’t just leave like this. I’m having a conversation with her,” Yonghwa pointed out in a slightly annoyed tone. He still hadn’t gotten over the events of two nights ago as much as he tried. The fact that Seohyun had rudely interrupted  a conversation with a student was also making his anger flare up.

“It’s okay sunbae, I was just leaving too,” the girl embarrassedly stated. She had all of a sudden begun to use ‘sunbae’ instead of ‘oppa.’ Seohyun knew it was because she was embarrassed to do it in front of another girl.

“Seohyun… at least let me introduce you to her. This is Park Min Young, one of the students in the lab I help out in.” Seohyun turned quickly to flash the girl a smile and felt bad. Min Young obviously had become uncomfortable with the situation and it was all because of some random jealousy that had come from nowhere.

“Park Min Young, at your service,” the beauty in front of them added. “You must be Seohyun. I’ve heard about you from Yonghwa sunbae. He seems to admire you a lot.” Those words made Seohyun even more ashamed of what she was doing than ever before.

“Seo Joohyun, nice to meet you,” Seohyun replied politely. “Sorry I interrupted your conversation.”

“No it’s not a problem. I’m sure Yonghwa sunbae has stuff to do too. Anyways, I’ll leave you two to your busy lives. Thanks again for all the help in the lab sunbae, I’m not worthy to be your student,” Min Young humbly remarked while bowing.

“It was nothing. You did great Min Young ah,” Yonghwa chuckled nervously. Another flash of jealousy coursed through Seohyun as Yonghwa tagged on the endearing ‘ah’ at the end of Min Young’s name, but it quickly passed as she willed it away.

“Have a good weekend.” With those words Min Young walked towards her destination while the new pair walked to theirs.

“Hey everyone,” Yonghwa greeted happily. “Who is ready to party it up this weekend?!"

“Don’t get too excited, I’m there for work remember,” Joon pointed out.

“You and your work,” Jang Woo groaned. The crowd made their way to the parking lot, leaving Seohyun to lag behind and mentally scold herself for being so stupid.

“You totally snubbed that girl talking to Yonghwa,” Hyuna spoke out. “You are one brave girl when you want to be.” Seohyun was already feeling like a piece of trash for breaking up an innocent conversation between teacher and student. Hyuna’s words weren’t making her feel any better.

“What? I did not,” Seohyun defended herself.

“Thanks,” Hyuna thanked, surprising Seohyun. In all honesty, Seohyun thought Hyuna was going to reprimand her for being so mean to that girl. “I know you were doing it because you were scaring away the competition for me. You better bet your buttons that I will be Yonghwa’s girlfriend before the end of this trip.”

“Yeah, haha… I totally scared her away for you…” Seohyun nervously lied. Things were getting too weird for her sake and she was going to take full advantage of this trip to just lie out on the quiet nighttime beach and sort out her thoughts. Something was not right about the way she was acting but she would have to figure out what it was before she could do anything about it.

Author’s note: So finally some YongSeo interactions. Things are going to start getting good from here on out. I’ve been going a little too slow in the past 7 chapters so I thought it would be a good idea to pick up the pace. Some really good stuff is going to be coming up (or at least I think it’s good) so everyone get ready for it. Min Young is a new character we won’t really be seeing all that much but I think around chapter 18ish we will see her again. Also let me just spazz a little bit about having Park Min Young in my story. She is sooooooooooo beautiful I could just stare at pictures of her all day. In fact, that’s what I’m going to be doing now so I will see you guys in another update. :)

Also, I read all the comments about how they were ready for a stronger (Meaner)  Yonghwa and I hope I didn’t disappoint. He was going to be mean at first, but then I realized, that it was too childish of him to do that. If Yonghwa was mean, it would go against his values and beliefs. He knows it’s not her fault that she doesn’t love him so it wouldn’t be fair to do that to her. Even so, I think he’s not going to be as passive as he used to be with her as was shown when he had her pinned down on the bed.