♡ Chapter 2 ♡

Jungeum sighed forlornly as she stared blankly into her half empty bag of chips. She'd been completely ripped off. This bag was more crumbs than anything. She closed the bag and mentally resealed it, shaking her head in disappointment. Then, as if hoping it would magically fill itself, she opened the bag again with a smile. She was immediately again faced with a bag full primarily of air.

At first, all she could do was frown and inspect each chip as thoroughly as possible. That chip’s too small, that one can't even be considered a chip- ah! That chip’s bigger! Oh, no, never mind. She scrunched her nose into a scowl of disapproval. Even the largest chip didn't live up to her expectations. She pulled out her phone and checked the time- twenty past twelve. She’d already wasted a good ten minutes of her lunch break. With a groan, Jungeum rolled onto her side, throwing her body onto sidewalk she was sitting on, brooding over her pitiful situation.

After a few minutes of laying like a dead dog watching the cars drive by, she eventually realized that she had better start eating and get back to class. Without bothering to sit up, she reached for the chips, which should have been just behind her back. Unfortunately, they weren't. Jungeum paddled her arms and legs, slowly rotating herself so that instead of looking at the road, she was looking farther down the sidewalk. What she saw made her jump abruptly to her feet.  

Her bag of chips, her only source of energy to get herself through the rest of the day, was quickly sliding, floating, rolling away with the wind. She hurriedly dashed after it, cursing her uncoordinated legs for refusing to work together. How the hell was this bag moving faster than she was? Just when she was about to give up, the bag stopped, and she let out a breath of relief. She cast it a glare, daring it to move again. When she'd reached it, she gave it her brightest smile, thinking, This wouldn't have happened if you weren't so full of air! Just as she bent down to pick it up, a car flew by at a ridiculously high speed, dragging the bag into the street.

Before Jungeum could even react, another car sped past, somehow managing to run over the bag directly with its wheels. She held out one of her hands, feigning grabbing the chips, while the other rested dramatically on her heart. She dropped to her knees, dumbfounded. I should have just eaten them earlier when I had the chance. Pathetically, her eyes followed the trail of morsels that the bag had left on its first journey. They wouldn't be safe to eat, would they? She her lips and shook her head. No, of course they wouldn't. She was jarringly brought from her thoughts by a tap on her shoulder and a perturbed voice. "Were these your lunch?"

Jungeum whipped around to find a very familiar bag held directly in front of her face. To confirm her suspicions, she glanced at the empty road and then back again. Had this person gone through the trouble of going into the street and grabbing it? She stretched her neck farther to the side, peeking around the chips. It was the nerd from before- Myungsoo. So, that’s what his voice sounds like? It didn't fit at all with his tasteless attire. It wasn’t until a moment later that she noticed the concerned look her classmate was giving her. She quickly snatched the bag from his hand as she felt blood rush to her face and responded grudgingly, "Yeah. Problem?"

Myungsoo raised an eyebrow at her and then broke into a smile, "No, no, no problem at all." Jungeum blinked at him, unable to comprehend why his smile gave her a strange, warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. It must be because I'm hungry. At the thought of food, she instinctively inspected the inside of her bag. There was nothing. She grumbled quietly to herself, cursing the company for giving her so little chips. After watching Jungeum seemingly converse with herself, Myungsoo finally offered what he'd originally come over to offer, "Actually, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind me buying you something to eat?"

Jungeum stared at Myungsoo with narrowed eyes. Why would he want to buy her lunch? "You? Buy me something? No. Thank. You." She gave him her best smirk, "Actually, I’m not even hungry-" A low rumble resonating from her stomach cut her off. With her eyes widened in shock, she looked up at him meekly, "On second thought, a bit of food would be nice."

The pair, aware of what little time remained in lunch period, quickly set off to find a vending machine. When they reached one, Jungeum insisted upon getting a couple of packages of macadamia nut cookies- one for her and one for Myungsoo. Of course, as they sat on a small bench in front of the school together, Jungeum eventually found herself also eating from Myungsoo's share.

As Jungeum nibbled on the second cookie she stole from Myungsoo, a question formed in the back of her mind. Simply not afraid of the possible consequences, she asked boldly, "So, why exactly does everyone not like you?" Myungsoo shrugged, suddenly growing very tense. He removed his glasses and began cleaning them with his shirt. Seeing his unwillingness to talk, she edged closer to him and continued, "I mean, you're obviously a pretty good guy, and you're not bad looking." She scanned his face, "At all. Especially without those glasses."

Myungsoo looked at her with a grateful, wistful expression, "I guess the same reason they don't like you." He laughed and scooted away slowly, uncomfortable at how close her face was becoming, "You're not bad yourself. They just don't like things that are different." He threw in another shrug, "The crowd I hang with can be a little strange."

Jungeum pulled away to grab another cookie and continued to eat, speaking between bites, "Strange is good."

Myungsoo his lips out of habit, smirking slightly, "You think so? Want to meet them?" The warning bell rang, cutting their conversation short. The two stood to their feet. Myungsoo put his glasses back on while Jungeum brushed the crumbs off of her clothes. Before they parted to their next classes, Myungsoo got enough courage to murmur, "Come here after school if you do." He smiled, startling Jungeum once again with his charm. "I'll be waiting."

☁ Whisk's Corner^◕◕

Heylow! It's been a week since we posted the first chapter, so here's the second. =D I'm so glad that Kou (pshaw_) agreed to write this story with me. T-T Without her, I would be nowhere, and the chapters wouldn't be nearly as grammatically correct, haha. When I first brought the idea up to her, I found out that she also had a story idea similar to this, so it was all fine and dandy. I wasn't intending to start on this until after I finished Perfect Nurse!, but that plan fell through when Kou and I got extremely hyped and started planning out the game (Renascence Online, which has yet to be introduced into the actual story.) Won Jungeum is a character which we, admittedly without meaning to, have changed quite a bit already from chapter 1. She's still our little Jungeum-ah, though, so keep an eye out for her spunky attitude. (I've completely fallen in love with her. She's so quirky and strange~ <3 By the way, Jungeum, none of this would have happened if you would have just eaten your chips instead of complaining about how small they are~)

☁ Pshaw's Corner^◕◕

Hobo (_Whisk) is far too nice to me, gaiz. T_T Don't listen to her. She did all the hard work! But yeah, after talking about this the first time, we realized we had a really similar story idea. owo So we got to work setting up our own imaginary MMORPG which DESPERATELY NEEDS TO MAKE AN APPEARANCE because I feel like it's gonna be pretty ballin'. I have no smooth transition for my next line of thought, but I wanted to point out how we chose Won Jungeum's "gross" sounding name. We purposely picked the ugliest name we could come up with to suit her quirky character! xD She has already gone through a big change just by being put on paper, and I'm wondering what her in game persona will be like. Anyways... yeah. LOL Enjoy reading, peeeeace.