“Ryeowook-sshi.”

I sighed, annoyed that I really was stuck with that guy for the ECR project. No matter how much I had wanted it to be a dream - a very bad dream -, it was real and I really had to work with him.

I still hadn’t thanked him for taking care of me while I was sick. And I didn’t plan to thank him. Do you thank your enemy? Nah. He was my enemy, he was the guy I hated the most in the entire world, so I didn’t plan to thank him.

“Ryeowook-ss… yah, Kim Ryeowook, don’t let me do all the work alone!”

I frowned. I had noticed he had stopped calling me that recently. Why did he call me that again now? And why was he suddenly talking like that, with that arrogant voice of his?

I got my answer when I took a look around us. Cho gang was there, and of course their boss had to be mean and arrogant in front of them. I frowned again. In front of them? No… in front of everyone. As soon as someone approached, he became mean and horrible with me again. Not that he was much nicer when we were alone.

I shook my head. Was I lying to myself? He had been nice with me while I was sick. He was also nice with me when there weren’t other people around. Especially when Cho gang wasn’t around. But…

But he was always following and annoying me.

He had started doing it this morning, when I could finally go to school again. Of course, he was my neighbor, so we took the same yellow school bus to go to school. I got on before him, and right when he entered, he sat next to me.

“Hi!”

I didn’t reply, and he followed me and talked to me all morning long until Cho gang appeared. He immediately abandoned me to go talk to them, and as soon as I walked in front of them to go to my locker, he became as mean as usual.

“Two days of missing school! This is going to be tough for your poor little mind.”

And Cho gang wasn’t much nicer either. Completely happy that their boss was as evil as usual, they started insulting me too until I was too far to hear them anymore.

And now…

“C’mon, work! I’m not going to do this all by myself!”

I clenched my teeth, trying my best not to punch him in the face though I really, really wanted to, and I concentrated on my part of the work. We had decided that our project would be about the overconsumption in the world. We would sing a song - we were both in music option - that we had found and that was very appropriate for our project, and then we would sing another song that we had written ourselves.

I was the writer of the song, and he would compose the music. So we were forced to work together. It made me sure that he would do something and not let me do all the work, though he pretended the opposite when Cho gang was close.

I blocked after four lines, unable to concentrate with the chatting in the classroom. I got up and asked the teacher if I could go and work at the library, where it would be silent, and he nodded before writing a message for the librarians. I took my books and left the classroom, appreciating the calm right away.

I had just started to work when he entered the library too with his books and a note of the teacher so he could work here too. I growled when he sat right in front of me, and sighed in relief, smiling, when the librarians told him that it was one person by table, forcing him to sit somewhere else.

I continued writing and, by the time the bell rang, I was almost done. Of course, we would have to work together after that to make sure the music and the lyrics fit together. But before that moment, I just wanted to avoid him as much as possible. Difficult task, knowing he had started following me everywhere.

“Stop following, you bastard!” I finally exploded after lunchtime when he followed me to the men’s restrooms.

He froze for a moment before sighing softly. Making sure nobody else was close, he looked at me with puppy eyes.

“Do you really hate me that much?”

“Yes”, I answered immediately. “I hate you, I hate everything about you, and I know you’re following me just to make my life more horrible. So just go away already!”

He stayed silent for a moment before sighing again.

“I’m not going to bother you anymore then. If I stop talking to you, will you stop hating me that much?”

“No.”

“If I make my gang stop bothering you, will you stop hating me that much?”

“No.”

“If I… if I leave you alone, make them stop bothering you and completely stop talking to you, will you stop hating me that much?”

“Tsk. Maybe. 99% chances I won’t.”

His eyes lightened a bit with hope. He bowed softly.

“I will do that, then. Saranghae.”

And he left the restrooms, leaving me alone. I waited for him to come back - I was sure he would come back, the “hey, it’s a joke, you really thought I was serious?” kind of comeback - but he didn’t. I left after a while, pleasantly surprised, and also pleasantly surprised when Cho gang didn’t laugh at me when I walked in front of them. One or two of them tried to laugh at me behind my back, but I heard Cho growl in a threatening way, and they stopped.

I smiled. Maybe I didn’t hate EVERYTHING about that guy anymore…

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Boring, but it gets better later xD Maybe not in chapter 8 though. But I promise chapter 9 is not bad at all xD Oh, by the way, I'm writing chapter 11 right now xD If I get enough comments (let's say, at least 3) before I go to sleep, I'll upload one more chapter right before going ;)