I couldn't think of a name of this Chapter... lol xP I had a bit more time to write today so I liked writing this chapter!

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After science, Jae In had Korean and maths classes. She got one more assignment for Korean and a whole bunch of math exercises to complete. They were really pilling on the homework this term! By the end of her classes she just wanted to go home and finish her homework! But she couldn’t. She still had to go shopping for her Aunt’s birthday present before she could go home.

Jae In sighed. ‘Maybe I could get some kimbap while I’m out to give me a boost!’ she thought, feeling quite tired. She walked out of the school grounds, her backpack weighed down with books, and walked towards St. Peters high school.

There were two private high schools in the part of the city where Jae In lived, and they were both on the same mountainous hill just outside of central Seoul. One of them was Jae In’s school, and the other was called St. Peters. Jae In knew the way to her favourite shopping district from St. Peters, so she always went that way if she had to go into the city.

It only took her five minutes to get from her school to St. Peters’ front gate. It seemed the end-of-day bell had just gone, and there were students everywhere coming out from the buildings, chatting happily on their way home. For the second time that day, Jae In thought of Jong In. He had said he went to that school, maybe she would see him!

She stopped on the corner of the street opposite the school and looked over at all of the students. She was in a good mood, the thought of delicious kimchi kimbap had cheered her up! But maybe she wouldn’t run in to Jong In after all…

Just then, she spotted him! He was walking down the front steps, mucking around with three of his friends. One of his friends playfully pushed the guy next to him and walked away, waving over his shoulder. As they reached the front gate they stopped and talked to each other. Then, Jong In turned around and started walking down the street, in the same direction Jae In was headed, leaving the other two friends to go the other way home.

Jae In bit her lip, hesitating. Then she crossed the road and walked quickly after Jong In. ‘If I’m walking the same way as him anyway, I might as well say hi!’ she thought.  As she started catching up, she called out to him.

“Jong In-ssi!” he didn’t hear her. She looked around nervously and called again. They were getting further away from the school now, so the chatter of students was getting quieter. “Jong In-ssi!”

He turned around and looked at her. He was standing about five metres away and had a dark blue cardigan on instead of his school jacket, making his shoulders seem broad and muscly.  Jae In walked forward nervously, not sure if he’d recognise her.

“I’m Jae In. From yesterday…” she said slowly.

“Yes, I remember! Annyeong! How are you?”

“I’m fine.” She said politely.

“You don’t have to speak to me that way, you know.” He said with a smile as she walked up to him. “You can just use casual speech!”

“Oh. Really?” said Jae In, surprised.

“Yeah, of course! I’m not that much older than you anyway!” he said. “Where are you off to?”

“Well, I’m actually heading this way…” she said, pointing in the direction they had been walking. “I’m going into the city to buy a birthday present.”

“Oh really? My house is this way too! Do you want to walk together?” he suggested.

“Ok!” said Jae In brightly, and they began walking side by side. Jong In was quite a bit taller than her, and she had to look up slightly to talk to him.

“So, how are things going with this guy and your friend?” he asked her.

“Oh… that. Well…” She started to tell him everything about her science class and how her and the guy she liked had been put in a group together with her friend, and how she’s happy to be able to spend time with him in class now. “He’s just so sweet and nice!” she said.

Jong In chuckled. “What about him and your friend?”

“They seem to be friends at least… I don’t know what’s going on with them though. My friend said they hung out once as friends as I shouldn’t worry…”

“But you are worrying anyway?” asked Jong In.

“Well, yeah! I can’t help it!” said Jae In. “I just don’t want her, my friend of all people, to…”

“To what?”

“Oh, I don’t know!” said Jae In, throwing her arms up in defeat. Jong In laughed again.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing!” he chuckled. “Well, it seems like you’re in a bit of a tricky situation then! I don’t think you should worry though.”

“Why not?” asked Jae In, puzzled.

“Because you’ll be ok.” Said Jong In “No matter what happens, things will turn out ok in the end!” he smiled at her. Jae In couldn’t help but smile back. She felt happy; whatever the deal with this Jong In guy was, he sure did know how to cheer people up!

They kept walking in comfortable silence. Jae In looked around. There were lots of trees here, and most still had a few golden leaves on their branches. It really looked quite pretty…

“Omo!” she said suddenly, looking around.

“What is it?”

“Oh no! I totally forgot where I was going! I missed the turn to go into the city!” she desperately, looking around.

“Calm down! It won’t get dark for a while; you still have time to go shopping!” Jong In said.

“No! It’s just… I don’t know how to get to the city from here! I don’t know where we are!” she said anxiously. “I’m lost!” she turned in a circle, looking around, slightly open is desperation. She looked at Jong In worriedly, not knowing what to do. Jong In looked thoughtful, then checked his watch.

“I can walk you into town.” He said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s ok. I know the way from here, so I can help you!” he said. “Just as long as I’m back home by five.”

“Five! Ok! Let’s go quickly then! Thanks so much Jong In!!” she said and they set off quickly.

They walked towards the city, quickly, with Jae In leading. She looked back to Jong In as they got to a cross roads.

“Left.” Said Jong In “But slow down! We still have time!”

Jae In didn’t listen but kept walking quickly. “Oh, I think I know where we are!” she said “I know that office building!” she said excitedly, pointing to a tall five story building ahead. She began crossing the street, looking up at the building.

“Jae In! Be careful!” Jong In shouted behind her. She felt an arm wrap around her body and a warm hand on her stomach. Jong In pulled her backwards towards him, knocking her off balance. She tripped backwards onto him, as she saw a large van speed past right where she was just standing, honking its horn. was open in surprise. Jong In was still holding her up, his arms around her torso.

“Are you ok??”

“Yeah…” she breathed, standing up straight. He quickly let go of her. She turned around to face him, still wide-eyed. “Thanks.” She said. She didn’t know what else to say.

“No problem.”  He let out a sigh of relief. “You had me worried there!”

“Mianhae…”

Jong In checked his watch.

“It’s ok.” said Jae In. “I know the way from here. And I don’t want to make you late. You’ve helped me enough for one day!”

“Are you sure?” asked Jong In.

“Yeah! I’ll be fine; really!” She assured him. Jong In nodded.

“I’ll see you around then.” He flashed a smile at Jae In and left.

“Thank-you!” she called after him, smiling. She turned around and walked into the shopping district. ‘I wonder what he’s so late for?’ she thought, her heart still beating quickly from the close call. She looked around in a few different shops for a present for her dad’s sister. Eventually she decided on a pretty red scarf with a black butterfly embroided in the corner. She bought it, and thanked the shop owner. On her way home she bought some beef bulgoggi from a street vendor.  She decided it was too cold for kimbap and the bulgoggi smelled so nice!

~Meanwhile~

Jong In walked home quickly. He got in the door at 4:45. “15 minutes!” he said to himself. He went straight up to his room and took a quick shower. He’d just finished getting dressed when there was a knock on the door. “Coming!” he called, rushing out to the stairs. He opened the door to see a short ajusshi in a down coat, looking quite serious. There was a big black car behind him with the engine still running.

“I’ll just be a minute!” said Jong In hurriedly.

“Hurry up!” said the ajusshi.  “The others are waiting.”

“Nae, manager-hyung!” called Jong In. He bounded back up the stairs and to his room. He grabbed his coat, phone, and bag and ran back downstairs, turning the lights off and locking the door as he left.

~~~

When Jae In got home, she found her mum cooking dinner in the kitchen and her dad sitting in the living room.

“Your friend’s here Jae In! I sent her up to your room, she should be in there now!”  her mum told her.

“My friend?” Jae In asked, puzzled. She went upstairs to her room. From the hallway she could hear someone in there. She pushed the door open slowly and walked in. It was Min Ae. She was sitting on Jae In’s bed, listening to music playing from her laptop and texting on her phone. She looked up when Jae In walked in.

“Oh. Annyeong Jae In-ah!”

“Annyeong.” Jae In said slowly. She put her bag down and took off her jacket and scarf. “What are you doing here?” she asked, sitting herself down cross-legged  opposite Min Ae.

“Waiting for you to come home of course! What took you so long?”

“Uh… I had to buy a present for my Aunt.” Said Jae In.

“Well, we need to pick our topic for science, remember? So, I was looking it up, see.” She pointed to the laptop screen. Jae In craned her neck to see. It seemed she had one tab in her browser open for every available topic.

“Ah. What about Kyungsoo?”

“He ruled a few out, but other than that he says he doesn’t care what we choose! He can’t choose with us because he had to go to dance practice with the rest of his band members tonight.”

“Wait, how do you know all this?” asked Jae In “When did you talk to him??”

“I was texting him before!” Min Ae said as though it was something obvious.

“You were texting him!? Ugh, no wonder!” Jae In said loudly. She was actually texting him! They must be closer than she thought!

“What?” said Min Ae defensively. Jae In sighed.

“Nothing.” She said sadly. Why couldn’t she be the one to text Kyungsoo?? She looked again at the laptop screen.

“Hmm… out of the ones left, I say we pick hot springs.”

“Japanese hot springs? Definitely?” asked Min Ae.

“Yeah. It’ll be the most interesting, I think. What about you?”

“Hot springs it is!” said Min Ae, glad to finally come to a decision.  She got up from the bed and closed the laptop. “We’ll start looking things up next science lesson! And I’ll text Kyungsoo telling him what we’re doing. Now, I’d better go! It’s getting late!” she grabbed her bag and jacket. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked Jae In.

“Yeah. I’m fine.” Jae In smiled. Her friend looked at her, weighing up whether she though Jae In was telling the truth or not. Apparently, she decided she did. “Ok!” she accepted. “I’ll see you at school then! I’ll let myself out.” she gave Jae In a hug and waved brightly as she left her room and went downstairs.

Jae In looked around her room. She was tired after such a long day! She forced herself to get up and started cleaning up her room, then she wrapped the scarf she had bought, put it in her closet and went downstairs to dinner.

After dinner she wrote an entire essay and worked through some of her math problems. ‘That’s quite enough homework for tonight!’ she thought to herself, so she packed up her things and got ready for bed.

“Ah!” she lay back in her bed and instantly felt incredibly sleepy. It had been such a long day! She thought about Kyungsoo and how awesome it would be to have to work with him for science. He was really nice to her, but they usually didn’t get the chance to talk much because Kyungsoo was always busy. ‘I suppose being an idol, you’d be busy all the time!’ she thought ‘I wonder why he doesn’t seem even more tired all the time!’ She yawned and rolled over in her bed, then fell asleep almost straight away.

That night she dreamt about Jong In and the van that had nearly run her over. Yep, definitely it was a long day!