“C’mon. It’s starting to get dark outside.” said Jongin as he got off his seat. His tone cool but he had a taut expression on his face.

I nodded my head hesitantly and grabbed our trash from the table.

“Hey, Jongin!” someone called. I looked up and three of the guys were closing in on us. One of them—the one who called Jongin—had his hand up in the air as if he’s going to high five Jongin or something. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much.” Jongin said, ignoring the guy’s hand. His tone was purposefully bored.

The guy forced out a laugh along with his minions. He was just as tall as Jongin and he’s lanky with spiky hair cut, the ones you can see from 90’s teen magazine. “We didn’t see you at the dance studio after class.” the guy said, his gaze now fixed at Jongin. “That’s a first.”

Jongin placed his hands in his pockets casually. “I was busy.”

The guy nodded his head in that annoying swag of his. I know I’m not in the position to feel annoyed, I only met him literally five minutes ago but just the way he held himself just seemed to induce irritation of some sort.

God, I’m so mean.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” the guys suddenly asked Jongin, jerking his head towards me with that annoying smirk on his face. His two companions turned to look at me, too. “I’m Kang Jung Hwa.” the guy said, not bothering to let Jongin to answer. He extend his arm to me. “And you are?”

“Cho Hana.” I said to him, shaking his hand casually and as cordially as I could.

“Nice name.” he said, still smirking. He turned back at Jongin who still looking at him nonchalantly. “Do you guys wanna hang out with us?” he asked, he clamped his hand over his friend’s shoulder who winced from the gesture. “Jae here is—”

“No.” Jongin said flatly, his gaze was deliberately cold and indifferent. 

Jung Hwa looked at him and Jongin did the same thing. Their faces looked calm but their gazes held too much tension and it was starting to radiate around the store, it was too thick that even some of the customers who were eating near our table started to scurry away in dread. My heart started to hammer against my chest. Jung Hwa’s friend—Jae—wore a pained expression on his face. Jung Hwa’s hand was still severely clamped over his frail shoulder.

I don’t like where this is going, I thought anxiously.

“Yeah, sorry we can’t.” I heard myself saying. I tried to make my voice a little cheerful to lift some of the tension up. It seemed to work a little because the boys tore their gazes away from each other. Jung Hwa looked at me. “We need to get going.” I told him with a small smile. I grabbed Jongin’s arm and steered him out of the store.

“Sorry about that.” Jongin said once we’re outside of the store. He still looked a bit stiff but the familiar glow in his eyes which I somehow get used to was back. “I just don’t like them very much.”

“It was pretty obvious actually.” I said lightly.

“Jongin?”

Jongin and I turned to our side and saw Eun Hee. At first, her eyes were only set on Jongin, her face instantly lit up and then she saw me standing beside him and her high spirits faded as her eyes landed on my hand. I looked down and realized that I was still holding his arm. I hastily removed my grasp and cleared my throat and averted my eyes. And then I chided myself for acting like that because Jongin and I aren’t doing anything wrong. I turned my attention back to her and she was walking up to us with a tight expression on her face.

“Why aren’t you answering my calls?” she asked Jongin. She looked a little upset but her voice was soft.

“I told you I’ll be busy this week.” Jongin said coldly, barely looking at her.

“Oh, right, right.” Eun Hee said, stammering. “Sorry, I just forgot.” she looked at me this time, her eyes weren’t fuming with anger, though, but that doesn’t mean she looked welcoming either. “I suppose this has something to do with your interview with him?” she asked me.

I wanted to say yes but I only managed to nod my head.

“We ne