12 - For Show

Seung Hyun was anxious, its five minutes before the class starts and Dara still isn’t here yet. She’s going to miss their exam if she doesn’t attend this class. Seung Hyun was tapping his fingers on the desk, his neck stretched, eyes focused on the door. He already texted Kiko and asked where Dara is, she replied that Dara already left an hour ago.

“I hope you guys studied well because I especially made this exam really hard.” Their professor started. The class fell silent. Seung Hyun hesitated but he didn’t want Dara to miss on the exam so he ducked down and called her phone. He took a deep breath when she answered.

“Where are you? Why aren’t you in class?” Seung Hyun whispered. He heard Dara yawning.

“What do you want Choi?” Dara murmured asking.

“You’re going to miss our exam dimwit. Get your here in class.” Seung Hyun hissed in frustration. He heard the professor saying to get their pens ready and they’ll be starting in five minutes.

“Oh crap. I forgot!” Dara screamed on the phone that Seung Hyun had to pull his phone away from his ear.

“Run as fast as you can you still have about four minutes and thirty seconds to get here.” Seung Hyun ended the call and placed his phone back on his bag. He got worried because Dara is the slowest runner he’s ever known. She trips on anything but to his surprise, Dara got in to class right in the nick of time. She opened the door of the classroom, her hand gripping on the door frame, her body bent down, panting heavily, her backpack almost falling off her right shoulder.

“Well, Miss Park its nice of you to join us.” Their professor said sarcastically. Dara made a ninety degree bow, she got her test booklet and questionnaire from their professor and hurried to her desk beside Seung Hyun. When she got there she was still panting heavily. She didn’t even have time to fix her hair. Seung Hyun readily slipped a pen for her. She looked at Seung Hyun with a blank look on her face and the latter just gave her a goofy face making her smile. And just like that, they were okay again.

*****

It was lunch time. Seung Hyun and Dara entered the cafeteria and bought some food. They sat at their usual table. Dara checked her watch and dialed Kiko on her phone.

“Where is that girl?” Dara thought out loud.

“Did she get home alright last night?” Seung Hyun asked after taking a bite off of his apple.

“What do you mean?” Dara placed her chopsticks on top of her bowl of ramen and looked at Seung Hyun, confusion etched on her face.

“She visited me last night…uhmmm…and I was too wasted to take her home so Jiyong walked her home. I was dead asleep right after she left so I wasn’t able to ask Jiyong if she got home alright.” Seung Hyun shrugged.

“You mean she was with Jiyong last night?” Dara recalled what time Kiko got home last night and gave out a curse.

“Don’t worry, Jiyong may be a jerk but he knows never to mess with you and Kiko. I told him I’d kill him if he did.” Seung Hyun assured Dara seriously.

“Whatever. I still don’t trust him.” Dara muttered hesitantly. She got her chopsticks and started munching on her ramen. Seung Hyun automatically got his handkerchief from his pocket and held it out to Dara the minute she placed the bowl down the table.

“God you’re such a mess.” Seung Hyun said huskily, getting up and reaching for her chin when she didn’t take the handkerchief. He wiped her china and looked at her with a smile on his face.

“You don’t have to do that…” Dara said in a faint voice looking away from Seung Hyun. She could feel her face getting hot. Knowing how Seung Hyun felt for him made everything different. She couldn’t disregard his little gestures as natural anymore. Seung Hyun sat back down and gave Dara a somewhat sad smile on his face.

“Relax Dara…it’s still me…your best friend Seung Hyun…just because you know how I feel it doesn’t mean we should stop being friends right?” Seung Hyun asked in a hopeful voice, his head bowing down.

“You have to give some time so it’ll sync in to me Choi. It’s not like I’m the most popular girl in this school that I get confessions from guys every day.” Dara joked reaching for Seung Hyun’s hand and squeezing it. Seung Hyun looked at her and smiled.

“Hey guys!” Jiyong greeted. He assisted Kiko in sitting down beside Dara.

“Looks like you have nothing to be worried about, look at them, they’ve made up…” Jiyong whispered to Kiko. She looked at Dara and then to Seung Hyun. Jiyong noticed the look of longing in her face. Kiko looked at Jiyong and gave him a smile and somehow her disguised smile made his heart squeeze.

“Our plan is still on. You already promised you’d help.” Kiko’s narrowed on Jiyong, making sure he won’t back out from his promise.

“Don’t worry. I already said I’d help.” Jiyong shrugged and then he went to take a seat beside Seung Hyun.

“Did you see the post on your blog you asked me to post for you?” Dara turned to Kiko while the latter gave her a clueless look. Dara secretly kicked Kiko’s foot under the table and she gave her a nervous smile.

“Uhm. Yeah unnie. Thank you. I had something to do last night.” Kiko said softly.

“Yeah, you never