(Sunhwa POV)

“Busan’s seafood is better.”

“But Seoul’s samgyopsal is tastier.”

“Fine, but you can’t deny Busan’s nightclub’s are more daring.”

I stop in my tracks.

“And how exactly do you know that?”

“I’m a young, and attractive man.” Daehyun says it in such a tone, as if he’s stating the obvious.

“Yeah, you keep thinking that.” I roll my eyes. “Seoul is more diverse, and is more modern. More clothing stores too.”

“Alright.” He shrugs. “But Busan’s girls are better.”

I turn to look at him. “Are you trying to flirt?”

“Whatever.” He brushes past me, quickening his strides forcing me to run to catch up with him.

“Wait up, daedae!”

He raises his middle finger.

“DAE DAE! Won’t you wait for me!?” I scream a little louder, hoping to annoy him further. “Come on, Jung Daedae, won’t you walk a little slow-“

Hyorin, Soyu, and Bora step in front of me. All three of them crossing their hands over their chest, staring down at me as if deciding what they should do with me.

“Yah, Han Sunhwa. Where’s your friend these days?” Hyorin speaks first.

“She’s at a sho-”

“Ahh, you mean that Park Jiyeon?” Soyu replies. “Didn’t you hear? She got ! By one of the guys in our school. Remember that Lee Minhyuk? The one from class 4C? Jiyeon was by Lee Minhyuk!”

“She wasn’t .” I clench my teeth to stop myself from swearing at them. “She was saved before he could even ually assault her fully, much less .”

“?” Bora widens her eyes. “Poor girl, but she should have seen it coming. Doing all those commercials, and photo shoots in those shorts, and high heels. She deserved it!”

The three go on completely ignoring me, and soon it’s obvious they only came to mock Jiyeon.

Jiyeon, who is supposed to reach school any moment now.

“Excuse me.” I purposely push through Hyorin and  Soyu, breaking their little conversation.

They hurl insults at me, but I copy Daehyun, and raise my middle finger. Not bothering to look back at those losers.

                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Lee Soohyun.”

“Here!”

“Han Sunhwa.”

“Here!” I raise my hand.

“Park Jiyeon!?”

Once again silence fills the room.

Ms. Kahi sighs. “Park Jiyeon isn’t here again? Sunhwa, didn’t you say she’d return by now? It’s July 12th. She’s been gone for over three weeks. When is she returning!?”

“I’m here!” A rushed looking Jiyeon with awful bed-hair enters the room. “I’m here, I’m here.”

“Welcome back.” Ms.Kahi smiles, letting go of her ruler. “We missed you dearly.”

A few snickers arise, but Jiyeon’s quick to dismiss them. “I’m sure some did.” She hurries over to the empty seat next to mine, and I can’t help but smile.

Jiyeon’s really back.

“So, how did your first shoot go?” I ask her, once the class settles down.

She pauses for a while. “I met L.”

I feel like someone has just slapped me on the face.

“No. ing. Way. Spill the beans.”

She hesitates. “It’s not really the best story.”

“TELL.”

“Okay so, there I was at the phot-”

A frozen Jiyeon stood in front of a frozen L, whose lips were beginning to tremble.

“Myungsoo Oppa! I’m so glad you came!” Suzy moved to his side. “Ah, right! This is my partner for this shoot and god knows how many more. Her name is Park Ji-”

“Park Jiyeon.” He whispers, still looking deep into her eyes.

The mention of her name through his lips, sent her heart trembling.

“How’d you k-know?” Suzy looked confused.

“She was my-”

“Y-you must have seen my file through Elizabeth, right?” Jiyeon finally speaks up. “My name is Park Jiyeon, it’s really nice to meet you….uh..?”

“Kim Myungsoo.” Suzy smiles. “He prefers to be called L, but his name is Kim Myungsoo.”
 

L’s mouth was hanging open. He was shocked by Jiyeon’s words.

Jiyeon gulped. “Oh, really?”

Just then Junhyung intervened. “Hi, my name is Yong Junhyung.” He forcefully shook his hands with Myungsoo.

“Junhyung…” Myungsoo whispered.

“I’m Jiyeon’s boyfriend.” Junhyung casually swung his arm around the wide-eyed Jiyeon.

“Uh, no you’re not.” Jiyeon removed his hand, unable to play along. “He’s just joking.” She smiled directly at Suzy, trying to ignore L’s presence.

She had to bite her lip to stop herself from breaking down.
 

“Suzy-ah! Can you come over here?” Kang-nim yells, waving his arms around like a mad man. “I need your opinion on this picture!”

Suzy excuses herself, and soon the trio are left in an awkward situation.

“Look, Jiyeon. I’m so sorry.” L’s eyes met Jiyeon for a fraction of a second, before she quickly turned away. “There can be no justification for my actions, but I want to say that-”

“ you.”

“That I’m sorry for all that I’v----Excuse me?”

“ you.” Jiyeon repeated in the same cold tone, and quickly walked away before L could see the tears falling down her face.

Junhyung whooped, completely satisfied with Jiyeon’s attitude, but unknown to both of them, Jiyeon stuffed herself into one of the closets, where she cried there for the rest of the day.

I blow out a long whistle.

“That jerk had the nerve to talk to you.”

“He left a note in my car. He said he regretted everything, and that if he could turn time back, he would have never asked me out, so that I wouldn’t have to go through all this humiliation. He also said that he was using me as a substitute to fill the void that Suzy had left in his life.”

My hands clench.

“And I know I would have hated him as much as you do right now, but that ing jerk had to tell me…”

“Tell you what?” I clutch onto her hand.

“On the last sentence of the note....He said “I won’t ask you to forgive me because that’s impossible, but for what it’s worth Jiyeon….you once made my heart flutter.”

She sighs, and puts her head on the desk.

“He’s just lying!” I stand up, enraged by the true side of L.

“Han Sunhwa! Is this how we act in class?” Ms. Kahi spits. “Sit back down!”

I reluctantly sit down, not wanting to cause a scene. However, the anger in me continues to boil.

“Jiyeon, that loser doesn’t deserve you. You are not allowed to like him anymore.”

“I know.”

“You cannot even acknowledge him anymore. He never existed. We don’t even know him, okay?”

“I know.”

I open my mouth to say some more, but I know I’ve already lost her.

As Jiyeon looks out the window, I can only try to guess what’s going on in her mind.

                                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ugh…Dae isn’t picking up his call! I need my science text book!”

Jiyeon raises her eyebrow. “And how exactly does your science text book relate to Jung Daehyun?”