Kyuhyun

Stepping into the classroom the next day, I was welcomed by the sight of people swarming around Raeha’s seat again. What does she even talk about that they find so interesting?

I remembered something suddenly as I approached my seat.
“Jung, we need to talk.” I said as I placed my bag onto my chair. She looked up from her conversation with some girls and looked at me curiously.  She turned back to them and said with a sweet smile, “Hey guys, could you give us a minute?”

The group looked from her then to me then back to her with raised brows. “You sure, Raeha?”

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Why don’t you go gossip about Hyoyeon and Eunhyuk?”
“Hey, guys, when she says leave, leave.” A girl who I recognized as Hyeri tried to usher them away.

“So,” she turned to me, the smile never leaving her face. Why do I find that a bit annoying? “What did you want to talk about?” she asked, even though she probably already knew what it was about.

“What happens when one of us breaks the truce?” I spoke the question I forgot to ask her yesterday.

“I don’t know. Is something supposed to happen?” her smile was replaced by a confused expression.

I scoffed. “There should be some sort of punishment for breaking a truce! Breaking truces is the sort of thing that starts wars! Of course you wouldn’t know because you don’t pay attention in history class.”

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “So what should this punishment be?”

“Why are you asking me? This was your idea!”

“This idea was for the both of us!!”

I just stared at her, and she stared back. Finally, after a few seconds, she gave in and rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll think of something.”

“Don’t roll your eyes at me.” I reminded her, smiling smugly. I turned back to face the board.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned in my seat, away from Raeha, towards Sungmin sitting behind me.

“Hey, Sungmin.” Dang, I hadn’t told him yet about yesterday.

“You… Raeha? Explain. Lunch.” He said with an unreadable expression. I guess he heard everything I said. I just nodded indifferently.

“By the way, how’s the tutoring coming along?” I tried to change the subject.

“Eh?? Ehh…..” he pinked and struggled for words. Bingo! Weak spot. So predictable.

“Oh, he’s doing great!” Hyeri suddenly appeared out of nowhere, answering my question.

“Whoops. I guess she heard me.” I smiled evilly at Sungmin. I didn’t regret it at all.

“Ah-I am??”

“Yeah, you’re a fast learner! And you’re attentive, as well.” She smiled and took her seat behind Raeha.

“He is, is he?” Raeha joined the conversation.

Hyeri nodded. Sungmin was now red from receiving all the attention.

“Don’t say I was never a good friend.” I whispered to Sungmin, making sure the others didn’t hear. I patted his arm and turned back to face front.

“Hmmm.” Sungmin held his hand to his chin, rubbing like an evil mastermind.

“So for now we’re just not going to yell each other. Which seems like a very hard feat.”

“Mmmm-hmmm.” He hummed again.

“Would you stop ‘mm-hmm’-ing? Some bee might sting you thinking it’s a mating call.”

“Seriously, though. What makes it so hard not to get mad at her or anything?”

I scoffed at him. “You’re kidding, right?”

“But dude, why do you dislike her so much?” he chuckled and took a bite out of his bread. “I mean, has she ever done anything to you?”

“… That’s a tough question to answer.”

“Is it really?” he smirked.

“I just don’t like her attitude.”

He said incredulously, “What attitude?”

“She’s annoying and arrogant sometimes.”

“W-what? When? Dude, she’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever known! And she’s not arrogant at all! She doesn’t let any of those awards and stuff get to her head.”

“What makes you so sure? Do you even know her?”

“Do you?”

Do I?

When he got no reply from me, he leaned forward and said in a low, gentle voice, “Don’t you think that maybe you’re a bit too obsessed with grades? You’re holding a petty grudge against Raeha just because she’s higher than you in ranking. But you don’t see Hyeri acting like that to you, right? And she’s best friends with Raeha herself! You, on the other hand, have no other social life.”

“But—“

“And I don’t count.”

“Just… loosen up a bit, would ya?”

“Why does everyone keep telling me that?”

“Because you never listen.”

“This is weird.” Park-ssam noticed the weird atmosphere in the office. “Why aren’t you two killing each other yet?”

I had my arms crossed and teeth clenched, while Raeha looked about as relaxed as ever. Trust me, it took all I had not to yell at her after her multiple jibes. There were also some times when I would insult her out of habit, and she would open to retort, but seem to change her mind and shut up. “No talking back.” I reminded each other.

“Maybe we’re just tired. I mean, we have been at this for two hours.” Raeha explained. Now that she mentioned it, the dark circles under my eyes seemed to be growing, but that was probably because I took it upon myself to get some extra studying done at home.

“I see. Maybe I’ve been overworking you guys too hard.” Seonsaengnim sighed. “Ah well. I’m glad to see you guys are finally on working terms.

We exchanged looks but didn’t say anything. Mentioning the truce was unnecessary, anyway.

He glanced at his clock and shot up. “Oh crap, I’m going to be late! Uhh, I have to go guys, so we’re done for today.” He gathered his things quickly and stuffed them in his bag at lightning speed. He reached for his coat and was heading to the door while we sat in awe of his speed. The usual relaxed and laidback Park-ssam we knew was now frantic and running around with his hair messy. Man, training for long after hours really does things to people.

“Well? What are you two still doing sitting down? Unless you want to be left locked up in this office together all night.” He said, excited to leave. He was already standing by the door. The look in his eyes gave us a sense of urgency, and we hurriedly got our stuff and went towards the door.

But apparently we weren’t fast enough, because he just ran out the door as soon as we reached it, leaving us to close the door.

“Later, kids!” He rushed down the hall, pulling out his phone, which was ringing quite loudly. “H-hello?” then his voice dropped to a whisper. The hallway was quiet enough that I could clearly hear his whisper, while a muffled sound came from the phone speaker. “T-Taeyeonnie! Sorry, I’ll be—“ a yell came from the phone, but it was unclear from where I was standing. “Y-yeah I’ll be there.” He turned the corner and the rest of his conversation as unheard.

“Did I just hear what I think I heard?” Raeha said from behind me. I shook my head and started walking away. “I don’t have time to gossip about meaningless information with you, Jung.”

“Tch. Admit it, Cho. You were just as intrigued as I was.” She smiled and walked ahead of me. I watched her back as she walked away and rolled my eyes.

Without even looking back at me, she called, “Don’t roll your eyes at me!”

How did she do that?

“’I’m a mind reader.”

Wait, what? Did she have overly developed brain waves or something?

She chuckled, not glancing backwards. “You’re just so predictable.”

Damn.