Chapter Six

Although not everyone was aware of their relationship, lots of people felt a weird vibe coming from Junhong and Hayi. Like how the shy, respectful girl would lose her cool around the nice, caring, basketball player. The same could be said for Junhong, the way he got unnecessarily needy around said girl was ridiculous, especially after he had decided to keep a happy-go-lucky facade around those who didn’t really know him. And being needy and whiny surely wasn’t something that fit into his mask. Regardless of these things they continued to heads and complain to each other about everything. They were more or less best friends, which didn’t go unnoticed by Seunghyun.
 

“So how long have you guys been together?” the older male, Seunghyun, asked Junhong as they made their way home. Seunghyun’s curiosity was peaked after he had seen his cousin and Hayi laughing and arguing right after. Not to be dramatic but it was quite a sight to see, considering Junhong didn’t usually open up to others, so if he laughed along with Hayi there had had to be some important type of bond between them.
 

“W-what do you mean?” The young blonde certainly didn’t expect a question like that out of the blue, especially not from his cousin. Although he did receive similar teasing comments from his fellow classmates and team members. He didn’t really mind them so long as Hayi didn’t take them to heart and actually started believing them. Because last time someone did that Junhong ended up paying the consequences which almost ended in… well it’s why he has so many bracelets and long sleeved shirts.
 

“You know, Hayi and you?” unbelievable, trying to hide away the truth, “Come on, you can tell me.” The older man whined and pouted. He didn’t really think Junhong was over the last girl he dated, considering he still hid his wrists and shied away whenever someone raised their arms suddenly. To say the least his last real relationship ended up breaking him and turning him into someone who wasn't really Junhong. "I mean if there's nothing going on the-"

"We're friends that's all, don't worry about it." The young blonde answered. He really didn’t understand why so many people thought guys and girls COULDN’T be just friends.

"I'm just looking out for you, we're all still worried after... Well you know." The older male said, a tone of carefulness and caution around it, as if the wrong word might break something more fragile than porcelain.

"Don't worry she's, well she's not like that." a goofy grin plastered itself onto his face and Seunghyun decided to drop the topic.

***

"Hey guys we're going to karaoke after school! the other classes also signed up so we're gonna hold a contest to see who has the best singers"

"Loser class buys winning class lunch next week"

"That actually sounds fun!" Jimin exclaimed while tugging Hayi, they had been eating outside due to the weather being nice despite it being almost November. "We should totally go and kill it with our heavenly voices!" she continued, "let me tell them about us going."

"Everything sounds fun to you Jimin," Hayi scoffed, in a playful manner of course, "but yeah that does sound fun." she agreed. After Hayi had been hanging out with Junhong, almost everything sounded more appealing, whether it involved a mob of people or just two, she had slowly been unraveling her cocoon and it wasn't as bad as she had thought it would've been.

"Did you all hear that?!" Jimin screamed at the group of guys who were talking about the contest earlier, "Hayi said she's going so make sure it's actually fun!" the guys laughed and replied back with 'sures' and 'of course'.

After it quieted down they just sat there enjoying the sound of dry leaves being picked up by the breeze. One thing Hayi loved about Jimin was the fact that she knew when to make jokes and how to party it up but also how and when to quiet down and enjoy the silence, she knew how much it meant to her and she was grateful for that. Something not many could do, which left her to her thoughts from the night before. Why had Junhong been so bitter and why had he left halfway through practice. No matter what she thought of it just didn't make sense. The only way to quench her curiosity was to ask him and so that's what she'll do.

"Jimin I have to go look for someone for a bit, I'll see you after class for the karaoke thing." she waved bye to her friend and before she was too far away she heard her scream a 'he's in the gym right now', it's amazing how well she knew her.

***

She made her way to the gym carefully so as not to make too much of a scene in case people got the wrong idea. "Hey Junghong you in there?" she said as she poked her head through the door. He was there doing some lay ups by himself.. . kinda odd. She stepped inside not thinking much of it. "I said HEY JUNGHONG" the young boy dropped the ball as he leap three feet in the air.

"WHasfhdkl!" he exclaimed as he turned around and found the source of noise. There stood Hayi picking up the ball he had dropped a couple of seconds prior, "What is it?" he asked as he approached her to get the ball back.

"What was up with you yesterday? leaving after I made all that effort of coming and becoming manager too," she pouted. She had to stop doing that otherwise Junhong would die of heart attacks, 'why is she so cute without realizing it?!??' 

"I just wasn't feeling it, that's all, don't worry." he said as he grabbed the ball from her hands.

"I - I wasn't worried about you!" typical Hayi, he knew she was being too sweet for it to be true. "but seriously if you aren't feeling well let someone know, don't just hide it, it.. it won't end well that way." 

"Are you speaking from experience or just taking pity on the cousin of the guy you like?" why was he being so bitter and petty? Here was Hayi, the girl he possibly had a crush on and he was being a complete to her.

"Wow, talk about low blows." she replied, "so does everyone have to have a motive behind why they care? I thought we were friends and you know, friends care after each other right? or maybe you've never had enough friends to actually realize that." she couldn't believe Junhong would go as low as insult her and question her motives, who was he to act that way.

"You're one to talk about friendship, considering you only have one other friend. You can't even talk to others properly yet you decide to lecture me about my problems." STOP, Junhong wanted to stop, but all his conflicted emotions from before and the stress from having a new crush had taken a toll on him and he was taking it out one her.

"I see how it is then." she turned around and walked back from where she came from. Junhong was in deep and he didn't know how to fix it.

***

All was nice and good when they first got to the karaoke room, the mood was great and upbeat but as soon as the remaining people arrived (the basketball team to be exact) , the mood went down the drain. Hayi and Junhong had brought upon an awful awkward atmosphere and no matter what songs or dance numbers anyone did, it just wouldn't go away.

"I've had enough!" cried Jimin frustrated, she stood and snatched a mic from a nearby student. "I nominate Junhong and Hayi for the next song!" people cheered and pushed the teens off their seats.

"I don't really sing-" Junhong tried to complain and sit it out

"Then you can rap!" Jimin cut him off, "Oh look the songs is starting already, woops!" she handed Hayi the mic and pushed her to the center of the room.

The awkward pair stood at the center of the room and let the intro of the song surround them. No matter how unwilling Hayi was to have a duet with the guy that questioned her motives, she couldn't just pass up the opportunity to sing her favorite song. Junghong on the ther hand was nervous because 'what if he screwed up? what if people made fun of Hayi for his lack of talent? What if-' his thoughts got cut off when Hayi started doing adlibs, everybody around them became mesmerized by her vocals including Junhong, which almost made him miss his cue.

"When things get hard and it doesn’t get better
When you want to cry, you can cry
When everything looks resentful
When you want to get angry, you can get angry
I understand you
Yes, tell me everything
I will listen
Everything’s gonna be alright
When you want to smile, smile"

They ended their duet and the room went silent save for their breathing, one second, 'I screwed up' junhong thought, two seconds, 'I shouldn't have made those adlibs' Hayi scolded herself, three seconds, the room roared with cheers.

"You guys were amazing!" someone yelled from the end of the room.

"You guys were good enough to actually debut as singers!" "Junhong you sneaky bastard! I didn't know you could rap!" "Hayi your voice made me melt!"

Relief flooded their faces and they let out a short puff of a laugh, maybe this wasn't so bad thought Hayi. She looked to her side and met Junhongs gaze.

"I'm sorry," mumbled Junhong before being dragged by one of his team members. Hayi smiled at him and retreated to her seat.