Journey 25

"Hey Jinri, have you seen my socks?"

Jinri tossed Chanyeol's socks from under the couch.

"Hey Jinri, have you seen my bag?"

Jinri scrapped the side-drawers and threw it at him.

"Hey Jinri, have you seen my toothbrush?"

Jinri scowled, getting irritated from his messy habit, but searched around the sink and cupboards nonetheless. She saw Chanyeol's toothbrush on one corner. Turning around, she came face to face with him, and her world had stopped.

"Thanks." Chanyeol grinned after a moment or two, leaning back and giving her space to walk. She cleared throat and went straight on the couch (slash Chanyeol's bed at night) and slacked off.

And it has been a wild circle of frustrating, world-stopping moments for her since that night on the meadow. Sometimes, Jinri started observing Chanyeol on how he eats his noodles, how he flex his muscles or even how he reads the thickest book. In her defense, she's just getting curious on him that's why she was doing it. That's all.

However, it seems that  Kyungsoo has a different opinion. Whenever he caught Jinri doing that for a few times, he would snicker as if he found it entertaining, then he'll refuse to answer if Jinri asks him what's wrong. But more often than not, Jinri still found herself distracted from Joonmyeon a lot of times.

It has been three weeks since they broke up. It was hard for them to distance each other on school, and it was even harder for Jinri to fight her urge to contact him. Sometimes when she noticed Joonmyeon not attending his class she would worry, and she would instantly approach his friends if something was wrong with him.

An eccentric knock she was fully familiar with broke Jinri's preoccupation. Chanyeol opened the door for a freshly-bathed Do Kyungsoo, who found his best friend slouching on the couch lazily.

"Get up sunshine! Tick, tock. Tick, tock!" he greeted.

Jinri groaned and rolled over instead of bringing herself on the bathroom. They still have an hour before their first class but she was not in the mood for a bath yet. Kyungsoo glanced impatiently on his wristwatch and clicked his tongue. He met gazes with Chanyeol, and like two fires adjoining, sparks flew from their eyes. Then suddenly, Kyungsoo scooped Jinri with his strong arms, making her squeal in surprise.

"Put me down Kyungsoo!"

Kyungsoo smiled malevolently. He went straight to Jinri's water-filled bathtub. Jinri widened her eyes and continuously slapped his chest, shouting empty threats on him at the same time.

"Fine I give up! I'm taking my bath now! Put me down!" Jinri half-ordered, half-pleaded.

And Kyungsoo did so. He put Jinri down straight into the tub followed by a loud cackle and a flash of light.

"This is such a cute remembrance." he fonded, looking at his phone's gallery.

Jinri glared at him and did her revenge. He splashed Kyungsoo several times until he was soaked as Jinri as well.

"Hah! Look who needs another bath now?" she sneered triumphantly.
"Aisssssssh! Jinri!" Kyungsoo shouted, tackling Jinri on the tub and splashing more water on the tiled floor.

Chanyeol chuckled and watched the scene amusedly. He still admires Kyungsoo for being a man, but right now what he sees was a boy missing to play with his best friend. Flipping his new phone out (which came from Jinri's pocket [as usual]), he recorded that one memorable moment.

"Chanyeol what are you doing there?! Help me here!" Kyungsoo laughed out loud.

Chanyeol stopped the video recording and smiled at Kyungsoo. His eyes landed on Jinri and seeing her wet look urged something within him that was quite unnecessary for a man to think. Shaking his thoughts out, he excused himself.

*Be a man Chanyeol. A man respects his woman.* he thought, thinking of Jinri's tears before.

In the end, all three of them were running late for their first class.

* * *

There was not much time to bade each other good byes the moment they reached SMA. They all went straight to their own classes, panting, and bringing apologies and excuses to their angry professors.

Since Chanyeol's physics professor was a lady, all he did was one cast of his charming smile and he was able to loop his way out. He sat, grinning, on an empty seat in front of the class, and listened to his instructor's lectures for the rest of the class hour.

They were finally dismissed after three hours of continuous computations. Chanyeol was already hungry and he was eager to eat his lunch so he went his way straight outside their room. But someone tugged his shirt back and looking around, he saw a girl smiling at him. She has a long, brown hair that fell on her waist, pointed nose, beetle-black eyes and thin, red lips. In Chanyeol's opinion she was a typical girl-next-door with a beauty that can captivate a man's heart easily. But he already has his eyes set on Jinri so her beauty took little effect on him.

"Yes?" Chanyeol asked indifferently.

The girl removed her grip on his shirt and knitted her eyebrows in confusion.

"I just want to look at you more properly." she said.

Chanyeol smiled to himself.

"Let me guess, is this when you'll tell me that I look familiar and that you somehow know me so you can get my number or my name?"

The girl raised her eyebrows and laughed.

"Cocky? But no." she said. "Well, kind of. Because you really look familiar to me."
"Oh yes? When have you seen me?" Chanyeol asked curiously.
"Well... not really you I think. But you quite resembled a kid whom I sat beside with on a bus before. He asked me to smile for him."

Chanyeol stared at her open-mouthed, remembering his first day in F(X) Academy. He asked a girl on his way home to smile for him, feeling the need to know what it feels like to have a crush after Lopez's explanation. He never expected to see that girl in front of him again.

"Ah, I must be talking nonsense, do I? It would be really impossible that you are that kid since he was much younger than you. I'm sorry." she smiled apologetically.

Chanyeol smiled back.

"It's okay. I'm Park Chanyeol by the way." he introduced, offering his hand.
"Krystal Jung." the girl said, shaking Chanyeol's hand. "I'm a transferee so it's my first day here."
"Really? I'm a transferee here too." Chanyeol said. "Do you want to grab some lunch before our next class? What's your next subject by the way?"
"Chemistry. Yours?"
"Me too."
 

Jinri sighed frustratedly and looked at her watch for the last time.

"Let's eat without him. Come on." Jinri told Kyungsoo, Luhan, Jongin, Luna and Amber. They all followed her towards the cafeteria and stopped in unison when they spotted Chanyeol inside talking with a girl familiar to Jinri.
"So that's why he snobbed his friends." Kyungsoo smirked from behind, looking at Chanyeol and Krystal. "Let's sit there Jinri."

Everyone except Jinri went the other way and sat on their table. She intently watched Chanyeol laughing along Krystal's joke. Her stare must have penetrated Krystal because she looked up, saw Jinri and waved at her.

Jinri was taken aback from the sudden recognition. She returned Krystal's wave and looked at Chanyeol, who was just in time of turning around and spotting her as well. He smiled at Jinri. Jinri smiled back.

Krystal pushed her chair and walked towards Jinri. She slung her arm around Jinri's arm and tugged her towards their table.

"Oh it's so good to see you here Jinri! Come and sit with us! I met a new friend."
"Krystal, what are you doing here?" Jinri asked. She did not mean to sound offensive, but she knew that Kystal was attending F(X) Academy so she was surprised to see her here.
"I transferred school." the latter replied. "Jinri, meet Chanyeol. He's in most of my classes. Chanyeol, meet Jinri. She's my co-worker in Blu Planet."
"We knew each other Krystal." Jinri asserted. "We're...."
"Hmm?"
"Um... cousins."
"Oh!" Krystal gasped looking from Jinri to Chanyeol. "But there's no resemblance between the two of you! Distant relatives I assume?"
"Yes." Chanyeol and Jinri responded at the same time.
"But I need to sit with my friends there." Jinri said, awkwardly pointing at Kyungsoo from the other side of the cafeteria. "Let's eat together some other time."
"Okay! See you Jinri!" Krystal waved happily.

Jinri nodded and looked away. For some reason, Krystal's bubbly personality irked her.

* * *

Due to Krystal's persistence, Jinri still found herself spending time with her and Chanyeol after class. They were roaming around SMA with milk shakes on their hands while Jinri toured Krystal on their school.

As they turned around the corner, Jinri, who was leading the way, stopped halfway. Her abrupt movement made Chanyeol caught off guard which made him bump on her and Krystal bumped on him. Chanyeol and Krystal groaned, then they followed Jinri's eyes.

Joonmyeon was staring at Jinri with mixed expressions of longing, regret, pain and rejection. Jinri was staring at him with those same kind of emotions on her eyes as well. The silence was only broken by Krystal's greeting.

"Hi! You're Jinri's boyfriend right? Oh Jinri has been talking a lot about you!"

Chanyeol wanted to tell Krystal that they already broke up, but he remembered Jinri's tears as well. In the end, he figured out that it was way better if the word comes out from either Joonmyeon and Jinri rather than him. *A man thinks before he acts Chanyeol.* he reminded himself, sighing defeated.

Joonmyeon averted his eyes from Jinri and smiled politely at Krystal. Then without saying another word, he walked again.

Jinri stood on her ground. Her mind was exploding with conflicting thoughts that she was unable to decide on what to do. She turned around and faced Joonmyeon's back. She opened . She closed it again. She flexed her fingers. She cleared . Then, Chanyeol nudged him. Looking up, Jinri saw him grinned sadly.

"Go on. Talk to him." he said. *A man knows how to make right decisions.* he thought. Again, because he remembered Jinri's tears.

Jinri stared at Chanyeol for a moment then cracked a small smile. Without further ado, she ran after him.

"Joonmyeon!" she called from the top stairs.

Joonmyeon stopped in his tracks and looked up. Jinri took it as a motivation to continue on running after him. When she met him on the bottom stairs, Jinri hugged Joonmyeon tightly.

"I missed you." she sobbed.

Joonmyeon did not return her hug. It was evident on his face that he was resisting his urge to do so. Jinri hugged him tighter and tighter and finally giving in, he hugged her back.

"Me too."

Her heart swelled after hearing his voice. Joonmyeon's hug was brief, and he pulled away too soon. But it was replaced with a smile - the smile Jinri has grown used to.

"About Chanyeol -"

Joonmyeon silenced her with a shake of his head.

"I won't ask anything about Chanyeol's identity anymore Jinri. I will try to understand you on why you can't tell me who he really was because surely, you have a reason, right? But I want you to promise this: can you be more honest with me from now on?"
"I will."
"Can you put your trust on me as well?"
"I will."
"Can you give me details if you want to, as long as it's not about Chanyeol?"
"I will."
"Then can you be my girlfriend again?"

Jinri fought back her tears. She was so overwhelmed with emotions that she was not able to utter anything at all. So she just nodded her head eagerly.

"Oh God I missed you." Joonmyeon responded, kissing the top of Jinri's head.

And their whole conversation was heard by a sad but satisfied Chanyeol.

*A man acknowledges acceptance. At least Jinri won't shed tears anymore Chanyeol.*

 Since everyone knows that what Kyungsoo taught Chanyeol before was not really a standard of being a man but a erted human, I used Jinri's heart break to open his eyes on how a real man treats a woman. Kkkk :))

And I remember @panda wondering on Chapter 7 about Krystal's role in this fic. I actually planned it like this because I want someone who will make Jinri realize her feelings. Love starts with curiosity, right? Then comes denial. The rest is soon to come. :**

As for Joonmyeon and Jinri's relationship, well, no more spoilers for that. :]]