Chapter 5

“Wake up, noona!” Jihoo shouted as he shook Jiyoon’s shoulders trying to wake her up. “You’re going to be laaattteee! NOONA!”

Jiyoon grunted and tried to push her brother away but he was behind her. She turned around and tried again. This time, she was able to push her brother away and tried to go back to sleep but he was persistent. Their mother had told him to wake her up no matter what so he thought “Why not have fun?” The hyung had left earlier in the morning and told him to give a note to her. He jumped on her bed and started to sing, “Op op op oppan Gangnam Style!” while dancing as well.

This definitely woke Jiyoon up as the jolting movements made it uncomfortable for her to fall back asleep. “Alright! I got it! I’m awake now so shoo! OUT!” Jiyoon shouted, rubbing at her sleepy eyes. Her brother laughed and jumped down. “You have 10 minutes to get ready!”

With a loud huff and much pillow punching, Jiyoon stood from her bed and began to rush around to get ready for school. In her hurry, she tripped over random non-existent objects, bruising her knee and cursed under her breath. By the time she was ready to go, her brother handed her a note as she left with toast in .

“What’s this?”

“It’s from Luhan-hyung.”

“Ne, annyeong!”

Jiyoon put the note in her bag, hopped onto her bike and sped to school. As she reached the front gates, she heard the bell toll and pushed her speed even more before a teacher came to scold her tardiness. Within record time, Jiyoon was able to lock her bike and run to her homeroom before their teacher turned up. Safe! She thought as she sat down quickly, ignoring the sly glances from her friends.

The teacher came in and marked the roll. No one bothered to listen, only when their name was called out, and talked to each other or played on their phones totally ignoring the teacher. Jiyoon decided to take out the note her brother had given her, pulling out the crumpled sheet and flattening it out on her desk. She opened it slowly, curious but not really, and scanned the page. There were only a few sentences stating his early leave. What the heck? Does he really think I will miss him that much? Psh. Jiyoon scrunched her nose, smirking at Luhan’s tone.

Dear Jiyoon,

Today, I have a full schedule (promoting Growl! Are you watching me?) and won’t be home until much later. I’m not sure when. Don’t miss me too much, jagiya~

Xoxo, Luhan.

“Oooh, what’s this?” Eunmi said, snatching the sheet from Jiyoon’s hands. She read it over and a wide smile crept onto her face. “Kiss, hug, kiss, hug~ Hehe, aren’t you two sweet?”

“Whatever.” Jiyoon waved her off and took out her notebooks and pens, focusing on the front of the classroom. She had decided to ignore her friends whenever they chose to interfere with her love life – or what there is of it. It’s only been, what, two days and nights?

The rest of the day passed by without her noticing it, her friends nagging her to spill about Luhan and any secrets. She didn’t want to talk, so the only answer Jiyoon did give was a simple, “Go away or next time you get a boyfriend, I’m going to harass HIM,” threat. There wasn’t much else she could do to deter her friends, no wait, just Eunmi. Each passing hour, another sigh escaped until it was the end of school. The last sigh was a sigh of relief to be away from her busy-body friends.

Since Luhan was not there, Jiyoon decided to spend some time alone and go shopping. It was back to her usual after school routine before Luhan came along and fit himself into her daily life in a completely unexpected manner. The shopping district was full of people buying groceries, school kids eating out or just hanging around and plenty of traffic with the peak rush hour.

“Ah, where should I go today?” She hummed, tapping her chin as she peered into shop windows and watched people walk past.

A small corner café caught her eye, little twinkling lights blinking around the shop’s window frame illuminating the interior as well. There was a sign displayed just in front of the café doors showing the day’s specials and disc