Baekhyun tossed and turned that night, thinking of Jiyeon and the freshman who lived across the street with his also freshman neighbor Kyuhyun. What's her relationship with him? Baekhyun suddenly sat up in bed and patted his cheeks. "I barely know her, why am I so interested in her life?" He murmured to himself.
At school the next morning, Baekhyun was the one doing the spying. Even Eunhyuk and Key were worried. "Yah, Baekhyun, what's going on with you?" Myungsoo asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Shh! I hear her talking about a boy!"
Jiyeon was in fact talking about a boy. Minwoo. "I stopped by Minwoo's house yesterday. I was so happy, I missed him so much!"
"That's good, Jiyeon! But who exactly is Minwoo to you?" Suzy was very intrigued. "Jieun didn't tell us the whole story yesterday." Suzy pouted.
"He's my baby brother!! Kyaa~ he's so precious." Jiyeon was gushing about her brother, which was unlike her.
"Jiyeon, he's not a baby." Jieun said, taking hold of Jiyeon's shoulders.
"Maybe he's not a baby baby, but he's still a baby."
"I don't get you.." Suzy laughed at Jiyeon and Jieun.
Unfortunately, though, the vital piece of information Baekhyun had wanted so badly was in fact said but Baekhyun didn't get to hear it. All because of Kyungsoo, who was getting worried by Baekhyun's weird behavior and had pulled him away before Jiyeon answered Suzy's question. "Yo, dude, why are you acting like this?" Daehyun poked Baekhyun in the side. "You're all obsessed with Jiyeon today, even more than Key!"
"What's wrong with following her when she's my neighbor and my sister talks to her so much?" Key sassed.
"She's your neighbor?" Baekhyun exclaimed in disbelief. "You didn't tell us this yesterday?!"
"Baekhyun, he did." Minho shook his head.
Key just ignored Minho. "Yeah, she's my neighbor. Apparently she has been for eight years. So she was the neighborhood social butterfly back in 8th grade!"
"She was a social butterfly?" Baekhyun thought out loud, thinking back to his younger school years. Park Jiyeon, Park Jiyeon, Park Jiyeon... Oh right! She had tons of friends and was really intelligent. Well she's still smart now, just not a social butterfly.. "So Key, have you heard of a Minwoo?"
"Not too much about him, just that him and Jiyeon are super close." Key answered casually, thinking that Baekhyun already knew the two were siblings.
Baekhyun frowned upon hearing Key's answer. In the back of his mind though, something was nagging at him, asking why he cared so much about this Park Jiyeon. He scolded the inner Baekhyun and headed to class, the new info about Jiyeon swimming around in his mind.
~~
SPLASH!
Jiyeon dived into the pool at swim practice. Just like she was an ace musician, she was an ace swimmer. She raced the other ace, Lee Kyungri, and they ended up with a tie. They congratulated each other and went to sit down. She let her eyes wander to the other side of the swim hall, where the male team was practicing. The two swim coaches blew their whistles suddenly and Jiyeon looked up, alarmed.
"All right girls," the female (American- Korean) swim coach announced. "Today you are teaming up with the male team for relays. Two girls and two boys on one team, and you will be paired by swimming rank."
"Yes," the male coach continued, "like Coach Ebery has announced, you will be teaming up with the opposite team for relays to practice for the swim competition coming up soon. You will be swimming the whole length of the pool."
Jiyeon cocked her head to the side. The pool was 3 tenths of a kilometer across, which was really long in her opinion. Would four people be able to manage it? Kyungri went over to sit next to Jiyeon and Jiyeon looked at her, a little confused.
"Just in case we're teamed up together." Kyungri smiled. Jiyeon nodded silently, waiting for their names to be called.
"Lee Kyungri, Park Jiyeon, Kim Woohyun, and Byun Baekhyun." The last team to be called, the best swimmers in the school.
"Eh? Park Jiyeon is on the female swim team?" Baekhyun whispered to himself as he watched her walk over to him and Woohyun with Lee Kyungri. The two girls bowed, and Baekhyun absentmindedly bowed as he stared at Jiyeon, who didn't notice and was getting into position. She chose the longest stretch, which was first position. Baekhyun took the second longest and the relay began later. Jiyeon swam furiously, reaching Baekhyun and handing him the pool ring. He handed it off to Kyungri and she handed it to Woohyun, who finished the race.
As expected, their team won. They all high fived each other and that's where swim practice ended. Swim took up the last period of the day, so Jiyeon grabbed her stuff to go home when she saw Taeyeon.
"Taeyeon, what are you doing here?" Baekhyun asked in front of Jiyeon.
Oh yeah, Jiyeon had forgotten. Taeyeon liked Kyungsoo, so she pretended to want to hang close to Baekhyun to hang out with Kyungsoo.
"I was waiting for you so that we could go see Kyungsoo." Taeyeon said with aegyo. Jiyeon cringed. She needed aegyo just to see the boy she liked?
"Sorry, Taeyeon, I have somewhere to be today." Baekhyun said, as he looked around for an excuse. He looked behind him and spotted Jiyeon. "Oh yeah, I have to take Jiyeon to.... dinner! Yes, I promised Jiyeon that I would take her to dinner because I lost a bet with her."
What in the world? Jiyeon thought. "You have something to do... with Park Jiyeon?" Taeyeon spat with distaste.
Baekhyun pleaded Jiyeon to go along with it with his eyes, and Jiyeon couldn't help but give in. Just this once, Byun Baekhyun. "Um, yeah. We have to go eat. We're really hungry now." Jiyeon said bluntly, not in the mood to act nice.
Taeyeon scoffed and crossed her arms inpatiently. Jiyeon stared at her, wondering why she was still there. "Well? You said you had something to do, go and do it." Taeyeon said, trying to catch them in the act.
Jiyeon groaned inwardly. "Oh yeah, we'll go now." Baekhyun said nervously, pulling Jiyeon along. Jiyeon tugged her hand out of his grasp once they got to his car.
"You know I'd rather take the bus home." She said to him.
"Yeah, but I kinda forced you to lie with me, so how about I drive you home?"
"Sorry, but I have to meet Jieun at the bus stop." Jiyeon said, beginning to walk off. Jiyeon felt a little bad for being rude and stand-offish, but she was afraid that Jieun would be upset that Jiyeon went with Baekhyun. It's not because you don't want to go with him, but because you're afraid of what Jieun will think? A voice in her mind said. Jiyeon took about ten steps before feeling a hand grab hers.
She spun around to face Baekhyun, who realized what he was doing and let go of her hand. They stared at each other for a while and Jiyeon noticed his nice eyes. She began to worry. When did she start noticing boys' eyes?
Baekhyun finally broke the silence. "Jieun won't mind if I take you home just this once, will she?"
Jiyeon didn't know why, but she agreed to let Baekhyun take her around. He didn't force her to talk, but he the radio. It wasn't an awkward silence between the two and it was rather comfortable. Baekhyun drove to the stop light in front of the school when he realized he hadn't asked her where she lived. Wait, she lives across the street from Key, doesn't she?
"Jiyeon," Baekhyun broke the silence again and Jiyeon looked away from the window to look at him. "You're Key's neighbor, right?"
Jiyeon nodded and the silence began again when she decided to talk. "If you don't mind me asking, why did you ask to give me a ride home?"
"To be honest, I don't know myself."
"Oh."
Jiyeon got off of the car when Baekhyun stopped in front of Key's house, since he didn't know where her house was. He actually meant to ask which house it was but she had gotten off and thanked him. "It's no problem." Baekhyun smiled. He drove away and Jiyeon opened the door to the house with her keys and plopped onto the couch when Jieun appeared in front of her.
"So, who gave you a ride home?" Jieun wiggled her eyebrows. Jiyeon was confused.
"You aren't angry I didn't show up at the bus stop?"
"No, Suzy kept me company. She told me saw you with Baekhyun. So what's up with you and him interacting so much lately?"
"I don't know. It just turned out this way when he was running from Taeyeon." Jiyeon shrugged.
"Oh, that Kyungsoo stuff again, huh?" Jieun nodded understandingly. "Well, eomma said it's dinnertime, so come on! We can do homework together later."
Jiyeon walked to the dining room, the smell of kimchijigae invading her senses. "Jjang!" She whispered to herself. Such good food..
The two teenage students left the dinner table when excused to go study, which they did. They went to sleep comfortably that night.
The next morning, Jiyeon woke up and got ready for work. She had a full work schedule that weekend, a half day shift at the ice cream shop on both days, a half day shift at the steak restraunt she worked at on the same day, and another shift at the boutique at the mall on Sunday. She headed to work and, like usual, worked diligently.
~~~
On Monday, Jiyeon woke up with a smile. Her baby brother was going to be at school, so she made sure to call Kyuhyun and Minwoo and told them to be at school early for a personal tour. Next to her on the other bed, Jieun woke up with a groan.
"Jiyeon, you're heading to school early?" Jieun said as she yawned.
"Yupp, Kyuhyun and Minwooie need a tour!"
"Did they need a tour, or did you tell them they needed a tour from you?" Jieun asked with a skeptical look.
Jiyeon giggled and grabbed a piece of mandoo before saying bye and dashing through the door to the bus. She got there and found Minwoo and Kyuhyun standing, waiting for her.
"Annyeong!" Jiyeon waved to the two of them. She had a soft spot for the two of them, because one was her little brother and the other was like her little brother.
"Noona!" The two boys grinned upon seeing the girl.
"Hi! Did you get your schedules?" Jiyeon stared at their schedules. They're in my P.E. period! "Let's go!"
When their tour was over, it was already time to say bye, all thanks to the bell. Because of their noona, the two new boys knew their way to their classes and were finding them easily.
~~
As the two newly transferred students walked to the cafeteria, they felt someone wrap their arms around their shoulders. They turned to find out that it was Jiyeon and Jieun. They went to sit down at a table where Suzy was seated.
"Oh, is this Minwoo and Kyuhyun?" Suzy glanced up at them and smiled.
Jiyeon gave Minwoo a smacking kiss on the cheek and he frowned. "Noonaaaaa~ I don't like that you kiss me so much, really!"
Jiyeon pouted and turned toward Kyuhyun. "If you don't accept my love, I'll just give to Kyu~"
"Noona, it's okay.." Kyuhyun said as he rushed towards the other side of the table to hide.
"Noona, being cute really really really doesn't suit you anymore!" Minwoo complained.
She gave her brother a hug and ruffled his hair. "You're mean to noona, punk."
Jiyeon took the Minwoo to help her get their lunches. She clutched his arm and led him to the line. I wonder where Taeyeon is today.. Well no matter, as long as she isn't bothering my brother. "Three plates of galbi and two orders of kimbap, please!"
The two siblings grabbed their food and headed to the table, starting to eat happily together.
~~
Across from Jiyeon's table was Baekhyun's table.
"Ahh~" Jiyeon cooed as she fed the freshman, Minwoo. Kyuhyun was with them, laughing happily.
Baekhyun frowned. Kyuhyun knew about Minwoo and Jiyeon? They didn't look good together anyways.
He made a whole list of why the couple wouldn't work out when Sungyeol stared at him. "Baekhyun, why are you staring at Jiyeon?"
Baekhyun tried to cover it up, be he couldn't find any words.
"Omo, someone's jealous!" Kevin and Dongho teased.
"It's not jealousy!!" Baekhyun protested.
"You know, I haven't seen her this energetic in a long time." Youngjae mused. "Not only is it because Minwoo is here, it's also because Taeyeon isn't here either." Taeyeon hadn't been seen all day, and Baekhyun was truly enjoying her absence. She must be on vacation.. Baekhyun grinned, but it dissapeared immediately when he realized that Jiyeon was having a massive amount of subtle skinship with the new freshman. What's so great about a freshman?
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