Nurin’s POV

I groaned as the ringing of my alarm woke me up. I stretched out on my king-sized bed for a few moments before get off it, and then walked to the bathroom.  I went to dinning room when my father just finished his breakfast. “Oh. Hello, sweetheart,” he greeted.

I smiled back at him and took a seat before I ate the toast prepared on the table. “Are you going already?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m in hurry. Bye, sweetheart.”

“Bye, Appa.”He kissed my forehead and left.“Be careful.” I shouted before he passed the door.

Yeah, just like that. I barely made proper conversation with my father. It’s not that I had a bad with him, but morning is the only chance I could meet him because I already slept when he got home in the night. I didn’t know if he was really busy, or he only busied himself.  Because, as I remembered, he had never been this busy when my mother was alive. At least he would have had the weekends off work. But in the past two years, he worked every day. I couldn’t find how it was possible.

The weather was really cold those days, so I wore a thick coat then walked to school. As I reached my class, i joint my friends who gathered at one spot, which I guessed gossiping as usual. They always talked about guys, or girls, or guys at school. I wasn’t really interested with their story, but I did listen. They would be hysterical if I told them that I was invited to watch the ones who often they talked about playing soccer at sport festival. But no, I would not tell because it would make them fuss. I just would tell my closest friend, Jung Nari, who had a huge crush on a boy named Lee Donghae.

Because she was my table mate, I could tell her when everyone back to their seats after the bell rang. And her reaction was like I had expected when I told about me meeting Lee Hyukjae and so on.

“Really? You mean he invited you?” she hissed and I nodded. “And I can join?” I nodded again. She grasp my hand and shook it violently, “Thank you..”

“You can pay it later,” I said jokingly.

“Sure,” he laughed, “anything you want.” After she was quiet for a while, she said again, “But how could he know you? I mean Lee Hyukjae.”

I shrugged. She’s right. I had never thought about it. Although we have talked before, I meant he talked to me, which I didn’t tell anyone. Of course I didn’t lie. He had known my name before I told him. Though it is not impossible, but I wasn’t quite popular in this school.

The teacher coming to my class interrupted my thought.

Nari called my name when we were looking for empty table with food in our hands. I looked at her and she pointed her finger. I looked at its direction which was Hyukjae and his friends, Lee Donghae and the one who is a bit, if not much, fattier than the others. And the first waved his hand to me signaling me to approach them. I looked back to make sure that no one behind me. Before I had time to think, Nari pushed me lightly, forcing me to walk towards them.

"Join with us?" Hyukjae said friendly.

I was about to say something as an excuse to find another place, but Nari was faster than me. She sat on an empty spot beside Lee Donghae, who seemed a bit annoyed. I inevitably also took a seat beside Hyukjae who sat alone on that long wooden chair.

“Hello, Sunbaenim,” Nari and I greeted them while bowed our head.

“Aish.. Why are you so formal? You were so relaxed yesterday,” Hyukjae said, pressing the word ‘relaxed’ to me. I rolled my eyes. I knew he was being sarcastic to me because I called him just by his name without any honorific at the first time we met. I didn’t know why but there something in him that made people feeling close to him even though we didn’t really know each other. Well, according to information I’ve got from my friends, perhaps that’s the reason girls were easy to fall for him. I heard about him a lot, hitting on many girls. Even my classmate  was one of them. She thought that he really liked her but then she found him dating the other girl. She was so heartbroken.

Interrupting my thought, Hyukjae introduced us to his friends, Donghae and the other one named Shindong. Was it just me or Donghae blushed when we shook hands?  Hyukjae did say that he was a shy type but really kind. In fact, he talked about him most yesterday. I bet they were very close.

“So, Oppa?” Nari said cheerily, “Can I call you guys like that?” The question seemed to be directed to them but she only looked at Donghae.

“Eh, sure,” he said awkwardly.

“Well, Nurin said Donghae Oppa and Hyukjae Oppa will play soccer next Monday. Can I come watch you?”

“Yeah, sure, ” Hyukjae answered, “You can..”

“That’s great,” Nari cut him, “I heard Donghae Oppa is really good at playing soccer. Is that right, Oppa?”

I heard Hyukjae, who was ignored, took a deep breath to surpress his anger. I glanced to look his funny expression and chuckled a bit. He then gave me a look that was like saying, “What are you laughing at?”

Meanwhile, my friend kept flirting to her crush. Shindong took Donghae’s anchovies to his own tray.

“Yah!” Donghae protested. Nari immediately gave her own to Donghae’s tray. “Eh.. it’s okay,” Donghae was flustered.

“No, Oppa. I don’t really like it though.” She smiled cutely. Well, she is cute.

“O-okay. Thank you.”

Nari began to talk about how she really loved violin although at the beginning she was forced by her mother to take violin course when she was a child. Then she asked the guys about dancing despite the fact that she knew nothing about it. Because Donghae seemed not so talkactive and Hyukjae was already pissed off, Shindong must answer her non-stop questions. Nonetheless, the last seemed really enjoy their conversation.

“Is your friend always that excited?” Hyukjae whispered to me.

“Yeah, she is so.. cheerful,” I said.

“I think what you mean is noisy.”

I chuckled, “I think so.”

After a moment, a guy and a girl who were always with them too joined us. The guy was a handsome great singer, Kyuhyun. He was in my English class, but we almost never talked to each other. While the girl, whom I knew from my friends again, named Victoria, an exchange student from China. My friends liked gossiping whether they were dating or not.

“Hi,” Kyuhyun said. Then he looked startled when he saw me sitting on the same table with his friends. He greeted me and Nurin before introduced Victoria to us. I don’t know but he couldn’t stop grinning and looked at Donghae, like teasing him without words.

Like I said before, my friends wondered about them and Nari couldn’t restrain her curiosity.

“Unnie,” she said to Victoria, “are you really dating with Kyuhyun?”

Kyuhyun and Victoria looked surprised with her straightforward question. I kicked her shin, making her scream. I somehow regretted took her here. Oh no, she dragged me here.

“It damn hurts,” she hissed to me.

“I am sorry, Unnie. She is too flippant sometimes.” I said to Victoria.

“Why?” Nurin asked me, “I am just curious.” I glared at her but she just continued, “You both are always together, but we never heard that you are dating so the rumor spread, I am just  asking clarification.”

I only could rubbed my temple to hide my face.

“Jung Nari,” said Kyuhyun, clearly pissed off, “What are you? A reporter?”

“Nope. As I said before, I just..”

“Yah!” This time Hyukjae who couldn’t stand anymore, “Can you shut your mouth up just for a while? Hearing you talk all the time makes me want to..”

“Eunhyuk!” Someone surprised us. It was Shindong. “Why do you shout to a girl like that?”

“What?” Hyukjae knitted his eyebrows, “Why are you suddenly taking her side?”

“I am not. Like she said, she is just curious. And I think nothing’s wrong with it.” He defended. There was just a silence for a moment, everyone looking at him, suspicious. “And.. I think it is cute.”

I saw Nari’s face became red from her cheeks to the tip of her ears, while the others looked at Shindong in disbelief.

“What?” He asked innocently.