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The Challenge by The Lucky Kind of fanfiction.net

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Everything looked normal. It was the same rusty lockers with horrible paint jobs. There were the same students surrounding me with the same starstruck stares that I got every day. There were the same conversations and the same classes. There was the same Seunghyun with his arrogant smirk and stories that never seemed to be funny. There was the same Seungri with his mop of red hair and his comments that made me question his sanity.

Everything looked normal but nothing felt normal.

Something felt empty, like a blank page or a missing lyric. Something that kept everything from feeling whole. Seunghyun and Seungri were having a conversation right in front of me but I didn't hear a word. I saw their lips moving but I heard nothing. My mind wasn't in the right place because she wasn't there.

I peered over Seunghyun's shoulders praying to see her standing at her locker, chewing on her bottom lip, as she studied for a test she was going to ace easily. But all I saw was the dark blue closed locker. On a normal day she would be the first one here. She would show up before the teachers, but today, she was late. I scanned the hallways desperately looking for some resemblance of her somewhere. I saw Chaerin standing by her locker looking very lost and alone. She had her phone in her hand, checking it every minute, probably looking for a new message. I pulled my phone from my pocket checking to see if Dara  had called me. As I saw that there were no new messages, I scolded myself for even thinking she would've called me before her best friend. But nonetheless, I kept my phone in my hand so I wouldn't miss any incoming calls.

I don't understand why I'm so worried anyways. Dara is just a girl. She should be no different from all my past targets. She is no different from my past targets. I sighed running a hand through my tousled hair. She's just a girl, I repeated to myself. She is just a girl with amazing eyes and a laugh that I wanted to listen to everyday. She is just a girl that I enjoyed being with for no reason. She's just a girl that's making me lose my mind just because I haven't seen her yet. Just because I'm worried, it doesn't change the fact that Dara is just a girl. An impossibly beautiful girl.

Oh it! Where the hell is she!?

As I was checking the volume on my phone to make sure it was working properly, I heard the front doors of the school swing open. I lifted up my head and found an extremely frazzled Dara running down the hall to her locker. Her face was grim and looked menacing from all the bags under her eyes. Her book bag was halfway open and the papers in her hands were slowly slipping from her grip. Her hair flipped around the side of her face as she ran, finally reaching her locker. I smiled, not because she seemed irritable but because I finally got to see her. Even if she looked like something you would scrape off your shoe in the middle of the rain.

I turned to Chaerin who was grinning as well. We locked eyes and we somehow both knew that Dara was in no state to be bombarded with questions. She couldn't handle talking to more than one person at once. Chaerin's gaze hardened as she closed her locker and began jogging full speed towards Dara. My eyes narrowed at Chaerin as I hastily pushed past Seunghyun and ran over to Dara, slamming my hand on her locker as I made sure to get there first. I looked up at Chaerin who glared at me and let out a huff before stomping down the hall in the opposite direction. I smirked before turning down to face the disgruntled girl in front of me.

"Hey Dara!" I grinned probably a little too cheery for her right now.

"Hi," she deadpanned as she proceeded to scowl at no one in particular.

"Bad morning?" I suggested with a half-hearted laugh.

"Something like that," she mumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Um...Jiyong?"

"Hm?"

"I can't open my locker with your hand pressing against it," she said as she motioned to my hand that was leaning against her locker.

"Oh! Sorry," I apologized as I dropped my hand to my side. She smiled at me as she opened her locker and flung her books inside with a loud grunt of annoyance. "So are you okay?" I asked.

She sighed turning to her side so she could face me. "Yeah, I'm fine. It was just one of those days, I guess. I'm sorry. I know I probably don't look the best right now," she muttered as she tried to comb out her tangled locks with her fingers. I smiled reaching over to grab her hands. She looked up at me, confusion stretching across her face.

"You look fine. Beautiful in fact," I complemented, putting her hands down to her sides.

"You're such a liar," she scoffed.

"No I'm not," I denied. She gave me a pointed look and rolled her eyes disbelievingly. I sighed, "Okay fine. I lie occasionally. But this time I'm not."

"Yes you are! I look like a troll right now," she said motioning to her hair.

"You look beautiful," I said surprising myself at how much I meant it. "You'd look beautiful even if you were dragged in mud for an hour. Because you," I stopped to boop her on the nose, "have something called real beauty."

"Real beauty?" she repeated quirking an eyebrow up at me.

"Yeah," I smiled. "Some people think they're beautiful because they cake a mountain load of makeup on their face. Others think they have real beauty so they walk around acting like the entire world adores them. But you, you have real beauty. You are beautiful not because of the way you look or the way you act, just because you're you. And that's more than enough."

She stared up at me, slightly agape. "Um," she coughed, clearing and tearing her eyes away from mine. "S-So did you need something or?"

"I just wanted to let you know that I'll pick you up at six for our second first date," I smirked.

"Six?" she faltered looking at