Chapter 19

Boys be chasing

Sohyun sat without any energy on the dance floor.  She was thinking about what had happened earlier in the art room where she had seen Hyosung and Dongwoong together.  She didn’t know why but Dongwoon’s cold words didn’t sit well with her.  She felt like she was misunderstanding something, because from the way Dongwoon acted, she could tell he was giving off the feeling that he thought Sohyun was the one who didn’t understand the situation.  And why did that upset her?  Why would she care what Dongwoon thought of her?

“Where’s my bubbly Sohyun gone?” 

Sohyun looked up to see Hyosung standing in front of her.  She had changed into her white sports shirt and black shorts, ready for dance practice.  It was awkward to face Hyosung now because now all she could think of was what she was doing with Dongwoon before.  But Sohyun tried to act normally.

“I wish we didn’t have to team up with the boys.  Now we have to redo all our routines.  You should have been there during the meeting.  You would have been to save our team.”

Hyosung ruffled Sohyun’s hair affectionately.  “I know you fought for our team very hard.  But since this was what was decided as being fair for both teams, we have to accept it.  I’m not saying it will be easy, but you never know, having two teams might make us stronger.  Come on quickly get changed, both of the teams are going to work out how we are going to go about this competition.”

Sohyun nodded obediently.  Hyosung was always the voice of reason, one of the many reasons why everyone in their team looked up to her and respected her.

Hyosung reached out, slipped both of her hands into Sohyun’s and pulled her up from the floor.  It’s at this moment, Hyosung realised that Hyuna wasn’t around.

“Sohyun, where’s Hyuna?  She’s not the type to be late for practice.”

Sohyun shook her head.  “I haven’t seen her since lunch time.  She’s been kind of weird lately.  I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”

“I’ll try and see if I can find her.  I expect to see a Kwon Sohyun in her changed clothes when I come back, ok?”

Sohyun couldn’t be mad at Hyosung.  She was such a nice and caring person who always looked out for her.  But now every time Sohyun saw Hyosung, all she could think about was what she saw in the art room.  It was something she couldn’t understand.   She couldn’t believe that Hyosung could possibly be the one who was responsible for Jiyoon breaking up with Dongwoon.  It just didn’t make sense to her and that frustrated her.  And she didn’t what to do with this new piece of information she obtained. 

It wasn’t a surprise to Hyuna that the moment she got to school, her mother reported her at the teacher’s office.  Her mother had always been that uptight and ‘stick to the rules’ type of person.  The last period of the day was already about to end yet her mother still sent her back.  And it wasn’t like she was going to let Hyuna go to her dance practice either. 

But this time, Hyuna quietly obeyed.  She knew going against her was just going to make things worse.  She saw how Mr. Kim, the teacher on after school duty looked at her sympathetically.

She ended up in an empty classroom where Mr. Kim simply told her to do some quiet self-study until 5pm.  “You’ve been through enough today.”  He said and closed the door.

Just as Hyuna was about to get her textbook out of her bag, the door opened again and Hyuna was surprised to see Junhyung.

She first thought Mr. Kim had sent Junhyung here as well but judging from his relaxed expression, it looked like he had came in the classroom on his own accord.

He came up to her and stood in front of the desk she sat at quietly.  He then squatted down so that he was looking up towards her, his arms lending against the desk.  His expression was contemplative and it seemed like there was a lot on his mind.

For a long moment, he didn’t say anything and simply stared at her.

Hyuna growing increasing awkward with Junhyung’s strange behaviour but a hand in front of him to block his stare.

“What are you doing?”  She asked.

“Sorry for running off like that,” he finally said.  “It was rude that I just left without saying anything.”

And the ache inside of her began squeezing against her chest.  She didn’t know why Junhyung was making her feel like that but every word he said made her feel strange.  

Junhyung had nothing to be sorry for.  It was him who gave her courage to go see her grandma in the middle of school day.  It was him who led her to her grandma and allowed her to feel assured about her grandma’s condition.

“Is your grandma ok?”

Hyuna nodded and put on her best smile, “She’s fine.  Thanks for accompanying me today.”

“What’s wrong?”  Junhyung immediately asked.  Did Junhyung notice the slight strain in her facial expression?  She had tried so hard to hide it as well as she could.

And Hyuna kept smiling.  It wasn’t until Junhyu