Jiyeon’s POV:

Something is off.

I’m not the type of person that usually gets attention a lot. Like if I sit inside a room with hundreds of people, I would be the last person you will notice. I don’t stand out a lot when it comes to appearance. I don’t look like a nerd, who gets bullied a lot, neither do I look like the type of girl whom men would swoon over. If you rate my appearance, I’ll probably be average, the face that will not remain in your long neither short term memory.

The only reason why my classmates even bother to turn to my direction was that hey knew I could help them in their homeworks and other s like that.

But outside the four walls of the classroom, I’m nobody.

So why am I concluding that something was off today? Well that’s because the moment I stepped inside the campus, I felt eyes watching me. Not just a pair but hundreds of pair.

When I sat in my first class, I could feel everyone watching my every move. Some of the girls were whispering as they looked at my way. Behind me, I could hear a girl sniffling. When I turned to her, she glared at me with her read teary eyes and looked away.

Something is really really off.

At lunch, I was on my way to the cafeteria to meet Yoona. All the time, trying to ignore the attention people were giving me as I walked through the corridor. But damn, I’m not used to this so I tried to hide my face behind my hair—which I thankfully wore down today—and quickened my pace.

I was busy looking down at my feet when someone abruptly put an arm around my shoulders.

“Hey have you heard about the rumors?” Hongki beamed down at me.

“Get your hands off me,” I hissed wriggling away from him. “What rumors?”

“That we’re married and have a kid and an unborn child in your belly.”

My eyes went saucers as I choked on my own saliva, “WHAT?!”

He shrugged nonchalantly, “Yeah, want a proof?” Without waiting for my response, he turned to a guy talking to his friend beside the lockers, “Hey dude, do you know who she is to me?” He pointed at me.

The guy scrutinized my face for a moment and then answered, “Yeah, isn’t she your wife?”

My mouth gapped at his answer big time.

What in the hell is the meaning of this?! When did i…

I have a…

…on my…

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!

“Want another one?” Hongki asked as I remained in state of shock. He wasn’t expecting an answer so he just dragged my soulless body and approached a blond girl talking to her two girlfriends, “Hey Sica!”

“Oh hey! What’s up?” the girl smiled at him. Must be his friend or something.

“Nothing much. Anyway this is Jiyeon,” he patted my head like I was some kind of a dog.

“Oh my god! This is THE Jiyeon? Your wife? The one you had two kids with?” Sica exclaimed. Even her friends were flabbergasted but not in a bad way—I think.

“Excuse her but she’s in a state of shock after I told her about the rumor,” Hongki explained as I remained impassive.

Sica giggled giving me an amused look, “That’s alright. The whole female population in school is in state of shock as well. Some were pretty much worshipping you, Jiyeon, but I’m sure there are more of them who are forming an army to obliterate you.”

Hongki rolled his eyes, “Don’t listen to her. YA, stop scaring her Sica.”

“I’m kidding. I’m kidding. It’s alright, rumors like this die down a week or so, so you don’t have to worry about it,” the blond girl smiled and patted my shoulder before she and her friends bided Hongki goodbye.

But nothing seemed to have registered in my brain about their conversation since I was pondering about something else.

Like:

“WHO THE STARTED THIS?!”

Hongki blinked rapidly at my sudden outburst.

“Do you know how much this rumor might cost me if our dean finds out about this?! I AM GONNA BE CUT OUT OF MED SCHOOL FOR S SAKE!”

Hongki raised his palms, “Whoa! Whoa! Hey, calm down with the ‘F’ word. Like Sica told you, it’ll die down eventually and if you’re worried about your dean finding out about it, well you could just deny. If they’re not satisfied then give them a proof! Give them a test pack or something. Well unless you’re,” he paused looking down.

I followed his gaze. He was looking at my stomach. Feeling self-conscious, I covered it with my arms, “W—what?”

“Come to think of it, your tummy’s getting plump lately,” he gasped playfully. “Is this like a al conception?”

“Hongki,” I smiled wryly.

“Yeah?” he beamed back.

“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY FACE RIGHT NOW!”

“Okay okay, I’m sorry. I’ll stop,” he raised his hands in surrender chuckling. “Just give me this one chance to walk with the miraculous Mary.”

My eyes turned to slits the moment he dropped the last phrase. I could seriously feel the last piece of my sanity bursting inside my head.

Killing mode: ON.

I was about to clobber him to death with my own hands but the punk was fast enough to get away.

“See ya later Mary!” I heard him yell from the end of the corridor.

Oh ghad!!! If I could just throw him to a river full of piranhas, I will be the happiest person on earth.

~~~~~

Yoona was still guffawing uncontrollably as they set their lunch trays on the table.

“Stop right now or I’ll kill you too along with that ,” Jiyeon warned her best friend.

Instead of halting, another burst of laughter came. Jiyeon could only roll her eyes as she waited for the other to settle down.

“Oh god, that’s the best rumor I’ve ever heard in my entire life,” Yoona finally found her voice after a minute, wiping the sides of her eyes.

“I cannot believe you call yourself my best friend after laughing like a crazy hyena at my misfortune,” Jiyeon frowned at her.

“Hehe. I’m sorry honey, I couldn’t stop myself.”

“Ugh this ,” Jiyeon whined taking a mouth full of her stress-reliever a.k.a. strawberry yogurt.

“But it’s funny,” Yoona interjected.

“Shut up. What about you, what happened with you and Jaejin last last night?”

“What’s with the sudden change of topic?”

“Who cares? I’m asking you again, what happened with you and Jaejin?”

“N—nothing really,” Yoona tried to sound cool but Jiyeon could see from her cheeks that she was lying.

“Oh don’t give me that crap woman; a little bird told me Jaejin walked you home. And basing from the amount of blood on your cheeks, I’m guessing you did something sinful,” she narrowed her eyes on the latter.

“Ya! Nothing ual happened!” Yoona exclaimed defensively. “We just talked on our way to the dorm. And when we’re outside the dorm he—he kissed me…On the lips… I kissed him back—oh ghad! Why is it so hot in here?” she fanned herself with her hand as her cheeks continued to burn.

“Wow, congratulations bestie, you’re a few steps away from having a boyfriend,” Jiyeon sounded sarcastic yet she was happy for her. The two liked each other for a long time; it’s time they do something about it.

“Oh stop it!” Yoona giggled, shyly slapping Jiyeon’s arm.

The brunette yelped rubbing the place Yoona thought she hit softly. A moment later, Jaejin and Jonghun joined the girls on the table.

“Hey I’ve heard about the rumor. Haha, nice,” Jaejin teased as soon as he sat beside Yoona.

“Hi,” Yoona greeted him with a bright smile.

“Hi,” he beamed back.

Jiyeon grimaced at the cheesiness oozing from the two as they stare at each other. “Oh you two shut up! Ghad, why am I getting so easy to irk with trivial things today?!” she exclaimed to herself.

“Hey, you okay there?” Jonghun, who was seated right next to her, cocked his head in concern.

“No, not really. I still can’t get my head off the rumor, now that Jaejin reminded me about it,” Jiyeon sulked as she continued to shove spoonful of her so-called stress reliever.

She almost choked on the yogurt when Jonghun patted her head smiling genuinely. “The rumors gonna pass before you knew it,” he reassured making her flush a little. But as soon as Yoona opened with the words “Oh here comes your husband”, she was immediately pulled back into her foul mood.

“Yo! What’s up?” Hongki greeted as he plopped his on the empty seat next to Jiyeon.

Nonchalantly, Jaejin responded, “The ceiling.”

Silence.

*crickets crickets*

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~” Hongki and Jaejin pointed at each other as if it was some kind of an inside joke before high fiving.

Everyone else just rolled their eyes, all thinking ‘What a bunch of retards’.

“But seriously what’s up?” Hongki asked afterwards.

“Yeon’s having problems with the rumor,” Yoona responded.

The so-called husband turned to Jiyeon, “Hey I though we’ve talked about the solution to that?”

“I’m not talking to you,” Jiyeon glared at him before standing up, “I’ll get more of my yogurt.”

“You can have mine," Jonghun offered.

“Oh no, that’s fine,” she shook her head vehemently.

“No seriously, I’m not gonna eat it anyway.”

After some consideration, she sat back down blushing. “Alright thanks!”

“No problem,” Jonghun smiled.

Unknown to the two, a person was frowning at them. Hongki clicked his tongue irritated, “What’s up with you and strawberry yogurts?”

Jiyeon gave him a quizzical look, “Huh?”

“Tch! Nothing,” he stood up with a clearly annoyed look. “I’m going.”

Jaejin furrowed his brows as he watched Hongki made his way to the exit without another word, “What’s up with him all of a sudden?”

Jonghun shrugged observing as Jiyeon’s face contorted in concern.

Hongki’s POV:

Jealousy.

There it is again. Why does the word kept popping out of my mind every time I think about that scene earlier? I always see her blush every time she and Jonghun were in the same room but what’s up with my reaction? Normally, I would just tease or blackmail her about it but why is it that now it made me want to punch someone in the face?

I raked my hair shifting my body towards the ceiling of my bedroom.

Lately I’ve been thinking about her a lot. I see her and the words beautiful, cute, pretty, smart and lovely always comes into my mind—words I’ve never used with a girl before. And now—I think I’m jealous.

Do I like her?

…

Wait what am I thinking?! This is so not manly at all! I told myself I’m not going to fall in love! I only , I don’t love. I shouldn’t be thinking about those things! No like, love and like that. Remember your motto: Always be y, single and free.

Yeah that’s right.

Sighing, I stood up from my bed languidly and went down to the kitchen to get a drink. I immediately halted on my way to the fridge when I saw the girl of my thoughts sitting at the kitchen counter eating ice cream. She’s eating ice cream in the middle of the night? And to think, she was eating it directly in its plastic container.

“Are you depressed or something?”

She jerked up and turned around as if she was caught in the act of robbery. “Hongki! What are you still doing up?”

“I couldn’t sleep so I’m getting a beer,” I opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle. “What about you? Are you depressed?”

She raised an eyebrow, “Why would you think I am?”

“Because a girl usually eats a gallon of ice cream by herself when she gets depressed.”

“Well, I’m not that usual type of girl.”

“Oh I see, so you just feel like pigging out in the middle of the night?”

“Yes,” she answered flatly.

I snickered shaking my head as I approached her by the counter, “Normally, a girl doesn’t like it when a guy finds out about her big appetite.”

“Hmmmm… well that doesn’t apply to me,” she shrugged, suddenly changing the topic, “Anyway, what happened this lunch? You know, the sudden walk out.”

“Oh that—that was nothing. And it wasn’t a walk out, I just needed to go somewhere, that’s all.”

She scrutinized me with her eyes. I looked away afraid that my expression would give away the lie I made up. But to my relief she didn’t say another word of the topic, instead she pushed the ice cream container towards me, “Want some?”

I peeped inside the half-full container. Strawberry—of course. “Why do you like strawberry so much?” I asked her.

“Do I have to have a reason to like strawberries? Why do you like skulls so much?” she countered. What a smartass. But I don’t remember telling her about my love for skulls.

“How did you know I like skulls?”

“I’m a good observant,” she smiled proudly rendering me silent for a while.

I didn’t know what gotten into me when the next words suddenly flew out of my itchy little mouth, “Why do you like Jonghun so much?”

She coughed loudly as the question caught her off guard. I patted her back, “Do you like him that much that you actually choke even in just the mere mention of his name?”

She coughed several times before finally finding her voice, “No, it’s just—it’s just that, why do you ask all of a sudden?”

“Just curious,” I acted nonchalantly but deep inside, I could feel my heart tighten. Am I seriously jealous right now?

“Hongki—“

“Nope, never mind. You don’t have to answer,” I cut her off suddenly. Maybe because I don’t want to hear how much she like Jonghun. But why did I ask? Aish! This is frustrating. “I’m going back to bed,” I declared before going up. “And stop eating the whole gallon before you get a cold.”

Before drifting off to sleep, one question was still bugging me.

Do I actually like her?

OHohoho~ someone's in love~~~

HAPPY WINTER VACATION EVERYONE! I HOPE EVERYONE WILL HAVE A BLAST THIS CHIRSTMAS <3 Love y'all~~