~Donghae~

A week had already gone by since that night and my mom still hadn’t mentioned anything about Seoul Academy. Although it was more like she was ignoring me, nonetheless I took that as good news since that meant she had let me have my way instead of transferring – for now.

I’ve never been to Jason’s school – never visited even once. But I don’t have to since I already know that SM Academy is where I belonged. There was no need for me to pointlessly look around a building when I won’t even see it a second time anyway. It’d be a waste of everyone’s time, especially mine.

 “Hell-lo~” I heard a familiar person sing mischievously as he swung him arm over my shoulder. I groaned loudly to make it clear that I wasn’t pleased of their presence. “Where’s your pretty, little princess?”

I shot an annoyed glare at the person, tempted to bite his fingers off.

“Get your damn arm off of me, Hyukjae.” I order sternly, shoving him away.

I stopped for a moment as something sweet caught my attention. I sniffed several more times to confirm what it was. It was indeed the sweet fragrance of strawberries. The trail of scent led me to the very boy who stood beside me with a wide grin on his face.

“Ah, you smell it don’t you?” He said. He took in a deep breath looking extremely blissful. “That is the smell of heaven!”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why do you smell like strawberries?”

He looked offended at my remark. “Because why not?”

“It gives me a worse headache than Mr. Song’s terrible taste in suits.” I grimaced, rubbing my temples.

“Aww don’t be like that.” He pouted. I was about to say something back, but before I could say anything, he grabbed me by the front of my shirt and pulled me in closer to his chest. Baffled, I pushed away as soon as the strong scent of strawberries overwhelmed my nostrils. I crashed backwards into a locker, dizzy, while covering my nose. My heart pounded faster from the awkward, unexpected closeness.

“BUHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Hyukjae laughed hysterically. He held his stomach as he laughed and he pointed a finger at my face, gasping for air. My face flushed since he was laughing obnoxiously loud and peoples’ eyes were darting towards us. Kicking him in the stomach sounded so tempting at the moment.

“You – You should’ve seen your face! You got so freaked out! Your eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their eye sockets!” He laughed a bit more until he finally calmed down.

“That was terrible.” I said, trying to regain my composure and walk off that embarrassing scene.

He just smiled and it got so wide to the point where his gums were even showing. I never knew he could smile that big. He looked so happy, but it struck me as strange as to why he was. Was is because of the strawberries or was it because of me?

“Stop smiling so much, it’s irritating.” We made a right turn and a clique of freshman noticed him and swam around us, whispering with awe.

“I’m afraid smiling is part of my nature that makes me desirable and good looking – you should try it more.”  Hyukjae replied. The corners of his mouth dropped into a pompous grin.

My fists clenched tightly, but I forced them to relax. I couldn’t let him get to me, no matter how obnoxious he was. I let out a low chuckle, low enough for just him to hear. Bemused, he looked over at me. He hadn’t expected me to laugh, but I did, vacant of all joy and jokes. “Maybe I should.” I sighed bitterly.

Hyukjae then looked concerned, which almost did actually make me laugh. It didn’t seem like his character to express any other emotions other than cockiness and narcissism. “What’s with that look?” I let out a laugh that animated my expression and concealed the gloom. “It’s creeping me out.”

“It’s nothing.” He said, dismissing whatever thought he had.

“Good.” I said. We walked some more with people greeting him as they passed until it was time for the next period to start.

“Well, I’ll see you in last period, ‘kay? Tell your butterfly I said ‘Hi’ and tell Kibum to stop giving me evil stares. It really scares me.” In a blink of an eye, he was gone, disappearing around a corner. I kept my eyes fixed at the direction he left from.

He really got under my skin. Someone like him could be easily liked by others because he had a suave smile that could win them over and a provocative stare and maybe the strangest impulses that’d fluster anyone. He was so vibrant and attractive to others I hated it. Yet, I wanted it.

Maybe I’m thinking about it too much…  

Last period had finally arrived and that meant school was almost over. The students quickly got into their seats and class started right as the last person sat down.

“Okay, class.” Mrs. Young said, slowly pacing back and forth in the front of the classroom. “For this assignment, I was you guys to create your own scripts.”

Psh, easy.

“But, I want you guys to do it in pairs – which I will be choosing. After you have been paired up with someone, I want one person from each pair to come up to the front of the class, as representatives, and choose a scenario from a box in which you two must reenact. Everyone understand so far?”

The class replied in a harmonized “Yeeeees.” And the teacher proceeded to pair people up. My eyes instantly met contact with Kibum’s, my best friend who shared the same amount of passion as I did. It was obvious that we wanted to be partners and I think everyone knew it, too. He sent me a sad look when he ended up being paired with Choi Siwon, one of the best actors in this school. Other than Kibum and me, this guy was brilliant and I respected him for his talents. I was kinda jealous of Kibum since anyone would kill to be his partner for drama class. People were even certain that Siwon would make it into the acting industry, and their assumptions were pretty much accurate. I even had a feeling that he’d make it, too. With those acting skills that he possessed, any entertainment company would be stupid enough to turn him down.

“Donghae and Hyukjae.”

Come again?

Hyukjae flashed me a grin and I immediately averted my eyes elsewhere. Out of everyone in class I could’ve been pair up with, she had to pair me with Hyukjae.

“You may get up to stand next to your partners.” Mrs. Young instructed.

Hyukjae and I didn’t get up. There was no need to since we already sat literally a foot away from each other. But Hyukjae was the first to turn, facing towards me.

He had a look on his face that I wanted to punch off.

“What a coincidence that we got paired, aye, Donghae?” Hyukjae laughed.

“Y-Yeah…” I said awkwardly.

I didn’t really want to act with Hyukjae since helping him in singing was enough, but Mrs. Young didn’t just pair people up randomly. She always had a thought in mind before putting people into groups or pairing them. So even if I asked for a partner swap, she’d straight up say ‘No’.

Wait. Was this a message for me? If Kibum and Siwon – two amazing actors whose skills were approximately equivalent – were put together by Mrs. Young, does this mean that she put me with Hyukjae because we were possibly at the same level? It can’t be. I’m a better actor than Hyukjae, right? Right?

Why was I so insecure all of a sudden? Mrs. Young would never pair people up by talent. She would never think that way and pair equal talented students together. Hopefully.

Maybe it was to help him, show him how it’s done. Yeah, that could be it.

“Now send a representative up to draw from this box.” Was the next instruction Mrs. Young gave.

“You can go up.” I told Hyukjae. And he did. He got up and my heart pounded like a drum when I watched his hand reach into the box. I prayed for a good scenario that we could both easily ace.

After Hyukjae drew a scenario, he quickly sat back down at his desk and we opened it up. Hyukjae read it out loud, only loud enough for both me and him to hear.

“You two are a couple (regardless of gender). One has cheated on the other and is begging for forgiveness. The other refuses to accept the apologies and wants to end it. The cheater must find a way to earn a second chance from the cheated and keep their relationship together.”

“A c-c-c-co-couple!” I sputtered.

“That’s not too difficult.” Hyukjae nonchalantly shrugged.

“What do you mean?! We have to be a couple!”

“So?”

“Okay, let me rephrase that. I have to be a couple with you.” Anyone would’ve been fine, even Jenny who towered over me by nearly a foot or Siwon who sometimes gets too into character. But instead I had to be put into the most uncomfortable situation with this egotistical eyesore.

“That hurts you know.” He said, not looking very hurt. “But cheer up. I’ll have you know I’m a great kisser!”

K-k-k-k-kiss?!?!

“Donghae?” Hyukjae waved a hand in front of my face. I was too shocked to notice.

Just then, Sungmin walked over towards our table. He glanced at our strand of paper and laughed. “No way! You guys have to be a couple!” He exclaimed, a little bit too loud for my comfort. Heads turned and were targeted at Hyukjae and me. Even Kibum and Siwon were staring.

I felt my face burn up, fist clenched, and an urge to rip the paper into shreds.

Donghae just can't keep his mind off of Hyukjae (^_^) kekeke. I had a hard time deciding on what scenario to choose for Eunhae, but now I finally have one! I guess that hard part now is typing out how they're going to act. Their worlds now collide, yay! Thank you~