After more than a minute of silence, Yifan eventually gives up and stops in trying to read what's on her mind. He really has to remember he's not good in reading other people like book, not like her. He rubs the back of his neck, thinking of something, anything, to say to her. But as Yifan opens his mouth, only her names comes out. "Sooyeon." and it was like a whisper to her ears. 

The wind blows past them, ruffling both of their hairs and Sooyeon has to tuck her hair behind her ear to keep it from messing with her face and vision. 

She doesn't look at him though, she only stares ahead with a blank, expressionless face that Yifan can't seem to read. But he guesses she's thinking. Yifan sighs and says her name again, louder and clearer this time. "Sooyeon." 

She only glances at him this time. Yifan stares at her side profile with creased eyebrows. Sooyeon casts her gaze on her shoes before she sighs and finally turns to look at the boy beside her. 

Yifan's lips twitch up to form a pained smile when he sees the message hidden behind her eyes. She was hurt. But of what? Yifan had yet to know. "Sooyeon.." for the third time, he says her name. 

She forces a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes, and this is the first time he sees her smiling like that. It sickens him. What could make her so upset and hurt? 

Yifan couldn't read people, much more this girl in front of him, but he's not dumb. One thing's for sure; she was feeling uncomfortable too. 

Not really sure about what to say or do right then and there, Yifan loosens the tie of his uniform as he clears his throat to catch her attention. And it does because Sooyeon raises an eyebrow at him as if silently asking; what? 

"We, uh, we should get going now." he utters, the words just spweing out of his mouth before he could even think properly. He wet his lips as he stands up to his full height, putting his hands inside his pockets. "Come, the bell will ring soon." 

Sooyeon seems surprise by his response, but nevertheless, she stands up to go back to their room. Yifan was right after all, the bell would ring in less than 10 minutes; signaling the start of the afternoon period. 

Yifan knows Sooyeon has a hard time in catching up to him when they walk since she has shorter legs compared to him. Yifan walks slower so that they can walk side by side. 

And they do, while the kind of awkward silence lingers between the two of them.

But the other students of Cheongdam were looking at the two of them skeptically, especially the girls.

Sooyeon rolls her eyes upon noticing a group of girls huddled in the corner, practically glaring at her as they walk past them. "I think they're jealous." she says, breaking their silence. 

Yifan chuckles as he runs a hand through his hair. "They have every right to be. You are with me after all." he says rather smugly, making Sooyeon scrunch up her nose at him. 

As they near their room, Yifan turns to look down at her and smiles. "Sooyeon, thank you." he says, completely out of the blue. 

Sooyeon looks up, an eyebrow already raised. "Eh?" it obviously caught her by surprise. She had not time to read the expression on his face, because he then spoke again. 

"You always listen to me and my whining with my problems, and... I.. I just want to thank you." he stops walking just before they reach their classroom, making her stop in her tracks too. 

"I-Yifan it's okay." she smiles and this time, it reaches her eyes and that indicates that her smile was genuine, true and sincere. "I'll always be here."

His gentle smile doesn't falter, even when the bell was already ringing. "Same here. You can always talk to me you know." he says after the ear-piercing ring of the school bell ended. "I'll always be here too." 

is agape as she looks up at him, not really sure on how to respond to that. But it only takes a second for her lips to form a small smile. She knows what he means. "Alright." she nods. Sooyeon places her hand on the small of his back, pushing him lightly forward. "Come on, let's get in." she says, motioning towards the classroom. 

/\ | \/ 

The sky was already turning purple and the street lamps were already lit near the streets of Cheongdam High. Sooyeon was already out of the gates when she hears someone calling for her name. "President Jung! Uh, Sooyeon-sshi!" 

"Oh?" curious, she looks up from her book and turns around. "Oh!" she smiles, closing her book and tucks it under her arm. "Donghae." 

The boy her age stops in front of her, panting but he was smiling. "Sooyeon-sshi, you forgot the papers for the Winter dance." he holds it up for her to see. "You forgot to drop by the Administration office to get these. The staff and the whole council agreed that you ought to have the hold on these rather than the secretary. And, oh, you didn't forget about Teacher Go's instructions, right?" he says, handing the papers over to her. 

"I'm sorry, I just had a lot going on today and it slipped out of my mind." Sighing, Sooyeon nods, referring to his last staetment. "And, how could I not? Do I really have to be the one to organize this event?" she asks, and for the first time in a while, she was complaining about a task someone had given her. "I mean, I really am no good at organizing events such as dances."

Donghae, the Vice President and Sooyeon's right hand, chuckles at her. "I think you can ask someone more suited for the job, but it would be good if it was you. Then again, you are quite busy these days, aren't you?" the twinkle in his eye makes her smile even more. 

"Well, yes, but.." Sooyoen bites down on her bottom lip, looking down at the sketches of ideas from different students for the upcoming winter dance. Sooyeon sighs. "I'll think about it. Are these all the sketches?" she counts the papers and finds there are 23 all in all. 

"Yeah, there are more but we picked out our personal favorites and the best among the rest so you wouldn't have a hard time choosing one. The materials to create such a scenery and theme are at the back of those papers as instructed to them." he informs her.

Sooyeon nods. "Okay," she says as she places both her book and papers inside her bag. "I'll take a look at these later on and decide, please tell everyone that we're going to have a meeting tomorrow afternoon right after classes. Take note of that, Donghae." she tells him so that he could send a text message to the other officers since she didn't have a phone as of the moment. 

He bows. "Yes, ma'am!" he says, grinning like a kid. "That'd be all, President Sooyeon, I'll be off now." 

She bows back and waves before walking the opposite direction. Sooyeon has a smile on her face as she does. 

"Who was he?"

"Ah!" Sooyeon jumps, her heart beating frantically due to the surprise that was caused to her by that familiar voice. She turns to the source of it, who was now chuckling, probably by her reaction. She scowls at him. "Yah! Wu Yifan!" she scolds him like a child, which he could sometimes be whenever he was messing with her. 

Yifan was casually leaning on the brick walls of the school. He walks towards her and sheepishly smiles. "Sorry, didn't really intend to scare you, Sooyeon." 

She only rolls her eyes. "What now, Yifan? I thought you went home." she says as they start walking. "Where are you off to now?"

"I wanted to walk you home, so I just waited outsie since it would be quite a hassle if I went back in." he explains. 

"You.. you wanted to walk me home?" she asks, squinting her eye up at him. "Why?" something doesn't sound quite right about that. He had never offered her home before. This was actually the first time anyone had offered to walk her home and she was surprised that the offer came from Yifan, the stubborn boy that's under her personal guidance. 

Yifan smiles at her. "Nothing, I just feel like being around you today." 

That line would've made any girl blush or squeal inside their heads, but not Sooyeon. She only smiles, her cheeks still the same color not pink or rosy red. "That's quite nice." to his surprise, she agrees to walk let him walk her home. But why wouldn't she agree? She has nothing to hide, and it's not as if she would let him in the apartment. But she could anyways, since Solgi was still not home. 

"So, you didn't answer my question." he says, looking down at her. "Who was that guy?" he jerks his head to the side, referring to the guy who had talked to her by the gates. "I haven't seen him around before." 

"Oh, Lee Donghae? He's in the second section, but he's really responsible and all. He's the Vice President of the SBG, he's really helpful and he's quite nice too. Why don't you befriend him?" she says all in one breathe. 

Yifan shakes his head, suppressing a snort. "No thanks, Sooyeon."  

She tilts her head to the side questioningly. "Eh? Why not? He's very friendly too you know. Actually, come to think of it, I don't see you hanging with anyone else." 

"Not entirely true." he points out, just as they cross the street. "I talk with the boys in the classroom all the time, but other than that, yeah you're right." he admits.

"Why?" she inquires. 

He only shrugs. "I don't know, I like your company better than anyone else's."

Sooyeon smiles genuinely at his words. "Maybe because.. we understand each other more now, huh? I mean, I can get you and understand you better." 

"Maybe," he says, nodding as he agreed to her words. "Or maybe because you're the only one I've ever let in before."

Sooyeon didn't quite catch that part since a car's loud honk disturbed them. "What was that?" she asks. 

Yifan only shakes his head, laughing a little. He was slightly embarrassed by what he had said. "Nothing, nothing." he says, shaking his head at her. "I said that you're right." 

She smiles, totally oblivious to what he had really said. "Of course I am." 

They only stop walking when they had reached Sooyeon's 'home', or her little apartment as what she would call it. She could never call it a home, it had never felt like one in the beginning. But in front of Yifan and the others, she called it just that; her home. 

Yifan looks up at the two-storey building that had maybe more than fifty rooms and one of them was where Jung Sooyeon lived with her family. At least, that's what Yifan thinks. "Huh, pretty simple." he says, although he didn't mean it to come out so bluntly. He glances at her but before he could apologize, she speaks. 

Sooyeon isn't the least bit offended. "It is, huh? It's pretty nice though." she says half-heartedly. "Well, thank you for being a gentleman Yifan. I'll see you tomorrow." she says, waving her hand in goodbye.

Yifan nods. "Ye-yeah, see you." 

Sooyeon turns her back to him as she walks to the door of the building. But Yifan speaks again, calling out for her. She turns around, her eyebrows raised. "Ye-"

"Sooyeon, you know, you can always tell me anything right?" he says, his tone serious and his face.. Sooyeon couldn't quite read his expression but she guesses it's somewhere near concern.

She looks skeptically at him. "Yifan? What are you-"

"What I'm trying to say is.." he pauses, then sighs. His eyes on the pavement instead on her face. "I hope you'd let me in, too." 

/\ | \/

Staring up at the blank, white ceiling, he felt a little restless. His eyes were blank but his head was full of thoughts. His body was tired yet his brain was very much awake.

Yifan lay down on his bed, just thinking things over in his head until he could sleep. 

He's been doing that since 7, but four hours later, he still couldn't sleep even though if he changes positions. But still, Yifan rolls to his right and makes himself comfortable in the sheets and pillows that was surrounding him. 

But he's eyelids were still light.

​I hope you'd let me in, too.

His words from a while ago rings inside his head. Yifan sighs. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," he mutters to himself as he closes his eyes shut and face palms. He rolls over to the left this time and sighs again. "Ugh. You epic.. Ugh." he groans. He couldn't find the right words to insult himself. 

Yifan felt a little, no a lot, of embarrassment after he had said those words to her. Without much of a proper goodbye, he had fled leaving her dumbfounded by the door. But what else could he have said? There were no better words than those at that moment. 

Yifan feels what Sooyeon could've felt when she was trying to talk him about his problem, and he doesn't like it. He could tell that Sooyeon, even by the tiniest bit, didn't quite trust him yet. She had been honest with him, yes, but he still feels like she's holding back. Which is unfair since it's mostly Yifan who does the pouring out of hearts between the two of them. 

It was only recently when he realized that he wants her to trust him. He wants to help her in any way he could. After kissing her for all the wrong reasons, Yifan told himself he'd do anything just to make it up to her. A chance of getting to know her and help her, counted to him as a chance of making it up to her. But how could he even help her, if she didn't open up to him. 

Yifan smiles somewhat bitterly to himself. "So this was how stubborn I was to her. Huh."