Ch. 5: Project Decided

Hyojin’s POV

I just had a small talk with my father after school. I don’t usually do this, but since I’ve never went to a classmate’s house in a long while, I needed to tell him. I said bye to my father and exited out of his office. But then, I bumped into someone, “Oh, sorry.” I bowed and looked up to see who it was. “Oh, Mark sunbaenim. Hello.” I bowed again.

“Oh, hello.” He bowed awkwardly, like he just heard some news.

Wait, oh shoot. He saw me come out of my dad’s office, and why would a nerd be in the gym office? I hope he doesn’t assume anything. Gasp! What happens if he heard me call my dad ‘dad’? I’m doomed. No one should know I am the football coach’s daughter!

To get away from the awkward atmosphere, I tried to leave without saying anything, but I felt a grasp on my wrist. I stopped walking and looked at my wrist. I looked up and saw that Mark was staring coldly at me. I gulped. “You…” he started. Oh no, he does know! “You want to come to Jackson’s house with me?” My eyes widened. Yes! He doesn’t know!

“Uh, I have to…” only my eyes directed to a poster that had food on it, “get groceries! Yeah, get groceries. My dad can be a hungry beast sometimes.” I gave a fake chuckle, but it sounded real enough to pass as a real one. “Well then. Bye.” I got out of Mark’s grasp and left not even looking back. I kept my head down while I secretly made my way to the teacher’s parking lot.

The only people who know about Coach Park being my dad are the principle and Juli. No one else. I hope.

I got into my car and closed the door. I heard some people walking by and I immediately hide myself, by putting my head on the passengers’ seat. The people walked by and as I heard their voices going farther, I got back up and started the car. I accelerated out of the parking lot and parked by the curb where no one from my school would see me, and put on my caution lights. I copied Jackson’s address from the text he sent me, and put it on Google Maps. I put my phone on the cup holder and off I went.

As I was on my way to the neighborhood Jackson lived in, I saw an old lady walking a pretty long cross walk. She is having a pretty hard time, I can tell. I quickly parked by the curb and got out of my car and ran to the old lady. She was surprised to see me. She even looked freaked out, but to cool her down I said, “I’ll help you cross, ahjumma.” Her face brightened up and she smiled.

After helping her out, she tried to give me 10,000 won, but I declined her offer. For a minute she tried to give it to me, but I still declined. She finally agreed with my decision and instead gave me a bag of ingredients I can’t recall, but I know I can make something with it. I went back into my car and drove into Jackson’s neighborhood.

His neighborhood looks very… rich. With my dad’s and my salary, there is no way we can get a house like this. But then there is a gate you have to enter and there’s also a guard.

“House name?” the guard asked. Oh man, I don’t know Jackson’s last name.

“Um, someone is expecting me.” I told the guard.

“Name?” he asked. The guard seemed to be in his early 20’s. Why does he have a small job like this? He should go out and find a better job.

“Ahn Hyojin.” I told him. He went into the small office and brought out a clipboard. He flipped through two papers.

“The Wang residence.” I heard him whisper. “Okay, you can go. Have a nice day, miss.” He went back into the office and opened the gate for me.

I thanked him before I drove off. The more I drove by the houses, the more I feel intimidated to ever show my house to any friends. If, I even have any friends. All I have is Juli, but she hangs out with other people too. I looked at the addresses and saw that I was very close to Jackson’s house. Once I arrived at his house, I looked for a place to park far away from his house just in case we all leave at the same time, and they’ll see me driving a car. I don’t want them to think, a nerd driving a car?

In order to enter Jackson’s house, you have to walk up a flight of stairs. It’s a good thing that every morning on the weekends, I go for a run. I rang the doorbell and I heard the lock on the inside unlock. A middle aged man stood before me. He looked me up and down.

“Jackson!” he yelled behind his shoulder and walked away.

“Oh Hyojin-ah! You’re finally here!” he walked towards me. “Oh, Mark hyung you’re here too! Great, everyone’s here!” he clapped his hands and walked away. I turned around slowly and looked up. Mark was pretty tall. He was just staring at me, and I didn’t know what to do, so I just looked into his eyes.

“Aren’t you going to go in?” he asked.

I blinked, “Oh yeah, right.” I turned back around and went inside. I felt this warm breeze pass by me. Mark and I took off our shoes and entered the living room where it looks like Juli and Jackson had a good time talking.

“Oh Hyojin-ah!” Juli excitedly said and waved at me. “Did you come here with Mark?” she asked.

“No.” I straightforwardly said.

Jackson and Juli were sitting opposite of each other on the floor, but I decided to sit on the couch behind Juli. Mark did so too, but behind Jackson. The whole time, Mark kept on staring at me, but I try not to look at him. “Okay guys… do you have any ideas for our science project?” asked Jackson.

“Well, I have an idea.” Juli said. “Why don’t we test how our pulses are if you’re sitting in the front and back of a rollercoaster?” That doesn’t seem too bad.

“That sounds like a good one. Right, Mark?” Jackson asked as he turned around.

“Yeah.” Mark said in his cold, low voice.

“Soooo. We all should go to Lotte World and take our pulses before the rollercoaster ride. Then we ride in the front and back and see the differences in the pulses. Then we can make a graph. We also should put the description of the rollercoaster and see how it turns out.” Juli insisted.

Everyone agreed, but Jackson was the only one who nodded his head. Then there was an awkward silence. “Can we go now?” Mark asked coldly.

Jackson looked quite annoyed, “Yeah. I don’t want you guys to get home late. Um, thanks for coming guys. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Jackson said as we all stood up and put our shoes one. We all said our goodbyes and exited his house.

“Juli, do you know how to get home?” I asked.

“Uh, yeah.” She said.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“I’m am 100% sure.” She said making an ‘ok’ sign.

I nodded and started walking away after saying bye. “Hyojin!” I heard my name being called. I turned around and saw Mark standing 2 yards away from me. “Do you have a ride home?” he asked. “I can get you home with my motorcycle.”

I shook my head, “It’s okay.”

“Then how are you going to get home?”

Oh shoot, I forgot about that. I’m driving home. “Uh, my dad is parked a few blocks away… so yeah. Bye.” I started walking very fast that way I don’t have to face that guy anymore.

Before I got nearer to my car, I looked behind me just in case Mark followed me. I’m not that dumb. I inserted my keys and started the engine. I unlocked the compartment and took out my night glasses. I have glasses for when I’m driving at night and during the day; so that the glare won’t hurt my eyes.

I accelerated and drove back to the gate. Just when I rolled my window down, I heard a motorcycle in the rear of my car. I looked up to my rear view mirror and saw Mark. I looked at the guard and said, “Yah! Put up the thing!” I didn’t know what it was called. The guy freaked out and put up the thingy.

I drove as fast as I can to get away from him. As I was almost near my apartment complex, I saw Mark behind me again. Again, I drove faster. As I entered the underground garage for the apartment complex, I saw Mark just pass by me on his motorcycle. He lives in this apartment complex???????? Oh gosh, could my day get any worse? I drove by him as he parked inside the motorcycle parking.

I found a parking spot and waited for about five minutes so that I won’t pass by that creature. I hope my situation right now isn’t like the ones from those dramas. Where the main character girl finds out that the main character guy lives on the same floor as she does. I got out of my car and went to the elevator. I pressed the button of my floor; floor 4. After I exited the elevator, I walked to my apartment. Just then, I heard the staircase door open. I have this habit of looking to where the sound is, so I looked behind me.

Gasp! I saw…

“Hyojin?”

author's note:

Yay! Another update! I literally had nothing to do at home, so I made this chapter. As I was writing this chapter, I was listening to Crush's Hug Me. Omg, you guys should listen to it! It's very good!! I love his voice. I hope this chapter didn't disappoint you guys. Even though it may be short with A LOT of words, it took me four hours to write it out. It usually never takes this long. But then this was 3 pages and one third of a page long so I guess that's good. Please comment guys! I need to know if you guys have any questions or concerns. And if you see a spelling error, please tell me because I like every word to be spelled the right way. Okay, I'll stop talking now.

thanks for reading~saburiina