Ch. 6: The Morning Ride

Hyojin woke up with her hand on her head. She didn’t know why it hurts, but it just does. Looking out her window, she saw that it was still dark; she turned her head around to see what time it was, it was 5:45 in the morning. She doesn’t remember anything from the night before, for some reason. Before sitting up, she put on her glasses to see everything clearer.

“How did I…” she stopped talking when she saw that she was in her Hello Kitty pajamas. She was surprised to see that she was in it when she clearly doesn’t remember changing into it. Heck, she doesn’t remember anything at all! She put on her slippers and as she walked outside of her room, she was rubbing her eyes.

Knowing that her father will be up, she got out of her bed and exited her room, with her hand still on her head. She entered the living room and saw her dad sitting on the couch with a bunch of papers scattered all over the table. Most of the papers were lyrics sheets. Her dad loved to write music when he isn’t in his teaching mode. “Oh, Hyojin-ah, why are you awake so early? Is your head okay now?”

“Appa, what happened last night? My head hurts…” she whined.

Her dad stood up and hugged her, “Sit down,” hearing his voice in a sad, serious tone, she was scared. Hyojin and her dad sat down on the couch and he started, “Well, this boy brought you in here after seeing what apartment you live in on your keys. He told me that once you saw him, you turned around and hit your head very hard on the wall that you ran into. And what’s weird is that he’s my star quarterback.”

Hyojin slowly took in the information she just got. She widened her eyes when she got all of it in, “Appa, is that boy’s name perhaps…” she leaned in closer, “Mark Tuan?”

“Oh? How did you know?” he asked. “Oh wait, you dropped him off at the restaurant on the day of the Championships.”

Hyojin blinked, “That was him?!” she yelled as she stood up.

Her dad ‘shushed’ her, “Be quiet, you’ll wake up the neighbors. And yes, that was him. I thought you knew already. Wah, my daughter is so smart, yet so slow.” He said which earned a light push from his daughter.

“Appa, I’m going to go to my room and take a nap. Wake me up when I’m supposed to get ready for school okay? Oh, can you drive me to school too? I think I’ll be dizzy on my way.” Her dad nodded his head and she walked back to her room.

Once she entered her room, Mark was all on her mind. ‘Mark… brought me here? OH NO! HE KNOWS THAT I’M COACH PARK’S DAUGHTER! MY LIFE IS OVER!! Oh shucks! Why would he even help a nerd anyways? It’s not like that would help him with anything in the future. Aish, why does he have to live in the same building as me? That would just make things worse if his fan girls try to wait for him in front and they see me come out. Just face it Hyojin, no one likes you! Not even Juli likes you because of your attitude! Ugh Julie, where do I even start? She only hangs out with me because I have the answers to the homework. Every single day, she always asks for the answers and I can’t take it anymore! Starting today, I’m going to try to not associate with anyone. Unless I have to, like our science project. But after that, I’m not going to talk or hang out with anyone, ever!’

When she lied down on her bed, all she did was stare at the ceiling. She tried to remember what happened last night after she saw Mark coming out of the staircase, but she can’t.

I turned around.

Gasp! I saw…

“Hyojin?”

I don’t want this creature to see me, even though he already did. But I have no choice. If I don’t want him to see me, all I have left to do is… run.

I turned around and as soon as I took one step forward, everything turned black. The last thing I heard was, “HYOJIN!!”

Still trying to register everything, she soon fell asleep. But then…

“TURN DOWN FOR WHAT?!” she heard a loud stereo play in the next room.

She grunted and put her pillow on her face and held the ends of the pillow on her ears. After a few minutes, music was still playing. It was from the room next door. “Aish!!” Getting angrier by the beat, she stood up and stormed out of her room.

“Oh Hyojin-ah, why are you- Hyojin? Where are you going? Hyojin!” her dad yelled as he watched his daughter angrily stomp out of their apartment.

Not caring about how she looks, she made her way to the apartment next door. Having enough, she knocked the door with the side of her first, instead of her knuckles. She heard the stereo turn off and someone making their way to the door. She was impatiently waiting that her hands were implanted on her hips and her right foot was tapping the floor.

The door opened, “Yah! Don’t you know what time it is?! You’ll wake up- oh, Ahn Hyojin…”

“M-Mark?” He wasn’t wearing any shirt, so yes, he was shirtless. But he was wearing pants, plaid jammies. Hyojin blinked and looked away, trying to not making any contact with him.

“Enjoying the view?” he said in a teasingly voice. All Hyojin did was scoff. “And why were you yelling? You’ll wake up the neighbors.” He pointed out.

She scoffed, “Me waking up the neighbors? It’s you who’ll wake up the neighbors. You freaking woke me up from my nap and my head is hurting a lot from last night!” She took a deep breath to cool herself down, “Now if you would just please~ lower it way down for the rest of the morning.” She walked back to her apartment.

Mark let out a chuckle, “She’s really something. She didn’t even wait for me to apologize.” He shook his head and chuckled as he entered his apartment.

“Sweetie, what happened?” her dad asked.

“That jerk, Mark Tuan, was playing very loud music and it woke me up from my nap. It made my head have a headache. Tch. He even blamed me for annoying the neighbors.” Hyojin was furious right now. She walked to her room.

‘That jerk! Who the hell does he think he is? He may have good looks, but that doesn’t give him the privilege to play really loud music at 6:15 in the morning. Ugh, I hate him! Mr. Jock. Psh, that’s just an image. He just moved to no. 1 on my so called ‘hate-list’.’ She thought.

Hyojin sat on her bed and massaged her head. “I can’t even fall asleep anymore with that jerk living in the same apartment complex and same floor as me. And it just got worse that he lives right next door!” she grunted and lied down on her bed. She looked up, “Why Lord? Why does that mean creature have to be wherever I am?”

She got up from her bed and went to the bathroom to fix herself up, since she’s already awake and can’t go back to sleep. She the light and looked at herself in the mirror. “Oh my goodness! What are all of these pimples?” she took a closer look and went to a cabinet to grab her cleanser and toothpaste.

Her toothbrush was colored white with purple stripes. She put her toothpaste on her toothbrush and started brushing her teeth. After about two and a half minutes, she spit out the foam and gargled with Listerine. Then, she washed her face again and put on her Neutrogena face cleanser all over her face. After rinsing off the cleanser, she patted her face dry with her face towel. She went back to her room and changed into her school uniform.

The only reason why she goes to an international school is because it’s closer to her house, and her dad has been working there for about ten years. Her school, Kimi International High School, has no bad reputation, it is actually one of the top schools, but the tuition is pretty cheap. Hyojin doesn’t regret going to that school at all. It’s just her reputation that she regrets. She is in her second year of high school, so that means she has one more school year until she graduates. She wishes that she would’ve changed her image for high school. Yes, in secondary school, her reputation was a nerd, but not as bad as now.

Hyojin walked out of her room and saw that it was only 6:45, and school starts at eight in the morning. Also, it only takes fifteen minutes to get to her school, by car. So she can leave her house at 7:30. She still has time. She walked to her body length mirror and made sure everything was in place.

“Hyojin-ah! Breakfast is ready!” her dad yelled from the kitchen. Before heading towards the kitchen, she checked out her face again, and saw that her small pimples were still on her face. She fixed her glasses and went to the kitchen. “Sweetie, I made your favorite-“ he was cut off.

“Belgium waffles!!” she squealed and immediately sat down to enjoy the mouth-watering Belgium waffles. She grabbed some strawberries and scattered it all over her waffle. Then she got the whipped cream can and spread it all over.

“Don’t have too much, Hyojin-ah. You’ll get hyper.” Her dad warned.

“Pa, I can control myself, and plus, this is waaaay less of what I usually put on my waffle.”

Her dad sighed and ate a waffle himself. After having a nice breakfast and conversation with her dad, it was already 7:20; so her dad went ahead to warm up the car while Hyojin does her last minute checks. As in last minute checks, she means checking her teeth to see if there are food pieces in her braces. There weren’t any.

She made her way to the underground parking lot, and heard two male voices. One that belonged to her dad and one that belonged to, “Mark?” she asked.

“Oh, good morning Hyojin-ah.” He bowed to her.

‘Pshh. What a fake.’ She thought.

All Hyojin did was glare at him, while Mark was waiting for a “good morning” back. Hyojin’s dad noticed the awkwardness between both of them and spoke up, “Ah, well Mark-ssi, we all better get going to school now. We don’t want to be late. Do you perhaps want a ride with us? Or do you…” he directed only his eyes towards Hyojin.

“Well actually, do you mind if I take your daughter to school on my motorcycle?” Mark asked.

“I don’t mind. Hyojin-ah, go with the boy. I’ll see you later!” her dad ran away and drove off with the car.

“Appa!” she yelled as her dad passed by at the speed of light.

Mark crossed his arms as Hyojin turned to look at Mark. “This is all your fault!” she yelled.

He scoffed, “How is this my fault?”

“Hmm, let’s see. First, you made me bump my head really hard last night; second, you live in the apartment next to mine; third, you woke me up from my nap this morning; and forth, you made my dad allow you to take me to school!” she pointed out.

Mark rolled his tongue around his mouth, “Okay, first, you didn’t have run away from me last night; second, am I not allowed to live next to you?; third, I’m sorry about the music; forth, your dad allowed me himself, I didn’t do anything; and fifth, oh yeah, stop acting like you’re a know-it-all. Nerd.” He murmured the last part, but she heard him.

“What?” she was angry at that point.

“Do you want to get to school or not?” he asked in an annoyed tone.

“I do, but not with you. I’ll just take the bus.” She started walking.

“If you don’t want to be late, I’d rather you ride my motorcycle with me.” he said.

“In your dreams. I don’t want to be seen with you or else your fan girls will kill me.” she told him.

“Then I’ll tell them to leave you alone. But I’m not sure about that since you’re a… nerd.” Hyojin glared at him. “Just get on.” He demanded. She scoffed and started walking away. He started his motorcycle and once he was next to her, he stopped and grabbed her arm. He set her behind him and wrapped her arms around him.

“Y-yah!” she was surprised by his action.

“Just be quiet.” He ordered as he put a helmet on her. She gulped and once he started moving forward, her grip around him got tighter. His eyes widened a little bit, but he decided to ignore it.

For the first five minutes, it was quiet until Hyojin had to remind Mark about something, “Yah! C-can you not tell anyone that… I’m Coach Park’s daughter?”

He thought for a second, “Hmm, don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. You have my word.”

Hyojin sighed, “Hey, are you really… going to be… my slave… for 100 days?” she asked, nervously.

“What do you think I'm doing now?" he asked, in an annoyed tone. Mark clicked his tongue, "I’m the jock Mark Tuan, and you’re the nerd Ahn Hyojin. Do you really think that me, a jock, is going to be a slave to you, a nerd, for 100 days?” he said.

“R-right.” She stuttered.

“Unless you want me to be…” he said.

“Oho, yeah right. If you’re going to be my slave you’ll be following me 24/7. I don’t want that. And I’m pretty sure you don’t want that too.” She told him.

Mark bit his lip, “What happens if I do want to be your slave for 100 days and follow you 24/7?” he asked, in a serious tone.

Hyojin blew a raspberry, “Yeah right.”

It was quiet then.

“Hey, stop here!” she yelled as they were one block from school.

He stopped on the curb. “What do you mean? School is just over there.” He pointed straight.

“Yeah, I know. But I don’t want anyone to see a nerd riding to school with the jock on his motorcycle.” She got off the motorcycle. She took off the helmet and as she handed him the helmet, she said, “Thanks for the ride.” He grabbed the helmet and watched her walk away. He looked at his phone to check the time, it was 7:52. He looked for a parking spot to park his motorcycle.

Meanwhile Hyojin…

“Hyojin-ah!” she heard a voice yell out from her side as her entered the school. She looked to her right and saw Juli running and waving to her. Hyojin gave a very light smile, but it was fake. She remembered the note she gave to herself, ‘to not associate with others’. “Unnie~” Julie said in a cute, rather annoying, voice, “did you do your homework? May I see?” she asked.

Hyojin tried to remember if she did her homework or not, even though, this time, she as not going to give her homework to Juli. “Ahh, I forgot to do the homework. Mianhae.”

Hyojin can tell from the look of her face that Juli was mad, but Hyojin was not going to give her homework to her anymore. After a ten second stare, Juli left. Hyojin took a deep breath and started walking to the school, knowing that she doesn’t have any more time left.

Hyojin quickly went to her locker to grab her books. She put in the lock code and opened her locker. The first thing that caught her eyes was a bag of her favorite chocolate ‘Kisses’. It even had a post-it on it. It said:

I am deeply sorry about this morning. I’ll make it up to you. Meet me in front of the apartment complex after school.
                        -Mark Tuan, the JOCK

author's note:

Here's another update for you guys! For those in America, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! I feel bad, I'm going out with my friend for the whole day, and my brother is going to be at home by himself. I hope you all like this chapter! I honestly didn't know where this was going, but it worked out in the end. Omo! Hyojin knows about Mark knowing that she's her dad's daughter! Wow, Mark knows a little too much, eh? This chapter took me three hours to write and was 6 pages on word. I'm happy about this chapter tbh. I hope you guys like it! Please comment! And upvote it you'd like :D

thanks for subscribing~saburiina