Chapter 24 - Revelation

‘’Aerin! Aerin!’’

I turned around to look at the direction where the sound of my name had come from and spotted Jin running up to me. I stood in front of my locker and was about to head out, my books for the class after lunch break already stuffed in my bag.

‘’What is it?’’ I asked as I faintly laughed at the sight of a panting Jin. His hands were rested on his knees as he took a moment to come to rest. It was a sight that made me chuckle. It was unbelievable how dorky Jin could be, especially considering that people would like to think of him as a rather cool person. Honestly, to me he seemed somewhat of a goofball and he had done nothing to convince me otherwise.

‘’Haven’t you seen Mr. Nam’s email?’’ He asked with sparkling eyes as he, now, stood straight, leaning against the locker on my left side.

‘’We have school right now, how am I supposed to see that?’’ I asked with raised brows before I slammed my locker shut. Jin feigned to flinch dramatically which made me shake my head as I laughed at his behavior.  

‘’Mobile phone?’’ He responded after a couple of seconds as he narrowed his eyes at me. Jin followed after me as I began to walk out of the locker section. I was planning to go to the cafeteria and I assumed that he would want to go there as well.

‘’Oh… yeah,’’ I responded as I briefly glanced over him. Honestly he didn’t seem like the type of person to check his school email regularly. He seemed rather like the type of person who didn’t care all too much about what the teachers would send in there. Then I figured that he could’ve been anticipating our mark. He had looked quite excited about it after all.

And come to think of it, it was time for Mr. Nam to reveal us the results. It was the 11^th of February and he had promised to give the results within a week of the deadline, which was the 4^th. It didn’t surprise me that Mr. Nam had waited until the last day to actually pass us the results. After all, all teachers were like that: waiting for the last possible moment to do what was supposed to be done - or in this case, announced - and Mr. Nam was no exception. I had initially thought that he wouldn’t even make the supposed deadline and so, in a way, it had been a pleasant surprise that he decided to, apparently, email the results to us. Considering it was him we were talking about after all.

‘’So what did it say? Something good?’’

‘’We have 90 points! Can you believe it? Freaking 90 points! I have never had 90 points for English in my entire life!’’ Jin exclaimed excitedly. The sight made me chuckle once again. By now we had arrived at my table and I sat down as I briefly glanced over to Daehyun’s table. It was a habit I had picked up on since recently. I noticed that he wasn’t here yet, however. A lot of people weren’t in the cafeteria yet as a matter of fact.

‘’Congratulations.’’

‘’So what are you doing after school?’’ He asked all of a sudden. He cheekily sat down in Chaerin’s usual seat, probably not uncomfortable with the idea of my friends arriving any minute. It was unusual for anyone to sit with the three of us and I hoped that he would be gone before Chaerin and Jea would arrive.

‘’Nothing, going home to do some homework probably… why?’’

‘’Good, we have to celebrate the fruit of our labor! You have to let me treat you in order to thank you,’’ he grinned.

‘’You don’t owe me anything Jin. Why do you keep acting as if I did everything,’’ I asked as I chuckled awkwardly.

‘’Because you sort of did. I won’t take no for an answer here Aerin, I’ll feel guilty. You mentioned that you craved dak bulgogi that one time at my house right? I know a place where they have the best in town.’’

‘’You really don’t have to, I—‘’ I tried to oppose only to be cut off by Jin again.

‘’Please Aerin, please let me repay you for your effort. After that we can cut each other loose entirely. You won’t have anything to do with me anymore. I mean, I can see that you don’t really like me and all,‘’ he whispered as he faked a pout. I knew he was joking and that made me shake my head as I, once again, couldn’t help but to chuckle.

I hadn’t noticed that the cafeteria had become more crowded by then and therefore I hadn’t noticed Chaerin and Jea at the entrance of the cafeteria, making their way to our table that was located a bit at the back, nearby the window. My eyes slightly widened once I spotted them. My gaze soon darted to Jin and that’s when I realized that he needed to be gone as soon as possible, otherwise things could surely become awkward. Both Jea and Chaerin would make sure of that.

‘’Come on Aerin, I’ll feel really gu—‘’

‘’Okay okay! Fine! I’ll meet you after school then, right?’’ I spoke hastily to shut him up. He, in turn, smiled satisfied before he slowly stood up and nodded with a grin as he made his way towards his friends. I let out a sigh of relief as I scanned for Chaerin and Jea. That’s when I also noticed Daehyun taking a seat at his table.

‘’Hey you,’’ Chaerin spoke once she and Jea got near our table. She dropped her bag on the floor and plopped herself on the chair Jin had sat on earlier.

‘’Hey,’’ I replied casually to the both of them as I searched my bag for a bottle of coke I had brought along.

‘’What’s up with you and Jin?’’ Jea asked with her signature smug smile. Somehow I knew this question would be raised, which is why I didn’t want him to hang around for as long as he had done.

‘’Not—‘’

‘’Aerin is the new it-girl didn’t you know? Hot guys are lining up for her!’’ Chaerin interrupted jokingly. I playfully rolled my eyes at her statement. The mention of hot guys made me turn my head to the only hot guy that had caught my interest lately.

I was surprised when I found out that Daehyun had been looking at me, in an obvious matter almost as if he was waiting for me to look at him. After that day at Jongup’s I had told myself to try to get him of my mind somehow. I had told myself that there was never going to be anything between us. It was me trying to protect myself from something I couldn’t specifically identify yet. I just knew that I didn’t want to risk feeling hurt in any way anymore. I seemed to have failed miserably now that I was taking mesmerizing Jung Daehyun in however. Getting him of my mind wouldn’t work if I were to stare at him every time I got opportunity. As I was most defenitely doing now.

We looked at each other for a moment. There was approximately ten meters between us, yet somehow his presence felt so close. Like it was only the two of us in this cafeteria – that cafeteria that was becoming more crowded by the minute. It was only a couple of seconds that we stared at each other and after those seconds Daehyun did something that surprised me. I suddenly felt hot as he randomly winked at me. It had been so playful and so, above all, sudden that I didn’t know how to respond. And so I quickly looked away, very flustered, as I acted to be occupied drinking my coke. I noticed Daehyun laughing to himself as he watched my reaction and I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear as I tried my hardest not to look at him anymore. I vowed to do so for the entire lunch.

‘’You’ll come right?’’ Jea asked, taking me by surprise.

‘’Huh?’’ I asked as I completely shifted my focus from Daehyun to Jea.

‘’After school. To hang out with us at my place?’’

‘’I uh… I can’t,’’ I muttered as I took another sip of my coke. Although I had vowed to not pay attention to Daehyun anymore, I caught myself watching him in the corner of my eye. He seemed to have forgotten about me already, as he was talking with his friends.

‘’You can’t? How come?’’ Chaerin questioned with raised brows.

‘’Jin is taking me somewhere to eat,’’ I spoke carefully. The both of them looked surprised with my statement, I didn’t blame them. ‘’It’s just because we got a high mark for that duo assignment, he wants to repay me somehow,’’ I added quickly as I took notice of their narrowed eyes.

‘’Sure…’’ Jea trailed as if she wasn’t buying this, ‘’maybe he like—‘’

‘’Okay I’m not going to talk about this,’’ I said as I wanted to close the case before Jea would assume things again. I surely wasn’t up for their teasing and I was speaking the truth: it was just a simple repayment. Couldn’t I, Park Aerin, hang out with guys without it actually meaning something more?

Chaerin and Jea gave in to my request and the following twenty minutes had been of a peaceful lunch. It was a lunch without me being the center of attention, and I was glad about that. For once I was glad about the usual BangRin talk.

‘’So… how will we get there?’’ I asked as both Jin and I walked out of the main building. It was the end of a tiring school day and I had told Jin that I traveled by bike which is why we were headed towards this particular exit. Jin usually took the other exit as there was room for parking there and he came to school with his car.

‘’It’s actually really nearby so we could walk and you could bring your bike… or leave it here. Whatever you want,’’ he shrugged as we were nearing the bike stalls. I decided that it wasn’t all too sensible to leave it here. After all, I didn’t know how long we were going to take. What if the janitor would close the gates? In that case I would lose my bike for one day, which wasn’t convenient.

After I got my bike Jin lead the way and I simply walked along with him as we talked about small things. He told me about the party he was about to throw only three days from now and insisted that I’d come, which I politely declined – again.

‘’We’re here,’’ Jin suddenly spoke as we stood in front of a building that brought back quite some memories. It’s unbelievable that, of all places, Jin had suggested to come here. It was funny how the universe worked, I realized as I took notice of the restaurant of Daehyun’s parents. Of all people, this restaurant just had to belong to Daehyun’s parents. Of all restaurants, this had to be the one that, supposedly, had the tastiest dak bulgogi.

Jin and I searched for a spot to stall my bike and after that we entered the restaurant. He did so with a grin on his face, while I eyed everything in reluctance. It was just a restaurant of the parents of the guy I happened to like, why was I being so tense all of sudden? I wouldn’t actually run into Daehyun here. Or at least it wouldn’t be likely. Also, it wasn’t like I would meet his parents or anything. What were the chances?

I was so deeply absorbed by the environment, eyeing every inch of the interior, that I hadn’t even noticed that Jin signaled for me to wait as he walked up to some middle aged man to, probably, arrange us a table. It was only until he was back - he gently tapped me on my shoulder - that I seemed to notice what we were actually doing here – or about to do here. Seconds later I noticed someone coming from the, I assume, staffroom and it was then that I saw a familiar wavy hairstyle which I, by now, could recognize immediately.

Choi Yuna tied her hair in a - perfectly - messy ponytail as she walked up to the, somehow familiar looking, man Jin had approached just earlier. That man pointed towards us, probably telling her to help us. Honestly I had completely forgotten about the fact that she worked here. She wasn’t even one of the options I had considered to run into seconds ago. At some point her gaze fixed on both Jin and I and her expression turned into one I couldn’t read. Shortly after that she seemed to recover as she smiled her trademark smile again and skipped towards us with half determined steps.

‘’Hi Aerin,’’ she beamed quite excitedly. I greeted her back and we had a very brief conversation about how the both of us were doing before Jin and I sat ourselves down on the table she had lead us to. Her gaze finally shifted to Jin and I could’ve sworn that I saw her roll her eyes at him for a brief moment. The same way Daehyun often seemed to do.

‘’Jin,’’ she spoke flatly as some sort of greeting. Honestly it wasn’t very customer friendly of her. Moreover it seemed very unlike Yuna. My eyes darted between both Yuna and Jin as I took notice of this certain tension that seemed to have formed. Yuna had shrugged it off fast enough though, as she now spoke the following words at bit more excitedly, like her usual self: ‘’I didn’t know you guys… knew each other.’’ She said it more to me than she said it to him. It actually seemed as if she was ignoring his presence altogether.

‘’We do, we are classmate,’’ I laughed sheepishly. I glanced over to Jin, whom had been quiet all the while, before I focused on Yuna again. She nodded before she brought out a little notepad from her back pocket. I watched her as she did and realized that it was amazing how good Yuna looked, even at work. She wore a basic shirt with long sleeves that had a bit of a V-neck. A simplistic yet classy necklace was on her neck and she wore simple black jeans combined with classy black heeled boots. The only thing that was off about her outfit was the apron she was wearing - which wasn’t actually off considering she was working - but honestly she even made that thing work somehow.

‘’Ahh, I see. So do you guys already know what you want to order or should I come back later?’’ She asked as she was still more focused on me and got a pen ready to, probably, dot our orders down.

''We want the dak bulgogi, please,'' Jin suddenly spoke, demanding some sort of acknowledgment from her.

Yuna seemed to, finally, turn to him now, ‘’Two portions I assume? Anything to drink?’’ Her voice wasn’t nearly as gentle as it was seconds ago.

‘’I’m fine with an iced tea, you Aerin?’’

‘’A coke will do,’’ I smiled awkwardly. Yuna nodded as she wrote it down.

‘’Alright, I’ll be back with your order as soon as possible,’’ she smiled before she walked away to pass down our order. I watched her figure in confusion before I turned to Jin. He heaved a heavy sigh.

‘’What was that about?’’ I bluntly asked with furrowed brows.

‘’It’s a long and complicated story.’’

‘’Well, that sounds interesting,’’ I said as I tried to make him speak to me. If this was Daehyun I wouldn’t have dared to pry, but Jin was obviously different. Why, I didn’t know myself.

‘’It is kind of interesting, as much as it is stupid,’’ he laughed to himself. He was about to say something again but then the both of us noticed Yuna coming up to us with a few drinks on her tray. We immediately turned silent and that sure was stupid as we looked awkward being together – while we were actually awkward because we were about to talk about the girl who was handing our drinks right now.

‘’One coke,’’ Yuna smiled as she placed the drink in front of me, ‘’and an iced tea,’’ she said as she placed the other drink in front of Jin. ‘’If you guys want something else let me know?’’ She smiled and with that she was of again, handing another couple of customers the drinks that had been left on her tray.

As there fell a silence between Jin and me, I took the liberty of looking around. This restaurant, which I still hadn’t caught the name of, was pretty cozily decorated I noticed. It wasn’t entirely big nor was it small. Honestly I liked the vibe of the place and I couldn’t tell if I did because of some sort twisted way of being biased towards Daehyun or I really did.

‘’So…’’ I trailed, indirectly asking him to continue the story he got me quite curious about, after I had taken in this restaurant.

‘’Do you know that Daehyun's parents own this restaurant?’’ He randomly asked.

‘’I do,’’ I said as I took a sip from my drink. I gave Jin a certain look, a look that should've indicated that I wanted him to continue his story. After all, I got curious about the story behind the bad blood that seemed to exist between Yuna and him.

‘’Fine,’’ he sighed. ‘’Have you ever heard the rumors about Daehyun and Yuna?’’

‘’No,’’ I half lied. I did hear them, but I wasn’t sure what rumor he was exactly referring to. There were countless after all.

‘’Oh,’’ he said dryly before he casually took a sip from his drink. Fortunately he didn’t seem too much pressured into telling me about this story, otherwise I would be feeling guilty by hearing him out.

‘’Well, around the end of our first year in high school there were rumors about Daehyun and Yuna being… very close with each other,’’ he whispered, probably not wanting anyone to hear us, ‘’Let’s call Yuna, Y and Daehyun D, yeah?’’ he grinned stupidly.

I shook my head in disapproval of his obvious code names before I gave in to the code names with a nod. I leaned a bit in on the table to hear him out. As I did so I played with the straw of my drink before I took a sip.

‘’I spread those rumors.’’

‘’W- what?’’ I asked surprised, almost choking in my drink.

‘’I know, stupid right?’’ He sheepishly scratched the back of his neck before he continued: ‘’It wasn’t a real rumor… it was true. D told me so after all.’’

‘’Why would you… tell people?’’

Before Jin could answer we noticed Yuna’s presence again – one that wasn’t to miss anyway. In her hands she seemed to carry our order and so we immediately turned silent again.

‘’Didn’t you find it surprising that Mr. Nam announced the results on time?’’ Jin suddenly asked as he laughed a bit. He acted as if we had been talking about something entirely different all this while and I needed to give him credit for doing it so smoothly as I almost didn’t notice what he was doing myself. I smiled sheepishly as Yuna put our plates on the table.

‘’I hope you’ll enjoy the meal. If there is anything else you want don’t hesitate to call me over.’’

Jin looked at the meal in reluctance once Yuna was out of sight again. ‘’Do you think she poisoned it?’’ He laughed as he grabbed his chopsticks, ready to dig in.

‘’I think Y is way too nice to do that anyway,’’ I laughed as I took a bite from the chicken that had been served. I had to admit that it had been one of best I have tasted – as Jin had stated. There was no reason to explain it but it was just heavenly good and so I eagerly started to eat as Jin was about to speak up about the story of DaeNa.

‘’I know Daehyun through Jimin. They are classmate and they were quite close since the beginning of high school as they hung out from time to time. One day, I think somewhere around a half year after we started high school, Jimin invited a couple of our friends over for a game of cards. Daehyun was invited too. I actually knew Daehyun earlier though, unlike the other guys who had been there that evening. After some time the atmosphere got a lot more relaxed as most of the people present got used to Daehyun and the other way around. I don’t clearly remember what happened but at some point Yuna came up in our conversation and he seemed a bit... grumpy about that. Somebody asked him what the matter was or something and that’s when Daehyun told us what had been bothering him – or them.’’ He was speaking softly, almost a whisper. It indicated that this talk wasn’t supposed to be heard by anyone, yet he forget about the codenames we had agreed upon moments ago.

‘’Which was?’’ I asked, feigning to be a bit indifferent while I was actually curious. Curious as hell. Jin was giving me actually that what I had wanted. Answers and clarifications.

‘’He said that they had been fighting that day. Apparently she had been acting as she was his girlfriend and that had started to irritate him as he always told her that he didn’t want to be more than friends. He told us that, that day Yuna had snapped at him, telling him how much of a jerk he was for using her. To him, she acted way too clingy while they were only friends. Or well friends with benefits since they slept together and such. Or at least that’s what he told us.’’

I gulped at this piece of information even though I knew a big part of it already. I didn’t know how long the duration of their relationship had been though. This had been going on ever since the first year of high school? Their relationship went so many months back? I didn’t know how to feel, but I did know that I felt sorry for Yuna as I quickly glanced over her figure. She was smiling brightly at a couple of customers as she wrote their orders down.

Somehow this story didn’t seem to add up. In this story it seemed as if Yuna was a bit desperate for something, anything, with Daehyun while somebody like her shouldn’t have to try so much for a guy. If anything, it would sound more likely that Daehyun had been the one to try his hardest to court her. This revelation made me, once again, wonder who Jung Daehyun was exactly. Or moreover, if I was crushing on someone who only wanted simple pleasure from girls.

‘’But… why would you tell people about them?’’ I asked, probably with big doe eyes, as I took another bite of my food. He did the same before he swallowed and answered me.

‘’It’s stupid. But back then, I really liked Yuna and so I was jealous of Daehyun. He was getting all of her love while I felt like he didn’t deserve one bit of it. After all, all he was doing was whine about how clingy she had become after they had sealed the deal. That just got me so mad, I mean, what did he expect would happen? I get that Daehyun never had the intention of giving her any hope of becoming an official couple but come on… how selfish is it to think that sleeping with someone on a regular basis wouldn’t spur on the thoughts about becoming a couple? Especially considering that she is a girl. Daehyun’s excuse is that he told Yuna. That he had been honest about how they stood all the while, but… that doesn’t mean that it was okay for him to keep doing what he did. To keep doing her. Of course she would think more of it, right?’’

He said everything so quick that it was hard for me to follow him. Though I think I had a slight idea. I was about to open my mouth to give him some sort of answer since he kind of asked, but Jin was already speaking his thoughts and it was as if there was no way to put a stop to him anyway.

‘’I was angry at how casually he spoke about her becoming clingy because of their intimacy. I mean if she was becoming so annoying why not break all ties with her? Why didn’t he? My guess is that he was selfish. He just wanted the benefits of her. Only the benefits and not the costs that came with that. I remember how pissed I was and then at school, someday during History, I overheard Suji and her possé talk her usual girl talk. I heard her talk about Daehyun and how handsome and amazing he was. That’s when I let my frustration out. I told her that Daehyun was already taken by Yuna. And that’s when I accidentally spilled out that they were intimate too as Suji didn’t believe me. You know Suji, she talks a lot and once she knows something it’s only a matter of time before anyone else knows it. It was a mistake on my part, honestly.’’ Jin paused for a moment, casually taking yet another bite of the meal in front of him.

‘’A lot of envious girls were calling Yuna ugly names and truthfully that was the last thing I wanted as I still liked her back then. Everyone who was informed about the rumor started to assume things about Daehyun and Yuna by that time. Most people thought they were together and since they themselves had said nothing about it, not even denying anything, everyone started to acknowledge that they were probably together. After those rumors Yuna and Daehyun become more open about their friendship. They were often seen together at least. Because of that… yeah everyone assumed there were indeed something. The both of them found out that I had been the one to open up about them and therefore I got blamed for the labels that got attached to them. Yuna has never really forgiven me for that. I guess that she was sensitive about the things that were being said about her because I had told their secret. Daehyun said he was cool with me, but I still see how annoyed he is with me occasionally, probably still because of that incident.’’

I blinked a couple of times after Jin seemed to be done with his story. I was speechless, but figured that I was supposed to say something. After all it was just a story, a story that shouldn’t do anything to me. But somehow it did.

‘’Well, it makes sense that she’s mad at you then,’’ I said dryly as I ate the last piece of my heavenly chicken. It was unbelievable how quickly I had finished it.

‘’I guess it does. I tried to apologize, but she never wanted to hear me out. After some time I got over it, and over her. It has been so long after all.’’

I nodded and with that the subject was closed as fast as it had come up. I had plenty of question but decided against asking them as I didn’t want to come off as someone who wanted to know more than should, naturally, concern her after all. Jin didn’t seem too much affected about the story, not anymore at least. He had talked quite casually about all of this. Only when he gave his opinion about Daehyun’s behavior had he become a bit more aggressive with his story. 

But while Jin didn’t seem too much affected by the story. I, on the other hand, was.

What was I supposed to think of Daehyun now?

Jung Daehyun was once again a mystery.

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