CHAPTER 6
♚ if you can't get him out of your head...♚
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“Why does it feel a lot more intimidating than it should be?” I wondered aloud as we headed towards their table. The SC’s table was considerably near the stalls, while the table where I sat with Yooyoung and Jason was much farther. We were practically on opposite ends of the cafeteria.

“You’re scared?” Aron teased.

“No,” I quickly said. When we arrived by their table, I suddenly froze when the four already seated looked at Aron and I. I glanced at him, “I’m terrified.”

He just laughed and pushed me lightly on the back. I suddenly felt pressured for some reason. While I am confident with myself that I don’t care how popular or high-ranking people I talk with are, I never really… hanged out with them.

Before high school started, I always ate alone during lunch. Yooyoung and Jason changed that last school year, but I don’t think I can handle this so soon. I’m honestly… nervous to eat with such well-known and respected people in the school. “On second thought, I’m okay with ending class on time-“

“Jinah!” Ren called out when he noticed us. He patted at the seat next to him. “Sit here!”

No! Why did he have to be the one to request it? I stilled for a moment but then walked over to the seat. I placed my lunch box down and gave a small nod to the other three seated – Minhyun, Baekho and JR. Aron took the spot across me. They were complete.

I was going to eat lunch with the entire student council. I’ll have to mark my calendar later.

“For some reason, I feel like I should’ve been more of a good student before I graced your presence,” I said to no one in particular. I was looking down at the table, unsure of whom to look at either. There were too many people.

“While that would have been preferred, it doesn’t really bother us. We don’t bite,” Minhyun said with a small smile.

I quickly averted my eyes when he was done speaking, starstruck at his gorgeous smile... Why do they all look so handsome? They were even smart and talented. Do all of their parents carry such good genes?

“Have you gotten prettier since the last time we met?” Minhyun continued with that same dazzling smile.

I hear Ren and Aron chuckle lightly. Was that funny?! I directed my anger at Minhyun, “Is that an indirect way of saying I was uglier before?” I snapped.

Even with my snarky words, his smile did not budge. Invincible, these people were. “Possibly… but then wouldn’t that mean every other girl would be considered hideous? Doesn’t sound too pleasant, so let’s stick with you getting prettier, hm?” he said in that same suave you-will-fall-for-me-whether-you-like-it-or-not voice.

I opened my mouth, and then shut it again. I glanced at Ren. At times like this, you go to the person you know the most. “… He’s too good. This is too difficult,” I muttered.

“You could just accept the compliment. No need to talk back,” Ren said with a grin, obviously amused.

I glanced back at Minhyun. He tilted his head slightly, wondering what I would say... Damn, he was handsome. Ren and Aron had this cute and adorable vibe going for them, but in front of me now was downright handsome maturity.

“Do you sweet talk every girl you meet?” I asked. Ren face palmed. Yes, I know that wasn’t what you meant by accepting his compliment… but you just don’t compliment people like me without some ulterior motive. The world doesn't work that way - my world, at least.

He laughed. “If I said yes?”

“It’d explain why you’re so good and unbelievably corny.”

I noticed how Baekho and Aron burst out laughing, completely agreeing with me. JR snickered, trying to control his own laugh. Ren nudged me lightly in scolding, but he was grinning too.

Minhyun pouted.

Why are all these student council pulling an aegyo on me? They’re making me discover a weakness I never knew I had! 

“I like to think I’m quite good at my lines,” he said in defense.

“The mere fact that you call them lines is kind of sad,” I noted.

He shrugged. “I suppose… ah well, can’t please everyone.” He’s not even going to talk back? I wasn’t expecting that. I noticed him glance briefly at Ren, who was busy speaking with Baekho. He turned to me again, well aware that I saw his change of gaze. “Especially if they’re already biased to someone else in our group.” I saw how Aron’s grin grew wider when he heard that.

These guys were ganging up on me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What are you implying?”

“That I can’t catch the eyes of a girl that’s already looking at someone else,” he said, chuckling softly.

“What chick flick did you hear that from?”

“One my ex forced me to watch a few weeks ago. Forgot the title – too horrible to remember, actually.”

He didn’t even deny it. And I thought I was brutally honest.

“Jinah!” I turned away from the two seated across me and Ren – Minhyun and Aron, and glanced back at my seatmate. Ren leaned back a little so that I could see the person seated on his other side, Baekho more clearly. “Baekho here says you guys know each other already.”

JR, who was seated across Baekho, and was thus on the opposite corner of the table from me, glanced at us briefly. “You two are friends?”

“Yes,” Baekho answered.

“No,” I said at the same time.

Instead of the awkward silence I’d expect from what happened, Minhyun and Aron began laughing… Aron was laughing at me a lot today. He finds my discomfort amusing, doesn’t he?!

Ren pursed his lips. “It seems even friendship is in the eye of the beholder.” He turned to me with a bright smile. “You consider me a friend though, right?” he asked oh so innocently.

I looked away and didn’t answer.

“Jinah!” he said in a cutesy voice. I could hear the pout on his lips.

I turned to them again, wincing when I was hit with Ren’s frontal assault and he was so close to me too. “Yes, yes, I’m kidding!” I said in defeat. “Of course, we’re friends, so stop making that face!” Minhyun and Aron’s laugh grew louder. I pushed Ren on the back lightly so I could see Baekho better. “We’re friends too, Baekho, yeah, sure.” That sounded so unconvincing. “Dongjin’s asking about you a lot. You don’t play basketball with him anymore and he says everyone else in the neighborhood is beneath him.”

“… That superiority complex sounds oddly familiar,” Ren chimed in. I ignored him.

“Student council work and the team has been keeping busy, but tell him I’ll try to head to the neighborhood court this Saturday!” Baekho said with a smile.

“I will.” I instinctively smiled back, because that was how Baekho’s smile worked. It was so warm and done so often, that your mind automatically makes you follow suite. I don’t know how he does it.

“How’s ajussi doing?” he asked, referring to my dad.

My smile disappeared. “He’s at America on a business trip.”

“Is that so? So it’s only you and Donjin at home? You two doing alright? Ajussi’s calling daily to check up on you, right?” he asked, genuine concern in his voice.

My eyes widened. I turned to Ren – again, because he was the only one I could honestly ask this to. “… Is he mommy-ing me? He is, isn’t he?”

“Take it with a smile,” Ren said. “Unless you want our appa to scold you for taking advantage of umma’s kindness.” Minhyun and Aron smirked, the forming gesturing to his other seatmate, JR. Baekho did not hear our conversation and just tilted his head in confusion at the three boys’ stifled snickers.

“App…?” I glanced briefly at JR.

He was eating his food silently. He felt my stare and looked up at me with a raised brow. “… What?” he asked.

I couldn’t help it, a snort escaped my lips. I can totally imagine him being their father figure.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “What’s so funny?”

I flinched at the tone. I turned to Minhyun and Aron that were suddenly focused on their food. I glanced at Ren for help, but he too was chowing down. Traitors!

I turned to the ignorant member with pleading eyes. Baekho frowned, not sure what was going on. He glanced at JR and suddenly nodded in understanding. “Haha, I also find JR’s homemade lunch to be real funny at times. You should just stick with cafeteria food!” he said, chuckling. I glanced at JR’s pack of burnt meat and some brownish sauce on the side. He rolled his eyes and didn’t reply.

I looked back at Baekho thankfully. He had no idea what was going on, but helped me out anyway, even if unknowingly. How could Yooyoung hate a guy that was so naively nice?

“Are you in a club?” Baekho asked suddenly, as if realizing something.

I frowned. Why did he ask that…? … Oh. I averted my gaze. “I’m, uh, not here for club activities.”

“She’s the only student who failed bio this term,” Aron said for me, grinning. Oh, nice. Now you speak, when it’s at my expense.

“Mr. Seoh has it out for me,” I replied with a nonchalant shrug.

JR looked up from his food and focused on me. “Every teacher has it out for you.”

“I didn’t know I was so popular!” I said in mock surprise. I frowned when I felt Ren nudge me lightly with his elbow. Should I not have said that?

“I wouldn’t necessarily call their contempt for you as something to be proud of,” the student council president said sternly.

… Was I getting scolded?

I forced out a smile. JR gave an equally fake one back. “I see nothing wrong in telling the truth.”

The atmosphere was getting tense. I honestly didn’t care. Call me a war freak, but I loved arguing. Whenever I talked back to teachers, they’d use their superiority to win and punish me. The last argument I had with a peer didn’t even last long, what with Yujin hitting me before retaliating with words.

But this was JR, the student council president. He wasn’t a teacher and he wasn’t some short-tempered girl either. The guy was smart and proud enough to talk back to me. I’m actually a little giddy that we’re arguing!

“I see several wrongs in how you tell the ‘truth’… it’s more of criticism and uncalled for insulting actually,” he replied.

“Of course everything I say is negative– that’s why no one else has the guts to say it. But I’m right with my ‘criticism’ and ‘uncalled for insulting’,” I said, raising up my fingers to show quotation marks when I used his own words.

“You lack tact and social graces.” No one had ever openly said that to my face! Oh, he had guts. “In some instances you’re right, but how you say it is so incredibly wrong that-“

“Children, children!” Minhyun suddenly said, raising his hands in a gesture of trying to make us calm down. “Easy now! Don’t fight in front of the food,” he chided in a joking manner.

I opened my mouth to reply, but then a pair of chopsticks suddenly entered my mouth. I nearly choked on the food that had forced itself into my mouth. I glared harshly at Ren.

He tilted his head in confusion, as if wondering why I was mad at him. His adorable expression washed away my anger. Not fair! He pushed his lunch box towards JR. “You get some too, JR! Unless you want me to feed you?” I was surprised when JR suddenly brightened up and took a few pieces of the seasoned meat. “Now, no more fighting! I’m sure that was a suitable peace offering?” he said, turning to me with a smirk.

Peace offering…? I froze when I finally tasted the galbijjim he had fed me. I faced him, my eyes full of respect and awe. “It’s delicious,” I whispered.

“My nuuna made it – of course, it is!” he said proudly.

Aron suddenly leaned forward and tried to swipe some of Ren’s food with his own chopsticks. The blonde pulled his box farther away. “Aw, come on, Ren! What happened to all those times we shared? All those bonds we made?”

Ren stared blankly at him.

“Nuuna would definitely want for you to share your blessings!” Aron said instead.

“She doesn’t even remember your names,” he said dryly.

“She remembers me!” Minhyun said, already reaching out his chopsticks.

“You hit on her whenever you come to my house! She didn’t have much of a choice!”

Too busy getting it out of his two friends’ reach, Baekho had managed to swipe some meat. “Thanks, Rennie!”

Ren quickly retaliated.

I bit back a laugh at their antics. The atmosphere was so tense just a few minutes ago (all my fault, I know), and now everyone was comfortable and doing their own thing… My eyes suddenly met JR’s. He raised an eyebrow, but then a small smile graces his lips. “To be frank with you, I dislike your behavior. But if they like you, I’m sure you’re not that bad.”

“What? You’re going to rely on their judgment?”

“I trust it,” he merely said, going back to his food.

I let out a small smile.

These student council people weren’t that bad.

Ren was the first person to ever prove me wrongn.

Minhyun was on par with me on honesty and bluntness.

Aron was unfazed by my harsh personality whenever I snapped at him.

Baekho was too nice to get mad anything I said, or even notice it as something bad in the first place.

And JR had no qualms in insulting me back and retorting at my own shortcomings.

… On second thought, these student council people were all absurd.

I took hold of my chopsticks and went back to my food- My eyes suddenly widened as I looked at my eating utensils. Ren had just fed me earlier with his own pair of chopsticks.

Indirect kiss! Again! Was this guy really that naïve and innocent? One time was fine – it was probably him making fun of me. But twice? I gave a quick glance at him. He was talking animatedly to Baekho like nothing was wrong.

I’m probably just reading too much into this… So why do I feel so embarrassed?

“You ate with the council?!”

I caught the basketball ball Yooyoung roughly threw to me. I winced at the force. “Y-Yes.”

“You traitor!” she wailed dramatically.

We were walking home together. Since Aron kept his end of the deal and dismissed me earlier, I had managed to catch up with Yooyoung right when she was at the school gates heading home from practice. I’m so glad I never joined a club – you never have a real vacation in one.

“Just because you’re gaga over Ren now, you’re replacing Jason and me for those pretty boys?!” she exclaimed, hurt written on her face.

I stared blankly at her.

“Answer me, Jinah! We’re your first friends, right? How could you get rid of us just because you found a guy?!”

I fumbled around with the ball in my hands. “… How did you know you guys were my first friends?”

“That’s your response to everything I said? Don’t ignore the important part!”

“Did Dongjin tell you?”

She sighed in exasperation “Well, yes. So answer my question now!”

I tried twirling the ball on my finger and failed miserably.

“It’s like you said… you and Jason are still first.”

Yooyoung took the ball from me and twirled it effortlessly on her index finger.

“… I wasn’t expecting a serious response from you, ice queen.”

“So says the drama queen.”

She laughed. “Well, I agree that we’re both regal like.” I nodded in agreement. “Though I do like how you didn’t deny it when I kept saying you had the hots for Ren.”

“Well… he is hot.”

“Oh my-!”

“Shut up. I don’t like him like that.”

“Why?”

I stopped walking. Yooyoung stopped a few steps ahead of me. She turned her head to face me, raising an eyebrow at my sudden lack of movement.

“… Why?”

“… What?” she said in confusion. “I’m the one asking you. I mean, Jason’s pretty popular in the looks department, but you aren’t into him. You just think of him as a friend… do you also think of Ren along the same lines? No, right?”

“… Right,” I simply said.

Yooyoung sighed loudly and pulled on my arm so we could continue walking. “That whole blushing and butterfly in your stomach thing doesn’t always happen… If you like him, you like him. You don’t need proof for everything.”

“My proof is my own self! I should certainly know if I like him or not.”

“… How would you know? You’ve never had a crush on anyone before.”

“My inexperience has nothing to do with it!”

“Your inexperience has everything to do with it! Don’t go denying something just because you don’t know it.”

I stared at her, wide-eyed.

“Why are you making sense?”

“You say that like it never happens.”

 “Nuuna… are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“… Then why are you rearranging our furniture?”

I stopped pushing the sofa briefly. Despite the hard work I was doing, I wasn’t sweating. It was getting too cold lately. “Turn on the heater, Dongjin,” I said instead.

He reached for the remote on the coffee table that was now situated in corner of the living room. He turned it on and then faced me again. “Did something happen?” he said, walking towards me.

Dongjin sat on the sofa I was pushing. “No… Yes… A bit… I don’t know,” I muttered, putting in a little more effort to move the piece of furniture with the added weight.

“You never claim that you don’t know something,” he said, brows creased in worry. “I know you rearrange stuff to keep your mind busy… but the furniture is a little too much. What happened, nuuna?”

“How do you know if you have a crush on someone?” I asked, after letting out a deep breath when I got the sofa to its new place.

He frowned. “Um…” He looked down, then up at the ceiling, then finally back at me. “Well… you’re friends with the guy, right?”

“Of course. How would I like him otherwise?” I asked, grabbing onto the sofa pillows and changing their arrangement.

Dongjin stared wearily at my action. “But you obviously don’t like your friends as more than friends. So… what makes him different from them?”

I stared at the pillow in my hands. “… I think about him a lot more,” I muttered. He waited for more. “… I prefer showing my good side to him, I suppose,” I continued, clenching tightly onto the pillow.

“Do you want to kiss him?” he asked with a huge grin.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What? No.”

I recalled the past two indirect kisses… and at my reaction towards them.

I looked away. “… I’m… uh, aware.”

“What kind of answer is ‘aware’?” he asked, openly laughing at me.

“Would you want to kiss your crush?” I asked, changing the topic to him.

He grinned. “Yeah!” … Was this where our gender roles made us different? When he noticed how I had stopped with my needless organizing, he smiled at me. “It’s kind of funny. How you’re the one going to me for love advice.”

I frowned… “Don’t bring this up ever again and I’ll cook your favorite tonight.”

“Deal!” he cheered. “Ah, can I ask you something first, nuuna?” I stared at him. “Okay, I know I already asked a question with that, but can I ask you something else?”

“Speak.”

“… Will you confess to the unlucky guy?” he asked, genuinely curious.

I suddenly froze when the words processed in my head. I had just considered and now entertained the possibility of actually liking Ren – thinking about confessing would be too soon!... Right?

I should, because well… isn’t that how liking someone goes? He won’t ever know my feelings if I don’t say them. And I’m certainly not afraid to say anything. It’d make perfect sense to tell him straight out.

“Yes… I mean, I like him. Isn’t that what happens next?” Dongjin nodded at my answer, but didn’t say anything. “… And what do you mean by unlucky?”

He ignored my last question. “Even if you don’t know if he likes you back?”

“Well, I’ll never know if I don’t try, right?” I asked. “I don’t really have to think about what to say – I just say it. I’ll deal with the consequences when it comes.”

“I don’t know if that’s brave or stupid.”

“… Those two are often synonymous.”

“You admit you’re stupid?”

“I’m asking you for advice, aren’t I?”

Dongjin laughed. “Nothing wrong with that, nuuna! I have to help you out sometimes too!”

I smiled and ruffled his hair. “Thanks.”

“… What kind of poor guy was able to catch my big sis' interest?” he asked with a grin.

“What are you talking about? He's extremely lucky that I like him,” I retorted.

He smiled. “... He is, isn't he?”

“... Let's go for some ice cream later.”

“Yes!”

What can I say? He knows how to talk to me.

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END CHAPTER 6
♚ ... then maybe he's supposed to be there ♚

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PREVIEW

Chapter 7

“I think I like you.”

“If this is another act, I’m leaving you with the bill.”

“It’s not.”

A/N:

Ice cream during winter, haha~ <3

I’m sure that three-liner preview tells you all you need to know. Next chapter is one of my faves – look forward to it!