“Fil! …Fil! …Fil!”

ARGH!

“One minute” I said lazily and covered my face with the duvet. “Hey!” It’s been years since I was so spanked so hard. “AAAAHHH!!!” I screamed so loud, my throat hurt.

“Oh!” Ate Gloria gasped upon seeing Seunghyun in my room. “Hey!” I came to my senses in a flash. He is already dressed for school in a white t-shirt and washed out, slightly tight jeans (his “ding ding” can still breath, no worries), and here I am, still in my bed clothes, hair in a mess and face bloated. “I overslept. My alarm clock didn’t ring. Must’ve been the battery, it ran out already”. Yeah. REASONS!

My sister hissed and looked at me, “Your alarm clock rung for a good minute. It woke me up, as a matter of fact. How can you set an alarm fifteen minutes before you leave when your morning routine takes forty minutes to an hour?”

Oh yeah. No excuses. I forgot that I’m in front of Gloria Mercado, the woman who hates excuses. It seems like I have to show her a new skill I learned only here in Korea.

“You’re done already?” she cannot believe that she’s seeing me in front of her, all dressed, hair uncombed and dripping wet only after ten minutes. I smirked then nod “Yeah”, I answered and hugged her, “See you later! Please remind Libby about our date tonight” I said and ran to the door.

Last night, I promised Libby that I’ll tour her around to share a part of my new world. She only have two more days to enjoy Seoul and there’s not even a second to waste. I don’t know if they’ll push through with it, but Hye yoon unnie invited them for a tour in their company this afternoon, which made them so lucky because I haven’t got the chance to go there yet (I will not leave Korea without seeing it).

“Seunghyun” I snapped, facing him fully. We’ve been on the road for ten minutes already but he hasn’t spoken a single word yet. What happened last night started to bother me again. Maybe he’s still disappointed of me turning him down.

“Hmm” his eyes are focused on the road when before a bit of noise from me will make him look at me in a snap. I sighed heavily, “Are you still…”

“No” he cut me off. Surprised, I stared at him, thinking whether or not I should believe him. “Are you sure?” I asked. As much as I hate being pushy, I cannot help it. He sighed and nodded, “Yes” he replied plainly.

Choi Seunghyun is a man of few words, and he turned from few to none. Yes and No without any words after freaks me out, especially when I can feel that something is not going right. How I wish he can just tell to my face what he really feels instead of giving out one word answers.

His silence bothered me. Actually, I’m all good with him disappointed because that’s just natural, but giving me the cold treatment as if I’ve done something unforgiveable is BS.

“We’re late” I said after seeing our professor already writing on the board. Seunghyun sighed heavily, a gesture he hasn’t done before no matter how late we are, and grabbed me by the wrist, leading me to the room.

“You two are late. Thirty minutes late to be exact”. Attention is the last thing I want right now. Pairs of eyes are on us and all I can do is bow my head down. Seunghyun cleared his throat, “In behalf of Ms. Mercado, I apologize”.

I know what’s inside every head in this room is thinking, they find me funny because I didn’t speak for myself when I can, instead of making Seunghyun do it.

“Accepted” our professor said, “You may go to your seats now” he faced the board again and continued writing. And that’s what we did. Jiwoo moved her chair closer to mine, “Clearly, you’re not in the mood” she whispered, making me look at her, my eyes pooling in tears. “Oh my….” she my back gently.

I cannot control my feelings anymore. My heart has exploded as well as my mind, making me feel really bad. If I can just run away from here and come back after the heat is gone.

“All right” our professor scanned the room and smiled, “The end of the semester is coming, which means that you have to work double for your final projects. I’m really looking forward to it”

Speaking of the project, Seunghyun and I hasn’t even talked about it again yet. We have some ideas but there’s none we want to work on.

“I will dismiss you early for you guys to work on your projects. I’m telling you, this is not the time to lay back and do some other things. High grades are on the line here, GRADUATION even” our professor sounded so calm when all his students will not have a second of calm for, I don’t know, the next two weeks or less.

Why does this project have to rattle us now when Seunghyun and I have an issue? Staying focused is going to be darn hard.

“What happened?” Jiwoo asked right after our professor left the room. I pulled out a smile, thinking that it’s going to cover up my bad feeling. “Nothing” I answered, shaking my head.

“Girls!” Young woo called, approaching us. He sat on the desk of the vacant seat in front of us while Jin sat on my desk. And Seunghyun, he stood expressionless behind Young woo. Seriously, what is his problem?

I’m staring at him and I know he knows that I am, and he’s just ignoring it. At this point, I’m near my breaking point.

“I swear, this final project is giving me a lot of stress” Jin who is always quirky sounded worried, “Who knew our last weeks in college is going to be so difficult and hectic when three years ago we barely even do anything?” he continued, making Young woo, Jiwoo and I chuckle. “I guess we should just deal with it. After all, we don’t have a choice, unless we’re good in blowing off graduation and extending college for at least one more semester”.

Honestly, I have a strong feeling that I won’t be graduating all because I didn’t do well this semester at all. My university back in the Philippines and Hongik University have this agreement that if I pass this semester, I will be able to graduate. Thing is, I don’t think I did well like what I had envisioned. If my hunch is right, I’ll go home with my head bowed down in shame.

“About our project…” Young woo said to Jiwoo, “Do you think we’ll be able to at least get half of it done by tomorrow, before I leave for our field trip?” he asked, making me curious.

“You have a field trip?” I butted in.

Jin and Young woo looked at me in surprise, then at Seunghyun. “She doesn’t know?” Young woo asked him. Seunghyun shook his head, “I forgot to tell her” he answered, earning a long and heavy stare from me.

“Where are you guys heading?” Jiwoo asked. “Japan. The world painting showcase will be held there” Young woo replied.

After a few innocent questions, I’ve learned that the painting showcase is the biggest and grandest showcase of world-class painters from all over the world. It will run for a whole week with three to four artist exhibitions per day. If in fashion they have fashion weeks, painting have showcases.

“One week is quite long” I braved to speak in the middle of our ride home. “Or maybe not” I feel like I’m talking to no one. “Well, for me it is long, especially when I only have a few more weeks left here” I continued. Seunghyun finally glanced at me to only look back on the road again after .5 seconds. “It is” he spoke after a while, “But I don’t have a choice. I need to go because all of our professors are giving extra credit to the ones coming. Also, it’s a good place for me to learn and interact with professional painters that I might never meet again”

How can I compete with that? As much as I want to tell him to skip it and just spend time with me, I can’t, because it’s going to be so selfish of me.

“So…” my heart is thumping all of a sudden, “Are all of the painting major seniors coming?” I asked. I don’t know why, but the thought of Jenny and Seunghyun together in a far place without me suddenly bothered me. I know that I shouldn’t feel even a bit bothered for I have trust on my boyfriend, but it just cannot be helped.

And I didn’t receive any answer. The question ended our conversation. His coldness grew on me, that’s why even if I’m itching to get an answer, I just held it in. I’ll let him be like this for a while. God knows what’s next if this take a toll on me.

Unlike before, I’m glad to leave home again after school. Libby and I didn’t waste a single second, and went out to hav