CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 

She hasn’t even entered her room entirely, but she froze as soon as she saw him, leaving the door slightly open. “.”

 

“That’s not a very nice thing to say.” He says, coming closer to her. He pulls her inside and closes the door.

 

“What the are doing here?! Don’t you know this is a violation of privacy?! You can’t just enter my room!”

 

“Chill, it was your sister who told me to wait for you here.” Jongin goes back to sit on her bed. He hears her curse under her breathe something related to her sister getting home before her, but chose to ignore her. “Sooyeon noona told me that she was informed that you were visiting me and I got confused, because I don’t remember seeing you before I left my apartment.”

 

Soojung just laughed awkwardly. “Is that so?”

 

“Where have you been, Soojung?”

 

“You sound like my father.” She says, trying to change the topic. “Except the fact that he doesn’t really say that to me. It just sound like what normal dads would say.”

 

“That’s sad. But really though, where did you go?”

 

“Okay, fine. I’ll tell you.” She sighs as she thinks of another lie. She couldn’t tell him that she was out partying again, and to make it a lot worse, she was with those kids from Ehra. “I was out with Seulgi-” Jongin’s eyebrow raises. “-we were talking about school stuffs and she also asked me about how my first week went… wait, what are you doing?” She asks as Jongin pulls out his phone from his pocket.

 

“I’m going to ask her if it’s true.” He states, dialing her phone number.

 

“What?! No you can’t!” Soojung started to freak out once again and tries to steal Jongin’s phone from him.

 

“And why not?”

 

“Because… she sleeps early. She might be sleeping already.”

 

“I doubt that she would be sleeping early when it’s his brother’s birthday.” Jongin laughs and waits for Seulgi’s answer. “If you’re going to lie to me, make it at least realistic.” When she finally answers, Jongin puts it on loudspeaker so Soojung could hear her too.

 

“What do you want?” Seulgi says from the other line.

 

“Is it true that you hanged out with your new friend, Jung Soojung, today?” Jongin asks, glancing at Soojung. Even though Seulgi knows that it’s a lie, she said yes anyways, making Jongin frown. It made Soojung felt relieve after hearing Seulgi lying as well. “Are you lying to me?”

 

“No, I am not. She even said that you’re stupid.”

 

He glances once again at Soojung, who had an uncomfortable smile on her face. Knowing that it’s something Soojung would actually say, he finally believes her and ends his phone call to Seulgi without even saying goodbye.

 

“Do you believe me now?”

 

“Half of me does, the other half still thinks that you’re suspicious. But whatever. I did promise you that I would stop bugging you about making friends anyways.” He sighs. “I’ll be going. I just came to check on you, but it seems like you do not need me anymore.¨

 

“Oh don’t be so dramatic Jongin.”

 

He opens the door and sees Youngji, who was about to knock. Scared to see the infamous Kim Jongin from Imperium Academy, Youngi was unable to move.

 

“Tsk.” Jongin frowns. He walks away and purposely bumps his shoulder into hers, making her stumble.

 

Soojung frowns upon seeing this. She runs after him when Jongin who was about to go down the stairs and makes him stop by pulling his ear. Youngji’s jaw drops by seeing a new side of her boss. “That was so rude! Apologize to her! Now!”

 

“Get your hands off me Jung Soojung!”

 

“Hell no! Go apologize first!”

 

Of course, Jongin doesn’t listen to what she said. Instead of actually apologizing to stop Soojung from pulling his ear out, he grabs Soojung by her waist and lifts her, making her shriek,

 

“I’m going to throw you off the stairs!” He threatens.

 

Youngji was too amazed by what she was seeing, that it took her long to remember the reason why she was about to knock on Soojung’s door at the first place. “Oh yeah, Soojung. I think you should know that your father has arrived and-”

 

“My father?” The two stops arguing. Soojung, who was still being carried by Jongin, looks at Youngji.

 

“Wait a minute, why are you calling Soojung by her name? You should res-”

 

Before Jongin could ever finish his sentence, Soojung has already managed to escape. She hurriedly runs downstairs to greet her father.

 

“Good afte- I mean, good evening, Father.” She bows. Jongin follows her downstairs and does the same thing.

 

“Oh, Jongin. What are you doing here?” Mr Jung asks in surprise.

 

“I was just making sure that Soojung isn’t bored,” Jongin answers with a smile. “… so I decided to drop by.”

 

“I’m glad that you’re starting to care for my daughter.”

 

“I have always cared for your daughter, sir.” He glances at her for a second while she just fake smiles. Soojung notices the big smile on her father’s face.

 

“Have you two eaten dinner already? Would you accompany me?”

 

“Actually, Jongin’s about to leav-”

 

“I’d be happy to, sir.” Jongin cuts off Soojung. He and Mr. Jung heads to the dining room, leaving her behind. The girl had no choice but to follow them.

 

 

The dinner consisted mostly of Mr. Jung talking about politics and Jongin agreeing on everything he says. Soojung would comment about the topic once in a while to try to impress her father, but in reality she wasn’t interested in politics.

 

“It was lovely having dinner here, but I must leave.” Jongin says as he wipes his lips with the napkin.

 

Soojung hasn’t even finished but she rapidly takes her last bite of her steak. “I’ll accompany you on your way out.”

 

“It’s okay, Soojung. I can manage.”

 

“No, I insist.” She makes an eye contact at him, as if she was telling him to shut up and just let her.

 

“Well, if you insist.” He looks back to Mr. Jung and bows as a sign of his goodbye.

 

Jongin thought that as soon as they reach his car, where they’re completely alone, she would start scolding him again. But it was actually the other way around.

 

“Thank you, Jongin.” He had no idea what she was talking about that he had to stop and think.

 

“For what?” He raises an eyebrow.

 

“I just realized that I haven’t thanked you for actually keeping my secret.” She says. “To be honest, I thought you were the first one who would tell my parents. But I stand corrected. You’re nicer than I thought.”

 

Jongin chuckles. “I am not nice. At least not to you. I just don’t like the idea of your parents sending you off the country, for the second time.”

 

“So you do care for me, huh?” Soojung smiles teasingly and punches him lightly on his shoulder. “I appreciate it, dude.”

 

“I don’t, Soojung.” He rolls his eyes. “You’re my frienemy, the only person I could tease and push around at the same, the only person who would forget about it. That’s why I need you here in Seoul.”

 

“Yeah, sureee.”

 

“You know what? I’ll get going before you get more delusional.” He says, opening the front seat. “I’ll see you at school.”

 

“Goodbye, frenemy!” Soojung waves goodbye and watches him drive away his black matte Porsche. She runs back inside the mansion, where she sees Youngji coming down from the stairs.

 

“Youngji! I need to talk to you!”

 

She stops midway as Soojung runs to her at the center of the stairs.

 

“Can we go to my room? It’s kind of private.”

 

Youngji looks at her worriedly and asks under her breathe, “Did you… Did you have a lovers’ quarrel with Jongin?”

 

 

With the help of Youngji, Soojung asked Mark to meet her so they could talk properly. She let him choose where to meet, but she didn’t expect him to pick a playground. She didn’t care though. She just needed to convince him to keep her secret, since he didn’t really agree last night.

 

“Mark, please. I’m begging you.” Soojung says.

 

“Youngji told us that you’re dating Kim Jongin.” Jackson, of course he would be there, says. He was trying to swing just next to Mark’s.

 

“Uhm, actually it was a misunderstanding. That was what her sister kind of told me.” Youngji explain. She was sitted at a nearby bench. “She just told me everything last night, including the fact that their engagement is actually arranged by their parents.”

 

“Woah,” Jackson’s mouth goes ‘o’ shape. “Arrange marriages still exists in the 21^st century?”

 

“It never disappeared. Eveyone in my family had their marriage arranged.” Soojung answers, sighing quietly. “So what do you say, Mark? Can you keep my secret?”

 

“I don’t know, Soojung.” Mark stops swinging and turns to Soojung. “I’ve been with Derek for a few times and he’s a nice dude. You said that your parents wouldn’t approve your relationship, but if you really love him, wouldn’t you fight for him?”

 

Everybody falls silent. Even Jackson hasn’t heard his best friend talk like that. And for Youngji, that was probably the longest time she has heard Mark talk.

 

“You don’t know my parents.” She mumbles quietly.

 

“Yeah, I don’t. But you do. You’re their daughter. Have you talked to them?” He asks but she doesn’t answer. “My cousin says that Derek’s pretty devastated.”

 

“H-he is?” Soojung looks at Mark and he just nods.

 

The same feeling of sadness was coming back to her. The sadness when she first arrived in the US. Derek was the one who made her forget about that feeling, but now he’s the reason why it’s coming back. She never really wanted this to happen.

 

Her thoughts are ruined by a sudden phone call. She picks it up without even looking at who called.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Soojung? It’s Seulgi. Can we meet?”

 

 

“Relax, Soojung. I’m not here to ask you about yesterday’s phone call with Jongin.” Seulgi says as she watch her sip her tea nervously. Soojung was so nervous that she slips a bit of her drink.

 

“I’m not nervous.” Soojung says with a smile.

 

“I know that you lied to Jongin, and I like that you’re fooling him so I won’t ask no more. Instead I’m here to ask you to inform you about the school’s clubs.”

 

Seulgi hands her a list of various clubs of their school. It included groups like the tennis club, the voice club, the dance club, the well known football club and a lot more.

 

“Which club do you want to join?”

 

“Which club are you in?” Soojung looks at her.

 

“I used to be in the dance and chess club, but I left both clubs to focus on the student council.” Seulgi answers.

 

Suddenly, Soojung remembers about the comment Jongin made about the way she dances back in her father’s birthday. She admits that she’s not the best dancer, but she knows that she’s not that bad either.

 

“Hmm, maybe I’ll join the dance club.I heard Sehun is also there.”  She says, handing back the paper to her. She needed to practice her dancing skills because of her upcoming birthday so she chose the dance club.

 

“Yeah, he is.” Seulgi takes the paper from her and scribble some things. “Jongin also passes by at the dance club when he’s free.”

 

“He does?” Soojung asks with her eyebrow raised. She does know that he also has a thing for dancing, she remember that he used to dance to Michael Jackson songs when they were younger. But she wonders how he could go there when he’s always busy with his football practice.

 

Seulgi nods. “He was the reason why I joined the club.” slips, and her smile disappears. “I-I’m sorry… I just…”

 

“Seulgi, Í’m sorry to ask but, what really happened to you and Jongin?” Seulgi looks away but answers anyway.

 

“He was my first crush, my first love, my first boyfriend. I was the one who followed him like a lost puppy.” She smiles bitterly, remembering all the crazy things she did just so he could notice her. “So when he finally agreed to go out with me, I was so happy.”

 

Seulgi looks at her again and Soojung notices the tears forming in her eyes. “But that happiness quickly disappeared after a few months when he broke up with me on text. When I met him personally, he told me that he never loved me.”

 

She smiles bitterly and continues, “After that, the cheerful side of me went away because she’s scared to fall in love again.”

 

“I’m sorry about that…” Soojung looks at Seulgi pitifully.

 

“It’s not your fault. You don’t have to apologize.” She shook her head. “In fact, I’m the one who should feel sorry to you.”

 

“What do you mean?” Soojung asks.

 

“Jongin did the same thing to Seungwan and Sooyoung. Ever since their break ups, Seungkwan’s grades drop and Sooyoung has stopped painting.” Seulgi explains. “Till now I still can’t believe Kim Jongin has the nerve to propose to you, when he’ll just leave you just like the rest of us." She sips her coffee before continuing, "I suggest you break off the engagement before he could even dump you.”

 

“I can’t do that, Seulgi. Jongin may be an sometimes, but I know deep in his heart that he’s a great person.ª Soojung smiles softly as she thought of her fiancé. “He just doesn’t want to admit it.”

 

Seulgi pretends to vomit because of Soojung’s compliments for Jongin. “So it’s true. You are indeed crazily in love with him.”

 

“What? Who told you that?”  

 

“Well, it’s so obvious.” She rolls her eyes. “I’ll let you slide for now, but I won’t stop bugging you to break up with Jongin. After all he has done to us, I hate how he manages to get every single girl when he doesn’t deserve any of us.”

 

Soojung like Seulgi’s new side of yness when it comes to Jongin but she won’t let her pursuing to leave Jongin get into her head. She has no plans of breaking off the engagement anymore.

 

 

With Jinri attending school, the gang was complete on Monday and Chanyeol was more than happy to see that everything was just like when they were kids – except that when Jongin and Soojung fight, Soojung, who used to cry whenever Jongin does something bad, would fight back.

 

Just like when Jongin has revealed to the group that he was going to America on the 23^rd, which happens to be a day before Soojung birthday. Soojung gets mad, but not too mad since they were in a public place with their classmates.

 

“Just tell me that you don’t want to go to my party. You don’t have to make an excuse to not go.”

 

“I told you I’ll be just on time for your birthday!”

 

“Whatever. I don’t need to see you on my special day anyways.”

 

“Don’t miss me too much.”

 

Soojung rolls her eyes. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”

 

“Stop it, you guys. Seulgi’s coming this way.” Jinri says, shushing the two and they immediately kept quiet.

 

“Good Afternoon Jinri, Soojung, Sehun and… Chanyeol.” Seulgi greets the group without even looking at Jongin.

 

“It’s nice to see you too, Seulgi.” Jongin says sarcastically.

 

“Please, take a seat.” Sehun, being the gentleman that he is, offers his seat to her.

 

“Oh, thank you. You’re so kind.” Seulgi hears Jongin scoff. But she ignores him once again and just turns to Soojung. “You texted me that you want to change clubs?”

 

“Ah, yes. I want to join the voice club instead of the dance club.” Soojung smiles. “Sorry about changing my mind.”

 

“No, it’s alright. All I have to do is talk with the club’s president, so it’s fine.” She says, and quickly bids goodbye.

 

As soon as Seulgi leaves, the two frienemies start brickering again, with Jongin forcing Soojung to go back to the dance club since he goes there thrice a month.

 

“You don’t even have a great voice. Why do you want to transfer to the voice club anyways?”

 

“You haven’t even heard me sing, idiot.” Soojung says, frowning.

 

“I know a person who can’t sing when I see one, and you’re one of them.” Jongin jokes, but Soojung looked offended.

 

“I really, really want to punch you right now, you know?” She whispers to him. “You’re dead later.”

 

 

On Tuesday, Soojung started to invite people to her party. Her mother’s secretary gave her invitations for the party that she handed out to some of her classmates.

 

One of them included Kang Seungyoon. He was that noisy but funny guy in her class that reminded her of Chanyeol and that guy that she shouldn’t be thinking about because of his skills in singing and playing the guitar.

 

Nevertheless, Seungyoon was a cool kid. They immediately became friends because of both were fans of Halsey.

 

Soojung purposely waited till Wednesday to hand Seulgi the invitation on their English class, just so Jongin could see her doing it. The boy just bites his lips so he couldn’t say anything. He has already promised not to care about her new found friends anyways.

 

On Thursday, Soojung had to ask the boys to come with her and hand out an invitation to a junior named Taeyong. She has never met him before, but she did it just because her father asked her to since their families were friends. For some reason, he gives her the creeps but according to Jongin, Taeyong was just a lazy misunderstood kid.

 

And on Friday night, Jongin flies to America for his ‘mission’. Sehun, Luhan, Chanyeol and Junmyeon were there to send him off, but Soojung was nowhere to be found. Instead, she was stuck with a dance instructor her sister hired for her. She didn't want to dance waltz anymore, but smiles in front of her sister anyways.

 

 

 Saturday morning, Youngji woke Soojung up, looking a bit troubled. She informed her that she had some visitors downstairs. At first she thought that it was Jongin. She didn’t want him to say “I told you I’ll be just on time for your birthday” with a smirk, so she purposely took a longer bath than she usually does.

 

But a huge smile spread across her face when she saw Jackson and Mark, whom she didn’t thought she would see again.

 

“Are we still friends?” She asks.

 

“Who said we ever stopped?” Mark says, smiling. It was actually the first she saw him smile. “You’re not like the other kids in your school who always act like they own .”

 

Jackson nods along. “That and we just really wanted to see your house up close hehe-” Mark punches Jackson to stop and remind him of the reason why they went there. “Oh yeah! We heard from Youngji that’s it’s your birthday tomorrow, so we brought this a gift!”

 

He hands her two tickets for a club that night. Soojung’s eyes widen. She did told herself that last week’s party would be her last one, but since it’s her birthday soon, she thought that it would be alright to go to another one.

 

“Wait, two tickets? Is this other one for Youngji?” Soojung glances at Youngji who was standing near by.

“M-me?” Youngji points to herself, surprised. “But I-I don’t go to clubs…”

 

"Well, you will now." Jackson sticks his tongue at her as Youngji looks at him in horror.

 

author's note: I'm back from The Philippines y'all. I didn't want to go back, but oh well... life must go on.

 

I added the characters and a really crappy trailer (don't judge me, I tried my best alright T.T) on the foreword. Will put the link and video here as well for those who are lazy to go to the foreword. XD Warning: Please lower your volumes...

https://youtu.be/EllD7_Y8DpY

 

And lastly, I want to tell you guys that the next chapter will be about Soojung's birthday celebration. She will be having a secret special guest, so stay tune to that!