CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

 

“Why are you giving these to me?” 

 

Taeyong was lying in a corner at the rooftop with his eyes closed when he felt somebody approaching and eventually putting something beside him. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised to see Soojung smiling awkwardly. Beside him was a small plastic bag filled with candies that she just gave.

 

“I recently went back from London so I decided to give these sweets to everyone.” She answers cheerfully. “I’m in a really good mood right now.”

 

“I can see that… But I’m not part of everyone, Jung Soojung. I’m an outsider. I’m practically nothing in this school.”

 

“Hey, don’t say that. You are part of us.” She pushes him playfully but he doesn’t laugh nor smile so she got a little scared. “Uhm, I’m going to my class now.”

 

“Yeah, see you around.”

 

Soojung hasn’t even left but Taeyong already goes back to sleep. She was hesitating if she should remind him that he has to go to his class as well but since he doesn’t look like he wants to talk, she just leaves him there. When she was going downstairs, she suddenly sees Seulgi who was looking for her.

 

“I saw you going upstairs so I thought that I should follow you and remind you that our classes aren’t there.”

 

“Aw, so you were worried about me?”

 

“Kind of, yeah.” She laughs. “Come on, let’s go together.”

 

“I was just giving the candies to Taeyong. The same ones that I gave you.” Soojung notices the change of expression in Seulgi’s face. Her smile suddenly fades from the mention of Taeyong’s name.

 

“A-actually, you go ahead Soojung. I need to do some inspection in the rooftop.”

 

“Uhm, okay.”

 

Even though the rooftop was quite big, Seulgi easily spots Taeyong sleeping in the corner. Furious that he’s not on his way to his class like everybody else, she wakes him up by kicking him.

 

“Soojung, what the - wait, Seulgi?” He frowns as soon as he sees her, but doesn’t move an inch.

 

“What do you think you’re doing?”

 

“Sleeping. Now go.”

 

“No, you’re going to your class right now.”

 

“Just because you’re a senior now and I’m still a junior doesn’t mean that I’m going to follow you around.”

 

“But you will because I am the president and you wouldn’t want me to tell the headmaster about this. Now come on.” She grabs his hand and drags him, which surprised her since she thought he would resist at first.

 

Of course, he didn’t leave without the plastic bag Soojung got him. He didn’t say thanks to her, but he actually likes sweets so he’s thankful. He also noticed a book right next to him, but it wasn’t his so he just left it there. Seulgi continued to nag at him until they say Soojung going up the stairs. She immediately lets go of him.

 

“I was just… I left my book at the rooftop.” She says before they could even ask what she was doing and quickly passes by them. What they didn’t know is that she saw them first before Seulgi realeases her grip from Taeyong.

 

 

At lunch time, Soojung is the last one to arrive at their table, as always. She seem very eager and excited to see them though. She didn’t even buy any food and just went straight to her table.

 

“You guys, I know I could be crazy sometimes-”

 

“You always are.” They said in union.

 

“Okay, maybe I am but…” She glances at her surroundings before continuing, “I think there’s something going on Seulgi and Taeyong.”

 

“That’s ridiculous, Soojung.” Sehun laughs a little. “They’re not really close.”

 

“Oh yeah? Why were they holding hands this morning then?”

 

“They were?” They all asked in union, shocked.

 

“Well, not really. It’s more like, Seulgi dragging Taeyong down the stairs.” She glances at Jongin who was quietly just looking at her. “Why are you so quiet? Are you jealous of your ex dating another man?”

 

 “Me? Jealous?” Jongin raises an eyebrow. “Absolutely not!” He laughs. “Wait… are you telling this to us to attempt to make me jealous?”

 

“Hmm, not really. But I do think you are.”

 

“What the hell? I told you I am not.”

 

“Ah, I missed this.” Jinri tells Sehun and Chanyeol in amusement seeing that her two friends are fighting again.

 

“You’re doing this because you think I like my exes and I think you’re jealous.”

 

“Ha, you wish.” She sticks her tongue out at him. When she looks away, she spots Seungyoon and remembers that she has to give him his candies. “Oh, Seungyoon! I have to give you something.”

 

“Isn’t my best friend just so nice and so generous?” Jinri says lovingly as they all watch her go to Seungyoon who just entered the cafeteria to give him some candies. He looked super confused when she handed them though.

 

“Generous? She gave me one gift as both my Christmas and birthday gift.” Jongin states. “And guess what it is?”

 

“What?”

 

“Some freaking coupons! She said I have everything so she had no idea what to give me so just wrote some stuff she could do for me.”

 

“Aw, she gave me the same thing back when I turn 7!” Jinri laughs.

 

“It is kind of true though. You basically have everything in your life.” Chanyeol says as Soojung walked back to their direction. “So what is she going to do for you?”

 

When Soojung sits back at their table, and later realizes that she hasn’t eaten anything yet. She freaks out and quickly runs to buy her meal before their next period starts while Jongin watches her go.

 

“She’s going out with me this Saturday on my birthday.” Jongin answers calmly as if it wasn’t a big deal that he’s going out with his greatest frienemy. As soon as he reveal that, his friends literally lose their . He looks at Chanyeol in disgust after he spits out his drink in shock. “Dude, can you not do that?”

 

“Going out? As in, a date?” Chanyeol asked, his eyes bulging out. “Jung Soojung wrote that on her coupon?”

 

“Well, not actually. All of her ideas are very ty so I had to change it. She wanted to tutor me on English and I found that very funny because we all know that I'm the best when it comes to English.”

 

“Jongin, you don’t know how big this is. This is her first date after her first breakup. You have to make it very special for her.”

 

“In case you forgot, it is my birrthday Jinri. We're going to do everything I want to do. I already have it planned out. It will  be perfect.” He smiles weirdly at Jinri, and she wasn’t sure if he was serious.

 

“Wait, you guys are going out on your birthday? What about the party on Saturday that we’ve been planning to do?” Sehun asks.

 

“Cancel that. I’ve a lot more important things on Saturday.”

 

 

The café where Jackson and Mark worked at looked really lonely and much emptier when Jackson wasn’t around. When Soojung went there to hang out after school, Mark was sitting in front of Youngji, looking all sad and bored. Even his stories were sad.

 

“So you’re telling me, you quit the group because Jackson’s not debuting?” She asks, and he nods slowly.

 

“I don’t want to debut without him by my side.”

 

“Aw, that is so sad… and cute at the same time.” Soojung sighs. “Now I’m depressed and I can’t give out candies anymore. Wait, I already gave you some candies right?”

 

“Yeah, you did. I still don’t understand why, but thanks anyways.” Mark smiles. “You could be really random sometimes.”

 

“She has been so happy ever since she got home from London. That’s when she started to get a little weird.” Youngji laughs.

 

“Hey!”  Soojung playfully shoves her, making her laugh a lot more. “Is it really weird that I’m giving candies to my friends because I had a nice holiday?”

 

“Yeah, pretty much.”

 

“Fine, then I won’t give stuffs to you guys anymore.” She sticks her tongue at them as they continued to laugh. Mark stood up to get coffees for the tree of them even though they didn’t ask for, but they gladly accepted anyways.

 

“Ah, by the way.” Mark grabs his phone from his back pocket and looks for something on his gallery. When he finally finds what he was looking for, he slides his phone to Soojung for her to look at. “Look who I met in LA.”

 

It was a picture of him and Derek, doing a weird pose together with some other people. Seeing that her ex-boyfriend was smiling happily in front of the camera made her happy as well. “I see that you’ve become friends with him. Isn’t he just one of the nicest person ever?”

 

“He’s a cool dude, I must admit. Better than your fiancée.”

 

“Mark.” Soojung rolls her eyes.

 

“Sorry.” He puts his hands up. “Just wanted to share my opinion.”

 

“Oh, he’s quite good looking.” Soojung looks at Youngji after hearing her compliment his ex-boyfriend, but it wasn’t a dirty look. It was more of like an amazed look as it was her first time hearing her compliment a guy. “I’m sorry-”

 

“Do you want me to hook you up with him?”

 

Youngji blinks innocently. “Excuse me?”

 

“Wow, are you over him now?" Mark questions, amazed by what she said. "That’s too bad. He said that he missed you.”

 

“I don’t know exactly the meaning of over because I still care for him, but I have accepted the fact that we won’t end up together.” She said, smiling. She can happily say that she has stopped crying and dreaming about him, unlike before when they first broke up. “After all, he has been there for me all these years. I want him to be happy.”

 

 

After one of their football trainings, Jongin was invited (or should I say, forced) by his friends to go have dinner with them. At first, he refused being tired and all that but Jinri told him that Soojung was expecting him and if he doesn’t come, she will surely kill him the next day at school. So he did come with Chanyeol, Jinri and Sehun to one of their favourite restaurants.

 

But when they arrived there, it turns out that Soojung wasn’t around. She wasn’t even invited to their little gathering. As soon as Jinri told him that, Jongin had already regretted everything.

 

“Oh have I told you guys that Soojung likes fireworks? And also horses. Jongin, you better go horseback riding with her on a beach, with fireworks on the background. Then bring her to a Japanese restaurant. She really likes sushi-”

 

“Jinri, you’re one of my best friends, but that’s just absolutely boring.”

 

“Boring? For your information, that’s what Soojung likes to do aside from partying! You’re not planning to bring her to a strip club, are you?”

 

“God no, Jinri. I may be an , but no. Why do you even think I would bring her to one anyways?”

 

“They probably went to a strip club on their first date.” Sehun jokes as he referred to both Jinri and Chanyeol. He and Jongin laughs afterwards as Jinri glares at the two boys.

 

“Excuse you, Oh Sehun. We had the best first date ever, isn’t that right honey?” Chanyeol exclaims proudly. “We went to an amusement park and… Well, she vomited all over me on the Ferris wheel. But apart from that, it was perfect.”

 

“Why do you have to remind us about that?!” She shakes her head in embarrassment.

 

“Oh, I’m very sorry for forgetting you legendary first date. Nothing can top that.” Jongin bites his lips to prevent himself on laughing seeing that Jinri and Chanyeol might start to fight soon, but Sehun continued to laugh. On the corner of his eye, he spots a familiar brunette walking towards the restaurant and his laughter later turns into a amused grin. “Look who’s coming.”

 

The four of them looks outside and sees the person they don’t want to see that night: Soojung.

 

“Oh God, she’s going to be so pissed if she knew that we’re hanging out without her.” Jongin chuckles. He was hoping for her to get a little angry, just because he likes it when she’s mad. “I’m going to tell her that this is Jinri’s idea.”

 

“What? No!” Jinri panics, not wanting her best friend to think that she’s pushing her out of their group of friends for not inviting her. “Just don’t look at her. Maybe she won’t notice us-”

 

But it was too late. Soojung has already noticed them ever since she got out of the car, but decided to approach them first to confirm that it was indeed them.

 

“Why look who's here. My bestest friends hanging out without me.” She says, walking towards their table.

 

“Bestest is not even a word.” Jongin corrects, causing her to make a face.

“Oh shut up. Are you all planning a plot against me? Why am I not invited here?”

 

“No, darling!” Jinri stands up to explain but wasn’t able to say anything. “It’s just…”

 

“Jongin’s bringing you to a strip club on Saturday!” Chanyeol says, hoping that it would help her girlfriend but Jinri just shoot a glare her boyfriend for saying that. Soojung doesn’t seem surprised though.

 

“That is not true." Jongin smiles cheekily. "I mean, why bring you to a strip club when we can have more fun in my apartment, if you know what I mean?"

 

"Oh shut the up, Jongin. I bet you're just going to force me to watch some stupid movies with you." She glances quickly outside, where both of siblings have just finished talking to their driver and were about to enter the restaurant. “Anyways, since my family is here and I’m really in a good mood, I will forgive you for not inviting me. Just don't tell my sister that I just said the ‘f’ word.”

 

“Oh, why are Jessica noona and Jaejoong hyung with you?” Sehun asked curiously.

 

“They’re going to discuss something about the family dinner that we're having tomorrow. I asked if I could come along and they allowed me.” She answers happily.

 

The first thing the Jung siblings was their sister standing next to her friends’ table. Shocked to see them, Jaejoong and Jessica go to their table to greet them while the young heirs stood up to bow to them.

 

“Why, hello kids.” Jaejoong greets them. “What are you all doing here?”

 

“You sound like an ahjusshi.” Jessica laughs, but her brother doesn’t find it funny.

 

To avoid making her siblings fight in front of her friends, Soojung laughs along half-heartedly. “It was a joke, oppa.”

 

“It wasn’t, but whatever. I’m heading to our table.” Before leaving, Jessica turns to Jongin and says, “Jongin, we need to talk about the wedding soon, eh?”

 

“Uhm, yes noona.” Jongin bows to her again, though she didn’t see it as she has already turned around.

 

“I’ll see you guys around.” Jaejoong says, following Jessica to their table.

 

After watching them sit down in their table not that far from theirs, Soojung turns to her friends with a big grin. “Well, we still have to work on being friendly on one another, but aren't my siblings the cutest?” Not sure if she was being sarcastic, they just nod their heads slowly. "Now, I would love to stay and talk about myself and the date, but they're waiting for me. I bet I'll just look at them and not say anything though."

 

 

On Friday night, instead of going out to visit Mark on the café that he works at like she usually does on the weekends, Soojung decided to just stay home and get ready for their family dinner. She even did her makeup, not asking for Youngji’s assistance. After finishing it after two tries, she goes down to where her sister and sister-in law were. She was dressed up in a black sweater, red skater skirt and a long necklace accompanied by black knee high socks and a pair of boots.

 

Being the excited future aunt that she is, she briefly forgets the fact that Jessica and Catherine were talking that she crouched down to greet her unborn baby nephew.

 

“Hello to you too, auntie Soojung.” Catherine hugs her as she finally stood up straight from crouching when she talked to her tummy.

 

“Auntie Soojung.” She giggles. “I can’t wait for someone to call me that.”

 

When the doorbell rang, she immediately offers to open the door, thinking that it was his brother. Since she was up in her bedroom the whole evening she really didn’t know that Jaejoong was already there somewhere inside so when she sees Kim Jongin standing in front of the door, she got confused. As far as she could remember, she didn’t invite him to come. She did mention to her friends that she was going to have a family dinner on Friday, but she never invited them.

 

“Hey Soojung. What’s up?”

 

“Uh, hey. What are you doing here?”

 

“Honestly, I don’t even know. But your brother called me to come and he mentioned food so I came.”

 

“Oh, you’re here!” Jaejoong suddenly pops out from nowhere. “Come, father’s looking for you.”

 

“Father?” Both of Soojung and Jongin say at the same time. “Why?”

 

Jaejoong doesn’t reply and just gestured him to follow him. Jongin glances at Soojung nervously. He had no idea what was about to happen. But it turns out that Mr. Jung just wanted to talk and have to drink with the boys, which he thought was flattering. He feels like he was part of their family now.

 

Neither she and Jongin nor Jessica and Jaejoong fought during the diner, much to Soojung’s relief. The dinner was pleasant and enjoyable and even Jongin looked like he enjoyed even though the only thing her father talked about all throughout the night or how happy he is for their upcoming wedding, and again, politics.

 

“Ugh, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that you’re coming.” Soojung tells Jongin, her arms folded. “I could have prepared myself better.”

 

Jongin looks at her from her head to toe. “What the are you talking about? You look great.”

 

“You’re just saying that because my brother’s going to come out soon.”

 

Just like how she predicted, Jaejoong does come out of the mansion from its huge doors. Confused, he asks the two what they were doing outside when they could sit and talk next to the fireplace. But Soojung explained that Jongin was going to head home anyways.

 

“Thank you for inviting me, hyung.” Jongin tells Jaejoong. “I had a great time.”

 

“Thank you for coming. I’ll invite you again when you’re free next time.” The older one smiled.

 

“And you two will inform me right?”

 

“Probably not.”

 

Annoyed by her brother’s answer, Soojung tried to push Jaejoong down the stairs. “Hurry up and go!”

 

“So when’s Jongin’s around, you’d just force your favourite brother out of the mansion?”

 

“You’re my only brother, idiot.”

 

Laughing loudly, Jaejoong doesn’t fight back, knowing that his wife has been waiting for him for so long on their car. The two watched as he drove his black Jaguar car away. Before Jongin almost forgot, he grabs a piece of paper from his pocket to give it to her. Soojung has already a feeling what it was.

 

“Be my girlfriend for a day.” She reads it. She was right. It was indeed the coupon for his birthday.

 

“I would want to do this tomorrow since it is my birthday. I forgot to give it to you at school so I’m giving this to you now.”

 

“Do I really have to do this? I don’t have to sleep with you right?”

 

He frowns. “And are you backing out on this?”

 

“No. Of course not. It’s just… I thought it was pretty weird that you put this. Out of all the horrible things you can make me do, why this?”

 

Honestly, Jongin himself doesn’t know what has gotten to him when he wrote that coupon. He had been thinking of changing it actually or just let Soojung be his maid for a week just like how she wanted to, but in the end he didn’t change it. Instead of answering her question, Jongin walks away from her.

 

“I’ll be waiting for you at my apartment tomorrow morning at 8AM.” He tells her.

 

“8AM?! Are you kidding me? I’m not going to wake up that early for you! You know how much I love to sleep!”

 

“You did when I got sprained.”

 

“But that was when I thought you couldn’t walk!”

 

Ignoring her, Jongin enters his Porsche before she could even another word. Of course, she couldn’t just run for him so she could insist on not going to his apartment that early in the morning. The only thing she was able to do was curse him under her breathe as she watched him drive away.

 

 

If Jung Soojung says that she’s not going to wake up early for you, you should probably believe her that she’s not going to do it.

 

It was 30 minutes pass 8 o’clock, and Jongin didn’t want to wait for her in his apartment anymore. Instead, he quickly drives to the Jung’s resisdence. He wouldn’t want to be late to where they were going anyways so he might as well wake her up himself.

 

When he got there, he immediately goes straight to Soojung’s bedroom, even though he knew that she wouldn’t want him there and that Youngji kept on telling him not to go there. But Jongin, being the that he is, ignores her presence and continues his way to her bedroom. There, he sees his sleeping beauty with her eyes closed.

 

“Jung Soojung, wake the up.” He shakes her body, but she just groans in annoyance.

 

Instead of shouting at her like his maid  used to do to him when he was younger, Jongin removes his shoes so he could jump on her bed and wake her up. It did work, but she didn’t look so happy seeing him. In fact, she looks like a lion with her big messy hair and her glaring eyes that could kill.

 

“Don’t ing jump in my bed!” She screams, and Youngji came rushing inside. “Please kill this guy for me!”

 

As Youngji dragged and nagged him outside the room, Jongin kept on shouting at Soojung to remind her that it was his birthday. Guilty that she almost forgot, she searches for her robe and a brush in her bathroom so she could face him without feeling like .

 

“What a great way to start my birthday.”

 

“Uh, Happy Birthday!” She tried to smile, but Jongin kept on glaring at her. She tries to make him smile by bopping his nose, but it doesn’t work. “Why are you wearing a tracksuit? Are we going jogging or something?”

 

“You’re awake now, so go hurry up and take a shower or something. You have 10 minutes to prepare.”

 

“Can we like not jog or do any exercise at all?”

 

“We’re not going jogging!”

 

“Then what are we going to do?”

 

The two was busy arguing that they didn’t notice Jessica coming out of her room from across the corridor. Compared to her sister, who was still on her sleepwear, Jessica was already all dolled up and ready to go to her work. She walks up to them, making Soojung shut up and pretend like nothing happened.

 

“We have a date today.” Jongin randomly says to Jessica, who never asked where they were going. “I told her to wake up early, but she didn’t.”

 

Soojung mentally punches Jongin in his face. Maybe she will do that, but later when her sister is gone.

 

"You two? A date?" Jessica asks Soojung in disbelief.

 

"Unnie, it's not what you think-"

 

"No, noona. It's exactly what you think."

 

“Sis, why didn’t you tell me that you have a date with Jongin? Look at you! You look horrible. Let me help you prepare.”

 

“No, unnie. It’s alright. I mean, you’re probably late for work anyways-”

 

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t mind being late. Now, Youngji. Please lead Jongin to the kitchen and give him something to eat.” The older Jung orders as she tried to push her sister back to her room.

 

Jongin couldn’t help but chuckle after seeing the glare Soojung threw at him before her sister forcefully made her go back to her room. Their date hasn’t even officially started yet, but he’s already loving it.

author's note: 

I'm not feeling this chapter. Idek. But there's a sneak peek of what's going to happen next. :D

So I just realized that I posted this story on February 16. I've written 26 chapters and there are a lot more coming. The next one is probably my favorite one. I know I said that the previous chapter  was my fave, but I already wrote the next chapter and I literally squealed while writing it. It's pretty special hehehe. I was thinking of updating next on the 16th but it's too long, isn't it? Should I just update or wait for February 16? Please tell me your thoughts.

Also, please pray for me because I have a History exam on Wednesday and a Maths exam on Friday and I haven't studied anything yet lmao.

happy birthday qian <33