CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

 

If only Soojung wasn’t their boss, the servants would have probably already asked what’s wrong with her. She has been sitting in the middle of the stairs, staring into nothing and making weird crying voices. It was exactly the opposite of the ‘I-don’t-want-my-parents-to-know-that-I’m-a-crazy-’ thing that she wants to do, but she was pretty sure nobody was home so she stayed there.

 

“Soojung-ah? What are you doing there?” She looks up to see Donghae, looking very concerned to see her sitting in the stairs. “Oh God, are you drunk?!”

 

The girl didn’t even bother to answer, or to ask what the hell he was doing in her house. She looks up to his direction and says, “Oppa, have you ever kissed someone a lot of times and one day you kissed that someone again and then suddenly you liked that someone’s kiss but you’re not supposed to?”

 

Donghae just looks at the girl as if she has gone crazy and was speaking another language. He didn’t catch anything that she said.

 

“I’m not crazy, okay?! I just… miss the sun in Cali! God, the weather in Seoul is so horrible!” Soojung runs away to her bedroom. She was too embarrassed by her sudden outburst that she didn’t notice her sister standing in the corridor opposite to where her room was.

 

“What was that all about?” He asks her confusedly. “Is your sister going to be alright?”

 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she will.” She has actually heard her sister’s question and she knew that she was talking about Jongin. She knew that their marriage will go well. Jessica then smiles bitterly, reminded her by her own horrible matrimony.

 

 

Even though they didn’t want it to happen, Soojung and Jongin were very, very awkward with each other since their make out session happened. And the fact that Sehun would suddenly pop out from Jongin’s behind, with a really creepy smile whenever they would pass by each other in hallway or just basically anywhere they would see each other like he was expecting them to do something, doesn’t really help.

 

On their lunchtime, Jinri discovers what’s happening. She was pissed by how Chanyeol was too busy to promote his new song to everyone than to talk to her so she was starring at Soojung as soon as she entered the cafeteria. She noticed the blush on her best friend’s face when she was on her way to their table and she and Jongin suddenly exchanged looks. They immediately looked away a second after.

 

Frozen, Soojung didn’t know what to do. She freaks out internally, doing circles around and hesitating if she should go and eat with her childhood friends. In the end, she heads to Seulgi’s table to eat with her and the girls when Jinri calls her name out to sit with them so she had no choice to go back to their direction.

 

“Heeeey guys!” She faked smiled as she sat opposite Jongin’s, who was staring directly at his own food. “What’s up? Isn’t the weather so lovely today?”

 

“Uhm, it isn’t. It’s raining cats and dogs.” Chanyeol comments, looking outside. “But yeah, it is a great day because my single just came out! Please buy it on iTunes-”

 

“Can you close your mouth please?” Jinri glares at her boyfriend, making him pout. She then looks at her bestfriend and asks, “What did Jongin do to you?”

 

Jongin, by the mention of his name, finally looks up.

 

“Nothing!” Both of them shout at the same time. They were so amused that they automatically exchanged looks again.

 

“I didn’t do anything to her!” Jongin insists.

 

“Yeah, he didn’t do anything to me! In fact, we didn’t do anything at all!” Soojung literally wanted to slap her face. Now both Chanyeol and Jinri were looking at her suspiciously while Sehun, being the only one in the group who knew what really happened, was laughing his off. “Anyways, Sehun!” She turns around to face him. “How are you and your model girlfriend?”

 

“What model girlfriend?” He asks, wiping the tear of his eye from laughing so hard. “Oh, you mean my date in The Winter Ball? We broke up like a week after. I thought you knew.”

 

“Oh! You know who you should date? Youngji.” She randomly says. “You could be her sugar daddy.”

 

“You listen to Lana Del Rey too much.” Sehun laughed a lot more.

 

“Stop changing the subject, Soojung.” Jinri says. “Why are you acting weird?”

 

“I am not acting weird!”

 

“Yes, you are! Isn’t that right, Chanyeol?”

 

“Actually, Soojung has always acted strange for me so-”

 

“Ugh, shut up. Soojung is acting strange. Why can’t you all see it?”

 

“Okay fine! I’m going to tell you why!” She exclaims as Jongin choked on his drink. He kind of wanted to keep it as a secret from Jinri, Chnyeol and basically everyone in their group because he wasn't ready. “Yesterday I had to play golf with my whole family and I . You guys don’t know how humiliating it was.” That was actually half lie, half truth. She did play golf yesterday and was really bad at it, but that wasn’t really the reason why she was acting strange.

 

Confused, all of her friends looked at her with a ‘what-the-’ expression.

 

“Isn’t this the part where Jongin would usually ‘You’re crazy’ to Soojung or something?” Chanyeol asks loudly. Everybody looked at Jongin to wait for him to say an insult when Soojung suddenly stood up.

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“I… Uhm… I’m going to poop?” She immediately frowns by the stupid lie she just told and runs away from her friends.

 

 

After running away, Jinri follows Soojung to the nearest bathroom where she sees her walking back and forth looking troubled. Upon seeing her best friend and knowing that she was there to know about what’s going on between her and Jongin, she immediately panics. Jinri checks the stall one by one to check if they weren’t alone before finally asking her question.

 

“We’re all alone now. Now tell me, did something happen between you and Jongin?”

 

“Nothing happened! We’re just awkward now, okay?” She blushed.

 

“You never get awkward with Jongin. Maybe you can get angry, but you never feel awkward around him. Unless… Oh my god. Did you guys have ?!”

 

“What?! No!” Soojung screams, horrified. “We just… we just made out.”

 

“Oh… Okay. Wait- Made out?! You guys made out?” Jinri’s jaw drops. “Wow. I mean, you’ve told me that you guys kissed a few times before, but wow. That’s like the step before having .”

 

“Shut up, Jinri!”

 

“Okay but uhm, did you… Did you like it?”

 

Soojung doesn’t know what she should say. She, herself, doesn’t even know how she felt about it either. “Let’s just say that I can’t look at Jongin the same way as before. I told myself that I was going to today, but… Ugh.”

 

Not wanting to continue, Soojung sighs. She was talking about Kim Jongin, the boy who pushed her around, the boy who , the boy who stole her first kiss. There were a lot of reasons to hate him. But why can’t she think of any of them now?

 

 

With sufficient time left before the next period starts, Jongin had excused himself from the boys to get some fresh air. He didn’t know that Soojung actually went to the bathroom and knowing that she liked going to the rooftop, he avoided going to that place. Instead, he went to the school’s garden.

 

“I hate you…”

 

“I hate you not…”

 

“I hate you…”

 

“I hate you not…”

 

He mumbles to himself as he removed the petals from a flower while thinking of Soojung. Saying I love you was too cliché for him. He had seen a lot of movies doing the same thing as him but he wanted to say I hate you instead. After all, he did think he hated her before.

 

“Why are you doing that to the poor flower?” Knowing whose voice he just heard, he didn’t bother turning around to see who it was.

 

“For the first time in my life, I am actually happy to hear your voice, Seulgi.”

 

“How nice of you.” Seulgi says sarcastically. “What’s wrong with you? You look… stressed out.” She takes a seat beside him in the grass. “And don’t tell me you’re nervous because of your match tomorrow. I know you. You never get nervous.”

 

“Can I ask you a question, Kang?”

 

“You’re already asking one.”

 

“When we were dating, what did you feel when you were around me?”

 

“Hmm… I remember that I used to get giddy around you. I wanted to hold your hand so I would quietly reach it. I would blush whenever I would imagine me kissing you-”

 

“.” Jongin randomly curses and Seulgi laughs.

 

“Isn’t it just really cringy?” She joked, but he was frowning. “Let me guess, you’ve been feeling the same thing to Soojung, haven’t you?”

 

Horrified, the boy finally turns to her. His eyes were so wide upon hearing what she just said. “Did Oh ing Sehun tell you?!”

 

“Holy . It’s true? I was just joking but seeing your reaction- Oh my God. You have feeling for Soo-”

 

“Can you shut your mouth?! Don’t say it out loud!” He immediately covers while blushing but Seulgi shoves her away.

 

“You just blushed! Kim Jongin just blushed! You never blush!”

 

“That’s absolutely stupid! I do blush like normal people do!”

 

“Your ego is too big for you to get embarrassed and blush.” She pointed out. “I need to tell this to Soojung, like right now.” Standing up, Seulgi runs back inside the school but only to be blocked by the faster Jongin.

 

“I swear to God, if you tell this to anyone especially Soojung, I’ll kill you.” He warns.

 

“I won’t in one condition.”

 

“Spill it out.”

 

Seulgi smiles. “When we turn 40, you have to publically announce that you’re going to vote for me when I run for president of the country.” Confused, Jongin furrows his eyebrows. “Listen, you’re going to be one of the most influential and powerful men in our society once you inherit you father’s company. And I need people like you to vote for me so people will do the same.”

 

“Why won’t you ask our schoolmates then?”

 

“Because I know they will do it. You won’t do it for sure.”

 

“That is so, so stupid. But I’ll do it. I’ll keep it on mind.”

 

“Great!” Seulgi grinned. She could already imagine herself in the blue house as the president. “I’ll leave you alone now. But if you do something stupid, I won’t be hesitating to tell her about your feelings.”

 

 

“In case you don’t remember, you got kicked out by Hyukjae hyung so you shouldn’t really be here.” Sehun says upon seeing Jongin sited at the bench tying his shoe laces 5 minutes before the Dance Club activities start. Looking up to his friend, he just shrugs as his way of saying that he doesn’t care.

 

“Jinwoo told me that our training got cancelled so I decided to go here.”

 

“Really?” He takes a seat beside him. “Why don’t you go hang out with Soojung then?” He teased.

Knowing that he was being sarcastic, Jongin annoyingly kicks Sehun away from him ‘causing him to laugh his off. “ you Sehun. You know how awkward I am with her right now.”

 

“It’s so amusing how you could not even look at her without blushing for like, 5 seconds.” He teased once again. Jongin threatens to punch him so Sehun puts his hands in defeat. “So when will you confess?”

 

“Are you kidding me? Things will get worse and more awkward if I tell her that I love her!” Jongin doesn’t even remember that last time he said ‘I love you’ to someone. He’s pretty sure he did to his mother, but she doesn’t count. “I don’t even know why we became like this. I mean, it was only a kiss.”

 

“It’s no ordinary kiss. It’s when you realize that you love her. The next thing you should do is tell her about that.”

 

“Why do I have to listen to what you say? You never had a proper relationship.”

 

“I know. Ugh.” Sehun sighs. “I’m actually low key jealous of both you and Chanyeol for falling in love with two lovely ladies. It that we don’t have another girl best friend for me to fall in love with.” He dramatically presses the bridge of his nose to pretend that he was crying, but quickly changes his back his expression to a cheeky one. “Anyways, my question is, why do you have to hide your feelings for her?”

 

“Well, how the will you react if the person who was really mean to you before suddenly tells you that he loves you? She hates me, bro. She’s going to freak if she finds out.” Jongin shook his head by the thought of confessing to Soojung.

 

“Okay, but I think you’re forgetting the most important detail. If she does dump you or something, you two are still engaged so she will still find out about it.”

 

Upon hearing what his friend just said, Jongin suddenly had a change of thought. For once, he agrees with Sehun. He still ends up with Soojung, whether he confesses or not. The only difference is that if he does do it, he’d probably feel a lot lighter when she’s around. He was about to tell something to Sehun, when suddenly the dance instructor announces that their practice is going to start soon.

 

“Tell her tomorrow, and then invite her to your party on Saturday.” Sehun advices. He stands up from his seat, leaving Jongin thinking to himself until the dance instructor spots him in the bench.

 

“Kim Jongin, what are you doing here?”

 

 

“I totally didn’t like the kiss! I mean, apart from thinking about it all the time, I don’t actually dream of kissing Kim Jongin again! Like, that kiss is the last kiss we’re going to have ever. Also, Jinri is wrong. Making out is not the step before having ! ...Right?”

 

Knowing that her friends, both from Imperium Academy and Ehra High, are going to freak out and if she talks about what happened between them. Soojung had no choice but to search for someone (or something) to talk to. And that was what she was doing that afternoon after her school ended. Sited on grass near a river, she had to talk to ducks about her problem.

 

“We’re suddenly so awkward around each other. I don’t want this to happen you know?” She sighs as she threw a piece of bread at the ducks so they could eat. “I just want to , and laugh with him, and hug him, and kiss him- Jung Soojung take that back! You're like this because Derek used to do the same thing and now you're craving more from Jongin!”

 

“Jung Soojung?” She froze, hearing the mention of her name. When she turned around, she sees Taeyong in casual clothes, looking surprised to see her there. “What are you doing here?”

 

That part of town wasn’t really actually where you would find rich people, so both of them where quite shocked to see each other there. In fact, the area was actually near Ehra High so Soojung thought she would see Namjoon or anyone from that school, even though she didn't want to. He was the least person she thought to see there.

 

“Oh. I was totally not talking to the ducks.” She laughed half-heartedly, eating the remaining piece of bread that she bought from a nearby bakery. “I was just eating here. What about you? What are you doing here?”

 

“I was jogging until I saw you.” He tells her, but not a single sweat was on his face.

 

She looks at him from head to toe. He was wearing a black leather jacket, a hoodie and a pair of ripped skinny jeans. “Uhh, I don’t mean to sound judgemental, but really? You jog wearing jeans? The hoodie is understandable, but the leather jacket? Isn’t that like, really uncomfortable?”

 

“When I go out, I always tell myself that I’m going to jog but I always end up not doing it. That’s why I don’t wear jogging pants anymore and just walk around the city.” Taeyong explains as he laughed. “And it’s really chilly. I had to bring a jacket.”

 

It was her first time seeing and hearing him laugh that she got to amazed and forgot to reply for a minute. “Uhm, okay.” She laughs along. “Well, I have head home now.”

 

“Home? It’s too early. I was actually about to grab some pizza. Wanna come?” The boy asks.

 

Soojung literally had her jaw drop. The so-called social outcast of the school just wanted to hang out with her. Does he want to become friends with her? Who cares? He mentions pizza so she was surely going to come.

 

“Hell yeah, I would.”

 

 

Confessing to someone was one of the few things Jongin hasn’t done in his eighteen years of existence.  He has hiked a mountain, met the president of the country and eaten a fish that he caught, but he has never ever confessed to someone. Mainly because he’s usually the one who gets the confessions.

 

What he was planning was all very weird for him. Especially because of the fact that person that he’s going to say ‘I love you’ to is the same person who told him ‘I hate you’ while crying ten years ago. He finds it ironic and funny at the same time.

 

Just like what he would usually do in the mornings at school, he would go to his locker first to get his things before going to his class. But in that specific morning, he sees Soojung in his locker, trying to put something inside it as she looked around and smile to her fellow students. Suddenly feeling nervous, Jongin turns around but then remembers what he had to do.

 

When she sees Jongin approaching, it seemed like time stopped and everything was like in slow motion. It sounds very dramatic, but it did happen for Soojung. She literally had to snap out of it for her to remember what she was doing; putting a letter inside his locker.

 

“I need to talk to you, Soojung.” He says. It sounded very calm, but in reality Jongin was nervous as .

 

“Wow! Is that the bell I’m hearing?! Oh no! I’m late! Goodbye!” Soojung laughs awkwardly and runs away. She realizes midway that she dropped her letter so she turns around to retrieve it. But it was already late. Jongin was already picking it up. She had no choice but to continue running away from that place.

 

“I wanted to give you this on Saturday, but I forgot to give it to you.” He reads the message on the envelope. “Please read it when you’re alone.” Looking around, there weren’t a lot of students around so he decided to read it there.

 

Dear Jongin,

First of all, you better be not laughing at the end of this letter. In fact, you should feel special because I’m not that type of person who would just do stuff like this. I just felt really guilty that I don’t have any other gift for you apart from some stupid coupons when you gave jewelries and other stuff. So instead, I’m writing this heartfelt letter for you.

 

I bet that when you first find out from your mother that you’re engaged to me, you were just as pissed as I was. I mean, who wouldn’t honestly. Everybody thought we were close. We should have told our parents that we never got along at the first place. Whenever you make me cry, I would just wipe off my tears, pretend that nothing happened and smile at my parents when I’m with you so they would know that I’m doing well, when in reality I wasn’t. I was such a stupid girl, wasn’t I?

 

To be honest, when I did leave for Los Angeles, I received a lot of letters from you (even more than Jinri). Actually everybody wrote something for me, but you wrote the most stupid letters ever. Like, seriously who writes ‘I ate some beef last night’ and ‘I want a new game boy’ to a letter for a 7-year old girl? As if I’m going to buy you a game boy. When you stopped sending letters, I felt a little relived because I thought you found a new person to annoy. But I must admit, your random letters made laugh. 

 

Nothing much has changed – you still tease and annoy me a lot. Even when we’re not together, you’d still find a way by spamming me on Kakao Talk or sending a really ugly selfie on Snapchat when you know I’m with my family and I cannot laugh or curse out loud. You act all tough but deep inside you’re actually a puppy. There are times that you’re super sweet to me. Like the time when you brought me to Paris knowing that I was feeling down or when you brought Derek to Seoul. That’s something I will never forget and I will forever be grateful for you about that. Even though we both know what happened that night, I was still very happy when I saw him and a lot more when I find out it was you who brought him here.

 

Thank you so much for taking good care of me for the past few months. Apart from Jinri, you’re the next person I would think of when I need help because I know that you’d be there for me whatever the reason may be. And you’ve proven that a lot times already. This sounds really cheesy, but I’m glad that that I get to marry you instead of another guy. I’d choose you over any other man, honestly. I don’t even know what will happen to us in the future, but I am not worried. I know that I won’t have a boring life if I’m with you.

 

Happy Birthday, Jongin. ♥

Love, your amazingly talented, gorgeous, intelligent and cool future wifey, Soojung.

P.S. Be careful not to fall in love with me 'cause I’ll make sure you’ll suffer. ;-)

 

Regretting the decision of reading her letter on a public face, Jongin couldn’t stop smiling like an idiot. The phrase where she says that she’s glad that she’s going to marry him kept on popping out on his mind. That was so cute. Too cute.

 

“It’s too late. I already did.” He leans in to his locker, mumbling to himself in reference to her last sentence.

 

“Uhm, Jongin sunbae…” A younger student approaches him. “Are you… Are you okay? You’re super red right now.”

 

“Yeah, I’m alright.” He hides his face inside his locker, avoiding the weird gazes his juniors are giving him.

 

 

As soon as the bell rang indicating that it’s already the students’ lunch period, Soojung had the urge to rush out the classroom with both Seungwan and Sooyoung. She had planned to arrive at the cafeteria before her childhood friends so they won’t force her to sit on their table and lie on how the girls invited her to eat with them.

 

But no matter how fast she tries to be, it seems like everybody is just faster than her. They see Jongin standing outside their classroom, and almost automatically she looks away when their gazes meet. Her friends had to greet him, much to her annoyance.

 

“Come on, girls! I’m hungry!” She links arms with them so she could drag them faster, only to be stopped by Jongin again.

 

Knowing that his fiancé wouldn’t just stop if he tells her to stop, he decided to read the letter she made out loud. He kind of already memorized it by the end of that period for rereading it too much at class. He used his book as borders and hid behind it to read the letter. His professor wasn’t glad to see him doing something else though. When he scolded Jongin, the young boy just smiled at him and uncontrollably giggled in class, surprising his classmates.

 

“Dear Jongin… First of all-”

 

By hearing the first line of her letter, Soojung immediately freaks out. She grabs his tie and pulls him inside her now-empty classroom, but not before reminding Seungwan and Sooyoung to reserve a seat for her on the cafeteria.

 

“What were you doing?!” Soojung closes the door so nobody could come in. “I knew I shouldn’t have given that letter. Now you’re blackmailing me.” She looks over to Jongin who was fixing his tie and was sitting at one of the tables.

 

“No I wasn’t. I just wanted to grab your attention and talk to you.”

 

“Well you surely did.” She sits at table next to where he sat.

 

Jongin noticed that she hasn’t looked at him so to grab her attention, he kicks the table beside his but quickly regrets it after remembering that he should stop being too mean to her if he wants his feelings to get reciprocated . It worked though. She brieftly locks eyes with him, but she quickly looks away. 

 

“This is Jinwoo’s table. Stop kicking it.” She states, pushing his left foot away from it. “Anyways, just tell me what you want to say ‘cause I’m starving.”

 

“Soojung, I…” His stomach rumbles. He wasn’t even hungry, just nervous. “Uhm…”

 

“Are you hungry? Did you forget your money or something?”

 

“What? No. I just… Look at me.” He cups her face with both of his hand so she wouldn’t able to look away. Still not wanting to look at him, Soojung closes her eyes stubbornly but it still made Jongin’s heart flutter. To calm himself, he just plays with her cheeks.

 

“Can you stop?”

 

“Oh, sorry.” He stops, but he still cups her face. He has this urge of kissing her, but no. He won’t do that. “I…”

 

“You.”

 

“I… think your Korean handwriting is really ugly.”

 

Yet another insult. Jongin wishes he could punch himself right now without getting judged by her. To his surprise, Soojung didn’t look mad when he said that. Infact, she even agreed.

 

“It does .” She sighs. “The fact that I never forgot how to read and write hanggul amuses me though.”

 

“Should I teach you then?” Teach 

 

“Teach me? Nah, no thanks.” Slowly, she finally removes his hand from her face. “I actually want to talk to you about something as well, but I just don’t know how and when to talk to you.”

 

“Well, we’re all alone now. Tell me.”

 

“So I’ve been thinking about what happened last Saturday.”

 

Jongin suddenly got excited. Is she actually confessing? “Me too!” It’s true that he has been thinking about last Saturday. Hell, he didn’t even sleep that night because of the kiss. He’d pay millions to time travel and relieve that moment again.

 

“I was wondering if we could just… We could just forget about what happened?” He blinks slowly. The wasn’t what he was expecting it at all. “I mean, not all of it! Only the part when we kissed. I did truly enjoy the date-”

 

“Uh, yeah! Sure.” He doesn’t let her finish. “If that will make you happy, then let’s forget about it.”

 

Soojung grins, and though he was a little bummed out about it, he couldn’t help but to do so as well. “I knew I could count on you.” She stands up and ruffles his hair out of happiness, something that he always does to her. 

 

“So this is love, huh?” He thought to himself as Soojung pulls him outside of the classroom to go to the cafeteria. “Even if you don’t want to do it, you’ll still do it because of her.” His plan of confessing to her didn’t work, but it sure did feel like he got heartbroken. “Okay, you win Soojung. I might not have been successful today, but someday I will tell you that I love you. I know I will.”

author's note: 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY(to the story ehehehe)! :D How I wish I had the time to do something more special and more amazing, but instead you get this boring chapter. I didn't have a lot of spare time and I was very sleepy when I wrote this so it . I'm very sorry T_T I still hope you guys liked it though. Thank you so much for all the love and I hope you will continue enjoying my story *coughs*andthesequel?*coughs* I LOVE YOU ALL ♥

p.s. pls don't kill jongin + soojung for not confessing. T u T