CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

 

It was no surprise for Jackson to see Namjoon sitting at the bottom of the stairs as he knows that he arrived late again. He probably didn’t go straight to their class to avoid being scolded at by their teacher for the nth time. But what surprised him is seeing him read an article about the senior students of Imperium Academy on Incheon Airport. He was pretty sure it was them, as he precisely stopped at a picture of Soojung.

 

“Wait a minute, they get featured on articles?” Jackson asks to himself, a little amuzed, but quickly shrugs the thought. “Hey, Namjoon.”

 

After hearing Jackson’s voice, Namjoon immediately stood up and hid his phone at his back pocket. “Let me guess, you were kicked out by Mr. Lee, weren’t you?”

 

“Very funny, but no I wasn’t. He just ordered me to get some of his papers from the Science department.” Jackson stops, and wonders if he should ask why was he reading an article about his least favourite people, but knowing him, he would probably not answer so he decided to do it in a subtle way. “What were you doing?”

 

“Oh, you know, just waiting for the bell to ring so I could go to the next class.”

 

“So basically skipping class?”

 

“Exactly. I can’t stand another word from Lee, so yeah.” His captain then walks away from him, going to the opposite direction where he was about to go to. “There’s still a quarter hour left, so I’ll just smoke for a while.” 

 

“Hey, you really should stop smoking!” He warns him, but the boy just waves goodbye from him.

 

Even though he had known Namjoon for 4 years now, Jackson had to admit that his friend was quite the mysterious type. He was never the type to tell his thoughts if he wasn’t asked about it, but he just can’t seem to stop thinking about what Jongin asked him.

 

“No, Jackson. Kim Jongin’s just playing with you. He wants to ruin the teamwork that you have with the rest of the team.” He literally slaps himself and just went ahead to do what his teacher told him to do.

 

 

Jongin sat on his hotel bed, starring firmly at Chanyeol, who was also sitting at his bed just across his. The only exception is that the latter wasn’t able to stare at his friend back. The atmosphere in their room was so heavy, and Chanyeol wasn’t so sure if he should continue speaking after what he revealed, but his friend beats him into it.

 

“So what you’re telling me is that you are planning to study in Vienna after graduation and you haven’t told Jinri?”

 

“You’re making it sound like I did something super bad.”

 

“Well, you did. I know that it’s none of business, but I don’t think it’s good to keep secrets to your girlfriend.”

 

“Says the guy who hasn’t told the girl that he loves his real feelings.”

 

Feeling attacked, Jongin grabs a pillow to smack it to him. “Our situations are different, okay? This is your future with her we’re talking about.” He then sits back down after he realizes that his future with Soojung will also be affected if he tells her his feelings.

 

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I’m just… really stressed out about this.” Chanyeol sighs before continuing, “If she finds out about this, she’s going to kill me.”

 

“Well, it won’t surprise me if she does.” Jongin says flatly. “You two have been together for so long so of course she’s going to kill you for leaving her in Seoul. Out of all the places in the world, why would you rather study in Vienna anyways? Why not in Japan? Or China? Or somewhere near Korea? Why Europe? Are your parents forcing you to go there or-”

 

“No, of course not! I am the one who wants to study abroad, not my family.” He states, trying to stop Jongin’s constant questions that were making him dizzy. “This is exactly how Jinri is going to act, I could already imagine it.”

 

“I still don’t get it. You don’t need to study somewhere to inherit the company your father owns, so…” Jongin looks down. He was not the kind of people who blatantly showed his affections to his friends, but everybody knows how much he loved being with his friends. He was also unhappy when Tao and Kris left for China and it took him a while to finally accept that they won’t be able to hangout much unlike before. “But if you really want to, then go ahead. Just… don’t forget to call Jinri every day. She’d be so upset if you do.”

 

Chanyeol was finally able to smile again. “Thanks, man.” He then proceeds to shove him playfully and lay on his bed after.

 

Just when he was about to tell Chanyeol to leave his bed alone, Soojung kicks their door wide open. She enters the room wearing her pajamas and was even holding a camera on her right hand, confusing both of the boys.

 

“God damn it, Jung Soojung! You can’t just enter our room so suddenly!” Jongin shouts. He then glares at the camera as she zoomed in to his face, much to his annoyance. “We could have been when you entered!”

 

“Shockers, you two get at the same time? Jinri will hear about this.” To steal the camera, Jongin tried to snatch it from her but fails as she kicks him away.

 

The girl then proceeds to stand on Chanyeol’s bed to film the boy who was laying at the other opposite bed. Unlike Jongin, Chanyeol seemed to not mind Soojung filming him. He even puts up a peace sign, until Jongin appears on her sight again.

 

“Give me the ing camera!”

 

“Can’t do that, sorry.” She sticks her tongue out. “Jinri, Sehun and I are going to film a parody of Beyonce’s 7/11 music video and we we’re wondering if you guys want to come along.”

 

“Hell no!” “Of course!” Because of their contrasting answers, Jongin and Chanyeol exchanged looks, with the positive answer being Chanyeol’s and the negative one being Jongin’s.

 

“Okay, great! Please change into your pajamas. The rest of the class might arrive any moment now, so hurry the up, okay? Okay. Toodles!”

 

And with that, Soojung vanishes from their room, leaving the door open making Jongin groan in annoyance as he closed it himself. "I ain't gonna go there."

 

 

Because the long hour car rides, the five friends made sure they get up early so they could go to their respective destinations. They weren’t the only ones who were leaving New York City though. Some of their friends were also visiting the cities near the big apple to either see their relatives or to just go sightseeing.

 

For the past two days, Soojung has being waking up early just like the rest of the class so they could do a lot of things in a day. That particularly morning, she was feeling more annoyed than ever though. She stood in between Jongin and Sehun, waiting for Jinri and Chanyeol to say goodbye each other, but they have been kissing and hugging each other for the past five minutes in front of their friends. Surprisingly, It seems like she was the only one annoyed. She watched them with her arms folded, frowning while the two boys next to her just looked at them with their poker faces on, probably because they have seen this a lot of times already.

 

“You can’t be annoyed by this, Soojung.” Sehun mumbles, still looking at the two love birds. “You were like this as well with your ex-boyfriend. And besides, I bet you’d be doing the same thing with Jongin in the future.”

 

“Excuse me?” She looks at her right side where the boy was standing, her brows arching. “As if Jongin and I would be kissing each other everywhere we go! Am I right, Jongin?” She nudges her fiancé for him to speak up, but the boy was too busy spacing out.

 

“Huh? Yeah, whatever you say.”

 

“See? This is why we will never get along. He never listens to me.” She meant it as a joke, but he got a little mad by her accusation that they start to bricker again.

 

“What do you mean I do not listen to you?! I always do, you little !”

 

“Sure, you do.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

 

Sehun could only sigh. The two couple in front of him were busy being all lovey dovey and the ones right next to him were fighting. At times like those, he wished he had a girlfriend to do any of those two things. ‘Fighting’ with your loved one sure doesn’t sound very romantic, but he was sure that it was Soojung and Jongin’s own way of caring for one another so he didn’t mind doing that with his own special one.

 

To stop the commotion, Sehun flickers Soojung and Jongin’s foreheads then goes over to Chanyeol to pull him away from her girlfriend. After what he did, everybody glares at him, especially Jongin and Soojung who had been rubbing their forehead because of the pain they felt.

 

“Can we all ing go now? I haven’t seen my grandma in ages and I could already be in The Hamptons right now but all of you are wasting my time!”

 

“Stop blaming us! It’s your fault you don’t visit her when you literally have a plane and could fly anytime you want!” Soojung fires back, but then proceeds to hug her best friend to say goodbye.

 

“Don’t miss me too much, Soojungie.” Jinri teased, hugging her back.

 

“How I wish you’re going with us but I know you have to visit your family.” The shorter girl pouts.

 

While the two girls said goodbye, the boys gathered together at the other side to talk.

 

“Aren’t you going to tell me to take care of your girlfriend since, you know, I am going to travel with her alone?” Sehun asks Chanyeol.

 

“Jinri can take care of herself. I am more worried about you.” Chanyeol states. “I bet you’re going to flirt with every girl you see.”

 

“No, I am not!” Sehun gasp dramatically. He turns to Jongin, waiting for him to defend him but he just shrugs, basically agreeing to what Chanyeol said.

 

“Enough with the chit chats. Let’s go.” Soojung suddenly appears behind the boys, pulling her companions by their clothes which were Jongin and Chayeol.

 

“Goodbye, my love!” Jinri waves goodbye as Sehun approached her.

 

“Goodbye to you too!” Her bestfriend blows her a kiss after pushing the two boys inside the car.

 

“I meant Chanyeol, but I love you too Soojung!”

 

 

Inside the limousine that they hired sat Soojung being busy with her phone, Jongin trying to peek at whatever she was doing, and Chanyeol eating some snacks. He asked the two if they wanted some but they refused. Eventually, Jongin gives up and decided to start up a conversation with Chanyeol.

 

“So how are the wedding preparations going?” The taller boy asks after finishing his small bag of potato chips. “Ah, your wedding is quite near already but I’m still not used to say that my best mate is about to get married.”

 

“Me neither. It feels weird that I’m getting married to this…” He stops, glancing at Soojung. “…to this girl.”

 

“This girl has a name.” Soojung mutters, her eyes still on her phone.

 

“Anyways,” Jongin looks back to Chanyeol. “The wedding is going to be held on a beach, but we’re still deciding where we want to do it.”

 

“Malvides would be a great place to hold a beach party.”

 

“I kind of don’t want to have a beach wedding though.” Soojung complains, finally looking up as she sounded interested in her own wedding. “I don’t want to be reminded of California on my special day.”

 

“I thought you loved Cali?”

 

“I do, but I just don’t want to think about California on that day, you know?”

 

“I don’t, Soojung.”

 

“Did we even ask for your opinion?” Jongin asks her teasingly. To reply, she just pushes him away from her. A smile forms on his lips indicating that he’s enjoying every moment that he’s with her, even though she’s basically beating the out of him.

 

 

For Soojung, the feeling of standing in the grounds of one of the world’s oldest and best universities was incredible, especially when it’s the university that she has been admiring and wanting to go ever since she was young. Just seeing its name before she entered gave her the chills. And now she was in the school where important people went to, the school she that has been dreaming of.

 

Too bad she couldn’t study there.

 

Behind her was Jongin, just silently watching his fiancé in awe as she looked around Harvard University. She hasn’t even said any word ever since they got there and it’s honestly making him nervous. He doesn't say any word and just watches her look at the building, her eyes shining in amazement. But it seems like she was frozen as she was not moving forward.

 

The wind blows stronger, and it makes Soojung's beanie fall off. She turns around and sees it landing in front of Jongin. Without any word coming from his mouth, he picks it up and carefully puts it back on her. 

 

"I'm in shock, Jongin." 

 

"I could see that." 

 

"Isn't this just so magnificent?" 

 

"Indeed it is." The boy chuckles and proceeds on fixing her hair. 

 

Soojung looks back at the building in front of her. “Do you know why I wanted to go to Harvard?”

 

“Because your father went here?” He guessed, but she shook her head and says that her father went to Brown. “Then why?”

 

“I thought that I was never going to leave LA, so I planned on taking an exam here.” Soojung started off. “If I did get in, I told myself that I’m going to tell my family that I was dating Derek.”

 

Jongin falls silents. This was the first time in ages that they talk about him.

 

“If they support me on it, then good. If they didn’t and tried to cut my ties off with them, I planned on staying with Derek. I wanted to run away from him after college. I thought that being a Harvard graduate would make our lives easier. That’s how much I loved him.”

 

“That’s how much you loved him?” He repeats her exact words. For some reason, he felt his heart beating when he did. “Past tense?”

 

“Loved.” The girl repeats, still looking at the Harvard logo in front of them. “Past tense.” 

 

"Do you mind me asking something?" Jongin asks, catching her attention. She just nods, not knowing what it was all about. "When you broke up with him, I remembered that you cried a lot. It was weird to see you like that considering I was the one who always made you cry like that. So i thought, when Derek told me that he was going to ask you to run away with him, I knew that you were going to go with him." He pauses, his eyes looking directly at hers. "But you didn't. If you loved him, why didn't you go?"

 

"Because no matter how strong your love is for someone, you will let him go knowing that it's for the best." She smiled. "If you really love someone, you have to let him go because in the end, it will make him happier."

 

As a small smile creeps on Jongin’s face as she finished her answer.

 

“Let’s go.” She says, casually linking her arm into his. But since he was confused and didn’t understand what she meant, he freezes on the spot.

 

“Don’t you want to roam around? I mean, you are in Harvard.”

 

“If we do that, I might continue to fall in love with this university and end up enrolling myself in.”

 

“Then do it.” Jongin says with a serious face.

 

“I can’t.”

 

“Why not? If you really like this university, then go.”

 

“I do, a lot actually.” She sighs, but then she smiles at him again. A genuine smile. “It’s already enough that I went here with you.”

 

 

Their week in New York was actually just three days of having fun, and two days of travelling. They left Seoul early in the morning, arrived in New York in the evening on their first day. On Friday it was basically the same, except this time they left New York early in the morning, and they arrived in the evening in Seoul.

 

Despite having a 14 hour plane ride, everybody looked like they had a lot of fun, especially Jung Soojung, who compared at the first day, looked much happier and untroubled. Her happiness continued showing back at school. Apart from the good grades that she had achieved from the exams that they had days before the trip, she also gave out some pastel pink envelopes that contained their wedding invitation.

 

 

You are cordially invited to celebrate the wedding of

Kim Jongin

&

Jung Soojung

 

 

“Wow, this picture…” Sooyoung immediately points at the picture at the back. “Isn’t it quite cute?”

 

When Soojung and Jongin came back from their little McDonalds escapade, they were heavily scolded at by the staff. The two troublemakers did apologized, reasoning that they were hungry so they decided to eat out real quick. But as soon as the adults weren’t looking, they looked at each other and giggled.

 

Since they didn’t have much time left that day, the two were ordered to just go back at the photoshoot without the stylist even fixing their neither hair nor makeup. When Jongin was fixing Soojung’s hair himself, they suddenly felt a flash and realized that the photographer had snapped a picture of them without even telling them. But the photographer ordered them to ignore him and told them to continue what they were doing, as the candid picture of them looking at each other was one of his favourites.

 

They didn’t actually know that it was actually going to end up in their invitation.

 

“Is this really Kim Jongin? Why does he look so cool?” Taehyun asks, looking at the picture closely.

 

Nevertheless, he thinks the picture turned out great just like everybody else. They were all praising it whenever she passed by. There was this time when she was walking the hallways with the girls when they saw Jongin and his friends come out from one of the rooms they were about to pass. They didn’t say anything to each other, but she did smile at him and he does the same.

 

Jongin was too busy freaking out on the inside that he didn't notice his fellow students at them.

 

 

On the first Friday when they got back from New York, Soojung has finally decided to visit the café where Jackson and Mark work at. After that short but fun trip with her friends, she thought she could face people again with a smile. It was no surprise for her to see them acting dorky and silly as usual even though it has been so long since she last visited them. But she was quite surprised to see Taehyung there, wearing a similar working uniform as the two.

 

After telling them that she knows that they stalked her together with her friends, the boys started to complain about them, mostly about Jongin.

 

“Your fiancé is a huge pain in the neck.” Jackson exclaims in English. “The only thing he talks about is himself!”

 

“Okay, maybe not all the time.” Mark cuts him off as he sat beside his best friend, bringing some snacks for the guest. “He did talk about Soojung as well, more than himself actually.”

 

 “Well, when he did talk about himself, he kept on bragging about all the achievements that he has done.” Taehyung states. While talking, he quietly reaches for the snacks on the tray that were meant for Soojung. “Apparently he has met the president, both current and former one, he’s into horse-back riding, he was a fencing prodigy... He said a lot more that I can’t remember anymore.”

 

Soojung couldn’t help but to laugh. All he said were true, but he was exaggerating a little. “We have met the former president when we were kids but we were like 5 that time. I don’t even remember what happened. He did like horse-back riding, but I heard he doesn't do it much anymore because he almost fell once. And well, he was quite good at fencing when we were younger, though I think he prefers football now.”

 

“See? He was just bragging in front of us!” Jackson frowns. “I mean, who even rides horses anymore? Are we still in the 15^th century? Rich kids have such weird hobbies! No offense though if you like it…”

 

“None taken.” She chuckles. “You know who’s an excellent horse-back rider though? Park Chanyeol. He was the best in our group.”

 

Upon hearing the name of his boss’ son, Jackson immediately takes it back, causing his friends to judge him. “Horse-back riding is cool though? Wow.”

 

“Jackson’s acting as if Kim Jongin didn’t invite him for a ride in his Porshe.” Youngji, who has been quiet as she has no negative thoughts on her friends, finally speaks up. “The idiot refused because of his pride.”

 

“Ugh, don’t even remind me about that!” The boy cries.

 

“He gets a little emotional when it comes to cars.” Mark explains, patting his best friend on his back. Soojung laughs again. Oh how much has she missed these idiots.

 

 

As February comes to an end, and their graduation is coming up day by day, the talk of the students was their college entrance exams. Some still didn’t know what university to go to after high school, while some are already studying hard to enter to their desired universities. One person in particular is more nervous about what the reaction of his loved one.

 

Just when Soojung was about to arrive back at her home, she receives a phone call from Jinri. She actually found it strange because they don’t usually do phone calls. They were the type to just send messages until midnight, so she didn’t understand why she was calling so suddenly. But she decided to accept her call anyways.

 

“Hello-”

 

“Soojung, I need you right now.”

 

Before she could even finish greeting her, Jinri has already spoken up.

 

“Huh? What’s wrong?” She asks, but her best friend didn’t reply immediately. “Hey, speak up! You’re making me nervous…”

 

Eventually, she hears a sigh at the other line of the call. “We’re over. Chanyeol and I broke up.”

 

 

It was during their freshman year when Jinri and Chanyeol first got together. At that time, Chanyeol, being a member of the infamous football team, was quite popular with the girls in their grade. So when the students found out about the relationship, most of his fangirls started to bully Jinri. 

 

Being madly in love with his childhood friend, Chanyeol stood up for his now girlfriend with the help of his friends. Maybe that’s why there’s only two girls in their group. All of their female classmates have started to get scared of them when that happened.

 

Since that day, the two couple had become stronger than ever. They were even dubbed as the official couple of Imperium Academy as they had been together for so long. Even if they had their occasional but short fights and break ups, they’d still find a way to be together.

 

So when Jinri called to say that they have broken up, Soojung didn’t think twice and headed straight to her place. Of course, she didn’t forget to bring a tub of Ben & Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream, knowing that it will make her feel better apart from her presence. Just when she was about to knock on her bedroom door, Jinri opens it immediately after hearing her voice when she was talking to one of her maids. She must have been waiting for her to come.

 

“Jinri… what happened?”

 

“I don’t to talk about it.” The taller one mumbles, sobbing at her best friend’s shoulder. “Not now.”

 

And with that, Soojung didn’t say any word anymore. She understood exactly how she felt that moment. She just lets her cry while eating the ice cream that she bought for her. Though it was one of her favourite flavours, she just gave everything to her. But it wasn’t enough to make Jinri feel better. In fact, nothing was making her happy, not even watching  Ryan Gosling was making her happy.

 

“Maybe a quick trip at Chanel’s in Gangnam will cheer you up?”

 

 “Coco won’t make me happy.” But JInri shook her head, shoving another handful of cookie dough to . “But it will do if you stay with me here, I’d probably feel better tomorrow morning.”

 

With a small smile plastered on her face, Soojung nods on Jinri’s request. “Of course.” She won’t leave her now. Not when she feels the weakest. Now the only thing that she’s thinking is a way to kill Park Chanyeol tomorrow at school.

 

 

For some reason, Chanyeol was looking a little nervous, both Sehun and Jongin noticed. He hasn’t actually told them that Jinri and him have separated, but he wasn’t nervous of seeing her now ex-girlfriend. He was more nervous of seeing her bestfriend, who will surely murder him because he knows the first person who would know about their breakup is Soojung.

 

He could remember the first time they broke up. Soojung knew it first before anyone else and she sent him tons of messages. She was in California at that time, so she couldn’t just go to his place to shout at him, but now she’s actually living in the same city as him, and even goes to the same school as him, he didn’t know what she will do now.

 

“Are you okay mate?”

 

“Y-yeah. Of course, I am.”

 

Just five minutes before the bell rings, a taxi pulls out in front of their prestigious school. Coming out of it was Jung Soojung, wearing some of Jinri’s clothes. Chanyeol would know that of course. He was pretty sure that she slept at her place. When she spots the boys, her gaze immediately changes into a cold, icy one.

 

This got Jongin quite excited. It has been a long time since he saw her mad. She was being all sad weeks ago, then became all cheerful again after their trip in New York and he has been missing her angry side. So the fact that Soojung was walking to his way, looking pissed (and hot at the same time, if he may add), got him thinking if he has done anything wrong to her.

 

He then realizes that the taller Chanyeol, who was standing behind him, had started running away. The girl does the same, running pass him and Sehun without even saying good morning, not knowing what was happening.

 

“Get back here, Park Chanyeol!” Soojung shouts.

 

“Well, our morning is starting quite happily, isn’t it?” Sehun comments as he walked closer to Jongin. Both of them watched as two of their friends run up the stairs, pushing off some of their schoolmates. “If you want to stop them, you have to do it yourself. I don’t want to run and sweat early in the morning so…”

 

“Don’t worry. I don’t want to see Soojung calming down soon either anyways.”

 

Meanwhile, Chanyeol was too busy running away from Soojung. He was currently at the second floor of the school and most of the students haven’t come up yet so it was easier for him to run. Out of curiosity, he looks back to see Soojung still chasing him. When he looks backs to his front side, he sees that he was about to hit the lockers and even though he wanted to stop, his legs weren’t able to at the right time.

 

The next thing he knows, he was on the floor, his eyes closing because of tiredness. He later feels Soojung putting her foot on his chest, stepping on it heavily for him to not escape.

 

“I didn’t do anything! I swear!” He cried. “Please don’t kill me!”

 

“Of course you didn’t! You just happened to break things off with my best friend days before her ing birthday!” She confidently curses, knowing that there was nobody around. “Actually, it doesn’t even matter if her birthday’s coming up! How dare you break up with her! She’s Choi Jinri, for God’s sake!”

Feeling that Soojung has lifted her foot, Chanyeol was ready to get up. Until he sees her foot about to be placed on his neck, threatening to choke him.

 

“But I didn’t!” Chanyeol suddenly shouts, causing Soojung to stop. “I didn’t break up with her!”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Jinri… She was the one who broke things off. She… she dumped me.”

author's note: 

Yoooo, I'm alive! XD

I am very sorry for the delay. i have been so stressed out lately because of school stuffs. The good news is school's ending in a month or so, but the bad news is that I might not update again in the following weeks until school ends. Though I would really do love to update, I just couldn't because this is usually the time when my teachers give us the most work in whole school year.

 

So yeah, i'll see you all on the next chapter! i hope you all have a wonderful day! <3