009
CHAPTER NINE

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“I hope we become great friends.”

 

“Me too.”

 

Lee Naeun smiles at me one last time before turning her pretty little head to the front, her gaze slowly drifting away from my view. I don’t bother to voluntarily call her attention anymore, because I wasn’t really interested in her. From the looks of it, Naeun seemed like one of those girls who didn’t befriend people like me unless they wanted something. I don’t know. Maybe I’m making too much of this. I mean, there are other people who just enjoy making friends. Maybe she is just one of those people. Although, somehow, I highly doubt that is true. In the entire time I’ve been seated here, I’ve never seen her approach anyone else…so… Maybe it is.

 

But why? Could It be my newfound relationship (non-romantic, of course) with Chanyeol? After all, he did say that Naeun was a stalker, particulary his stalker. I’m sure Chanyeol isn’t the type of guy to say things like that about people for no apparent reason.

 

God.

 

Shaking my head, I look up and try to distract myself from all my random thoughts and I can see the professor walk in a few seconds later in a white, form-fitting t-shirt and board shorts. I can see swimming seemed to be doing wonders for him, seeing his perfectly-sculpted body. His arms and legs looked very strong and he was tall as well, making him look a bit intimidating from the back. He smiles at us once before taking a marker out from his pocket and begins to write on the whiteboard before us.

 

Jung Yun Ho

 

“Hello everyone,” he says as he places the whiteboard marker down. “This here is my name. I am Jung Yunho and I will be your professor in this Water Sport class for the rest of the semester.”

 

I bite back a smile because I found it funny that he was so straight to the point. Then I hear Naeun giggle. “Funny right?” she says as if she even knows what I’m talking about.

 

I just nod oh so very slowly in agreement and turn back to the professor.

 

“First of all, I don’t like doing boring introductions. So all you have to do is put effort in the class and make me recognize you as the semester progresses. So we’ll skip that.”

 

‘Yes!’ I scream out in my mind, and I hear a few people whispering it out loud.

 

Naeun bends down to match my level. “That’s great isn’t it?” she whispers. “I never really liked introducing myself over and over.”

 

“Huh?” I raise my eyebrows at her. “O-oh, yeah. That .” I smile.

 

“Seems you guys like it,” the professor says as he smiles. “Good. Alright, the next thing. This is very important,” he clears his throat. “This is a water sport class. Does anybody know what that means?”

 

Somebody raises his hand. “It’s best if we know how to swim beforehand.”

 

“Correct,” Professor Jung says. “So, can everybody… don’t be shy. Can everybody who doesn’t have any clue about swimming raise their hand? Anybody who doesn’t know how to swim?”

 

No one’s hands go up.

 

“Guys, come on. I won’t kick you out of the class. I just need to know which of you require special attention…”

 

I my breath in, contemplating on whether or not to raise my hand. Looking around, I see that nobody does it, so ultimately I decide against it. I mean, how bad could it be?

 

“Oh?” Naeun says. “Haneul-sshi, you know how to swim?”

This .

 

“I guess.”

 

“Ah… That’s good.”

 

I am going to pull you under the water you little-

 

“No one’s raising their hand? So everybody can swim?” The instructor says. We nod. “Alright.If you guys say so. Don’t you dare call out to me when you’re drowning in the middle of the pool,” he laughs. And everyone does as well.

 

“Great. Since it’s only the first day, I can’t really do much. So just remember to bring goggles, a swim cap and swimming attire next time. No board shorts. No t-shirts. No revealing stuff. Um it’s…” He checks his watch and looks up as if to show he’s thinking. “I arrived a little late, so it’s only 4:20. I’ll wait until 4:50 to dismiss you guys. In the meantime, do whatever you want.”

 

‘Great,’I think. ‘More quality time with my new bff.’

 

* * *

 

I spend the rest of the half hour trying to answer Lee Naeun’s questions about Chanyeol. It’s as I suspected. The actual motive here wasn’t to make friends with me, but it had something to do with Chanyeol. Did she want to know if I knew more about Chanyeol than she did? I highly doubt that. Did she want to steal information about Chanyeol from me, that she possibly didn’t know about? Or was she trying to get to know me so that she could get closer to Chanyeol? The boy did make it seem like he didn’t like Naeun very much, which probably meant that they weren’t that close. Anyways I only answered Naeuna’s questions with ‘I don’t know’ or gave vague responses. This was because: A. I truly do not know the answer to her question, and B. I know she is using me to get to Chanyeol.

 

She reminds me of a certain someone a lot.

 

Lee Minhyuk.

 

They’re both so pushy. I wonder if the two of them are related. And I wonder if the stalking Naeun does is as intense as the kind that Minhyuk did last night. Although, I still don’t know if last night was a coincidence or not I’m beginning to think it was planned out from the beginning.

 

Why don’t those two just stalk each other?

 

Surprisingly, though, Lee Naeun also knows my roommate. But we don’t talk much about Eunna. She probably just slipped that topic in somewhere so I wouldn’t think that all she wanted to talk about was Chanyeol.

 

Well, it wasn’t working.

 

I can only sigh at all the interesting things that have been happening to me. And I’ve only been officially attending Seoul University for three days and look at all the interesting plot twists.

 

“Hello? Haneul-sshi? Were you listening to me?” Naeun’s voice cuts through my thoughts like a blade and wakes me up.

 

“W- what? Sorry?”

 

“I was telling the story of when Chanyeol and I first met,” she pouts.

 

“O- oh?” I smile fakely. “Really? I’m sorry. I kind of spaced out in the middle of our conversation,” I reply and she sighs.

 

“It’s okay,” Naeun says. “I’ll just retell it from the beginning!” She claps her hands like a retarded seal. “That’ll be okay, right?”

 

I nod.

 

I do even if I am so so so against this.

 

And the rest of the period is spent on things like this.

 

* * *

 

Naeun and I walk out of the Physical Education building together and she insists on buying me bubble tea from the shop across. I couldn’t think of what to say to her to deny her offer, so I tag along and tell her to buy me whatever she feels like buying.

 

I find out that this is her last class of the day and that she was headed to the dorms for the evening, but she has to go to the main building to arrange some things with the office. I have to get there too because I promised Eunna this morning that we would head home together today. So I decide that maybe It would be possible for me to endure her presence for the rest of the walk. After all, she did buy me this delicious cup of bubble tea.

 

And so I pretend to nod and listen as I take small sips of my bubble tea while she tells stories that sound like nonsense to me, because I have absolutely no idea what Lee Naeun is talking about. I pull my phone out– still showing her that even though I am texting, I can listen to her stories. Then I send Eunna a text, informing her that I am on the way to our designated meeting place, and that I am with someone else from my Water Sports class.

 

Of course, Eunna replies almost immediately (because her boring class probably just ended, and she had been texting the entire time) and she tells me that she’s on her way as well and that she would love to meet my new friend.

 

I, however, don’t tell her who my friend is because I would love to see the reaction on her face when she sees that’s it’s someone she knew before me. And possibly dislikes. (Because Eunna has never been the kind of girl that hangs out with girls like Naeun who only talk about boys. In fact, Eunna might even kick her in the crotch for that because, as we all have established, Park Eunna absolutely hates boys.)

 

Imagining her reaction makes me smile.

 

We are approaching the entrance of the main building, when we see a familiar face–one all too familiar for both me and Naeun. My companion stopped as she saw Park Chanyeol exiting the building, his long legs skipping steps two at a time, looking really sleepy. A smile makes it’s way to her face and her expression brightens. For the first time today, I think that Lee Naeun is genuine. It seems as though she really liked the tall boy. You could see it in the way she looked at him. You could see it in the way her eyes lit up when they caught sight of him. And It makes me wonder what kind of person she really is.

 

“Oppa!” She runs up to him like a child running towards those fake Santa Clauses at the mall before Christmas.

 

Chanyeol was obviously out of it, as he almost falls when he sees her running towards him. His eyes widen and I can see him tense up. I put on an amused expression, and start walking towards where he stood as well.

 

“N- naeun?” he swallows hard. “You’re back?”

 

Liar, I think. You knew she was back since this morning.

 

Naeun nods. “No one told you, oppa?” she giggles and her voice becomes high-pitched all of a sudden. “I thought for sure someone would’ve told you by now. But then again, isn’t it such a pleasant surprise to find out that I’m back?” she winks. “I bet you missed me over the break, oppa. What did you do over break? Were you bored?”

 

Tch. I think you’re the only one who missed him. The feeling isn’t mutual.

 

Naeun asks him all kinds of questions, but strangely she does not give him a chance to answer any one of them. It’s as if the words came out of like bullets shooting from a machine gun. It was probably her excitement getting the better of her. After all, she would’ve been so sad not being able to see her oppa for so many days.

 

She keeps talking as I come to a stop beside them. Chanyeol becomes even more surprised when he sees me standing there. And instead of focusing on Naeun, he chooses to stare in my direction. Naeun, of course, does not let this pass and turns her head in whichever direction oppa is looking at.

 

“What are you loo- oh! Haneul-ah!” she runs over to me and takes my arm.

 

What Haneul-ah? We’re that close now?

 

“You know her, oppa?” She asks brightly. “Haneul-ah is in my Water Sport class! She’s the newest friend I’ve made. In fact, we were walking to the main building together just before we saw you.”

 

Chanyeol seemed skeptical at what she had said, so he looks at me and I nod. The shock is evident on his face and he sighs.

 

“Ah, really?” he laughs a little weaker than usual. “Well, I was just heading back to the dorms so if you would excuse me-“

 

“Ah,” she grabs him by his sleeve to prevent him from escaping. “Why don’t you wait for me, oppa? I’ll be going back to the dorms in a while. I just need to drop by the office for a while. It won’t take long. I promise!”

 

“But, I’m completely tired right now so-“

 

“Haneul!”

 

Eunna appears from the inside of the building (even though I told her I would meet her inside) and runs toward my direction, Minhyuk following behind her. She pulls me into a hug.

 

“God, I thought I heard someone say your name out here,” she smiles and leans in to whisper in my ear. “Minhyuk was in my class and he was headed to the dorms. So yeah. I didn’t lure him here or anything.” She winks. “So where’s the friend you were-“

 

“Eunna?” Naeun turns to us. “Hey,” she says.

 

“NAEUN?” Eunna’s eyeballs were about to pop out when she saw that the person I was with was Naeun. She turns to me, then to the other girl and we both smile.

 

“Haneul’s my new friend,” Naeun says. “I heard you were her roommate.”

 

“Y- yeah,” My” roommate nods and gives me a look that demanded an explanation.

 

“Anyway, I hear we have a lot of classes together. I just got back today,” she says.

 

“Yeah well, great we’re all friends here,” Eunna smiles. Warm and plastic. And she brings Minhyuk over. “He’s our friend too. Meet-“

 

“MINHYUK?” Naeun practically screams.

 

It is so nice to see that everybody here knows each other.

Or not.

 

Minhyuk seems equally shocked, but does not verbalize.

 

“What the heck are you doing here?” She says. Eunna, Chanyeol and I look at each other, exchanging surprised and confused looks.

 

“I transferred,” was his short answer. “So you were here?”

 

“God damn it,” she says. “Sorry, oppa,” she turns to Chanyeol. “We can catch up tomorrow at lunch. I’ll text you tonight.”

 

“Y- yeah.”

 

I give Chanyeol a questioning look. Lunch was our time.

 

‘Don’t worry,’ he mouths and I can only roll my eyes.

 

Naeun takes Minhyuk by the hand and drags him into the building. “Sorry guys. I need to have a little talk with my cousin over here.”

 

Okay.

 

Wait… Cousin?!

 

I was joking when I said they might be related, but I am not really surprised to find out that they hand this kind of relationship. They’re equally pushy and kind of weird and obsessed and a lot of other things.

 

However, it seems that Chanyeol and Eunna didn’t know this.

 

Naeun closes her eyes and breathes out. “Ah whatever.”

 

She then turns to us. “I’ll see you all tomorrow! Bye!”

 

And she finally disappears from our sight.

 

Chanyeol looks around to see if she was really gone and he lets out a sign of relief. Eunna pats his back.

 

“I am so ed. God. Why is she back already?”

 

“She seems nice,” I say.

 

The giant looks at me like I’m a crazy person. “Nice? She’s CRAZY. C- R- A- Z- Y. Did you see her face when she saw me? To top it all off, she’s Minhyuk’s cousin. Notice how equally creepy they are.” He ruffles his hair in frustration and sighs. “Well I’ll see you tomorrow. Baek and I are plotting evil tonight.”

 

I don’t understand what he just said, but I nod. Eunna and I bid him goodbye, wondering why it looked like he was a bit reluctant to leave compared to before, and then we start walking back to the café.

 

Eunna, of course, doesn’t waste time questioning me about Chanyeol and Minhyuk from the previous night. But it was only a matter of time until we reached the topic of Naeun. I tell her she’s the one who made the first move and tried to make friends with me. My roommate can only scoff when she hears that.

 

“Seriously? I hate that girl,” she says. “She was one of my roommates. And man is she annoying. All she talks about is that giant Chanyeol and he has photos of him on her wall. People call us twins. It’s probably because we have the same hairstyle and height. And the same major. And my name warped is basically her name,” she rolls her eyes.

 

“Anyway, I am way more fabulous than that crazy woman.”

 

She laughs. And then in fades into her previous expression. “Be careful of her. She specially targets girls that are close to Chanyeol.”

 

I don’t know if I should be scared or not.

 

* * *

 

“Naeun? What the hell are you doing here? You should go back to uncle,” Minhyuk says as they slowly head back to the dorms.

 

“No way,” she scoffs, her heels clicking loudly on the stone pavement. “Besides, it’s my older brother who needs to marry. Mom knows where I am, though. And why call him uncle? He’s your dad now too.”

 

Minhyuk scoffs.

 

“But wait,” he says. “That Park Chanyeol is the guy you like?”

 

Naeun’s eyes widen and he slaps his shoulder. “The man I like?” she says it as if it were the most absurd thing she has ever heard. “He’s my future husband!”

 

In your dreams, Minhyuk thinks.

 

“Well,” he says. “I think we should help each other out with that, shouldn’t we?”

 

The girl stops in her tracks.

 

“What do you mean, oppa?”

 

“Oh you know,” he leans in closer. “Just something.” And he whispers in her ear.

 

The corners of turn up in a smirk.

 

“I think that’s a great idea.”

 

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hiiii omfg. it's been forever but i'm here now. so sorry. life happened. XD double update for you guys o 3 o |  pstd. 150813