Double update, make sure you've checked chapter nine before.

 “No mom please I don't want to go please let me stay home we can say I'm ill but please I really don't want to go there it will be cold and I will probably die because of-”

“Byeol,” her mother prevented her for whining more, “shut up.”

The young girl pouted and felt tears coming to her eyes.

“No Byeol even if you cry I won't give up, you're going, that's my final words.”

During a whole week, Byeol had managed to forget that she was going to a school trip. She didn't know how it happened but she suspected her family not talking about it especially for her to forget and not to worry, yet, on the Sunday's evening, she had to left her home to go at the school where the other students and teachers would gather before leaving to the mountains. And Byeol didn't want to leave.

Byeol sighed and kicked the nearest wall.

“You're just like a child, Byeol! But for God's sake, you're seventeen years old!”

“I don't care!” she sobbed, “I don't want to go!”

“But why?!” her mother shouted back, really pissed, “why can't you be just like the other teens?! Why can't you be as nice and kind as Hongbin?! Why can't you just be normal?!”

Hongbin and his father who were in the living room looked at each other, expecting what was coming next. Byeol and her mother just stared at each other, waiting for the other to look away.

“I'm tired of you, Byeol,” Mrs. Lee muttered under her breath, “I-I can't pretend anymore. You're driving me crazy with your pseudo-phobia and your strange behavior. All I ever wanted was to have a nice, caring and beautiful daughter, and all I have is a daughter who is scared to go out, who doesn't have friends and who's considered to be a freak. I just can't stand it anymore. So you're going because I don't want to be with you. I just want to enjoy my time with my family.”

For the second time of her life, Byeol felt her heart broke into tiny little pieces.

*

“Kim Byeol!”

She jolted on her seat and turned around to see Cha Hakyeon sitting on her left, on the seat which was unoccupied three seconds ago.

“How are you?” he asked, “don't you mind me sitting next to you during the ride? Promise I won't bother you too much.”

“Just do whatever you want,” she mumbled and looked at the deserted school from the window.

“Oh! You've actually answered me! That's incredible! Do you know that you've got a nice voice? I really like it and-”

“You said you wouldn't be a bother,” she looked at him with knitted brows.

“Oh... yeah,” he chuckled, “sorry.”

He smiled and put his earphones into his ears, listening to his music while Byeol was just staring blankly at the dark outside. They still hadn't left the school's parking but the darkness of the night and the moon were already there. Hongbin was waiting outside for them to leave, not looking away from his sister for a second. When their gazes were meeting, he was smiling and waving. At the front of the bus, the teachers were talking and were giving their students some advices, yet she wasn't listening, her mind left at her home.

The bus she was in started moving, so she quickly waved at Hongbin and kept looking at him until he disappeared. A lump appeared in and she did her best not to cry, especially since the head boy was sitting next to her.

“Hum... Byeol?” She glared at Hakyeon, “do you want to listen to some music?” he asked.

She wanted to refuse and to ask him to let her alone, to completely forget about her and to act as if she wasn't even there, but she accepted, thinking that music would ease her aching heart. She nodded and took one of the earphones, putting it into her own ear. She closed her eyes and leaned a bit more into the seat, Winner's Baby Baby filling her head. By her side, Hakyeon wasn't moving or speaking: just like her, the music was rocking him and he felt at ease, ready to start this exciting trip.

One hour later, the driver of the bus had turned off the light, so most of the students had fallen asleep. Byeol wasn't sleeping, yet her face was completely expressionless as she was staring blankly at an invisible point in front of her.

“Kim Byeol,” Hakyeon who wasn't sleeping either yet who seemed exhausted, poked her cheek, “Byeol,” he whined like a child because she wasn't answering, “Byeol-ah.”

“What?” she whispered because she didn't want anybody to hear her.

“Do you have nickname?”

“What?” she frowned.

“A nickname, like... my little Star or... Starlight. You know?” he said in English.

“No... I-I don't have something like that, no.”

“You should have one,” he sighed, “you're beautiful and you have a beautiful name too.”

The concerned girl blushed and felt suddenly hot because she was starting to panic. Fortunately, because of the dark, he couldn't see her face which was all red.

“Well, I'll you call you little Star now.”

“I don't want you to do that.”

“Why?” he raised a brow.

“Because it's annoying.”

“I said I wasn't going to be a bother during the ride, not during the trip.”

He grinned, really proud of himself and winked at her because closing in eyes.

*

They finally arrived at the location two hours later. The sleeping students had to wake up and they got off the bus, took their suitcases with them to listen to their teachers telling who was going to be in which room. The school had rented a huge cabin, which had more than ten bedrooms which could have up to eight persons in it. Most of the students, especially the girls, had asked to be together with their friends, but since Byeol was alone, she just went where the teachers sent her to. She didn't pay attention to the other girls of the bedroom, took a shower and went to bed, hiding under the cover to ignore the people around. And no matter how hard she tried to fall asleep, she just couldn't. So in the middle of the night, she sneaked out of the room, made sure they were no teachers around and went downstairs to the silent living room. She sat on the sofa and watched the fire burning the wood inside the fireplace. In a time like this, she wanted to call for her brother but the teachers had taken all the mobile phones with them to help the students to talk to each other, which was a stupid idea according to Byeol.

She brought her knees against her chest and lay her head on top of it, smiling foolishly as she started to sing All I want for Christmas is you. She didn't really like this song, but it was always reminding her of good times she had with her brother the previous year. Now, Christmas was in a week and Ryeowook wasn't sure he was coming to Korea.

“Byeol.”

She jumped, nearly fall of the sofa and stood up, ready to explain what she was doing here. Yet, it was a teacher who appeared by her side, but Taekwoon. She sighed, relieved, when she saw the light of the fire reflecting on his handsome face and bowed her head politely.

“Have I scared you?” she nodded, “sorry. What are you doing here?”

“I couldn't sleep.”

“Me neither.”

He sighed and sat on the sofa, Byeol sitting back too.

“You know... Hongbin told me to take care of you during this week, so... if there's something bothering, just tell me.”

“I'll try avoiding any troubles, which means people.”

“Just... try to have fun, you know? I'll stay with you.”

“Just have fun with your friends and classmates, who would like to spend time with a girl like me? Especially since I'm in twelve grade, people will wonder why we're together. I don't want you to be look down on only because of me,” she sighed and stood up once again.

“Byeol,” he grabbed her wrist, “you know I don't care about what the others think. I do whatever I want with whoever I want to. Just try to remember this.”

She smiled, not really convinced and bowed her head one last time before leaving, going back to her bedroom.

“Pss, Byeol,” Mari, one of her classmates who was sleeping on the bunk bed over hers called for her, “where were you?”

“Downstairs.”

The girl didn't ask for more and Byeol went back to bed, yet she didn't fall asleep.

*

“So, since this is the first day, we're going to be nice with you,” the teacher told the students, “you'll all have the same map and by groups of five or six, you must find several points where clues are hidden. Each clues will lead you to the following and by the end of the day, you should find the gathering point where we'll all have diner. Do you understand?”

Simple but effective, Byeol thought.

“Obviously each group will have one phone to contact us if you're lost, but please, never leave your team. No matter what you'll do, just stay together. Alright?”

“Yes,” most of the students answered.

The teacher nodded and quickly the teams formed themselves depending on the affinities. Byeol locked eyes with Taekwoon, as if it was obvious for them to be together, but they didn't have enough time to move that Hakyeon was already dragging her forward his group.

“She's with us!” he smiled proudly, “This is Kim Byeol.”

“W-what?! No no no I don't want to!”

“You can't chose,” he smiled.

“Nice to meet you Byeol, I'm Minseok,” one guy with chubby cheeks and a cute face smiled at her.

“And I'm Lu Han, I'm Chinese, so please don't mind my accent.”

“I'm Yoora,” the only other girl smiled at the youngest.

“And least but not last, I'm Wu Yifan.”

“Are you perhaps Lee Hongbin's sister?” Lu Han asked her so she nodded, because she couldn't say anything else, “I knew I had already seen you.”

“You can go now!” the teacher told them all so they all left in different directions.

“Hop! Come on Byeol,” Hakyeon put his arm around her shoulder and pushed her in the right direction, “let's have some fun together!”

*

“Are you sure we're not lost?” Yifan frowned.

“No it's the right direction,” Hakyeon kept nodding while looking at the map he had in his hand, “this is obviously the right way.”

“This is why we haven't found any clues after we've been walking for two hours already,” Yoora rolled her eyes.

“What do you think Byeol?” Minseok smiled at her.

She shook her head but didn't answer since she couldn't say a word: she was mortified to be with them.

“Have we passed by a little fountain?” Hakyeon asked.

“No.”

“Have me passed by a big oak with a dark trunk?”

“No.”

“Okay,” he folded the map and looked up, “we're lost.”

“Aish,” Minseok cursed, “why did we chose to be with him already?” he asked Lu Han.

“He's the head boy, he is supposed to be clever and everything!”

“Do you know where we are on the map?” Yoora asked and walked toward him, stopping just in front of the boy so only a little gap was left.

They looked at the sheet of paper, looking for their way, while Byeol, Minseok, Lu Han and Yifan kept looking at them.

“Hey, I've talked with Yoora during the ride,” Yifan whispered at his friends yet Byeol could hear him, “she's going to ask him.”

“What?” Minseok frowned.

“She's going to ask Hakyeon if he wants to date her or not!”

“Oh! Yes! I've heard it too!” Lu Han reacted, “I'm sure he's going to say yes, I've heard him talking about this girl he was often with lately, he said he was interested by her! I'm sure he was talking about Yoora!”

“We just have to wait for the end of the week to have an answer,” Yifan shrugged.

Behind them, Byeol kept mum and looked back and forth at Hakyeon and at Yoora. She was very beautiful. She was thin and tall, she had long black hair and a thin face with big round eyes, a button nose and a red lips. She clearly made Byeol felt bad. I will never be good enough for someone, she thought and sighed.

*

“Hey Byeol the teacher said we- Oh my god Byeol I'm sorry!” Hakyeon shouted.

She had stopped for a very short while to drink a bit and to put on her red beany and matching gloves since it was starting to get cold in the forest and Hakyeon, while looking for her, had unfortunately bumped into her to the point that she felt on the ground, her knees scratching on some rocks.

“Are you hurt?” he knelt next to her, “are you alright?”

“I'm fine,” she sighed and stood up.

“I'm really sorry,” he pouted, “I hadn't seen you.”

“That's alright, no one sees me anyway,” she muttered under her breath, making sure he couldn't hear her.

She followed the path and Hakyeon stepped behind her. They were no longer lost since they had miraculously found another group who had showed them their way, yet they still had to reach the gathering point before the sun was down.

“Wait for me, Little Star,” he chuckled.

*

“I knew you were hurt!”

“You scared me!!” Byeol jumped and stepped back, really surprised.

Since they didn't have bathrooms into the bedrooms, they had to shower downstairs. The boys had their own, obviously, yet they were just in front of the girls' ones. Byeol was just coming out of the bathroom, already wearing her nightclothes, that Hakyeon had scared her to death.

“Have you been waiting for me?” she frowned.

“Hum,” he nodded and looked at her left knee which was visible because she was wearing shorts, “I was sure you were hurt. Follow me.”

He sized her wrist and dragged her behind him, ignoring all of her remarks. Once they reached the sofa inside the living room, he gently pushed her on it and sat on the ground, his back facing the fire still lightened inside the fireplace. As if he had already prepared everything, he put a little plastic bag next to him.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Just stay still and let me do this, already?”

“But what are you going to do?!”

He didn't answer and gently put his hand around her ankle. She shivered and jolted, the strange feeling of having another human touching her being weird, but he just tsked and seized her ankle even more.

“Don't move, Little Star.”

The nickname made her froze. She looked at him pulling out some gaze with product to clean the wound. When he pressed it against the cut, she wanted to push him away because it was burning. But soon after, when he started sightly to blow on it, the burning sensation turned into something itchy at first, but then it was just agreeable. He used another gaze with a cold cream on to apply it on the wound.

“Sunbae...” Byeol said out of breath.

“Shh, just let me do.”

Hakyeon's hair were still a bit wet from the shower he had earlier. He also still had few droplets of water on his neck, sightly running down his dark and perfect skin. Unconsciously, Byeol bended down a bit and swept away the droplets. When he looked up, surprised, their eyes met and Byeol only seemed to realize how close they were at this moment. With him looking up and her looking down, there was only a few centimeters left between their faces. He had his hand gently curled around her calf, his thumb caressing the smooth skin, and Byeol had her hand on the side of his neck, her thumb tracing his sharp jawline.

The ambiance, warmth and lighting was perfect. In the movie, Byeol thought, they kissed at this moment, when it's only the main characters left together in a room with a romantic feeling.

He moved his head even further, the gap slowly becoming nonexistent but when his hot breath ghosted over her lips, she jumped back.

“I-I'm going now,” she mumbled and stood up, “goodnight.”

Well, I've never said Mrs. Lee was a nice mother

But here's the tenth chapter

I hope you liked it, please leave a comment to tell me what you thought about this chapter but also the story so far, it would help me a lot.

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Thx

xx

Mae