Chapter 23

With and Without Oh Sehun

[October 12]

The class was calm and quiet with cool breezes of wind blowing through the open windows. The students were taking down notes and listening to their teacher lecture about things they wonder where they would use in life. Areum on the other hand, enjoyed very much learning about geometry and she was probably the only one. She was listening attentively and nodding her head to her teacher's every words. 

Her eyebrows drew in whenever she didn't understand something, and sometimes you wonder if she was even the timid person you thought her to be when she didn't hesitate to ask a question. This was probably why she was the teacher's favorite since she was the only one who was so intrigued by numbers and shapes.

Just as she was repeating the teacher's words to herself while writing it down, she was interrupted by a tapping to her right shoulder. She ignores it for now and continues to jot down her notes, but the annoying tapping only continued along with a constant loud whisper of Reum1. She lets out a breath of annoyance and turned to look behind her. 

"What?" she scornfully mouthed. 

Sehun leaned forward onto his desk. "I forgot something in your locker, so make sure to wait for me so I can get it," he whispered while covering the right side of his mouth like a child who was spilling their biggest secrets. 

Areum said nothing and only gave him a weird look before turning around to face the right direction. She couldn't understand why Sehun didn't wait until class was over to tell her that. But wait, that doesn't even matter. What was the point of telling her that when they always go to their lockers together anyways? Damn it Oh Sehun. Now Areum missed a good chunk of her notes (not really).

However, this whole thing where Areum's not afraid to snap at Sehun, who she still has a crush on, and where Sehun's bothering Areum during class just to tell her something little and unncessary, just shows how much closer they got. A lot, lot closer than the last time actually. Not to mention Areum who seemed a little more "straightforward" than her usual timid self. Who would've thought that something like sharing lockers could bring those two closer?

Areum went back to doing the usual of listening to her teacher and taking down notes, thinking she doesn't need to worry about being bothered again. However, boy was she wrong. Because with just another minute or two that passed by, Areum felt another tapping but this time on her left arm. As much as she just wanted to disregard it and continue on with herself, the continuous patterns of tapping was hard to ignore. She turned her head to look left with her eyes coming to a boil.

"Call ---" the person mouthed as he pointed to someone beside her. He had black hair and sharp pointing eyes, possible to make you think that he was scary and hard to approach when he was actually the complete opposite. Loud and sometimes annoying was more like it according to Areum. 

Knowing that he wasn't going to stop bothering her until he got what he wanted, Areum let out a deep breath with steam boiling from her nose. She then carefully moved her hand towards finding her partner while keeping her eyes on the teacher. Her hand struggled for a few seconds before she finally felt something firm and human like. She gave his arm a tap and even a nudge, but instead of her partner responding back normally, he flinched in his seat and quickly slid his arm over his notebook. What's up with him? Could he flinch any harder for the teacher to see? Was he writing a death note or something? Regardless, Areum decided to brush it off since she didn't want to risk getting in trouble because of these two best buddies that she just had to miraculously sit in between. With her head she nodded towards her left side before leaning back in her chair to allow them to whisper away. She didn't care to listen to what they had to talk about. 

When it was time for lunch, Areum walked out of the classroom first when someone suddenly made a dramatic entrance and stood by her side. 

"Yah, didn't I tell you to wait for me?" Sehun whined. 

"You were taking too long. Plus, you act like you wouldn't be able to catch up."

Sehun let out a childish pout before turning his attention to something else. "Anyways, what did Yoongi ask you in class earlier?"

Yoongi? Oh, that's right. "He wanted me to call Jin for something, but I swear. Can't those two just wait until class is over to talk? They see each other practically every second anyways," Areum complained.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with that. We see each other all the time but I still want to talk to you during class sometimes."

Areum shot her eyes at Sehun. Her heart was now beating fast along with butterflies forming in her stomach. Does he realize what he said just now? But with the way he was carrying on with his usual bright and joyful self, it didn't look like it. She decided to brush it off since she might have just been taking it the wrong way. 

After putting their things away or getting whatever they needed from their lockers, Areum was ready to set off for lunch to leave Sehun to his business. She threw her backpack over her shoulder and began to take a few steps backward. However, something rather odd occurred for the first time. 

She saw Sehun jerk a little before forcing her name out of his mouth. Taken aback, Areum only stared at him. 

". . . Where are you going?"

"Heading to the cafeteria to grab something to eat like always. Why . . ." Areum couldn't help but think that he was acting a bit suspicious. 

"Oh! Good. I'm starving." He quickly threw his backpack over his shoulder and slammed the locker door shut before walking towards the same direction that Areum was heading to. "Hurry! I'm hungry!" He called when Areum wasn't following him. 

Areum's eyebrows remained furrow as she thought about having lunch with Sehun for the first time. Since when did he start eating lunch? Usually he would head to the volleyball court right away, and she had especially thought that he would be more in a rush today since his knee was better again. He hadn't played for weeks. 

Once again brushing it away, Areum followed Sehun to the cafeteria where they were able to easily find an empty table within the crowded and noisy room. She set her plate of food on the table before taking a seat. 

"I usually eat alone," Areum told him. She thought it would be convenient to tell him this for whatever reason (although he probably already had an idea that she had no friends). 

However, Sehun didn't seem to care for it much, which to Areum caused her to be a little relief. He went on to talking about other things, and by that, the randomest things. But Areum didn't mind. It felt nice to have someone to talk to for once during lunch. She was starting to get bored with eating by herself while everybody else around her was chatting loudly with their friends. 

They spent the next 15 minutes holding small conversations while gulping down their food. Some things they discussed about was their math teacher and whether or not he was playing the favorite game towards Areum. They also talked about childish things like if pineapple belonged on pizza, in which Areum was starting up a storm when she argued yes. So it might be best to not even mention their discussion about math (particularly geometry) and whether or not it was useful in life. 

Moving along, Sehun began to pick around his already half-eaten food while Areum took another bite of her salad. They decided to allow silence to fill in for now even though on the back of their heads they felt awkward. Just at that very moment, they were startled by a sudden loud echoe of high-pitched chuckles. Sehun leaned in closer to the table and brought his attention to something behind Areum.

"How come you don't hangout with them?" He gave his head an upward nod. 

Areum turned around to see what he was referring to and saw a table filled with girls that were classmates of theirs. They were laughing and talking loudly amongst themselves while some were touching up on their makeup. "Oh . . . I don't know. I guess I just prefer to be alone."

"I thought you and that Irene girl were friends. No?"

"Well, we're not exactly friends. I mean she does talk to me sometimes and had even ask me last year if I wanted to hangout with them, but I said it was okay."

"Why?" He seemed rather surprised that Areum denied the offer. 

"Don't get me wrong. They're nice- and cool, but I don't think I fit with outgoing girls like them who only likes to talk about boys and makeup."

Sehun let out a smirk and sniggered. "Fair enough." He then went on to eat something that was hanging off at the end of his chopstick. 

But before Areum could continue on with eating or even bring something up to talk about, she was interrupted by a sudden roar of laughter next to them. "So how come you don't hangout with those guys?" She wasn't really all that curious and had only brought it up to sort of playfully mock Sehun.

Sehun took the chopstick out from his mouth and turned to see who she was talking about. On the table to his left was Yoongi, Jin and the rest of their crew who were loud like always. Jimin and Jungkook were jumping up and down in pure excitement while Namjoon was laying on the table and dying of laughter. Hoseok, who was especially the crazy one, was even jogging around the table- Taehyung shortly following him from behind. Whatever they were talking about must have been so funny that Yoongi even spat out some food from his mouth (possibly nose too) before choking in laughter. Jin, however, was rather more calm with the way he remain seated on the bench and only leaning slightly backwards to laugh. 

"Hmmm," Sehun started off. It looked like he took it more serious than Areum intended it to be. "That's because I have more in common with Chanyeol and the others - like volleyball. Yoongi and them mostly spend their free times at arcades or other places."

Areum nodded her head and protruded her bottom lips. Now that she thought about it, she was actually kind of curious as to why Sehun would rather hangout with Chanyeol and his friends instead of Yoongi's crew. Well, it does make sense too. Yoongi and them were more loud, outgoing, and crazy or whatnot. Sehun, on the other hand, was a bit more calm and only became talkative around those that he was comfortable with. Fair enough. 

"So do you wanna hear a joke?" Sehun suddenly brought up after the previous conversation died down. 

"Sure," Areum said before taking a bite of her food. 

"Why did the stadium get hot after the game?"

"Why . . .?"

"Because all of their fans left." He dropped his spoon and began to break out in laughter at his own joke. Meanwhile, Areum wasn't sure of how to react. What was more funny? The joke or the way he was laughing at it after telling her2?

Unable to keep it in anymore, Areum let out a laugh because she thought the way Sehun was laughing at his own joke was way funnier. She admit that the joke itself was pretty funny too. "Got anymore lame jokes?"

"Hmmm let me see." His eyes projected upwards as he bit down on his lips. "You know that day when I fell down and my knee was bleeding?

The changed expression on Areum's face was enough to show that she was surprised to see him bring that up. Why was he suddenly mentioning that? She never brought up about what happened that day to Sehun since it seemed like it wasn't something to freely talk about. 

"Yeah, what about it . . ." Areum slowly asked. 

"Well, you should've given me a band-aid."

A band-aid? What in the world was he talk-

"Because I scraped my knee falling for you."

Areum froze, unable to blink or even more. Meanwhile, Sehun let out a chuckle with his sparkling eyes squinting. If only he knew what that simple "joke" did to Areum whose heart was now ready to jump out from her chest. As corny as that joke way, she wasn't sure of what to think or do when Sehun said it to her. Why . . . What? Huh? 

"That was good huh?" Sehun said with his eyebrows cocked up, waiting to be praised for something not really all that impressive.

"Y-yeah," Areum stuttered when she clicked into her right mind. "What? I mean- no. Just as lame as the other one," causing Sehun to let out his childish pout. 

Areum reached for her milk with her trembling hands; her heart still racing fast. Calm down Han Areum, this is just one of his corny jokes, she told herself. A moment of silence then resurfaced between the two that allowed their loud surroundings to take over - one for which Areum was glad to have happen. 

However, it didn't stop there. 

"So, I was wondering," Sehun started off again. 

Great. What is it this time? 

He began to clear his throat as if he was about to give a speech. "Can I . . . Uhm . . ."

Meanwhile, Areum was only able to stare at him. What was he going to say this time? She just hoped that it wasn't anything that would cause her heart to race again. It really wasn't quite fun for her and rather cruel, considering that Sehun was saying all this nonsense with no idea about how it made her feel. 

He let out a child-like smile (that Areum couldn't help but think was really cute during this very moment,), and began to scratch the back of his head with his eyes squinting once again. Areum wasn't sure if she was just blowing things out of proportion or taking it the wrong way, but he seemed nervous. So nervous that Areum came to notice the table that was shaking a little, and it wasn't her who was doing it. 

"Your phone number..." he started again. "Can I have it?'

What . . . ? 

He began to let out nervous chuckles, ones that got louder every time. "You know! What if I need something from your locker and it's urgent, but I can't find you?"

As reasonable as that may have sounded, Areum was able to catch on fast. It was obvious to her that he was just using that as a mere excuse and had another reason. The way his cheek bones were popping out where his face was also turning slightly red gave it all away. She tried her best to maintain her cool and prevent her cheeks from blushing. However, she knew she couldn't brush it away this time. Maybe it turns out that there was a reason why Sehun said and did those odd things earlier today.

 

~End of Chapter 23~

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CSanWS
#1
Chapter 47: I love both yoongi and sehun. But damn can you just let her ended up with yoongi? After she had been dumped by Sehun, eventho i love him. I can’t.
Iheartren
#2
Chapter 47: I’m finally caught up I recent stumble your story the story so far it’s interesting and I can’t wait for the next update i wonder what is going to happened next, keep up the good work 😊
Sey-ra
38 streak #3
Chapter 47: Omo ,you came back.And for Aereum don't go to the same part again.
fishaelee
#4
Chapter 46: it’s quarter to 4am now and im finally catch up with the chapters! i must say that reading this fic is such having a ride on a roller coaster. at first with the break up of sehun and areum, the pain she felt and how badly everyone treated her... also yoongi’s side story too... im pretty sure there will be a triangle love happening in the future too xD
fishaelee
#5
Chapter 29: yesss areum did it. i hope there will be justice for yoongi soon
fishaelee
#6
Chapter 28: AREUM !!!! :((((
fishaelee
#7
Chapter 27: areum don’t u dare let him slip away like that-
fishaelee
#8
Chapter 16: and how sehun started dating irene, the girl who had been the anti of his previous relationship since day one? oh man i fking hate it here, tf did u just do sehun ah
fishaelee
#9
Chapter 16: okay i’ve suffered enough with the first 9 chapters and i am just so frustrated and my heart hurts so bad for what happened to areum. I CAN FEEL THE PAIN thru the words u wrote...
Sey-ra
38 streak #10
Chapter 42: Sorry but I am still frustrated with Aerum.