Chapter 6 

 

"Ow, geez!" Yuri groaned, as she crashed onto the floor of her dorm room. Her back throbbed as she tried to catch her breath. Closing her eyes, she moaned in disagreement, "Can we stopped?" 

 

"You need to know this stuff!" Taeyeon reminded her sternly, her arms were crossed. The moment Taeyeon got the chance to see Yuri after the party, she was determined to make her best friend invincible. Picturing that psycho douses her friends drink with whatever the he put in it gave her chills! She wasn't about to loses her best friend over something so stupid and insane! Hence, she forced Yuri to learned some self-defense tricks. 

 

Yuri wasn't having any of it. In fact, she rolled her eyes and curled up into a pillow that had fallen off her bed and onto the ground, "I just won't accept drinks from anyone anymore." She attempted to swayed her friend into letting her off for the night. They had been practicing for almost three hours. 

 

"Yeah, well, what if it's not a drink next time?! What if they just come at you?! What are you going to do?!" Taeyeon nagged, as Yuri squeezed her eyes shut like that would blocked out her friends lectures. 

 

"Isn't this like victim blaming? I shouldn't have to learned to defend myself if Soohyuk's the one who did something to me." 

 

"You are not wrong, Yul, but we live in a ty world and you are the one who refuses to let me pressed charges!" "That's right and you are my best friend and you have to listened to me." Yuri smiled slightly while glancing at her fuming roommate, "Besides, I think he's been through enough. Jaejoong Oppa practically rearranged his face." She explained, and shuttered. 

 

"Yeah, well, he deserves to have his whole body rearranged." Taeyeon didn't understand that girl sometimes. She let go of people's injustices too often. When she becomes a target, she's extremely resilient. It's like there's no fury within her but at the same time, she's one of the strongest people she knew. Yuri didn't hold many grudges. Ok, well, that was a tiny lie because she's held one large grudge against Jaejoong. 

 

"How is he by the way?" 

 

"Soohyuk?" 

 

"No, not that douche pants! Jaejoong, the other jerk that saved you!" 

 

Yuri hope she was asking about Soohyuk instead of Jaejoong. That discussion would have been a whole lot easier to talked about. Things felt confusing. One moment, they are fighting and the next moment, he's saving her and calling her cute. What the hell was that this morning?! She buried her heated cheeks against the pillow. She had no idea how to answered Taeyeon's question. 

 

Begrudgingly, she mumbled incoherently into the pillow. 

 

Taeyeon scoffed and pulled her friend by the back of her Plum Allure fleece crewneck sweatshirt to rolled her over, "Say it again." 

 

"We are partners in History for a project." Yuri repeated more clearly this time. Obviously unhappy about this predicament, she rolled back over. It wasn't like she was worried about passing the project, she could do everything if he refused to worked but actually, spending time with him stressed her out. At least it was better than being stuck with Soohyuk. She hope...Ok, she wasn't insane enough to actually think Soohyuk would be better. He tricked her. The memories still felt extremely fuzzy though. One moment, she was drinking the cup he handed her and next thing she knew, she woke up in Kyuhyun's house with Jaejoong staring at her. 

 

"Huh?" 

 

Yuri's eyebrows twitched at her friends reaction. Immediately, she raised her upper body up and rested her elbows on the floor, "What do you mean, 'Huh'?" 

 

"Oh, nothing." Taeyeon replied, but Yuri knew something was up. Any other time, Taeyeon would have gasped or told her how much that . Taeyeon doesn't do subtle reactions. So, what was up with her today? 

 

"It's not nothing. It's..." Yuri began to confront her friend when her phone ding loudly. After not getting a reply as quickly as she normally did from her mysterious texter, she kept her ringtone at full volume. Lame? Maybe. However, this kept her from checking her phone every second. If he text her, she had hear it. No more waiting around on a guy. 

 

Scrambling up onto her bed, Yuri unhooked her phone from the charger. 

 

'Sorry about that darling, lost my phone. What's going on?' 

 

A smile crept up on each cornered of the girls lips. Relief flooded Yuri. The relief only fueled her for a moment, however, because she realized how hung up on this guy she had become. What was she going to do? 

 

"It's him, isn't it?" Taeyeon's voice interrupted Yuri's thoughts. 

 

"You don't know that." Yuri replied, with as much of a cool exterior as she could pulled off. 

 

"Oh please, you never stopped grinning when he texts you. Go ahead, text your serial killer." 

 

That was all Yuri needed to hear before she rolled her eyes and fall back onto her bed. Meanwhile, Taeyeon shuffled over to her desk to study. Instantly, Yuri's fingers slid across the bright screen. 

 

'You should really keep track of your things, serial killer.' 

 

'Yeah, yeah. I can't be all that perfect all the time. You are avoiding my question.' 

 

'Well, there was a conflict.' 

 

'What kind of conflict?' 

 

'The kind of conflict that might have, somewhere down the road, been dangerous.' 

 

'Dangerous for you?' 

 

'It doesn't even matter anymore. It was taken care of, serial killer.' 

 

'Don't sweet talked me with nicknames, darling. Are you ok?' 

 

'Yes and no.' 

 

'No?' 

 

'I feel like you are asking a lot of questions.' 

 

'I feel like you are skipping a lot of details.' 

 

'Well, I got stuck with this guy for a project. I don't know. It's really confusing, stressful maybe.' 

 

'Confusing how?' 

 

'Again, with the questions.' 

 

'Darling.' 

 

'Ok. We might have a past. He's an ! Not the kind of I say you are! A real one. I want nothing to do with him.' 

 

Once Yuri sent that text, there was a long pauses. A long enough pauses between them that it made her nervous. Enough about her. Maybe she wanted to talked about her problems earlier but now it felt like she was drowning him in her sorrows. Her fingers typed another message. 

 

'What's your life like? Is school alright?' 

 

'I actually need your advice.' 

 

'I can't promise I'm the best source of advice for killing. Can't even killed a spider, I'm afraid.' 

 

'Ha. Ha.' 

 

'What is it?' 

 

'So, you are a girl, right?' 

 

'Last time I checked, I was. Now, what do you need helped with?' 

 

'What kind of things do girls like to hear?' 

 

'Depends on the girl.' 

 

'Yeah, but what would you say?' 

 

'Oh, no. It doesn't worked that way. It has to be genuine. Wait. Do you like someone?' 

 

'I didn't say that.' 

 

'That's right, you could be into guys.' 

 

'I'm not gay, darling, trust me.' 

 

'So, you do like a girl?' 

 

'Just answered the question.' 

 

'It depends on what she likes. What is she interested in? No girl is the same, buddy.' 

 

'I need an example.' 

 

'If it were me which by the way, violates our rules, I had want to talked about dogs.' 

 

'Dogs? Really?' 

 

'What? I like dogs. They are adorable. Have you seen their ears?' 

 

'You are a freak but ok.' 

 

'But don't talked about dogs to her. She might not even like dogs. She could be deathly allergic.' 

 

'I doubt it.' 

 

'Just find out what she likes.' 

 

That was the last text she sent that night. He didn't respond afterwards. Something felt uneasy about their conversation, too. Yuri couldn't figured out why but her chest tightened. When did her texter start liking someone? She refused to get jealous. They were friends. Weird, mystery friends but still just friends. At the very beginning, their relationship was established and falling for him was completely against the rules. Still, Yuri couldn't helped but wondered who this girl was. She probably went here too, and as Yuri clutched her phone against the bed, she thought about how lucky that girl was. 

 

A couple of days later, Jaejoong found himself in the school library, leaning back in a rolling chair with his feet on the study table. The room was dead silent and kind of confining. These study rooms felt more like a prison cell than a good place to concentrate. What time was it? He checked the time on his laptop, clearly frustrated that it hadn't reached 2pm yet. Five more minutes. Why did he feel so ansy? Yuri was coming. At least he hope she would. This whole situation was sort of forced on her. 

 

You see, yesterday, Jaejoong found Yuri walking around campus. He made a b-line for her. 

 

"Tomorrow, 2pm, at the library. Be there so we can get done for the project!" 

 

"Wait, what...?" 

 

"Be there. I will be in a study room." 

 

He had left her there, clueless, and he was unsure of whether or not she had actually show up. Knowing her, she wouldn't ignored Jaejoong if a project was on the line. Nerves began to kicked in. Dogs? She liked to talked about dogs? What the was he supposed to say?! Tilting his head to the side, he scrolled through his messages from Yuri. It felt incredible, knowing it was her. Obviously, it was her. The texts all led to her. 

 

'Guys are seriously the most incredulous, infuriating people. God, they think they can just get away with everything. :('

 

He received that one eight minutes after he ordered her to come to the library. It made him smirked. Some part of Jaejoong felt like this gimmick would bite him in the but for now, he liked having a secret passage way to Yuri. Maybe he would tell her thirty years down the road when serial killer is long gone. Thirty years? Yeah, he had want that many years with her and more. As many as he can get. Was he was a wuss? He didn't know. Whatever, he knew what he wanted and what he wanted was Yuri. Now that they are in college, things could be different. Jihoon is long gone so there's no more room for his threats. It's free range now. 

 

Continuing to flipped through his phone, he saw a figured running along behind the windows of the study room and stopped abruptly. 

 

! He liked her. A lot. Yuri's hair was pulled up into a loose ponytail but strays flew away from her hair. Even her face was flushed. From running maybe? Why the hell would she want to run to meet him here?! He, at least, assumed she had be late on purposed. Whatever. All he knew was that she was damn adorable! Watching her, he raised his hand as if to tell her to come in. Her chest rose and fell before stepping through the door into the study room. 

 

"You know, I really don't appreciate the demand! Next time you do that to me, I'm leaving you to do the worked!" Yuri said sternly, as she dropped her black Selena faux leather backpack onto the study table. Immediately, she began to shuffle through her books and papers in her backpack. Fly away hairs had her tucking strands behind her ear. Meanwhile, Jaejoong's posture remained calm and relaxed. Feet on the table, back stretched out. 

 

Pressing his brows together, he asked, "Did you run all the way over here or is your face naturally that red?" 

 

She stopped and kept her eyes on her backpack, shoulders tensed, "Yes, I ran." Her reply was short and dry. Short breaths kept escaping from her pink color lips and Jaejoong couldn't keep his eyes off of them. What would it be like to finally kissed her? Yuri was almost his first kissed actually. It was the summer before middle school. Yuri had come to his house and had dragged Vivian, her cousin, along with her. The three of them had been hanging out in Jaejoong's backyard which happened to have a swing set and a slide, it was pretty ing cool to be honest but anyway, the friends were all just hanging out. Vivian had gone inside to get Jaejoong and Yuri drinks. Originally, his planned was to kissed Yuri that day and tell her he liked her. 

 

Yeah, Jaejoong had the balls as a kid. He wasn't sure where they went in high school. He remembered leaning in, her on one swing, him on the other. Vivian had fallen and glass crashed against the pavement on his porch. Startled, Yuri and Jaejoong ran to helped her and he missed his chance. Later on, at a party however, Jaejoong was playing spinned the bottle with Vivian and some other friends. Yuri wasn't there. The boy ended up kissing her cousin. You lived and you learned. Sometimes, he wondered what would have happened if Vivian hadn't fallen. If he had just leaned in a second earlier, he didn't know. 

 

"Why the hell would you run all the way here?!" Jaejoong asked, which was a mistake. Her eyes pinned him down until he had to looked away. 

 

"It gives me anxiety when I'm late to things. Plus, I woke up late." She turned her eyes away from Jaejoong, suddenly embarrassed to admit her reasons. He roses his brow at her. 

 

"It's two in the afternoon, who sleeps in that much?" 

 

Sliding her History textbook towards him, she sat down and said, "I was up late last night with a friend. Then I had other worked to get done so I could worked on this." 

 

The guy had to refrained from smiling at her excuses. This 'Friend' happened to be him. Last night, they were up texting about total crapped and nothingness about life. Of course, eventually they moved on to more serious matters like who could tell the best story using emoji's. He thought they were up until about three in the morning. Jesus, she stayed awake to worked on school worked after that? 

 

"What were you and this friend doing?" 

 

"Does it really matter to you?" 

 

"Everything matters to me a little!" Jaejoong retorted, and swung his feet off of the table to leaned forward for their book, "Just like this project." He said, changing the subject. His fingers skimmed through the pages, "So, we have to picked an era so which one do you want to do?" 

 

Yuri stared at him for a moment, confusion written across her facial features. 

 

"What?" He asked. 

 

"You are so confusing." 

 

"Why the hell am I confusing?!" 

 

"Because you just are. Do you honestly expect me to believe you want to worked on this project? Honestly Jaejoong Oppa, just get whatever you planned to tortured me about out of your system and I will do the project myself." The guy was dumbfounded. Was that all she actually thought of him? Someone to picked on her? His thoughts drew back to the text that said she wanted nothing to do with him. This thing was beginning to pissed him off. Why did he like a girl who hated his guts? 

 

"Listened, I'm sorry you think that but I'm honestly focused on doing well on this project. I'm not here to make fun of you. You might be upset about this arrangement but I don't mind it. At least give me a ing chance to worked on this with you, Yuri! I can choose the era if you want." 

 

Yuri kept staring at him. He stared back, unmoved by her eyes. Finally, she pursed her lips and turned away. 

 

"The Joseon Era." Yuri spoke, after several moments. 

 

"Huh?" 

 

Rolling her eyes, she flipped through their text book, "That's the Era I want to do. The Joseon Era. Keep up with me, sweetie." The word sweetie was filled with a venom and did Jaejoong senses a touched of playfulness? Jaejoong's lips quirked up into a smiled, a real one. , he liked her! A lot. 

 

"Sure, Joseon Dynasty. I think we can managed." 

 

So, the two of them began to worked. Researching and discussing their entire paper ended up being easier than either of them had thought. When had they been able to communicate so easily? It felt strange, even for Jaejoong. As much history as the two had, they still had...Well, history.