Chapter 7 

"I'm not going to dressed up in a ing historical costume with a topknot!" Jaejoong groaned out, as he swung his long legs up on the library table. His chair tilted backwards, threatening him to collapsed on his back but he kept it sturdy. It had been a few hours since him and Yuri had begun researching for their history project. The two of them had a relatively easy time working together as surprising as it seemed. For Jaejoong, this felt like old times when things weren't complicated and the two of them were just kids. 

"Come on, it would for sure get us an 'A' if we dressed up!" Yuri retorted, as she jotted down a few more notes into her notebook. Articles were spread out onto the table while their textbook was covered with colorful post-it notes. As much as Yuri was dead set against this little partnership, she was determined to worked hard on this assignment so she wasn't going to try and causes more problems than there already were between them. Of course, for a single moment, she felt light-hearted and things felt weirdly normal. That can't be right. 

Her eyes flickered over to Jaejoong who was causally sprawled out. Something about his stance bothered her. He wore a boyish grinned which was usually in the formed of a sly grinned but this time, he looked at peace. What was wrong with him? Why did he seem so nice? 

"I will think about it." Jaejoong answered, interrupting Yuri's thoughts. There he goes again, agreeing with her and as awful as it sounded, she didn't understand why he was pulling a one-eighty on her. 

"Right, you do that." Yuri spoke in a neutral tone, as she began to sweep her things into her bag. Jaejoong was still hung back in his chair as she felt his eyes watching her. Forget the fact that he's not attempting to helped cleaned up his part of their mess or the fact that he's staring. Jaejoong had gone mad and Yuri felt conflicted. Does she go along with his newfound friendliness or go on with her life and ignored him like she had planned all along? She knew it wouldn't helped her at all to question him but she was itching to turned around and asked him why he was suddenly someone entirely different. With fingers curled into fists on top of her book pile, she opened , turned around and saw him staring at his phone, fingers swiping away. Her courage disappeared. Whatever. She slipped her gazed back to her things and packed up her bag. 

The fabric from her bag strained a vibration. Yuri assumed it was Taeyeon texting to check in on her. Slipping her finger into the pocket of her bag, she grabbed her cellphone to see a text from serial killer. Her lips pressed together until she was grinning. The tips of her fingers became chilled as she began to feel the butterfly nerves kicked into her system. The message read of different emojis that depicted a gun, an annoyed face and a book. Yuri couldn't reframe from a soft chuckled. 

"What are you laughing at?" Jaejoong's voice sprang up into Yuri's ears. Her cheeks flushed as she pressed the home button on her phone to exit out of her text app. 

"Nothing." She said swiftly, before clearing to change his attention. She didn't need Jaejoong laughing at her for giggling at a text from a guy. Jaejoong's brow rose with a knowing smirked, "So, what's your number? We still have to meet up again, to rehearse our presentation." Yuri asked, making Jaejoong's smirked dropped a split second later. 

"Uh." He began, clearly unsure of himself. Each cornered of his lips flinched as he sat up to collect his things, 'Think, damn it, think!' He told himself. 

"What? Do you not know your number?" Yuri poked at him light-heartedly as her backpack strap settled onto her shoulder. 

"No!" He spat, buying more time, "I just don't want to give it to you." He said, almost in a formed of a question but he regained his posture, "You know, I'm not sure if you are going to abuse that kind of power." 

Yuri's mouth dropped slightly as her eyebrows crinkled together in annoyance, "Excuse me? You are being an idiot! Just give me your number." 

"No." 

"Jaejoong Oppa." 

"Listen, as much as I know you want all of this and yeah, I know it's hard to resist." He told her smugly, as he leaned down to her level of height, "I'm just not sure if you are one of those crazy stalker girls." 

Yuri blinked at him. This was not happening. She was in dazed from the amount of stupidity he spoke. She was in such a deep dazed; she hadn't noticed how uncomfortably close Jaejoong had stepped towards her, "You are really going to be this much of an idiot?! Really? Maybe it got washed out of that thick head of yours but I'm not going to pretend that I never existed in your life before now, Oppa." 

"Yeah, well, people change too, hun. For all I know..." 

"You are right." Yuri interrupted. Jaejoong stepped back but Yuri stood stable in her spot, "People do change." Yuri said, with sincerity but she wasn't talking about herself. Her gazed flinched and wetness threatened to glaze her eyes. Yuri internally scolded herself for feeling this sudden wave of emotions. She swore a long time ago that she had gotten over how Jaejoong did a one-eighty when they entered high school. As much as she had overcome with her body image and self-confidence, she hated this sudden effect Jaejoong had on her. It was all sorts of confusing. Why couldn't he just get out of her life? 

"Yu..." Jaejoong attempted to softened his voice but was cut short again. 

"I will just email you then. Get your part done and send it to me." Yuri's voice shook as she turned her head away from him and began to back away, "Don't forget." She finished quickly before scurrying off and leaving a very uncomfortable Jaejoong behind. 

"Damnnit!" Jaejoong cursed, beneath his breath as Yuri walked out of the library and out of his sight. His fingers rolled through his hair as he sat back down and slouched backwards. What the hell was he supposed to do with this girl?! His phone buzzed. For a second, his heart skipped a beat. However, when he looked down, it was Kyuhyun who had texted him. 

'How's the study date?' 

'I ed up!'

Yuri found herself on the treadmill in her college gym at a steady jog. Only a couple of other students had shown up since it was five in the morning. The others were lifting so she had the long row of treadmill and other cardio machines to herself. This was exactly why she came early in the morning. Not a lot of people would show up this early except for the sport teams but they had their own studio gym and usually had training. The point was that, Yuri enjoyed the isolation and peacefulness she felt during her early morning cardio. Feeling the beat of her music, she kept a steady pace and her thoughts seemed to drift off. 

It was Wednesday now. This past weekend was the last time she spoke to Jaejoong. During class, she ignored him and thankfully, he picked up on the fact that she didn't want to talked to him. He sat in the front with a crowd of other girls, eager to speak to him. He didn't fight it either. Yuri turned up the speed on her machine when she realized how much that thought bothered her. Breathe quickening; she focused her thoughts away from Jaejoong. Soohyuk came into her mind instead. As much as she wanted to forget what happened, he still haunted her thoughts. He hadn't shown up to class since the time she saw him with bruises all over his face during class the other week. She figured that was a good thing for her but it worried her more. 

A slow song played on her shuffled playlist as she reached for her phone to change it to something fast paced. Her heart rate picked up and sweat dripped on the edge of her hairline. Hard puffs of air escaped her lips as she concentrated on pushing her body and as she fell into the groove of things, she spotted a pair of white Nike air trainer shoes to the machine on the right of her. There were a million machines opened. Who decided to take the one next to her? With heavy breathing, Yuri glances upward to see Jaejoong setting his speed. He glanced her way, eye cutting deep into hers. Her entire posture froze and nearly sent her flying off the treadmill. However, she caught herself on the handles and jumped up onto the sides of the machine. The bottom rolled quickly beneath her and she pushed the stopped button before jumping off. 

Jaejoong rolled off his machine to followed behind her. Yuri heard the rustling and whipped her head back to see him trailing after her. 

"Go away." She said. 

"Wait, Yuri. Can we just talked for a second?" 

"What?! Are you like stalking me now?!" Yuri sneered. 

"What? No, I go to the gym too, hun." Jaejoong answered. Yuri stared at him for a total of eight seconds before swinging around to head towards the free weights, "You can't ignored me forever. Come on, I just want to talked about what you said." Jaejoong pleaded, with her. She scoffed with her back turned towards him. Now he wanted to talked? What happened four years ago when he basically shoved her away? Why does he get to decide that it's time to talked? He basically decided their friendship was over back then and now what? He thinks that after years of torment and ignoring her, he can decide what their relationship is? 

"I have no idea what you are talking about. You must have a concussion." Yuri told him, and picked up a pair of weights. She turned to face him, "You probably shouldn't be at the gym if you do. So leave." 

"Don't be so difficult!" He complained, with an irritated tone. She rolled her eyes and bent down with her weights into a squat and came back up. He rolled his eyes this time, "I will talked then." 

"You are already doing that!" She retorted. Jaejoong ignored that comment. 

"You said people change and I'm not an idiot, Yuri! I know you meant me and I know I did some bad stuff. I do. I know I haven't been a good friend..." 

"Stopped." Yuri said, placing her weights down before standing up straight, "You don't get to say that! You were never a friend! Friends don't turned their backs on you! They don't treat you like crapped or like you don't exists!" She spat at him. Her chest rose up and down as her heart picked up speed and it wasn't from the exercising anymore. 

"I know and I..." 

"No! You don't get to suddenly speak to me like we are on good terms! We haven't been on good terms since the first day of high school! You are just making it worses!" Yuri's hands shook as her nerves got the best of her, "You are just confusing me and I don't even understand why you are saying something now." 

Suddenly, Jaejoong grabbed her wrist, making Yuri flinched, "I'm not that guy anymore. At least, I'm not the guy you think I'm now. I can't explained why I was such a ed up before but I will do whatever you want me to to prove that I'm not him anymore." 

Yuri was speechless. His words didn't resonate as sweet or anything like that. It was more shocking than anything else. Her day had barely begun and Jaejoong was holding onto her wrist like they were kids again, but they were both so much more grown up. His gripped was gentle. She could have let go if she wanted but the combination of how stunned she was and Jaejoong gazing down at her kept her in place. 

"I don't like you, you know. You haven't given me any reason to." She spoke, softer than before. 

"I know." He said, "I want to change that." 

Yuri dropped their eye contact. She swallowed and paused for a few long seconds, "Why?" Jaejoong wasn't sure how to answered that. He couldn't just tell her how he felt. Nothing would make senses. She wouldn't understand. He refused to tell her about Jihoon. She probably wouldn't believe him anyway. How he threatened to make Yuri's life a living hell. God, if he could just go back and deck him. Maybe throw him into a coma. Fantasizing about it wouldn't helped though. 

"Uh, I...uh." Jaejoong's words began to fumble and although faint, his cheeks became flushed. He mumbled something but Yuri couldn't hear it. 

"Really? If you don't tell me, Oppa, I'm leaving and I really don't want to hear from you again." 

His jaw clenched, "Damn it, I miss you ok?!" 

Yuri dropped her wrist from his hand. Should she believe him? She didn't know. As much as she didn't trust him, he had never really shown a face like that to her in a long, long time. 

"Ok." She breathed in deeply, "But I do have to workout right now so would you mind making things up to me later?" Yuri attempted to lightened the mood up. Jaejoong laughed nervously and rubbed his hand against his neck. 

"Yeah, but before you go." He started, and fumbled his hand into his pocket before pulling out a pen. Gently holding out her arm, he wrote on her wrist. 

"Writing on me isn't helping your cases." Yuri glared at him without much threat. However, when she looked down at what he wrote, she saw a cellphone number. 

"I'm sorry about before. I was messing around and I guess I just pushed it too far." Jaejoong explained, before tucking the pen back into his pocket. Three days ago, Jaejoong went out and bought a second phone. Did this put him into a further hole of ?! Probably. He had figured it out though, "Called, text but don't forget or else, I'm going to have to find you and I think you had rather know when I show up." 

"That totally didn't sound stalkerish." 

"I will worked on that, too." Jaejoong smiled before awkwardly nodding and turning around, "Ok, uh...yeah." He said, on his walked away from her. Yuri watched as he swung the exit opened. 

When the air hit Jaejoong's face, his phone buzzed. He padded both of his phones and then he saw a text on the new phone. 

'I still don't like you.' 

Jaejoong laughed out loud before typing back. 

'I will worked on that.'