Chapter Five

    “Did he leave you anything again today?” Raina asked her best friend who was checking the drawer under her table as usual. 

    “How do you know it’s a ‘he’?” Sora chortled lightly as she felt a piece of paper in her extended right hand. She then pulled it out and opened the folded paper. 

    Raina squinted her eyes and shook her head, “It’s most likely a he,” she said and leaned forward over Sora’s shoulder to see the note, “Han Sora, you finally replied. I’m glad you did, it makes me happy.” 

    Sora cursed under he breath and quickly crumpled the paper. 

    “You replied?” Raina almost shrieked but Sora’s glare reminded the former to keep her voice down, “You- what did you reply? For all we know he’s some creepy stalker.” 

    “I just asked who he was, okay?” Sora answered, “Don’t freak out like that!” 

    Raina sighed, “Alright, alright, but don’t tell me you’re interested in whoever this is.” 

    Sora shook her head and chuckled, “Don’t you think it’s too soon for that?” 

~*~

    The week went pretty fast, and before they knew it, it was the weekend of the arts festival. Sora, as expected, was busy making sure everything went alright. It was still 3 in the noon and the festival won’t start until 5, but small tents and booths were already set up around the school’s basket ball court. The whole point of the festival is to encourage students to be creative and sell their own products - ranging from goods like food to services like say, giving a hair cut. The profit would then be donated to charities. 

    Minjae was as nervous as Sora - the two girls were briefing the rundown to the other prefects and committees on duty for the festival. 

    “Let’s make sure that everything goes smoothly today, yes?” Sora ended her briefing and her team nodded. 

    “Don’t worry Sora, you’re doing a great job,” One of her seniors whispered to her when everyone was dismissed. 

    Sora smiled at him before he left, “Thank you.” 

    “My confidence just dropped you know,” Minjae approached her after clarifying some doubts, “I hope this works out well.” 

    Sora bit her lower lip - a habit she does whenever she felt insecure, “We’ve done our best now,” she said, trying to comfort herself as well, “It should work out well.” 

    Minjae nodded, and when she heard her name being called by one of her friends, she left Sora in the central booth. Sora watched Minjae leave to her friends whom she identified as some of the guys playing basket ball she saw the other day, and a girl whom she was unfamiliar with. One of them, though, was smiling at her. It was Nam Woohyun. Sora somehow froze, but quickly got hold of herself and returned his smile before telling herself that she had to deal with a lot of things that day. 

~*~

    The arts festival was, of course, festive, and Sora wanted to make sure that it will be that way. There were a lot of people, not only students or teachers of Seoul National, who came to visit the festival. The sky was clear and the weather was humid and hot, but it didn’t diminish the enthusiasm of the event. Being one of the prestigious school it was, there were even students from other high schools and middle schools who came and attended it. The mouth watering aroma of the foods lingered in the air. And behind the long line of people waiting, was Woohyun, showing off his cooking skills. 

    “Tell me what kind of omelet you want and I’ll make it,” He said, flashing his signature grin as he cracked the eggs above the sizzling butter on a pan. 

    Sungyeol who was helping him cook, gagged exaggeratedly and scoff, “You know you talk too much, don’t you?” 

    Woohyun eyed Sungyeol with a glare but said nothing and instead, continue to finish his orders. 

    “You should go away to your class’ booth instead of disturbing me here!” Woohyun could hear Nara’s annoyed cry from the table behind him.    

    “I’m not disturbing you, I’m helping,” Sunggyu retorted, “See how much more onions you’ve chopped with me here.” 

    “Urgh! So annoying!” 

    “W-what? You’re unbelievable, how can I be annoying?” 

    “Both of you should seriously take your fight somewhere out of here,” Woohyun shouted, still focusing on his cooking, he was certain that Sunggyu had a huge crush on Nara, but the female was too clueless to know, “You are shooing the customers away.” 

    “Shut up, Woohyun!” The both of them shouted in unison and Woohyun could only laugh. 

    Finally, the line in front of him shortened, and when he finished serving the last customer, he breathed a sigh of relieve and stretched his body. Just when he was about to mess with Sungyeol who was cleaning up, the last person he wished to see approached him.

    “Won’t the guy who asked me to prom go around the festival with me like other couples?” Younha spoke to Woohyun, and the male had no other option but to force a smile. 

    He took off his white apron and told his friends that he would be gone for a while with Younha. 

    “I haven’t seen you all day, Woohyun.” She said as she clung her arm onto his. 

    Woohyun wouldn’t lie, Younha looked pretty. Her hair was curled and let down, with a cream bandana on top of her head. She put a light makeup, making her face look flawless and even more attractive than she naturally already was. She wore a black cropped tanktop, combined with her khaki colored shorts, which obviously captivated even more attention from the male population - not that she minded. 

    “As you can see, I'm a pretty good chef and people liked my cooking,” Woohyun replied charmingly, “I was quite busy. Did you just arrive?” 

    Younha nodded, “It’s pretty hot, don’t you think?” 

    “You want to get some ice cream?” Woohyun offered as the saw an ice cream stand in front. 

    “Uhm, ice cream sounds nice!” Younha said eagerly. 

    The two walked into the ice cream stall which displayed various, creative flavored ice cream in the brochure in front of their stand. 

    “What would you like to get?” Woohyun asked the female beside him who was looking at the brochure. 

    “I’ll get one fruit flavored with sprinkles,” Younha smiled sweetly at Woohyun.

    “Oh look who’s here! The famous Nam Woohyun and Kim Younha?” A student, whom Woohyun identified as Yuri, asked behind the counter with a mischievous smile, “Are you guys now together or what?”   

    Younha gave her a bashful laugh, while Woohyun scoffed with a smile, “Kang Yuri, always intruding on my relationship,” he said playfully, “Why? Did you regret turning me down?” 

    It was Yuri’s turn to scoff, “You wish,” she said, “Anyway, what can I get you?” 

    “One fruit ice cream with sprinkles and one coffee flavored,” Woohyun said, “You don’t happen to give any special discounts to me, do you?” 

    Yuri smiled sarcastically at Woohyun as her hands scooped their order, “No. It would be six won, thank you.” 

    Woohyun chuckled and handed out the cash from his wallet before retrieving the ice cream from Yuri’s grip. She then gave the colorful one to Younha. 

    “Thanks Yuri!” Woohyun said, “Just keep in mind, your chances are still open with me.” 

    The black haired girl glared at Woohyun with disbelief, “How could you say that with Younha right beside you!” 

    Woohyun shrugged and gave her a wink before leaving the booth with Younha. 

    “You trust me that much that you can flirt with other girls in front of me huh?” The female said without a hint of anger as she her ice cream, “This is honestly pretty good.” 

    Woohyun chuckled, “Well, after all I’m not called as a ‘heartbreaker’ for nothing.” 

    “Do you think it’s weird?” Younha chortled as well, “We know where we stand at school, you know our status and all, how people call us a player. But we don’t make any effort to change it.” 

    Woohyun his ice cream, “I don’t see how it’s weird,” he said casually as the walked around, “I honestly liked it, don’t you?” 

    Younha looked at Woohyun and smiled, “At least we have one thing in common.” 

~*~

    Sora was glad that the festival was going great. It was, in fact, almost the end of the event and Minjae had prepared a special art auction. People were starting to gather at the center of the basket ball court where a small stage with a brown podium had been set up earlier. 

    “I am so nervous right now, I’m going to die,” Minjae took a deep inhale and exhaled, “I am going to die.” 

    “You’ll do great,” Sora calmed her down, “Look, there’s a lot of people waiting already.” 

    “Which makes it worse, do you know that public speaking isn’t exactly what I’m good at?” Minjae sighed as she took a glance at her cue cards. 

    Sora smiled and took a look at the clock on her phone, “It’s eight already, you might want to get over with all of this and host the auction now.” 

    Minjae took another deep breath and cheered herself quietly before going up to the stage in front, “Fighting Minjae!” 

    Sora watched her from the back of the crowd - as she expected, Minjae was a natural. She took everyone’s attention when she started speaking. Sometimes Sora wished she could be as carefree as Minjae, letting go of things and not being too hard on herself. 

    “I wonder,” A voice startled her, “Why do you look so exhausted.” 

    Sora turned head to the side, only to find the boy she met on the train the other day. She smiled, “Hello, there.” 

    “So this is the huge project you told me back then?” Woohyun slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans. 

    Sora nodded, “Yeah, I hope you are enjoying it so far.” 

    Woohyun smiled, “I am, it’s nice meeting you here.” 

    “Likewise.” 

    And Sora meant it when she said so. 

~*~