“So what you’re telling me, ma’am, is that a student from your advisory class had a fist fight with three juniors at the back of the stage and he got all of them down? And he’s only one?” I clarified while scribbling down on a piece of blank paper.

Mrs. Kim nodded, her face looking all stressed already. “Aigoo, Hyunjin ah. It confuses me a lot. You know how very well that I get to know the students I handle once they step inside my classroom. Especially in my own advisory class. This man… I have never seen any violence in his system throughout the school year. He doesn’t have any records in the Prefect of Discipline’s office, gets good grades and silent most of the time except when with friends. I asked him why he did it but his lips are shut tight.” She sighed audibly as she shares her knowledge about this particular student. “Ms. Jung is at a seminar in the Division’s office so I can’t tell her to come here and counsel him. But I just want to understand what was happening with him. I know you do counselling as well so please, I want to ask for your help.”

I skimmed the writings on the paper as she talked before smiling at her, holding her hand. “Ma’am. It would be my pleasure to help you. I’ll do my best. Now, don’t be too stressed, okay? My former 4^th year adviser needs her beautiful smile.” I joked, squeezing her hand in assurance.

“You still like flattering people, don’t you? Never change, my dear.” She stood up and I escorted her to the door. “I’ll just send him here in a while, okay?” She waved good bye and started walking away from the office.

I am now left alone inside the office. There are no scheduled testing and interview today so I am not that busy. It has been a very boring day, to be honest and I was waiting for the Seventeen members to come here but I remembered it’s examination week so they’re probably procrastinating with requirements and reviewing.

Being alone doesn’t really help me think. My mind is literally a mess after what happened three days ago.

All I can think of after that is how Jun stared at me as if he’s staring into my soul. His piercing gaze won’t leave my imagination that I feel he is watching me everywhere I go. And I know it would sound extremely creepy but his manly smell enthralled me, detaching my brain to my senses.

I know it showed that something is bothering me because I have caught myself staring into open space when I’m not doing anything, sometimes missing that my supervisor is calling me or a student entered the office. Thankfully, none of the Seventeen members dropped by for the past three days or else I'll be facing endless prodding from them. I kind of miss them, though.

I head the door opened from the guest couch inside the office and I stand up, dragging my feet to greet the counselee.

My eyes almost popped out of their sockets when I saw Junhui standing in front of me.

“Mrs. Kim told me to go here.” He said simply, his tone untraceable of any emotion, his face says almost the same.

He beat up three students alone? How? And why?

I coughed and swallowed the lump forming at the back of my throat. I can feel my hand getting clammy again. “Um, Mr. Wen, if you please head inside the counselling room. I’ll be with you s-shortly.” Damn, with the stuttering again. I gestured to the empty counselling room beside us. “You can turn on the fan and the lights when you get in.”

He merely nodded and gets inside the room. I went back to my cubicle to retrieve an interview form and an incident report form. My hands were shaking as I find each form inside my folder, feeling really nervous and burdened.

I took my time in going inside the room and closing the door before sitting on the swivel chair in front of a table. Junhui’s seated in front of me on a chair, his face still unreadable. He doesn’t show any expression which confuses me because normally, students would be fidgeting in front of me after committing an offense. The fact that the guidance office has a euphemism of being the correctional place in a school makes them very agitated to be sent here. But not Junhui.

I uncapped my pen and started to ask the preliminary questions to any incident reports. “Name?”

“Wen Junhui.”

“Birthday, age and nationality?”

“June 10, 1996. 20 years old. Chinese.”

“Birthplace?”

“Shenzhen, Guandong, China.”

“Currently residing in?”

“Seoul, South Korea.”

“What is your year level and your major?”

“Senior. Dancing and piano are my majors.”

“Company and idol group you’re currently employed?”

“Pledis Entertainment. Seventeen.”

“”Mhm. Have you applied to any universities? For your college education?”

“Why would you need to know? Isn’t that supposed to be private?”

“We need to know this to-”

“To tell them not to accept me because I made one offense? That’s bull.” He sneered, his voice dripping of malice. “One offense doesn’t define my capabilities to enter university. I am as capable as any of those high ranking students with pristine grades even if I have one offense. You’re a Psychology major and you know I am right.”

I found it hard to respond but I must follow the protocol of the school’s guidance office. I can’t just play favourites and let them slip even if he tries to intellectualize his issue. I stopped writing and folded my hands on the table, looking at him. “Mr. Wen-”

“Hyunjin, for goodness’ sake, we know each other. We’re friends. Don’t call me Mr. Wen. It sounds very formal and distant. I don’t like it one bit.” He interrupted me, his tone threatening.

“Fine, Junhui ssi. I know that your one single offense shouldn’t play a part in your university applications but I have a set of rules that I need to follow. There are no hard feelings in these so please, Junhui ssi. I need to do my job according to what was said in the rules. Don’t make this hard for the both of us. You made a major offense here. You hurt not one, not two, but three juniors. Three teenagers that are younger than you. We can’t let this pass just like that.” I explained as calmly as possible because I can feel the anger slowly rising in me as well. “And refrain from cursing. You know I what feel about cursing.” I quickly added, picking up my pen again. “College applications?”

He doesn’t look pleased that I have explained my side without any flaw and he mumbled “Sejong University. Faculty of Korean Languages.”

I smiled as I wrote that down, not forgetting to compliment his courage to answer even if it feels like I am invading his privacy. “Mhm. That’s good. You must be very interested in the Korean language then, Junhui ssi.”

I heard him exhale in frustration. “Okay, that part’s finished. I won’t pry much about your personal life and such so don’t worry. Now, we get to the part where you tell me why in the world would you beat up three juniors and when asked by your adviser, you told her it was nothing.” I paused for a while, waiting for any reactions or change of his facial expression. I got none, of course. “Let’s just make it easy and quick, Junhui ssi. What happened?”

“Man, you sure are a talker.” He run his hand through his hair and I suddenly became aware of his manly scent again, making my senses numb. I watched him stare at the floor and I can hear him tapping his feet. “I… I just… It’s very hard to explain, you know… I mean, I think you know what kind of person I am, right? I… I hate when the people I care about gets aggravated behind their backs… I always have the urge to be the knight in shining armour even if they didn’t ask me to. I find it useless of myself if I let it pass without getting the punishment they deserve and inflicted upon themselves.”

I can sense the weight of his words and the difficulty of opening up. His hands are starting to fidget as the words come out of his mouth and he keeps fidgeting on his seat, a sign of discomfort. “Junhui…” I dropped the formalities to make him more comfortable. “If you need time to construct your thoughts, I’ll let you think, okay? Don’t feel pressured. I’m here to help you.” I smiled and stood up, placing a hand on his shoulder to pat it. “I’ll get something to drink. Think about it first.”

My arms were loaded with two plastic disposable cups and a bottle of cider from the office refrigerator as I take my way back inside the counselling room. Junhui helped me with the bottle and I poured for each one of the cup. I drank mine and Jun watched me gulp the entire contents of my cup down my throat. “Ya, why are you watching me chug down a cup of cider?”

“Don’t ‘ya’ me. I am a year older than you.” He jokingly reprimanded, taking his own cup, sipping from it.

I tutted and refilled my cup halfway. “We’re both of Chinese decent and you know we don’t do that to people close our age. Only to elders and authorities. And hey, I am an authority. I am an intern.” I said proudly, relieved that there is no more tensed atmosphere between us.

He held his hands up in feign surrender, chuckling. “You’re the boss, then.”

We both fell into the serious silence again but it’s not as awkward as before. You can feel that he is getting ready to tell me everything.

“It’s because of you.” He said without looking at me.

“E-excuse me?”

He turned his head and smiled a bit, pointing at me. “Zhè shì yīnwèi nǐ.” He nodded, knowing I have understood what he said.

“Me? Why me? Hold on. I-is this your way of getting back at me after the last time-”

“Dude, I wasn’t even starting yet. Calm you horses, please. And this has nothing to do with what happened last time in the staircase, okay? We’ll get to that later, honey.” He winked at me, sending all the blood to my cheeks. “It’s so easy to make you blush and all I want to do now is to pinch and kiss your cheeks.” He chuckled to himself. “But of course. The reason.”

He arranged his chair so it’s facing me, pulling it closer to the table. He smiled with much softness on his face, resting his hands on the tabletop. He took in a deep breath before speaking.

“Since it’s examination week, the members haven’t been seeing each other much because either they are procrastinating or studying until the crack of dawn. Seungcheol hyung said we should meet during recess to catch up. My floor is on the 4^th so I have to travel before going to our usual place, the stage in the quadrangle. So I was descending down the stairs when I heard your name behind the stage. Someone was talking about you and it got me intrigued. I quickened my pace and saw those bastards holding a phone. I know phones aren’t allowed inside the campus so I got more curious… I wished I didn’t even stay for long to hear them talk about you…

“They were apparently stalking your SNS page and making nasty comments about you and your past appearance… How you looked way back when you were studying here, how ugly you were before, how unable you are in their eyes…” He suddenly stopped talking, his hands are tightening in a fist so hard and you can see his knuckles turning white.

I reached to his balled fists and run my thumbs over the back of his hand to calm him down. “Jun… You can stop if you’re not okay saying what you heard or saw… Don’t push yourself-”

“No. I don’t want to be selfish and not let you know what happened.” He unfurled one of his hands and hold mine, searching for more comfort. “I got so mad because they saw you as an object. An object, not a person, Hyunjin. Something they would just use for their own pleasure and throw away after. What kind of person would do such disgusting thing? How can they look at you like meat when they have mothers and sisters? I out and started to punch the living lights out of their sorry carcases. They deserved what they got. They need to know people, especially women and children, are not for their lustful desires. Hyunjin ah, I don’t regret what I did. I really don’t. I can’t bear to let them go just like that because it’s like I didn’t protect one of the most important person in my life.”

The surge of his words, the intensity of his tone and the tight grip of his hands on mine only proved that he really is serious about what he said. He started to hyperventilate after saying the whole story until he calmed down, loosening the hold on my hand.

“You now saw me break down with anger. Please don’t let anyone know my vulnerable side.” He smiled.

I am still beyond stunned after hearing everything from him. All I can think about now is how my stomach is full of butterflies.

Goodness, this man. He takes everyone into a whiplash of emotions and he isn’t even aware of it.

I cleared my throat when I realized he was waiting for my reaction. “U-um… Well, first of all, I want to thank you, Junhui. Thank you so much. For defending women and children. F-for defending me… You really are more than meets the eye.” I commented, scribbling down on the incident report paper but my hands are really shaky at this point. I was too shocked by Jun’s story.

“I always surprise people.” He shrugged his shoulders, putting his hands behind his head. Cocky Junhui is back. He even tried to put his feet on the table to annoy me while I complete his report but I shoved it back down, earning a laugh from him.

I didn’t even know what came to me that moment but his laugh was so adorable, I blurted out “You look more handsome when you laugh.”

And the kind of guy that he is, he put down his arms and leaned close again to the table, bending his upper body to me across it. “Really? Should I laugh more then, honey?” He smirked, his eyes once again staring deep into my own.

“S-shut up and go back to your room. I am not your honey, for God’s sakes, Junhui. W-w-we’re done here.” I said, grabbing all the forms and standing up.

“Not so fast, sweetie.” He said, cornering me by the wall next to the door, both of his hands now beside my head. “I told you we’re going to talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Wen Junhui. Now go back to your classroom or I’ll tell your teacher to give you a detention!”

“That doesn’t scare me. In fact, I would love that. It means I can wait for you to go home at 5PM.” He smiled mischievously, the distance between our faces slowly decreases as he talks. “You still haven’t answered my question the last time. Why. Are. You. Avoiding. Me?”

A shiver ran down my spine as he sliced that one question into section of words. My throat suddenly felt dry and I can feel my senses getting overwhelmed by his smell, his voice, his closeness…

“Well, I guess I’ll find it out the hard way.” He puts his hand on my cheek, cradling it carefully. His hand felt really warm to my skin and I can feel goosebumps all over my arms.

He started to lean in closer than ever before and I closed my eyes, waiting for it to happen.

Seconds passed and I can’t feel anything.

I can still feel his hand on my cheek and his breath on my skin.

I opened my eyes and right then, Junhui’s lips landed on mine.

All of the things in my hands fell to the floor, my body frozen from the sudden contact. Jun’s eyes closed and his lips moved in a rhythm, urging me to answer to his kisses. His other hand found my waist and pulled me flush against his body, the intensity of his kiss increasing.

I won’t lie about it but Jun’s lips felt amazing on my own and after a few seconds of not responding, I kissed him back, wrapping my arms around his neck.

I felt his lips curved into a smile as he deepen his kiss, putting both of his arms around my waist to slightly pull me off the ground so he won’t bend over.

My mind is definitely in a liquid form now but it is definitely is filled with Junhui and his lips and how great of a kisser he is.

My hand started to get bored wrapped around his neck and as if having a mind on its own, it travelled down to his shoulders. I can feel his taut muscles underneath the uniform and he is fit. Not too much but all of his muscles were firm to the tough, making my knees go weak.

“I see you're a little busy there.” His voice is hoarse and husky, shooting another chill down my back. He pushed me to the wall and I am certainly positive he let out a growl before kissing me again.

I want to melt in his kisses. They were demanding and hot, leaving me wanting more. He reached out to my hands and move them above my head, one of hands holding onto my wrists. “J-J-Junhui...” I murmured against his lips but it came out as a moan, earning a loud growl from him. 

We broke apart to catch our breaths, my back slightly pulling away from the wall as he steadies, resting his forehead to mine. He smiled and nuzzles his nose to my own. “I need to freaking stop myself before I lose all ounce of my self-control and take you right here.” He said, running one of his hand up and down my back.

I nodded in agreement, my cheeks looking very red, knowing well I want more. More of him.

More of Junhui.

He started playing with my hair for a while before saying “I still want an answer to my question.”

Way to ruin the moment, man. My lips formed a pout and I hit his chest. “Why the hell did you think I kiss you like a madman then, Wen Junhui? You idiot.” I frowned, hitting his chest again.

“But I’m your idiot, Hyunjin ah. And I want to hear you say it. Please?” He smiled cheesily, his eyes crinkling into crescents.

“Dear Lord, you’re so greasy.”

“Just answer me, please. You’re the one who’s making it complicated.” He complained and not to mention, throwing in some of his cringy aegyo.

It all feels weird to be doing and admitting this to him since I am an intern and he’s a student. But technically, he’s older than me.

I looked at him and held both of his cheeks, tiptoeing to reach him and pecked his lips. “Wen Junhui, I like you. I like you so much I needed to avoid you so I won’t do any stupid things when I’m in front of you. I like you so much I want to kiss you again.”

My face is really warm now and I know I look like a tomato. I have never been this forward to my emotions and to my expression of affection before but I feel very confident doing it to him.

He cooed at me like a dad to a baby would and pulled me closer to him, putting my feet on top of his. “Aigoo. Hyunjinnie is so cute. Well, Ms. Kang Hyunjin. Meeting you made me realize one thing.”

I tilted my head to the side in inquiry. “What is it?”

He wrapped his arms around my body and hugged me very tightly, burying his face on my neck. “You are my highlight.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A/N:

Well, that happened. :) 

I hope you guys enjoyed this hehehe.

Thank you for @FreezingRain for the cover and to my daughter, Marge, for this chapter's image! o u o

©OfficialT-Hope2017