[CONTENTID1] Chapter Four [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

Friday was my favorite day in the week.

There was no school on Saturday and Sunday, which meant two days without annoying teacher and load of homework. Well, it was not liked I did my homework that they gave to me one‒sidedly. I always copied my classmate’s work at the morning before class started. I had my trusted source for every class and luckily, they all were good kids. They tended to lend their homework with smile on their faces and I appreciated it.

Minhyuk, a college student that I met last week at Hyeri’s party, was giving me a ride back home. He had been asking me about going out to the mall since our last chat, which was on Wednesday, I thought. He said he wanted to give his mother something for her upcoming birthday but he totally was clueless about woman’s preference. I doubted him about that but did not complain. I also needed someone to accompany me to go shopping and blew off some steam from my hard week.

“How’s your test today?” He asked me as I set down my cup of caramel frappucinno onto the table, which I did not even take a sip yet, by the way.

“I think I’m doing okay.” I replied after short consideration of telling him the truth. “I answered most of the question and I actually studied last night.”

To be very honest, everything that Sehun told me the other night gone missing all of sudden in the morning when I woke up. And when the paper test was placed on my desk, I was desperately trying to remember everything but failed miserably. Could you guess what was the only thing I could recall from that night? Bingo, it was Sehun’s face.

“That’s good to hear.” He nodded in approval as if he was my own father. “Studying is important for your future. I think a girl who loves to study is so charming.”

As much as I wanted to laugh at his word, I could not. I had to keep my best attitude because he was actually been a great company for the past week. I did not want to scare him with my real self, at least not now. But there was something right in his statement, though. I found studying Sehun was somewhat y sometimes.

“How about college? I bet there’s so much more fun in there than in high school, right?”

He took a sip of his espresso and shrugged. “I would rather go back to high school. There are so much responsibilities and it’s tiring. You need to make the most out of your last high school year, you know?”

“I think I already made the most of everything,” I recounted the time I had a detention and the parties I had been going illegally in the past, not to mention but I enjoyed the tequila quite a bit much too. Getting drunk after a party was in my must-to-do list. “Yeah, I definitely done everything I could. I’m afraid if I’ll get jailed if do some more.”

He laughed and it actually sounded better with the real person than on the phone. He had such a gentle and warm voice. If I had to describe it, his voice sounded right liked a calm waves at the beach. It was relaxing for my ears as they always listened to Jiyeon’s monstrous laugh or even Bomi’s ungraceful laugh.

“You have an interesting personality. I like that about you.”

I scoffed playfully at his compliment. “Mm, you’re not the first person to say that.”

After we chatted for fifteen minutes more, he decided to walk around and asked for my suggestion of which shops provided the great products. I happily sharing my one and only knowledge and told him about the pros and cons of every shop.

“What’s the thing that your mother likes?” I asked him as I browsed the clothes rack. It was not even June yet, but they already changed the season into Summer with lots of bright orange and yellow dominated the rack.

“I don’t really know,” He was standing beside me, also quietly browsed the rack with awkward hand. “But I don’t think she appreciates orange and yellow. Most of her clothes were green, brown and blue.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s boring. You need to give something different to your mother so that she can learn to love the colors. Oh, oh, how about this one?” I exclaimed as I pulled out a nice pastel yellow shirt with pretty flower print. I pressed it close on my body and grinned. “Your mother is so going to love this!”

He watched me twirled the shirt around and smiled. “Yeah, that’s actually really beautiful. I’ll take this one then.”

I glared at him and hid the shirt behind my back. “You want to make your mother happy, right?”

He shot a puzzled look at me. “Of course I do.”

“Then let’s get your mother a freshly new set of Summer outfits! She’s going to cry as soon as she opened her gift.” I beamed and started walking toward the skirt area. I gave the shirt to him to carry while I was searching for the perfect match of that piece of art.

“This and this…which one do you think is better?”

I was holding a white medium flare skirt with lace accent on it and on the other hand was a red pencil skirt that stopped midway before it touching the knees. I somehow already knew the answer but my mouth was faster than my mind so I had no other option but waiting for his answer.

“I think the red one is too daring…uh, I’ll take the white one.”

I tossed the skirt to him and he caught it easily. Now we were moving to shoes section and I turned to him to ask his mother size. Finding the shoes was as easy as picking an elephant on stack of straw and unfortunately the shop did not sell the nice bag to accompany the set. I figured it would be better to go find the bag in the other shop.

“We can buy a really big gift box and stuff them all inside it, don’t you think?” I eyed the paper bag on his hand with proud gaze. I wanted to see his mother reaction to these babies that I picked with my own hands but I knew my place. He probably willingly invited me if I asked about it, I was sure. Minhyuk really was a nice guy, after all.

I was in the middle of talking about my acquaintance who owned a great bag shop with affordable price where he could make a request to put his mother name on it when I felt someone draped a heavy arm on my shoulders.

“Baby, I called but you didn’t answer.” Chanyeol’s whiny voice laced with unapologetic tone came right from my side. I glanced briefly at Minhyuk only to see he looked lost and confused before I forced Chanyeol’s arm off me and frowned. “What are you doing here?”

“I missed you, of course.” He pouted and placed his arm back on me. This time he slid it until it rested comfortably around my waist and he used it to pull me closer to him. “But may I know who this company of yours, honey? I think I haven’t see him anywhere before.”

What did he just call me? Honey? He was crazy.

Minhyuk cleared his throat and offered his hand to Chanyeol. “I’m Kang Minhyuk, I’m Soojung’s…friend.” His attention then shifted toward me who busied trying to swat Chanyeol’s hand on my waist but he did not even budge. “I don’t know you’re taken, Soojung…since when?”

I was about to answer that but Chanyeol beat me to it.

“Well, my sweetheart is just too shy about our relationship. That’s why we had been keeping it lowkey. I hope she didn’t give you a false idea about your relationship.”

My eyes widened in protest. “Hey, it’s not‒”

“Ah, I’m sorry then. I was thinking that Soojung is single all this time.” Minhyuk stared at me with an unfamiliar gaze, was it disappointment? Anger? Or even sadness? Whatever it was, I really felt bad for him and everything that Chanyeol did right now.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Chanyeol dismissed him as if he was a saint. “I’m sorry but I want my cupcake back. Are you know how to get to the exit in here or I need to show you…”

Chanyeol really was unbelievable. He did not give me a time to tell Minhyuk about the truth before the boy bid his weak goodbye to us.

“Glad that the cockroach is gone now,” He mumbled lowly but I could hear him just fine.

“What are you doing? Minhyuk is a precious friend of mine!”

His brow rose skeptically. “Friend? Really, Sooj?” He closed his eyes and when he opened them, he made sure his gaze was intense to me. “You might think like that, but what about him? I guess you barely know that guy, don’t you?”

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I don’t even know why I need to explain it to you.” He was always acting liked a jealous boyfriend when I kept giving him a cold shoulder. “When are you going to stop?”

“Until you’re become mine,” He paused and shook his head. “I don’t think I’m ever going to stop. You know I like you since a long time ago, Sooj.”

I looked anywhere but him. “You know my answer, Chan. I won’t and never do a serious relationship. Let’s just stay as a friend.”

I heard him sighed heavily before he took my hands gently and squeezed them. “Sorry, but really, you need to stop going out with someone you barely know. I can’t bear the thought if something bad happened to you.”

I knew he had a good intention. He was only taking care of me and because besides Jiyeon and his mother, I was the only woman who was also close with him. I began feeling embarrassed by my sudden outburst. I was acting like a moody girl who just friendzoned him.

“I’m sorry too…for being hard on you. But I really don’t see you in a way more than a friend.”

He scowled playfully and flicked my forehead with his big fingers. I winced in pain and he laughed at me. “You haven’t even heard my grand confession but you already rejected me? You’re really unbelievable, Jung Soojung. Not that I hate that about you, though.”

The corner of my lips rose as I saw him back in his usual cheesy self. “God, shut up, Chan. You rudely interrupting my date with Minhyuk and I don’t have anything to do right now. Why don’t you treat me something to eat because my stomach is actually growling right now?”

Chanyeol narrowed his eyes skeptically at me. “Just us two?”

I blinked and nodded. I knew I usually would call Jiyeon and asked her to come along, in case something happened between me and Chanyeol. But I thought we were mature enough right now and besides, I kind of felt sorry for him.

“Well, can we holding hands, though?”

“People might misunderstand our relationship, so…no.”

He pouted while walking ahead of me and I followed him with a giggle.

—

At first, the tutoring lesson with Sehun was undeniably fun.

Sehun was nice and gentle. He tried his best to explain the material that I did not understand and he even went as far as meeting me outside the school because he knew I hated the gloomy atmosphere inside the Library. He never once nagged me or protested about how I lost my focus so soon when my phone screen lit up as a new notification showed up.

But of course the peaceful days should ended first or last. And I still remembered how mad he was at that day.

It was when I got my result back for another essay test on Biology with a bold red 35 written on the paper. That was the first time I saw him being angry and unfortunately, his anger was directed to me.

Sehun, however, was not the type who showed his anger by yelling and shouting. He kept his composure but every word that came out from his mouth filled with sarcasm and that was not pleasing to my ears at all. I recalled that I had to endure fifteen minutes full of his sarcasm before I left the Library with no words.

So when today I got my another result of my latest Mathematic test last week and the mark did not even reach 40 point, I decided to avoid Sehun. I was sure he would give me another prep talk about why I could not solve the question that he taught me before. And it was always the ones that I forgot, to be very exact.

I was hiding inside Jiyeon and Bomi’s Taekwondo clubroom while my two best friend practicing their daily routines. I watched as the members lined and waited for their turn to kick the punching bag that the coach was holding right across his face.

I never reall