Chapter Four

Youngji went to the restroom to clean herself and then she left after she was assured that she looked presentable. She knew that her hair was really wet and so did her uniform, but she thought that those were not her biggest concern – it was her first day as a transfer student, and she was already late for the first period. Although she made quite a ruckus with her first appearance – judging from how people casually threw eggs flying at her head – she was sure that everything else was gonna be fine. After all, she didn’t really do anything that was calling for all those chaos and problematic stuffs. She had made her calculation, and she expected the uncalled mess to end in a few days.

“Why is your hair wet? Did you take a shower or something?”

She averted her eyes at the voice’s owner, and then she smiled. “Just some touching up.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” He threw a towel, and Youngji caught it smoothly. “Jooyeon seems to be really upset and enraged.”

“Jooyeon?” she asked while using the towel to dry her hair. “Who?”

“Chanyeol’s girlfriend,” Kyungsoo said, a smile plastered on his face. In his arms was a pile of files, which Youngji assumed as documents. “She posted something last night regarding your recent arrival. Honestly speaking, I’m quite surprised to see you in the flesh. I wasn’t expecting you to come back. Haven’t you graduated about two years ago?”

“I did,” she replied, “but my mother and Mistress Park suggested that this experience would be quite a meaningful one for me, and I have no choice but to oblige.” She stuffed the towel into her backpack. “Thank you very much for the towel; I really needed it.”

“It’s Mistress Park again, I see.”

Youngji remained silent. She knew how Kyungsoo was, and she had no plan to go deeper into details when it came to him. Kyungsoo, although looking like a reserved person, was actually quite a sly one. His words were always calm and controlled. Too calm and too controlled, that nobody would feel the malice intention. 

“I think that your schedule is smudged,” he said after a few seconds of silence. “You’re lucky that I have a copy with me.” He took out a paper from one of the files before he handed it to Youngji. “We are in the same class,” he said, and Youngji was immediately tensed. “The first period was empty, so I think that you should be able to pass with not much interference. The second period is” – he looked briefly at his watch – “starting in twenty-five minutes, though.” He smiled again. “I’m expecting to see you in class.”

“I will be there.”

Kyungsoo walked passed her, and it was only when he was standing two meters away from her when he began to speak again. “I trusted you before, and I trust you now, Youngji. Do something.” 

She knew what he was implying. She let a few seconds passed before she answered. “I will.”

She watched as how a brief smile was immediately formed on Kyungsoo’s face, before he turned his back to her and continued walking. His shoulders were tensed, she noticed, and she knew why. She knew that nothing would be the same, but she didn’t expect herself to be hurt that badly. After all of those damages that she had caused, she should be able to predict all the outcomes. Sehun and Jongin were the first ones to show their true feelings about her, and she was afraid to witness the next ones to confront her. Friendships were, after all, the things that were driving them to go against her. She couldn’t blame them, because she was the one who betrayed their trust. When she left Korea, she didn’t only leave the guy she used to love, but her friends as well.

“– and then she ran away dramatically and caused Sehun to go after her. It’s quite confusing to see Chanyeol remained standing, though. I mean – if she were my girlfriend, I would be the one chasing after her.”

“Jongdae?’

“Yes?”

“What are you doing?”

Jongdae creased his brows. “You weren’t listening?”

She smiled apologetically. “I’m so sorry.”

“I brought a uniform,” he said, and a grey bag magically popped  out. “I think that it’s the right size.”

ert.

Youngji gave a subtle glare at the bag which was held by Jongdae, and she was frozen for a moment when Jongdae handed it to her. She wondered if she should take it. She wondered if Jongdae had managed to get his filthy hands on the uniform, feeling it up and rubbing off his repulsiveness on it.

She smiled while extending her hands. “Thank you, Jongdae.”

She couldn’t blame herself for taking the uniform even after those scary thoughts running on her mind. She was drenched for real, and she didn’t want to risk having a bad odour throughout the school period. Only God knew how embarrassed she would be if she was to trample on her image by getting all those smells sticking on her body. Just imagining the student body resenting her was enough to get a big explosion on her mind.

“I’m not bribing you.”

“I didn’t say a word.”

“I can see your bra – just saying.”

She hastily covered her chest with her schedule, briefly managing to stop herself from unleashing her anger. “I prefer it if you look away.” Without a word, she left Jongdae all alone and headed towards the restroom. If she were to stay with Jongdae any longer, she was afraid that all of her composed actions and thoughts would go to waste. Those lessons she had learned from her tutors were not meant to be wasted and turned worthless. She had her and her family’s reputation to withhold, and she would not risk anything to smear it.

If only she could be sure of that when another egg cracked on her head.

She felt it. She felt the slimy substance gliding down her skin, and how she felt the light weight of the egg’s shell sitting on top of her head. Then she felt how a hand was tenderly smoothing out her hair, brushing it with care until she was pulled back from her own thoughts. She heard footsteps, and before she realized it, the people who were responsible for that prank – or so, she convinced herself – managed to get away again.

“I saw them,” Jongdae said while stuffing the egg’s shell inside his coat. His view on Youngji’s face was covered by her hair, which had coincidentally fallen down as the slimy liquid was running from the top of her head. He envied Youngji. A lot. A whole lot. But he just couldn’t be a bystander when he saw how a person was violated.

Jongdae was astonished to see a smile crept on her face.

“Who are they?”

He was shocked to sense nonchalance.

“Jongdae,” she muttered his name. “Who are they?” she muttered in a lower volume, her fingers making a light contact with the sleeves of Jongdae’s coat before she hastily made them to retreat. Pull yourself together, she chanted on her mind. 

“I will tell you, later,” he replied. “You should bring a coat together with you next time, because I’m pretty sure that your bra’s not meant to be a show.”

“It is not.” She clenched her fists. For a moment she thought that Jongdae could be a decent guy. She really had let her guards down.

“I was right,” he said. “The uniform fits you perfectly.”

She breathed. “Thank you. Now, about the people.”

“The people?”

“I wish for us to get straight to the point.”

“Oh yes – the people. Those who threw eggs at you?” Youngji nodded, and then Jongdae continued talking. “Jooyeon’s friends.”

“Jooyeon? Chanyeol’s girlfriend?”

“Yeah,” he said nonchalantly, as if that didn’t trigger anything fatal on Youngji’s web of thoughts. “Such a coincidence?”

Youngji forced herself to give a smile. “I don’t think that it’s a coincidence. I really hope that it is, though. But...”

“I got it,” Jongdae said while leaning his back against the wall. He folded his arms in an attempt to look cool. He learnt that trick from one of those comics Baekhyun owned. Although those comics were filling up their apartment in a bad way, he could say that they were quite enjoyable. He wasn’t gonna admit that - especially to Baekhyun, though. “She asked us to chase you out of the Park household after all, so that’s not surprising at all. You, the infamous past lover of Chanyeol, living in the same house as him – that’s quite a reasonable and acceptable reason. I bet that the sight of you and Chanyeol coming to school together was the last straw.”

Youngji widened her eyes in terror. “I’m so sorry but” – she tried to remain collected – “what did you say?”

“You don’t know?”

“Didn’t.”

Jongdae blinked his eyes before he chuckled. “Sehun should be more thorough when he’s planning something. He should have told me earlier that it was supposed to be confidential.”

“I think that it’s because Sehun is not expecting you to be acquainted to me,” she murmured. “I don’t think that you should be seen with me as well.”

“You’re not turning this into some kind of dramatic stuff, aren’t you?”

It had already turned dramatic the moment Jooyeon saw Youngji having dinner with the Parks. Youngji was upset because she was really slow to catch up – the look on Jooyeon’s face during that moment was not to be dismissed. It was the look of wrath. It clearly meant danger for her, yet she easily ignored it and was immersed brainstorming on how she was supposed to handle to Chanyeol. She was wrong all the time – because the person she was supposed to handle was Chanyeol’s girlfriend, not Chanyeol himself.

What about my image? What about my family’s image?

“Has everyone in this school heard of me?” she asked quietly.

“Not yet,” Jongdae said. “But if it was indeed true that Jooyeon was getting more aggressive, then it’s only a matter of time before articles about you are gonna be written. This is high school, but in reality, we are just a bunch of kids.”

He was about to continue speaking, but then Youngji began to talk.

“Thanks for the company, I sincerely appreciate it. Can you do me a favour?”

The smile had faded, he noticed. “I’ll try to grant it if it’s gonna get me something.”

“Can you tell the class representative that I’m not feeling well? I want to go home.”

Home wasn’t really a suitable word, but who was she to complain? Her parents had decided this for her, so she had no choice. 

“Sure.”

She smiled, but Jongdae only felt sadness. She didn’t even manage to mutter her gratefulness as she hastily turned her heels and walked away. Jongdae thought that he saw something sparkling fell on the floor, but he wasn’t gonna entertain that thought.     

Jongdae was seriously questioning his sincerity right now. Why did he do that? Did he do that so that he could get on Youngji’s good side and make her to team up with him in order to win Chanyeol’s heart and eliminate Jooyeon out from the list? Or maybe, was it simply because of the old scar on his heart that drove him to do that? 

He glanced at Sehun and Jongin who were playing with their phones, and then he averted his eyes at Luhan and Yifan who were having an animated conversation. Then he stared at Chanyeol who looked quite calm, despite his girlfriend’s outburst and the spreading rumour about Youngji and him. Jongdae could feel the jealousy in him again, but it was suddenly extinguished by guilt. He didn’t know why he felt guilty. He did nothing wrong.

Kyungsoo put a hand on his shoulder. “You are spacing out again. This is so unlike you.”

“I’m just tired.”

“Tired of what?” Kyungsoo asked while sliding out a chair from under the table, and then he took a seat. He placed his arms on the table before he rest his chin on his palm and then he tilted his head to face Jongdae. “Chanyeol?”

Jongdae got panicked upon the mention of that name – does Kyungsoo know about it? – but then the logical side of him said that Kyungsoo was probably talking about the Jooyeon-Chanyeol-Youngji unofficial feud. “Kinda,” he finally decided to say that.

Kyungsoo sighed. “I expected Youngji to be more careful, but I guess that she’s still the same. She’ll never be able to run from her parents.” 

“So you know her too?” Jongdae asked. Well, Jongdae was quite one of the latecomers of the clique, so he didn’t know much aside from the circle of friends they got. Nobody was interested – or rather, brave enough – to open up the old stories. Basing from the current situation, Jongdae could say why.

“I knew her for sure, but I can’t say the same now,” Kyungsoo replied. “It has only been two years, and from the moment I met her and heard the very first word she said just now, I can say that she hasn’t changed that much. But I can’t let that thought to fool me, because who knows what kind of change she has actually experienced?” 

“Is it true that she left Chanyeol without a word?”

“I guess...” Kyungsoo trailed off, “yes. She did leave Chanyeol without a word.” Kyungsoo glanced at Chanyeol, and then he looked back at Jongdae. “But I can say that she has her reason. She’s not the kind of person to let a person hanging for so long. She’s the opposite: she usually goes straight to the point and settles everything on the first try. It’s very rare to find her delaying an answer or a thing for so long.”

So does that mean that I’m gonna know if she’s gonna accept the deal soon?

“They must use to be really close to be causing this kind of uproar.”

“Very close,” Kyungsoo replied, and Jongdae swore that he heard the sound of his heart breaking into pieces. “They are childhood friends, and their parents are best friends. Both parents suggested for their children to get married, but you know what happened in the end: Youngji broke the relationship before it was sealed. That’s probably gonna be the only time when Youngji went against her parents’ wish.” Kyungsoo gave a hearty smile at Jongdae. “That’s how I knew that for Youngji to do such thing at Chanyeol, she must have a valid reason. Youngji’s not reckless.”     

Jongdae sighed – he wasn’t sure if it was because he felt sad that Youngji used to be so close to Chanyeol, or because he was saddened by the tale of Youngji’s life. Her life felt so... void. Then he thought about the treatment she was receiving from some students, and the evil thoughts on his mind – damn, he was so ruthless. To think that he was deceiving himself into thinking that he was actually shielding Youngji, it was really pathetic of him. 

“You are still thinking about it?”

“Huh?”

Kyungsoo tapped his fingers on the table while humming a melody. “About Youngji and Chanyeol.”

“They had an interesting story.”

“Have,” Kyungsoo corrected. “Memories are forever yours; they would never be taken away. People just store them far away from their own reach, whether on purpose, or unconsciously.” 

“You sound so philosophical.”

Kyungsoo laughed before he stood up. He looked at his watch, and then he realized that the second period was probably gonna be passed without being attended by any teacher as well. “I should get going now; I still haven’t informed the homeroom teacher about Youngji’s incapability to attend school today,” he told Jongdae as he smoothened his uniform and adjusted his tie. “I feel so worn out, too,” he suddenly blurted out. “Guess I’m a bit carried away by this chaos too.”

“Well, everyone’s quite concerned about it too.”

“Not everyone,” Kyungsoo said. “Some people are just digging up stories for their own entertainment. They don’t realize that this thing is not only affecting those three who are directly involved, but others, like us as well. Hearing them talking about it as if it is supposed to be taken lightly made me upset, but who am I to shut their mouths?”

Jongdae realized that Kyungsoo’s voice was louder than usual when he felt the stares people were giving at them. Many pairs of shoes must have fitted. Kyungsoo only gave his trademark smile before he left the classroom, completely ignoring those many stares he received. Next time, Jongdae told himself, he would prepare himself better for another strange act by Kyungsoo.