Chapter Seven

Like the situation during the first day, she got some special treatment today as well. Though, it was nothing as fancy as getting the egg yolk dripping from the top of her head. It was more than that, and she was starting to think that it was really getting ridiculous. What in the world were they thinking when they stole her notebooks and wrote embarrassing stuffs on it? What was that again? ‘I pooped in my pants?’ She grunted as she shoved her notebooks into her bag. She guessed that she needed to buy a new one. She didn’t know how they even found out the lock pattern to her locker.

Her eyes lingered for a while around the class, trying to spot a girl whose named was Jooyeon. She was thinking of having a talk and explaining everything, but she thought that it would be really pointless. If a person dared to write something as unoriginal and childish as ‘I pooped in my pants’ on somebody’s notebook, she could only assume that nothing useful and logical would come up from their discussion. She would probably get more hated.

There was another thing bothering her mind as well. Which was the fact that Chanyeol chose that kind of girl to be his lover. Youngji had no right to interfere – especially when she was the living evidence of Chanyeol’s incapability on having a good all-flowers-and-butterflies relationship.

“Looking bad,” he said. “Your second day as a transfer student, and they’re already targeting you.”

She exhaled while brushing her hair, aware of the seat that was taken by Jongdae which was just beside her. “Maybe you got it wrong – maybe this is really some cultural stuffs.”  

“It’s not.”

Her hand was dropped on the table, fingers tapping rhythmically. “Jongdae,” she said, “are you close with Jooyeon?”

“Not really,” he replied. “Why?”

“Do you think that this will stop if I talk to her?”

“I don’t think so,” he replied, a bit too quickly for Youngji’s comfort. “Maybe you can just chill –“

“And get my books doodled every day?” she asked harshly. “I’m sorry,” she quickly muttered. “I was just really... confused.”

“You’re supposed to be thankful that they’re not doing meaner stuffs.”

Youngji raised a brow. “Like what?”

“Like picking physical fight? Isn’t that’s like the worst?”

“In my opinion, the mental scar is more effective on causing an extreme trauma.”

“You got mental scar from getting your books doodled?”

“I was referring to the eggs incident, actually.”  

Jongdae hummed. “Talking about that...” he muttered, and then he grinned. Youngji sensed something terrible. “You were absent on the first day because of that egg incident,” he stated, and she just nodded, confirming it. “You missed much information on school events and stuffs,” he said, and once again, she nodded. “You have no idea that we’re doing the freshmen welcoming event, right?”

“I’m guessing that I’m lucky that I have you?” she said hesitantly.

Jongdae whined, eyes darting everywhere. He looked nervous. “Don’t make that sound romantic,” he said, before he hawked. “So by the way, I was the only one who was generous enough to take you as my partner for a project. The others already have their own partners.”

“That’s so nice of you,” she commented. “It seems like I am an inconvenience for you, though. Have you already started anything?”

He smiled widely, that Youngji swore that she saw something sparkling. “I have the main idea, but not a detailed plan, which is why I need you to come over at my apartment – don’t worry, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun will be there as well.”

Youngji was surprised to know that Jongdae was housemates with Kyungsoo and Baekhyun, since from what she had acknowledged, Kyungsoo was not the type to be comfortable around somebody like Jongdae. Sure, Kyungsoo was all smile and tenderness, but he was quite distanced if he wasn’t with somebody who he was well acquainted. As for Baekhyun – that guy was just really in his own world. People would think that a person with such soft features would be delicate and sweet – and Youngji would like to apologize on Baekhyun’s behalf, because the guy was really monotone and unmotivated to put even a bit effort on making a conversation work. But that wasn’t the main concern now.

“Can you just tell me here?” she asked.

Jongdae narrowed his eyes before he shook his head frantically. “The plan is top secret; confidential. I don’t wanna risk anyone overhearing it. It will ruin the surprise.”

“It sounds so grand,” she said after putting a bit of effort on not cringing right here, right now. “Are we the only ones in this project?”

“Baekhyun’s in it, too,” Jongdae said. “He got some excellent talent going on, so he’s really useful.”

Youngji doubted that.

“By the way,” she started speaking, “are you sure that Chanyeol doesn’t know anything about your feelings?”

“Positive,” he said casually while checking Chanyeol out. He tilted his head towards Youngji and smiled. “Only a few people know that I have a thing for him.”  

“Well...” she murmured, “I guess you’re right.”

“Something’s bothering you?”

Her breath was cut short. “Nothing much. It’s just,” she paused, contemplating whether she should inform Jongdae or not, “because of my curiosity.”

“My non-existent love life is that interesting?” he asked, and as soon as he saw how Youngji’s eyes widened, he immediately blurted out, “You don’t need to answer that,” he said. “Well then, come over to my apartment today alright? We got some real stuffs there.”

Youngji hated waiting the most, and it probably had something to do with her habit on giving answers to anyone as soon as possible. She thought that the period of waiting for someone, or anything in general, was the most torturous moment in one’s life. There was no mercy, especially when one had to spend the entire period by sitting alone in the classroom and staring at the whiteboard.

Saying that she was bored was an understatement; she was left alone, and she had nothing to be done. It was only the starting of the school session, so very little homework was given. Sport activities weren’t even officially started yet, so nobody was wandering along the hall. Though, she could hear her mind telling her that there might be something else wandering along the hall. Take for instance, a ghost.

She didn’t forget how she started to be really scared of ghosts. She never forgot anything, because memorizing details was her most refined quality. It all started when she was left alone in the playground, and it was nearing the night. The sky had started to darken, and the wind was blowing loudly. She had been really scared because she was alone, and the rustling of the wind produced an eerie sound. And then she heard footsteps, and then she saw how a figure so enormous was approaching her. She was just a child back then, and her first instinct was to run. She had no reluctance on associating the enormous figure with paranormal stuffs. Maybe it was the traumatizing experience that had inflicted this kind of fear on her. Even until now, she was still scared of that kind of thing. Though, the fear had started to branch out – not that she thought that it was a good thing.

Her biggest fear now was her anxiety when she was thinking about where Jongdae was situated at this moment. That guy made her promise to join him to his apartment after school period, and she happened to be the only one to be keeping that promise. She could just leave the class an hour ago, which was right when the actual school period ended, but she didn’t want to burden Jongdae anymore. She was wondering if Jongdae actually forgot about that promise.

She heard footsteps, and they were just like the ones she heard at the playground when she was a child. Her body began to tremble, but she was remained glued to her seat. Ghosts, she thought. Monsters. Poltergies.

People said that she was perfection, but she didn’t think so. Her fear alone could overweight her strong qualities.  

Jongdae breathed in and out, every movement seemed so heavy. “I got into detention,” he said as he tried to regulate his breathing. “Youngji?” he called her name when he saw that she was pale. He walked towards her, slowly and smoothly as he observed her state. “Can you hear me?” he asked while putting his hand over hers. It was cold. "Youngji -"

She shrieked before she pushed him strongly, her eyes wandering nervously around the classroom as she wrapped her arms around her body. Beads of sweats were already forming on her forehead, some gliding down her skin making it looked tears rolling down her cheeks. Chanyeol, I'm scared.

“Jongdae?” she whispered. It’s Jongdae. It didn’t take her too long to process the details and the first thing she searched was her handkerchief. After she wiped away her sweats, she stared at Jongdae. He looked confused. “Sorry for the fuss.”

“Do you feel unwell?”

She shook her head. “That’s normal,” she said, and before Jongdae was able to reply with something brilliant, she added, “for me.”

He ruffled her hair, as he spoke softly. “You scared me there.”

”It’s nice,” she said as she sat on the couch. She never thought that Jongdae’s apartment would be that tidy and decorative. She got a feeling that most of the cleaning duties went to Kyungsoo, though.

“I’ll be right back,” Jongdae said as took off the straps of his backpack from his shoulders.

“Sure,” she replied as she scanned the living room. Right on the coffee table was a stack of comic books – which she assumed was Baekhyun’s – and a vase which contained some black purplish flowers. She wasn’t a big fan of comic books, but she decided to grab one to kill times. Furthermore, it was absolutely awkward to be in the same space as Baekhyun, who decided that his comic book deserved more attention than her. He was lying on the couch, legs crossed as he was so into reading his comic. Youngji felt so left out, and she was honestly hoping for Kyungsoo’s company. Unfortunately, Kyungsoo seemed to not be around.

She stared at the cover of the comic book which was titled Unripe Apple. The first thing on her mind was an apple. A green one. Sour. She pouted. She flicked the pages, merely reading any word as she was really not interested on reading this kind of thing. Actually, she disliked reading in general. She had been trying to change that, but she just couldn’t. It was really hard for her to force herself to read thousands of words, processing every single sentence and translate it into something more simple and understandable.

“The graphic’s really nice,” Baekhyun suddenly said. His eyes were still focused on the pages of his comic book, but Youngji noticed that his eyes didn’t show concentration anymore. “I suggest you to read it from the first series. That’s actually where our project came from.”

“Really?”

“No, I was kidding,” Baekhyun replied, and then he glared at her. “Of course it’s the truth.”

She smiled sheepishly. “Which part?”

Baekhyun stared at her for a few seconds before he averted his gaze back at the pages. “That’s for Jongdae to reveal. He dislikes it when people ruin his plans.”

“I see.”

“What do you know about Jongdae?”

Youngji stared thoughtfully at the wall. “Not much.”

Baekhyun bit his lips. “Do you know about his preference?”

“Preference on what – oh, that,” she blurted out nervously. “Yes, I do know about it.” She stared thoughtlessly at the comic cover. “Why did you ask?”

“I was thinking about telling you if you didn’t know,” he replied, “because you are easily shocked. I won’t want Jongdae to be a murderer.” He glanced at the clock on the wall, thinking that Jongdae was really taking his sweet time to wash himself. He scrunched his nose before he looked at the direction of the kitchen, wondering when Kyungsoo was going to be back to cook lunch. Kyungsoo seemed to be away most of the times these days. “You don’t seem that affected, though.”

“I learned many things when I was at Canada.”

“Such as?”

Youngji remained silent, and Baekhyun didn’t press further. He went back to reading his comic, smiling once in a while when he reached certain part. The clock was ticking, and he didn’t realize it when the door to Jongdae’s room swung open.

Jongdae strode towards the living room, fingers gripping tightly on the paper he was holding. He absolutely felt like this was going to work, and he was really ecstatic for it; he had been wanting to do this for years – two years, to be exact – but Baekhyun was hard to be persuaded. Luckily, Baekhyun finally yielded to his continuous whimpering and whining. With Baekhyun’s talent and help, combined with his impressive project, he was sure that things were going to work. He didn’t know how Youngji was going to contribute to the project, but he wasn’t really thinking about that when he took her in.

“Look!” he shrieked as he was waving the paper in the air. Youngji’s shoulders were immediately hunched, and she glared at the paper while putting down the comic back on the coffee table. She just read it, and she honestly felt curious to know how Jongdae interpreted the story. “This is the brief planning of the project,” he said, taking a seat in front of Youngji before he handed it over to her. Baekhyun sat up and looked at Youngji who was scanning the paper.

Her eyes widened as she kept reading everything from the top to the bottom. “Are you serious?” she asked meekly. “I mean... this – are we really doing this?”

Baekhyun shrugged before he pointed at Jongdae. “He’s the boss.”

“I thought that this has some Unripe Apple reference?”

Jongdae mouth formed an ‘o’ shape. “You know?”

“Baekhyun told me.”

Jongdae glared at Baekhyun, who was absolutely unaffected. “Well, don’t you think that this is interesting? Have you read the part when Zora and Kana got their apples switched and got themselves hunted by the devils?”

Youngji blinked her eyes. “I only read the first book.”

“Such a shame.”

“I’m sorry.”

Jongdae chuckled before he leaned against the couch. “No worries. I guess that I need to narrate the story?”

“Please,” she said.

“Zora and Kana are the two protagonists of the story. They are the owners of the two magical apples and they have been fighting against the monsters using their apples –“

“. That sounds like it comes straight from a children book,” Baekhyun hissed.

“ – and as usual, the protagonists always win. One day, they make a big mistake, which is being reckless and having their magical apples stolen and switched with ordinary apples. The ordinary apples are what they call the unripe apples. They are not able to do anything with those apples, and they are hunted by the devils – and monsters – since those terrible beings are seeking for revenge.”

Youngji raised a hand. “I don’t understand the relation to your project. Enlighten me?”

“I haven’t even reached that part,” Jongdae said while narrowing his eyes. “To get their magical apples back, they have to undergo many challenges and face many obstacles. There are even times when they argue with each other and announce a temporary feud. For them, the magical apples are the source of their life, and they are willing to do anything to get them back.”

“So basically, you want to force people who are not on good terms to go inside the ghost house and find the way out together?” she inquired, frowning. That didn’t sound like a good plan to her.

“Bingo! You’re fast to catch up,” Jongdae said while smiling. “It’s actually a game, and I already asked Kyungsoo’s help to force several people to do it.”

God, he goes as far as forcing people to do this.

“Well...” she murmured, “it sounds fun, but don’t you think that this violates one’s privacy?” she asked reluctantly.  

Jongdae was quiet, and then the corner of his lips curled, a few seconds later he burst into laughter. “You believed me? I’m not that bad,” he said before he stood up and headed towards somewhere. He came back with a file later, taking a pile of papers out. “I actually asked Kyungsoo’s help to distribute this form, and it seems like many people are interested.”

Youngji chose a paper randomly. “But,” she said, looking at Jongdae, “aren’t these people are couples?”

“Okay – yeah, I got what you’re trying to say,” Jongdae replied lazily. “Don’t you think that the couples are like Zora and Kana? A couple equals to two people, and Zora and Kana are two people, and they fight together. Well?”

“I thought you said that this is for people who are not on good terms,” she muttered.

“I also said that this is a game.”

Baekhyun snorted. “ – Youngji, don’t take him seriously. He only wants an excuse to proceed with his project while looking noble,” he said in an annoyed tone. “That not-in-good-terms or whatever thing is only something to make him look nice.”  

“Okay, so this is a game,” she said. “About the setting and the props –“

“Oh, yes!” Jongdae shrieked excitedly, and then he pointed at Baekhyun with as much attitude as he could muster. “Baekhyun’s gonna make the costumes, and props. And you” – he pointed at her – “are going to go inside the game venue and cosplay as the monsters’ queen.”

“What – no, I can’t –“

“It’s gonna be fun, don’t you think so?”

“Jongdae –“

“Many freshmen are gonna be freaked out,” he said while grinning.