Episode 2: Kuhn

Deok Soong had actually arrived at school early, for once.

She greeted her best friend with her usual mumbled “hello” but actually turned to look at her when the shorter girl didn’t answer. Hye Rim was staring ahead with a rather dreamy expression on her face.

Doek Soong turned, perplexed, yet unsurprised when she found that the object of her friend’s attention turned out to be the class president, standing behind the teacher’s lectern - a concentrated look giving his usually cheerful face a rather masculine glean as he looked over some papers - and she rolled her eyes, returning her attention to her friend.

“I think he’s gonna do an announcement.” said Hye Rim, without even looking at Deok Soong.

‘Well that much is obvious.’ thought the taller friend, sitting down and starting to take her books out of her bag. “Why don’t you just ask him out?”

“What?! Her friend finally snapped her attention to her, “no, no, no, no, no….”

“Why not? You’re both pint-sized and cute,” she giggled, “perfect for each other?” she finished to grin at her friend who was staring at her flatly.

“I’m sorry I have made fun of our lord and savior Jinhoo-chi-poo-chi…” said the pony-tailed girl with fake seriousness and Hye Rim seemed ready to throw her pencil case at her when the bell rang and the boy in question called the students to attention.

“Hello everyone,” he began with his usual sunny smile, “if you would please listen, I have an important announcement.”

Students settled in their seats and the class quieted down.

“As you know, the Sports Festival is coming soon at the end of this month, and so we have to start thinking about our class activities.”

Quiet, excited talk rose up amongst the students. Sports Day was always good fun, and they were seniors this year.

“And so, to make everything smoother, each class has been asked to choose 2 representatives to help with the organisation and planning of all we need to do.”

Just as soon as it had started, the buzz of voices went dead. Jinhoo tried to keep a pragmatic smile on his face as he went on.

“Ideally, I’d like to have volunteers. We need a boy and a girl for each class.”

The room was dead quiet.

“Anyone?” he asked hopefully?

Deok Soong turned to glance at her friend behind her, and even the shorter girl had turned her eyes away from the class president.

He waited a few more moments before pulling out two clear bowls from under the desk, unto the table in front of him. They were both filled with folded slips of white paper. “Well… since there are no volunteers, we’ll have to leave it to the luck of the draw. Everyone groaned.

“Alright then, ladies first.” he grinned, and even Deok Soong had to admit he was kinda cute.

He plunged his hand into the left bowl and pulled out one paper, unfolding it carefully, “Choi Deok Soong!” he announced brightly, staring at her with half the rest of the class who were glad it wasn’t them.

The young girl tried not to glare as he nodded to her, but inside, she was taking back everything nice she’d just thought about him and mentally plotting his demise.

Without waiting for her to comment, he put his hand in the boys’ bowl and pulled out another name. “Lee Bit-to.” he said, and just like everyone else, looked up to stare at the empty seat at the back of the room. He sighed.

“Well, I said fair is fair… He can’t be exempted, just because he’s not here… we’ll tell him next time he --”

“I’ll do it.” A deep male voice cut through the president’s sentence, and all eyes turned towards the front left side of the room, where the boy who had spoken sat nonchalantly, not even looking at Jinhoo.

Tall, and athletic, with a head of light brown, wavy hair that fell into his eyes just so… Kuhn was good-looking and he knew it. He sat in his chair, his uniform halfway ed, looking outside the window as if things going on in the classroom had nothing to do with him. Star of the basketball team; At a glance he might have seemed cocky, but actually, he was really easy-going and kind. And though he had a tendency to smirk at people with a smile that made you go weak in the knee, it was unclear whether he was aware of the effect he was having on the opposite - or even just people in general. But he didn’t seem to mind the little cloud of people that followed him around pretty much everywhere he went, and though he was failing all his classes, all the teachers loved him.

“Hum… really?” asked Jinhoo, unsure.

Kuhn looked up at him and one of the corners of his mouth perked up into a smirk. “Yeah boss.” some people in the class laughed and he turned to them, as if he as putting on a show, “I’m good at sports so should be a no-brainer, right?”

Jinhoo wanted to say that there was more to it than that but wasn’t about to let his only volunteer slip away. So he just smiled and nodded.

“Alright, so that’s settled.” the class president went on, sounding once again confident and pleased, “You two please come see me after school, there’s a meeting with all the class representatives where your duties will be explained. Homeroom is dismissed.”

The chatter of students rose up again, but Deok Soon heard nothing as she let her head fall between her head and groaned, “As if I needed any MORE duties!!!” she cried, to no one in particular.

Hye Rim patted her shoulder and the teenage girl found that her friend was now standing next to her, lollipop in mouth once again. “Hey, could be worse. You almost got stuck with Bit-to, but instead you got the captain of the basketball team,” she grinned, glancing at him, “it could definitely be worse!”

Deok Soong turned to glance at the smiling boy who sat near the window at the front of the class. No Soo Il. But everyone called him Kuhn, even the teachers. She wasn’t sure why. She had never really paid that much attention to him. As a rule, she tended to dislike popular boys. Especially boys like him who had a following of hungry fangirls… It was just too much trouble to even bother being friends with them. She didn’t like having to fight to get someone’s attention. Still, she had to admit he was really really attractive.

Just as those words had popped into her head, the boy in question turned to stare right at her. The corner of his mouth quirked into a smile and he winked. Immediately, she turned away, pretending that she hadn’t even been looking at him in the first place, but she knew her cheeks had heated up.

*

Later that day, Kuhn and Doek Soong were walking back from the meeting that had taken place in the student council office, with all the 3rd year “volunteers”, to explain what the title entailed exactly. And apparently, it was a lot more than either of them had been expecting. They walked back to the classroom, side by side, in silence. Kuhn seemed lost in thought, but Doek Soong looked like she was just about to lose it, and in fact she did so the minute they walked into their now empty classroom.

She let out a defeated wail as she plopped down her seat, making the brown-haired boy look up at her in surprise.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. She hadn’t realized he hadn’t gone to his own seat and was still standing next to her.

“What’s wrong?! What’s wrong is this is ridiculous! The t-shirts, fine. The flag? Ok, maybe we could handle it in 2-3 days... But being in charge of the class dance?!” she paused to wail again, “Doesn’t this upset you?? You’re the Baskteball club leader, no?”

“Captain.” he corrected her, grinning, from his spot sitting on the desk in front of hers. ‘Why is he always grinning?’ She thought, almost angrily.

“Fine, captain. Still. Isn’t this gonna cut into your club duties? With all this stuff,” she said the word disdainfully, “I might have to quit the broadcasting club.” she said, looking as if she was about to cry. “At least for a while…” he added, looking down at her hands.

When she looked up he was just staring at her; he hadn’t said anything. She raised her eyebrows expectantly and he just shrugged.

“I guess I might have to as well.” he said after having spent a moment thinking about it.

“Don’t you mind?!”

“Well…” he paused, staring outside, “Sure, I’d….” and then he drifted off mid-sentence and grinned again before turning back to look at her. “No, not really.” he seemed to suddenly decide.

For some reason, that look he gave her just then made her whole insides churn and her face heat up. Why had he stared at her like that? What was it he’d left unsaid?

As she was lost in her thoughts, Kuhn jumped off the desk and once again was standing next to her. Even standing, he was quite a bit taller than she was, but now he towered over her. She looked up and a grin was once again spread across his lips.

“Besides, I think it’ll be fun to work with you. We’ve never really talked before today, have we? This will be a good chance.”

‘Does he always have to be so blunt?!’ the teenage girl thought, imagining her face going the color of a tomato. She wanted to think he was just trying to act cool, but somehow he sounded really honest; like he really meant it.

She looked up at him and his grin had softened into a pleasant smile. He extended a hand towards her and asked, “Partners?”

She hesitated only a moment before answering, and before she knew it, she was lifting her own hand to meet his.

“partners.”

Continue?

Yes / No

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: ok so this is turning out to be a lot harder than I anticipated, hence the super slow updates... I'm sorry, I've probably lost all my readers at this point, but if you're still here, thank you! and let me know  your thoughts! 

AoH