“Miss me already?” smiling to herself, Jooyeon greeted Daniel’s call with a question as she slowly walked in the empty hallways towards her locker.

It hadn’t been long since she last talked to him face to face, yet thirty minutes later his melodious laugh greeted her again and her lips curved into a wider smile, “Always. I’m just calling to check up on my beautiful girlfriend. Sorry I can’t give you a ride home today babe,” Jooyeon could picture Daniel pouting, feeling sorry that he couldn’t keep his promise to drop her off on a late afternoon like this. He might even start coming up with plans to make up for breaking his promise when they meet again tomorrow.

“I’ll be fine Daniel. Besides, it’s still early,” She replied in assurance, reaching her locker and turning the dial for the password combination from muscle memory. Once she had opened the locker door, a few sheets of folded paper and coloured envelopes rained down at her feet. She was no longer paying attention to Daniel talking at the other end of the line as she crouched, just enough to grab all the papers before stuffing them back into the locker. Jooyeon curiously unfolded one of the papers and read its contents as her happy smile suddenly faltered and her expression turned serious, “D-Daniel, I have to go now,” she decided to end the phone call earlier while reading over the words on the paper once more.

“Ok, call me when you have arrived home safely,”

As soon as he said the last word, Jooyeon quickly hung up the call and slipped the phone into her pocket. Reaching inside her locker, she continuously unfolded each paper and silently read the letters. The contents of each letters were different, but she knew very well that all of them were targeted specifically for her. Her pulse and breathings quickens when she realized that she had just received questions, warnings and threats about her relationship with Daniel, the campus heart-throb. This kind of reaction was long overdue because she had been dating Daniel for almost a month now, and she had expected it to happen sooner or later once his ‘fanclub’ finds out that their heartthrob is officially someone’s boyfriend. Jooyeon has been preparing herself –both mentally and emotionally– for this, but the reality was different from what she had imagined, it was like she was still in high school and not college.

Jooyeon crumpled the papers and threw them into the nearest dustbin, dismissing the childish and immature acts from Daniel’s admirers. She knew better than to pressure herself over some menial issue, believing that people would get on with their own lives once the news has settled in and people’s excitement has cooled down. Her ears perked up when she heard female voices behind her, turning around to see two girls whispering loudly between themselves while pointing at her, “It is her! She looks exactly like the girl in the video,” One of them squeaked as they both approached her.

“Can I help you?” Jooyeon asked, feeling uncomfortable from their blatant stares as they eyed her from top to toe.

“Are you really dating Daniel?” The tallest out of the pair asked in a hostile tone, using her height to stare down at Jooyeon.

Jooyeon was taken aback by the question, but before she could reply, the other girl spoke, “Everyone’s been talking about it. Some even said they saw you two together many times around campus,”

“Actually, I… uhm…” For a moment there, Jooyeon hesitated. She and Daniel had never discussed whether they should be announcing their relationship publicly to everyone on campus, neither did they feel like they should be dating secretly. The couple just felt happy enough to have each other and spend time together, never really bothering about what others might think about their love-life.

“This is you, am I right?” The tallest girl shoved her phone in front of her face. Jooyeon peered closely to a video playing on the screen, a video of two figures that she recognized almost immediately. It was the recording of her meeting with Daniel a few days ago at a coffee shop across the street from the university. The video was shot at an angle that provided a full view of her face as Daniel’s voice calling her his girlfriend was recorded clearly.

-

“Sorry, but my girlfriend is here now,” Daniel nodded briefly to a girl who was holding her phone out to him, before walking towards Jooyeon with hurried footsteps, “Babe, finally you’re here! I missed you!” Daniel exclaimed, hugging his girlfriend tightly with two cups of coffee in both hands. She returned the hug with a soft pat on his back before he pulled away and pecked her softly on the cheek.

-

Armed with a solid proof, there was no way Jooyeon could deny their claim. Anyone who saw the video could easily draw an obvious conclusion from Daniel’s words and her interaction with him. She was left tongue-tied after the video ended, “She’s not even that pretty. Why did he choose her?” The girl’s friend scoffed, scrutinizing Jooyeon’s appearance from her straight un-styled black hair, to her simple everyday makeup and her non-flashy almost tomboyish outfit in comparison to their idol-like appearances.

“How did you get Daniel to become your boyfriend?” The owner of the phone interrogated, taking a threatening step closer towards Jooyeon, as she instinctively stepped back from the proximity.

Jooyeon was never the type to get herself involved in verbal or physical fights, but she believed that she hadn’t committed any crime and had nothing to be afraid of. So, she responded in the most calm and civilized way as she could manage, “I didn’t do anything, he was the one who asked me out,” she stated the truth.

Jooyeon’s unperturbed reaction towards their supposedly hostile interrogation provoked them further and ignited their anger, “Liar! You must’ve done something to him to make him date you,” the tall girl snarled, unable to keep her hands by her sides as she pushed Jooyeon’s right shoulder roughly.

“Hey!” Jooyeon snapped back, fixing the creases on her shirt and frowning at the unsuspected violence, “What is this?”

“Jinhee has been trying to get Daniel’s attention for months, but you just appeared out of nowhere and suddenly took his attention away from her!” Her friend added as Jinhee shoved harder, slamming Jooyeon towards to the lockers with a loud bang.

Jooyeon sighed and bit her lower lip before locking eyes with Jinhee, “Let me get one thing straight, none of us are in control of Daniel’s feelings but himself,” she stepped further away from them, preventing herself from more attacks, “So it’s up to him to choose who he likes and who he dates,”

“You saying that you’re better than any of us?!” Jinhee roughly pushed her again as Jooyeon’s back hit the lockers for the second time. The back of her shoulders were starting to sting from the impact and she knew bruises would appear in the next few hours. Despite the hostility, she was thankful the girl hadn’t grabbed her hair or slapped her in the face.

“You better stop, before I report this to the office,” Jooyeon remarked, taking a deep breath to calm herself from fighting back with actions instead of words. She knew that CCTVs were placed at every corner of the hallways and the last thing she wanted was to end up at the dean’s office picking up a suspension letter for hurting another student. She massaged her right shoulder as she slowly started to walk away, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I don’t have time to deal with one of Daniel’s fans,”

“It’s not over yet! I’m not done with you!” Jinhee’s yell echoed in the empty hallways as Jooyeon hurried off, wanting to be out of their sight as soon as possible, because who knows to what lengths those angry girls were willing to take.

********************

If there’s one thing that Jooyeon hated the most, was getting people’s attention on herself, be it a good or bad kind of attention. She couldn’t stand the feeling of numerous pairs of eyes staring down at her, whispering between themselves and judging her. The news about her relationship with Daniel had spread to a larger mass of people after the two girls confronted her for the truth. She heard some of the students murmuring whenever she walked past, some of them couldn’t believe it and thought it was a prank while others wondered why did Daniel chose to date Jooyeon out of the many prettier, smarter and richer female students in campus, “Ignore them. They’ll get used to it,” Doyeon advise as they walked together into the cafeteria for lunch.

“Been there, done that,” Jooyeon replied, shifting her gaze away from a group of girls sitting at a table by the entrance. In a crowded area dominated with predators ready to pounce on her at a moment’s notice, she found it almost impossible to ignore sudden attention given by those around her once she stepped inside the cafeteria, “I’ve tried to become a peacemaker, but they’re ruthless,” her hands instantly went up to massage her sore shoulders once she made eye contact with Jinhee, the girl who confronted her a few days ago.

“Have you told Daniel about it?” Doyeon asked.

“No,” Jooyeon shook her head firmly, “He has a big competition coming up. I don’t want him to lose focus over this. I… I can handle this,” she mumbled quietly. The stinging pain at the back of her right shoulder took one night to develop into a dark bruise, she had to sleep with pain relief patches on her back every night for the past few days. Now the pain had subsidised, but the mark from the bruise was still healing, sporting a yellow-green shade underneath the patches.

“Good luck keeping it a secret from him. By now, Daniel knows you better than you know yourself. You might ended up lying only to yourself,” Doyeon stated, gesturing behind her to the said boy who was waving Jooyeon over to sit at his table. She could clearly see him smiling and beckoning to her but pretended to not notice him and quickly dragged Doyeon away to the furthest table out of Daniel’s view once they had paid for their food.

Jooyeon noticed that she had caught the cafeteria’s attention once again as Daniel jogged towards her table, “Babe, didn’t you see me waving at you?”

“H-hey, I guess I’m just super hungry today,” Jooyeon replied with a small wave, shivers ran up her spine as more and more pairs of eyes turned to her direction.

“Come, you’re sitting with me,” Daniel smiled, he too detected the increasing attention from more than half occupants in the cafeteria as they followed his every move but decided to ignore them, “Doyeon you can join us too,”

“You guys go on, I’m actually in a hurry,” Doyeon said before shoving her half-eaten sandwich into and waving the couple goodbye as she disappeared out the entrance.

“Let’s go babe,”

“B-but I-” Before she could refuse, Daniel held her right hand and picked her tray up with his free hand while pulling his girlfriend gently to his table.

“Hey Jooyeon,” Seongwu greeted as soon as Daniel placed her food tray on the table and pushed her to sit next to him, “You two are the most famous couple in campus right now,”

Jooyeon smiled weakly in reply as she quietly ate her lunch, wishing that Daniel wouldn’t entertain Seongwu’s obvious remark. It wasn’t the first time the couple had a meal together inside the campus cafeteria, but it was the first time they sat together at the same table during the most crowded hours in for lunch. The strong deadly stare prickling at the back of her head made Jooyeon turn around curiously, seeing Jinhee balling up her fists while fixing a pointed gaze on her. As if he just read her mind, Daniel leaned in spoke softly into his girlfriend’s ear, “Don’t worry Jooyeon, they won’t harm you,” he wrapped one arm around her shoulder and gave a comforting hug, as Jooyoen tried to hide the throbbing pain on her shoulder by biting down on her lower lip.

“That’s because you here right now. They’ll be attacking me soon as you’re gone,” she said, missing out a few details that a similar incident had occurred a few days ago.

“Daniel should teach you boxing then,” Seongwu chipped in, an amused smirk dancing on his lips.

“Ong sunbae, this is not the time for jokes,” Jooyeon looked up to meet his eyes, her face serious, “When I said you’ll be the death of me, I didn’t mean this,” she turned to her boyfriend who calmly sipped on his drink.

Daniel took both of her hands in his, gazing back at her with the similar seriousness, “Just to remind you, you’ve already said yes to being my girlfriend. You can’t take it back, unless you want me to kiss you in front of all my fans,”

“So, you really want to see me die?” she yelped, baffled that Daniel was still being playful and making jokes about this serious matter as she yanked her hands away.

Daniel gasped in surprise, quickly shaking his head in denial, “No, that’s not what I meant!” he said, turning his body so he could face her properly. He cupped her cheek with his hand, turning her face towards him and pulling her attention away from the looks other students were giving her. “Jooyeon, it’s just a phase. Soon enough they’ll forget about it and return back to minding their own business. Trust me,” he said softly, assuring her with a firm squeeze of her hand and his warm gentle smile.

He knew just what to say and do to console her as Jooyeon was momentarily relieved with him by her side. However, she failed to shrug off her thought about her encounter with one of his avid fans. She was unsure whether she should tell him about it, but later decided to otherwise, “But, why do I feel like I have to share you with all your admirers?”

I decided to add some drama into the plot after some tips from my readers. It's a common type of conflict, but Daniel didn't seem to find anything to be worried about while Jooyeon couldn't get the thought out of her mind. They are still in the early phase of dating, but what will happen to this couple's future?

Don't forget to leave me a comment and share me your thoughts about this chapter! Thank you for reading!

I have a new Kang Daniel story out:

Crush Next Door

Don't forget to check this one out as well!