one

For How Long?

“Your father is sick.”

3 words and she flew nine thousand kilometres from London right back to Seoul. She flew away from the university she worked hard for. She flew away from the life she had dreamt of. She couldn’t do anything. Her beloved father is sick.

“Joohyun-ah!,” her mom knocked on the door. There was no response, so her mom went ahead inside and started opening the blinds of her room.

“Wake up dear, or you’ll be late for your first day at your new college.”

The sun was up and shining, which marks the start of a brand new day. A brand new beginning for her.

Bae Joohyun. That’s her name. But only her family is allowed to call her that.

Also known as Irene, she just turned 21 this year and is currently in her third year of college. Two years ago, she enrolled in LSE, one of the top-ranked universities worldwide, to study journalism. All her high school years, Irene had dreamt of having an english breakfast viewing the Tower Bridge, do school assignment at Costa, somehow falling in love with a British guy she met at the tube, and other fantasies of living in London.  

Bad news first then good news? 

Bad news: she had to come back home to Seoul and finish her bachelor degree there because her dad was diagnosed with early stages of cancer.

Good news: she’s not going to start back at first year because her credits were transferrable to Yonsei University.

Irene began to open her eyes but quickly closing it back as the brightness of the sun shocked her pupils. She slowly slid away from the blanket and sat herself, now facing her mother that’s sitting at the edge of the bed.

“I’m up,” her voice was still hoarse, barely there.

“Rise and shine honey,” her mother smiled as she stared at her daughter’s face. Scanning her features, her mom is still amazed at how her daughter looks so much like her husband.

“Your dad went to office earlier today because there was an important meeting he had to attend,” Irene was used to her whole family having breakfast together in mornings of momentous days. Momentous like today, her first day starting at a new college. She knew she’s not a little girl anymore and that one day she has to grow up from such habit, but somehow a tiny part of her heart sunk knowing that her father won’t be there this morning. 

“Go clean up, get dressed and come downstairs when you’re done,” her mom stood from her position. “Breakfast will just be the two of us today.

Her mom smiled to her before she exits the room, heading downstairs to the dining room.

As soon as her mom left, Irene heads to her bathroom and took a quick shower. 

Being the only child of one of the top 20 richest family in Seoul, she owns a grand walk-in-closet full of branded clothes and accessories. Even so, she wanted to be simple for her first day at her new college so she put on a black t-shirt and denim shorts. Her simple canvas bag with content she has filled in the previous night was set on top of her desk. She swing the bag on her shoulders and checked whether there are things she might’ve forgot. Before heading down, she took one final glance at the mirror and smiled at her reflection.

This year is going to be a good one, she encouraged herself with the absence of her dad this morning.

The minute she entered the dining room, her mom was eating a piece of bread while reading the newspaper under their family’s own label. 

The Bae family are founders of a very well known media company that dominates the entire South Korea. As stated in its name, BAE Media Corporation specialises in media as they own the biggest as well as other smaller branches of television channels, a newspaper and magazine label, a huge radio broadcast, a production house, and a lot other forms of media businesses are under the ownership of the Bae family. This is also probably the driving force of Irene’s choice of studying journalism. People thought it was her parents’ strategy so that one day she can take over the company, but honestly, the girl just loves expressing her thoughts into words. She loves writing. 

Unlike other rich families where parents and children act like business partners, the Bae family have a pretty close relationship with each other. Irene’s parents love spending time with their one and only child. They go on holiday trips frequently, they have meals together and they have an open relationship where the three of them tell each other basically everything. This is also the reason why Irene is willing to drop her studies to spend more time with her dad. After all, she is daddy’s little girl.

As she sat herself down the dining table, Irene fetch herself two pieces of bread and smeared them with butter, adding sugar on top of both. Just the way she likes her bread. 

“Your grandpa should take responsibility for teaching you that,” her mom chuckled seeing her daughter take a bite of her butter-and-sugar covered bread. “That has 0 nutrient you know.”

Irene giggled a little. “You know this is my favourite, mom.”

Speechless, her mom just shook her head and got back to reading the newspaper.

“And while we’re on that topic, I miss grandpa and grandma,” her mom looked up. “Are they going to visit us, or are we going to Daegu anytime soon? The last time I saw them was last year because you and dad decided to spend Christmas in London.”

At the mention of London, her mom’s eyes started to water. Irene saw this and quickly put on the brightest smile she could muster.

“Maybe, we can spend Christmas this year in Daegu? Like old times.”

“Sure, I guess we can arrange a trip to Daegu this Christmas,” Mrs. Bae replied quickly blinking away her tears. This earned her an excited soft squeal from her daughter.

“Oh, by the way, Suho called the house this morning and told me that he would like to pick you up to go to campus together,” her mom mentioned as she started folding her newspaper and placing it above the dining table. “Are you dating him?”

Her daughter choked a little at this and drank a bit of her milk before answering.

“Mom, no,” Irene wiped her lips before continuing. 

“We’ve always been best friend since we were kids. We’re not even that close anymore ever since high school graduation. Besides, I’m happy that he’s also attending the Yonsei,” she continued munching her bread. “That way, I’m not entirely a loner.”

 “With that face of yours, you’ll never be a loner, honey,” her mom looked at her teasingly. “Well, I’m going to go first, I have some errands to run.”

“Take care darling, study well,” with that Mrs. Bae approached her beloved daughter and kissed the top of her head goodbye.

As her mom left the dining room, Irene’s maid entered and cleaned up what’s left of her mom’s breakfast. Her maid left the room only to have come back a few minutes later. Her maid came to her and bowed. 

She raised an eyebrow signalling her maid to say what she needs to say, “Ms, the security guard informed me that a guy on a motorcycle is waiting for you outside.”

Honk. Honk.

To this, Irene finished her bread and milk quickly. She ran towards the front door of her house, scratch that, mansion and saw that Suho’s already there by his motorcycle. He held a red helmet while wearing a blue one himself.

“Good morning, Irene. Ready for your first day?” he stated as he offered her the helmet.

“A bit nervous actually,” she accepts the helmet.

“Hey, it won’t be that bad, okay? It’s not like it’s your first day at college,” he got on the motorcycle and pat on the space behind him.

“Well not really, but still,” Irene swiftly ride on the motorcycle behind Suho, wanting to avoid being stared at by the man. She could clearly tell that he was staring at her with heart eyes.

It was awkward. Well, at least for Irene it is. The pair used to be best of friends as kids, until Suho confessed his love for her back in first year of high school. Irene rejected him and Suho was pretty cool about it. He asks her that they stay best friends instead, but that’s a little bit easier said than done, right? The boy acted like nothing happened and was back to being ‘best friend Suho’ to Irene. She found this weird and awkward for her because she was cautious whether she had hurt him or not. Irene loves Suho. But, only as a friend. She can’t see herself dating him.

Ever since Irene left for London 2 years ago, they didn’t keep in touch that much. Suho check up on his best friend a lot, but Irene still felt bad. Years have passed, but Suho have yet gotten close with another girl, moreover go around dating girls. A five-year-old could even tell that he’s still in love with Irene. She wasn’t an exception. She sensed that he’s still in love with her. Not the friendship type. And so there’s this guilt that’s still eating her on the insides even after years. 

“Hold on tight, it’s going to be a long journey, but don’t worry, I will always be here for you and support you.”

Suho took Irene’s hands and locate them on his own hips. The girl held on to it awkwardly as they started to ride of the streets of Seoul.

~

The motorcycle was parked by the entrance of Yonsei Shincon Campus. The parking lot was located by a park, so Irene could see some students just chilling out with their group of friends. From the moment she entered the facility, Irene got a good feeling about the university. She can already imagine herself reading on one of the benches at the park.

Irene didn’t have any lectures scheduled for the day as she was there for the last minute administration errands, so Suho decided that he would show her around. The campus was humongous and a bit confusing at first. There were too much alternatives of how to get to places, and Suho showed them all. They went around for almost an hour and Irene could only get a hold of where her first 3 lectures will be, the cafeteria and most definitely, the library. She’s a geek like that. A pretty one, that is.

After walking for a little bit more, they decided to stop their little tour and bought some beverages from the vending machine. They brought their drinks towards the campus park because that place left an impression for Irene. The two comfortably sat next to each other on one of the benches. Irene kept a little distance though.

“So, how was the campus so far? Do you like it?” Suho opened Irene’s bottled iced tea before giving it to her. 

“This place is huge, I’m not sure when I’ll finally be able to memorise where everything is.”

Suho chuckled a bit before answering.

She’s cute, he thought. “Don’t worry, you can always ask me.”

They both laugh a little at this.

Just as they were about to continue conversing, both of them heard a commotion as a group of boys came towards a big tree nearby.

~

There were four sophomore guys walking towards the bench by a big oak tree, followed by a bunch of girls of all ages. As soon as the guys take their seats on the bench, the girls formed a circle surrounding them.

“Alright girls, what do we have here?” the tallest guy questioned the crowd.

“It’s Valentine’s day, Chanyeol Oppa!”

The guys looked at each other confused. They were confused why the girls were there. That is, until the girls started firing them with gifts and offerings.

“I brought this gift for you, Baekhyun-ah.”

“Baekhyun oppa, I have your favourite chocolate.”

“Be my Valentine, Kai-ah. Please?”

“Come to my dorm room tonight, Kai!”

The girls started attacking the guys as they closed the gap between them. It starts to get out of control, so one of the guys stood up on the bench which got the girl’s attention.

“Okay, so listen up,” the guy said as he spoke a bit louder to shush the girls. 

“Let’s just make a nice and neat line over here,” he motioned a straight line in front of him, “so you girls can give us your Valentine’s gifts. Sounds like a good idea?”

The guy winked which made some of the girls squeal.

The girls started lining up while the rest of the guys sitting down just shook their heads and laughed at their friend.

“Baekhyun’s crazy,” the tannest of the group said. 

“But, it would’ve been crazier if Baekhyun had not done that, Kai,” Chanyeol replied.

One by one, the girls started giving their gifts to the guy of their choice, and some of them even had the guts to ask them out. 

Kai, the tannest of them all, is a prominent player at the university. He sleeps with numerous girls younger, older, same-aged, until the guys have lost count. So, when some of the girls ask him out on a date, he just gives vague answers and flirts with them. The tallest of them all, Chanyeol, is also a player. Different from Kai, he keeps his girls a little longer than one night. He’d date them until he gets bored, dumps them, and finds a new one. The cycle repeats constantly. Sadly, he’s currently dating someone, so the girls asking him out got rejected. Baekhyun, the guy that made the ‘announcement’ is the most outgoing one of them all. He’s popular both within and outside campus not only because of his looks but also from millions of views on his singing videos online. The girls that came for him was mostly just fans. 

Sitting on the edge of a bench was one guy reading his book peacefully as he didn’t receive any gifts or presents whatsoever. Do Kyungsoo. That’s his name.

He used to be most popular amongst the group. His mysterious exterior was a trait that attracted older, younger, and also same-aged girls at campus. His wonderful round eyes, thick eyebrows and heart-shaped lips lured most girls during his freshman year. He received lots of gifts, love letters, and girls performed grand gestures just to win his heart. But, this changed. He was a rude, cold and mean guy. His cold words are sharper than a knife it could slit through every girl’s heart. Rumour has it that he actually has a girlfriend from high school. However, not a single Yonsei student was able to confirm this as he was never seen with any girl. 

It was almost the end of the line, and Kyungsoo still hasn’t received anything. He was reading his book when he heard a soft voice.

A girl was standing before him. She was wearing a pretty floral dress that goes a little above her knees. She was holding up an envelope towards Kyungsoo, but she couldn't look at him. She just stared at the ground, as if it was way more interesting than the handsome looking guy in front of her.

“Kyung-...Kyungsoo...uh..uhh...I-I like..” she stuttered in a hushed whisper.

“Like? Like, what? Like this yo, like this!” Baekhyun joked which earned himself a blast of laughters from four other boys hanging around the girl.

“I-I just wanted to say that I..I-I like you Kyungsoo oppa!” she started to raise her voice a little, shocking everyone around her. She bowed her head even lower, her arms tremble as the piece of envelope remain in between her fingers.

There was silence for quite a while and everyone’s eyes enlarged twice its original size. All five of the boys were shocked as girls would usually come to them to confess their emotional affection for their tannest member, Jongin, the campus’ top player. It was different today as the confession was directed for Kyungsoo, the coldest and most solitary member of the group of friends. After a few seconds of being shocked, everyone started to burst in laughters, and Baekhyun even rolled around the grass of the park, holding his stomach as he found it very funny.

The laughter died out a bit and Chanyeol, as the tallest, finally caught his breath and started speaking.

“What did you just say? You like Kyungsoo?! Are you even joking?” he laughed some more and added. “How are you so sure, that after this confession, you’ll definitely get a chance to go on a date with Kyungsoo? Wake up from your fancy little dream!”

The group then laughed again, until Jongin approached the girl at such close proximity that she feels a bit uncomfortable.

“Well, what do we have here? A love letter,” he snatched the the letter away from her hands a bit roughly, “let me read that beautiful..and uhmm, this letter smells good. You put perfume on it too?” giving a little playful smirk and 

The girl was trying to grab the letter back from Jongin but to no avail, Jongin started reading in such a mocking manner for everyone to hear. Silent sobs was then heard coming out from the girl.

“Dear Do Kyungsoo oppa...my oppa.. Oh my god. Who does she think she is? How dare she even called you hers.” he said, making the other members laugh. 

“Give it back!” the girl tried once again to get her letter back, but her efforts were of no use.

“I’ve been observing you for quite a while now, and I’ve fallen in love ever since that day we brushed shoulder in the hallway near the library. Ew, such a creep. You know you sounded like a stalker.” the boy continued, with such a great girly tone he could master.

“On this special occasion...which is my birthday, in case you haven’t known. I wanted to tell you that I love you so much and I hope that we can be together. Love, Park Sojin. What. did. I. just. read?” he looked away from the letter and started laughing loudly and wildly along with the three other boys. 

Baekhyun approached Jongin and took the letter away from him while re-reading some parts.

“Oh, it’s your birthday is it? Here’s a special gift for you.” Baekhyun smiled evilly a bit before ripping apart the letter into small pieces. Every rip he made brought tears out of Sojin’s eyes. After that, the smaller pieces of what once was a love letter made wholeheartedly by Sojin as her confession for Kyungsoo, dropped to the ground in pieces. Baekhyun then stepped and even spat on it.

The other boys started laughing out loud again, and now even pointed their finger at Sojin. They were then silenced as Sojin spoked out through her sobs and deep breaths.

“I don’t care what all of you think or do to the letter, now that you’ve already read it anyways,” she stopped, eyes full of anger and sadness combined, “can I at least hear what Kyungsoo oppa has to say about this? He seems a little quiet.” She spoke a little braver than how they expected her to be.

Chanyeol chuckled a little before speaking, “That just proved us how you know nothing about Kyungsoo. He is actually a quiet person by his nature.”

All this while, Kyungsoo was actually right there looking at the scene, uninterested while laughing a little bit here and there at his friends’ jokes. The girl looked at him expectantly. Everyone became quiet and silence overpowered the whole scene now.

After all that commotion, Kyungsoo just chuckled and stepped forward to say two words.

“Quit dreaming.”

Sojin dropped to the ground and sobbed her loudest. The boys started to disperse from the park as they left the scene, leaving Sojin alone crying on her knees being watched by students passing by going to their next class.

~

Not so far from the commotion, Irene and Suho witnessed the whole situation which overwhelmed Irene. Suho, on the other hand found it pretty normal, as the group of boys are very popular around campus for being the most good looking and wealthiest group of boys. Girls drool over them and wished that they could at least hold hands with one of the boys. Boys kneel to them and wished that they could at least be invited to their parties. 

“Who are they? They’re so mean and rude.” Irene started speaking up a little, still in shock and awe at the scene she just witnessed.

“They’re one of the ‘leaders’ of this campus,” Suho made invisible quotation marks. “They hold an important role and authority for this campus as they are basketball representatives, and each of their families owns partial stock shares of the whole university.” Suho explained, “I guess authority and money gives you that kind of personality,” he continued referring to what they have just witnessed.

“That is just low.” Irene said as she started standing up and slowly leaving the bench.

“Where are you going?” Suho asked as he started standing up too, packing up his bags.

“I’m just going to go to the library to take some books for my next lectures.” 

“Oh, I’ll come with you” Suho offered, as he was now walking side by side with Irene.

“No, its okay. I can manage,” she puts on her brightest smile that automatically melts Suho’s heart as he froze upon her beauty, “besides, your next class is starting in,” she looked at her arm watch and said, “more or less, 1 minute?” she then started giggling as Suho’s eyes widened in panic.

“Gosh, I totally forgot. Thanks for reminding me Irene,” he started walking away and waved a little at her, “see you after school.”

“Ah, about that oppa, I think my driver’s picking me up since my dad asked for me to come see him today,” she said while scratching her head, “so I guess I’ll be going home by myself today, I’m sorry.”

“Oh okay. Don’t worry, take care, okay?” Suho smiled and then looked at her for the last time before leaving to his next class.

~

Irene proceeds herself to the library getting her book necessities for her lectures. She went inside the huge library and started hunting for her books by asking the librarian. 

“Excuse me ma’am, where can I find the Women and Journalism book?” 

“Farthest isle, third shelf to the right, second row from the top,” the librarian woman spoke flatly without even breaking her eye contact with the computer screen.

“Okay, thank you.” she smiled before immediately leaving in search for her books.

She walked through the empty aisles of the library and started searching for her coursebooks. Irene found it fascinating how the English book has its own shelf in the corner, quite the contrary from her library in London.

She also made sure she took note that the library is quiet at this hour and she should definitely come at the same time in the future.

She gathered four books by now, leaving Women and Journalism last. Irene walked to the shelf that was referred to by the librarian, but to her dismay, the book  was located far above her reach. She tried balancing the stack of books she was holding while trying to stretch her arm getting her last book. This did not work out well though as she lost balance, about to fall flat on her with books falling down all over her face. 

However, that didn’t happen as someone caught her by both her arms, letting the books fall to the ground with a loud thud.

Irene didn’t notice, but she’s been closing her eyes expectant for her ungraceful fall. She blinked once as she realized that she was still standing. She blinked the second time, noticing that someone’s arm was around hers, securing her stance. She blinked the third time to search with her eyes the owner of those arms, only to be shocked by her discovery. First, the fact that a guy was holding her shocked her, but to surprise her even more, the guy was no other than Kyungsoo, the bully. 

Her eyes widened as she quickly moved away from Kyungsoo’s embrace and scooted down to collect her books. She stood up once again, trying to reach for her last book quickly only to be pulled down again by Kyungsoo.

“Which one do you need? Let me get it for you,” Kyungsoo offered her, not expressing anything with his facial expressions.

“Uhmm,” Irene was a bit nervous as she recalled what happened just around 30 minutes ago at the park breaking the heart of an innocent girl, “Women and Journalism, the light blue one,” she spoke so silently almost as if a whisper but heard clearly by Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo extended his arms, reaching out for the book easily as he was around 15 centimetres taller than Irene. He grabbed the book and gave it straight in front of Irene’s face.

Wow, he’s not as bad as how he looked this morning. Who is this? Is he the same guy I saw this morning at the park? Or does he have a twin of some sort? He looks exceptional right now in a whole new light. Maybe kindness enhanced his good looks? Irene thought to herself.

“Hello? Are you even paying attention?” Kyungsoo snapped her back to reality.

“Oh..uhmm..what did you say?” Irene asked shyly.

“I said, here’s your book...whoever your name is,” Kyungsoo said, indirectly asking for her name.

“Oh,” Irene finally realize and took the book away from his hand, “Irene, my name’s Irene.”

She then offered her hand, only to feel the warmth of Kyungsoo’s hands against hers.

“Kyungsoo,” he said, immediately leaving her going straight towards the exit.

Irene followed Kyungsoo with her eyes until he was finally out of her sight.

“Kyungsoo......I didn’t even get to say thank you,” almost like a whisper coming out of Irene’s lips....I didn’t even get to say thank you,” almost like a whisper coming out of Irene’s lips.


a/n: finally, the first chapter. im sorry i made exo oppas kinda rude and mean and snobbish. oh and happy birthday jongin.

            -- 14/01/2021

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greensparks
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Macaronsmoothie
#1
Will this story be continued? ☹️
Macaronsmoothie
#2
Chapter 2: Woah!! This is goOoOoOddddddd 😁😁😁😁😁
irenii #3
Chapter 2: i wonder what will happen when they realize they have already met XD
Crazy_Reader #4
Chapter 1: Finally! I'm so looking forward to future updates.
Saraharu #5
Glad you’re back!
Hidden_Reality
#6
I'm so excited for the story! I hope you'll update it soon author-nim. Thank you for this! :) my KyungRene <3
blossom92 #7
WOOOHOOOOO FINALLY ANOTHER KYUNGRENE FIC!!!!! i will be waiting for the next update, from the foreword, it seems interesting!!