Yong Hwa thought about what might happen if he left things as they were.  If Shin Hye didn’t know that he loved her, then what choices would she make?  Would there be a time when he would regret it?

He tore after her in the hopes of letting her know.

“Shin Hye!”

Her white profile turned to him.  The night dress twirled a little at the waist.  A warm smile appeared on her face as he climbed the slope to join her.

Her hand left her side and extended out towards him.

He ignored it and lifted her up off the ground by the waist instead.

She gasped, hair fluttering backwards from the momentum.  Her hands clutched his shoulders for support

“What is this?  Did you forget something?” she asked, staring down at him in surpise.

“Love you,” he said in a small voice.

Her small hands tightened on his shoulders.  “What?”

Yong Hwa hesitated, and shook his head.  She was too young.

“No!”   She shook him by the shoulders.  “I couldn’t hear you.  Say it again.  Jung Yong Hwa!”

It was the disrespectful way she used his name that did it.  He lowered her until her head was just above his.

“Say it again?” she begged eagerly.

He smiled.  “Love you.”

Her bottom lip trembled and he’d wished he’d said it sooner.

She leaned in closer to him, and he watched her attention drift to his mouth.

He wanted to let her kiss him, but the sound of students approaching gave them both pause.  Yong Hwa waited until they had disappeared again before setting her down on the ground.

“I’ll walk you back to the dorms,” he said evenly.

She nodded, and tucked her hand into his without asking him.  He didn’t push her away this time.  It was too late for that.

“Do you think they saw you?” she asked.

He shrugged.  “Don’t worry about it.”

She looked at him, curious about his change in attitude.  He squeezed her hand and led her back to the dorm.  He’d fix things somehow.

Yong Hwa walked her all the way back to her door.  No one was around, so he kept a hold of her hand.  The gesture made him nervous.  He hadn’t walked a girl home since high school.

Shin Hye unlocked her door, and hesitated.  “I will write you a letter to give to the school board tomorrow.  That way you won’t get in trouble.”

“It’s no trouble.”

She continued on as if she hadn’t heard him, and hurried into the room.  “I will tell them that a ‘family emergency’ took me away so fast, but that I also left because I was so ashamed for kissing you on the school grounds tonight.  Where’s some paper!”

He smiled at her and shook his head.  “Is this your way of protecting me?” he asked, stepping into the room.

“If I write that, then they can’t hurt you.”  She was already at her desk with pen in hand.  Her other hand was still fishing around in her top drawer for some notepaper.

She stopped moving when he reached out behind her and touched both of her hands.

“It’s okay,” he said, easing the pen away from her.  “You don’t have to worry about that stuff.  Just pack.  I’ll take care of things here.”

His chin brushed against the side of her head, and she sighed, leaning back so that the small contact wasn’t lost.

“When I get back, I’ll tell you everything,” she whispered.  “I want to tell you now, only...I think I need more than a night to explain it to you.”

“It can wait.”  His hands traced up her arms in an attempt to soothe her.

“I’m so happy right now,” she gasped.  She twisted around to face him.  “I love you, but I think you already know that.”

He froze.  No matter what, her saying the words still took him by surprise.

Elation drove him to lower his head until their foreheads met.  He reached up and touched her cheek.  A few strands of her hair got caught up in his fingers.

“S-stay a little longer?” she asked.  “Help me pack?”

He pressed a kiss one of her cheeks.  “If you had any idea how much danger you are in now, you’d tell me to do the opposite.”

“It doesn’t feel like danger.”

His hands tightened around her arms, and he kissed her on the cheek before letting her go.

“I’ll see you when you come back,” he assured.  He was so ashamed of himself, and yet so happy at the same time.

Shin Hye nodded.

The night came and went.  Shin Hye tip-toed out of her bedroom before the sun rose, hauling her bags outside one by one so that she wouldn’t disturb anyone by dragging them all out at once.

When she passed Min Hyuk’s room, Shin Hye made a mental note to give him a call later so that he wouldn’t worry.  Min Hyuk would try and find her if she didn’t let him know that she was okay.  He was a responsible dongsaeng sometimes.

Once she got her luggage outside, she couldn’t resist stealing back into Teacher Jung’s room to say one last goodbye.  She didn’t want to wake him, but she did want to see his face one last time before the trip.

She was to be disappointed.  Teacher Jung wasn’t in his bed, or the spare bed.  The bathroom door wasn’t closed either.  She looked around the room and finally found a folded resignation letter addressed to the school.

“No.”  She shook her head.  “No!  How can he do this when he said that he’d...is this his idea of taking care of things here?  How can he do this?”

Her phone beeped.  It was a text from Seung Gi letting her know that he was awake.  Their ride would be at St Blossom’s car park very soon.

“No.”  She sent a brief message saying that she would be late.  “I have to find Teacher Jung first.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Jong Hyun was pulling on his pants when he heard someone banging on his door.

“Coming!” he shouted, pulling on his tracksuit jumper.  “This had better not be about a clogged toilet again.  I keep telling you girls to stop flushing your tampons.  They swell to the size of watermelons and then it takes all day to get them...ah.  My mistake.  It’s only the phony student.  What do you want?”

“Coach Lee!”  Shin Hye forced her way into the room.  “Look!”

A letter of resignation was into his face.

“Zoom out!  Zoom out!  I can’t read it like that.” he protested, swatting the paper away.  “Who’s resigning?”

Shin Hye narrowed her eyes at him.

“Ah.”  He scratched the back of his head.  “Let’s talk as we go.  Is his stuff gone from his room?”

“Only the guitar,” she answered.

His heart sank.  “Same thing.”

Seung Gi frowned at Shin Hye’s text message.

“Aigoo!  Shin Hye!” he said to himself.  “I’ve been waiting for years to see her and you want to be late on this day?”

The noise of a car door made him glance up at his surroundings.

Seung Gi was at the St Blossom’s car park with a week’s worth of luggage by his side.  He had arranged for his friends to pick him and Shin Hye up from there so that they could arrive at their destination sooner.

However, the sound of the car door wasn’t made by his friends, it was made by his Hyung.

“Ssaem?”  Seung Gi crossed the gravel to reach Teacher Jung and the silver sedan behind him.  “What are you doing here?  Waaaaaa, is that your car?  I didn’t even know you still had one.”

Yong Hwa blinked in surprise.  “What are you doing here?”

“Why?  Did you miss me?”

“I’m serious...is that your suitcase over there?”

“It’s an Audi!”  Seung Gi petted the car’s hood.  “Consider me in love.  How could you afford this?  How much did it cost to get it imported?”

Yong Hwa tossed his guitar in the back of the car.  “I lost my fame, not money.  Stop kissing my car!”

“Hyung!  Let me drive it once around the parking lot?  Huh?”

The elder shook his head.  “Not unless you tell me what you’re up to.  Are you running away?”

“No.”  Seung Gi stopped to check his phone.  “And since when do you care?  If you must know, I’m going with friends to visit one long-time friend.  Haaaaa, but it seems that they’re running late.”

Yong Hwa slammed the car door shut.  “What friends are you going with?”

Seung Gi shifted from foot to foot.  “You know.  Friends.  Amigos.  Pals.  Chums.  Buddies.”

“I know what friends are.  What friend do you have here?”

“Here?”

“From St Blossoms.”

He shrugged.  “It’s just easier for people to find St Blossoms than it is to find Seoul High.”

“Don’t lie to me.  Is she going with you?”

Seung Gi paled.  “Hyung, I don’t think that we should talk about this.  You said that we shouldn’t.”

Yong Hwa bristled.  “You’re taking her to visit a friend?”

“Family.”

“Did she ask you to go with her?”

“No.”  Seung Gi hesitated.  “Last night, she asked to go with me.”

“THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE!”  Yong Hwa burst out at the top of his voice.  “It doesn’t make sense.  She wouldn’t...”

“Wouldn’t what?”

Yong Hwa grimaced, but said nothing.

“Why would she want to go anywhere with a punk like me, you mean?”  Seung Gi frowned.  “I don’t know how to answer that without making you angry.”

The elder closed his eyes in anguish.  “What have you done to her now?”

“I haven’t done anything to her.”

“Liar.”

“Don’t misunderstand, Hyung!  Aish, I don’t even know what you’re thinking these days.  There’s no need to throttle me!  Snow White is safe and sound.”

“Her name is Shin Hye!  And she is never safe around you.”

“Shin Hye then!”

Yong Hwa rested his hand on the hood of the car and formed a fist.  “She was crying a lot after you left her alone last night.  Did you know that?”

“No.  I didn’t, I-”

“What did you say to her to make her like that?  Huh?  Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you and throw you in the trunk of the car right now!”

Seung Gi set his jaw.  “I’m the reason why you haven’t lost your job yet.”

Yong Hwa’s fist clenched and unclenched.  “That’s it?  That’s your reason?  You’re more arrogant than I thought.”

“If I hadn’t been openly chasing her, you would have been fired sooner than later for looking her way.”

“Tch.  I see.  You want me to believe that you were chasing Shin Hye to help me?”

“...No.  Consider it a of luck.”

Yong Hwa moved forward as if to hit him.  “If your conscience doesn’t already bother you, I’m going to make sure that it does.”

“You want to hit me?  Go ahead, Hyung!  Just avoid the face.  I still need it to impress a girl.”

“Don’t talk down to me and then call me Hyung!  I warned to you treat her well, I even...”  A short bitter laugh escaped him.  “I even told her to go easy on you.”

“I never asked you to do that.”

Yong Hwa looked disgusted.  “No, of course you didn’t you selfish...I never want you to go near her again.  Ever.  And don’t come near me either.  I won’t forgive you this time.”

Seung Gi felt his heart grow cold.  “Hyung.”

“Don’t go near her!  You’ll just do what you did last time.”

“What?” he croaked.

“Why?  You think I’m being too hard on you?  Take a good long look at yourself.  You don’t just stamp on people to get what you want, you crush them.  And you crushed her last night.”

“I didn’t crush her.”

“Shut up and stop defending yourself.  Just...shut up and get out of my sight.  I couldn’t stand seeing her crying like that and thinking of it makes me want to hit you.”

Seung Gi felt scared.  “I’m sorry, but I didn’t know.  It’s-it’s good that you saw her last night.  You would have gotten her to stop crying without a doubt.”

For a long time, Yong Hwa didn’t speak.  He opened the front door of the car and pushed the keys into the ignition.

“I kissed her.  That’s how I got her to stop crying.”

The junior thought about this, looked at the car, and then blew out a long breath of relief.  That was nothing.  “Is that why you’re leaving; because you kissed her?”

“I’m leaving the school, not Seoul.  I promised her I’d wait for her to come back, so I can’t go far.”

“Where are you going then?”

The elder slipped into the driver’s seat and started the car.  “To turn myself in.”

“What?!”

“She’s sixteen!  When she gets older, she’ll realise what I did was wrong.  I want her to feel safe when that happens.”

He gaped.  “By locking yourself up in prison?”

“Let go of the door.”

“Hyung-Teacher Jung, listen to me.  You didn’t take advantage of a sixteen year old kid.  No judge in the land would convict you of that.  Hyung, stop!  You didn’t fall for a sixteen year old girl!”

“Then who did I fall for?”

The shouts from two people coming across the oval brought a swift end to their conversation.

“Let go of the door handle,” he ordered Seung Gi.

“Teacher Jung!”  It was Shin Hye.  She and Jong Hyun were sprinting across the oval like comets.  All that morning training had finally paid off.  They had searched the whole school for him, and she wasn’t even out of breath yet.

“Unbelievable!” panted Coach Lee.  “He’s seen us and he’s still driving off!  Yah troublemaker, don’t lose heart!  Move double time!”

“Shin Hye!” Seung Gi grabbed her arm, almost giving her whiplash.

“Let go!” she shouted at him.

“Tell him you’re not sixteen.”

“What?”

“We’re losing him!  Yah!”  Coach Lee Sano-chopped Seung Gi’s hand off of her.  “Let go of her, kid!”

“Apa!  He thinks he kissed a sixteen year old girl!”  Seung Gi cradled his arm.  “Get it?”

Shin Hye swallowed air, nodded and took off again.  Coach Lee took a few seconds to catch up with her because she was already sprinting.

“He kissed you?” Jong Hyun breathed.  “Already?  When?”

“I’m not saying!”

“And you haven’t told him?”

“I-No!”

“Then we have to now!”

They were catching up to his car.  The vehicle was still on the gravel, winding towards the main exit at a fair speed.

“She’s twenty two!” cried Coach Lee.

Shin Hye followed his lead.  “I’m twenty two!”

The car took another corner.  Shin Hye cut across the grass in attempt to catch up to the car.

“SHE’S TWENTY TWO!” cried Jong Hyun, nearly choking on his efforts.  He ran up to the back of the car and rapped on the surface with his knuckles.  “A TWENTY TWO YEAR OLD AHJUMMA!  TWENTY-”

“Ahjumma?”  Shin Hye took exception to the term and turned around to berate her coach.  Unfortunately, she misjudged the distance of the car and her foot was a hair’s breadth from getting pulled under one of the front wheels.

Yong Hwa hit the brake pedal at his feet and jerked up the handbrake.  The car moved forward a few centimetres before finally stopping.   Fearing the worst, he threw open the driver’s door with his other hand to get to Shin Hye.

Jong Hyun was still running when the car rocked to a halt.  He slammed straight into the open driver’s door and flopped backwards to the ground.

“Two,” Jong Hyun muttered while lying spreadeagled on his back.

At the front of the car, Yong Hwa scooped Shin Hye up with both hands and propped her on the hood of the car.  His heart was pounding as he checked her for injuries.  “Are you okay?  The car didn’t touch you?”

“I’m not hurt at all!” she cried, throwing her arms around him and trying to catch her breath at the same time.  “I’m sorry-I’m sorry-I’m sorry-I’m sorry a thousand times for not telling you last night!  I should have known what it would have done to you if you didn’t know.”

“Let me look at you.”  He pushed her away and held her by the shoulders.  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Shin Hye covered his hands with hers.  “I’ll be okay if you believe me about my age!”

“I-I don’t know.  You looked older sometimes.”  His eyes ran over face.  “But I thought I was imagining it.  You’re twenty?  Honestly?”

“Twenty two,” corrected an invisible Coach Lee.

Yong Hwa looked around for the source of the voice, but Shin Hye pulled him back.  “Where were you running to?” she questioned.  “Was your promise last night a lie?”

“No!”  His hands gripped her tighter.  “I wouldn’t do that to you!”

“Then why?  Is it about protecting me again?”

“Shin Hye...”

She punched him on the arm.  “You bad man!  You can’t do that anymore!”

He touched his forehead to hers.  “I’m sorry.”

His closeness was distracting.  Shin Hye felt her anger fading.  “I’m not a-a”

“Not a?”  His cheek and nose brushed against hers.  Her eyelashes fluttered shut.

“C-child.”  She choked on the word.  His mouth was tickling her lips.

“Help!”

Shin Hye and Yong Hwa pulled apart and looked around.

“Help me!  He’s over here!”  Seung Gi had caught up to Coach Lee on the other side of the car.  “He ran into the door like a nerd.”

From the ground, Jong Hyun groaned.  “Shut up kid!  Can’t you understand that they’re busy?”

Seung Gi pouted.  “I’m supposed to be busy too!  I should be on my way to visiting a friend right now.  Instead I’m wasting my time pulling your pan-caked face off the ground.”

Coach Lee glared.  “Shut up.”

The junior tutted.  “You’re just embarrassed.  There’s no need to be.  Some of us run into open car doors like idiots.  That’s the way the world works.”

“Someone hurt him for me,” grumbled Jong Hyun.  He managed to get up off the ground using the car for support.

“Shin Hye!”  Seung Gi waved his phone at her.  “I told my friends to drive around the school a couple of times, but our ride is here.”

She nodded, but Yong Hwa moved to stand in front of her, and Seung Gi’s face fell.

“Did you think I wasn’t being serious before?”  Yong Hwa’s voice was so cold that even Coach Lee stared at him in surprise.  “Leave her out of your plans and go!”

Shin Hye peered around Yong Hwa’s arm.  “What’s going on?”

Seung Gi looked like he wanted to protest, but whatever he saw in Yong Hwa’s face made him clam up.  He gave Shin Hye a guilty look and then headed back to the school’s car park without excusing himself.

Still hidden behind him, Shin Hye slipped her hand into Yong Hwa’s.  What she had just seen bothered her.  “I still have to go.”

Yong Hwa squeezed her hand, and the softness returned to his voice.  “Why do you need him?  I don’t trust him.  Not around you.”

Shin Hye moved around to face him.  “Now that you know I am old enough to be his Noona, you don’t need to worry.”

He grimaced.  “You’re still you.  If I feel that something is wrong.  I’m coming after you.”

“I’ll be fine.  Stay here and take care of Coach Lee and your students.  I’ll be back before you know it.”