Chapter 7

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The end of the school day couldn’t come faster. As soon as Calculus was finished, Baekhyun threw his books into his backpack and ran out of the classroom. Kai blinked, “Did he eat something bad for lunch or something?”

Baekhyun ran to Hana’s classroom, but saw that she was already gone. He cursed under his breath and sprinted to her locker. He luckily arrived just as she shut the locker door, clasping the lock back on. He began to walk up towards her, but Hyunwoo, the sophomore who previously confessed to her, approached her.

“Noona!” Hyunwoo worriedly called and she turned to face him with a tired smile, “Oh, hi Hyunwoo.”

He grabbed her hand, staring at the bandage on her cheek, “Are you okay? Did someone hurt you? Do you want me to go fight them for you?”

Hana twisted out of his grasp and shook her head, “I’m okay, Hyunwoo. Did you need something?” The way he and Baekhyun reacted are so different. 

He coughed into his fist and put both hands into his pockets, “Well, this may be bad timing now. But, I wanted to see if you thought about my confession yet.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widened as he overheard their conversation. No way. Right now, out of all times? Can’t you see she’s hurting right now, idiot?

Hana closed her eyes as she felt a headache forming. She sighed and looked at the younger boy with a pitiful gaze, “I’m sorry, Hyunwoo. I don’t have time for a relationship right now. You can find someone much better than me.”

His face fell, “Noona… But there’s no one better than you.”

Hana’s shoulders drooped, “I’m sorry, Hyunwoo. I can’t have a relationship. I’m sorry if I led you on. You are still a wonderful guy and any girl would be lucky to have you.” With that, she her heels and walked towards the exit of the school, leaving the sophomore boy crestfallen.

Baekhyun snapped out of his daze and quickly followed after Hana, “Hana! Wait for me!”

Hana turned around and gave him an unreadable expression, “Yes, Baekhyun?” She clutched onto her textbooks a little tighter, and he suddenly felt at a loss for words. “Hello? Earth to Baekhyun?”

“Let’s go get bubble tea!” He blurted, causing her to blink at him in surprise. “I wanted to ask you to come with me to get bubble tea. Right now.”

Hana wanted to decline his request and suggest a different time, but the look on his face made her think twice. She sighed, “Okay. Let’s go.”

//

Hana sipped on her honeydew milk tea while Baekhyun twirled his straw in his taro milk tea. Hana sighed and stared at the boy in front of her who was avoiding eye contact, “Baekhyun, tell me what’s going on. Why did you want to come here with me?”

“I heard it’s a good place for milk tea?” Baekhyun meekly smiled. At her unamused expression, he sighed in defeat, “Fine. I wanted to see if you were feeling better.”

She softened at his response, feeling bad for being so blunt with him earlier. “I am. Thank you for checking on me.”

He smiled in return before his facial expression became serious, “Of course. But also, I wanted to ask you to explain what you meant on the roof today. If it involves me, I should know about it.”

She stared at him thoughtfully and nodded, “You’re right. You have a right to know.”

Hana’s gaze dropped down to her hands, and she began to explain, “My dad went kind of crazy this morning, I suppose. He said that he had his assistant do research on you, and I got into a fight with him over how it was wrong. He kept trying to get me to look at whatever he had in his stupid folder, but I refused. He got upset at some things I said, and he slapped me.” She fearfully looked up at the boy, afraid of his reaction.

Baekhyun’s face fell, “He looked me up?”

Hana nodded dejectedly, “He did. I’m so sorry, Baekhyun. I told him how wrong it was to invade your privacy like that, and that’s why I refused to even look at the stuff inside. If you wanted me to k