Long chapter ahead!

“Lord, I’m dying of the heat!”

I heard Joohyun groaned as she enters into the newsletter room. The few of us were sorting newspaper columns for inspirations on what to write next during our summer vacation. We are ought to update the newsletter on our website. I craned my head to see the weather outside through the windowsill and I believe that Joohyun isn’t exaggerating even a bit about the weather. The chilly breeze and warm sunshine of Spring has transformed into a blazing heat of Summer. Summer is near, and so are the endings of our finals. (I’ve been waiting for the 2 months long summer vacation!)

I haven’t seen Sehun since his finals started earlier than mine. I know he’s over-working himself in the corner of the library in that law library. I’ve gone over a few times just so that I could have a tiny glimpse of him when my heart is still beating wild from the beach the other night. But he’s always not where I expect to see him.

My dad did give me a stink eye from arriving home late after the curfew he set up (we stop a little while by the road for a little midnight snack). In conclusion, that evening was a whole roller coaster of emotions and that’s the best night out I ever had in my entire life. (Yes, it even surpassed the first time my parents let me sleepover at my friend’s place)

I thought that we could do one of those campus couple thing (we are ‘officially’ a CC declared unofficially by the student body themselves and we were voted ‘hottest couple on campus’ that Sehun and I were baffled. We did have a good laugh about it but I’m embarrassed by it because I have to write about the voting ) where we do those clichés campus couple stuff like studying together in the library, doing assignments together, having classes together (which is unrealistic because our programmes are vastly different from each other), hanging out at the hottest spot in Seoul with our friends. Yeah, those stupid clichés dating stuff that I wanted to try because I’m cliché like the rest of the population.

And I don’t even have the courage to tell him if we could study together because of my damn pride. What if he didn’t like it? What if he prefers to study by himself? If I got rejected by him, my whole pride would get hurt, thinking what rights I have feeling this way when I’m just a whole fake girlfriend that is there to piss off his crush (and it’s working well!).

Just when I was cutting out the column from the newspaper I was interested in, my lecturer-in-charge of this newsletter club suddenly bursts into the room, startling the first-year students that we managed to hook them in before they’re off scuffling to other clubs. Our seniors are graduating and we need a good number of new members if not this club is going to die out by itself. I stare up at Ms Shin and her face is red from anger as she puffs out a breath to calm herself down.

Ms Shin is only older than us a few years, I would say in her late-twenties/early-thirties but she’s already achieving more than what her age was expected. That lady is smart as . She’s on her way on getting that professor title and she’s having no problem with it. Heck, I think that she could be the youngest professor in our campus. That would such a feat for her. And, Ms Shin is the sweetest person we ever know. My seniors tend to put the both of us, Ms Shin and I together; a saying ‘Two peas in a same pod’. Because her temper is as bad as mine, only she never lost it in front of us and the only person who could bring the worst out of her temper is…

“Byun Baekhyun!”

Ms Shin screamed her head off as she stormed into the room and sat down at the nearest chair, plopping down her head on the table with her fingers ranking through her hair. We all stare at her warily but Joohyun and another senior are unfazed at the scene unfolding in front of her. Probably used to seeing Ms Shin blowing up because of Mr Byun.

Mr Byun is the lecturer-in-charge of the debate club. Fun, cool, playful. Everyone loves him, what’s not to love? He could be easily mistaken as a student instead of teacher because he literally looked like a puppy. He and Chanyeol are the same, only that Mr Byun is wilder than Chanyeol and for no reason, he loves to piss Ms Shin off as if it’s his favourite past-time to do.

Every time during the debate sessions, he just keeps on getting under Ms Shin’s skin and it annoys the out of her. The angrier she gets, the more he keeps doing it.

“Ms, is there anything wrong?” Joohyun speaks up, as Ms Shin turns to us with a pout, her head sticking up all over the place. Her curly hair now looks like a lion’s mane on her head.

“You guys remember we are supposed to go to Seoul High right after your finals?”

We all nod our head in unison, bracing for whatever’s next.

Our club is representing our faculty to my old school (I plead miss not to go to my school but the more I plead, the more she’s interested in going to my school) to organise some kind of workshop for the senior students so that they could gain an interest in language and literature and on top of that, we’ve prepared some fun activities as well just before everyone goes off to enjoy (or studying their off) their summer.

“Student affair said the debate club is going to join us organising the workshop because it appears, we do not have enough facilitators.” Ms Shin sighed, hitting her head lightly on the table and then grumbling about Mr Byun again.

Groans and sighs were heard from our members, knowing full well we do not like to work with the debate club members, except Chanyeol probably.

“Can’t we do anything about it? I know our numbers are…less expected but we could still manage it.” One of our seniors spoke up about it which made me stares at him sideways. Says the one who’s not going to show up at the event because his highness here is flying out the country first thing in the morning.

To be very honest, I think the teaming up with the debate club is a right thing to do even though they piss us off very much but we don’t have enough of us running the whole workshop. The ones who are going are shouldering two- or three-members roles already so we definitely need more volunteers on that day.

Ms Shin standing up, leaning her hips on the table, looking at us warily, “Truth to be told, we really do need more facilitators on that day. But it’s that Mr Byun suddenly throws the whole debate club into our plan which caught me completely off guard.” She sighs (again), rubbing her temple, “Now, we need to plan with the committee members of the club,” she eyes at Joohyun and the other seniors, “Later, you’re going to the meeting room at 5pm to brief with them.”

Joohyun and the others solemnly nodded their head. Extra workload, written all over their face.

The debate team joining us meaning that there’s a high probability that Sehun and I are going to be working again together.

It’s senior year all over again. The thought of us working together again like back in school makes my cheeks hot.

“Sunbae, are you okay? Your cheeks are so red.”

A freshman peers into my face as I shake my head and smile at her, clearing my throat as I continue searching for my writing materials. I’m utterly embarrassed that a freshman is catching me reminiscing in my memories.

*

After I finish with cutting out the columns for my ideas, I went into the library situated in the law school of our campus. Yes, I’m still hoping that I could bump into Sehun and I wanted to study as well. I just found that the law library is quieter than the other libraries in our campus and it somehow made me thinks I’m smarter. (maybe because I’m surrounded by law students)

As the usual routine, I treaded lightly around the library finding my (fake) boyfriend, trying my best not to disrupt others studying. I turn to one corner behind the bookcase, and saw him sitting on the big table, all alone. His forehead etched with a frown as he concentrates on his notes before him. I see as he bit his inner cheeks as he tosses the paper to the side before smashing the keyboard like they’re his sworn enemies, hearing him sighs frustratedly.

I try to keep my footsteps as quiet as a church mouse. I froze in my steps when Sehun looked up, his eyes filled with surprise when they land on my face as I broke out into best grin, hoping that he doesn’t get mad when I accidently interrupted his study session.

And I kind realise that he seldom smiles brightly at me and I always give my best ones to him. It’s kind of unfair though, like he’s collecting my sunny ones in his pocket. He arches his eyebrows at me when I quietly took a seat in front of him, scribbling a message on a piece of a scrap paper I found in my file.

I’ve been trying to find you for one week

Sehun arched right eyebrow, amused. Then, he took a piece of paper and does the same thing as me.

You know you could call me, right?

I sigh as I shake my head, as he tries to poke in my hand with his pen across the table as I flinch my hand away, silently laughing. This is what we called as quiet banter.

Didn’t think you would appreciate someone disturbing you studying.

Well you’re doing it now alright.

I pursed my lips into a scowl, as he gives me a smirk, a ghost of smugness hovers his lips.

Ugh, you’re so unromantic. I thought we could play that campus couple who studies together.

I rolled my eyes extra hard on him as he dipped his face into the heels of his palm, chuckling silently. He then stood up and took a chair right beside me as he effortlessly pulls my chair towards him which left me speechless as I blink blankly at him.

He jutted his chin towards his belongings, asking me to bring them over to him.

Is this okay now, princess?

I hide my stupid smile under my knuckles. Yes. Definitely okay.

*

After 2 hours of intense studying, my stomach made a sound of a dying whale that I wanted to dig up the ground and bury myself in there. Trust my stomach to embarrass me in front of Sehun. I saw Sehun’s lips tremble, trying to suppress a laugh as I stare away at the far end of the library, refusing to meet his eyes. I know they’re teasing me.

He then gently hoists me up, holding my upper arms as his voice drops, whispering, “It’s almost 9pm, no wonder you’re hungry. Want to have dinner?”

I beamed at him, I could feel my eyes twinkle at the mention of food, I nodded my head eagerly. I don’t care what he thinks of me right now, but I could eat like a pig.

We were on our way to his car in our campus parking lot when we spotted Jongin with Jaein, hooking her arms onto his elbow. Which I did the same as well and Sehun didn’t mind at all. We both don’t. It just felt like a natural thing to do.

Jongin flashes his charming smile while Jaein gave her sweetest one. I bet Sehun almost fall onto his knees. I only gave them a curt nod, not exactly feeling friendly enough to muster one of my sunshine smiles. Jaein still left me that unsettling feeling inside of me since the party and ever since, I tried to avoid her as much as I can. We never exchange words after that. Ever since Sehun and I announced we’re (fake) dating, she’s been giving us gimlet-eyes like there’s something amiss between the both of us which is true so the I have to be extra careful not to make or say anything suspicious under her hawk eyes. I haven’t had the chance to tell Sehun that Jaein is on our tail, hoping to catch something weird about us because, well, I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure that he’ll believe in me.

“Where the both of you heading?”

Jongin asked the both of us, his voice as friendly as ever I could remember.

Sehun shoves his hand into the pocket of his muted navy hoodie, I’m still holding his elbow, “We’re going for dinner. Little one here is hungry.” He grins.

I scrunch my nose at the nickname he just invented for me. He just keeps on giving me names whenever he can. Little one because I’m just a mere inch of 5 whole feet. I’m not proud of my height, I just look like a chihuahua next to a great Dane, I could blame my height genetics to my mum who is also the similar size as me.

“Oh, we’re also about to have dinner.” Jongin eyes widened in surprise, darting from us to Jaein.

Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ing ask.

“Mind if we join you guys? Sorry about that, Hyesoo. I haven’t hang out with Sehun for a while.” He sends me a sheepish grin, Jaein on the side stares at Sehun, watching his expression.

I sigh mentally, I couldn’t even be mad at Jongin. He just wants to have a bro night probably but couldn’t spend the time with his wedding preparation going on as well as classes and exams.

Sehun looked at me over his shoulder where our eyes meet briefly with each other. He’s putting my feelings over his, seeing if I’m okay with having dinner with them. I turn back to Jongin, and smile at him, “It’s fine. Yeah, we could have dinner together.”

Jongin looked relief when I said yes to the dinner but I couldn’t decipher Jaein’s expression. She just stares blankly at me which I don’t really want to bother much. All I want is food right now.

As soon as we enter the car, I then fish out my phone from my sling bag, “I’m going to see if Chanyeol and Surin are up to dinner as well.”

“So now we’re having a triple date?” Sehun his head at me while letting the car to warm up.

I didn’t answer him back immediately. Serve him right for having stars in his eyes again. I caught a glint of them in his eyes when he was looking at Jaein.

We agreed to dine at this famous Japanese restaurant in the upper-class neighbourhood which I greatly rejected at first because I heard the price of the food could cost me around three textbooks. I am broke. But Jongin insisted, saying that it’s like a pre-wedding (or pre-engagement) dinner with his close friends and Sehun didn’t say much at all.

“Jongin loves spending on people around him except himself.” That’s what Sehun said when I couldn’t convince Jongin to eat somewhere cheaper and he doesn’t have to buy the dinner for the whole of us.

“Don’t look at Jaein like she’s a sky full of stars.” I said, cutting the silence in the car.

“Huh?”

I face Sehun, turning the radio down slightly, “Your eyes. You always look at Jaein like she’s a night sky full of diamond stars. Like she’s Sirius.” I breathe onto his car window, drawing a star-shaped over the mist.

Sehun shakes his head in his disbelief, “You read too much of those romance novels.”

“Well, whatever it is, you’ve got to stop looking at her like that.”

I bite my lower lip, “We got to be careful. She’s on our tail. I think she can sense that’s something is weird between us.”

Sehun flicked his eyes to my face as he pulls into the parking lot in front of the restaurant. He has an unreadable expression which made me nervous because I can’t guess what is he thinking. And again, I could never guess what’s on his mind.

He sighs loudly and muster up a smile, tugging my hair slightly, “Don’t think too much, rosy cheeks.”

*

“Don’t look at Jaein like she’s a sky full of stars.”

Sehun’s head keep on replaying on her words over and over again. Does he really look at Jaein like that? Do his eyes fill with stars whenever Jaein is around back in school too?

Trust Hyesoo to fill her head full on useless romantic stuff she’s been reading.

He then gazes at Hyesoo, talking animatedly with Surin and Chanyeol like they’re in their own safe bubble. He doesn’t blame Hyesoo for engaging in them only. They’re her friends since forever. They were there for her when he’s busy avoiding her back in the days.

Sehun smile a little when he saw Hyesoo tilted her head as she laughs at whatever Chanyeol is telling her. Her bright laughter chimes across the table like music. Then, he realises that Hyesoo never laugh this carefree in front of him. Heck, he never actually seen one of her big laughter. He wants to keep them in his pocket.

Jongin nudges his feet under the table, bringing back Sehun to reality as his eyes flicker in annoyance, shooting daggers out of them at Jongin.

“You’re staring too much, lover boy. Stop acting as a creep.” Jongin arches both of his brows, a teasing smirk plastered on his face. Sehun rolls his eyes, shoving one of the sushi that Hyesoo couldn’t wolf them down anymore.

“So, Jaein, what did you study back in Harvard?”

Surin asked from the other side of the table, her face friendly as ever.

Jaein sips on her green tea in a very ladylike manner before answering, “The same as the two of them. Law.”

Jaein’s family owns one of the biggest corporate law firms here in Seoul and they had one branch in London. They plan to open one in New York after the wedding when Jongin’s family law firm merges with her family. You could say their marriage benefits their family firms as well.

Maybe that’s the reason why Jaein chose Jongin over Sehun.

Sehun was just an aspiring law student with dreams from an ordinary family. His dad is just a normal family lawyer, helping many families and kids through divorces and adoption in a small law firm of his own.

His family doesn’t own a firm that is worth billions of dollars.

His family needs a mother’s love that is worth billions of dollars or even more.

“Do you like it there? Harvard?” Surin pressed on, “Hyesoo here wanted to go to Cambridge but she never gotten the scholarship.”

Sehun reverts his eyes back at Hyesoo while she nudges Surin and gives a nervous smile.

Back then, only the 3 of them – Jongin, Jaein and Sehun gotten a scholarship from a prestigious university. He didn’t know that Hyesoo applied for it as well. There’s no way Hyesoo wasn’t picked. All of them applied the same scholarship under the same company with the college of their choice. Hyesoo’s academic and co-curriculum is better than the three of them combine. She’s even a daughter of a teacher.

She’s brilliant in class. Even she can’t see this, but she’s shines so ing bright in class.

“Yeah, I tried applying the same scholarship with you guys. Guess I’m not qualified enough.” She tries to hide her sad smile as she sips on her tea.

Sehun’s jaw clenches hard as he blurted out, “Bull, you’re even better than us!” All the heads on the table whipped at Sehun. He realises that he came out a little harsh. Chanyeol shooting him a playful glint in his eyes that he just wants to flip Chanyeol’s shirt over his head so that he wouldn’t with his big eyes anymore. Sehun groans inwardly, that’s a ing 5-year-old childish prank.

Jaein throws her a sympathetic smile, like a poison red apple because her eyes glint something malevolent, as she shrugs her shoulder, “Well, I got to say thank you for the scholarship if not I never have the opportunity to study in Harvard.”

Sehun throws a confused look at Jaein then back to Hyesoo as her face hardens, her lips quivering like she’s at the verge of crying. Surin, Chanyeol and Jongin looked as confused as he is. Even without the scholarship, Jaein could still go to Harvard. Her parents have no difficulty in terms of paying her tuition fees.

“You see, my dad wasn’t very happy about his daughter not getting the scholarship. He donates thousands to the school,” Jaein is not explaining to Hyesoo but to all of them, “So, the counsellor made Hyesoo to give up the scholarship. Even if she accepts, there’s no way she could afford it. Her dad was at the verge of unemployment when the principal wanted to hire a younger history teacher. Thanks to my parents, her dad could have something to feed her whole family.”

Sehun darted his eyes between Hyesoo and then to Jaein in disbelief. Jaein stole her scholarship because her daddy paid them? Just because she’s richer? Before Sehun could say anything, Hyesoo stood up in her seat as she rushed out of the restaurant.

“What a .” Surin gritted her teeth, glowering at Jaein as she rushes after Hyesoo with Chanyeol following behind.

Sehun hardens his eyes at Jaein. Her pretty face that made him so dearly in love with her. Does she have other faces as well under that innocent and angelic face? She isn’t like this to everyone, except only to Hyesoo.

His whole-body trembling from rage, he wanted to yell at her. But Jongin is sitting there, he can’t do that in front of his friend. He can’t lose his anger his friend’s fiancée. He’ll let Jongin deal with her tonight, then he’ll deal with her tomorrow.

He plucks out a couple of money and drops them in front of Jaein as he stood up, cueing he’s leaving, “What a nice evening.” His voice drips with sarcasm and disappointment.

“Now, excuse me. My girl needs me right now.”

Terribly sorry for the late update (maybe not). Was busy with classes and assignments, and also reading.

Just to let you guys know that I had a playlist that sort of goes with the story.

And, I'm sorry if this chapter is crap. It ain't that interesting.

But I'm writing a new story. It's featuring Jongin. And no, it's not Jongin from this story. 

Kind of inspired by LJ Shen's books so I'm writing the twist of it. 

Question of the post: What's your favourite book?

For me, I have a lot though.

1. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

2. Well Met by Jen DeLuca

3. You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

4. Field Notes of Love by Jennifer E. Smith

5. Sinners of Saint Series by LJ Shen

6. All Saints High Series by LJ Shen

7. Midnight Blue by LJ Shen

You know what annoys me the most is that every damn character of every book I read is all blond hair and coloured eyes!! Why not we have dark hair and brown/black eyes! And they're white!! The lack of POCs in romance book... istg is killing me.

Wishing there could be books like To All The Boys I Loved Before but with more representation of Asians like South Asians, South-East Asians

Note that I may not update much often of my other story as this one is my main focus. 

Check it out here!!! https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1452445/mend-my-heart-and-soul