023; concerns

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"Good morning, Yiseul." Sunghoon greeted Linna once again in a cheery tone upon her arriving at the school's gate on this Thursday morning.

Linna felt like now he was purposefully making sure to seek her out despite telling him otherwise. Then again, before she would have been over the moon for this type of interaction with Sunghoon, but nowadays after all that's happened she wasn't so sure how to feel about it. Still, feelings were hard to recover from, but yet in a few weeks she wouldn't have to see his face once summer holidays started.

"Yeah, morning."

Her greeting wasn't as cheerful or pleasant compared to Sunghoon's, but her tone wasn't mean or hostile either. As much as it would be better to ignore him, but somewhere within her wouldn't let herself ignore Sunghoon. However, Linna allowed Sunghoon to greet and walk her to her classes, but other than that, nothing else. She didn't have to come to her classes, but the professors were doing a review and she figured it would be better to come for that than miss out.

"So I he-"

"Not now, Sunghoon." Linna told him in a soft tone.

Sunghoon's brows furrowed, catching how different Linna appeared to be before him.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but I really need the space right now."

She flashed him a tired smile.

"Just, at least for a whi-"

"Hey, Sunghoon!' Rika interrupting Linna and interjected herself into the conversation to mainly speak with the male.

Sunghoon ignored Rika while observing Linna further as they neared her class.

"Yi-"

"Sunghoon, I have another packed lunch for you." Rika interrupted Sunghoon this time while shoving the package into his hands.

"I made it better than la..."

Linna entered her class, not bothering to hear the conversation or bid Sunghoon a good day. Although she was curious to know what Sunghoon was going to tell her, but she really needed the break from him. Three days out of the seven days weren't enough not to take a break from Sunghoon when he always made sure to walk her to her classes for four days of the week. She sighed, pulling her materials out of her backpack.

"Just hang in there." She told herself while noticing the unsent love letter for Sunghoon tumbled out of her backpack.

Linna stared at it, wondering if she would ever give it to him or trash it in the end, but she just stuffed it back into her backpack not wanting to think about it. She just needed to worry about her finals and come summer vacation she would let loose. However, Linna was reminded that she agreed to cheer on her friends for the dance showcase and would eventually see Sunghoon there the most as well.

"Chae-"

"Look, Jake, you can either tutor me on the materials or we can end our session right now."

Melanie cast him with a firm look.

"Your choice."

"I..."

Since the beginning of the session, Jake tried and talked to Melanie about the incident, but Melanie didn't want an explanation from him. Although Melanie was going to keep her distance and go with Yonghee, but she rather not take that from her cousin and mustered up the tolerance to return to Jake. Now she just wanted nothing else, but his help with her mathematics studies. Of course, they spoke in both Korean and English, but Melanie stopped him again.

"I..."

Jake couldn't form his thoughts into words to respond to Melanie. She sighed and began packing up her things.

"Then we're done here, Jake. I no longer need your tutoring sessions or help for finals. I'll get help elsewhere."

"Wa-"

"No."

She cast him with a hard look, not caring if the session ended earlier than normal.

"You made your choice that day and we no longer have to be civil despite the mutuals we have between us."

Melanie stuffed the rest of her things into her backpack, zipped it, stood from her seat while placing her backpack onto her shoulders, and cast Jake one final look.

"Goodbye."

As much as she wanted those words to be final between the both of them, Melanie knew that she'll eventually have to see him on the day of finals and with their other group of friends. Melanie's little moment was interrupted when just as she exited the Central Library and had rounded the corner, she felt her back bring slammed against the library's walls. Luckily, her backpack took much of the blow, causing the keychain that Jake gave her to fall off, but that didn't mean that whoever pushed her against the building couldn't just squeezed her upper arms, too.

"Why is your boyfriend going after my girlfriend?"

Melanie winced from the pain, but she managed to gaze up at a fuming Jinwoong before her

"I don't have a boyfriend." She corrected him while shooting him an equally dark look.

"And I have no idea why your girlfriend wants to go after another guy either."

This just made Jinwoong even angrier.

"Then get back together with him so Hyewon could focus back onto me."

"I ain't doing for you and weren't you the one that cheated on Woojoo in the first place?" Melanie scoffed despite being uncomfortable from the pain and how close the other male was to her.

She managed to loosen Jinwoong's grip off of her and shoved him as far as away as possible yet he didn't budge that far and remained hostile with her.

"And don't you dare put your hands on me again, ."

"Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?"

Jinwoong puffed out his chest while appearing as intimidating as possible. Melanie didn't respond as he scoffed.

"Don't try to act tough like you can take me on."

"I don't have to act tough. I am tough, but I'm not gonna take you on when there's no need to."

However, Melanie knew words can only work through a person until a certain point and she just hoped that Jinwoong wouldn't continued being physical with her.

"Anyway, there's no point in dealing with someone like you." Melanie reasoned, remaining calm and collected as much as she could while staying firm.

She turned to walk away, but Jinwoong immediately gripped her forearm to harshly pulled her back towards him as she let out a soft cry.

"I'm not done with you."

Melanie tried to shake his hold off of her, but he tightened his hold and she winced from the pain.

"Let me go you jerk."

"No way. I'm go-

Soon, Melanie witnessed Jake coming to her rescue as Jinwoong didn't finished his sentence when he was spun around and a fist connected with his jaw, dropping him to the ground within an instant.

"Don't you dare touch her like that." Jake warned Jinwoong as he put himself between Melanie and Jinwoong with Hyewon running up to them shortly afterwards.

"Yah! What's going on? Jinwoong, what are you doing to Jake?"

Jinwoong got to his feet, but glared at his girlfriend.

"I'm doing this for you. Hyewon."

"I don't need you to do that, Park Jinwoong."

"If you weren't trying to talk to another guy when you already have me, Jeon Hyewon, then I wouldn't be doing this."

"I can talk to whoever I want, Park Jinwoong. You don't own me and besides, Jake is a way better person than you are."

The couple continued arguing, forgetting about the other two as Melanie rubbed her forearms to ease the slight pain away and calming herself down, feeling slightly shaken up by the whole thing when she felt herself being moved away from the pair and glanced to see Jake with his arms around her in a protective manner.

"I know you told me goodbye earlier, but I would rather watch out for your safety than anything else right now." Jake said in a rush tone.

He glanced over at her with such a caring look that Melanie avoided eye-contact as she allowed him to lead the two of them away for a while. Once they were a safe distance away, did Jake removed his arms from around Melanie, but his hands remained on her shoulders, comfortably.

"Thanks." She thanked him as Jake smiled.

"Welcome. By the way, this fell off."

Jake removed his hands from Melanie's shoulder and presented her with the Hello Kitty keychain that she still hadn't removed from her backpack. She assumed it must've fell off during her encounter with Jinwoong.

"Um, thank you."

Melanie took back the gift with a small smile. Jake wanted to say something else, but remain quiet. Instead, Jake offered to walk Melanie to the bus stop before he headed on over to dance practice and she agreed. Oddly enough, Jake's presence comforted Melanie as the two walk side by side, talking about the showcase.

"Thanks again, Yonghee" Linna thanked Yonghee after wrapping up their tutoring session at the Lift Library.

"You're welcome, Yiseul."

He faced her while putting his materials away.

"I'm confident to say that I'll pass my finals with spectacular marks this time."

"I believe you will, too."

He flashed her an encouraging smile, but it quickly dropped from his face. Linna quirked a brow, puzzled.

"You okay?"

"Um, well..."

He scratched the back of his head as Linna eyed him.

"What's up?"

"Your boyfriend."

"My boyfriedn? I don't have a boyfriend."

"Are you sure? I'm pretty sure you had one the last time we had tutoring sessions."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you convinced me last time not to worry, but now I feel like worrying."

"Yes, I am, and yeah, you don't have to worry. We broke up." Linna said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"So you don't have to worry about him at all."

"But..." He trailed off as she was still confused.

"But what?"

She stared at the male for a while, but he motioned with his eyes to look behind her. Just like last time, Linna followed Yonghee's line of sight to see Sunghoon not that far away, staring intently at the pair just like last time. Linna faced Yonghee with a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry about Sunghoon, Yonghee. He won't do anything, especially with me around, too."

Linna could still sense the uneasieness from Yonghee and knew what she had to do to ease the tension. Still, Linna had no clue as to why Sunghoon would even be here when Rika knew the two weren't together. She couldn't still be stalking her, right? Yeah, right. Linna was out of the picture now and Rika would be ignoring her now. Still, either way, Sunghoon should have been at dance practice right now and not checking in on her.

"Don't worry, Yonghee, but I'm gonna leave first then, okay?"

"Okay. Will you be alright?"

"I'll be fine."

Linna cast Yonghee with another reassuring smile as she got up from her chair, slung her backpack onto her shoulders, waved goodbye to Yonghee, and quietly yet slowly made her way on over to Sunghoon. She stopped right in front of him with a firm look.

"Why are you even here, Park Sunghoon?"

"Just reading a book when I saw you here."

"Right."

No books in his hands whatsoever. Still, Sunghoon worried and didn't want anything to happen to Linna

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