I opened my locker door, hoping beyond hope that just this once there wouldn’t be another note waiting for me inside.  But I never can catch a break where luck is concerned.  There, on top of my books, lay a single half-sheet of paper with angry scrawl written across it.  Quickly, I stuffed it into my bag, tearing it out of Ara Cha’s sight, but remember what I said about luck?  Yeah, I have none of it.

“What’s that?” she asked, curious.

I shrugged as if I didn’t know.  “Maybe a love letter.  I might have a secret admirer!” 

She frowned at me and flitted her hand in my bag and took out the note before I could stop her.  Her frown deepened as she read it.  “How long have you been getting these?”

“It’s not that bad.  Just some people who don’t care for my being here.”

“’Yah, foreigner bi-, er, witch, take your, ah, back to where you came from.  No one wants you here.’” She read aloud and then looked up at me.  “Are they all like this?”

“That is one of the worst ones,” I lied, swiping the note from her hand and shoving it into my bag.  Quite frankly, that was one of the kindest.  Most of the others usually had some obscenities and intense foul language included with threats.  I was glad this wasn’t one of those.

Of course, Ara Cha is a mind reader and knew I was lying right off the bat.  “How long has this been going on?”

“About since the third day of school.”

“That long?  Those stupid witches!”  I smiled at her reformed cursing.  “What?  I don’t like swearing.”  She defended herself at my expression.

“I know, I don’t like it either,” I said, agreeing with her.  “Come on, let’s get to class.  I think our teacher doesn’t like how I’m almost late to every class.  I think he’s starting to figure out how much I hate Korean.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“You’re right.  I hate how it’s so hard for me to read!  Even with Youngmin-oppa’s help, I’m still really slow.”

“Well, look on the bright side.  Only one day left to go and then it’s the weekend!”

I grinned, “Arasso.”

“And on Saturday we can go explore Seoul!”

Just as she said this, a pair of arms came to my sides, holding my hands from behind, intertwining our fingers.  Ara Cha smiled knowingly.

“Mianhaeyo, Ara Cha-ah, but I thought I made it clear that that is my treat.  You’ve stolen her from me during lunch, now I can’t even see her on the weekends?”

Ara Cha giggled as I blushed tomato red.  “Youngmin-oppa!  I told you, no skin ship during school!” I exclaimed in a hushed whisper.

He ignored my protests and placed his cheek on my shoulder, his breath blowing on my neck.  “But I hardly get to see you anymore,” he whined.

“You see me in the morning, during class, and at track,” I corrected.  “How is that not enough?”

“’Cause I don’t get to snuggle with you.  Hyungs are getting annoyed again.”

Gee, I wonder why, I thought but didn’t say aloud.  I didn’t want to hurt his feelings and besides, he’d been very good at keeping the deal and I was starting to miss his touch, even if it did send my heart in a confused fluttering frenzy.

“Arasso, but just for today,” I relented.

“Yay!” Youngmin exclaimed in delight, kissing my temple.  I laughed quietly to myself as he led me to class by the hand.  My blush persisted despite my attempts otherwise.

I dropped my bag on my desk and my books came tumbling out.

“Oh, shoot,” I pouted, tidying the mess. 

My eyes alighted on the slip of paper that peeked out from my Korean textbook.  Discretely, I placed it in the cover of the book, glancing at Youngmin to see if he had noticed it.  He was staring absentmindedly at my book and I knew he had seen it but luckily it didn’t seem like he thought much of it.  Inwardly sighing with relief, I finished organizing my work space as the bell rang.  As I situated myself, I thought that would be the end of it, but as Mr. Lee told us to open our books, that evil note flew out as I flipped through the pages, sliding off Youngmin’s book and onto the floor.  My heart stopped, the blood draining from my face.  The boy quietly chuckled as he peeked at me before retrieving it.  I watched his crouched shoulders stiffen and I knew he knew what it said.  Slowly, he sat back up, the card held in between his thumb and forefinger as if he wanted as little contact with it as possible.  I couldn’t see his eyes, his bangs having overshadowed them, but his lips were pursed in a thin line.  His body was unnaturally still and rigid.

“How long?” Youngmin whispered, still looking down at the note.  Mr. Lee had already started class and Youngmin and I were the only ones not paying attention.

“Third day of school,” I answered just as soft.

“How many?” His voice remained devoid of emotion.

I gulped.  “Usually three times a day.”

His grip tightened, hand shaking from the strength.  Cautiously, I reached over to pluck it from his fingers, but he whipped his head toward me.  Cringing, I retracted my arm from his outraged face.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he seethed, his voice betraying his emotions: anger, confusion, hurt.

I looked away then forced myself to meet his gaze.  “It’s not something you needed to worry about.”

“But-”

“Jo Youngmin,” Mr. Lee interrupted.  “What is the answer for number six?”

“Uh…”

“We’ve already answered it.  You should know what it is.”

“…Um…”

“That’s what I thought.  Please pay attention.”

“Yes, sir,” Youngmin mumbled.

As everyone’s focus returned to the board, Youngmin glared back at me.  ‘This is not over,’ he mouthed.  I nodded glumly, not looking forward to the conversation that would ensue.

I was not looking forward to the end of school, no matter how much I wanted to run.  Because the end of school would mean a confrontation with Youngmin and I would have to answer his many questions.  And sure enough, before I could escape to the safety of the locker rooms, Youngmin stopped me. 

“Why did you never tell me about this?”

I sighed, exhaustion already setting in.  “I already told you why.”

“That’s not an answer, it’s an excuse.”

We reached the gym area and I turned left to go to the girl locker rooms, expecting Youngmin to turn right, but he continued to follow me.

“Whoa, what are you doing?  You’re supposed to go that way.”  I pointed towards the boys’ locker rooms. 

He didn’t even follow my finger.  “Let’s skip today.”

My jaw dropped.  “Mwo?  You’re kidding right?”  I wished desperately that he was, but his serious expression told me otherwise.  “Yah!  We can’t skip!  We’re on varsity, we can’t just ditch.  Especially when we have a meet in a week.”

“Just this one time,” he insisted.

“Youngmin,” I reprimanded in a stern voice, “no.”

“Jin,”

I held up my hand, cutting him off.  “We will talk, but not right now.  Let’s go to practice and continue this later.”  He didn’t look happy about it, but finally relented once more kids started showing up.

Track, despite being an easy day, was exhausting.  Minwoo vied for my attention, Youngmin kept pressing me for answers, and the other girls in long distance kept shooting me dirty looks and gossiped about me behind my back as if I couldn’t hear.  Ignoring them, I finished my lap, sprinting all out.  Finally finished, I stumbled over to my water bottle, resisting the natural urge to gulp down the liquid and instead taking small sips.  I sat down on the turf and stretched out my legs, hands on the flats of my feet and nose hitting my knees.

“You’re really flexible.”

I looked up and saw Hyunseong.  “Um, thanks?”

He sat down next to me, taking a swig from his water bottle.  “How was practice for you?”

“It was good.  Today was easy for us so we only had to run for fifty minutes.”

Hyunseong made a face.  “Yeah, ‘cause that sounds totally easy.”

I laughed.  “I guess after being in cross country and running for nearly two hours straight, you begin to look forward to days like these.”

“I suppose.  How long have you been running track?”

“Since sixth grade.  I started off with cross country and decided to do track to stay in shape.  It was hard in the winter since I couldn’t play any of the sports.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t have the hand-eye coordination for basketball and wrestling just isn’t my thing.”

Hyunseong laughed at that.  “No, I don’t suppose it would be.  You know, Youngmin is very good at basketball.”

“He is?”

“Yeah, you should watch him play sometime.  Who knows, he might even teach you to be a better player.”

I smiled to myself, knowing he totally would try to teach me –and that he would stop once he found out how horrible I was.  I thought about the endless teasing I would have to endure for months afterward.

“He really likes you, y’know.”

My heart stopped in my chest before palpitating at the pace of a hummingbird’s wings.  “I would hope so.  I’d hate to go to all the effort of being his friend only to find out that he doesn’t like me.”  I feigned ignorance.

“No, I mean he really likes you,” Hyunseong clarified.

I blushed deep and hard, not able to take my eyes away from my shoe laces.  “You can’t know that.”

“I’m pretty sure.”

My stomach erupted in butterflies.  “Wae?  Has he told you?”

Hyunseong hesitated and I knew the answer.  “No,” he admitted.  “But I know by the way he acts around you.”

“He’s just as clingy with you guys.  He told me.”

Hyunseong gave me an odd look.  “Youngmin is a hundred times clingier with you than he is with us,” he revealed.  “Besides, that’s not what I was talking about.  The way he looks at you, how he gets so protective of you.  That’s what Jeongmin was doing the other day.  He wanted to see what Youngmin would do if he saw you with someone else.  And haven’t you noticed how jealous he gets whenever Minwoo hugs you?”

I hesitated.  “He gets jealous?  I thought he was just annoyed…”

Hyunseong laughed.  “He is definitely jealous.  And it’s because he likes you.”  The boy paused for a second, and then, “What about you?”

Surprised, I looked at him with wide eyes.  “What about me?”

“Do you like Youngmin?”

I blushed crimson and looked back down, staying silent.

“That’s good to know,” he said, and I swear I could hear the smile in his voice.

“You can’t say anything,” I mumbled, embarrassed.

Hyunseong stood up, dusting himself off.  “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.  But let me offer some advice.”  I looked at him expectantly.  “Tell him soon.”  He didn’t wait for an answer and turned and left, leaving me in my own thoughts.

Does Youngmin-oppa really like me too?  What does that mean now?  What am I supposed to do now?

Deeply at war with myself, I let out a sigh.  I’d been sighing a lot lately and it troubled me.  I blamed it on all of the boy drama.  Stupid boys.

“There you are!”  Youngmin approached me and my heart fluttered.

“I wasn’t exactly hiding,” I teased, making a point at looking at the openness around me.

“Come on, it’s getting late and we still have a long walk home.”  Youngmin took my hand, helping me to my feet.

I smirked.  Yeah, that’s why you’re so anxious to get out of here.

“Okay, I’m coming.”

After a quick shower, I met Youngmin outside.  I wore skinny jeans, a charcoal gray cap-sleeved shirt, and my brother’s white jacket that he left behind when he went to college.  I’d taken it and it became my regular jacket when the weather started to become colder.

Youngmin gave me an odd look as I walked over to him.  “Whose jacket is that?”

“Um, mine?”  Who else would it belong to?

“But it’s a guy jacket.”

“That’s because it used to belong to my brother before he went to college.”  My answer seemed to relieve him and I thought about Hyunseong’s words again.

“So it’s not a boyfriend’s?” he teased.

I shook my head.  “Why?  Jealous?”

He chuckled, pulling me close by the waist, staring down at me intensely.  “Maybe.  What if I am?”

I tried, but failed, to control the blush that threatened my cheeks.  My breath caught for a dizzy moment before I came to my senses.  Clearing my throat, I pushed away from him.  “Well, let’s go then,” and I led the way back home.

I’d hoped that he wouldn’t ask me about the notes, but it was a futile dream.

“What’s up with those notes?”  Youngmin suddenly became serious.

I waved it off, “They aren’t a big deal.  Really, you’re acting as if I were getting death threats.”

Shock widened his almond-shaped eyes, worry etched in every line of his face.

“I haven’t gotten any death threats,” I insisted.

He let out a breath that sounded somewhere between relief and disgust.  “How did I not notice this before?”

“Um, because I never said anything about it.”

“But why not?”

I didn’t meet his eyes, those eyes that betrayed the bafflement and pain that he felt.  “Why do you think?  If I complained about it, if I showed any weakness or any sign that what they were doing was getting to me, then they win.  Usually these things die down after a bit if you don’t pay it any heed.  They give up when they don’t get a reaction out of you.”

I hadn’t realized that Youngmin had stopped until I was already a few paces ahead of him and had to retrace my steps.  He was staring at me with an incredulous expression and I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.  “What?”

“You make it sound as if you’ve been through this before.”  By his voice I knew he desperately did not want it to be true.

“It… might have happened before a couple of times,” I mumbled.  After that, neither of us said a word.  The sounds of the city –honking horns, the whiz of cars passing by, the steady stream of chatter carried out by pedestrians- echoed around us in a din.  I couldn’t see it, but I felt Youngmin’s penetrating dark eyes boring into me.  A shuffle of feet was the only warning I had before Youngmin’s arms were around me.

My first reflex was to stiffen, but I quickly relaxed into him and even returned the embrace.  My chest was pounding hard and I didn’t know if it was my heart or his that was causing the vibrations.  Youngmin hugged me tightly with no hint of letting go anytime soon.  And at that moment, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  I just wanted to stay there, letting him hold and comfort me.  I hadn’t realized how much those notes had bothered me and something about Youngmin hugging me seemed to break something open in me.  For the first time in years, I wanted to cry.  I squeezed tighter, clutching Youngmin’s shirt in my fists, my breathing coming out in gasps.  I wanted to sob uncontrollably and let everything out.  But the tears barely came, only enough to wet my eyes but not fall.  He responded by my back, my hair, making soothing sounds.

“It’s okay,” he promised in a whisper.  “Everything will be okay.”

I hoped he was right.

After just a few moments longer, I pulled back slightly, putting my hands on his chest, staring at my fingers.  Youngmin’s hands dropped until he was lightly holding me around the waist.

“Jin,” Youngmin murmured.  I didn’t say anything.  “Jin.”  Again, nothing from me.  “Jin, look at me.”  That was the last thing I wanted to do, but he lifted my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze.  His eyes were burning just as they had when we were in the greenhouse on Monday.  “Jin, I won’t let anyone hurt you.  I promise.  I don’t want to see you pretending to be happy.  I want you to be happy.  Let me make you happy.”

A smile shaped my lips as his words touched me.  On impulse, I reached up on my toes and lightly kissed his cheek.  “You do make me happy,” I said softly. 

He looked stunned more a moment but then a grin spread across his face.  He held me against his warm body again, our heat mixing together.  His lips were on my head, pressing down on my hair.  My arms were trapped between us and all I could do was lay my head against his chest, feeling the steady rise and fall and the pounding of his heart.

“Oppa?”

“Mhm?”

“Thank you.”

I felt him smile into my hair and then place a gentle, slow kiss to my forehead.  “Ani, thank you.”

I'm not very satisfied with this chapter. I don't know why *shrug* I hope you guys like it though.

Big news. 11 subscribers! That makes me so so so so happy, like you have no idea XD

Anyway, a bit of personal life since I can't tell anyone else.  So there's this guy and he's one of my closest friends but I don't know if I like him or not, but he thought I did like him so I had to tell him I didn't because I didn't want anything awkward between us. But after I said that, lately he's been a lot more flirty. Like, he keeps keep taking my chapstick out of my pencil pouch and smelling it and then smelling my lips, saying "Yep, definitely the same smell." or "Hey, this smells like your lips!"  Or he'll tweak my nose or sit really close to me or he'll want to play piano for me or he wants me to walk home with him or vise versa (we live close to each other). And hugs. He's alays vying for hugs. So what does this mean? Does he like me or is he just being like that? And it doesn't help that he likes (or used to like?) this one girl and my heart hurts every time he brings her up. But then again, we are in the same seminary class with this other girl and he chooses to sit next to me instead of her. He's a shy kid for the most part, so is it just cuz he is too shy to sit with her? Ugh! So confused right now.

Sorry for the personal drama, I just had to get it out. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next one is going to be...well actually, I can't say what it's going to be like :P I can't reveal everything, can I?