Chapter 2 – Yonghwa the Knight in Shining Armor?

After a short five minute wait the four guys riding in the car could see the cute girl hastily running back while wearing some more comfortable shoes. A smile had returned to her face and she seemed more at ease. Little did Seohyun know that the day would only hit her harder, each blow making that smile go away and be replaced with a frown.

“Joesonghamnida*, I’m sorry that we had to delay so much because of me,” she said as she gave a full 90 degree bow. “I’m truly sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, we were already late anyways. What’s five more minutes? What is your name?” Jungshin asked as he began to drive towards the university.

“Oh sorry I should have told you my name first how rude of me. Hello, my name is Seohyun, please treat me well,” she chirped as she gave yet another bow.

“Woah girl, no need to be so polite. You can speak comfortably here. We can speak informally to each other right? Are you a student?” Jonghyun asked as he kept throwing sideways glances at her beautiful face.

“Yes I’m a first year student at Dongguk University. It’s my first day here, nice way to start the year huh?” she joked as she gave a nervous laugh. “Are you guys all students too?

“Yea we’re all also students at Dongguk. We are all first year students except for that jerk that’s sitting up there in the passenger’s seat. That guy is a second year student,” Minhyuk explained.

“Oh we forgot to introduce ourselves,” Jonghyun cut in. “My name is Lee Jonghyun. That flowery guy that looks like he’s a twelve year old is Kang Minhyuk. The tall guy driving is Lee Jungshin. And Mister Sunshine over there is Jung Yonghwa.”

“Since we are all the same age may I speak informally to you all then?” Seohyun nervously asked. “If not then I’m fine I don’t want to be rude.”

“No, no, it’s fine, please go ahead and speak however you want,” Jungshin rapidly replied. “We are all neighbors and friends here right? If we will be going to the same school and living near each other we might as well right?”

All along the way there Seohyun and the brothers had conversations on how they expected school to be. She explained how she lived with her “sisters” Jessica, Sooyoung, and Taeyeon. She explained how she had moved away from her other five remaining “sisters” a year ago. They exchanged information on their majors, their hopes and dreams, and how they all wanted to do well this semester. Soon enough they arrived at the campus and began to get off the car.

“Woah I had been here once but I didn’t know how big the school is and how many students there were around,” Seohyun said with wide open eyes and an astonished tone in her voice.

“Alright Seohyun this is where we part ways. Have fun on your first day here. If you need a ride back home just find try to find us around again. Here,” Jungshin began as he took out a small piece of paper,  “take my cell phone number and call us if you need anything."

“Thank you very much. Thanks for the ride and I’ll see you around,” Seohyun replied with a large smile on her face. “Annyeonhigyeseyo*,” she finished with a bow.

“Woah still so formal I see. Alright bye Seohyun. Annyeong*,” they all said as they waved goodbye.

After parting ways with the guys she began to look for her first class of the semester. It wasn’t easy, but eventually she found her way around the huge campus and found her theatre class.  She stopped in front of the large double doors to the lecture hall and heaved a huge sigh.

“Well here goes nothing. Hopefully I don’t get into too much trouble,” she told herself as she slowly pushed open the doors. Unfortunately for her the doors made a loud, screeching metal sound as if someone was scratching something across a chalkboard.

Immediately the professor and all two hundred students in the lecture hall turned their heads to see the loud disturbance caused by the long-haired, shy girl. “Ah, you must be the one girl I counted absent,” the professor began in a somber tone, “Miss Seo Joohyun correct? Please take a seat, as it is your first day here I will let this slide. Do not let it happen again or your grade will be affected.”

“Yes seongsaengnim*,” she said with a bow. “I will refrain from being late in the future,” she finished as she began to look for a seat.

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Soon enough the bell rang and all the students swarmed out of the classroom, either in anticipation of their next class, or anticipation of the end of their day.

‘So much for having a good day at school today. Ugh let’s hope that it gets better as the day goes by. Its only 10 am and already my day has gone to crap,’ Seohyun thought to herself as she began to walk to her next class. She arrived at the music room for her piano class a few minutes early so she decided to take a quick break before entering. She sat at a small blue bench a few feet away from the classroom and begun to look around. Sure enough she saw a bunch of vending machines and decided to take a look.

“A quick snack wouldn’t do me any harm would it? Maybe a drink too,” Seohyun told herself as she took out a few coins from a small coin purse. Unfortunately for her she left the purse on the bench as she didn’t notice it falling out of her pocket.

“Hmm what do they have here. All junk food…” she said to herself with a slight tone of disgust. “Oh, what is this? Goguma* chips!?” She quickly began to punch in the numbers and put the coins in, anticipating her favorite snack of all time.  However in the end the machine stopped halfway through as it began to drop the chips and they got stuck.

“Yah! Seriously?” she yelled disappointedly as she gave up trying to get the machine to give her back her last remaining coins or her chips.  Just as she was halfway back to the bench she heard a banging noise coming from behind her. Right next to the vending machines stood a short haired, tall, skinny man reaching in the machine. Seohyun saw him take out the goguma chips that she desperately wanted and he began to walk away.

“Hey, excuse me! Those are my chips,” she explained as she ran up to the man. “I paid for them but they wouldn’t come out.”

“Sorry sister, you snooze you lose,” the man said with a bored look on his face. “Now get lost first-year,” he finished as he began to walk away.  She followed him for a minute trying to get her chips back or at least the money that they were worth. However, she had no luck and she started walking back towards her piano class.

“Ah!” Seohyun yelled as she pulled at her hair. “This is such a crappy day; I just want it to be over and done with…” She would have finished her angry rant but was cut off by a bag of chips shoved her way.

“Here take these,” said a guy with a guitar on his back. He wasn’t very tall, but he was still taller than her. He wore an earring in one ear and he had short brown hair. He wore a very bored looking expression on his face but for some reason it didn’t look unfriendly. He was handsome, not male model status, but still he was a looker.  His voice sounded familiar as well as his style of dress. However, the voice that she remembered in her head was much colder, this guy had a friendly voice and he was even doing something nice for her.

‘This guy? Have I met him before?  she asked herself. ‘He sounds familiar as well as the clothes, but I can’t put my finger on it.’

“Hey? Anybody home? Do you want them or not? Aish, this girl… trying to do something nice for someone and this is what I get.” He says while she is in her dazed state. “You can stop staring at me now. I know I’m hot but it’s not that big of a deal. Just take the chips.”

“Eh, what? Oh right. Thank you for the chips, how did you..?” she began to ask.

“How did I know that you just got ripped off by that upperclassman? I was napping over in a corner around here and your whining woke me up,” he said in the voice and tone that she recognized. “Try to not stand out so much, freshman, maybe you will get ripped off less around here.”

“Ok thanks,” she said as she took the chips with hesitation. ‘What’s his deal? I didn’t ask him to help me. If he was going to help he didn’t have to get smart with me either.’

“Alright woman, see ya around,” he said as he put his headphones back on and waved her goodbye.

“What a cocky weirdo…” she said to herself as the bell rang for the next class. “Ah I don’t want to be late,” she told herself and she began walk towards music room, forgetting the purse on the bench.

Another class of the day down, and Seohyun began to feel much better. Playing the piano was one of the few things that let her unwind and feel free. She could ignore the pressures of life, school, and all the bad things that had happened to her that day.

‘Ah I feel so refreshed, time to have a good lunch and head home.’ She began to walk towards the food court-like area in hope that she would be able to finish her day in peace. She got in line, anticipating the rice, steamed vegetables, and beef mix that they were offering today.  As she got closer and closer began to water. She even asked the restaurant worker for a second helping of each.

“Annyeonghasseyo customer, for your meal it will be 9,500 won please,” stated the woman working the register with a smile on her face. Seohyun dug through her bag and her pockets but could not find the small purse where she kept her money in. After a minute of digging through her stuff, the people behind her in line became restless.

“Hey could you hurry it up?”

“Yea I’m hungry over here; this is my only time for lunch.”

“Ugh, if you don’t have the money, just step out of the line and let the rest of us eat please.”

Just as she was about to step out of the line the lady at the register told her that she could take her food. “Miss, you may take the food. Thank you for your patronage.”

“But I didn’t pay for it, I was still looking for the money,” she replied in a confused tone. “Ah yes, that young man over there to the right walking away from us paid for it,” replied the worker as she looked in the direction of a student dressed in all black with a guitar on his back.

“Ok then, thank you very much.” She quickly took her food and headed in the direction the young man went to but she couldn’t find him. “I didn’t even get to thank him. I wonder who he was.” She kept on walking in that direction still trying in vain to try to find him and she stopped dead in her tracks. She arrived at a very secluded part of campus filled with trees and bushes of all colors. It seemed to be a garden but a relatively untouched one. In the middle of the clearing was a bench that seemed to call to her.

“Wow, this place is beautiful,” she said in awe. “I guess I will have lunch here.” At first she didn’t know what she was going to do for lunch. She didn’t like eating alone but her sisters were all busy around this time, and she didn’t feel comfortable asking the guys to eat lunch with her from this morning.

She sat down on the bench and began to slowly munch on the food that she got from the guy from earlier. She looked around a bit more, adoring the beauty of this place, and she saw some movement in the bushes to the right of her. She thought it was just a squirrel or small animal but was surprised when a person walked out, and she fell out of her seat.

“Am I that good looking that you have to fall out of your seat?” he asked while laughing at her. “So you stalking me or what? Seems like I’ve seen you all over campus today. You’re not one of those girls that hangs around guys using her “charms” to get money off guys right?”

“No! What the heck are you talking about? I didn’t ask for you to help me those two times. Here, if you’re going to be like that then take my food I don’t need this from you,” she said as she pouted and pushed the plate of food towards him.

“You know if I use your spoon it’ll be like an indirect kiss…” he began to say with a seductive tone. “If that’s how it is then why don’t we just do it for real,” he finished as he put his face near hers.

“Yah! Byuntae get away from me. I don’t want to do anything with a jerk like you. Just leave me alone.”

“Hey, hey, calm down girl I was kidding. As if I would want to do anything with a little girl like you. I bet you don’t even know how to kiss,” he said in a matter of fact tone.  The comment instantly brought a blush to her face. “Ahaha I knew it, look at how red you’re turning. Don’t worry I’m not going to do anything to you.”

“Uh… hey..! I know..! You can’t..!” As much as she kept trying to defend herself no words came out of that made any sense. “Jerk! Why are you even here, get lost.”

“I would except I was here first. This is where I come when I skip class to play my guitar. You’re the one intruding,” he replied as he began to take out his guitar.

“Fine I’ll leave then. Sorry to have interrupted your guitar playing you truant. Why do you even bother coming to school you bum?” she quickly replied.

“Hey say bye at least. Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?”

“Fine, bye jerk!” she yelled as she stormed off towards campus.

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Yonghwa sat fiddling with his guitar for a few minutes then remembered that he still had the purse she dropped in the morning. As he got up to go give her the purse he heard a rumble of thunder and looked up at the greying sky. “Ah crap looks like rain today, guess I’m gonna have to skip at home. Jungshin isn’t gonna be happy that I skipped so I guess I gotta walk back today.”

Seohyun looked up at the sky and saw the clouds that would eventually ruin her day some more. Nothing had gone right today and all she wanted to do was go home and sleep her troubles away. Luckily today she was done with classes and she could go home. However, she didn’t have money to ride public transportation and she didn’t want to trouble Jungshin so she had to walk home.

Just as she began her walk a crack of lighting and a boom of thunder scared her out of her thoughts. Rain began to pour as if the clouds had held in all the water in the world.  “Craaaaaaaaaap, this day only gets better and better doesn’t it?”

“Hey prude girl. Here,” said a voice behind her. She quickly turned around and saw a small pink purse flying towards her and she caught it. “Also, here take this,” a black umbrella flew out of the man’s hands and into hers. “Don’t walk in the rain, you’ll catch a cold.”

“You again… how did you have my purse? You delinquent, you stole it didn’t you? I knew you were a bad guy,” she stated as she turned in the other direction.

“Hey is that any way to treat your knight in shining armor that saved your plenty of times today? Anyways take care. Open up that umbrella fast or you’ll get soaked. Later,” he said as he waved and walked away from her in the terrible downpour.

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After a long one hour walk she finally arrived back home. When she was a few blocks away from her house she realized that she had her purse and she could have taken the bus and hit herself for being so stupid. After a heavy sigh she began to open the small gate that led to the building.

After reaching her building she saw a figure fiddling around with something in his hands in front of the apartment below them. Immediately thinking it was Jungshin or one of the other guys she ran out to greet him. However, when she finally reached the person she regretted it at once.

“Hey, thanks for the ride this morning…” she trailed off once she realized who it was.

“No problem babycakes, now if you don’t mind may I have my umbrella please?” Yonghwa asked with a cocky smile on his face. “I know, I know I’m y please stop staring at me.”

As soon as he finished his sentence she blushed and began to pout. “YOU!? You’re the guy that’s been saving me all day? The same jerk who insulted me in the car this morning?”

“Yup that’s me Jung Yonghwa, y guy extraordinaire.  Now if you’ll excuse me I have to get inside and change clothes. A certain somebody caused me to have to walk home in the rain.”

Seohyun still stunned that she let herself be helped by the kind of guy she absolutely hated, didn’t respond and just let him take the umbrella out of her hands as he walked into his house.

“AHH I hate that guy! I can’t believe I thought he was nice for a moment. Stupid Jung Yonghwa, dumb cocky jerk, just wait and see,” she said fuming for no apparent reason. "Argh I don't know why but that guy just makes my blood boil. I don't even know why, there's millions of jerks out there like him. Whatever, I shouldn't let him get to me."

Yonghwa who was listening through the door with a smile on his face began to think to himself. ‘I love that girl, she’s so easy to make fun of. I wonder what her deal is. She’s so into me right now, ehehehehe’ he finished his thought with a laugh and headed inside to change.

Author’s note: Wow these things are getting longer and longer aren’t they >.>? Crap I’m sorry for making them so long. Once I start writing I just can’t stop. Anyways, I hope that you readers are enjoying the story so far. I feel like this isn’t turning out the way that it seemed in my head but I hope I’m still doing a good job. Thank you for reading. I appreciate any comments left. Will update soon :)

Joesonghamnida – formal way to say sorry

Annyeonghigyeseyo – formal way to say goodbye

Annyeong – informal way of saying bye

Seongsaengnim – respectful way of saying teacher

Goguma – sweet potato, Seohyun’s favorite snack