Chapter Fourteen
You and Me: We're Dorm BuddiesI thought, maybe just maybe - I was hallucinating.
“Who did this to you?”
That voice pierced through me.
Woohyun's voice rang clearly in my head but I couldn’t bear to look at him directly in the eye. Ice cubes were dripping from the top of my head, covering my black gym attire. Drenched, saturated with the taste of self-pity and still, completely dumbfounded.
I felt pitiful. I felt like the whole world has turned its back against me. My head was spinning alike to a broken mix-tape. I hate to feel inferior, being trampled on. It's a disturbance by itself, silently pulling me apart. Here I was, bullied by the mischievous boys in the school. I became their pranking subject, merely because I have to cope with this annoying image of being the lame, introverted, studious freak.
What can I do about it? Nothing. Simply, nothing.
“Who did this to you?” Woohyun asked, the second time.
I refused to answer.
Tears were uncontrollably tainting my cheeks. I wiped it away, feigning ignorance that Woohyun has been staring intently at my pathetic, confused self. These weren’t tears that proved that I was weak. Park In-Na never cries.
Park Niel just did.
The silence was deafening as Woohyun wrapped the towel around my drenched self. I could feel his comforting presence. I felt his warmth. His delicate skin touched mine and I twitched. I didn't know what went wrong. I didn't know what seems right. Woohyun, my bipolar, annoying dorm buddy was saving me?
He placed his hands on my shoulders, studying the details of my stoic face. “Park In-Na-ssi. Who did this to you?” he asked, persistent this time.
“If I had known, I wouldn’t be standing here soaked, like a freaking wet poodle!” I snapped where my mouth sprang open, almost instantly. “Uh-Park In-Na-ssi? W-Who is that, you are talking about?"
A little too late.
He grinned. That smirk fleeting across his face. “You didn’t deny it the first time, lost lamb.”
Goodness, strike one. I scowled, not uttering a word. Mentally stabbing myself for indirectly admitting to his statement, a sigh graced my lips. On the other hand, Woohyun has his arms crossed, smiling in content. My ignorance triggered that conceited expression right out of him. Annoyance b, I had to control myself from giving a reckless retort.
In my mind, I was thinking by how easy it must have been for him, to find out about my identity. Out of all the people here, he just had to be the lucky one to be able to read through my thick wall. That wall that I have guarded - undeniably well. That shielded wall has just cracked open.
Woohyun ruffled my hair (messed up wig-hair), taking a step back to scrutinize me. Oh, those smirk still in place.
Save yourself, Park In-Na.
“So, what’s your conclusion, smarty-pants?” I clutched the towel, thinking about the matter, rather absent-mindedly. “I mean, I’m not exactly admitting that I know of Park In-Na or that, I'm her. Not that we’re related or anything. Why are you calling me by that name? I’m a dude – manly dude!” I bit my lips, my hazel eyes lingered to the boys’ lockers to avoid his enthusiastic gaze. He grinned, and that his eye-smile crinkled to a beaming moonlight.
“You’re still guarding yourself? You’re not exactly great in the whole hiding game, In-Na-ssi.”
“I was born awesome. I’m not guarding, Woohyun. What are you? Playing hide and seek with me? I didn’t ask you to find me. Who said that you could take the role as the seeker?” I muttered gibberish, twirling with the hem of my drenched gym attire.
“Park Niel." Woohyun lightly scoffed, knowing that I was turning flustered. “Stop denying. I know who’s under all of that.”
He turned his head delicately, trying his utmost best to break through the wall I have built against him. He wriggled his finger tow
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