Chapter  2. When Destiny Starts Scheming

 ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Joohyun waited for her sister at a restaurant near the university. Yuri promised lunch since she would be home late that night again. A little while later, she sent message that she couldn’t make it because of an emergency lunch meeting in a hotel downtown. Nonetheless, her sister asked if she could just go there since she ordered a take out for her. At first, she thought of saying no because she didn’t want to be late for her class that afternoon but she knew Yuri would get upset. Joohyun sighed and thought she couldn’t complain anymore, instead she told herself to start getting used to that kind of set up.

She found the hotel in no time and decided to go straight to the restaurant. After exiting the elevator, she found herself in a well-lit hallway leading to the restaurant. She could hear the soft music coming from another corner at the farther end. She later learned from one of the attendants that the soft music was from the bar where an acoustic singer usually performs on some afternoons.

The music became clearer as she got closer. It sounded so calm and soothing that Joohyun just found herself walking towards it. Maybe she could just take a quick peek; probably listen for a short moment. She still got a few minutes to spare. There was something about the man’s voice.  She was drawn to it. The song and his voice seemed to pull some strings inside her heart, like begging for her attention.

She walked on mesmerized, as sudden as it was. She couldn’t glean the feeling from the music though: there was pain and there was sadness. The room was faintly lit, that it even felt cooler as she got near the entrance; she shivered from the sudden cold, likea gust of wind blew from somewhere. Joohyun ran a hand on her arm, stopping dead on her tracks when she caught a glimpse of the singer. He was sitting in a little stage mounted in front of the carefully arranged tables and chairs. His hands slowly caressing the strings of his guitar, his eyes closed, his lips playing this gentle yet sad smile as he sang his song.

Nan bonaenjul allajyo da namkim eobsi

(I thought I’d let go, not leaving anything behind)

Anijyo anijyo nan ajik geudereul mobonaejyo

(No, no, now I still can’t let you go)

Geuriwo geuriwoseo geudega geriwoseo

(Miss you, miss you so much)

Maeil nan honja seoman geudereul burugo bulleobwayo

(Every day all by myself, calling and calling you)

Her hand suddenly lifted up to her chest. Her heart seemed to beat too loud that she could even hear it. It couldn’t be Shinwoo, but her eyes couldn’t be more wrong.

Bogopa bogopaseo, geudaega bogopaseo...

(Want to see you, because I want to see you so much)

She tried to peel her gaze off him but his voice wouldn’t let her. The more she tried, the more he seemed to sing the words to lure her. Only when her phone started vibrating in her bag that she was able to move away. It was Shinwoo, alright, and it still didn’t change her impression on him. With renewed conviction, she turned and moved almost hastily away from the bar.

~~~

Hours later, Joohyun was in the lecture hall for her first class that afternoon but she ended up getting more distracted because of what she saw. She couldn’t stop thinking about him and she hated that. Seeing him at the bar was like seeing him at the park. He was another person, not like the jerk she met in school. Joohyun sighed as she focused on the professor discussing something when suddenly someone sat on the empty seat beside her—

“You?!”

They said together much to her surprise and obviously to his. She didn’t expect anyone else to come since it was almost halfway through the lesson.

“That seat’s taken,” she said under her breath because she didn’t really want to deal with him.

Shinwoo raised his brow for a moment then smirked, “Yeah, by me.”

“Can you please move?” Joohyun daringly said. For a second, she thought she managed to shoo him away by the way he looked at her but he smiled again with his lips twitching just a little on the side of his mouth. The kind of smile she was starting to hate.

“Look,” Shinwoo leaned towards her and continued, “If you don’t want to sit beside me then you move.”

She rolled her eyes and mumbled, “Therefore, you want to sit beside me then?”

“Who says? And please stop therefore-ing me.”

“I got here first so I have every right—“

“No-oh,” he waved a finger at her.

Joohyun almost gasped out loud in exasperation until the Professor’s voice got louder.

“Now class, students sitting on  lines one, three, five and seven look at the person on your right and those sitting on lines two, four, six and eight look at the person on your left. They will be your buddy for this semester’s community immersion.”

Shinwoo puffed an air as if blowing the fringes off his forehead then turned to look at his right where Joohyun was sitting. He grinned wider seeing her brows almost meeting in the middle of her face and laughed quietly when she finally gave him a piercing look, “What?”

“This can’t happen,” Joohyun shook her head.

“Oh yes, baby, this CAN happen,” he countered.

“Don’t you dare baby me!”

Shinwoo could only laugh at her misery.

When the class was dismissed, Joohyun hurriedly walked towards the professor’s table while the latter was fixing her things. She could feel that the guy was walking closely behind her and she didn’t like it even one bit.

“Excuse me, Sem, can I talk to you?” She said as soon as she reached the table and much to her chagrin, he too stood beside her.

“I want to talk to you too, Sem.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t want to be paired with him.”

“I don’t want to be paired with her, too.”

“What is this?” the professor eyed the couple with curiosity.

Joohyun exhaled before proclaiming, “We don’t really like each other.”

Professor Lee Hyori couldn’t hide her amusement by how the two looked but she just shrugged, “Well, you both should start liking each other then.”

“But ma’am—“ Joohyun was about to protest but the older woman just stood up and walked away so she turned her attention to the man behind her scratching his head, “This is your fault!”

“Why is it my fault now?” he snickered.

“Because you should have chosen other seats! Now I’m stuck with you!” She grumbled and almost stomped her feet on the process.

“Huh? First of all, this is a democratic country; I can sit wherever I want to, the same right you have. Secondly, I don’t want to take that seat either but that was the nearest to the entrance. Lastly, I feel the same way with you so stop making a fuss about it, you’re annoying already!”

“And you think I’m the only one annoying, you… you… .hole!?!”

“Yeah, smart.!”

“YAAHHH!”

~~~

Joohyun just realized that she just met the most infuriating person in her life. She vowed never to make any contact with him in whatsoever possible way. But, there were the subjects they were in together and, to make everything worse, they were paired for one that needs for them to work closely together. Maybe she could ask Professor Lee to change partners and do some extra credits for her like research or something just to make sure she won’t have to waste the subject with that person.

She finally closed her book when she thought that she could not focus. The annoying person was taking too much of her time and energy. If only he wasn’t late then probably he wouldn’t have taken the seat. That caused her to remember what she saw at the bar; that must be the reason why he was late because he needed to work. That Shinwoo guy looked different when he doesn’t talk and most especially when he sings. She sighed to herself feeling a little confused; the different Shinwoo is a lot likable than the one in school. He must be one of those mysterious guys who have a secret identity and she was able to see both.

“Joohyun? Seo Joohyun?!”

She turned and recognized one of the girls walking towards her, “Ohhh! Choi Sooyoung, right?”

“Yeah, right!” the taller girl said as they both took the seat across her.

“Sooyoung Unnie!!!” Joohyun exclaimed and slightly bowed, “It’s been a long time!”

“I know, by the way this is Im Yoona,” Sooyoung motioned to the other girl and explained, “Joohyun is my classmate at— was it arts or piano?”

“Piano academy, Unnie. It’s nice to meet you,” she bowed at Yoona and extended her arm.

Yoona accepted the handshake and replied, “It’s nice to meet you too.”

“You’re studying here now?” Sooyoung asked.

“Yeah, I moved in with my sister… I just remembered you relocated here.”

“Yes, after middle school. Wow, it’s really nice to see you again!”

“I know, Unnie… I’m really happy since I haven’t made any friends yet,” only enemyshe told herself. She was glad that spending her college life won’t be too hard with a familiar face and a new friend to keep her company. Sooyoung was a good unnie to her at the academy so she knew that she was really in good hands.

“Oh, great! You can hang out with us after school!” Sooyoung excitedly said while Yoona nodded.

“You’re new here in town?” Yoona asked then smiled when the younger girl nodded shyly, “We can show you around.”

“Thank you…” Joohyun replied. Yoona looked nice with her warm smile.

~~~

Shinwoo watched her back. That girl is pretty interesting if not for her being so snotty.  Yesterday after their little conflict, he figured out that she could be a good distraction and amusement for him. It wasn’t like he was planning to follow her around and annoy her but maybe just test her patience once in awhile. He grinned with satisfaction.

“Hyung, you really like her, huh?”

Jonghyun leaned over just to whisper that to which he replied with a smug face, “She likes me.”

“She does?” Jonghyun scratched his head. “How can you say that?”

“Just watch her, alright? She gets mad at me without any reason and she won’t even look at me.”

“Huh? I thought she likes you, it sounded like she despises you.”

“Aniya… girls are like that. They play hard to get.”

“Really?” Jonghyun continued to watch his sunbae carefully watching the girl, “That doesn’t sound right, though.”

Their conversation halted when their professor arrived dropping loudly his stack of papers on the desk. The older man leaned back with his usual smirk. “Fallacy. Define fallacy and when I say define I don’t mean read your book, Mr. Choi.”

“An error in reasoning, Professor.”

“Good. I hope you did your homework,” he said while moving to the other corner of the room

“What homework?” Shinwoo whispered to Jonghyun.

Jonghyun kept his voice low, “He said last time to list the fallacies and study them.”

“He did? How come I didn’t know?” Shinwoo probed again unaware of Jonghyun’s discomfort for he was too scared of the professor.

“I don’t know, hyung.”

“Let’s play a little game. In this game, I want you to show off the kind of fallacies you know through your reasoning and arguments on this topic,” he started writing in big bold letters on the whiteboard, “Premarital is a must.”

This caused a slight ruckus from the students. Some of them grumbled, some laughed and most just started flipping through their notes. Shinwoo, on the other hand, wished for time to pass quickly since he wasn’t able to read anything.

“Gentlemen, you are on the affirmative side and ladies will take the negative side,” Professor Kim declared, “Who wants to start? Yes, Mr. Kim.”

“Every friend I have has had —“

“Still having .” Someone said and stirred laughter from the group.

Kim Jihan continued, “Every friend I have has had and still having so premarital is a must.”

“Even though every friend you have done it doesn’t mean it’s a must.” Lee Jina contended, “Besides, should only happen to married couple so premarital is a sin.”

“How can you say that it’s a sin when it’s written that God said go and multiply?” One boy asked that made most males in the room laugh.

“But God also said ‘thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife,” said another girl.

“We are not talking about someone’s neighbour’s wife!” Jihan said again.

“Premarital is only a must for guys and it’s not for girls therefore it’s not totally a must,” Joohyun finally said. Her classmates were losing the point of the debate again.

Shinwoo snickered upon hearing the familiar voice then muttered out loud, “How can you say that it’s a must for guys.”

“Why isn’t it?” Joohyun answered then turned back to look at him shrugging her shoulders as she went on, “I mean, men are -crazed rabbits.”

There were uuhhs and aaahhhs from the other students. It was like watching a re-match of the other day’s interaction from the two. Even Professor Kim got a little interested.

“You’re generalizing,” Shinwoo just said coolly.

“That’s the point of all of these, right?” She asked.

“The point that men are -crazed rabbits? I thought we’re talking about pre-marital ?”

“Yes, we are talking about premarital and I assume it is a must for you since you’re a man.”

“Do you, like, have this bad experience with men?”

“We are not talking about my experience,” Joohyun countered trying to sound unaffected. “Besides, you can’t possibly understand women’s stand on this matter.

“Then you too can’t possibly understand men’s stand on this matter. Are you just too full of yourself that you don’t want to open your mind instead you over-generalize?”

That last comment made her stand unconsciously while slamming her hands on the desk, “I am too full of myself? Look who’s talking? Why are you—

“Mr. Jung and Ms. Seo,” Professor Kim finally spoke but rather calmly, “Can you please take your lovers’ quarrel outside my class? We don’t really need to hear it here.”

“But, Sem, we are not—“

“I said out of my class, Agassi!”

Joohyun couldn’t believe it was happening to her. She glared at Shinwoo as she grabbed her bag then marched out of the room. Shinwoo remained seated for a moment until the professor raised an eyebrow so he gathered his things and quietly walked out.

On his way out, he noticed that the girl stood just a few feet away from the door and he reckoned that she was waiting for him to confront him. Shinwoo snickered to himself and continued walking like he didn’t care until he heard her stomping behind him so he turned and noticed how mad she was because her nostrils were flaring again. Her face was also getting tomato red that he thought it was funny and he couldn’t stop himself from chuckling, “What?”

“This is your fault!”

“My fault again? Who said that all men are -crazed rabbits in the first place?”

“I said it for the lesson!”

“You were saying it on my face, Joohyun-ssi!”

“I didn’t—“

“Did too…”

“No, I didn’t say that on your face! And why are you so affected by that?”

“Because not all men are like that.”

“Huh?” Joohyun attempted to laugh in contempt, “Do you have proof or something?”

Instead of answering, Shinwoo raised a finger and gently poked her forehead as she tried to shove his hand away. Then he replied while giving her a little evil grin, “I will never have with you, Seo Joohyun…”

“Wha—? You!!!” That just made her angrier that she automatically raised her hand but he caught her wrist before her palm landed on his face.

“What? You wanna have with me?” Shinwoo snorted especially seeing her eyes grew bigger.

Joohyun opened in protest but no sound came out instead she pulled her arm off his grip and cried in annoyance “Aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!! I hate you, you jerk!” then stomped away.

Shinwoo almost laughed. That was her charm. Her pissed off face was seriously adorable.

~~~

The rest of the day wasn’t so bad. Joohyun managed to control her anger before she could plan a murder. She stayed in the living room while her sister recounted her day to her until she suddenly asked, “So, how about you? Have you met Mr. Wonderful Eyes yet?”

The abrupt question painted his sarcastic face in her mind that she involuntarily stood and declared, “Don’t ever mention him, Unnie! Please for the love of me, don’t ever mention that jerk!”

“What????” Yuri was taken aback by her sister’s reaction that she inquired further, “You mean you met again?!”

Joohyun shook her head taking her books that were lying on the coffee table in front of her, “Yes and can we please change topic now?”

“But you have to tell me!” Yuri laughed at the way her sister looked but then something bothered her so she asked seriously, “Joohyuna, is this guy bullying you?”

“Aigooo unnie,” Joohyun just sighed and rolled her eyes, “I can handle this but let’s just not talk about him now or ever, okay? Gosh! You just ruined my mood!”

Yuri continued to laugh as she watched her sister fan her face while walking back to her room. “This could be good,” Yuri giggled to herself. She thought it was that interesting to see how mad her sister was so she called out, “Maybe he likes you!”

“Arhg! For pete’s sake, Unnie? Seriously?” Joohyun stopped on her tracks with hands akimbo, “He’s driving me to fury, and he likes me? What the fudge is that?!”

“Guys are like that, Joohyun,” Yuri chuckled as she checked her nails, “If they don’t like you, why would they care wasting a breath on you? You should know that by now.”

“But—“ she stopped herself knowing it was a senseless topic after all. It was obvious they don’t like each other, and she couldn’t be happier with that in mind.

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Hello~ are you still having sbs kpop superconcert hangover??? 

Btw, here's the other characters. Joohyun’s parents won’t really make that much appearance on the fic but I included them just to help your imagination 

thank you for your comments and for the interest in this fic! ^^ I cannot reply to each comment especially how this story would turn out keukeu… but yeah keep guessing coz there will be some unexpected twists... anyways, I won’t get too ahead of myself here… sit back, relax and enjoy the story as it unfolds… ^^ Thanks soooo very much to Ate Raine for editing... <3

To my LTL readers, I will not leave the story unfinished but I’ve decided to write as many chapters as I can until the end before updating (like I am doing with this one) I’m just so sorry for the delay.

 because I miss you ----> the song he was singing ^^

 ~Lyra&Ysa

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PREVIEW

CHAPTER 3: See Me?

Shinwoo laughed and placed his hand back to his lap, “You know, you remind me of my mother…”

“If that’s a compliment, well, thank you,” Joohyun grimaced. She could still feel the tip of his finger on her forehead that she unconsciously ran a hand on it as if wiping away his fingerprint on her skin.

“Well, actually,” Shinwoo stood, wrote something on a sheet of paper and handed it to her, “that was a big blow insult.” He winked and moved before Joohyun could charge at him, “That’s my Skype ID, add me. Let’s talk tonight, around 10? I’m not really inspired whenever I see your face, worse, hear your voice…”

“Ha!” Joohyun scowled and watched him coolly walking away. “Grrr! Next time I’m surely going to slam my car over you and rip your bicycle apart!” She opened the folded paper and keyed it on her phone, just in case she loses it.

jung.yong.hwa.

She wondered why it was his Skype ID then shrugged, “oh well, who cares…”

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