Chp.15| Admirers, Haters & Fighters


The next day at school…

I couldn’t sit still in my seat. With a pen clamped between my teeth, I kept thinking back to our little embrace. It bothered me that I had let PingPongBoy hold me in that way. We weren’t together. People thought we were together. We were playing a role. I couldn’t believe I let him hug me. I also couldn’t believe that I cried in front of him again.

Ugh.

My eyes wandered to the unoccupied chair beside me. Jung Sang was a no show. The chair behind him was also unoccupied, and the chair after that and the one after that too.

I looked around to discover that I was the only one seated inside the class.

Where was everyone?

A male student came scrambling into class to grab his textbook. I shouted after him. “Yah! Where are you off to? Is there no class?”

He looked over his shoulder and answered, “There’s a fight happening with Kim Tae Woo and some new transfer student. Mrs. Choi is there too.”

No surprise at all. Kim Tae Woo fought with every transfer student there was. Normally it would take place beyond the school’s grounds. However this time, it was different.

Kim Soo Jin came panting out of breath as she ran into the room, coming to a sudden halt in front of me. “Lee…Ji…Won.” She grabbed onto my shirt, shaking me. “Your…cousin…your…cousin.”

I could have easily placed two and two together, but at the time, you could say that it wasn’t registering with me. “What about my cousin?”

Soo Jin fanned herself with her hand, thinking she could stop herself from sweating. “See, this is why I choose not to exercise. Going up a single flight of stairs is extremely exhausting.”

Soo Jin always complained about the same flight of stairs. “Get on with the point.”

“Lee Yoon Tae is fighting Kim Tae Woo.”

This new transfer student was my cousin. I wasn’t surprised to find that he was challenging Kim Tae Woo in a fight.

“Who’s winning?” I asked, wondering if my cousin had the advantage. Yoon Tae had always been a fighter---a street fighter to be exact. I have never seen him lose to anyone. And then there was Kim Tae Woo who cheated at everything he does, and I never seen him lose either. All in all, the fight would be unfair.

“Looks like Tae Woo is winning since he’s got his guys on Yoon Tae too.”

“Let’s go,” I said, grabbing onto the front of her shirt, feeling my anger rising at the thought of Tae Woo’s unfairness.

---

A large circle of students along with a few teachers gathered around the two figures belonging to Kim Tae Woo and Lee Yoon Tae.

All of Tae Woo’s followers were on the ground by the time I pushed my way through the crowd of bodies. Yoon Tae and Tae Woo were still going at it, swinging their fists, kicking their legs out and all of them stuff people do when they fight.

“Ohmigod! He looks exactly like Hero from DBSK!! He’s so hot. Look at the tear in his shirt! It’s exposing his firm muscles!!”

"My gosh. He has his eyebrow pierced. That's soo hot."

“Who do you think is gonna win? I vote for my oppa, Kim Tae Woo!”

I rolled my eyes at the girls and stated aloud, “LEE YOON TAE! STOP THE FIGHT OR I’LL EXPOSE YOUR SECRET TO EVERYONE HERE!”

Yoon Tae looked up for a brief second before throwing an uppercut at Tae Woo. “I have no damn secrets. I’m gonna beat this er down and show him the meaning of respect!”

He was right. He doesn’t have any secrets. I just said that to get his attention.

Tae Woo sent a high kick against the side of Yoon Tae’s face, causing him to double over. “I bet I know what that secret is. He’s must be gay.” He made an attempt grab at Yoon Tae’s shirt, but Yoon Tae clamped his hands around his wrists, raising his head to ask, “Why because I’m good-looking?”

He retaliated by kicking him full in the gut, causing Tae Woo to reel back against the lockers. Then he leaped forward, swinging his fist out at Tae Woo who ducked on time and said, “Yes, but I’m better looking.”

“If I’m gay, that makes you more gay than I am because you’re so much prettier. I’m beginning to think that this is your way of picking me up,” Yoon Tae replied, followed by a sly grin.

I think Yoon Tae was the only guy who was capable of pulling off the gay jokes and still look good doing so.

I pushed my way toward him and grabbed onto his arm. “Let’s go. You don’t need to fight him. Leave it alone.”

“So, Ji Won. You know this er? Is he your boyfriend? Jung Sang would get extremely upset if he found out,” Tae Woo said as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth while standing up.

“I don’t date my own cousins,” I retorted, gripping tighter onto Yoon Tae’s arm. He was so tense, I could actually feel his muscles.

“This cousin of yours needs a good kicking,” came the voice from over my shoulder.

Standing right behind me was Park Jung Sang who was glaring at Yoon Tae who was smiling back at him.

Yoon Tae shook off his leather jacket. That gesture got the girls to let out a surprising gasp. “How about we settle this here and now, Jung Sang.”

“With you half-beaten? That would be unfair, wouldn’t it? Too easy of an advantage on my side. And besides, I don’t fight on school grounds.”

He was speaking of fairness? This was the guy who went around beating up people because they destroyed his ping-pong racket. I looked at Tae Woo to Yoon Tae and finally to Jung Sang, realizing what was going to happen. The truth was, I didn’t need to be there to try and put a stop to them. These three guys were all fighters. And if they wanted to fight, that was their problem. Why was I bringing myself into it?

So I walked away.

At least I started to walk away when Jung Sang grabbed onto my arm and caught up to me. “Where are you going?”

“Back to class,” I answered him, sounding like a zombie. “Why are you even here? Go fight him, if you want. Go die for all I care.”

“You must be deaf or something. I said that I don’t fight on school grounds.”

“Then go die. You can go die on school grounds.”

“Do you wanna die?” he asked, raising his voice.

“By your hands? No. I rather kill myself.”

We entered the classroom to find a box of chocolates, along with a bouquet of red roses sitting on top of my desk. I looked at Jung Sang. All of my anger was slowly fading away. “Did you do that?”

His brows furrowed together. “No. Why would I?”

Apart of me did hope that Jung Sang had done something like that for me. But then again, we’re speaking of Park Jung Sang whose heart was much colder than ice itself. For all I know, it could be anyone.

I smiled happily, like a giddy child receiving gifts. “Probably from one of my many crushes,” I boasted, going over to smell the roses. And then plucked the folded note that read, From your Secret Admirer.

I was flustering when I said, “I was right. It is from one of my secret admirers.” Exhaling slowly, I added, “Ji Won, you’re soooo lucky.”

“This assh0le probably wants to get under your skirt,” Jung Sang remarked, coming over to grab at the box of chocolates but I snatched it away first.

“Don’t touch it!” I snapped, while I opened the box, selecting a heart-shaped chocolate. Before I could bite into it, Jung Sang slapped it from my hand. “Don’t eat it, you dummy.”

“Why the hell not?!” I burst.

“It might be poisonous.”

I found it ridiculous that Jung Sang would make up something stupid to get me not to eat it. “Whatever, you’re just jealous. Why would it be poisonous?” I asked, going for another one and plopping it into my mouth when Jung Sang suddenly reached out to grab my face with both hands, trying to force it out of my mouth. “Spit it out, right now!” he demanded.

“NO!” I said, attempting to chew at it when his fingers managed to pry my mouth opened and the next thing I knew, I bit on his fingers instead. My head was thrown forward and the piece of chocolate fell out.

The moment I raised my head back up, Jung Sang already hurled the entire box of chocolates across the room. The chocolates flew in all directions, striking at all the students that were entering the room.

I wanted to scream in his face. I wanted to hit him. I wanted to make him pay. It was not often that I got expensive chocolates to eat.

Soo Jin caught hers and plopped it in her own mouth. “Yummy! Thanks PingPongBoy!”

Mrs. Choi entered after the students. She noticed that everyone was still standing around, looking directly at us. “What’s going on here?”

“I think Jung Sang is already professing his love to his girlfriend,” one of the female students stated.

Mrs. Choi shook her head slightly. “Jung Sang, you know better,” she warned.

Jung Sang ignored her and sent me a death glare before going to his seat.

I placed the roses on my desk and sat down my chair while Mrs. Choi told the others to sit down.

Too angry to care, I went back to touching my roses just to spite him. When he had about enough, he slammed his fist against the desk and grabbed the bouquet of roses from me, sending the petals to flutter to the floor. “You don’t deserve these.” With that, he strode over to toss them out into the trashcan.

I stood up, fuming mad while shouting, “Yah! Who are you to tell me I don’t deserve them?!”

“Ji Won. Please lower your voice,” Mrs. Choi said.

I ignored her anyway. “First you threw away my chocolates and now you threw away my flowers! I hate you, Park Jung Sang. Go die!!” I yelled, tossing my books at him.

He managed to easily dodge them. Turning to face Mrs. Choi, he said, “Give us a moment.”

“I’m staying. You can’t force me to go with you,” I conceded stubbornly, sitting back down on my chair.

Before he could say anything more, someone let out a huge fart. It was so loud; the entire school could probably hear it.

“EWWWW!!” everyone said in unison as they looked around to see whom it came from.

The empty desk in front of me told me who it was.

Kim Soo Jin was hiding beneath her desk. She was holding onto her chair with her cheeks flushing red in embarrassment. “Don’t look at me, Ji Won. They’re gonna know!” she whispered.

It was too late. One of the girls stood up and pointed at her. “KIM SOO JIN! KIM SOO JIN DID IT!”

First it was the sound. And then came the smell. It was so horrible that I nearly gagged. I had to pinch my nose when I spoke to her. “Soo Jin. Did you eat eggs?”

“No. I told you. I’m on a diet. I didn’t have anything this morning.”

Park Jung Sang came over to us. “It’s that chocolate you just ate.”

Soo Jin’s looked puzzled. “You mean, I just ate fart chocolate?” Her eyes suddenly widened. “Oh sh*t. I gotta run.” She scrambled from under the table and headed out the door, having everyone laughing after her.

Jung Sang flickered his gaze over to me. “I guess this secret admirer of yours wanted to see you go to the washroom.”

I was very confused at this point. “I don’t get it? Why would my secret admirer feed me diarrhea chocolates?”

“Maybe because this admirer of yours isn’t an admirer after all? Maybe this admirer is the same person who’s coming after me.”

I covered my mouth the moment I understood why Jung Sang didn’t want me to eat the chocolates in the first place. I felt ashamed for being angry with him. “You saved me from going to the washroom. Thanks.”

“Whatever,” he said before returning to his seat