Chapter 5

Even though Jiho was still being completely ignored by Kyung, it had become a habit for him to eat with him and his friends at lunch. He got along pretty well with them, especially Yukwon who had been the first person to talk to him at school. They usually talked the most during lunch time, with Jaehyo butting in every now and then, Kyung being too busy glaring at his friends for their “betrayal”, Minhyuk being too busy eating all their food and Taeil being his awkward self and just listening to them all. But that had changed. He was now busier texting a certain someone every minute he could.

Jiho and Yukwon were having one of their rare more serious conversations while walking out of the canteen. The blonde had told his friend about the physic project incident and after mocking him a little bit, Yukwon showed genuine interest in the story.

“Well, that was unfortunate. Who is he being paired up with again?”

“Some Nicholas guy.”

“Nicholas? There’s no Nicholas in our school though…could it be that you’re talking about Nichkhun?”

“I don’t know, maybe. Tall, brown hair, brown eyes and a sneaky smile.”

“Sounds like Nichkhun to me.”

“And how is he like?”

Yukwon just shrugged his shoulders.

“I have no idea. I only know about him because he has, well, a certain reputation. But you didn’t tell me, who are you aired up with?”

“I didn’t really talk to her yet, but if I remember well, her name’s Hyuna.”

“Kim Hyuna? Poor you, it couldn’t get any worse.” Yukwon stopped in his tracks and looked at Jiho apologetically. The younger just frowned, confused.

“What do you mean?”

Yukwon sighed deeply and slung his arm around Jiho’s shoulders and made his way to his classroom.

“Well, Nichkhun, who is paired with Kyung has a reputation of being a manwhore – which could be true or not – and Kim Hyuna…well let’s say it’s worse. But unlike Nichkhun, it’s not as hard to believe if you ask me.”

“Great.” Jiho lowered his head in defeat. “There’s already a chick always turning around me in class and now that…. I don’t need Kyung to think I’m even worse than before when it comes to girls…”

*

“Okay, what’s wrong?”

Minhyuk turned around surprised and was met with his shortest hyung, Taeil.

“N-nothing, why?”

“Oh yes, and the little stutter is there to emphasize your point.”

Minhyuk sighed in defeat. He knew that when Mama Taeil smelled that something was up, he wouldn’t give up. He let out a bitter laugh and leaned against the wall.

“It’s really nothing you should bother about, though. You seem happy lately. I don’t know what it is but I haven’t seen you so happy for too long, so don’t yourself too much and enjoy whatever – I mean, whoever – it is.”

Minhyuk smirked knowingly at his friend, who looked away in embarrassment.

“So, you want to tell me about it?”

Taeil hesitated a moment, he didn’t want to change subjects so quickly, but Minhyuk seemed to really not want to talk about his problems for the moment so he just decided to give up for now.

*

Jiho was pacing around in his apartment nervously. After what Yukwon told him he was really regretting telling Hyuna to come over for their project. Back when he said that, he was too focused on Kyung and didn’t even look at Hyuna, giving her his address to get rid of her as quickly as possible. Now he was worrying about the outcome if Kyung was to know about this. He had spent the last few weeks trying to prove him how much he changed and regaining his friendship. Or rather, gaining his friendship as they were never friends in the first place. What he now deeply regretted, as he realized what a nice person Kyung was and how much of a, well, he had been himself. But if Kyung heard that Hyuna, whose reputation was anything but rainbows apparently, had come to his apartment, where he lived alone (well, with Jihoon, but without any authority figure), on a Friday night, well, that definitely would ruin all his efforts. Because no way would anybody ever believe that all they did was studying. No, people liked to spice things up for their entertainment way too much.

So he tried to contact Hyuna to delay their study session to another day, and especially another location, but he didn’t know her phone number, address, not even her full name. He had thought about not opening the door when she came, pretending not to be there, but that would be a blow to his image as well.

But then hope lit up in Jiho. Why would Kyung know about this anyway? For once the fact that Kyung was completely indifferent to everything concerning Jiho came to his advantage. Right, he would never know about this.

Just when he had persuaded himself, the doorbell rang.

Jiho opened the door, his palms slightly sweating. As soon as he saw Hyuna, he knew what Yukwon meant. She was pretty and clothed very, well, very little.

“Uhm, hi.” Jiho fidgeted with his fingers and stepped to the side to make space for his classmate “Come in.”

“Thank you. Wow, nice apartment. You said you’re living here alone?”

“Yeah, well, no, I’m living here with a friend, Jihoon. And my parents drop by whenever they want, so it’s as if there were living here, too.” Jiho lied, just in case. In case of what, he didn’t know.

He closed the door and followed Hyuna to the living room.

“Oh I see. That’s too bad.” Hyuna giggled, while sitting down at the coffee table. “But right now, there’s only the two of us, right?”

Jiho froze, two glasses of water in his hands. He felt chills run down his back.

“So how about we get started?”

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait. That’s not why I invited you over! We really shouldn’t do this.” Jiho spluttered hastily, spilling water all over the floor.

“Uhm, what?” the brunette looked at him skeptically.

“What?”

“I was talking about this, what do you mean, that’s not what you invited me for?” Hyuna waved some sheets that looked suspiciously like their physics project in front of Jiho’s face.

“Oh. Well, me too. I mean…err…let’s just get this done with.” Jiho was suddenly very flustered. Oh how he wished the person sitting there across the table was covered by more than just two thin layers of fabric. And was a male. Preferably Kyung though. He wondered if Kyung was meeting up with that Nicholas or whatever was his name right now, and for a reason he could not quite understand he found the thought of that extremely upsetting. And angering.

“Are you listening? You’re not listening, aren’t you?” a female voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

Hyuna was looking at him sternly and he realized she had already highlighted a lot of important information and begun writing a paper for their project. He suddenly felt apologetic to her. Not only had he apparently misjudged her, as she seemed quite nice actually, but on top of that he was completely ignoring her while thinking of Kyung. Who was maybe or maybe not meeting up with a handsome guy who had a manwhore reputation right now. He suddenly wondered if these rumors about Nichkhun sleeping around were about girls or guys. Probably both. He thought bitterly.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m going home. Might as well o this alone.” Hyuna muttered the last sentence while pouting. Her voice once again alarmed Jiho.

“Wait, I’m sorry. I’ll concentrate, I promise, it’s just-“

“What’s troubling you?” the brunette answered, not waiting for Jiho to finish his sentence and more or less reluctantly sitting back down.

“I mean, you don’t have to tell me, we don’t really know each other.” When Jiho didn’t answer but just looked at her hesitantly, she rolled her eyes.

“It’s about Park Kyung, isn’t it?”

Again, Jiho stayed mute but just looked at her wide-eyed.

“Oh please. It’s been about one month since you came here and the only person you ever acknowledge is him. You don’t even know other people’s name. You could meet the person sitting beside you in class on the street and not know it.”

“That’s not true.” Jiho looked up to Hyuna, who was looking back skeptically. He pouted, slightly embarrassed. “I know you.”

“Really? What’s my surname then?”

“…Lee?”

“Nice guess. But no. Now tell me, it seems like you know Kyung from before, don’t you? Or else you wouldn’t be so obsessed with him.”

Jiho let out a deep sigh. After all, why not? It couldn’t harm to talk to someone with a neutral point of view.

“Yeah, we were classmates in middle school. But I was real douche back then. I always bullied him. And I also stole his girlfriend. Well, kind of. She was already cheating on him anyway.”

“I see. And you regret it now?”

“Like nothing else in my life. While being away in Japan, I matured a lot, and I realized how much I must’ve ruined his life. Well, his teenager life at least. He’s such a nice person. In middle school, I bullied him, calling him a , only because he was so sensitive. Which is a good thing, actually. Well, also a bad thing, because due to him being sensitive, the bullying must’ve affected him so much. I feel terrible every time I think of it. He has every right to despise me for the rest of his life. And I also understand that he doesn’t want to see me, but I really want my apologies to reach him. I don’t expect him to forgive me, but I want him to know how sorry I am. And by the way, I’m not obsessed with him.”

“Hm~mm, sure.” Hyuna, who had been listening carefully this whole time hummed, a faint smile appearing on her small face. “Do you know what I think? I think, my dear, you have a crush on him.”

“What? You can’t be serious.” Jiho was startled. He did not expect that. A crush. On Kyung. If that was true, shouldn’t he know about this?

“Oh, but I am. Please don’t think I spend my time looking at you, but I’ve seen you staring at him for hours more than once. It’s quite cute, actually. And a little bit creepy too.”

“What? No, I, why are you, what, zhgfbeib?”

“I know, I know, it must be hard for you. Now let me ask you something. You like Lee Hyori?”

“Eh, yeah, I guess…”

“Okay, now imagine this: you’ve been to a fanmeeting with Lee Hyori. After waiting for five hours in rain and snow, it’s finally your turn. But right as she’s about to greet you, you see Kyung walking by. Do you go to talk to him immediately, or do you wait until you have Lee Hyori’s signature?”

“I go talk to him immediately of course! Who knows where he could go in the time I get that signature? If I’m lucky, I could follow him without being noticed and I might even find out where he lives…” Jiho reasoned. Hyuna just looked at him a little weirded out.

“Did you just hear yourself?”

…

“Well, that…” the blonde looked at his classmate who was currently raising an eyebrow at him.

“Wha-whatever, let’s just do our project first. We wouldn’t want all the work you already did go to waste. “By now, Jiho was all red in the face and his heart was beating way faster than it should.

He quickly grabbed the papers that had been abandoned on the table and begun reading through them.

“Mm~hm.” Hyuna hummed again, highly amused.

“Uhm, Hyuna-ssi?”

“Yes?”

“This is all wrong.”

*

“So, see you tomorrow then.” Yukwon said and pressed a kiss on Suzy’s forehead. He was about to walk away when she caught him by his sweater.

“Wait a moment.”

Yukwon turned around, a somewhat stiff smile on his face.

“Yeah?”

“Did something happen? You don’t seem so happy today.”

Suzy couldn’t help but notice the absent expression on her boyfriend’s face during their date. His usual cheerfulness was missing.

“It’s okay, it’s just…” he bit on his lower lip, hesitating for a moment. He didn’t know why but he had a feeling that his best friend and his girlfriend didn’t get along really well. He decided to tell her nonetheless. “It’s Minhyuk. He didn’t talk to me for the whole day. Maybe he’s mad at me but I don’t know what I could possibly have done wrong.”

“Maybe he just had a bad day.” Suzy shrugged. Her boyfriend looked up to her and nodded, though unconvinced.

“Yeah, I guess…”

“Don’t worry too much. I’m sure tomorrow everything”ll be back to normal.”

Yukwon nodded yet again before waiving and walking home for good.

Suzy entered the password to unlock her door and walked in. As soon as she entered the living room, a tall girl with long blonde hair walked up to her and gave her a light hug.

“Congratulations, you’ve got yourself a nice boyfriend. Always walking you home…”

Suzy didn’t say anything, only looking at the wall she was facing until the other girl released her.

“But unnie…he doesn’t seem to be happy lately. Did I do wrong? I don’t want him to hate me…”

“No, you did the right thing. Love itself isn’t enough to maintain a relationship. Just listen to what unnie says. You don’t’ want to end up like your mother, do you?”

Suzy just shook her head while the other girl smiled contently.

*~*

Ta~dah. Guys, I’m extremely sorry for the lack of TaePyo in this chapter. Well, actually the lack of any pairing interaction. And that this was basically a Zico/Hyuna chapter. Buuut, don’t worry, it’s all for a purpose. Next chapter our KyungQueen will finally snap out of his apathy~

And I felt a little sorry for all the hate Suzy got in the last chapter as she isn’t the really evil one. Though she still is a bit, so I guess…whatever^^ can you guess who the one pulling the strings behind her back? Cookies for those who can :P

Like always, thank you guys so much for reading! I love you sooooo damn much^^ I reached 100 subs…never thought this would happen OTL you guys are awesome ;___;

And sorry again because boring chapter is boring. To make up for it, I’ll come up with the next one faster than usual (because I just finally got my internet back^^ yay!).

PS: because sometimes my PC , I do not have autocorrect, so if you spot a mistake, please feel free to tell me >.< hehe~