Chapter 18 – A Fool

 

 

Every teenager in Seoul had the time of their life over the weekend. The loud conversations that rang through the halls indicated nothing less than that. The dreaded day known as Monday came around as it usually did after the two most coveted days of the week. Soon enough they would be back in class and have tons of meaningless work shoved down their throats. The boring and monotone professors would pass out pop quizzes that would leave the dumbest in the dust while the overachievers would excel. These were the problems everyone else in the school faced on a Monday morning. However, for Seohyun, these problems were meaningless. She had too much on her chest to deal with the insignificant and petty troubles that the common student had.

Normally she would have run over to annoy Yonghwa at his house or at his work but she hadn’t done that over the past two days. Seohyun couldn’t find the courage to go up to him and beg for forgiveness. If she showed her face in front of him, she was sure she would get quite the earful. Although she professed her intentions to Yoona and Hara after the incident, she was still scared senseless. Seohyun feared that her strong and proud words would be reduced to worried whimpers once she finally lay eyes on the man she desperately wished loved her back.

“Oh hi there Seohyun,” a cute voice called from behind. Once Seohyun felt a warm hand place a firm grasp on her shoulder, she whipped around to see who it was. Much to her distress it was the very person who had caused Yonghwa so much pain to begin with, Kim Yu Jin. “You don’t look very well. Are you sure that you will be able to endure the long day ahead.” Seohyun feared would soon be filled with contents of the bowl of cereal that she had just eaten an hour back. Just hearing Uee’s ingratiating voice was enough to make her sick to her stomach.

“Uee…” Seohyun growled while throwing the unwanted hand off of her shoulder. “Get lost Uee, I have no time to deal with you. If you don’t want to end up on the floor crying, I suggest you leave me the hell alone.” Seohyun was on the verge of going berserk on the woman in front of her. Because of Uee, Yonghwa had been irreversibly hurt. In Seohyun’s eyes the evil witch that stood before her deserved nothing less than being beat into dust.

“Why are you so angry with me Seohyun? It’s not like I hurt you or anyone you loved did I?” she taunted in her still sweet voice. The sticky, honey-filled tone was enough to drive any of Uee’s followers crazy, but Seohyun couldn’t stand it. Each letter that found its way out of Uee’s mouth made Seohyun’s blood boil even more.

“Uee… I really don’t want to see you right now so kindly leave me alone,” Seohyun growled once more. If Uee opened once more, it would be game over. Seohyun had never once gotten into an argument, much less a fight, at school so today would be a first for her.

“Seohyun, Uee chill out,” a male voice was heard from the side. Both girls were surprised to see a laughing boy coming towards them with a smile on his face. It wasn’t even a smirk like it usually was, but a full-blown smile. Although the smile was surprising, the fact that this boy was even speaking to them was the biggest surprise of them all.

“Yonghwa…” Seohyun muttered.

“Yeah, that’s my name, don’t wear it out,” he answered playfully. The situation was so strange, even Uee gave Yonghwa funny look. As much as she hated him, she couldn’t help but wonder why he was being so happy. Seohyun and she had made him break down into tears but why was he acting so strangely. “You guys are fighting already? The week has just started and you two are already going at it? Then again, a cat fight would be pretty hot. I think you should go for it.”

“Um, Yonghwa did you hit your head or something on the way to school?” asked a very confused Seohyun. “Did something happen to you over the weekend?”

“Nope, it’s just good ol’ Jung Yonghwa. Don’t worry, I won’t charge you guys for looking, at least not for today. Uee since you’re so rich I’ll start charging you every time you see me,” he continued to joke playfully.

“Uh ew… get lost loser. As if I would ever look at something like you,” Uee scoffed bitterly. Seohyun turned her attention from the crazy person beside her to the cold witch in front of her. “Well I’ll leave you two pabos alone for now. I can’t stand being near the two biggest idiots of the school. I hope your stupidity isn’t contagious.”

“Bye! Remember, I’ll charge you to look at me since I’m so y!” Yonghwa called out to the girl walking away from them. “So how was the weekend Seohyun?”

“Are you really sure you’re okay? You are acting really weird,” Seohyun pointed out once more.

“Nah, I’m fine. I don’t think I’m acting weird. Then again, I think Taecyeon rubbed off a bit onto me. I’ll have to give him a good beating as revenge. Anyways, we’re going to be late to math if we don’t hurry up.” Yonghwa left the speechless woman where she was standing and began his happy walk to math. His usual unenthusiastic shuffle was gone. No longer did he grumble about how much Shi seonsaeng was a useless math teacher and how much of a bad person she was. Not so much as a complaint or an ‘Oh man this is such a drag’ escaped his lips.

Seohyun was snapped out of her thoughts when she felt the weight of someone’s arm on her. When she turned to see who it was, her eyes were met with Yonghwa’s smiling face. He had his arm draped over her and he was dragging her towards the math wing of the school. “Wh-what are you doing?” squeaked Seohyun. Normally she would have blushed bright red at the contact, but it wasn’t the same. She felt suffocated, as if all the breath had been out of her lungs forcefully. The regular feeling of his contact, the feeling as if she would die from embarrassment, was gone.

“Well you’re not coming to math, so I’ll have to drag you there. Comon, I don’t want to be late. Shi seonsaeng will roast us alive if we are,” Yonghwa stated in his still strange voice.

“O-okay…” Seohyun agreed hesitantly. Nothing from the situation added up. Yonghwa was acting too weird for her to handle. This is how she wished he was from the beginning, playful and happy. However, she could tell this wasn’t the real him. She would rather have him complain and be mean to her a thousand times compared to this.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Another hour passed by as if it had been a few seconds with Yonghwa still being extra weird. Shi seonsaeng asked someone to go up to the class and explain a particularly confusing, but not difficult, concept as an example. Everyone knew better than to expect Yonghwa to do it, but much to their surprise, he offered to do it himself. As if it were as easy as 2 + 2, Yonghwa managed to explain the mixture of crazy numbers and letters effortlessly. Even Shi seonsaeng, the coldest and meanest teacher of the entire school gave him a few claps in recognition.

“Yonghwa-shi, would you mind teaching us some more after school one day? I don’t think we fully got the concept down,” a girl from their class boldly asked in the hallway. Normally Seohyun would feel a little jealousy at the girl who was obviously trying to score with Yonghwa, but his attitude was still creating a convoluted mess in her brain.

“Um, yeah sure I guess. It’s no trouble at all for me,” Yonghwa unexpectedly agreed. The small group of fangirls giggled amongst themselves and let Seohyun and Yonghwa continue their short walk to their next class.

“Did you just agree to tutor those girls? What happened to: ‘Ugh, I will never reduce myself to tutoring all those dumb airheads in our class’?” Seohyun wondered.

“Well, I think it’s about time I start helping people out don’t you think? I can’t be a cold and angry mess forever right? You said you wanted me to be nicer so I am. Anyways, I have to go to the bathroom really fast, so I’ll meet you in Biology later.” Yonghwa left Seohyun to continue pondering his behavior while he happily made his way to the bathroom. Whatever it was that happened to him, she wanted to get rid of it. It was good that he was happy, but the fact that he was faking it didn’t make her feel any better.

“Seohyun what happened with Yonghwa? Did you talk to him?” asked one of her two best friends. As Yonghwa had either English or Japanese right now, Seohyun had a class period without him. Fortunately for her, her friends would suffer together in their next class.

“Yeah, I saw him today,” Seohyun answered quietly. Hara and Yoona took that as a bad sign from Seohyun. The quiet response Seohyun threw their way most certainly indicated that Yonghwa went ballistic when they saw each other once more.

“So what happened?” Yoona continued questioning while they made their way to the one class they had together. “He flipped out and basically tore your insides out while eating them right?”

“Um ew, no, he was acting really weird. Yonghwa is smiling a lot and playing around. I would normally want him to be happy but it was just the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Seohyun responded.

“He was happy? After you and Uee tore his heart out piece by piece he was smiling?” Yoona asked in surprise. “He didn’t try to jump off a cliff and hit his head on the way down did he?”

“I don’t think so. He was helpful, smiling, happy, playful, and everything that Yonghwa isn’t. I haven’t heard him complain at all today and he hasn’t told me to go away once.”

“He’s in denial,” Hara spoke out for the first time in the conversation. “He’s only acting like that because he doesn’t want to show how weak he is from what happened to him a few days ago. If he’s acting so out of character, it’s obviously because he still hasn’t gotten over that experience. I’m sure he’s only doing that because he doesn’t want to make the problem bigger, but in reality he’s doing just that. Seohyun, you have to get him to snap out of it or else he’s going to end up in more trouble than he already is in.”

“Why the hell would he do that?” Seohyun asked angrily. Sure it was her fault that Yonghwa had gotten hurt in the first place. However, the fact that he was lying to himself made her want to grab him by the hair and drag him around for a few miles.

“Well, I don’t know him too well; actually I would say none of us do, so I can’t really say for sure. I guess he’s one of those people that resort to this to avoid the pain. I think he’s doing that so that he doesn’t get hurt more than he already is. Maybe he is using that to cope with his problems, but we can’t be sure. Although this does make me think that his problem is worse than we thought,” Hara finished explaining.

“Ugh, what the hell did I do?” Seohyun cried. “This is all my fault and now I don’t even know what to do about it. How am I supposed to talk to him if he’s not even going to listen to me? Yonghwa brushes off all my attempts to talk about what happened. I don’t know how to even bring the conversation up anymore.”

“Just get him in a secluded area and try to talk him out of it. Yonghwa isn’t stupid or weak, I’m sure he should be able to get through this relatively quickly.”

“I guess you’re right guys,” Seohyun admitted. “I’ll try to talk him out of it today. Ugh, why did I have to be so stupid and lie to him? And that stupid idiot Uee also had to get into this argument and set off such a big conflict.”

“Like Yoona said, Yonghwa isn’t stupid. He seems like a reasonable person even if he does always get angry. I doubt he will stay mad at you long if you sincerely apologize to him.”

“I hope everything works out for you two, but in the meantime try to forget about it. It won’t do you any good to keep killing yourself over it.”

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“Seohyun what’s up? Why did you call me out here? I have to get to work so let’s talk later.” It was obvious Yonghwa was dodging being questioned. After what Hara pointed out a few hours back, it was easy to see what Yonghwa’s true feelings really were. Even if Seohyun had to tie him down, she still had to keep him from running away. The only way to get him back on his feet was to snap him out of the weird pain-induced behavior he was feeling.

“I already talked to Jin Man and he says you have the day off so don’t think you can lie to me Yonghwa,” Seohyun stated defiantly. “Yonghwa, sit down on the bench and let’s get this over with. I’m not in the mood for your games.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but fine I’ll sit down. Also drop the glare alright? I don’t see why you’re so angry at me,” Yonghwa joked before sitting at the bench under the tree. In that exact spot three days ago, everything had gone wrong. Uee showed up at the worst time possible and made everything go the opposite of what Seohyun hoped for.

“Yonghwa stop lying to yourself please,” Seohyun began. “I know you’re just doing this whole happy act to get away from what you feel right now, but I can see through it. I know I have no right to be telling you this, but it up and get over it!”

“Seohyun what the hell is your problem?”

“You are my problem Yonghwa! I know I’m being selfish right now, but it’s also for your own good. You need to stop lying to yourself already and get over what happened. Uee hates you, so what? Did you really think you would get anywhere with her?” Seohyun asked angrily. She had told herself that she would keep her cool, but Yonghwa’s uncooperative behavior was pushing her off the edge.

“Look, I don’t need to take this from you Seohyun. You’re the one who caused all of that stuff to begin with. Even though you recognize you screwed up, you’re still going to throw more salt on my wounds? Let me remind you that if you hadn’t decided to play the role of Uee, you wouldn’t have set off any of these arguments to begin with. I was being nice to you, isn’t that what you wanted? Didn’t you want me to stop being so mean and be nice for a change? Wasn’t that what you have begged me for since we have known each other?”

“You know that I’ve wanted you to be nicer, but not in this way. Do you know how much it hurts me to see you do this to yourself?” Seohyun asked desperately. This time, she vowed she would not cry. If she wanted to get Yonghwa through this, she had to do it with strength. “Yonghwa why aren’t you yelling at me? Why haven’t you gotten mad at me? Where is your constant complaining or your attempts to make me leave you?”

“Why should I do that?”

“I want you to yell at me! I would rather you be completely furious at me than what you are doing right now. Don’t you know that you being sad and emotionless hurts me more than you being angry. I would rather you break every bone in my body than you doing this?”

“And why the hell should I care about you being upset? How is this about you at all? Seohyun, I see you haven’t learned a thing from all of this. You are just as bad as Uee still and I don’t think you have any right to tell me any of this,” Yonghwa replied. His lack of anger continued to bug the life out of Seohyun. “What makes you think that I want to be angry at you? I already told you that I want nothing to do with you, but since we see each other so much it’s unavoidable. Why bother ignoring you, when I can hurt you by speaking to you?”

“You’re doing that on purpose? Why?” Seohyun asked angrily.

“I don’t know. I’m usually not a petty person, but for some reason I feel the need to be one with you.  I don’t have time for your games Seohyun so let’s just end this now alright?”

“No! I don’t care if you hate me. I don’t care if you never want to see me again. I’ll still consider you my friend even if you think that I am the worst person on earth. Yonghwa I’m really sorry that you had to go through this because of me, but I can’t do anything about it now. The damage is done and I want nothing more than for you to get over it. Tell me what I can do in order for you to believe me.”

“There’s nothing more you can do for you to seem believable. You already did enough damage in my life and I have no intention of continuing it. I’ve had to suffer so many things for you and for what? I’ve saved you, had to deal with your annoying and childish attitude, and even had every bone in my body broken because of you. What have I gotten out of that? Heartbreak, pain, and betrayal. Do you have anything else to cry to me about before I go?”

Seohyun wished she had some sort of argument to counter what he was saying. Sadly, there was nothing in the world that could help her now. Seohyun was pretty much trapped and there was nothing she could do to get through to Yonghwa. Everything he was saying was true, all she had done for him was annoy him to no end. His way of life had changed because of her and she couldn’t deny it. His philosophy of not believing in anyone had been thrown away, only to cause him pain.

“No, there’s nothing more I can say. If you don’t want to be my friend, then that’s your problem,” she replied quietly.

“Well then, I’m glad we had this talk. Thanks for lying to me for all these months, I truly appreciate it,” he commented bitterly. “I’ll be seeing you around, but don’t worry since you don’t want me to be nice to you, I won’t do it.”

“Wait, you think I’m giving up?” Seohyun laughed.

“Oh, you have the nerve to still speak after all you’ve done?”

“If you think I’m giving up on you, then you’re as dumb as Uee says you are. I’ll never give up on trying to become your friend. As much as you tell me that you hate me and that I am the worst person on this planet, I will continue to bug you. I’m annoying you say? Well deal with it because I will be behind you every day until you die. Even if you move to the most remote corner of the world, don’t worry I’ll find you. No matter what it takes, I’ll change your mind about me whether you like it or not,” Seohyun affirmed confidently. Yonghwa took a look into her eyes and noticed the raging fire burning within her. Yonghwa had never once seen someone so determined and it made him curious. Even after all he had said to her, she was still trying so hard to become his friend.

“If you keep that up, you’re the one that’s going to look like a fool,” Yonghwa mocked.

“Maybe so, but if being your friend also means being a fool, then I’ll be a fool for life!” Seohyun exclaimed. Yonghwa had never heard so much determination in someone’s voice before hearing her speak. He was a very confident person in what he did, but never had he once experienced such raging resolve as Seohyun was showing. It made him think that maybe, just maybe, she was serious about becoming his friend.

“Well then have fun being branded an idiot for the rest of your life,” Yonghwa taunted once more. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do than to talk to people like you.”

“You’ll be sorry you talked to me like that Yonghwa!” she called to the man in the distance. “You’ll be crawling back to me for forgiveness when I’m done with you!”

“Hmph, troublesome till the end huh?” Yonghwa chuckled as he walked away from the excited girl. “I have a feeling this will be a drag.”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Aish, stupid Yonghwa…” Seohyun groaned quietly. Her usual walk home was spent mostly complaining about how the irritable boy made her humiliate herself. Of course she truly did feel that way about getting him on her side again, but she hadn’t expected to say all of that. Seohyun hoped that she would be able to live up to all the words she had just let Yonghwa hear. Even though the walk was thirty minutes long, she wouldn’t have it any other way. Walking would allow her to quietly scold herself, something she wouldn’t be able to do if she got her chauffer to come pick her up.

She remembered the words that Yonghwa had spoken a while back. He complained about how she had changed his life by getting close to him and she realized that he had done the same for her. At first she had been a weak, shy person that was only out to have everyone like her. She would always call her chauffer to get a ride to places and she didn’t mind using money to get what she wanted. Ever since hanging out with Yonghwa she had matured. No longer did she rely on her money to get her places. Instead of worrying about her own feelings towards Yonghwa, she was now taking how he felt into account when she made a decision. Although it wasn’t much, she knew Yonghwa had changed her for the better. For that reason, she couldn’t let him get away from her. She had to get him back at all costs.

“Just you wait Jung Yonghwa, I’ll have you back to my side whether you like it or not,” Seohyun growled to herself. Her thoughts were selfish, but it didn’t matter anymore. Yonghwa’s mom had entrusted Seohyun to keep her promise. Seohyun had promised his mom that she would become a reason for him to smile and she had to live up to that. Before Seohyun could keep arguing with herself, her ringtone startled her.

“Yobuseyo?”

“Seohyun ah! How have you been!? It has been too long since we last spoke. I’ve been getting a little lonely here in Busan since I’ve been a little sick so I decided that it was time I gave you a call again.” It didn’t take Seohyun long to figure out who the voice belonged to. Such a sweet and motherly voice could only belong to the mother of the person she loved.

“Umma! Are you getting better? I wish I could see you right now, there’s so much I want to tell you,” Seohyun exclaimed into the phone. “A lot of problems came up and I don’t know what to do. If only you were here to guide me through this.”

“Did my idiot son cause trouble again? If he did tell him his mom will go back to Seoul and smack him until he regains his reason. Do you want to talk about it?”

Seohyun took over thirty minutes to tell the lady over the phone the entire story. As if it were a drama the ahjummas watch while sitting at home, Yonghwa’s mom didn’t even utter a word. “And that’s what happened. I’m really sorry I didn’t keep my promise to you. I didn’t mean to hurt Yonghwa with what I did. I hope you can forgive me.”

“No need to worry Seohyun ah!” the kind woman reassured her. “That’s what being young and in love is all about.”

“I’m not in love with Yonghwa!” Seohyun denied. Although Seohyun already knew she liked Yonghwa, she felt like she had to deny it to his mom. It was a little to embarrassing for her to deal with at the time.

“Things like that happen when you are in love with someone but it will get better. Yonghwa may be angry for a while, but eventually he will come around. I will warn you though, he will be really mad for up to a month, perhaps more. You better be ready to deal with that. If you love him as much as you think you do, you will have to put up with a lot of pain. Are you sure you can deal with it?”

“Yes umma, I will deal with it all. I don’t care how long it takes; I just want him to come back to me."

“It’s mid-October right now. It will be safer to let him cool off at least until his birthday comes around,” her second mother stated.

“When is his birthday? He’s never spoken to me about it.”

“His birthday is on December 10^th. I know it’s a really long time away, but the longer you wait the better. It’s weird to deal with this in this way, but I know my son better than anyone else. Are you sure you can wait that long?”

“That’s a really long time, but I think I can do it,” Seohyun confirmed eagerly. She couldn’t let her strength waver now. If she was going to do anything to get him back, then it didn’t matter what it took to fix it.

“Yonghwa absolutely hates his birthday. There is nothing in this world that he hates more. Even if someone that he hated with all his heart was in front of him on his birthday, he wouldn’t care because he would be too busy hating being alive that day. He feels like it’s his fault that I am where I am. He might seem like a drama queen, but all these years of suffering have really hurt him. If you can do something for him on his birthday, I’m sure he will really appreciate it.”

“Alright umma, I’ll do whatever it takes to get him back!” Seohyun chirped back confidently.

“I’ll be putting my trust in you alright Seohyun ah? I have to go for now, but when the plan is all ready, let me know. I hope you can get him to snap back into reality once and for all. I would help you, but this is a fight you have to win on your own. Thank you so much for loving Yonghwa the way you do. I appreciate it greatly.”

“I’ll do my best umma. Thanks for making me feel better. Waiting until December will be like waiting a year for me, but I’ll keep my promise. No matter what, I will have Jung Yonghwa smile on his birthday.”

“I hope you can accomplish your goals Seohyun. I’ll try to go visit after his birthday since he doesn’t like seeing me on that day. Take care of him and yourself too. Bye!”

“December is an eternity away, but don’t worry umma, I’ll get it all done. Jung Yonghwa, you’re going down,” Seohyun said to nobody in particular with the same determination she had when she spoke to Yonghwa almost an hour ago. Now Seohyun had to plan something for him on the fateful day of Decemeber 10^th. She knew he wouldn’t appreciate a material gift since he hated rich people. It would be difficult to plan something, but in the almost two months remaining, she had more than enough time.

 

Author’s note: Blah I know I criticize my writing a lot, but I hated this chapter. I had so much writer’s block writing this and I still hate the outcome. However, I still needed this chapter as a filler to set up the time skip. If you haven’t noticed, I love time skips hehe. Next chapter will be Yonghwa’s birthday! I’m sure everyone will enjoy that chapter, but I won’t say anything else about it keke. Well, I think I will be getting a job by next week so I will try to update as much as possible while I can.

Also last time I had a whopping 18 or so comments when I woke up to check the site. I wanted to cry on how many I had. Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way only doing this so I can brag about how many views, comments, and subscribers I have. But I do enjoy seeing those numbers go up. Thank you all for your continued support. I am glad you all enjoying each chapter even if I feel as if they’re bad hehe. This story will hopefully make it to 40 chapters and I hope to have each and every one of you by my side while I go for the gold. Thanks all again!

p.s. those of you who watch Naruto will notice that one of Seohyun’s lines is similar to what he said after Jiriaya tells him to do after he gets his kicked by Sasuke when they were kids. Just putting this in here so people don’t say I’m plagiarizing that line :D