Turn it up - Lee Hi

Chapter 14: Annoyed.

In the empty building of the Arts department inside the Seoul School of Performing Arts, an old and chubby janitor was grumpily and lazily sweeping the marble floorings of the hallways. About one to two cleaners were present in each building inside the campus. Their schedule of fixing and keeping the cleanliness of the school were always done every weekends. Usually they’d start immediately on a Saturday morning but since the semestral recital was done yesterday, the cleaners don’t have any choice but to resort to finishing their jobs in a single Sunday.

“They should’ve done the recital last Friday.” The old and chubby janitor ranted, continuing his job of sweeping the dusts on the marble floor. “It’s so hard to clean the whole school in a single day. Goodness gracious, my back hurts.”

The old and chubby janitor continued sweeping until he reached the last room on the first floor. Since it was the empty room with the broken door, the small man didn’t need to fish out his copy of the school keys anymore.

With a single twist of the old and rusty doorknob, the door slowly opened with a raspy sound. Since there’s no school for the day, the old man leisurely walked inside, expecting no one. Although his expectations soon came crashing down when he saw two figures sitting sloppily on the floor, scaring the daylights out of him. “Good Lord!”

Hearing the shriek from the old man, the two figures slowly stirred from their sleep before realizing that another person was present in the room besides them.

“Oh—“ Lu Han’s voice croaked, trying hard to open his eyes. As soon as Jaera’s face came to his sight, Lu Han immediately pulled his head up from the girl’s lap and slowly stood up. “Good morning, ahjussi.”

“Aish, youngsters these days…” The old and chubby man snorted, eyeing the two up and down suspiciously. “Do you think you kids can be all intimate with each other even at school?!”

Noticing Jaera’s difficulty in standing up, Lu Han immediately grabbed her arm and hoisted her upwards, earning him a small whimper from the girl. “Ah no, you got it all wrong, ahjussi—“

“See! The girl can’t even stand up properly!” The old janitor hissed, pointing his broom towards Jaera, causing for the girl to quickly compose herself. “You must’ve went rough on her and you even did it here! Have you no shame, you rascal?!”

Upon hearing the old man’s accusation, Lu Han’s eyes abruptly doubled its usual size. “No ahjussi! This is a misunderstanding—“

He then let go of Jaera’s arm and tried to wave his hands as if denying the man’s allegation on him. Though seeing as the girl’s legs were still wobbly, he immediately took his hands back and helped Jaera steady herself instead.

“And how is that a misunderstanding? Seriously, these kids!” The old man furrowed his eyebrows as he watched Lu Han grab Jaera’s bag and the jacket they used while still holding onto the girl’s arm. “Young lady, does it still hurt?”

Still not fully awakened, Jaera just nodded slowly, thus causing for Lu Han’s face to fall.

“Why did you even let him do it to you? You’re still a student!”

“Because ahju—oppa was tired, I wanted him to relax…”

“Good Lord!” The old man squeaked, looking at Lu Han in shock before shaking his head disapprovingly. “Did you even use protection at the very least?”

“Yes ahjussi, he even put it on for me.”

Lu Han couldn’t do anything but give Jaera a look of utter disbelief. The girl had completely lost it.

“I won’t tell the faculty members about this, but be sure to never do it again.” The old man said, creasing his eyebrows while wagging the broom in his hands from Jaera to Lu Han. “And make sure to take full responsibility over her, young man! You got that?!”

Even if the situation escalated rather quickly, Lu Han just nodded vigorously so as to be able to immediately get out of the room. The old and chubby janitor nodded in return before turning to his back and returning to his cleaning duties. “Take care of the young lady!”

“Yes ahjussi!” Lu Han yelled from the hallway whilst dragging Jaera out of the room. As soon as they were in a pretty decent place, far away from their previous location, Jaera plopped down on one of the concrete benches as Lu Han continued to glare at her. “What the hell was that all about?!”

“What?” Jaera replied, rubbing her thighs.

“Don’t you what me,” Lu Han scowled, not taking his gaze away from Jaera. “Why did you say it hurt when we didn’t even do anything?!”

Jaera paused for a moment before squinting her eyes back at Lu Han. “I had cramps because you slept on my lap for the whole night, saying that you can’t sleep or even relax while in a sitting position. Of course, my thighs would hurt!”

“Then what protection were you talking about? What kind of protection did I put on for you, huh?!” Lu Han asked, still not calming his nerves down.

“Your jacket.”

“And by what means did my jacket become a protection?”

“Protection from the cold weather.”

Lu Han immediately face palmed himself while heaving a heavy sigh. He never thought the day would come when he’d be accused of doing something he never did without having to defend himself about it. It was a first and he’s definitely going to make it the last.

Standing up from the bench, Jaera stretched her arms in the air before breathing deeply with a smile. “I’m so happy we finally got out of that room!”

“You are seriously, a mental person.” Lu Han said, narrowing his eyes at Jaera who just pouted back at him.

“What did I do now—“

“Forget it.” Lu Han interrupted, grabbing Jaera’s bag from the bench and carrying it for the girl once again. “Come on, I’m hungry. Let’s just eat breakfast outside.”

Liking the idea, Jaera nodded. “Okay.”

“That was really good!” Jaera said, giving off a small smile. “But I didn’t know that you also eat in ramyeon houses. I thought you only eat out in fancy restaurants.”

The elevator slowly came to a stop as the led lights on top of the sliding doors immediately displayed the number ‘4’.

“Just because I’m rich and handsome, doesn’t mean I can’t eat in those kinds of places.” Lu Han said, walking out of the cramped elevator smoothly, followed by Jaera. “You should’ve guessed it already the moment you bought ramyeon for me from the convenience store on the first floor, xiao tuzi.”

Hearing Lu Han’s comment, Jaera just pouted and stood behind him, waiting for the door to get unlocked. As soon as the two entered the unit, Lu Han dropped Jaera’s bag on the couch, together with his black jacket, before going straight to the bathroom.

“He must be going to work today if he’s in such a hurry.” Jaera mumbled, grabbing her bag from the couch. She then placed the black jacket in the laundry bin before heading to her room to charge her phone.

As soon as Jaera turned her drained phone on, fifteen messages and five missed calls flashed across the screen. She opened her inbox and saw that they were all from her classmates.

Seeing the numerous notifications, Jaera’s lips slightly curved upwards. It’s not always that Jaera receives messages from her classmates. Usually, it would only be Haeri’s rants on how their adviser, Suho, is so cool, Soyeol’s plans in making other people’s lives miserable, Sehun’s failed but sometimes successful attempts in pissing her off, and Tao’s random quotes about romance. She’s happy that they even bother sending her messages at the very least, but she has to admit that seeing new names in her inbox really delighted her.

Maybe they’re going to apologize for what happened last night or even congratulate her for the successful recital performance? Jaera doesn’t have the slightest clue but she really is excited to read their messages.

Jaera kept her expectant smile while opening the first message, but that smile was short-lived upon reading the contents. “Jaera, where did you and your cousin go?”

Ignoring the first message, Jaera kept her hopes up