» Diamonds : Part 1 — ❝ Agathe ❞

Agathe : a variegated chalcedony showing curved, colored bands or other markings. It's meaning is of protection, courage and strenght..

Thursday

August 29

11:08

Locker Corridor

“Are you following me?” Jiyeon asked, suddenly spinning around.

Yongsoo was taken by surprise.

And everything was going so well. For almost a week, now, he had been able to stealthily follow Park Jiyeon around the school, down to her very classes since her father had arranged for both of them to be classmates. All the time! And Jiyeon wasn’t stupid and had noticed…

“I’m not,” he tried. “We just have the same classes, that’s all.” He disliked lying as much as the next person, but somehow he felt like telling the truth wasn’t really the way to go for now.

“I see.” Jiyeon smiled and walked to her locker. “What’s your name?”

“Yoon Yongsoo,” he told her.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Park Jiyeon.”

He nodded to indicate he had heard her.

“I’m sorry if I accused you wrongly.” She smiled and opened her locker, putting away her books.

Her father had given him a locker next to hers, but he was a little bit uncomfortable being right next to her after her accusation. So, he just stayed a little bit further away, still keeping an eye on her.

They both didn’t have classes for at least two hours so he expected her to go at the refectory to get lunch. To be honest, he could use a lunch. Yesterday’s chicken had been particularly tasty… Yongsoo liked his food spicy. While she was walking to a bathroom nearby, he took the time to place his books in his locker. He just couldn’t follow her there… Trying to appear busy, he watched from the corner of his eyes the girls who were exiting. After five minutes, he began thinking she was talking her time. After ten, he thought maybe she was sick. But after 15 minutes, he figured out she had disappeared. Looking around, he wondered how she could have gotten past his watch. That’s when he noticed the bathroom had two exits and one was situated behind the corner, out of his field of vision. Mentally cursing, Yongsoo sped up toward the end of the corridor, hoping maybe she was walking slowly or that the other students would keep her from getting away. How ironic that he was getting paid to guard her against enemies but couldn’t guard her under his watch. And that brought another question: whom was he protecting her from? Yongsoo had no idea. During the week he had followed her, he had noticed no threat against her in any way.

He saw her turn the corner on the right and accelerate to catch up to her. She wasn’t going the right way if she was planning to go eat lunch but with her sense of direction it was no wonder. But Jiyeon was getting more difficult to follow because she engaged in a zone where corridors were narrower and shorter, meaning there was a lot of different ways one could go.

He saw her turn the corner and followed her, only to be met with Jiyeon’s angry face. She had done an about-turn at the corner, and he had almost crashed into her.

“Why are you following me?” she asked.

And this time, he really couldn’t lie and tell her it wasn’t the case.

“I’m protecting you,” he explained.

“From what?” Jiyeon sounded truly confused and not at all ready to believe what he was saying.

“Your father seems to think you might be in danger.”

Jiyeon sighed. Pressing her face in her palms, she took a relieved breath.

“He thinks I’m in danger, but I’m not. And for a moment here I thought maybe he was right but turns out you are working for him.”

He kept quiet. Had she really thought he was going to hurt her? But she was the one who brought him there. Looking around, he noticed there wasn’t anyone around and that this mostly looked like the school’s basement. For all he knew, she could be the one who wanted to hurt him and that was why she brought him there.

“Is he paying you to do that?”

Yongsoo nodded silently.

“And how much money would it take to make you go away?”

Yongsoo was taken aback. Jiyeon continued. “You seem to be the kind of person who needs money.”

“You don’t have pockets deep enough to make me disappear,” he bluffed. Truth was that he wasn’t getting a scandalous amount of money, but he hoped a little girl like her didn’t have that much. How unfair would it be…

“Don’t underestimate me!” she growled.

Yongsoo remembered what her father had told him. In case she discovered and wasn’t pleased with it, there was one thing he could say.

“I was hoping we could become friends,” he blankly stated having no idea how it could possibly calm the girl since she seemed pretty much pissed off at her own father and him, by association.

But Jiyeon’s face lighted up and she smiled, tossing aside her anger.

“Really?” she asked, hopeful.

“Sure…”

The girl was now practically bouncing around. Where was the girl he was used to, the one who always seemed so mature when she was in class and diligently took notes? This girl was… childish to say the least.

“That’s so great! There are so many things we could do together. I could show you around the school. You are new, aren’t you? I know so many secrets of this school and I can share them with you if you become my friend.”

She stared at him with an eager expression and he admitted to himself he didn’t really follow every bit of her jabbering. But she continued anyway, not awaiting any answer from him.

“But what about the time I go home? You are not protecting me that moment.”

“You have a driver. He’s protecting you.”

“Ah, I see! That’s true. I forgot about it.”

She sheepishly grinned and reached for his hand.

Surprised, he removed his hand from hers as soon as she touched him.

“Don’t be like that! We are friends, now. And I have so many things to show you right now. You should follow me if you don’t want to get lost.”

He almost retorted she was the one who constantly got lost before. Contemplating the idea of holding her hand, he wondered if this was a good idea and instead held out his fist. She didn’t seem to mind and wrapped his curled hand in her own to lead him toward a new direction. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks, pulled out a map on a white sheet of paper and looked at it.

“Here, hold that,” she asked him as she was done reading the map.

He took the paper, a very normal map of the school’s basement and watched her proceed. Taking a box in her bag, she picked a purple diamond stone from the box and stuck it on the wall.

Jiyeon smiled, and put away the box and the map.

“Ah, that’s perfect,” she announced as she looked at the wall once more.

“Why are you doing that?” Yongsoo asked.

“You mean marking the school? That’s something I do. Maybe I’ll tell you, one day, if we become really great friends.”

He huffed and she started laughing.

“That was so cute! Just like a dragon. And you said your name was Yongsoo?”

He allowed himself a smile. She wasn’t so much annoying and seemed quite nice so maybe this job wouldn’t be so bad.

“But why exactly are you my bodyguard? You don’t seem very menacing, you know.”

He huffed again, slightly vexed.

Thursday

August 29

13:12

Gymnasium C-055

After the lunch break, the class they had was martial arts. For this class, the gymnasium they were in had been divided in two to allow girls and boys to be separated. The teacher explained the basics and Jiyeon, feeling bored, indicated to Yongsoo how funny she thought the teacher’s clothes were. That was the moment he realized Jiyeon acted mature at school because there just wasn’t anyone she felt comfortable with. It wasn’t because she was a particularly good student, but rather that she couldn’t joke around with anyone. He smiled and made her a sign that meant ‘pay attention’. She pouted but still listened to him.

The teacher finished explaining the exercise and asked for them to pair up. A guy tapped on Yongsoo’s shoulder, offering to pair up together and the blonde agreed. But it didn’t seem fair to leave Jiyeon alone so he told her to come with them.

As they were practicing, he noticed Jiyeon wasn’t bad at all just like their other partner.

“You should bring your arms closer to your body,” he told her, mimicking the position she was currently in and then switching to the right one.

“Ah, I see!”

The teacher was walking around the gymnasium, keeping an eye on his students and stopping to their group when he heard him give her advice.

“Very good,” the teacher said. “Have you ever taken martial arts classes?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And would you like to give me a demonstration of what you can do?”

Yongsoo bowed and got into position. He executed the Heian Godan Kata from the Shotokan Karate style. Before he quitted his martial arts’ academy, he had been a brown belt.

“Quite impressive. You seem to have a good rhythm. Why don’t you ask to be changed to a more difficult course?”

“If it’s okay with you, sir, I’d like to stay in this class.”

“It would be my pleasure to have you as a student,” the teacher said before walking to another team.

Yongsoo bowed another time and turned around to keep doing his exercises.

“Whoa! You are good. Seems like I was wrong after all and that you really can be menacing,” Jiyeon admitted with wide eyes and a smile.

Even their other partner gave a friendly slap on Yongsoo’s shoulder. “Very impressive. You should teach me to do the same.”

The blonde guy wasn’t used to this many compliments but still smiled and accepted them. He was very happy to be able to do the martial arts he liked so much. In a way, it was thanks to Jiyeon. Even if she wasn’t in real danger, being her bodyguard could be fun after all. 

Author's Note :

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