The Project
Star Collectors [Side-Story to Behind the Thick-Framed Glasses]
✻ chapter two:
the project
yoon mi's pov
"Yoon Mi, can you at least stop drooling and close your mouth when you're staring at Rokhyun? It's both disturbing and disgusting."
I blinked and unconsciously wiped my chin with my shirt-sleeve before turning to Amber, who had an amused look on her face. "Huh? What did you say?"
"I said, stop staring and drooling over Rokhyun. It's not cool." She smirked before raising a fork and putting food into . I stared at her, trying to understand the words she had just said.
"Wh-what?!" I cried, undeniably blushing as I reached forward to strangle my best friend. "I was not staring and drooling!"
"Yes, you were." Amber stuck her tongue out at me before dodging my flailing arms. "Now stop denying it and get a grip on yourself before you flip the entire lunch table over."
Before I could playfully smack her, I felt a hand ruffle my head and a voice came from behind us. "Hey Amber, what's up with Yoon Mi? She looks so red today." We both turned around and saw Choi Jonghyun, one of our other friends from the dance team, seating himself right down next to me.
Amber pointed in Rokhyun's direction after stuffing some food in . "Our friend here has the hots for a certain Kim Rokhyun and can't kept her tongue in ."
"Yah, Amber!" This time I smacked her shoulder without missing and suddenly became conscious about someone other than my best friend knowing about my crush. "Jonghyun, I don't-"
"Rokhyun?" He followed her gaze and paused, looking at the above mentioned boy for a second before shrugging. "What's so special about him?"
"Who knows?" Amber shrugged back, on her fork. "Anyways, you up for dance practice over at Henry's today?"
"Yeah, sure. I'll let Sooyoung know about it later." Jonghyun nodded. "How about you, Yoon Mi? Any plans for today other than meeting up with the art club?" I shook my head as an answer and he smiled. "What an exciting life you have." He teased. "Well, I'm gonna go to class now. See you later!"
"Wait, I'll go with you." I stood up and slung my backpack over my shoulder as Amber crossed her arms in front of her chest, and huffed.
"What, so you guys decide to ditch me here all by myself and elope together?"
"W-what? Elope?" I laughed at her choice of vocabulary because last time I checked, Jonghyun wanted to go to class early, not marry me in secret without our parent's approval. I shook my head at her joke. "We're just going early."
"Fine, I see how it is. Go, leave me!" She turned away, not wanting to make any eye contact with us. "Go! Ka!"
I glanced over at Jonghyun and we broke out into laughter before leaving the cafeteria. Amber sure isn't sane.
After lunch, I had history class along with Amber, Jonghyun, Henry, and Hyomin. We all had the same classes and the same schedule since we were all in the same grade. Amber and Henry sat together in the middle of the classroom, Jonghyun sat on the far right, Hyomin sat in the back, and I sat on the left (teachers have a thing for using alphabetical order by last name).
It's always been the same kids in the same class, from grade school to the end of high school. That included Rokhyun, some of his friends, and the Queenkas, Krystal and Jiyeon (we'll get to them later). Sometimes it gets boring with the same people, but it's not that bad.
Once Jonghyun and I got there, we separated and went to our assigned seats. It was like every other day; sit down, take out our books, wait for the others to come, and greet the teacher once she comes in. Amber came bouncing it noisily, per usual, with Henry following behind her. Hyomin came in right before Krystal and Jiyeon entered and Rokhyun, Sanghoon, and Hyukjin came last. In between their arrivals were other familiar students filing in and seating themselves for class.
I would be perfectly fine in this seating arrangement if Krystal wasn't behind me, glaring the shiz out of me. Why she was doing that? I honestly have no idea... I guess it's a rule for all popular girls to hate the rest of the entire female student body. I've never really talked to her before, but it's not like I want to.
Ms. Jung came two minutes before class was supposed to begin and began teaching us anyways. Her voice droned on and on but I reluctantly scribbled down important information, vocab words, and key points. I didn't have to look around the room to know that I was one of the very few who were actually paying attention and taking notes (the others were Hyomin, a quiet boy named Jay, a nice girl named Boram, and sometimes Rokhyun).
Our teacher had popped in a history video about 'the time when Korea was under Japanese Rule' for us to watch and ten minutes before class ended, she abruptly turned the projector off and I looked up from my notes. I could see Amber drifting off to sleep and Henry as well, his head nodding to the right and brushing against her shoulder. When his head finally stopped bobbing up and down, Amber snapped awake and she hit him on the head.
"Ow!" He cried, rubbing the place on his head that was most likely growing a bump as he spoke. "What was that for?"
She looked at him crossly and huffed. "Ya, I'm not your head rest!"
"Yeah, but you didn't have to-" Henry began to interject but then realized that they were in class and everyone was watching them.
Ms. Jung gave them a stern look from the front of the room. "Ms. Liu, Mr. Lau, is there something wrong?"
"No." Henry replied as Amber said, "Yes." at the same time. She gave them a look and I tried to stifle a giggle. I couldn't believe how childish they were acting right now.
Ms. Jung shook her head and pointed at the board. "I've decided to assign a small group project for you guys to do." The class groaned in synch before breaking off into whispers of protests, complaining, and whining. She took a ruler and smacked the board to get our attention again and it worked like a charm.
"As I was saying, each group will pick an appropriate topic important to our country's history, write a report on it, and give a presentation in front of the class." She cleared and Amber made a disgusted face, not liking the retching sound. "This project will be due next week on Thursday. I expect quality work from all of you."
Boram's hand immediately shot up into the air and the teacher called on her. "Are we allowed to choose our groups?"
Our teacher stared at her incredulously and began to laugh. "Oh, you guys are so funny... Of course not! I've already decided your groups by using the random number generator. Here it is." Another piece of paper was placed under the projector screen and everyone searched the chart for their name, hoping they'd be with their best friend and not their best enemy.
I heard a few disappointed sighs and a few excited squeals as I tried to find my name. My eyes focused on the Kang Yoon Mi in the second column and moved to the two names beside it; Jang Hyukjin and Kim Rokhyun.
No way.
"Alright, class. Break off into your groups and get to know each other until class ends. You have five minutes." Ms. Jung shouted above the student's voices that began to talk and chatter. "And if you have enough time, I would like for you to start discussing about potential topics."
I sat frozen in my seat, still in awe, as the other students stood up to form their assigned groups of three. It was only when Jonghyun flicked my ear that I snapped back to reality and jumped out of my seat. Sticking my tongue out at him, I grabbed my bag and nervously walked to the back of the room where Rokhyun and Hyukjin were sitting.
"Hi, Yoon Mi." Hyukjin greeted me first and nudged Rokhyun, who looked from his notebook and nodded his head at me to show he acknowledged my existence.
"H-hi." I said, seating myself at the desk in front of the two. I waited for them to say something but they just sat there and didn't look up. Hyukjin continued texting somebody on his phone and Rokhyun glanced up at me several times, but didn't say anything. Huh... isn't this awkward.
What should I say, what should I say? I fumbled with the end of my shirt and my arm accidentally jabbed my backpack. It rubbed against one of the books I had in there and I suddenly though about the astrology book. Rokhyun's birthday was on February 10th, so he was an Aquarius. I bit my lip nervously and tried to think back on what I read about the Aquarius sign yesterday night.
The waters of life flow from the Aquarius' water jug, like ideas coming from the unrestrained mind. Many people mistakenly think that Aquarius is a water sign, but it is an intellectual air sign. As such, Aquarius can be interested in concepts and ideas. It is best to be open and ask for their thoughts instead of ignoring their own personal opinions.
It said something about asking for their opinion and not completely ignoring them... or something like that (what, do you expect me to actually remember word-for-word what the book said?). So does that mean I should ask him what he wants to do for the project?
"Um... guys?" I said, eyes darting between their faces. "Shouldn't we be talking about the project...?"
I was then met by two different pairs of eyes; one pair had a curious look in them, the other had a rather annoyed look. Hyukjin looked at me weirdly. "What are you talking about? Aren't you going to do it by yourself?"
Upon seeing my rather confused expression, Rokhyun's following words explained everything. "Whenever we get paired up to do something, we usually don't do anything. Everyone else does the work for us."
I have never actually seen this happen before, but it sure sounded ridiculous. Was Rokhyun this kind of person? "Why would they do that?"
Hyukjin scoffed, as if I was a clueless little schoolgirl (which I was, but that's besides the point). "Because we're Kingkas, obviously. Popular kids don't do 'work'." He went back to his phone, leaving only one person left to talk to.
"Say, Rokhyun... don't you think that it's unfair, how you take credit for something you didn't help do?" I asked carefully.
He glanced at his partner before looking back at me and nodding. "Yeah, of course I do! I'm capable of helping out with at least something, but people never give me a chance."
"Really?" This was not the answer I was expecting him to give me. Maybe not all Kingkas are stuck-up and whatnot.
"It's gets annoying after awhile." He admitted, letting out a long sigh. "People always think I'm not smart enough to do any actual work since I'm in the drama club, then they end up doing everything and I get credit for doing nothing. 'But it's okay', they always say, since I'm a Kingka."
I nodded, tapping the eraser end of my pencil against the table. Hyukjin, on the other hand, rolled his eyes, as if to say 'You're crazy, bro. Why would you want to do work when people want to do it for you.'
I could definitely see how he found that rather insulting instead of flattering, though. "Well, we can share the work up evenly this time. You can do the research, I can write the report, and Hyukjin can do the presentation, because there is no way I'm going everything."
Hyukjin seemed like he wanted to reject my proposal but he just shrugged. There was a silent pause before Rokhyun flashed one of his infamous toothy grins at me and I swear, his eyes started sparkling. "That'd be great! "You're the first to not underestimate me, Yoon Mi. Thanks."
Oh my god did he just say my name and oh my god he just thanked me okay Yoon Mi calm down don't be another one of his other fangirls you've been doing good so far. "No problem." was all I managed to say, trying to sound nonchalant but having it sound like a squeak instead.
Some more cringing sounds of a ruler being slapped against a wooden surface filled the room and Ms. Jung shouted a rather strained "Class is dismissed!" compared to the loud voices of the students. Everyone began to pack up and go their next classes, one by one.
"I'll see you later, Yoon Mi." Rokhyun waved to me before leaving the room with Hyukjin trailing behind. I waved back hesitantly, awed that he was being so friendly with me. The moment he passed through the doorway, Amber had jumped onto my shoulders.
"This is fate, I tell you! Now's your chance to go get em'!" She practically shouted into my eardrums and the students still lingering in the classroom looked over at us.
"Amber!" I cried, embarrassed that she had witnessed me being a flustered dork. Jonghyun came up behind her and his sort of stony facial expression disappeared into laughter once he saw my red face.
"Come on guys, we'll be late to our next class if you don't get moving." He said, pulling both of us by our ears. And with that, I wondered if the book really could be of any use to me.
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✻ author's note the dorky me
Well. I updated, OTL. I've kinda lost my inspiration for writing... either that or someone has to taking coding + html away from me xD The beginning of stories are such a pain to write... ugh. what is this trash, I swear my writing is getting worse and worse... Gonna go listen to Destiny, because holy that song is just so amajjang. Bai.
~Ljjang창조♪
...why are you guys so shocked that i updated, otl i didn't take forever, y'know.
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