When I walked in class this morning I noticed Haeryung looked like she was struggling with something. I take my seat and glance over at her.

“Is everything okay?”

I get her attention and she only stares at me for a few seconds before her eyes get glued back to whatever was in her hands.

She sighs handing it over to me. “Skinny envelope”

I take a look and it’s a letter from Duke. I suddenly feel nervous for her. I scan through it until the word waitlisted pops up.

“That’s actually not bad”

She rolls her eyes “They accept like 3% from the list, it’s pretty much rejection”

“Send me your college application by email” I get a piece of paper and write down my information. “We can adds things” I smile

“It’s too late” She sighs “It’s not going to do any good”

“It’s never too late” I encourage her “You’ll tell them it’s your first choice school and we’ll get another recommendation from the faculty. We’ll make this happen”

She smiles at me “So what, you have the power of positive thinking?”

I nod “That’s right”

She chuckles as I return her letter back.

“Thank you Hayoung”

“Don’t worry” I keep my smile

I start unpacking my things to prepare for class

“How’s it going with Sehun?”

I pause for a second and continue taking out my supplies. I’d forgotten how quick everyone finds out about everything here. I wasn’t sure how to reply to her without gossiping even though I couldn’t stand him.

I lie “It’s fine, he’s trying his best”

I didn’t like telling lies and I honestly didn’t know why I did it. Haeryung compliments me believing that I will turn everything around for him. I wish that was true, he did things his own way whenever he wanted. I end up just smiling and thanking her.

I check the time and there was a minute before the final bell rings. I look around to see if Sehun walked in yet but there was no sign of him. When I look back at the front of the class it was strange how the moment I was looking for him he popped up.

It’s ironic how I don’t want to be near him yet I’m thankful he’s here. I was about to ask for the lab report but I stop myself when I realize something is different about him. His easy going careless personality that he had over the weekend was gone, replaced with a cold expressionless face.

He doesn’t bother to look over at me once instead he walks passed me without saying a word and like an idiot my eyes can’t help but to follow his steps. When he takes his seat, those cold brown eyes have returned, fixed to the front board of the class.

I can’t help but to bring my eyebrows down confused by his behavior. He was perfectly fine the last few days, fine enough to annoy the living crap out of me. I should feel relieved that he finally calmed down but I felt the complete opposite. The bell makes me turn around and when Mr. Hwang walks in my focus went to the lesson he starts us off with.

I’ve been waiting for the break bell to go off so I can check if Sehun got the homework done. Right on time the bell causes everyone to stand up. When I get up from my desk I notice Sehun was already near the door. I rush to catch up to him and when I make it through the door I call out his name. He doesn’t turn around forcing me to jog my way to him.

I finally manage to walk next to him “Hey, the lab report?”

He continues to walk without responding, making me raise my eyebrow.

“Come on, I want to check it before”

I wait for a response but I get nothing from him

“Fine” I sigh “Have it ready before we go back to class okay?”

There was another long silence between us. This is so frustrating, just answer me Sehun!

“Sehun”

“I heard you” He snaps at me and I was caught off guard, not expecting that kind of response.

“Then answer me so I know” I give him the same tone back

He stops his footsteps, facing me “Are you done bothering me?”

Those cold eyes make me shiver in a sense. I can’t stare at his eyes any longer. Instead my mind wonders what his deal was and what fault did I have for him being so upset?

Then something ridiculous comes to mind. This can’t be about me saying no to him, there was no way. He possibly couldn’t care if I rejected him but why else would he treat me this way?

“Are you mad that…” I pause embarrassed to ask “that I don’t want to hang out with you?”

He scoffs and looks away with annoyance “Yeah, that’s it” He says it in a dry sarcastic way “You’re not the center of attention Hayoung.”

“Then,” I try finding my words “What’s wrong, why are you mad?”

“It doesn’t concern you does it”

I murmur “No” My eyes can’t help but to blink in shock, what was going on?

“Then mind your own business and go back to wasting your time getting your perfect.”

He walks off and I’m completely thrown off. My eyes scan down at the ground unsure if that conversation just happened. My feet begin to walk backwards as I look back up to the direction Sehun had walked in and I see that everyone around me was going about their business and I felt less embarrassed that no one really saw how dumbfounded Sehun made me look.

Sehun didn’t come back after our break, it really aggravated me. For the first time it was difficult for me to concentrate in class, I couldn’t pay attention without having that stupid lab report on my mind. How selfish can he be? This concerns my grade too, if he doesn’t put in half of the work my grade will come down with his. I couldn’t afford that. I didn’t want that. Once I see him, there will be no more games.

When I walk out to the cafeteria room with my food tray, my eyes directly go to my table. I find everyone sitting there, including that idiot jerk face. I take a deep breath trying to compose my anger towards him but the closer I got the less it went away.

I slam my tray down making everyone look up at me. I sit down without removing my eyes away from him.

“Good thing Mr. Chong wasn’t upset that the weekly lab report wasn’t turned in even though it was due today.”

Sehun replies back “If it’s good then why do you look mad?”

That stupid smart mouth “It was due today. You know the punishments when class assignments aren’t turned in.”

“Well, did you?”

My right hand that was resting on my skirt is balled up squeezing the fabric as my blood boiled. I never missed a day of school, never late, and I most definitely never had missing or late homework. So the fact that this happened just got the best of me.

I hear someone clear their throat but I didn’t care who it was, me and Sehun lock our gazes, usually his cold eyes would make me feel uneasy but at this moment I didn’t care and it had no power over me anymore.

“ this” Sehun gets up and he’s no longer in my sight. Good.

“Did you have to be that mean?” Saerin asked softly

“It’s my grade” I snap

Kai’s voice makes me look over at him “Even if it’s late you’ll still get credit right?”

“Luckily” I respond “Mr. Chong was very understanding. You know none of the teachers accept late work.”

Kai leans back on the chair “Then did you really need to overreact?”

My mouth slightly drops. The nerve, what was it with these boys and their carless smart mouths.

“It’s his grade too. I need to get his GPA back to what the school required.”

“Wait,” Chanyeol jumps in the conversation “What’s wrong with his GPA?”

“It’s below the average” My tone is more calmed down then earlier. I notice Chanyeol was surprised to hear that “You didn’t know?”

He blinks rapidly as his eyebrows scrunched together trying to grasp the information

“Why would he do that?” Tao asks but it was referred over to Chanyeol “Kai can even keep up”

“Funny face” He punches Tao’s arm a few times

“I’m going to talk to Principal Kim, the first time he should have punished him to give him a taste of what would happen if he pulls some kind of irresponsible crap like this.”

“Principal Kim is his uncle.” My eyes quickly jerk to Kris who looked annoyed with something “I’m going to look for Sehun.” He gets up and leaves the group.

“Is he serious?” Kyungri asks anyone that wants to respond. Chanyeol and Kai look at each other but Tao was the one to nod.

“He doesn’t want anyone to know” Chanyeol was the first one to speak “I know you girls won’t say anything but just keep it to yourselves please.”

Suddenly I lost my appetite I was too angry to eat. No wonder Sehun feels like he can get away with anything. Still, Principal Kim was in the wrong for not taking strong actions to push Sehun to get back on track.

Great, that means Principal Kim can’t even help me. I can’t help but to feel out of control of the situation, what am I going to do?

I was actually glad that Sehun didn’t show up for class, it made it easier to pay attention to my lessons oppose to knowing he was in the same room where I could easily punch him. The last class for today and all I needed was to wait for the bell to head over to my extracurricular class.

On point I was at my locker, putting things away and taking stuff I needed. I check the time on my watch, eight more minutes, right on time.

“Hey”

I stop myself from closing my locker when I see Sehun, I look away and slowly shut it closed.

“I’m sorry”

I wasn’t expecting an apology at all but it still didn’t make things okay, I was still upset.

“No you aren’t” I try to say as calmly as possible “You don’t care about anything”

“You’re wrong”

“Then why is it so hard for you to do any of your work?”

He takes a while to say something and when I get nothing I end up walking away. Sometimes talking to him was pointless. He takes my wrist stopping me.

“I’m sorry”

His touch makes my heart race for some reason, it was strange. My anger was replaced with something else. I couldn’t explain it but I knew I wasn’t mad anymore. He releases his grip.

I sigh and even though I felt like I didn’t need to apologize for putting him in his place I still did because he was mature enough to do it so then that just meant I needed to do the same.

“How about this”

His face wasn’t as expressionless, it was slowly turning to the boy I had to deal with over the weekend.

“I’ll start putting time on these dumb ing homework assignments or whatever you want only if you go on an anti-date with me”

I couldn’t help but to let a soft chuckle escape. I shake my head amused; he just wasn’t going to drop this. I look at his brown eyes and think it through. If I just agree to hang out with him once he’ll finally let this go and if it was the only way to get him to do his work, I was going to take it.

“Fine” I surrender “It’s not a date”

He doesn’t smile but I can tell he is in a weird way even though he isn’t showing it.

“Be ready at 4am”

He walks away without giving any other details and before I can get out of it. 4 in the morning, is he out of his mind? What is there to do at that time? I tuck my lips in and place a strand of hair behind my ear. I check the time, three minutes before Journalism. I groan and rush my steps before I’m late.