Chapter 4

Sehun fiddles with his phone, anxiously tapping his foot as he waits for a notification from a certain someone during lecture. Kyungsoo who sits beside him grows worried of his friend, so he nudges his arm, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Sehun waves it off. He checks his phone again but it is useless. He has the urge to throw the gadget away if he isn’t in the lecture hall right now. “Are you sick?” Kyungsoo asks, worried. Sehun shakes his head; he finally gives up and shoves his phone back into his pocket. Maybe he should be patient for a little while. Maybe she was busy, maybe her cell was dead.

Maybe she ignored him.

Sehun groans in agony; out of all girls, why does it have to be her? What’s so special about Son Hanbyul that turned him into a love struck idiot like this? Sehun bites his lower lip as his heart aches, imagining how Hanbyul will dump him sooner or later. The way she ran away from his that night was more than enough of a reason for him to give up on her. But somehow Sehun doesn’t want to let go. The more she runs away, the more eager he is to chase her and make her his.

They say you can’t force love.

Sehun sighs. He is hopeless. He needs to forget about Hanbyul and move on. There are many girls who are better than her out there. Why would he be upset over her? Yeah, Sehun can just walk into a club and drag some girl with him and make her scream his name all night.

Son Hanbyul is no different. He can just sleep with another woman and forget about her right then.

“Hey, did you hear? Son Hanbyul slept with two university dudes in a row.”

“Really? That’s crazy.”

“She must’ve been pregnant right now.”

Hanbyul enters her class and it suddenly filled with awkward silence. Hanbyul looks around; everyone avoids her and goes on with their business. Hanbyul shrugs and makes her way to her seat.

“You’re amazing, Son Hanbyul,” a female classmate comes up to her. Hanbyul shots a look, signaling that she doesn’t give a damn about her. Besides, this isn’t the first time she encounters situation like this. That group of es would always confront Hanbyul and beat her up if she sleeps with the ones they favor. “You too, Kim Joori,” Hanbyul smiles sarcastically, hoping that Joori will just leave her alone.

“What? Ridiculous,” Joori scoffs, “Don’t you have any shame? How could you sleep with our Sehun?”

“Your Sehun?” I don’t recall seeing your marks on him that night.”

“Why I ought-,”

“That’s enough,” the class president stops the two from bickering. Hanbyul is glad that Joori’s chance of adding flames to her fury is a fail. However, she knows that this isn’t the end of it. When Joori picks a fight, she will never stop. Hanbyul was beaten by her clan before, but she doesn’t care and continues what she was doing because it was for the sake of her father, not her.

Some people say bad things about Hanbyul, but that doesn’t affect her at all. She knows who she is and they don’t. They say don’t judge a book by their cover. Even though Hanbyul is practically a e, but deep inside, she’s doing it for her father. She cares about him and doesn’t want to disappoint him.

Before class starts, Hanbyul decides to turn on her phone and checks it. She is surprised to find out that she has received tons of notifications. And all of them were from the same person.

Sehun.

10 missed calls and 34 messages. Hanbyul sighs, a tide of guilt washes over her as she read his messages. Sehun seems so into her, but Hanbyul is not confident. She’s just his one night stand, and he pays him the correct amount of money and that’s it. Her job is to pleasure him through her body and there is nothing more.

Hanbyul doesn’t have those kinds of feelings towards Sehun and she never will. No matter what, she doesn’t think that she could fall in love with a guy.

“Oh.”

Kyungsoo stops his steps at the sight of another person present at his secret happy place. It is a few blocks away from the campus, behind the park. It is a wonderful place and Kyungsoo goes there every time he wishes to feel in peace while studying with nothing and nobody to bother him. But today, there is a new person there, and she looks quite familiar, Kyungsoo recalls. She sat at the bench alone in her school uniform, appears to be lost in her own world.

Kyungsoo wants to turn away, but somehow his conscience is telling him to approach the person and talk to her. He struts towards her and takes a seat beside her, hugging his books and files. “Uh, hey.” The student looks up and Kyungsoo is surprised to see it was Hanbyul, and she looks pale.

“Kyungsoo,” she calls out, eyes widened as if Kyungsoo is a ghost. “Why are you here?”

“To study,” he points to his books as he grins weirdly. Hanbyul lets out a soft chuckle, “I didn’t know someone knew this place except for me.”

“Me too,” Kyungsoo pouts and Hanbyul would confuse whether Kyungsoo is a university student or an elementary school kid. There was a slight silence after that as Hanbyul examines Kyungsoo. She finds that he is quite attractive and charming. Despite his baby face, Hanbyul can sense a tinge of manly in him.

“Why are you here?” Kyungsoo suddenly asks. “To relax, I have a long day ahead,” Hanbyul replies, glancing up to the sky. The blue sky is painted with a splash of clouds and the sun shines brightly on the west. It is a relaxing sight, Hanbyul can assure it. After the phone call with her dad earlier, her mind is filled up with thoughts and she decides to run here.

Kyungsoo has read before, the first step of romance is to get to know the other. He gulps before asking, still shy. “What do you like to eat?”

Hanbyul glances at him, “Why do you want to know?” She laughs. Kyungsoo feels ashamed and scratches his un-itchy nape. “I- I just…”

“If you insist, I’m craving for something spicy right now.”

Kyungsoo’s ears perked up, “Really?” He thinks of his special Kimchi Spaghetti dish that he could make. He will surely cook for her if Hanbyul asks for it, but Kyungsoo doesn’t want to embarrass himself so he just nods understandingly. “I like homemade meals, which is very rare for me since I’ve eaten outside since my parents,” Hanbyul stops abruptly when she realizes that she has gone too far. She fights between the urge whether to tell or not to tell about her private life to Kyungsoo.

“…divorced.” Kyungsoo seems like a trustable person. “Oh, I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo mutters, “I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay. They divorced when I was 5 so I don’t really know anything back then,” Hanbyul says, “And here I am running away from my father.”

Kyungsoo wants to ask why, but he just can’t. He is afraid that it will affect the weak knot of friendship that they tied together not long ago.

“You want to come over to my place?” Kyungsoo asks, he himself is confused how that slipped off his mouth. “I’ll cook something spicy for you.”

“Really?  That’s okay; I don’t want to burden you.”

Kyungsoo beams, “You can hang out there until you wish to leave and go to your father. I’m okay with it.”

For the first time, Hanbyul feels safe with a guy. Kyungsoo has gained trust from her and Hanbyul is starting to open up to him. Kyungsoo rises up from his seat and both of them walk together to his apartment.

They say the first encounter is coincidence; and the second is fate.

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A/N: I didn't edit this chapter, so please excuse the errors! ^^ and Kyungsoo is learning quickly ;)))