Chapter 5

You took out the book for your next lesson and closed your locker.

“Did you sleep well?”

“GOD, COULD YOU PLEASE STOP THAT?!” You screamed and clutched your books closer to your chest before they could fall from your grip.

Chanyeol chuckled and played dumb. “Stop what? Being so attractive?” He threw a wink at you, making you roll your eyes.

“Stop popping out from nowhere you freak.” You mumbled and made your way for your next class before that tall jerk could say another word.

“See you at lunch! And it’s oppa to you!” He shouted across the hallway, making everyone stare at him. He bowed his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “Oops, sorry.”

The light from the sun was blocked and you sighed, as you opened your eyes to sit up straight. This was the new normal routine in school for you. Every lunch time, you’d head to the rooftop, eat your homemade sandwich, lie down on your back and close your eyes. And when the light gets blocked by his hand, that’s when you wake up and just sit there while Chanyeol rambled on about games and school and more games.

“Sandwich again? You know, you should eat some proper food. No wonder you’re so short. And look at your skin. It’s so pale. You look like an uncooked rice cake!” Chanyeol pointed out and laughed at his own joke.

You just scoffed.

Well you look like Ronald MacDonald with your stupid curly hair.

Just then a small milk bottle appeared in front of your face.

“Here, I brought extra just in case I get thirsty in class but, you can have it.” He said while trying to look cool.

“No thanks I hate milk.” You pushed his hands away but he was persistent and dropped the bottle on your lap.

“Just take it. Besides, you need to grow. You’re so short aigoo!” He said and tried to ruffle your hair but you managed to dodge just in time.

“I said no thanks.” You repeated yourself, a little more firm than before.

But his expression then changed and he looked at you with a serious gaze. “Please. Just take it will you?”

You didn’t know why but something about his expression made you shut up. You sighed and nodded. “Fine, I’ll drink your stupid milk.” You said and opened the cap off.

You then noticed how his expression changed instantly and his goofy smile was back on his face. “Aigoo, that’s a good girl-“

“Don’t call me that or I’ll spit everything on that face you’re so proud off.”

Four hours later, the last bell of the day rang and the kids are slowly making their way out of school to celebrate the last day of the week. Even the heavy rain that started to pour didn’t stop them from shouting TGIF in the halls.

You like days like this. You liked the rain. Especially when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but it’s not empty. Just like how it was whenever you’d be in the pool. Water, you liked water.

You whipped out your phone and read a text from your butler.

Young Master, it’s raining heavily today, and as you’ve always requested on days like this, I shall not pick you up. But do contact me if there is any emergency. I will be there before you could say ‘swimming pool’.
-Mr Lee.

You smiled, thankful to have a butler as efficient and understanding as Mr Lee. Like what he said, you’ve always requested him not to pick you up when it’s raining. Why? Well, you just wanted to be surrounded with water.

Of course you could do that at home but the truth was, rain felt even much better. It felt even more alive. You took a deep breath and was about to take a step out from the building when you felt someone pulling your arm.

“Yah, are you crazy? You can’t just walk in a rain like that!” Two big doe-like eyes stared at you and something inside you sparked.

Why are those eyes so familiar? It’s like I’ve seen them somewhere before but…I just can’t remember. Or maybe because it’s Chan-derp’s eyes and the fact that it’s his makes it harder for me to remember.

You yanked your arm away from him and noticed he had and umbrella opened for the both of you. He looked at you with a serious face and placed his other free hand in his pocket. “I’ll walk you to the bus stop.”

You sighed. Knowing how persistent he is you knew you couldn’t ignore him and just walk away. Guess no walking in the rain today.

Chanyeol you stupid dork.

The two of you walked in silence for a while, the sound of the rain hitting against the umbrella filling in the void of silence that surrounded the two of you. You just looked at your feet while you walk and you could feel that Chanyeol kept stealing glances at you.

“If you don’t stop doing that I’ll push you out in the rain.”

“What?! I can’t hear you! The rain’s too loud you’d have to speak up-“

“BLOODY STOP LOOKING AT ME OR I’LL FREAKIN’ GORGE YOUR EYES OUT.”

Chanyeol laughed and nodded. “I heard you the first time you know, and you said you’d only push me into the rain. That escalated quickly.”

You sighed. After spending a week of having Chanyeol following you like a lost puppy in school, you sort of grew accustomed to his ways. Like how he’d always buy extra milk or kimbab for you to eat during lunch, how he’d always laugh too loud in your ear you’d thought your eardrums would burst and how he’d always say ‘They’re still the same’ randomly to himself when he stared at you.

You still didn’t know what he meant by that though. And you didn’t plan on asking either cause you couldn’t be bothered. If you did it’d just result in him talking more. All that you’ve already gotten used to, but him sneaking up from behind you, that, you still need time to adjust.

“Yah, why didn’t your butler pick you up today? Did he get fired?”

“No, I told him not to.”

Chanyeol raised his eyebrows. “Why? Gotten tired of being pampered already?”  He chuckled.

“No, I just wanted to walk home today. And I’m not pampered okay.” You snapped back.

Now that you think about it, the rest of the kids in school always had their drivers pick them up from school and they all came from very rich families. Actually, your school is the most prestigious school in Seoul. Does that mean Chanyeol came from such a family too? But, he’d always walk home and judging from how he’d always eat kimbab during lunch tells you otherwise.

You were too deep in thought that you didn’t realize you were staring at him.

“I know I’m good looking but the staring have got to stop.” He smirked and you quickly looked away.

“I wasn’t staring stupid. I was just curious.”

“Curious about?”

“Nothing.” You said and continued walking but then you felt droplets of water on your shoulder and you realized Chanyeol hadn’t took a step, leaving you slowly drenched.

“Yah! What’s the big idea?” You shouted and used your small hands to shelter you from the rain that was violently hitting your face. Not that it helped anyway. Besides, you were supposed to like the rain but somehow it was raining cats and dogs, too heavy to walk without an umbrella.

You looked at the tall dude that was standing a few steps behind you, a smile plastered on his face. It took him about a second to realize you were getting soaked and he quickly came up to you with the umbrella.

“Yah, if you’re going to share the umbrella, you better do a good job.”  You nagged. “Why’d you stop anyway? Your legs decided to stop functioning? And what’s with that creepy smile?”

“Oh my god, this is the first time I’ve heard you talk like, more than just a sentence.” He covered his mouth to stop himself from smiling but obviously that didn’t work. You just gave him a confused look.

“What? I don’t get you, seriously you have got to start making sense Chanyeol-“

“You just said my name!”

“No I didn’t.” You kept a stoic expression.

“You did! I heard you!” He was wiggling his finger in front of your face. Oh words couldn’t describe how much you wanted to break that finger.

“What?! I can’t hear you! The rain’s too loud you’d have to speak up.” You sarcastically said, using the same line he said to you earlier.

“ your clothes!. We better go somewhere warm or you’ll catch a cold. Come on.”

Before you could protest, he took your hand and dragged you into a small café located just a block away and the both of you sat down at the corner of the room. Looks like you had no choice but to just comply with what he was doing. Besides, even if you got home by now, you wouldn’t be able to swim.

“Oh yah, Yeol ah, what are you doing here? You don’t have any shifts today do you? Yah, is that the girl you kept telling me about? “The both of you looked up and you noticed a cute boy, a little shorter than Chanyeol was standing beside your table wearing the café’s uniform, holding a mop.

Chanyeol looked up and he gave a bro fist to the short dude.

“Yah Baek! Is it your shift now?” He laughed. You just sat there and stared at the both of them.

So dorkster here actually do have other friends.

“Baekhyun, Hae Ra. Hae Ra, Baekhyun.” Chanyeol said as he introduced you to his short friend. Is it just you or are all of Chanyeol’s friend very good looking? You looked at Baekhyun and nodded your head slightly.

Baekhyun did the same before leaning in to Chanyeol.

“Yah, no offense but she’s not really that attractive I thought she would be.” You saw Chanyeol smacking Baekhyun’s head to shut him up and somehow you were thankful that he did it before you could run up to that boy that had his eyes drawn full with too much eye liner and choke the life out of him.

And to think I thought you were cute. Pfft, I take it back.

You frowned and tried to busy yourself with drying your clothes.

Great, now I’m pissed and freezing cold.

Baekhyun left to serve the other customers after he and Chanyeol exchanged whispers to each other and the taller one cleared his throat before smiling cheekily at you. “You didn’t…hear that did you?”

“Hear what? The part where your little friend over there who wears eyeliner and looked like a wild raccoon said I was ugly? Yeah I heard.” You replied flatly and crossed your arms.

Chanyeol pouted. “He didn’t say you were ugly. He just said you’re not that attractive he thought you would be.” He mumbled but you heard it and managed to kick his shin under the table, earning a girlish yelp escape from his lips and he had to curl his hand into a fist and bite against it so cover his scream of pain.

You rolled your eyes and was about to leave but he grabbed your hand, making you flinch a little. He noticed and quickly let go.

“I’m sorry. Listen, how about I treat you to some warm coffee? My treat.” He said and rubbed the back of his neck. You wanted to ignore his offer and walk away but you felt bad. Besides, he said he’d treat you right?

You sighed and sat back down, earning a wide grin from Chanyeol. “I don’t like coffee though.” You said to him. His eyes widened.

“What?! How can you not like coffee woman?! It’s like the best thing in the whole wide world! Especially the one from this café. Look, I’ll go order us some caramel lattes and you have a try. Trust me you’ll love it.”

Before you could protest, he went off towards the counter and ordered the drinks. You really didn’t like coffee. Tried it once, when you were younger and curious as to what it tasted like. You saw how your parents always drank coffee in the morning and asked your dad if you could have a sip. It tasted like death to you and you never tried it again.

“One caramel latte for the coffee- lady.” Chanyeol placed the glass in front of you and winked. You rolled your eyes. “I tasted coffee before you know. So I’m not a .”

He gasped dramatically and covered his mouth. “You’re not a ?! Shame on you, you’re only eighteen!” He said and smiled when you glared at him. He nodded his head towards the caramel latte in front of you, “Come on, try it!” He clapped his hands and giggled like an elementary school girl.

“Fine, but if I die, you’d be the first person I’d come back to haunt.”