Chapter Seventeen

"That old man knows me too well."

3rd of January 2015.

Hee Young groaned upon hearing her phone rumbling on the bedside table. What the hell? She thought. Her classes for today would only start in the afternoon for all she could remember. It wasn’t rational that even a soft beep from her phone could wake her but it did – so like before she thought, what the hell?

She sat up on the bed, groaning as she reached for her phone. Since she’s awake, might as well she check who it was from. If this was from Minseok, she swears she would kick him somewhere inappropriate later for dinner. That would be his appetizer.

However, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion as she saw the name appearing on her phone. It was blurry at first but when her vision could finally focus properly, she didn’t like this one bit. She held back the urge to read the text but… the whole point of retrieving her phone in the first place was to do just that. She unsurely unlocked her phone, lingering her thumb above the place where if she tapped on it, the message would unravel before her eyes.

With a heavy exhale, she mumbled, “Screw it.”

Her thumb tapped on the screen for a few seconds and she instinctively tapped on the ‘delete’ button even without reading the message.

Just as she felt relieved of doing just that, she had shoved her phone aside. Bloody hell, she thought again. It’s only seven in the god damn morning. He must have a lot of free time. It wasn’t long when she finally got under her covers again, the exact same message tone started ringing and then her phone buzzed on the table. She groaned loudly, lightly suffocating herself with the sheets, “Oh my god!” Her cry was loud but luckily it was muffled.

She yanked down the blanket and glared at her phone as if it was the person itself. It wasn’t long when she reached for it, failing to hold back her curiosity as she had the phone in her hands. She unlocked the phone again but with more anger this time. The familiar screen appeared like before and this time, she actually decided to read the message.

‘I know you’d delete the first one so I’m sending this again. Class starts at 10.00a.m. and bring the paper I gave you yesterday. Today won’t even be that hard. It’s just an explanation of an upcoming assignment.’
7.03a.m. || Mr. Kang

She didn’t even read it all and yet, she sent her rash reply.

‘Assignments. How wonderful. As if I don’t have enough of that already.’
Sent || 7.04a.m.

 She didn’t even need to wait for long because she knew he would reply her quick. She was right when her phone vibrated in her hands and she muted her phone already, leaving just the vibrations to take place. She could see his message popping up back in the message thread between the both of them.

‘Read the whole message, please. I knew you’d do this to me.’
7.04a.m. || Mr. Kang

She actually decided to scroll back up a bit to read it but a new message had distracted her to do so.

‘Just in case you’re lazy, here it is. And I quote from my previous message; This assignment is a partnered one in which you’ll have a whole month to plan it all out and practice. It is more than enough time for the both of you.’
7.05a.m. || Mr. Kang

She couldn’t help but just shake her head as she locked her phone, putting it aside again with a sigh. She fell back onto her bed, staring at her ceiling where she pictured a familiar face smiling down on her. An arm was propped up behind her head as she stared at the while wall above her as the image faded away. The smiling face of her younger brother would always appear on her darkest days, wishing her the best of strength anytime she needed it. Looks like she’ll need it this time.

Before her eyes fall to a close, she glanced at the paper laid out on her table where it was the paper she’d need if she would go to the class later. She shook her head as her eyes closed, mumbling softly, “That old man knows me too well.”

“Alright, guys, take your seats on the floor first. Today’s class will be cut short.” Mr. Kang announced as he stood by the table, in front of everyone who stood there confusedly. Usually, during announcements like these, he would just say it and leave, allowing everyone to have free time for the rest of the day unless they had other classes to attend to on this day.

Kai glanced at Mr. Kang who gave a curt nod, mouthing the words, “She’ll be here.”

The latter simply gave a discrete nod, looking away to get dragged into Lay’s conversation with him. “Dude, who’s your partner, though? I’m pretty sure I know who’s mine.”

Kai didn’t know to laugh or feel bad for Lay because of the tone his friend had. Lay sounded so miserable that if it wasn’t for his passion for dancing, he’d be long gone in this class. Kai let out a quiet snort, though, turning his head to smirk at Lay, “Let me take a wild guess. Soon Hae?”

Lay groaned and threw his head back, closing his eyes as he dreaded to hear that name. In the next, he was rubbing his face in his hands, “I still don’t know how the two of you got together before.”

Kai shrugged casually, clasping his hands on one of his knees that were propped up, “Beats me. I don’t know what the hell was wrong with me, either. Though, she wasn’t like this before.”

In the midst of Lay’s silent breakdown, he looked up from his hands. He turned his head to look at Kai with pursued lips, “Yah, you still didn’t answer me, though. Who’s your partner?”

Kai gave another of his usual shrugs, lifeless and uncertain. “We’ll just have to see later on.”

“You should write on your resume that you’re good at being a …”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“Now who’s the ?”

She stood in front of the door, unsure if she should even go in. She held onto the paper, stating clearly that she could take dancing as her major course. The previous course she pursued won’t go to waste, though. She’ll need to be able to juggle between this course and her previous one. With her dancing skills, this could be a breeze for her. Plus, it’s stated here that dancing would be her minor and the major she’s taking now would remain as that. Mr. Kang has played around with her schedule to fix certain classes on the days she doesn’t have classes; it even shocked her when she flipped to the back to see the days she would need to attend dancing.

It seemed tiring and hectic but with the crap she has dealt in her life, this was nothing.

All she had now was a dilemma to go in or… walk away.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment, turning around and she swore she heard footsteps behind her. Just as she was about to think about if she should go in or not-

“Are you just going to leave like that?”

Damn it.

Not that voice again…

She peeked over her shoulder meekly, meeting with a gaze that was very familiar to her. He had his hands in his pockets of his black hoodie, his face blank with no emotion. She faced forward and shook her head, mumbling softly, “The does it matter to you anyway…”

“You’ve came this far,” He reasoned, taking a step back as he slowly made his way back in, “Might as well you just go on with it.”

Before she could even respond to that, she glanced over her shoulder again to notice that he went in. There was just something different about his tone, the way he was acting – everything. She didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing but… it still made her feel uneasy. It’s like she has no way in telling if he was serious or not because he seems so different now.

With another heavy sigh, she turned around and gripped onto the paper, taking confident yet unstable steps, “What could I possibly lose...”

Two delicate knocks on the door and almost everyone’s attention diverted to the person walking in silently. Just like that, the whole room fell silent, as if she was a ghost that appeared out of nowhere. She swore she heard soft chatters of people not expecting this at all; that she was not the person they’d expect to see in here but… she’s made up her mind. Just one year. One year of being in this class and she doesn’t even need to pursue dancing in her career.

She caught that smile Mr. Kang had on his face as she handed him the paper. “What’s with that smile?”

He smiled wider, taking her paper and placing it on the table before he reached for a pen. He shook his head as he bent down to sign the form, “Nothing.”

She stood there with her bag over her shoulder, lightly tapping her foot on the floor as she noticed quite a number of people were staring at her. She glanced down on her clothes, wondering if it was inappropriate or something but how can a blank sweater along with jeans be inappropriate? She shrugged off the thought when Mr. Kang handed a few pieces of paper back to her, “Your classes are on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. I’ve worked around your original schedule so you can attend your major classes. For Saturdays and Sundays, we have extra practice so if you feel like coming, you can-“ She simply reached over to peel the papers of his hand before giving a slight nod. She her heels to walk out of the room but he gave her a whistle. He wasn’t mad that she cut him off like that; he was used to that.

It’s just that now he needs her to stay here for a while more; the fact that she even showed up meant something dearly to him.

“Yah, sit down. I have more to say.”

Kai had this small grin on his face upon seeing how she clenched her fist and exhaled ‘silently’. She glanced over her shoulder to give Mr. Kang a ‘polite’ smile before she turned back around to sit on the other side of the room, away from everyone else. It’s not like she wanted to but… okay fine, she wanted to. There’s not many people here that she would rather mix with and definitely, she was not going to sit with-

“Mind if I sit here?”

She looked up slowly, meeting with a gaze that greeted her not too long ago. She’d rather not say anything as she looked away, not giving him a proper response.

He bent his body, looming over her, “Not answering means it’s a silent agreement.”

“Just sit the heck down, Kai. The both of you are partners anyway.”

Her head immediately darted to the person who said that, glaring at Mr. Kang who could only grin in response. “That’s what you get.”

She bit her lower lip and this wasn’t the usual ‘nervous-lip-bite’. It was a rather ‘I’m biting my lip so I don’t say anything inappropriate’ kind of lip bite. Kai gave his well-known smirk before he sat down. He let Hee Young had the last move as she shifted away from him when he sat down beside her. He could see the priceless look on Lay’s face when he met glances with him.

“Dude, she’s your partner?”

Kai shrugged, ignoring his friend as he looked away.

“Dude!” Lay’s hiss echoed in the room and he took note of the silence that suddenly fell in the room. He placed a hand over his own mouth before he bowed multiple times politely as an apology.

“But seriously, what would your answer be if Mr. Kang hadn’t interrupted us?”

She scoffed, wondering how he has such confidence to ask such question. What does he expect me to answer? Yes? .

“If my answer was ‘no’, would you get lost?” She snapped at him, not sparing a glance at him as Mr. Kang stood in front of everyone with a list in his hands.

He ended up scoffing back at her, “Aren’t you being a bit too much here?”

She roll her eyes mentally before turning her head to pierce her stare right into his soul. For a second there, he was taken back by how angry her eyes looked, “What do you expect me to say? Yes, your royal highness, it would be a pleasure for you to sit beside me on the damn floor?”

He couldn’t help but laugh a bit the moment Mr. Kang cleared his throat. He faced forward and ignored her statement just by saying, “Shush, teacher’s talking.”

She had a look of disbelief on her face as she faced front as well, mumbling under her breath, “Well me, then…”

She was trying to pay attention to what Mr. Kang was saying because heck, this was part of her grades now. She was rather taken back this time when she heard him replying, “I don’t mind, really.”

With an annoyed tone, she shoved him with her elbow hitting his arm, hard, “Shut up, teacher’s talking.”

And with a quiet smile he hid to himself, he relaxed his back against the wall behind him. Just somehow, having her beside him as of now, he knew this class would be far more interesting than before.

 Author's Note; ; if I see any comments that I don't like, I'll delete them. Seriously? I've updated twice in a row and someone already comments "UPDATE SOOOON!" - wow. just wow. Also, there's no point of questioning when this will happen or when that will happen - it's all planned. Plus, how do you know a specific event is going to happen? You'll just have to read it and find out; no need to question things like these.

On the other hand, thank you for those who commented. I've disabled my noticifations to see the 'new comments' but when I scrolled down of this story, I feel more appreciated now. Thank you guys. Here's the 17th chapter.