Chapter Twenty-Three

"I got it, honey. Let's start."

17th of January 2015

“Alright, so, now,” Mr. Kang began his class, standing in front of everyone with clasped hands, “I’d like you guys to be seated with your partners.” He saw the look on everyone’s face and he clapped his hands before motioning them, “Go on. I’m not going to carry you guys.”

Everyone almost got up after a small laugh and scrambled around, finding their rightful partners and taking a seat with them on the floor.

Lay got up with a groan, patting Kai on the shoulder, “See you, man…”

Kai laughed, waving a hand, “Good luck.”

Lay huffed, “Yeah… you too…”

With slumped shoulders, Lay made his way towards the other side of the room where he spotted where Soon Hae was. Kai easily let out a soft chuckle, noticing how Lay looked so helpless as he sat down beside the girl he irked to be partnered with. The fact that he even had to dance with her – someone call help for this poor boy.

“Hey!” Soon Hae chimed, waving excitedly at Lay who shook his head as he settled down. “Yeah, hi.”

Hee Young sat there by the side, unsure of what to even do – it’s not like she knew these people in here, anyway. Wait, she does. It’s just that she’s never really engaged herself into a conversation with them; she’d prefer not to. Like how she was described by many, she’s just another person in a class – never talking to anyone unless she really needed to.

Kai didn’t see it that way (even though she nearly left him with a bruise earlier on).

He got up, walking over to sit by her side and he could already see the weird looks that were thrown at his way. He tried to shrug them off, though, folding his knees up as he turned to peek at her, noticing that she was wearing earphones – figured. He scooted closer and gently took one side of her earphone, causing her to snap her head to the side where she was met with Kai’s gaze. She narrowed her eyes at him and at his hand that held onto one side of her earphones, “What are you doing?”

He smirked, putting on her earphones, “What song are you listening to?”

She scoffed, rolling her eyes as she increased the volume, indirectly ignoring him. He purposely decided to be chattier today, purposely leaning against her arm to irritate her, “Hm… This beat sounds familiar…”

She let out a heavy sigh, setting her phone down to the side before she used that exact hand to shove him aside, “Don’t even try to piss me off.”

He laughed, finding this amusing as he turned to look at her, “I’m not even trying.”

She showed him a thumb up, “Great talent you got there.”

He used a hand to do an overdone form of curtsey, “Why, thank you.”

She decided not to even argue anymore – her day was not off to a good start, anyway. Kai noticed how she didn’t want to talk and he sort of… respected that. They had the whole day, later on. He leaned back against the wall and already as the next song came up, he found it rather interesting; he knows this song.

I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing… Aerosmith?

“Alright, alright. Settle down! Today, since we’re off with a partnered assignment for this month, I want to test your trust skills with one another.”

Hee Young regrettably but still turned her head to meet with Kai’s gaze for her. She parted her lips to ask softly, “Do you trust me?”

He wanted to laugh but, he held himself back. Instead, he shrugged, answering nicely, “Maybe. Do you trust me?”

She almost immediately gave him an answer that got him offended, “No.”

He placed a hand on his chest, feigning hurt, “Well, damn. Can’t you be more caring of my feelings?”

She noticed how he wanted to joke around, as if he could already sense she was in a bad mood since this morning. She played along, this time. Why?

Just because.

And Mr. Kang let the both of them slide with chattering away because that was a start; from not talking to one another or avoiding each other for the period of two years, to finally getting to know one another – Mr. Kang was grateful for that.

“Can you hear that?” She asked, motioning him closer and he came nearer, removing the piece of earphone from his ear to hear her clearer, “No. What?”

She smirked and took the earphone from his fingers, “That’s the sound of your heart cracking.”

Kai scoffed and looked away from her, purposely rolling his eyes and she snickered quietly as she kept her earphones aside along with her phone. He took a quick peek at her from the mirror opposite them despite people blocking part of the mirror and also, the distance. He could somehow see her clearly through the reflection and he noticed how she was one of those people.

Those people who rarely smiles but when they do, you’ll be wanting them to smile even more. It felt like an accomplishment to see that someone smile because they look like they needed to smile but they had no reason to. Or no one even tries to make them smile; Kai felt like she was one of those people who just needed someone to try.

It didn’t take long to notice that Hee Young has a wicked sense of humor.

 “In this very hat, there’ll be a few yoga poses for you to try out. And these poses will need high trust with one another so if you don’t trust each other,” Mr. Kang glanced at Hee Young and Kai’s way, in which Hee Young responded with a very sardonic smile. Mr. Kang continued speaking with a wider grin as he looked elsewhere, “You’ll get injured.”

“Great…” Hee Young mumbled, leaning back against the wall as one by one from each duos would get up to draw out the pose they would need to attempt on.

Kai got up without a word, motioning for something as well.

She furrowed her eyebrows at him, “What?”

He turned to look down on her properly, bending his body, “Yah. Give me your phone. It’s a protocol here to put all phones in that basket in the front.”

She narrowed her eyes at the basket and true enough, each person that had gotten up to retrieve which pose they needed to attempt on had placed their phones in that very basket. She then looked up to Kai, “No thanks. I’ll put it myself-“

“Yah! Kim Jongin!”

Kai hissed and lightly kicked her knee, “Hurry!”

She snatched out her phone and shoved it into his hands, “Here!”

He took her phone in his hands and pulled out his own, placing them together in his hands as he reached to the front to draw a piece of paper from the hat. Once he had the piece of paper, he walked over to the basket to place their phones in the basket. However, he moved all the phones one side to place his and her phone at the bottom at the basket. He placed his phone on top of hers, blocking hers completely to make it easier for him to spot their phones later. He smirked and slyly moved all the phones earlier on to cover part of his phone to make it less obvious.

He turned around to see that she was already stretching. He made his way towards her and with that small smirk Kai had on his face, Mr. Kang could already foresee that this was going to be interesting to see.

“What took you so long?” She grumbled, cracking her fingers as he stripped his jacket off, tossing it to the side where it landed by her bag, “Why? Missed me?”

She faked a barf and rolled her eyes, looking away as she proceeded to stretch her lower body. He wanted to start stretching as well, with the tiny paper in his hand but he didn’t start just yet when she asked, “What pose did we get?”

His lips formed a small ‘o’ shape as he stood up straight, “Right. I didn’t check yet.”

She let out a soft chuckle, a sarcastic one, “Figured.”

“Oh spare me, your royal highness,” He shook his head at her before his fingers started to peel open the piece of paper. She stood up straight as well, drawing herself nearer towards him to see in black, Mr. Kang’s handwriting that stated:

‘Flying bow’

Kai’s lips fell agape and the same with Hee Young’s. “What the ?” Kai breathed out, looking over his shoulder to meet with Mr. Kang’s grin. Hee Young snatched the paper from Mr. Kang’s hands, raising it up to show it to him, “This is hard!”

Mr. Kang could tell because out of all the yoga poses he had written down, that was one of the hardest that he picked out. He showed two thumbs up with a wider grin, “Good!”

Kai sighed and turned to look at her, “Do you know how to do this pose?”

Hee Young nodded seriously as she tossed the paper aside, “Yeah. I do.”

Kai started to stretch with her and he did try to ask, “How does it look like?”

She raised an eyebrow, surprised at his lack of knowledge, “You don’t know?”

He sneered at her, “I’m testing you, princess.”

She gave him a look of disbelief once the both of them had finished stretching, staring at one another. The other pairings had already begun on trying out on their yoga poses (and failed miserably). Some had to refer to Mr. Kang on how to do the poses. And Kai wasn’t lying because he does remember how the pose was like. Plus, he wanted to confirm with Hee Young so… yeah. He was ‘testing’ her.

“Well, it’s where the male lies down, a.k.a, you and your legs would be upright. Maybe slightly lowered down at first so that I can get on and lie my lower back on your feet and then slowly you straighten your legs to form a ninety-degrees point. Then… the rest after that is just my part so all you got to do is-“

“I got it, honey. Let’s start.”

He moved to lie down on the floor, bracing himself for her weight but before that, she placed her hands on his feet, testing her balance first, “You know, honey, princess, your royal highness – the last time I checked, those aren’t my name.”

He stretched his arms out on the floor, steadying himself for her weight as she leaned her weight on his feet, “With me, they are.”

She glared at him, leaning away from his feet to use one of her elbows to press it on the base of his foot. He let out an inaudible cry of pain as he moved his feet away from her. He held onto his foot, hissing at her, “Dude!”

She laughed at him, “Oh, so now my name is ‘dude’?”

Kai narrowed his eyes at her, “You mother-!”

“At this rate, the both of you might as well just kill each other,” A cooing echoed in their ears in the room filled with chatters and grunts of others. The both of them turned their heads, meeting eyes with Mr. Kang who stood by the two, “You know, the both of you are the best in here; and I’ll let you know that. But if this is the way the both of you work on things… being the best may not be what you can be.”

He patted Hee Young on the shoulder and gave a look to Kai whom was still on the floor, “Think about that.” Then, he walked away towards others who needed his assistance more than him.

The both of them looked back at one another and Kai lowered his legs down to the floor. The two had a mutual thought and Kai was the first one to act as he extended his arm up towards her way, “Truce?”

She stared at his hand for a moment before gazing to his eyes. He did seem serious. This was part of their grades and if they don’t cooperate, they would be going nowhere.

 Author's Note;  So, uhm... I was supposed to update a few days ago but I got busy with stuff and I couldn't update. I planned to make this longer as well but due to... certain things that happened, I'm emotionally unstable at the moment. I feel like and I just can't write for the time being (no, I'm not giving up on this story. After discontinuing 'Heirs In Love', I felt really bad and I'm not giving this one up). So I just need some time to collect and bring myself together so that I can bring you guys better chapters. Thank you for your understanding and I hope I can get up the next chapter as soon as possible. God bless.