Chapter 4: His Girlfriend?

Jong Suk hurries down the stairways, leaving Woo Bin alone on the roof top. He had no intention of angering the dinosaur boy any further. But why does he always seem to be on the edge of exploding?

“Oh, there you are,” a booming voice greets him from the bottom of the staircase. That overly cheerful girl from earlier grins at him as if she had found what she looked for. What was her name again?...Hyo…something. He gives up thinking when the name doesn’t come to his mind; there is no need to remember it since he won’t be using it. He watches her bouncing up few steps until she is standing next to him. She looks like those overly helpful types that throws their free time to carry the other’s burdens. Jong Suk doesn’t want anyone prying into his peaceful life. It is best to avoid her before she starts shooting bucket load of questions at him, or worse, trying to be friends with him.

Jong Suk digs into his trouser pocket and pulls out a ten thousand Won bank note. “Here,” he says, holding it at her. Confusion overtakes her cheerful grin.

“What is this?” she asks without touching it.

“For the food,”

“Yah, that was nothing. You don’t have to pay for it,” she says ignoring the bank note held at her, she bounces back down the few steps between them and the hallway. “Let’s hurry; otherwise we will be late for the lesson.”

Jong Suk hurries after her. “But I don’t feel—”

She stops abruptly and Jong Suk almost crashes onto her, but his reflexes automatically avoid it.

“Oh no, here comes Miss Truffle,” she says, pulling Jong Suk to a side and giving the chubby woman a low bow.

“Miss Truffle?” he repeats looking at the teacher wiggling her hips as she walks past them. She doesn’t probably do the wiggling on purpose, just that her figure is too fluffy to the point her flesh is out of shape and wiggles as she walks.

“See that,” she whispers, pointing at the pile of books in the chubby teacher’s gasp.

“The books?”

“No, not that. I mean the box on top of it,” she says again, standing on her toes to get a better view of the box now hidden by her figure.

“What about the box?” he asks more curious about who named her rather than the box. Is it Truffle as in the sweet truffles? He can’t think of any other meaning for the word. What a strange name for a Korean lady, he thinks, watching the teacher disappear into one of the classes.

“That box is always full of Truffles and she always sneaks one into even during lessons. It’s like she needs truffles to breathe,”

“Oh…” so that’s why she is called miss truffle…. “But isn’t it bit mean…?”

“Don’t be silly!” Hyoyeon slaps his back playfully.

She drags him to the cafeteria, buys two bottle of strawberry milk and walks behind the sidewalk leading to the library. She chats their way around the building past the teachers’ office and all the way back to the class.

“See that,” she says, pointing at an abandoned path running behind the library on their way back. It disappears behind man grown trees and wild bushes. “There is a very beautiful cherry garden at the end of that path.”

“Then why does it look like no one has been on it?” Jong Suk says, observing the almost non-existent footpath.

“No one dares to go there,” her cheery voice has suddenly turned unexpectedly serious, “So don’t ever go there,” she warns him before walking into the class.

The devil’s seat is still empty; no sign of him occupying it anytime today. Perhaps I should have just sat there he thinks, watching Seung Hyun and his little gang barging into the class. For some reason Seung Hyun doesn’t seem to be in the mood of playing with Jong Suk; he just shuffles all the comic books under his table back into his bag, zip it close and hurls it over his shoulder. Then he gives a sideway glance at Jong Suk and walks out of the class. He is thankful for whatever the reason that caused Seung Hyun to go away; at least he can have a panic-less afternoon for the rest of the day.  

He managed to stay focus through the maths lesson, dozed off under the hypnotising voice of their history teacher, English lesson passed by without much trouble and he slept through the rest of the afternoon lessons.

His slumber is broken by the noisy atmosphere that has suddenly taken over the class room. He picks up himself from the desk and scans the room; everyone is throwing the books into their bags, zipping them up, running to their friends, heading home.

“Aren’t you going home?” that familiar voice booms behind him. The girl with doe eyes smiles down on him. “The classes ended about five minutes ago. Of course you wouldn’t know, since you were busy in a dream land,” she giggles.

“Yah, Hyoyeon!! Aren’t you coming?” a bunch of girls screams at the door.

“Coming,” she screams back and swings around to face Jong Suk again, “See you tomorrow,” she says and waves at him before running back the group of girls waiting at the door. He watches them disappear down the hall.

Jong Suk picks up his bag, tucks his books in carefully and zips it close. He pushes the chair under his desk and walks out of the empty classroom. The hallway is already empty and not a sign of a soul anywhere to be seen. Was he that late to get out? He walks to the stairway down to the left.

He halts at the sight of a familiar back figure standing just few meters down the staircase. It doesn’t take him long to recognise who that is, after all Woo Bin has a unique appearance. What surprises him is not Woo Bin standing there, but the slender looking girl next to him. She looks as if she had cried; her eyes appear red and her face has that expression as if she had just tasted something sour. Jong Suk sees her wipe away the tears. She mumbles something to the dark-haired boy. Jong Suk wonders what caused her to cry; perhaps it’s that death glare, he imagines, remembering Woo Bin’s predator eyes. It would certainly be enough to plunge a girl into a stream of tears; it certainly did the trick on him. There were times he had goosebumps when Woo Bin glares at him.  

Woo Bin says something to her and the girl lifts on her toes and places a kiss on Woo Bin’s cheek. Jong Suk feels his eyes widen; the boy he thought had a stone for a heart is letting a girl kiss him. He swings on his heels; he certainly doesn’t want Woo Bin to know that he had witnessed their sweet moment. Woo Bin will probably hate him even more. Yes, Woo Bin doesn’t like it when people pry into his life, more specifically, he doesn’t seems to like Jong Suk prying into him life. Not that Jong Suk has done it before, just that Woo Bin always tries to avoid Jong Suk and he has warned not to talk to him unless he talks first.

May be I should take the other staircase, he thinks heading back across the hallway. He hurries down the stair case leading to the library entrance. Was it his girlfriend? He asks himself. Of course it is you idiot! Why else would she kiss a dinosaur like him? For some reason, the thought makes him feel bit uncomfortable. He feels like he really has invaded upon Woo Bin’s privacy. He wonders how Woo Bin will feel if he knows what Jong Suk had witnessed.

He chases away the thoughts of the dinosaur boy and walks past the library. He hurries down the corridor and steps along the sideway that leads to the front gate.

AN: What did you think ? Is it boring? Do you like it? (I know you want JongBin moments, I'll be getting there soon  （*^_^*） )