“J-jongin? What are you doing here?” I asked, much too surprised. “It’s in the middle of the night! Shouldn’t you be at home, sleeping?”

“I could ask the same for you,” he replied, smirking. I had begun to smile in recognition of a friendly face, but immediately, I frowned. No-I scowled.

“Ah whatever. Wait; how’d you know-“ I began.

Jongin put his finger to my lips, immediately shushing me. I was about to protest when he began to explain.

“Ever since that day in the club, these men in suits have been following me. I didn’t want them to know where I lived, so I just decided to hang out around here, until I saw you running through the crowds,” Jongin explained in a semi-whisper. “I guess they’re after you too, huh, noona?”

“Hey what happened to calling me ssaem?”

“Slip of the tongue.”

I sighed. I then decided to buy a snack since I hadn’t eaten dinner and was a bit hungry after running for so long. I settled on Pepero, and walked over to the table next to the windows where Jongin was. I was reminded of my own high school days, when I would come to stores like these in the middle of the night after coming back from academies and eat ramen or some other snack.

I opened the package of Pepero and began munching on one. I felt a bit awkward, however, because Jongin kept on staring at me eat, making me feel a bit bad. I looked over at Jongin with a Pepero biscuit sticking out of my mouth, and offered him a Pepero from the box.

“Do you want one?”

“…”

He just stared at the box, as if he was contemplating on whether or not to get one. I then realized that he still had his medical mask on for disguise purposes. I unconsciously unhooked his mask from his ear, letting fall down the side of his face, and stuck a pepero stick into his mouth.

“Don’t worry; you can have as much as you want,” I said. I then turned around and faced the window, looking at the people pass by and continuing to eat my pepero.

“So, is there a reason why you’re always sleeping in class?” I casually asked, still looking out the window.

Jongin was silent. He was surprised that his ssaem had just fed him a Pepero stick. Nobody dared to touch him, much less feed him. He didn’t let anybody get so close to him, but his tutor just broke that record.

Yah Kim Jongin.. Calm down. It’s just your teacher. Nothing like that, ok? Don’t even THINK about it man..Jongin tried to mentally calm himself down by your sudden care towards him.

“Hmm? Kim Jongin? I’m talking to you,” I said as I turned around. I was shocked when I saw his face, as it was bright red.

“Yah, Jongin, are you ok?” I asked as I placed my head over his forehead, checking for his temperature. Little did I realize was that I made his condition even worse, and I began fanning his face.

“I-I’m fine,” Jongin replied, looking down. W-what is she doing… Doesn’t she know she’s making it worse…? After a few moments, Jongin looked up, and seemed to be fine. The pepero was still hanging out of his mouth.

For a few more minutes, I got to know Jongin better. I found out that he slept during tutoring because he actually practiced dancing from the end of tutoring to well into the night. His parents made him go to all these academic tutoring places, so the only time he had to contribute time into his true passion was afterwards. As a result, he slept pretty late, and even ended up dozing off during school.

“Do you love dancing that much?” I asked, leaning my head against my hand, looking at his face for any emotions.

“Yes. I love it. It’s the only thing I love in this world,” Jongin replied, looking off into the distance with twinkling eyes. He seemed so passionate and motivated about dancing; I kind of envied him.

“That’s good. At least you have something you wanna do that you’re good at,” I said.

“My parents don’t approve of it, though. The only way they’re letting me practice is because I actually show up to tutoring and to school.”

“Well, you gotta make a living somehow. Education is important these days.”

“I know.. but I’m not even good at it! You’ve seen my English scores.”

“Ohhh yes I have,” I chuckled. “But I’m sure you’ll improve. You just need to try more.”

After a couple more short conversations, I decided to go home, for I had to wake up early again the next day to work at the bakery.

“I’ll walk you home,” Jongin began.

“No, it’s fine. I can go by myself. You go home yourself, Jongin. You gotta go to sleep,” I said.

“No, I insist. Come on. Think of it as a payback for helping me out last time at you know where.”

I blushed at the memory, and looked up. Jongin was smiling. Genuinely smiling. I cocked my head in confusion. Where’s that smirk of his?

“What is it, noona?”

“Ah it’s nothing. Well let’s hurry and go.”

We walked for a while, and talked a bit more. Jongin was actually a pretty friendly person! It was just that he had that gangster-rebel image during class.

Once we reached the entrance to SNU, I stopped and turned around. Non-students weren’t allowed in, so Jongin had to stop here.

“Well, thanks Jongin! See you tomorrow in class!” I said as I waved to him.

Jongin nodded, and turned around and began walking towards his own home.

Poor kid, I thought. He must be so tired..

The next morning, my eyes were puffy from eating so late, and I was so so tired. I dragged myself out of bed and began to get ready to go to the bakery.

Things were going as usual, and people bought bread like there was no tomorrow. I was pretty used to the job now, so I did not make stupid mistakes and actually got to know some of the customers who visited frequently.

“Noona!”

I turned around from the back of the bakery to see the person who had called out.

Chanyeol was grinning from ear to ear when I saw him, waiting in front of the cash register. I checked my watch, which told me once again that high school had started over half an hour ago. I applauded Chanyeol’s courage in returning to the bakery, though.

“Hi Chanyeol. Nice to see you again. Sorry for scaring you off last time,” I said as I walked towards him.

“Hi noona! Guess what?” Chanyeol asked.

“You’re late for school?” I tried.

“Well, I would be, but since it’s summer vacation, it doesn’t count. But keep on trying!”

“Oh it’s summer vacation? That’s nice. Oh um… You want your peanut butter sandwich back?”

“OH I forgot about that.. hehe.. but noooo! It’s something even better!”

“What is it?”

“I’ve decided that I want to work here!”

“What?”

“Where’s the application? Can I talk to the manager?”

“Wait a second. You what?!”

“I said that I want to work here! Part time of course, cause I still gotta go to school,” Chanyeol said. His eyes were twinkling and his smile was inerasable from his face.

“Are you sure about this?” I raised my eyebrows.

“I’m sure!” Chanyeol was grinning like crazy. I had never seen him so happy before.

“Ok; wait a sec. Let me call over the manager.” I knew the chances for Chanyeol for getting a job here were slim; or so I thought.

I went to Bom-unnie, who came out herself to see who was so excited to work in her bakery.

“Oh hello there! Why, you’re so tall and handsome! Somebody like you is perfect! I was thinking about getting another employee anyways,” Park Bom said as she was overjoyed.

I was shocked. Bom-unnie was not hesitant at all in giving Chanyeol a job.

“Unnie… really?” I asked in bewilderment.

“Yes! Of course! If we had his handsome young man as one of the workers, all the customers would swarm over him! And he looks so happy and excited!”

I sighed, and shook my head. I hoped that working with Chanyeol wouldn’t be that bad. I wouldn’t tolerate tardiness, though.

“Chanyeol, you can’t be late, ok? Don’t make it like school,” I said, referring to last time.

Chanyeol nodded, and smiled. I eventually smiled too. He just looked so glad.

And just like that, Chanyeol joined our little crew in the bakery. He turned out to be a very diligent worker, and Bom-unnie was right. Once rumors spread that a very good looking boy was working part time at the bakery, we got a lot more young female customers than normal, who just hung around in the tables while eating their bread. It was obvious they had come to admire Chanyeol.

“Hey Chanyeol, that girl over there has the hots for you,” I joked one afternoon. A certain very pretty customer had been staring had Chanyeol forever. I remembered her face and recognized it because she came to the bakery quite frequently, always buying something from Chanyeol.

“Oh noona, stop it. You know I prefer older women,” Chanyeol replied.

“I still don’t get it, Chanyeol. You have all these pretty young girls swarming over you- hey, is it like this at school? Everybody is younger than you, though, cause you’re a senior.”

“Yeah, it’s even worse at school. I don’t really tell them that I prefer older girls, though, because I don’t want them to take it personally. I mean, they can’t help it that they’re younger.”

“Why do you like girls that are older than you though?”

Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling a new customer.

“Dara-unnie!!!!!” I almost yelled as I ran over to her. I hugged her, causing her to giggle in surprise. Chanyeol was still working on packaging the bread.

“Unnie! You finally came over to check out the bakery!”

“Yeah.. Sorry for taking so long. But wow! It’s so nice in here!” Dara complemented as she walked around. I hurried back to helping Chanyeol package the bread, because I didn’t want Bom-unnie to see me goofing around and not working.

Dara eventually chose a bread, and walked up to the register. Since Chanyeol was closer, he went to the register to cash Dara’s payment.

“That’ll be 1,500 Won,” Chanyeol said as he put the bread in the bag. He didn’t look up as he took the payment, and took out 500 Won to give back as change. When Chanyeol looked up for the first time, however, his hand stopped over Dara’s, not handing over the change.

“Excuse me, but you still have my change,” Dara said, motioning for Chanyeol to release his hand.

“O-oh.. I’m sorry.” Chanyeol released the change from his hand, gaining a smile from Dara. Chanyeol’s gaze, however, never left Dara’s face. He ended up staring at her until she walked over to the table to sit down and start eating her bread. Once Dara sat down, Chanyeol motioned for me to come. He looked super urgent, so I rushed over.

“What is it, Chanyeol?”

“Psst. Noona, who is that?” Chanyeol asked as he pointed in Dara’s direction.

“Oh, that’s Dara-unnie. She goes to the same school as me.”

“She’s older than you? H-how?”

“Yeahh I know right? She looks so young… but yeah she’s a senior.”

“Daaang….. Really?” Chanyeol asked, his gaze drooping a little.

“Why? What is it?”

“It’s nothing..” Chanyeol then continued to package the rest of the bread, silently.

I just shrugged, and returned to arranging the bread. I wonder if he’s ok.. He looks pretty depressed all of a sudden.. ahh I guess I’m over thinking it…

“Noona!!”

I jolted up in surprise, turning around to face Chanyeol.

“WHAT.”

“Psttt… come closer,” Chanyeol said, huddling towards the back corner of the front part of the store.

“What is it, Chanyeol?”

“Does Dara-noona possibly have…… a boyfriend?”

I looked at Chanyeol with pure confusion and bewilderment.

“Not that I know of… but why would you-“

Chanyeol’s eyes lit up, and his signature smile returned to his face.

“Assa!!!!” People immediately looked over at us because of the sudden loud noise. “Oh shoot,” Chanyeol said, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Thanks noona!” He then patted my back before going back to the packages of bread he was working on.

Hmmm that was a bit weird…. Oh maybe he has someone he wants to introduce to Dara unnie! That would be great!! Especially considering that one of her closest guy friends suddenly left… She needs somebody to fill up that empty space! I smiled at Chanyeol’s good intentions, and went back to working as well.

“Hey Eunbi!! I’m leaving now. See you at the dorm!” Dara called out before leaving the bakery.

“See you unnie!” I replied from my station at work.

After Dara left, things suddenly became very quiet. Normally, things wouldn’t be this quiet because Chanyeol was very active and talkative and goofed off a lot during work. For some reason, however, that afternoon he was especially silent. If it were any other day, I would have asked him what was wrong, but on that day, I had a lot going on in my own head as well. I felt bad but I really didn’t have the strength to get myself entangled in other peoples’ business.

Soon, it was time for me to leave the bakery and go off to my other part time job at the tutoring academy.

Ever since after that day Jongin saved me from those gang members, I noticed that he slept less and less during class. You would think that this meant he was more focused on the material, but nope. His scores remained the same. Instead, he was staring at ME, his tutor. I mean, I guess it’s normal to look at me when I’m teaching the class something on the board, but when it’s time to do the practice problems, there’s no reason to look at me in order to read the passage. I just brushed it off the first couple of times, but soon, I felt more and more awkward under his stare. It was a bit paralyzing actually.

Speaking of paralyzing, there was another student’s gaze that made me freeze sometimes as well.

“Oh Sehun! Read the passage, please. It’s on page 78,” I said, reprimanding Sehun’s lack of focus. I didn’t even have to turn around to know that Sehun wasn’t working on the classwork.

Dang what is with everyone today? Do I have something stuck to my ? Or is there lipstick in my teeth? Aish that could be it.. Let me go check real fast… I went over to my desk and dug into my bag for my little compact mirror. I quickly took it out, checked the classroom scene to make sure everybody was working, and looked back at my mirror. I opened it, and focused it on my lips, checking to see if any of my lipstick smudged. After confirming that there was nothing wrong with my lipstick, I proceeded to check my eyes to make sure I didn’t have mascara or eyeliner smudged across my eyelids. While I was doing my final checkup, I heard the door squeak, signaling someone had opened the entrance.

I looked over, and froze in that position with my eyes wide open in surprise.

“Ahem….. Song-seonsaeng…. Could you please see me for a second?” Suho abruptly asked.

“Oh, of course,” I replied, quickly putting my compact mirror back into my bag and straightening myself out. What could it be? It must be urgent if he had to interrupt class for this.. And ahh why didn’t he knock?!? He probably thinks I touch my makeup up every time during class… I feel so wrongly judged…

“Class, keep on working on the passage. Once everyone is done, Sehun will have the correct answers, so you guys can check with him in case I don’t come back in time. Isn’t that right, Sehun?” I said, winking at him.

The whole class turned to look at Sehun, who acted like he didn’t hear a word I said, and didn’t respond even though he had been looking at me the whole time. I knew he would follow my directions, though. He was a good kid.

I quietly exited the classroom, and walked over to Suho’s office, where there appeared to be a guest. I crept slowly to the office, where the door was slightly closed. I leaned in to hear what they were talking about. I normally didn’t eavesdrop, but something sparked my interest that day.

“As you may know already, seonsaengnim, my son is having a bit of trouble these days with school work. He’s been going to your academy for a while now, but he hasn’t really been showing improvement. I was wondering if you had any suggestions regarding his grades and performance,” the lady in the office explained.

“Ahem, um, let’s see. I would suggest that he get a private tutor, especially for any subjects he is having more trouble with. Hmmmmm… Based on his performance here as well as at school, I see that he’s having some difficulty with English.”

“Oh, yes. He’s always had a hard time with the subject.”

“Yes, I see that with the scores right here. But no worries. I have an extremely qualified tutor here who can help him privately. She is currently a student at SNU and her English is at a very high level,” Suho explained. “Let me go check to see if she’s here.”

I immediately scooted away from the door, and acted like I had just arrived in front of Suho’s office.

“Oh, hello Song-seonsaeng! Just in time! Please, come in,” Suho said as he led me into his office.

I took a deep breath, ready to take on any sort of barrier in order to make myself look good in front of my potential customer.

I walked inside, and took a seat in the other chair next to the lady, across from Suho’s desk. Before I sat down, however, I bowed and greeted the lady politely.

“Hello! My name is Song Eunbi,” I said. The lady smiled at me, giving me a boost of confidence. She seemed to take a liking towards me, which was a huge relief. I sat down, and Suho sat down in front of us.

The lady seemed to be very young, and she was very pretty. Her eyes were caring and wistful, and her short hair softly framed her face. I couldn’t believe she already had a son who was in high school. Judging by her clothes and bag and jewelry, I could tell that she lived a nice life.

“Here she is! I highly recommend this tutor for your son for English. She’s been really helping our own students here at the academy,” Suho said, making me blush. I politely declined his compliments, because, well, I didn’t think I was THAT good.

“Ah yes. She seems like a fine young lady. Song Eunbi, you said?”

“Yes ma’am. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is mine. So. Could you tutor my son privately for English?”

“O-of course ma’am. It would be an honor.”

“Wonderful. I’m glad I could find a tutor so quickly for my son,” the woman laughed. Even her laugh seemed luxurious.

I smiled politely, trying to maintain my image. “I’ll try my best to help your son.”

“Of course you will. I can see it in your eyes. I like you, Song Eunbi-ssi. I think you’ll be absolutely perfect.”

I was a bit surprised by her genuine response, but I felt extremely happy. What was up with my luck this year? First I score a part time job at an academy, then at my favorite bakery, and now, a private tutor for a well-to-do family? I felt relieved. Paying back my tuition wouldn’t be as difficult as I thought it would be.

After talking for a few more minutes, the lady finally left. I never really found out the name of her son. I only knew her address and schedule. University was starting again soon, as well as high school, and she wanted me to start tutoring her son as soon as school started.

I bowed to Suho before exiting his office, and made my way back to the classroom. I checked my watch on the way, and only 20 minutes had passed. The students should have finished the passage by now, so I went into the classroom expecting either the last of the group to finish up, or Sehun to be guiding the students.

The classroom that I taught in was near the end of the hallway, almost the farthest away from Suho’s office and the main lobby. Especially near the end of the day, most of the other classrooms around us were empty, which gave our class a lot more privacy than usual. Being separated from the main area had its good points and bad points. Little did I know that I was about to experience one of the cons of being separated.

As I approached the classroom, I stopped. I heard some loud voices, some shouting, and a few shrieks. So many questions went through my head as I slowly made my way to the door. What is that sound? Why is everybody so rowdy? What’s going on?

I went up to the door, and paused, my hand resting against the handle. I could overhear some voices from the inside.

“YAHH!!! STOP IT!!” A girl screamed.

“Yo, man!! Calm down!” Another boy shouted.

I could tell things were tense, and was about to slowly open the door when I heard something terrible, like punching sounds and someone grunting. My eyes opened wide and cold sweat began to form. I didn’t really know how to handle conflicts well, so I panicked. I didn’t know how I was going to handle whatever was going on inside my classroom. Why me… I thought to myself.

I took a deep breath, and took a brave move. I opened the door loudly and abruptly, and gasped when I saw what was happening in front of me. The students were all crowded around the middle, blocking what was happening in the center stage. Some of the students noticed that I had entered, and most of the girls had their hands to their faces, covering their mouths in shock.

“Ssaem! You gotta help us!!” Baekhyun called from the crowd. I rushed over to him, and the students began to move out of the way so I could get into the center. “Ssaem!! Just try anything!!”

“What is it-“ I began as I made my way to the center, still super nervous. When the crowd opened up to the middle and I finally saw what was happening, I stopped. My hands made their way to my face, covering my gaping mouth in shock.

W-what…… w-why is….?!?

After a couple of seconds, I finally regained consciousness as to what was happening.

Jongin was on top of Sehun, sitting on his abdomen area so Sehun couldn’t escape. Sehun had blood on his face and fresh bruises. The weird thing was that he didn’t look like he was defending himself. He was just muttering some things to Jongin, who reacted furiously and kept on beating Sehun up. Everything felt blurry. I felt dizzy. I couldn’t tell if this was actually happening in front of my own eyes.

“Ssaem! Do something!!!” One of the girls asked, with an extremely worried look on her eyes. “Nobody knows how it started, but it’s getting out of hand!”

I nodded, but couldn’t take my eyes off the scene. I was just so confused. Why would Jongin and Sehun do this………..?

“STOP!!!!!!!!!” I screamed.

Everybody paused, and looked over at me, including the two boys on the ground, in the center.

Jongin had his fist up to the air, ready to punch Sehun. Right when I screamed, he stopped, fist in mid-air, and slowly turned around to look at me.

I just stared at Jongin. I stared at him for what felt like hours. It was utterly silent inside the room now, and nobody moved an inch. I didn’t care if Suho came in here and found me responsible for the fight. I was just so confused, and especially disappointed. After a few more moments of silence and staring, I could only utter out one question.

“Why……..?”

Thank you for reading~  the story is becoming a bit cliche i know... T^T don't worry more action and KaixEunbi coming up!!

Also, on a more serious note, please keep South Korea in your prayers guys. If you haven't already heard, a huge ferry full of high school students sank off the coast of S. Korea. Over 200 people are missing.. I know this whole week, all the music programs like music bank and many other broadcasts were cancelled out of respect for this horrible tragedy. Let's hope that these types of events can be prevented in the future. #prayforSouthKorea