Soori groaned when she arrived at school. Almost immediately, she was greeted by Mark’s face.

Her friends could only chuckle. They all walked to school together, and surprisingly Soori killed none of them for the stunt they pulled yesterday. She was too tired.

“Hey babe,” Mark greeted.

“Annoyance,” Soori replied, making her way to her locker.

“Ouch,” he chuckled, following her to the locker.

The other friends all just shrugged and walked off to their lockers, they had already agreed to meet up nearby the arts hall later on. Woobin even texted Jackson so they could meet up with them as well.

Soori pretended to ignore him while she opened her locker, slipping in a few folders.

“What are those folders for? It’s only the second day of school,” Mark commented.

“For my classes tomorrow. I just grabbed them while I remembered so I wouldn’t forget tomorrow,” Soori explained.

Mark nodded as he leaned against the lockers next to Soori. She had to admit, he looked rather hot. She couldn’t help but always think a cute guy looked extremely hot when he leaned against a wall, or a locker, or a doorway, or anything.

She looked over at him as she closed her locker, hooking her fingers onto the straps of her bag. “How the hell did you even get my contact information?”

“It’s not like I got your phone number, but you should give me that. Anyway, I got it when I found you on Instagram,” Mark answered.

Soori remembered that her Instagram profile did show her snapchat and kik usernames, she immediately regretted that.

“And you found my Instagram… How?”

“I looked up your name obviously,” Mark chuckled.

Soori rolled her eyes, “Stalker,” she muttered before walking away, towards the arts hall.

“Hey, where you going, babe?” Mark quickly caught up.

“To meet up with the others, why are you following me?” Soori glanced at him.

“I want to be with my babe, duh,” Mark winked at her while subtly wrapping his arm around the girl’s waist.

She immediately nudged him away and kept walking, leaving Mark behind.

A few girls started talking about the incident.

“Did you see that?”

“Yeah… How could she just push him away like that?”

“Oh, don’t worry… That just means the hottie is all ours.”

“Mm… But still… Who would push away a hot guy like that? Damn… I’d drop my for him in an instant.”

Mark heard the comments and just chuckled in amusement, turning over to the group of ladies, he smirked at them before walking toward them. If he couldn’t get Soori, at least he could get over the rejection with other ladies.

~

When Soori approached the others, she was more than delighted to see that Mark was gone. But a part of her was a little worried, she wondered if she had nudged him too hard. That wasn’t possible right? It’s not like she had elbowed him as hard as she had done in theater the other day.

“Hey, where’s Mark?” Jackson questioned when he saw her.

She only shrugged in reply, “Flirting?” she made a random guess.

“With someone other than you?” Woobin raised an eyebrow.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Jaebum chuckled while shaking his head.

Soori raised an eyebrow as she saw that Jaebum’s arm was once again around Jinhee’s shoulder.

Serah noticed Soori’s expression and quickly shook her head, signaling for no questions to be asked. Soori shrugged lightly in response and sat down next to Serah.

“Just don’t ask,” she sighed.

Soori sighed, “Silver hair already got her wrapped around his finger huh?”

“It seems so. There’s no talking Jinhee out of it.”

“Don’t trust him?” Soori questioned while stealing a glance to the couple. They were too busy cuddling to pay attention to anything.

“It happened way too fast, why would I trust him?” Serah sighed.

“I don’t think Jaebum would really do anything really bad,” Bambam said, walking up to the two.

Serah shrugged, “I still don’t trust him.”

Bambam shrugged as well, “I don’t blame you, honestly.”

“Do you have fourth period with Mark?” Serah asked Soori.

Soori shook her head, “But my class is nearby his apparently.”

“What do you have fourth period?” Bambam asked.

Soori shrugged and took her schedule out and hummed for a minute before finding her fourth period class, “English with Mrs. Mae.”

“I have that class!” Jackson suddenly called out.

“Me too!” Bambam grinned.

“As do I,” Serah chuckled.

“Oh… Fun,” Soori laughed softly.

“We’re going to have a blast in there,” Jackson nodded, walking over and draping his arm around Soori’s shoulders.

“That we are!” Bambam agreed while subtly wrapping his arm around Serah.

The two girls shrugged, figuring these two boys wouldn’t really do anything bad to them.

“Hey, the bell is going to ring soon, we should head off to class now,” Moonhyun commented, walking in the direction of his classroom.

Everyone nodded and waved goodbye to each other before going to their first class of the day.

Bambam, Serah, Jackson, and Soori walked to fourth period together. As they were walking on, they caught eye of Mark in a corner, with a girl’s arms wrapped around his neck and his arms around her waist. They were making out.

Soori and Serah simply raised an eyebrow at the sight and glanced at each other with a small shrug. Bambam and Jackson merely chuckled; they were used to seeing that sight. Shamelessly, Jackson tugged Mark away.

“Let’s not be late again ,” Jackson said.

Mark rolled his eyes and looked back to the girl he was making out with, giving her a small wink to signal that they’d continue later on. The girl grinned and winked back, biting down on her lower lip before walking away. Mark eyed the girl from behind for a minute before turning back to the group. His eyebrows immediately rose up to his hairlines when he saw Jackson’s arm around Soori.

Jackson noticed first and smirked, nudging Mark before wrapping his arm tighter around Soori, who seemed to not care in the slightest bit.

Mark seemed genuinely pissed off, and so he moved over to tug Soori away from Jackson, wrapping his arm around her instead.

Soori blinked in shock before pulling herself away from him.

Mark had a small pout, angered that she let Jackson wrap his arm around her but not him. However, he decided to instead. “What babe? Are you jealous of that girl? Don’t worry, I’ll treat you like that too if you want me to.”

Soori gave a disgusted scoff and looked away, “Jealous? Please. Why would I want you to make out with me after making out with another girl? Perhaps you’ve forgotten, Mark. But I hate players like you. I despise them.”

Serah let out a low whistle and chuckled. She, of course, knew the reasons behind Soori’s behavior. Not only had Soori been played by a player, but she still has not even had her first kiss.

Mark sighed, remembering the silence that took over Soori after he had figured out she had been hurt by a player. “Whatever that last guy did to you, I don’t intend on doing it.”

“You don’t even know what he did, and you won’t have the chance to do it. Because I won’t ever let you,” Soori’s voice turned cold as she walked away, quickly entering the classroom when she saw Bambam and Serah enter.

Mark let out another sigh and pursed his lips together.

“Man, whatever you’re doing, it’s really pissing her off. I can almost taste the hatred in her voice,” Jackson chuckled as he placed a hand on Mark’s shoulder. He noticed the look in the red haired man’s eyes and raised an eyebrow. “You alright bro?”

Mark simply shook his head and ran a hand through his head, “I have no idea. Soori just… She does things to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t mean anything good. When I met her in first period yesterday, I was my flirty self. By lunch she had already broke down my walls and made me not want to be a flirt when I’m around her.”

“You really fell for her? Already? Wow…” Jackson chuckled.

“I’m not in love!” Mark replied.

Jackson put his hands up in mock surrender and chuckled. “I didn’t say you were.”

Then the bell rang again, signaling that they were late for class. They both sighed and went into their classrooms, not exactly fearing for their teachers yelling at them for being late. It was only the second day; they get a free pass the entire first week.

~

At lunch, Jinhee and Soori made their way to their group of girls: Naomi, Mina, and Hana.

“So, anything new with that Mark boy?” Hana smiled as the two girls approached.

“OH!” Jinhee started, “We went to the café yesterday and we basically just ditched Mark and Soori over there.”

The girls chuckled softly while Soori rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“So how was that?” smiled Naomi.

“ that,” Soori breathed out, propping her elbow up on the table.

“You really dislike him don’t you?” Mina chuckled.

Soori faked a gasp, “Is it that obvious?”

“Man it’s so obvious Captain Obvious would be like, ‘Damn. That’s obvious,’” Hana laughed.

“Well good for Captain Obvious,” Soori rolled her eyes. “I’m gonna go buy lunch.”

Of course, as soon as Soori was at the lunch line, a certain red-haired teenager was seen nearby her.

However, Soori soon discovered, he was there with another girl. His arm comfortably wrapped around her shoulder, the girl so shamelessly flirting up with him as she pressed her body up against his. Soori could almost tell that if Mark looked directly down, he’d be face to face with cleavage.

She rolled her eyes in disgust and pretended not to notice.

Mark couldn’t help but to be slightly disappointed when Soori walked by, seeming to not give even the slightest care about how he was flirting with another girl.

It bothered him for several reasons. The main one being, if Mark got so upset when he saw Soori flirting with Jinyoung, why couldn’t she be upset when she saw him flirting with random strangers?

“Oppa, you wanna know a secret?” the girl giggled flirtatiously as she pressed her s up against Mark’s body.

By then, Mark could already tell what the secret was. He felt nothing supporting her s through the thin fabric of her shirt.

With a slight smirk, Mark quickly pulled the girl away from the cafeteria, hoping this would help him get his mind off of Soori.

But, his eyes caught hers as he was leading the eager girl out of the cafeteria, and he flinched slightly at the cold, emotionless stare she gave when their eyes met.

It’s only been a day Mark, give it a rest.

He chuckled and shook his head, quickly leading the girl somewhere private.

~

Study hall was actually not just a time for the students to catch up on any late work or study for upcoming tests, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, study hall was used as a counseling time.

Bullying and family problems were becoming more and more of a problem, but students refused to tell any adults. So the school had taken away study hall time to give students a chance to have a teacher and friends whom they could trust and tell everything to with no worries.

No, they did not specifically go one by one and figure out every last detail of a student’s life being harassed or abused, but they had lessons on how they should go about it, shared stories if they wished to about past times they were abused or harassed, and became a close community.

That was what Soori found out as she listened to the teacher’s speech about what students were to do in study hall. She didn’t mind it at all, despite having plenty of problems that she refused to talk about, as long as she acted like nothing was wrong the teacher wouldn’t find out.

Normally, she’d be alright sharing a story or two with the class, the only problem as of that moment was the fact that Mark would be there. Somewhere within her, she felt like that person would use any given information against her if he could. That was what she was afraid of.

~

While Soori walked to the last class of the day, P.E., she once again caught Mark with another girl. Her eyebrows furrowed in disgust.

That many girls in one day? Tch… Shameless isn’t he?

She quickly looked away when the couple started making out. Nothing grossed Soori out more than PDA.

By the time she had reached the P.E. room, someone else had opened the door for her. Soori glanced over and saw herself face to face with Mark. She could still smell the lingering perfume and the slight mark of lipstick on his lips.

Soori ignored him and walked into the gym, immediately finding Jinhee, Hana, and Mina on the bleachers. She walked over to them, leaving Mark behind.

Mark merely watched as she walked off to her friends. His eyes subtly gazing down over her body, he cat whistled in his mind and turned his head when he heard footsteps.

Youngjae, Jaebum, and Yugyeom came walking in his direction.

Youngjae was the first to scrunch his nose slightly when they got closer to the boy. The perfume was still lingering.

“Really, Mark?” Jaebum chuckled.

“I don’t think you’re going to win Soori over with this,” Youngjae shook his head.

“Who said I was trying to win her over?” Mark raised an eyebrow at his friends.

They all shrugged in response. No one said he was trying to, it was just obvious.

Mark rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Soori is hard to persuade. I’m not going to sit around and not get any action just because of her.”

The other boys slowly nodded.

“And what about you Jaebum? How’s it going with Jinhee?” Mark changed the topic.

“Well as you can all see, she’s completely and one hundred percent wrapped around my finger,” the boy chuckled.

“And when does the poor girl get her heart broken?” Mark raised an eyebrow.

“Well first, she takes some persuading with this whole thing of no longer being pure.”

“You’re taking away her innocence???” Yugyeom exclaimed.

“Is that a problem?” Jaebum raised an eyebrow.

“It might be for Bambam,” Youngjae chuckled.

“And why is that?” even Mark was confused.

“Well… Bambam has a thing for Serah. Jinhee is Serah’s best friend. Bambam was telling me earlier that once Jaebum breaks Jinhee’s heart, Serah is going to hate all of us, and Bambam isn’t okay with that,” Yugyeom explained.

“Wait wait wait wait. BAMBAM LIKES SERAH?!?!” Jaebum and Mark exclaimed.

~

Jinhee was practically begging Soori for them to go where the boys were.

“Please! I want to be with Jaebum!!” Jinhee whined.

“Then go be with him,” Soori sighed, pulling her phone out and starting to play games.

“Soori you need to come with me!” the girl was persistent and she kept tugging at Soori’s arm.

The twins watched the scene with amusement dancing in their eyes. It was fun to see Soori behaving coldly to others.

Jinhee continued on for another few minutes. They weren’t particularly worried about listening to the P.E. teacher. You don’t do anything in P.E. for the first day anyway.

“Alright!” Soori finally gave in, standing up and swinging her bag over her shoulder while shoving her phone back into her pocket.

Jinhee cheered and jumped up happily, only to soon coward away when she saw how cold and emotionless Soori appeared. Even Mina and Hana backed away a little.

To put it simply, everyone was scared of the new Soori.

The group walked to where Mark and the other boys were. Mina, Hana, and Jinhee were a few steps ahead of Soori. The three girls were smiling and giggling amongst themselves while Soori tugged her phone back out along with her headphones.

When the girls got up to the guys, Jaebum happily wrapped his arm around Jinhee. A small smirk tugged at his lips for a split second – which didn’t go unnoticed by the other boys, though the girls were still oblivious.

“What brings you lovely ladies over here?” Youngjae asked politely, seeing two girls he hadn’t met before.

“Jin-”

Jinhee quickly covered Mina’s mouth and cleared . “Soori was in a bad mood so we thought you guys could cheer her up!” she lied.

The boys believed it anyway.

Mark was the first to approach her, grinning widely while he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Well, he attempted to wrap his arm around her. The minute he was merely a footstep away from Soori, she shot a cold glare towards him.

He gulped but still slowly took her by the arm, gently holding her and pulling her close. “What’s wrong babe?”

Soori stared at him, pretending not to hear him because of her music.

Mark took note of the headphones and gently tugged one of the earplugs out, smiling softly at her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Soori replied coldly.

Again, neither of the two had noticed that the other six had moved away.

“You don’t seem like it,” he frowned.

“And what does it matter to you?”

“Everything about you matters to me,” Mark said sincerely.

Soori was taken aback by this statement but she just stared coldly at him and shook her head. “Player.”

Mark shook his head, a wide grin on his face. “I’m not when you’re around.”

Soori scoffed at this, “Yeah? And why is that everytime I saw you today you were making out with some girl? That’s one hell of a lie you just told me.”

“What I meant to say was… I’m not a player when I’m talking to you. You’re different. I can be myself.”

“Well that’s nice isn’t it?” she rolled her eyes, not believing him.

“Soori. I mean it. You’re different! You’re not like the other girls who just shamelessly throw themselves at me. Girls who beg me to take their innocence away. Girls who just beg me to do anything ual with them whether I’ve flirted with them or not. You’re the only girl I’ve wanted that hasn’t done that to me.”

“Thanks for making a girl feel special.”

“You are special.”

“Shut up.”

“Why? Why are you so mean to me!” Mark raised his voice a little, getting fed up with this.

“Don’t you remember? I’m not fond of you. I don’t like you,” Soori gritted her teeth.

“You barely know me. Please, spend a day or two to get to know me! The real me, not the player you met yesterday. And if you still hate me, then so be it,” Mark said.

The girl sighed and rolled her eyes, “I don’t understand why you try so hard with me.”

“You’re someone worth trying for,” Mark smiled. And for once, Soori felt her body tingle at his words.

~~~~~~~~~

God that took me forever to type up.

Well. From here on out will be all the fun stuff ^^

I be excited~

Comment Replies~

thelillcat - LOOOOL. Mark needs a life tbh--

JeLLY_BeaNS - HOHO. Consider yourself Soori's favorite cousin--

ShimSakura21 - Sorry dear, I'll try to update as much as possible <3 I'm glad you love it!

Kim_Hyojin_Sweethear - Of course, all stories end happily!

khayjun_ho - I'm glad you do! :D Thank you~!

pinkypn - An interesting theory c: And I believe it's all in perspective. The way I wrote this was that Soori's mom didn't want her children living in the streets and instead, allowed Soori to do whatever she wished to the uncle that didn't involve having him in jail. Family is family.The second little detail I'm not sure if it was really noticable or not, but the uncle only does things to Soori when he's drunk so that's why everyone deals with it.

_ayo_whaddup_kris - THAT'S GREAT BECAUSE I LOVE WRITING THOSE PARTS OUT.