[3 : "You really need those scissors because you need to cut it out."]

{Goddess of Inelegance’s POV}

I’ve lost count on how many minutes I’ve been watching Kyungmi unnie and Baekhyun argue. It’s not even offending for me that Baekhyun doesn’t want to be involved in this whole Operation: Turn the Graceless into the Graceful project. Even I don’t want to be involved with me. What I’m surprised is how they look so close like they haven’t just met just minutes ago.

“Baekhyun, we’ve been going on for minutes but you didn’t even give me a proper greeting!” Kyungmi unnie moped.

“It’s because you’re forcing me into something I don’t want to be part of!” Baekhyun answered back. Ouch.

“Okay, let’s settle this outside,” Kyungmi unnie insisted and dragged Baekhyun out of the room by his ear.

I don’t want to be nosy or anything but there’s this voice in my head that tells me that peeking near that door would solve so many questions for me. And so I did.

“Baekhyun, please just do this. How about just take this as a comeback gift?” Kyungmi pleaded.

“I cannot!” Baekhyun protested, probably thinking that his aegyo would save him.

“You know, I actually brought a lot of gifts from America for you and your mom...” she started. “Of course I’d give it to your mom tomorrow, earlier than yours, if you accept my offer to just assist me.”

I don’t know what expression Baekhyun was wearing with his back facing my line of sight. I stopped peeking from the door and just stayed behind it to listen to their conversation.

“What offer?”

“It’s –“

“No, no, no. I changed my mind. Don’t say it. I know what you’re going to say. No. No! I’m not going to listen!”

I was struggling not to laugh. Things are getting very interesting.

“It’s –“

“Lalalalalalalalalala!”

“A set of Marc Jacobs eyeliner. And it’s Limited Edition~” she sang.

I cannot breathe. I want to laugh so hard but I cannot. I was pressing my palms so hard against my pursed lips. Baekhyun and eyeliner? Does the whole school know this or is it just those 12 boys?

They turned silent and that was a sign for me to come back to my seat. I silently tiptoed quickly back to my seat until I stubbed my shoe against the foot of  Kyungmi unnie’s desk. The next thing that happened was I tumbled to the floor.

“If you took a ninja exam, you are automatically out,” Baekhyun said, all positivity gone from his voice. He’s most likely upset about the eyeliner thing. I just can’t believe how he chose his set of eyeliners over his freedom.

I groaned and took my time to get on my knees and sit on where I formerly sat. Kyungmi silently giggled and motioned Baekhyun to take his seat.

“About that eyeliner thing,” he began. “It’s a known fact.”

Then why is this the first time I’ve heard about it?

“It’s not a secret?”

“Just don’t go broadcasting it over the whole school.” He grinned and put his pointing finger before his lips. I nodded.

“Okay!” Kyungmi unnie yelled in a shrill voice. “Now that we’re complete with everything, Hyesu-ah, I have a quiz for you.”

My silence was a sign for her to continue. Kyungmi puckered her lips and pulled her eyeglasses from her coat pocket.

“Are you ready?” she elatedly asked. I nodded again. I thought she was going to ask me orally, but she only handed me a piece of paper with questions on them. I scanned all the questions and then at Kyungmi unnie, doubtfully.

“Uh, unnie, did you perhaps take this from the Internet?” I asked. Her eyes widened slightly and she looked to her left. She laughed nervously.

“H-how did you know?” she asked, still looking back.

“I already took this quiz...” I answered, looking at every question.

“It doesn’t matter, Hyesu-ah. Please answer.”

Question 1: Do you often stumble over nothing?
Answer: Yes

Question 2:  Have you fallen up a flight of stairs?
Answer: Yes, and I pulled one student’s leg before and he broke an arm while I broke a finger.

Question 3: Do you always drop things?
Answer: Yes

Question 4: Have you ever punched yourself in the face by accident?
Answer: Yes

Question 5: Did you have bruise on your forehead when you suddenly let go of your phone while texting?
Answer: Yee

Question 6: Have you ever forgotten you had a pen in hand and accidentally poked yourself with it?
Answer: This only happened twice though, good thing it wasn’t my eye

Question 7: Do you have good balance?
Answer: I don’t have problems with my balance at all. Things just get in my way quite often

Question 8: Are you often called a klutz?
Answer: I’m called a goddess (heh)

Question 9: Do you walk into walls?
Answer: Ya

Question 10: Aside from stumbling on floors, do you stumble on your words?
Answer: I don’t have problems with my talking

Situation 1: You’re bringing the family’s main dish to your table, you...
Answer: I’m never trusted with bringing the dishes, let alone, holding the plates and washing them

Situation 2: You’re walking down the halls and see your crush, and you trip and fall on your face, you...
Answer: Won’t get up until he leaves

“What’s taking you so long? I already finished the quiz.” Baekhyun whined and I wordlessly showed my palm to him.

Situation 3: You’re starring in a movie and you have to fake-punch you’re partner, you...
Answer: Is my partner Baekhyun? I’d probably really hit him like I did a while ago. You know, accidentally

“What question are you on?” Baekhyun nagged, taking a peek from my answers. I hid my paper with my left arm and told him to freaking wait.

Situation 4: You run through a large glass window or screen door, you...
Answer: Pretend I was window-shopping

“Hyesu-ah, I think I’m growing a beard.”

“Byun Baekhyun please quiet down! There’s only one question left!”

Situation 5: You are running with a pair of scissors, you...
Answer: It’s a sin to run with scissors. I never run with a pair of scissors. But I hope Baekhyun does so he would stop bothering me

“I’m done!” I exclaimed, waving the paper and handing it to Kyungmi unnie.

“I think I just saw my name there.” Baekhyun uttered, reaching for my paper. Once he took a hand of the other end, I quickly yanked it away from his grasp and the paper torn into half. I gasped loudly.

“Baekhyun, whyyy?!” I cried. I’m going mad. Baekhyun has gone quiet and I noticed him reading the other half of my paper. I looked down on my torn paper and saw the piece with the last question was in his hands. I eyed him watchfully and guessed of the thing that he would do next. He held his chest and fake-cried.

“You want me to die?” he pouted. I was about to reply with a sarcastic remark when Kyungmi unnie took both of the paper we were holding.

“Guys, please. We’ll be meeting two times a week for two months and you’re fighting? Let’s practice peace in this room, shall we? Be one with nature!” she proclaimed, pulling a tape from her desk to quickly tape my torn paper. Coincidentally, lightning flashed and it thundered, rain came pouring down seconds after.

“Baekhyun, please close the window,” she ordered and Baek wordlessly did what she said and returned back to his seat with a grunt.

“Sit properly.”

We both did what she followed she gave each of us a sketchbook.

“My gift to you guys on our first meeting. Do you like it?”

“This .” Baekhyun remarked and Kyungmi hit him on the head with her folder. “In this room, I am a guidance counsellor, okay, Byun Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun mumbled something under his breath and flipped the pages of the sketchbook.

“What is this for?” I asked.

“For our first activity,” she answered, her smile growing wider. She’s really more excited than Baekhyun and I.

“Clumsiness can’t be cured, but it can be trained and prevented. One of those trainings is improving hand-eye coordination. Since you, Hyesu-ssi, have 20/20 vision, we’ll move to this practice number one!”

“And that is?” I asked.

She grabbed two pencils and markers from her bag and a box of colour pencils.

“Colouring!”

My mind was shouting, “Noooooooooooooooooo!” I can sketch, yes, I’m actually pretty confident with the outcomes of my drawings, but when I colour it, it turns ugly and unpleasant to look at. A toddler could probably win against me when I colour my works.

“What are we? Toddlers?” Baekhyun retorted.

“Toddlers need colouring books. People your age draw. In this activity, I ask you to draw each other and after that, we’ll say our first impressions of each other. Understand? I’ll join, too, if you don’t mind.”

I kind of feel guilty because Kyungmi unnie is the only one in the room who’s being so lively and cheerful. I would never have thought being in the same place with me would drain all the joy from Baekhyun.

“Now face each other,” she instructed and we did what she asked and faced each other at the same time.

With our brief eye contact, Baekhyun quickly turned away and covered his mouth with his hand. “Pfft.”

“Baekhyun-ah...” I called slowly with gritted teeth. “You really need those scissors because you need to cut it out.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll draw now.”

It was quiet and peaceful for quite a while. I put all my efforts on sketching while Baekhyun didn’t even lift his pencil and decided to use the marker to start with. Quiet and peaceful didn’t last very long. I was thankful at first that Baekhyun didn’t utter a word, I didn’t know Kyungmi unnie was very chatty.

“Hello, is this Chanyeollie? – Do you remember me? – Eh? You can’t recognize my voice? – This isn’t a prank call, this is Kyungmi, Beom Kyungmi! – That’s right, new guidance counsellor. How’re you all doing? – Me? Here taking Byun Baekhyun as my hostage. – No way! Hey, is Kyungsoo there with you? I really miss him. – What the hell Park Chanyeol, I have a boyfriend. Kyungsoo is just so Kyungsoo, wait, I mean—This isn’t why I called! – I’m going to borrow Baekhyun here for 2 months, every Wednesday and Friday. So could you take his responsibilities as School Rep? – Thank you Yeol! I’m counting on you! – Oh, you’re on loud speaker? Hi boys!”

I was following every word she said, I absentmindedly stopped drawing. She talked on the phone for another minute before going back to us. I quickly put my attention back to drawing, only to realize I only have a few minutes left. And I still haven’t coloured!

“2 minutes left~”

“Ugh,” I groaned under my breath and just quickly traced the outline of the drawing with my marker.

“Hyesu-ssi, I have a question.”

“Not now.” I replied at once, horribly colouring Baekhyun’s hair.

“You have less than a minute left,” he reminded. I inhaled deeply and just gave up on everything. Who cares if the portrait looks bad, right?

“Time’s up!” Kyungmi announced and I sighed.

“My turn first!” Kyungmi unnie grabbed her sketchbook from her desk, flipped a few pages, and showed one page to us. When did she find the time to draw this? Even in full detail?

“I was in a hurry because I had to make a call so sorry if it’s a little messy.”

“Define ‘a little messy’. That’s one amazing illustration.” I said in awe, looking at every detail of the picture. It was cute: I looking so worked up on my drawing while Baek casually colouring, his head tilted up, and eyes covertly looking right at me. If he could only look at me like that all the time like he didn’t spend most of his high school years avoiding me, it’d be great.

“I thought Hyesu is really a dumb person,” she started and I heard Baekhyun snicker. “Because clumsy people are often dubbed as very stupid ones, but you Hyesu, you look very intelligent to me. Very witty and adorable. People must think you’re very well-mannered and graceful before they see you tripping on air.”

I laughed awkwardly and glared at Baekhyun.

“Your turn, Baek.”

“Wait, you won’t say anything about him?” I asked.

“Well... We met a very long time ago when both our moms decided to build a cafe together. He was the same old kid who plays pranks. He’s always friendly so I wasn’t surprised when I learned that he got a place in the council.”

The arrogant smile on Baekhyun’s face, really, I don’t know what to think about it.

“Your turn, Mr. Byun.”

Baekhyun with his confident smile turned his sketchpad and I got to say, it looks pretty decent (and cute, to be honest). What he said afterwards, not so.

“Actually, it’s my first time to be teamed up with Hyesu-ssi though we’re from the same class. I really tried my best to not get myself involved with her and have always avoided her till this point.” Ouch.

“I always hear things such as Hyesu-ssi injuring another student and breaking things. I thought she was a delinquent so I was really scared but then it was actually this,” he said while gesturing to my whole being. Ouch again.

“Delinquent or not, I really lived till this day thinking that if I ever got near her I would break my ribs.” My eyebrow was twitching the whole time.

“So I drew another version of her.”

He e page and I literally want to charge at him and strangle or choke him like what Kyungsoo does to some people. It was horrible. It’s obviously done in a rush, and uncoloured. There lies his illustration of me with broken things all around, with a caption: Heol, Hyesu-ssi’s kingdom. Like, what the frick, Byun Baekhyun?

 “Baekhyun is always so true to himself, Hyesu. You’ll get used to this.” Kyungmi unnie guaranteed with a shy smile. “What do you say?”

“I don’t have a bad temper, so it’s okay.” I said. “You should be thankful.”

“It would be better if I would still be alive after two months. Then I’d be very thankful.” He said with a bright smile.

I grinned at him, but wanted to strangle him. “You can count on me.”

“It’s your turn Hyesu.”

I showed my drawing and they all laughed. Fricking jerks.

“Didn’t you attend kindergarten?” Baekhyun nudged my shoulder.

“Oh shut up. I was in a hurry.”

“But I got to hand it to you, Hyesu-ah, if you didn’t colour it, it would really look professional.”

“But now it looks like a baby coloured it.”

Byun Baekhyun got this talent of making people not feel so awkward all around him because he either makes their heart go fluttery-fluttery, makes them feel at ease and comfortable, or annoys them to death. I was fine with him just a while ago and now I really just want to hit him and nothing else.

“It’s a drawing of you so you’re basically laughing at yourself.” I mumbled, scowling.

“Here we go again! Stop fighting! Gosh,” Kyungmi sighed and motioned me to go on.

“Well, Baekhyun here was always the mood-maker in class and he actually left a pretty good impression on me when I first saw him. I didn’t know that he could be this annoying and talkative. And annoying. And talkative.”

“You already said that.”

“Good is it to repeat.”  I said, mocking a smile at him.

“I understand your fans, though,” I nodded once. “I acknowledge how good-looking you are.”

He tilted his head and smirked. “I know.”

“I take that back,” Sighing, I rubbed my forehead and closed my sketchpad. What do I do with him, seriously.

“Can you say that again?”

I shook my head. “Why would I?”

“Good is it to repeat.” That smile won everything. I was at loss for words and absentmindedly pursed my lips into a tight line. We stared at each other for who knows how long until Kyungmi unnie clapped her hands loudly.

“This concludes our first meeting, then. I’m looking forward for your improvements, Hyesu,” she smiled warmly at me and turned to Baekhyun with a creepy smile.

“Don’t you back out on this, Byun Baekhyun. You promised.”

Baekhyun cutely blinked and pouted while asking, “Did I?”

“Whether you promised or not, you won’t be getting the set of eyeliners if you give back your word. Understood?”

He sighed and just shrugged. “Yes, crystal. Can we go now?”

“You’re free to leave, my butterflies~ It’s raining outside. Take care!”

~*~

I really want to play On Rainy Days now, now that I’m watching the rain drizzle right before me. It has been minutes, I think, since I’ve been standing here with Baekhyun a few feet away from me. I turned my head slowly and saw him fiddling with his phone with earphones on. I gulped. Should I start a conversation? Nah.

“Hyesu-ssi, aren’t you going to go home?” he asked, out of the blue, making me jump slightly.

“Not yet. You?”

“I’m waiting to be picked up.”  

Silence again. I tapped impatiently with my foot and crossed my arms, watching one street lamp flicker.

“What are you waiting for?”

“For the rain to stop. Can’t walk on wet streets. I’m accident prone remember?” I sang.

“Why don’t you just wear rain boots?”

“I didn’t know it would rain.”

“You don’t have your phone with you?”

“Some days I left it at home. What music are you listening to?”

“On Rainy Days,” he chuckled. “You want to share?”

Finally, yes, thank you! Baekhyun asking that made me so happy.

“Maybe I could break your ribs, you’ll never know,” I said instead.

“So you don’t want to?”

“I was joking. Geez.”

Baekhyun gave off a hearty laugh and paced forward. Carefully, he slipped one of his headphones in my ear. I can’t even listen to the whole song without my whole being shaking. I mean, I didn’t even ask him to put on the earphones for me. They were all right when they said that Byun Baekhyun does a lot of thing on his own.

“The volume’s not too high, is it?” he asked blankly, focused on his phone. Frick, Baekhyun.

“No, it’s good.” I looked at my left and bit my lip secretly. Ya, Min Hyesu, pull yourself together.

“One of the earphones is slipping, come closer.”

Oh no. Nope. Nope. Nope. Hyesu. Get. A. Grip.

I will never understand Byun Baekhyun. First he tells me he has always avoided me and now he’s telling me to come closer. Seriously, what?

“You know, if you don’t want to be part of Kyungmi unnie’s counselling, it’s fine.”

“Way to change the subject, Hyesu.”

“I’m just saying.”

“It’s already done. And besides, if I get to have that set of eyeliners, all of this would be worth it.”

I opened my mouth to speak when a dark blue car suddenly showed up.

“Oh, my ride came!” he exclaimed cheerfully and I hastily pulled the earphone from my ear.

Baekhyun literally skipped to the car’s door and turned his head at me. “You’re just going to stay here?”

“Yeah, I’ll wait till the rain stops.”

“Are you sure?” I nodded. I was half expecting him to force me to join his ride because I wanted to believe that Baekhyun is a gentleman who doesn’t want a girl to wait in front of the school gates now that the sky is getting dark.

“Alright then. See you tomorrow, Hyesu-ah!” Then he got inside the car with no hesitation. Maybe I should’ve brought an umbrella.

{Mister Talkative’s POV}

“Ahjussi, I have a question.” I shrugged off my backpack and looked at the rain hitting my side of the window.

“What is it?”

“When will the rain stop?”

It took him quite a while to answer me and me at first felt a tinge of worry.

“It says in the weather report that it wouldn’t stop until midnight or possibly this morning. Why?”

I looked over at the rear window, debating whether I should have the car pulled over or not. Maybe I should’ve just given her my umbrella...

 

---

 

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! My summer just ended and finally our wifi is already fixed yay :3 Classes just started to day wooooo i do a lot of things done when im busy idk how >< this chapter is kind of rushed tho it took me more than a month to updated. Sorry again ;; please excuse the errors for the time being and i'll edit when i have the time ;u;

Don't forget to comment or subscribe or both make meh happeh! ^o^