Hallway Talks And Insecurities

The Art Of Jealousy
Please Subscribe to read the full chapter

CHAPTER 048: Hallway Talk And Insecurities

 

“Hana,” Mr. Nam calls, making you snap your head away from the conversation you and Kris were having. “Can you take the attendance to the office?”

You nod, not really wanting to do it but having no option.

You stand up and hear Kris sigh because you were telling him a story about when you were five and stole the neighbor’s dog named Mr. Peanut butter before you were interrupted and called. The taller boy watches you walk towards the teacher with lethargic steps. “I’m sorry I had to ask you even if you’re not class president, but Suho is not here today, and so I figured asking the best student in the school was just as good.”

You want to tell him that you don’t have to be a good student to take the attendance to the office, but you instead ask, “How come Suho isn’t here?”

      “He and his family left for vacation,” Mr. Nam laughs, “That rascal. He couldn’t wait one more day.”

You smile, “if I had vacation plans, I would have left a day early, as well.’

       Mr. Nam sends you a cheeky glare, “I see you’re talking a lot more these days, Ms. Song.”

You realize he’s right.

      “I also realized you’re happy and more social. I’m glad that you’ve received such change.”

You grin, shrugging your shoulders.

      “It must be Eunsul. Though I am surprise such troublemaker could engender such positive change from you.”

You shake your head, “She’s a little stubborn, but she’s not trouble. She’s very intelligent and very kind.”

Mr. Nam laughs, “If you say so.” His words irritate you. Eunsul doesn’t even have bad grades- you know this because you monitor her grades. She isn’t publicly rude or loud either, so you’re not sure why your teacher thinks and sees her as someone who causes trouble. “Now go leave the attendance at the office before the school bell rings and everyone has to go home.”

You nod, gabbing the papers he hands you, before walking out of the classroom.

When you enter the main office, it’s not loud and busy like usual since everyone is calm and getting ready for winter vacation and Christmas. “Mr. Nam told me to hand you the class’ attendance,” you say as you spread out your hands with the attendance to the plump lady at the front desk so she could take them. She fixes her round glasses that were falling off the bridge of her nose and grabs the paper from your hands, not even looking up at you. “Mr. Nam is usually early when it comes to the attendance,” she says, scanning the paper. You shift on your feet, playing with your fingers in a nervous habit because she sounds irritated. “Suho, the class president, wasn’t here today and he’s the one in charge of attendance. I’m guessing that’s why-”

     “I understand,” she interrupts, “But he needs to know that I have to place the attendance in the school records on time and he’s making my job a lot harder by sending me the attendance late...” she trails off once she looks up and meets your face. She blinks at you and you feel yourself blush at the sudden and intense attention.

      “Song Hana,” the lady mutters and you frown. “Yes, that’s me?”

The lady has a serious face for a long second before it drastically changes into a huge smile. You almost flinch at the sudden change of her expression.

      “This is the first time I have spoken to you face to face!” the lady says, “I’ve heard a lot about you, Hana.”

You don’t know how to feel about that, but you assume she must be speaking about your academic grades. “Oh…” you mumble out, unsure on what to say.

The lady laughs, waving a hand as if to dismiss the subject. “Don’t worry about what I am saying! I heard already that you’re very shy. You must feel a bit troubled by people always questioning you, huh?”

You smile a bit, though it is rather forced. “Ha…Yeah, I guess…”

      “Have you already planned on where you’re going to university? I bet you won’t have a problem getting into any school! Maybe you can apply to an American Ivy school! With your test scores and your grades, I am sure you can make it!”

You try your hardest not to cringe at her enthusiasm, but fail miserably. Instead, you take a step back and smile, “No, I don’t want to leave the country. I’m planning on attending Seoul National University.”

      “Oh!” the lady gasps, voice turning hushed, “It’s really difficult to get in there!” she then smiles, eyes wrinkling on the corners, “But that’s not a problem for you, is it?” she laughs and you want to get the hell out of the office. She’s making you very anxious.

You clear your throat, “If you don’t mind, I need to get back to class.”

She gasps, “Of course! Of course!”

You bow and smile one last time before rushing out of there and exiting into the hallway. When you’re finally walking to class, the anxiety really gets to you. Graduation is in a couple of months and you’re yet to determine what you want to study. What do you want to do with your life?

You’ve never actually thought about it….

      “Hana?”

You frown. Are you hearing things now?

       “Hana!”

You turn around, eyes squinted. Who’s calling you-

      “Hey,” Yuri gasps, trying her hardest to breathe since she was running after you.

You stay frozen. What the . Should you run? That sounds like a great idea. Maybe you should run-

      “No, don’t run,” she says, seeing the way you’re about to bolt out of there. She places a hand on your arm and you almost feel like flinching and pushing her away, but instead you let her grab onto you and watch her lean down to place her other hand on her knee so she could catch her breath. You didn’t know she ran that much. In fact, according to your calculations, the length of the hallway, and the distance between you and the other end of the hallway, as well as the time she called on you, she should not have ran that much. Either she’s pretending or she’s really out of shape. Interesting, you think to yourself, you’ve never met a person more out of shape than yourself.

      “I need to talk to you,” she says, once her breath is stabled.

You rethink the thought of running. Why would she want to talk? Nothing good comes out of socializing with her. You were bullied in every way possible because of her. All of Yuri’s friends beat you up badly because they thought you were stealing Chanyeol away from her. Not to mention, that she’s always been the person that has made your life miserable the most. Directly and indirectly. She’s bad news for you.

This is not a good idea, you conclude. But then again… what would the almighty Eunsul do?

       “Please,” Yuri begs. You’re taken aback by the plea and how gentle her voice sounds. However, this could be a trap…

       “I don’t understand why you need to talk to me,” you say, voice strained and trying your hardest to maintain it as stable and tough as possible.

      “I’m not going to hurt you or say mean things. I just want to talk and…” she sighs, “Please.”

Is she going to scream at me because of Chanyeol? What if she blames me and tells me that I stole him away from her. That is most likely to happen by an 80% chance because of my current position as his best friend and ex-girlfriend, and her own shady and stubborn personality.

      “I know you don’t trust me because I have not been the nicest person, but I won’t do anything.”

To say you are skeptical is an understatement.

She notices the harsh stare you’re looking at her with. She also notices how defensive your stance is.

      “We could talk here,” she says. “In the hallway.”

You still stare at her. You’re unsure as to why she’s even out of the classroom. She smiles but her lips have a nervous quiver to them. She looks around and you raise a brow in question as she sits down against the wall. She sits down with her legs crossed and a faint smile on her lips. Why is she sweating? You wonder to yourself. She pats the spot next to her. “You can sit down if you want,” she smiles up at you.

You are still wondering what to do but eventually you take a deep breath and realize that maybe it wouldn’t hurt to listen to whatever she has to say. You slowly walk towards her and sit down as well, legs crossed and leaning against the wall.

 

That is how you find yourself sitting in the school’s hallway with Kwon Yuri.

I guess that’s safer, you think to yourself. It’s public and it minimizes the chance of an attack. Oh my god, Hana. What the is wrong with you? You need to calm down. She says she’s not going to hurt you…

But what if she’s lying?

No, you’ll be fine. If she tries anything, you can just pretend she’s Kris and kick her . Yes, that’s perfect. You’ve always had anger bottled deep inside of you because you’re always stressed about school, so you might as well let it out by fighting Yuri-

      “I’m sorry.”

You freeze on your skin. Did you just hear Kwon Yuri apologize?

      “Um... What?”

The girl takes a deep breath. You look at her and suddenly realize how much perspiration is coming out of her and how red she is of embarrassment.

      “I’m very sorry,” she says. She almost sounds breathless. “I want to apologize because of my attitude towards you and because I put a lot of people against you at the beginning of the year, and also because my friends are stupid idiots that tormented you… because of me.” She takes another deep breath. “You didn’t deserve any of the things that happened.”

You’re staring at her with wide eyes, mouth agape in complete shock and astonishment. You almost feel a bit guilty for thinking that she was only speaking to you because of negative motives.

      “I had apologized to Chanyeol and told him to tell you that I was sorry,” she looks down at her lap, ears red, “But he told me that I should tell you personally. However, that sounded intimidating and made me really nervous since I am very ashamed to look at you after everything.”

      “You’re talking to me now, though,” you mumble. She looks up at you. Your eyes are not harsh or judgmental and she feels her pulse calm down by a bit.

      “Yeah, I am,” she mutters and she looks down at her lap again. “I’m so sorry.”

You smile. You could see why Chanyeol fell in love with her in the first place. Now it makes sense as to why he picked her over you. She’s a good person. Though a bit reckless and childish in some aspects, she has a good heart. She has good intentions but just acts on impulse. She seems like someone Chanyeol would like.

You stare as she plays with her fingers in a nervous habit that you do as well. She looks like a child in shame.

      “It’s okay,” you say, sighing. You figure that having a grudge on someone just isn’t worth it. It makes one grow bitter when they can just grow better. People change. Every day is a new day for progress and for someone to change and turn into a better person. People make mistakes. The person you were yesterday is not who you are today, and it won’t be who you will be tomorrow.

      “Is it?” she says, and she looks at you with a look resembling shame and sadness. Her eyes are watery and the last thing you want is to see her cry. You panic at the thought of dealing with a crying girl. You’re very bad at that!

       “Yes!” you blurt out, seeing as her eyes are beginning to spill the first tears. “It’s totally okay! I completely forgive you!”

She frowns at you, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. “Why are you yelling?” she laughs, though it’s a small laugh.

You smile, kind of anxious. “I just don’t want you to cry. I get anxiety if I see people sad. I’m very bad at comforting people.”

Yuri laughs, completely clearing her face of tears, though she groans and leans her head back in annoyance when she feels another wave hit her. “I’m sorry,” she says again, patting her eyes to not let the tears fall. “This is really embarrassing!” she groans

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter
Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
Galaxyboo_
#1
Chapter 16: I'm coming again haha
MartinaN
#2
Chapter 52: Been on a long break from this story, it's good and if it was on paper it would have been a real brick.
MartinaN
#3
Chapter 34: Started to read this story yesterday, must admit that it affected my night. Had a hard time sleeping, couldn't stop reading. You are a painter with words, just as in the story about April. Love your way to describe people, you make it possible to me to visualize everyone, even Nana and Papa. You are a great writer, keep up the good work.
Galaxyboo_
#4
Chapter 66: This is so good I had a good laugh
Galaxyboo_
#5
Chapter 16: Aww I like eunsul already
cheonchoni
#6
Chapter 55: This is one of my comfort fanfic hehehe I just can't stop giggling no matter how many times I've read it xD
cheonchoni
#7
Chapter 33: I could sing praises to Hana for how mature and calm she approached this subject with chanyeol. Let's be honest, this is HOW we wanted to act when we're in this kind of situation. Literally an ideal one. Hana you're amazing. I love her character.