CHAPTER 049: Relationship Status And Minho’s Rejection

 Eunsul and Yixing have not told anyone about their relationship. They’re obviously more than friends now, though the title of what they are is yet to be determined by either of them. Are they dating? Are they just really great friends? What are they?

What are we? Yixing wonders two hours before school ends and he has to go home and suffer the joy of Christmas alone later that week. Well, not alone since he could probably spend it with Mrs. Yung, the really nice old lady that lives in the next door apartment next to him. When he first came from China, she had lived with him to take care of him like a real mother but eventually his parents decided that he needed to be independent and so they sent him money for him to rent his own apartment. Luckily for Yixing, the apartment next to Mrs. Yung was available and so he did not have to completely cut ties from the kind old lady. The past Christmases, he had spent them with her and her family. She had taken it upon herself to take care of Yixing and introduce him to her family as her “Lost Grandson”, and her family was kind enough to accept him and make him feel comfortable. But now, it’s another Christmas, and Yixing wonders if it is bothersome that he always has to join Mrs. Yung’s family even if he isn’t part of their family. He’s an outsider.

His mind wonders back to Eunsul. What will she be doing during Christmas break? She did seem to have a huge family. Yixing wonders if her parents look like her. Does she resemble her mother or father? Do her younger siblings act like her? Do they have the same tough aspects in their personalities like Eunsul does?

      “Yixing,” Minseok calls.

The dimpled boy turns to look at the other. He had been spacing out on his desk for almost thirty minutes.

     “They’re calling all seniors to the auditorium,” Minseok says. He points to Jongdae and Luhan who are talking and waiting for them by the classroom’s door. “We’re all waiting for you. Come on.”

      “Oh,” Yixing stands up from his desk, following Minseok out. The four of them eventually walk out and towards the auditorium, where the principal has apparently prepared some kind of senior meeting for them. Yixing thinks it probably has to do with university and what they plan to do with their future.

As he walks and his friends are distracted talking, he spots Jiyeon, the blonde girl who is always staring at him in the classroom. She’s turned around, looking at him. Yixing smiles out of courtesy, like he always does. Jiyeon turns red and turns back around extremely quickly. The boy frowns, feeling a bit offended. He’s never been rude to her. Why would she avoid him? He thought they were friends.

      “Guess Baekhyun was not kidding when he said that Eunsul really scared her off, huh?”

Yixing turns to look at Minseok. “What?”

Minseok laughs, “Haven’t you heard? Jiyeon met up with Eunsul and threatened her to stay away from you.”

Yixing jaw tightens. Why would Jiyeon do that? That’s just really rude!

      “When did this happen?”

       “Earlier today, in the morning. At least that’s what Baekhyun told me. He said everyone was listening against the wall.”

Yixing stares at Minseok in complete shock. Does that mean that Eunsul will actually stop talking to him? He doesn’t want that. He’s confused because he saw her earlier in lunch and she seemed fine. Maybe she was just saying goodbye… what if she really did stay away from him because of Jiyeon’s threat?  

      “What’s wrong?” Minseok questions, eyebrows furrowed.

Yixing feels his eyes stare at the blonde girl in front of him, feeling anger and disappointment. “I just don’t want Eunsul to stay away from me,” he confesses mindlessly, “Why would Jiyeon say that to her?”

Minseok stares at him for a long second, mouth curling on the corners because he can’t believe that Yixing is saying that. Last time he remembered the boy was completely uncomfortable in front of Eunsul, and now here he is, talking about how much he doesn’t want the girl to be away from him.

       “You’re obviously clueless, Yixing,” Minseok says. “You must not know Eunsul well if you think she will just let Jiyeon yell at her. Especially if it’s about you.”

Yixing frowns.

Minseok sighs, “Even though Jiyeon told her to stay away from you, Eunsul told her no. And according to rumors, Eunsul almost made the girl cry. They said Jiyeon ran out of there like a very scared child. Apparently Eunsul was upset because she didn’t want to fight or cause trouble and so she just mindlessly threatened Jiyeon to stay away and Jiyeon actually listened because she got scared. Can you believe Eunsul likes you that much? I thought she only thought you were hot. She must like you a lot.”

Yixing stares into space.

“One of your little fangirls confronted me today. She told me to back off and leave you alone.”

So that’s what she was talking about earlier. The fangirl was Jiyeon.

And Eunsul hadn’t lied when she said that she had not hurt her.

“Did you fight them?” Yixing had asked.

“No, I wouldn’t fight for you. You’re not that important. At least not yet.”

“Did you… tell them something mean?” He had been suspicious.

Eunsul had snorted in disbelief. “Me? Of course not! I was super nice! Told them real quick that they were bullying me and hurting my feelings and they understood. They were super nice about it- I was super cool about it. We hugged it out and we’re all good.”

“Uhu...”

“I’m a good girl, Yixing.”

“Sure,” he had said, “Sure, you are….”

 Yixing didn’t realize he was smiling to himself. “A good girl my ,” he scoffed to himself, the smile still present. She totally lied to him. She said she said nothing mean but in reality she actually almost made Jiyeon cry. Yixing couldn’t help himself and released a laugh. Eunsul was too amusing.

      “You’re going crazy,” Minseok tells him. Yixing smiles at him, shrugging his shoulders a bit. He notices that the hallway is crowded with people. They’re all seniors, so they must be here for the senior meeting as well.

       “I thought you didn’t like Eunsul,” Minseok continues. “She was always teasing you. Besides, she doesn’t look like your type.”

Yixing opens his mouth to protest. Tell Minseok that he and Eunsul are more than friends now and that she’s TOTALLY his type. However, Minseok continues.

      “I thought you liked the really cute girls,” Minseok says.

Yixing frowns, “Eunsul is cute.”

Minseok shakes his head, “No, she’s like the complete opposite of the girls you’ve liked in the past, Yixing. You like cute girls that call you oppa and like to wear puffy dresses and blush whenever you touch their hand. Like your ex-girlfriend Seun.”

Yixing’s frown deepens.

      “Eunsul is the complete opposite. She likes leather and black boots with red lipstick. She has piercings and looks hella y most of the time. She punched Tao in the face for god’s sake!”

Yixing looks at his friends with the same frown, “So? What are you trying to say?”

Minseok looks taken aback, realizing that he doesn’t know what he’s saying. He guesses he just wanted a chance to compare Eunsul with the girls Yixing usually liked.

       “I….actually don’t know why I’m complaining. I guess I was just shocked that you actually liked Eunsul back since she wasn’t your type,” Minseok mumbles, “Sorry, I got too excited. You can’t deny that talking about Eunsul kind of pumps everyone up. She’s just cool.”

Yixing pouts; however, his pout gets bigger when Minseok mutters words that make his stomach twist.

      “You don’t look like the type of guy she would date either. She seems to be into those scary bad boys. You’re a cinnamon roll, Yixing,” Minseok says as he throws his arm around his dimpled friend. “But maybe she totally overlooked that because you’re extremely handsome.”

Yixing smiles, but it’s kind of forced. He can’t help but feel just a little bit bad.

      “When are you two going to date anyway?” Minseok mumbles.

Yixing feels a bit down and so he really wants to tell his friend that he and Eunsul are definitely more than friends now. He almost wants to yell, ha! In your face! She likes me! However, he realizes that maybe Eunsul wants it to stay a secret for now. He’s not too sure on what they have. Maybe in the future she could be more direct and tell him whether they’re dating or just friends. In the meantime, he doesn’t know what she wants or if she really wants to date him and so he must pretend like they haven’t kissed and interacted as more than friends.

Yixing sighs, but he doesn’t answer Minseok.

*********************

You and Kris tag along with the guys towards the auditorium. Chanyeol is currently kicking Baekhyun in the , and Sehun joins in to kick him as well. However, it seems like Baekhyun doesn’t really mind.

      “Why are you kicking him in the ?” you ask.

Chanyeol shrugs, “I don’t know. Guess we’re just bored.”

      “What’s your excuse?” you ask Sehun. The blonde shrugs. “Saw Chanyeol doing it and figured that I should do it to,” he mutters, expression blank.

Baekhyun turns around then, “I don’t mind. Besides, I’m extremely bored right now. All I want is for the school day to be over so we could start our vacations.”

You can’t agree more with Baekhyun.

You all enter the auditorium. Some of the guys are already there and you wonder how because you all came from the same class. Tao waves from his seat, “We saved you seats!” Eunsul is also there, you notice once you begin moving forward towards all of them. The girl is on her phone, eating a lollipop and humming to herself. She glances up at you and smiles, giving you a high five as you sit down next to her. “Where’s Yixing?” you ask because now you associate them together.

Eunsul raises an eyebrow, pausing her game to look at you. “Why would I know where he is?”

You shrug, leaning a bit further into the seats of the auditorium so some of the guys could pass by and seat down. “Habit of seeing you together, I guess,” you answer.

Kris is sitting in front of you, in between Tao and Kyungsoo. You pat him on the head just because you can and the boy turns around to glare at you. You smile at him and the glare turns rather playful before he turns around to focus on the auditoriums stage, where the principal is setting up the mic.

Chanyeol sits next to you then. “I know what the principal is going to tell us.”

Once Eunsul goes back to her game, you turn your attention towards Chanyeol.

      “What is it?” you ask.

       “The senior school trip,” he answers, “we’re going to vote to see where we could go.”

You smile, kind of excited now. “How do you know this?”

Chanyeol makes himself comfortable in his seat. “I heard Mr. Nam talking about it earlier with a couple of students. I heard we may go to Japan or Bora Bora.”

      “Don’t get your hopes too high, Yeol. We might just go to Jeju.”

The boy shrugs, smile still intact, “You’re saying that like it’s a bad thing.”

You open your mouth to respond but the principal begins tapping the microphone, the sound echoing all over the auditorium. “Hello, seniors,” he says after a moment. The place goes silent and from the corner of your eye, you see that Eunsul is still playing a game on her phone, her hands busy and her tongue darting out in concentration. Before the principal can continue, more students enter the auditorium. You see Yixing, Jongdae, Minseok and Luhan walk in with the rest of their class. You and Chanyeol raise your arms, Chanyeol being the loud and careless one, and you being shyer, and so unlike you, he doesn’t hesitate to stand up and holler, “Over here! We saved you sits!”

The people around you look at him and you watch as the girls around stare at Chanyeol in awe as he waits for the boys to make their way over to him. You smile, thinking about how easy it would be for Chanyeol to find himself a girlfriend.

The boys all make their way towards the rest of the group. You smack Eunsul on the thigh so she could move her legs to let the four boys pass. She frowns, pausing her game to look at you, “What?’

      “They need to pass. Move your legs,” you mumble, pointing up at Minseok, Jongdae, Yixing, and Luhan. The girl follows your finger and she scans the faces until a smile goes up her face. “Sorry,” she says, moving her legs so they could pass.

Yixing smiles down at her when he passes by, dimple prominent and Eunsul smiles back, innocent, which makes him oddly suspicious. He looks away, moving forward and just as he has his back turned, moving two steps more, he feels someone slap his . He jumps in surprise and then turns around immediately with big eyes and a red face. He eyes the only three people behind him: Chanyeol, you, and Eunsul.

      “It wasn’t me!” you and Chanyeol say in unison, raising your hands in defense, kind of amused but also very petrified.

Yixing frowns but he doesn’t look at them for long because it’s obvious who the one to slap his was. He turns to the giggling girl on the first seat.

      “Eun