Chapter 10

You don’t know what came over him, but Sehun has been acting increasingly annoying and clingy for the past few days. The world isn’t prepared for that, and neither are you.

“I’m bored, let’s do something together.”

“Let me group up with you,”

“Teach me this,”

“I want to study together,”

“Let’s eat lunch,”

“Let’s do our homework together,”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll walk you to the restroom,”

“Let’s burn Jongin together,”

Just when you thought that nothing about Sehun would surprise you anymore, he comes flying back to prove you wrong. At first, you weren’t bothered by it, but your newly-budding friendship isn’t prepared for the constant and rapid, and somewhat intimate or close-knit requests that Sehun asked for. To sum it up, his pace is a little too quick for your slow little bum.

The thing is, when he started sitting beside you on little breaks in between classes, he would explain himself with ‘I just want to sit’ or ‘Jongin’s busy flirting’, so you’d let him. No harm done there. However, when he started asking where you wanted to go every time you stood up from your chair, tagging behind you even when he knew you wanted to go to the restroom, there’s just no explanation in the world that could make you rationalize this.

“Sehun, I said I’m going to the restroom,” you stressed to him one day, frowning at him when he stood up to follow you.

“I’m not deaf,” Sehun replied in his typical stoic voice.

“Then you must be retarded,” you quickly retorted with a flat tone. “You can’t join me to the lady’s room!”

“Who said anything about joining you? I’m just going to walk you there,”

“I don’t need to be escorted to the restroom!”

“I don’t think you heard me clearly. I said I was going to walk you there, not you,”

“And the difference is?”

“You don’t pets when they want to answer nature’s call. You walk them.”

Since that day, Jongin was proud to say that he can vouch as an eye witness of the historic event that is you whacking Sehun till the tall male was reduced to a little curled up ball on the floor to defend himself. The blonde’s been literally by your tail every second he gets, and you’re unsure if you’re enjoying his constant company or not. However, as the days went by, you came to realize your true feelings.

I need to get this idiot away from me before I go completely crazy.

So, of course, you tried to draw the line somewhere in there. Unfortunately, nobody ever said that peeling Sehun off you was going to be easy. You knew that quietly slipping away from him when he doesn’t notice wouldn’t work, because you’ve found out on your couple of first and pathetic tries, the male had great sense and reflex skills. You’d bet that he’d even notice if an ant was moving near his feet. Hence, you tried to ask him nicely, perhaps that would make him understand.

“Sehun,” you called him one time during the end of recess.

“If it’s about your pudding, I’m not giving it back,” the blonde quickly mentioned while devouring your chocolate pudding, enjoying the fruit of his daily theft. On a side note, you’ve discovered that Sehun loves to snatch food that aren’t his, even if he has the exact same thing on his plate.

“No, it’s not that,” you muttered, still a bit sour that he took your pudding away from you when you weren’t looking. “I just want to tell you something, but you have to promise me you won’t feel offended,”

Sehun literally stopped eating to stare at you. “What?” he said with flat anticipation.

“Well, you see…” you started to fidget with your fingers while darting your eyes everywhere but his face, a clear sign that you’re starting to get a little nervous, “You’ve been hanging around me really often lately, and you know, I’m glad that you feel comfortable with me and all, but—“

“Just cut to the chase,” Sehun cut you abruptly.

“I’d like you to stop tailing me everywhere,” you replied almost immediately, as if you’ve been waiting for him to say the words.

Sehun’s frown deepened considerably after listening. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,”

And it was your turn to frown at him. “You’ve literally been following me everywhere!”

“I’m sorry, but do you have low blood sugar?” Sehun suddenly sat up straight, his frown shifting into one that’s feigning concern. “Because Baekhyun—our senior, hallucinates when he has low blood sugar, and I think you’re having the same symptoms. Poor thing, let me give you your pudding back,” Sehun took your hands to wrap it around the chocolate pudding he stole from you, before scooping a spoon in front of you. “Come on, say ahh…”

Insert a straight expression right here, and it’ll be your exact reaction to him. But at least you got your dessert back, so it wasn’t all too much of a loss. 

It’s pretty apparent that Sehun wasn’t willing to cooperate, and he seemed to always avoid or try to quickly end the conversation every time you brought it up. You could’ve been more persistent, but you knew that it’d be a waste of energy to work on something when you know that the results won’t be in your favor, so you were in need of a new strategy that won’t require a lot of energy.

“Can you share me a bit of your rice?”

“Why?”

“Because I want some more,”

“No,”

“Oh, come on,”

“No, I’m not sharing,”

“I’ll share you my chicken,”

“Fine, but I want the big one,”

Apparently, Sehun’s clingy issue wasn’t the only thing on your plate. You have no idea how it started, but there you were, staring at Sehun and Jongin eating right in front of you in the cafeteria. For the past three days, they’ve been intruding your daily lunches at school, and you still don’t understand why they’re doing it. Even though he seems harmless so far, it is evident that Jongin’s been starting to tag along at times.

Don’t misunderstand, you enjoy having company no matter how annoying Sehun or how high pitched Jongin’s laugh could be. You’ve learned that boys will be boys. But there is just this bizarre atmosphere around whenever the three of you sit together for lunch, and you’re still not quite adapted to it.

You glanced over at the other students who seemed to be as equally confused as you were as they passed by your table, and you couldn’t help but to partially hide your face with your hand as you continued to eat awkwardly.

“Alice, are you going to eat your pudding?” Sehun asked you as he nudged on your leg under the table with his foot. “Because if you don’t want it, I want to eat it,”

“What I want is to know is why are you not sitting on your own table,” you muttered, still avoiding eye contact.

“But this is our table. We sat here together at the same time,” Jongin replied casually. “Is it wrong to sit with a classmate every now and then?”

“But you never sit with anyone other than your usual circle of friends,” you finally showed your face to them, eyes fixed in a confused frown. “I could ignore the unwanted attention you two are attracting, but I can’t help but to sense something fishy going on here,”

You swore that right after you said those words, the two of them froze. You were about to frown until the two of them reacted in two completely different ways.

Sehun faked a dramatic and joshing gasp. “How did you know we’ve never sat with anyone else before?”

“The only fishy thing I sense is the food on our tray…” Jongin mentioned offhandedly, eyeing weirdly at the suspicious looking fish in his tray as he poked it away from the rest of his food.

You lifted a brow at the two of them, unsure how to respond with how awkward the atmosphere became. “… Whatever,” you mumbled, putting your focus back to your food.

 “I knew it, you’ve always been a fan of mine,” Sehun ceremoniously slammed his chopsticks on the table in false victory, his flat tone somehow complimenting his antics. “Admit it, and I might just spare your pudding from me,”

Your eyes quickly lit up. “The pudding is mine!” you narrowed your eyes into slits, protecting your chocolate pudding with your hands.

Sehun let out a satisfied chuckle from your reaction.

“And you,” you turned to Jongin this time, your confidence slowly melting down as you were still not used to his presence near you. “Aren’t you going out with Lee Bona? I don’t think it’s nice to sit here with me instead of your girlfriend,”

“First of all, Bo Na and I aren’t dating,” Jongin mentioned with a smile. “Second of all, I like hanging out with you. It’s nice, there’s no pressure,”

“That’s because the pressure is all on my shoulders,” you muttered, but then you quiet down a little in thought.

No pressure?

“She has a point,” Sehun commented offhandedly. “Thank God she’s keeping this sweet girl façade.  Otherwise she’d try to act up in front of her like the others. She hasn’t been bothering you, right?” Sehun nudged you.  

“Who, Bo Na? No,” you shook your head, resuming back into your thoughts as Sehun and Jongin continued to chat. Although you hesitated, you managed to ask the dark haired boy, “So… you feel pressure when you try to flirt? Or whatever it is that you do when you’re with girls…”

“You mean make out,” Sehun blurted.

“Keep going, Sehun,” Jongin encouraged sarcastically, already lifting his foot to kick the guy’s chair down.

“I’m just saying,” Sehun shrugged indifferently.  

Jongin made a face at the blonde’s comment before pouring back his focus to your question. The boy pursed his lips in thought as he hummed, a trait of his that you’ve noticed. “Well… I don’t really use effort to flirt,” he smirked a little. “Bo Na knows that I’m not someone to commit with, so relax,” Jongin waved his wrist as he chuckled.

You tried to laugh along to cover your stiffness, but you couldn’t help but to frown a little in concern. You couldn’t buy it.

He’s lying through his teeth, but I don’t know about what.

Jongin’s laugh, however, died down when he caught your troubled expression. “Um, unless you really are bothered that I’m here, I don’t mind moving away—“ Jongin slowly started to stand up, and you immediately reacted to this.

“No, wait!“ you grabbed his hand, eyes wide at his sudden action.

Jongin stopped for a moment and gazed at you with equally widened eyes, surprised by your request. “I can stay?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” you explained in a small voice before nodding, “You can stay,”

Jongin eyed you for a good second, seemingly still uncertain, but he slowly sat back down. “Have you finally decided that you like me?” he stated quite innocently, but somehow those words didn’t sound right.

“Not exactly like that,” you chuckled awkwardly from how funny those words sounded.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Jongin chuckled softly before continuing back with his meal.

You stared at Jongin for a short while before going back to your food. You’re not exactly familiar with Jongin apart from his usual behavior in class and especially girls in general, but something didn’t settle right with you after hearing those words from him. You weren’t sure what Jongin was trying to imply, but as someone who’s familiar with pressure and unease, you could definitely sense and recognize the undertones in his voice when he said that.

Actually, during that week, you’ve noticed that Sehun and Jongin weren’t the only ones acting a little out of character. You’ve noticed that none of their friends are sitting together anymore. You’ve even heard a couple of rumors of them having a feud left and right, but it was quickly debunked when you saw all six of them grouping together every time they had to go home.

You’re not exactly curious as to why they haven’t been sitting together, but you assumed that it’s only normal that they started sitting with their classmates instead or even other people for a breather. In spite of this, you’re still unsure as to why these two, out of all the tables dotted around the cafeteria, chose to sit in your spot. Maybe you’re exaggerating a bit, but knowing these two mischievous jokers, you can’t help but to wonder.