Chapter 11

You don’t know if you’re just being overcautious or thin-skinned, but you have this strange feeling that Kang Seung Joon’s currently boring holes behind your head or something.

You’ve never really been somebody who paid a lot of attention to your surroundings, nor were you sensitive of it. However, ever since you started making friends with a certain someone (or two), you couldn’t help but to be more aware and touchy about it. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, since one could say that you’ve gained a new and useful ability from this, but it’s only now when you started to reconsider whether this was a bad or good thing.

This is uncomfortable.

The gym teacher had asked you and two other classmates—Park Do Hwi and Kang Seung Joon, to help him pack up some of the equipment that he left in the sports field from a previous class. Throughout the journey to said sports field, you could literally feel Seung Joon’s eyes on you as he walked behind you, like there was a legit tingle on the back of your neck.

You and Park Do Hwi were walking behind the gym teacher as you two followed him, but for some unknown reason, Seung Joon chose to walk a bit slower than everybody and was just sauntering behind the two of you. You were probably just feeling a bit overcautious since you’ve set alert as your default mode for the time being, but there was something off about Kang Seung Joon and it’s a feeling that’s particularly had to brush off.

You craned your head to the back to catch a glimpse of the male, and from the way he was glancing at you, you figured that he probably wasn’t staring at your back, but the smile that formed on his lips wasn’t much of a comforting sight either.

“Um…” you cracked an awkward smile, “Why don’t you just walk beside us, Seung Joon?” you offered rigidly, hoping that your effort to make yourself sound nice was enough to cover it.

“No, it’s alright,” his eyes even turned into crescents this time. “I like to walk at my own pace.”

“Oh… okay,” you chuckled awkwardly before turning your face back to the front, only to realize that Park Do Hwi and the coach were already speed-walking ahead.

“Alice, keep up,” Do Hwi told you, slowing down as he gestured at you to hurry.

“Oh—sorry,” you rushed over to his side.

Do Hwi made a fleeting look back over at Seung Joon before turning back to you. “Since when were you on good terms with him?” he murmured soft enough that only you could hear him.

You looked up at the guy with a confused frown. “What’s with everybody asking me when, how or why I’m speaking with somebody?”

“Alice, we might not be too close, but I’ve been your classmate since middle school, and I know for a fact that you don’t talk with just anyone, not even classmates. Anybody who knows you would probably be confused,”

“I don’t know. I’m just… more loose now, I guess? It’s not really a big deal,” you shrugged.

Does this mean people have been talking about me behind my back?

Do Hwi snorted at your statement. “Great, who’s the lucky bloke that broke your shell? Oh Sehun?”

What am I kidding, they probably did.

“You know, a lot of us tried to make you more easygoing, but you never responded,” he reminded you.

You frowned deeply at his words. “You mean you and your soccer club friends?” you nearly scoffed, reminded of the time when Do Hwi and his soccer club friends would crowd over you and other quiet kids and tease you all to no end in hopes to draw some kind of response from all of you. Although their intention came from a good place, wanting to make the quiet kids feel like they belonged and were acknowledged, their execution wasn’t the best.

“Hey, we worked hard, okay?” Do Hwi nudged you with his elbow before pursing his lips, “It’s ironic how an equally quiet person would end up being the one warming you up, though,”

Come to think of it, there’s some truth in that. “I’m not sure about him being quiet, but I guess you’re right,” you chuckled.

Do Hwi stared at you for a moment before a glint appears in his eyes as he slowly formed a sheepish smile, “So… does this mean you’ll take me up on that date I asked you back in—“

“No.”

The conversation ended with Kang Seung Joon’s subtle snort at the background.

The sports field was blazing hot, and the heat got you to understand a little as to why all the kids and even the coach rushed back to the school building after a strenuous work out from class and abandoned all the equipment tattered across the field. You’ve never been so grateful that the coach planned on an indoor court by chance this week.

“Gee, coach,” Do Hwi said a little lifelessly when he witnessed the scattered balls and equipment around the field. “You could’ve at least asked the last class to clean up if you were feeling lazy,”

“Hurry up and pack up the balls, we need to make sure that we didn’t lose any of them.” the teacher ordered before blowing on his whistle sharply, causing the three of you to wince.

You scanned the area and started to pick up the closest equipment near you, letting the boys pick up the balls. Your expression grew a little sour upon seeing the coach doing nothing but watch the three of you work, but you continued to pick up the plastic cones on the ground nonetheless. Do Hwi was more vocal about his complaint, so you let him do all the peeving.

“Can you stop complaining and just tidy up?” Seung Joon mentioned with a rather eerie and forced smile when Do Hwi complained once again.

Do Hwi, however, didn’t seem to appreciate the words coming out of his mouth. “What makes you think I’ll take orders from you?”

You glanced at the two males when you’ve noticed Do Hwi’s hostile voice, something quite rare for you to hear.

“I don’t like the heat just as much as you do, but you’re doing nothing but slowing us down,” Seung Joon replied coolly, but anybody could tell that there was something erosive from his tone. “I advise you to keep working,”

You pursed your lips, feeling the tension in the air thickening with speed as you picked up the balls on the ground. Even though you tried to ignore them, you found it hard to act deaf.

“Advise me?” Do Hwi scoffed. “You’re very funny, bloodsu—“

Instead of hearing Do Hwi finishing his sentence, you heard a loud thud. Your eyes fleeted to Do Hwi, widening your eyes when you saw a soccer ball rolling away from Do Hwi’s feet and an enraged looking Kang Seung Joon glaring at him. A split second before the two boys reacted, you managed to drop the props in your hands as you rushed towards the two boys, but it was too late.

“Do Hwi, Seung Joon—stop!” you yelled in panic when the two started charging towards one another. “Coach!” you shouted for help, and soon enough you could hear the coach running closer towards the three of you.

“Both of you, stop!” the coach ordered in a commanding voice, but his voice was almost ineffective as Do Hwi was able to throw one last punch at Seung Joon before they were forcefully separated by him. “What is going on here?!”

“Seung Joon—“ you widened your eyes when you noticed how busted Seung Joon’s lip was. Your hands roamed around your uniform to look if you held any napkin or tissue at hand, but you stopped midway when you realized that you were in your sports uniform instead of your usual uniform.

“Alice Park,” the coach suddenly called.  “Go back to the school building, ask Mr. Cho to substitute for me for a while. I’ll take care of these two first,”

“But their injuries—“

“Don’t make the others wait, class will start soon,” he said sternly. “Go.”

“You better hide your face before it heals,” Do Hwi said with more of a taunting than warning tone, so much so that you, Seung Joon and the coach scowled at him.

“Park Do Hwi!” the coach scolded him heatedly. “Alice, I won’t say it again. Go.”

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