Sebastian’s POV:

 

So here I was, tying my laces on my track shoes for a PE lesson, which was a welcome addition to the hectic schedule filled with projects and tutorials to complete and attend respectively.

Speaking of projects..

I tried not to think about it too much last night, but I couldn’t get the feeling of Naeun’s hands grasping and holding onto mine out of my head.  It seemed like an honest mistake and accident, but it felt different as compared to, let’s say, holding hands as good friends for an activity.

 

Electric. That was the word to describe it. There had seemed to be some form of captivating atmosphere that held us in place.

That was one of the reasons I could not let the incident out of my head. Wishful thinking I know, but I had an inkling of something truly terrifying which I could not comprehend.

 

Was it possible I liked her?

Was it possible she liked me back?

Truth be told, she was pretty cute. Scrap that, she was extremely cute. In fact, I don’t think words could describe her beauty, and I say that with all honesty.

Question is, would she even like me in that way, let alone consider me possible ( and it is with great cringe-worthiness I say this,) boyfriend material?

 

Sebastian. No.

I jolted back to reality as I realized what I was even saying.

Don’t you remember Sebastian? No more of these romantic feelings or such. Haven’t you been hurt enough in the past?

I sighed, almost in agreement. The reality of the situation stung like acid on a wound. Besides, a girl like her would never even usually glance at a guy like me.

“I’m just lucky I have her as a friend”, I thought to myself as I pushed the changing room door open and made my way to the field in the middle of a running track, with my classmates.

 

“Morning class, today being the first PE lesson for y’all, we are going to have our compulsory 2.4 km run. I will be using your results to determine if any of you are suitable to join our Track and Field Team, so please take this seriously.

Finally, something I’m good at. At least, I can take my mind off serious matters with brainless activities.

As soon as the whistle blew to commence the run, I began at a brisk pace, concentrating only on steadying my breathing and rhythm of my legs pounding against the track. After what seemed like 5 an hour, I finished the sixth lap of the track, ending the run.

The PE teacher, who was a short, relatively fat man, looked at me in amazement. Could it be I took longer than anyone else in the history of the school?

Was I in for a shock.

“ What’s your name son?” the teacher asked.

“ Uh, Sebastian Lee.” I replied. “Sir.” I added on, to try and make my punishment for inadequate running less painful.

“In all my 15 years of teaching PE, I have never, I repeat, never seen anyone run 2.4 km in 8 minutes. Incredible!” the teacher said, beaming at me.

Wait, was he serious? I looked around, and saw the rest of my classmates, including Naeun, still laboring around the track.

How did I become so fast?

“ Uh thank you sir, I think I’m a natural.” I lied, completely baffled by my sudden growth of pace.

“See me after this, you are almost guaranteed to make the track team with a timing like the one you just posted. It is a huge honour!” the teacher continued, clearly pleased with himself for finding the next super athlete to represent the university.

Easy on the self-praise there Sebastian.

I spotted Naeun, falling behind the rest of the pack, looking like she was struggling. I ran over to her and started to jog alongside her, offering her words of encouragement. I could see that she wasn’t particularly interested in doing well, and I completely understood where she was coming from. I mean, when are idols going to need to train to run long distances anytime soon?

Nevertheless, she looked grateful that I was trying to help, and it felt edifying seeing her cross the finish line as a result of my constant encouragement.

As I stood to one corner catching my breath and making sure I wasn’t going to die, I heard a collective gasp from the rest of the class.

“What? No way.”

“ 8 minutes? That’s inhumane!”

“ What did he eat for breakfast?”

Multiple heads swiveled and numerous pairs of eyes focused on me. I couldn’t tell whether or not the indistinct conversations happening were in awe and approval or jealousy.

Out of the blue, I saw Naeun and her friends running over to me, presumably to congratulate me.

“ Sebastian, you didn’t tell me you were so good at running!” Naeun exclaimed.

“ Truth be told, I didn’t know either. I think it was a fluke, because I have never run-“ Before I could finish my sentence, Naeun surprised me yet again.

 

She hugged me.

Holy crap.

I froze like a statue, clearly shocked at the events that were unfolding around me. I glanced in front of me, and saw all three of Naeun’s friends with similar, surprised expressions.

When a friend hugs you, you usually return the gesture. However, when that friend is a pretty, popular girl that you have barely known for more than a week, things get a lot more complex. For the worse, mind you.

I tried loosening up and relaxing my stiff and tense shoulders, and tried to, ah, enjoy it. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally released and drew back, a big smile on her face.

“I’m so happy and proud that my new friend is so talented in many things and hardworking!” She said to all who would listen.

I suppose a good thing that came out of it is I know knew she considered me a friend. Hooray.

But I remembered Jae’s remark about how people would get jealous over the way Naeun treated me, and my mood darkened even further.

“ Is everything ok Seb? You look anxious” I heard Lizzy observe.

I forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine, just tired after running just now,” I bemoaned.

At the end of the lesson, I changed out of my PE attire and joined some of the guys in my class in the canteen, before moving over to Naeun’s bench at her request to discuss our project from the day before.

 

 

At the end of the day:

 

“Thank you sir,” I said, as I closed the door to the PE office, where I had reported to my PE teacher to be briefed upon joining the University Track and Field team. Who knew being in a sports team was so intense? We had training almost every day for 2-3 hours. My life was going to be packed with commitments to the point where I would not have any free time.

I sighed as I walked down the hallway towards my classroom where I was going to get my jacket. The hallway was completely devoid of human presence and was eerily quiet. “ Strange,” I thought, “It’s only been 10 minutes since the end of school.”

As I hypothesized why this was so, a pair of hands grabbed me from the back and roughly hurled me into the locker next to me. I collided with it hard, making a deafening noise that reverberated throughout the corridor.

God, that hurt.

I looked up, and there were 3 guys standing over my weakened self. They were all tall, relatively muscular guys with cold, mean expressions plastering their

faces.

Bullies.

“Wha…What do you want?” I said, in a soft and weak voice.

One of them laughed heartily. “ What do we want? We don’t need anything from a puny idiot like you.”

“Then what do you want?” I heard myself say, with a tad more confidence.

The three of them bore their eyes into me. “ We want you to stay away from Son Naeun. We know you are using her, and it is impossible for anyone to become friends with her in such a short time.” Another said.

So that’s why they were here. I should have known better.

How did they know I was close?

As if reading my thoughts, one said “We saw you in the library yesterday, and then today when she hugged you. Don’t think you can run from us.”

At this, I became a little scared. I mean, how would they know where I was at any given time?

“ Or what huh? You can’t force me to not talk to her if it’s her choice.” I shot back almost fiercely.

“Or what?” the third one began, making an attempt to make every word deliberate. “ We will make your life a living hell, and make you wish you had never made “friends” with her.”

The first one, probably the leader in the way that he carried himself, and that the other two looked to him for decisions, pinned me to the locker with his right hand. “Ignore us, and there will be consequences. Cross us, and you will wish you were dead.” With that, he violently shoved me once more and stalked off, his two friends in tow.

I flopped back, resting my head against the locker, and fought back tears. I had never responded well to physical violence, and I thought I had left bullying behind in Singapore.

And the worst thing is, my supposed “crime” was befriending someone. Ridiculous.

I spent a good 10 minutes on the floor, recovering from the physical and emotional strain of what had just happened, before getting up and slowly trudging home.

Talk about how people would get jealous of me becoming close to Naeun, I just witnessed an extreme version of that.

I now fought within myself about how to go on with life from here. On one hand, I didn’t want to get bullied and flamed during the day for just being friends with someone, but on the other hand, I remembered Jae’s words to ignore the jealous haters. Plus, if they ever bullied me again, I could always report them to the principal and get them into trouble.

I steeled myself. I wasn’t going to let some stupid, immature, jealous bullies get in the way of friendships, and my university life.

I wasn’t going to have any of it.

But damn. My arm still hurt real bad.

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Thanks for reading guys!

 

We’re slowly discovering more of Seb’s past, despite his best attempts to forget. And he has enemies already? That can’t be good news.

Another awkward moment between Seb and Naeun as well this chapter. 

Thank you for putting up with the relatively slow pace of the story, and I hope I have been painting a vivid picture of the events that have gone down so far through my writing. 

If you have any comments or feedback about my writing style or relating to this story, please comment or message me! Votes are also appreciated too if you are enjoying what you are seeing!

Recommend this story to your friends as well :)

Thanks for the third time, and peace :)

-Elliot