Chapter 6

It was either Chung Jae who thought that, but he was almost certain he could see Eric watching Sun Ho. It made the blood boil inside the fair-skinned boy, as he curled his hand into a fist and gritted his teeth loudly. Sun Ho did not notice the stare – if he had, he would have sighed loudly again and that would have been obnoxious! – because he was too busy being fascinated with the others.

“You can sit next to Sun Ho,” Chung Jae almost jumped up to refuse, but he did not want to seem rude.

“Hi,” the tall, exotic looking guy stopped in front of Sun Ho. “I am Eric,”

Sun Ho blushed – which had never, ever, ever, happened with his best friend – and started stuttering an introduction. Chung Jae was glaring at the tall, dark-skinned and very sporty looking slightly older dude murderously, his hands curling into a tighter fist under the desk. Sun Ho removed things off the empty desk he had been using as an extra desk for all his books and scooted over so Eric could slam his bag to the floor and get room to sit.

Chung Jae was obvious with his hate, but grinned widely when Eric glowered at him and smirked.

“I am Sun Ho’s best friend, Chung Jae,” the other boy reached his hand over Andy’s head. “His only best friend,” he added seriously.

Eric ignored the hand and turned his gaze at the blackboard. Sun Ho was tense – just because that “gorgeous” guy sat next to him now and kept poking him, asking him questions, and reading the same book together – and his cheeks kept being pink till the end of the class. Chung Jae had only seen Andy act like that when he had really liked Yeeun nuna – which brought anxious questions into Chung Jae’s tiny brain.

“Sun Ho sshi,” Eric called the shorter guy when himself and Chung Jae were advancing the canteen.

Possessively Chung Jae grabbed his best friend’s hand and entwined the fingers, angrily looking at the new student. Eric ignored him – again – and just grabbed the free hand and brought it up thankfully. Chung Jae noticed the irritatingly reddened cheeks again and scoffed – feeling so damn jealous that it hurt his whole damn body!

“I wanted to thank you for being so helpful in the class,” Eric bowed, still holding the hand, and looked under his eyebrows at Sun Ho.

“Oh, n…n…no! That was nothing! I…I always do that with new students!” The youngest of the three stammered again.

Chung Jae tugged the hand in fury, hinting that he was starving and he needed food right now. Sun Ho nodded at him, like he was just some random friend, and then shifted his gaze at Eric to ask the one question Chung Jae had not wanted to hear.

“Would you like to join us?”

                ~~OO~~

Junjin threw his school bag enraged down to the floor and marched to the living room. He slumped down to the couch, did not ask his little sister, and just turned the channel of the television to something else. He put his arms onto his chest, crossed, and watched the cheesy drama seriously, until Charlie Park and the step mother entered the room.

“What is it?” The stepmom asked carefully.

“Nothing,” Junjin responded curtly, lips pursing.

“Something is obviously wrong, Chung Jae,” Charlie Park approached the armchair and sat down when he had reached it. “Is it about…Sun Ho?”

Chung Jae did not want to show any reaction because of that guy, but his eyes twinkled in a way that revealed what he was thinking. The father heaved a sigh and gestured towards his wife to take their daughter away from the room, as she and the girl walked to the kitchen. Chung Jae was still just watching the television show like he knew what w