IU’s P.O.V

Ahhh! Just one more day of school left until the holidays. Well, technically half a day because tomorrow was our mid-year charity dinner where we only had half a day of school and the rest to go home and get ready for the dinner. It was compulsory for both my grade and Dongwoon’s grade; the two oldest grades in the school. That meant no avoiding him or if I tried, it would be VERY hard. I sighed and went to call Jiyoung so we could try our dresses together.

Next Day

Jiyoung and I were walking back home from school so we could get ready for the dinner.

“You can’t avoid Dongwoon tonight!” cried Jiyoung excitedly.

I sighed. I was still embarrassed about the note and have, miraculously avoided him for the whole week. Since both our grades had to be there, there was a great chance that I would end up bumping into him.

“Jiyoung. If there’s a will, there’s a way. Besides, what if he like thought the note was a prank? If the rest of the guys know about it, they were probably laughing at me.”

“Unni! Don’t think like that! They won’t laugh at you! I know for sure that Dongwoon thinks it’s a real confession letter! He even came to me the day you gave him the note remember? You ran away like crazy and made me lie to him so he wouldn’t find you. Why would someone come looking for you if they think it was a prank?”

I shrugged.

“Unni! You know he looked for you for the whole week right? Every time I saw him, he’d light up because he thought you were with me, but when we walked past each other, his face dropped cause you were avoiding him. You like him, why don’t you go find him again? Why are you still avoiding him?!”

“It was embarrassing ok?! I’m not going to go seek him out! I wrote that I didn’t expect anything so I can’t! Just… drop it for now ok?”

Jiyoung sighed.

“Fine.”

I patted her head and smiled.

“Now let’s get ready for the dinner ok?”

She smiled.

“Ahh! IU Unni! You’re going to be the prettiest girl there! When Dongwoon sees you, you’re going to take his breath away!” joked Jiyoung.

I blushed and flicked her on the head.

“Yah! I thought I said to drop it for now! You know you’re going to look amazing as well!”

Jiyoung laughed.

“Let’s hurry before we run out of time yeah? It’s going to be two-thirty by the time we get home and eat lunch. We need to get to school at five-thirty to help with the decorations so we need to get home as soon as possible!”

We then proceeded to quickly run to my house to get ready for the dinner.

Few Hours later…

We arrived at the school right on time. Jiyoung, while walking beside me kept on nudging me as we walked into the hall, which was three-quarters set up. Just the seat covers and we were done.

I slapped her arm away.

“Why the heck do you keep on nudging me every ten seconds?!”

She bounced on her heels as she told me.

“All the guys are staring at you in that red dress. Unni! You’re going to steal the show!”

I blushed.

“Jiyoung! Let’s hurry and put on the seat covers before everyone arrives!”

I then shoved about fifteen seat covers into Jiyoung’s arm. I apologised to her mentally. I hope I wouldn’t wrinkle her cream coloured dress in any way at all. To be honest, she looked amazing tonight – even better than I did but she wouldn’t admit it.

We quickly got the job done, right before everyone started arriving. Students and teachers piled the school and mingled with each other. I smiled. Everyone looked stunning tonight. I saw Yoseob Oppa standing by himself so I went to talk to him.

“OPPA!” I yelled over the chatter.

“WAAH! IU-AH! You look so pretty!” smiled Yoseob.

I laughed.  

“You look so handsome.”

He then showed me some of his notorious aegyo.

I pushed him slightly.

“People wonder whether I’m older than you! It’s embarrassing!” I joked.

“That’s stupid. My Jieun is definitely younger than me!” laughed Yoseob, as he pinched my cheek.

“Where are the others?”

“They're walking towards us now. Are you still avoiding Dongwoon? He looks for you every day.”

“Yes… I’m still embarrassed ok?”

“Well he’s coming this way,” pointed Yoseob.

I whirled around and saw that he was right.

As soon as I saw Dongwoon, I melted. He looked very handsome in his black dress shirt and black pants. He also had a dark red tie… What a coincidence! We matched. I noticed that they all wore the same thing, just with different ties. Ahh… out of all of them Dongwoon looks the best. I giggled and Yoseob lightly pushed me into the direction they were walking from. I came back to reality and saw that Dongwoon was smiling at me. My eyes widened and I just ran for the doors.

“IU! IU! Where are you going?!” cried Dongwoon.

I turned around and saw he was chasing after me. Oh gosh. So much for trying to avoid him.

I ran as quickly I could in my heels, trying to lose him in the crowd, but he was always close behind me. I rushed out to the school gardens through the large glass doors and suddenly I heard a crash. I kept running, but didn’t hear footsteps behind me. I stopped and reluctantly turned around. I saw that Dongwoon was standing behind the glass doors, cowering in pain. I stood there and stared. Should I go back to see if he was ok? I bit my lip. But I didn’t want an encounter with him yet. Not here. Not now? I didn’t think I was ready to face him, not after the note…

Then, subconsciously, my feet started walking slowly towards Dongwoon. One step after another. I took deep breaths. Lee Jieun.  Just do it. Breathe in, Breathe out.