❝chapter03;
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                                   "you've got some guts there, lee ji hyun."

“Yah! Wait up!” Ji Hyun quickly finished tying her shoelaces before scrambling to her feet, running after Kai’s tall figure. “Aish, does he need to flaunt his long legs?” She thought.

Kai remained ignorant as he stuffed his earpieces into his ears, hands into his pockets as he walked down the rocky pavement, getting admiring stares from schoolgirls who have happened to pass by.

Ji Hyun watched his face which did not seem impressed at all. She raised a brow, “Do you get fans like this everyday?” She questioned, which in turn had no reply from the guy ignoring her.

Turned off, Ji Hyun frowned at him, “Aish.. Don’t you know its basic courtesy to at least acknowledge me and-”

“This is just for today. Got it?” Kai turned to look at her.

“What.” She replied him monotonously.

“Walking you to school.” Kai stopped in his tracks and rolled his eyes. “And also, don’t act like you know me in school.”

“What? Why? Am I that much of an annoyance to you?” Giving him a disapproving look, Ji Hyun strained her eyes at him, “And hello mister, we only met 24 hours ago, technically a day. At least tell me why you are treating me this way.. or are you usually like that?” She crossed her arms and looked up at him. Ji Hyun was getting a tinge of madness at this Kim Jongin guy.

The sides of Kai’s lips formed a smirk as he replied smugly, “I just don’t like the idea of getting to close with strangers. Like you said, we only met 24 hours ago. Don’t follow too closely.” He finished and continued walking, before leaving a stunned Ji Hyun.

Ji Hyun watched the guy infront of her, scowling at his back figure, “Oh wow.. That guy.. Really! Does he have some issues or what?” She hissed under her breath. Talk about the cliché Love at First Sight. Now she definitely believes in Hate at First Sight.

Before she could continue, a bunch of school boys who were dressed in school uniform appeared infront of the duo. 4 of them, Ji Hyun counted. And boy, were they good looking. If people were mistaken, they would be clearly be seen as models dressed for a school runway show. Ji Hyun locked eyes with them, wondering who are they.

“Yo Kai! Eh? Who’s this pretty girl?” One of them broke out into a smile and scanned Ji Hyun’s body.

“Woah Kai, what is this? Have you finally gotten yourself a girl? A hot one too?” Another one smirked.

One of them slung his arm around Kai lazily, “Or is she one of your sasaengs following you around? I mean I won’t be surprised-”

“That’s weird. She doesn’t look familiar..Never seen her around school before.” The other one mumbled.

Ji Hyun looked at the 4 boys confusingly, they seemed harmless. Much more cheery and happy looking boys than Kai, she concluded. Stopping in her footsteps, Ji Hyun flashed a small smile to them politely, “Hi, I’m Lee Ji Hyun. Nice to meet you.”

“What are you doing?” Kai glared at her, who ignored his remarks.

All of the 4 boys halted and turned to look at Ji Hyun, bewildered. “Hi? Ah hi, hi.. ” They muttered doubtfully to Ji Hyun and looked at each other surprisingly. Who they thought was a ‘sasaeng’, was surely not turning out to look like one.

“American kid.  Hence the language.” Kai muttered with a tinge of irritation, as he popped a piece of gum into his mouth.

“Aish, don’t call me a kid. And thank you, but I can manage my own introductions.” Ji Hyun shot Kai a look.

“Woah, what’s this? Is a girl quarreling with our Kim Jongin? Yah hyung, this is a first!” One of them looked shocked. In fact, all 4 of them.

“You’re from America?” One of them popped his head closer to Ji Hyun.

Before they could continue bombarding her with questions, Kai stepped closer to Ji Hyun and spoke in a low tone, “Look, you should be smart enough to know how to figure directions out to school right? And besides I don’t want any rumors to start between the both of us if we’re seen going to school together.”

Ji Hyun groaned inwardly and rolled her eyes at him, “What rumors-”

“Kim Jongin.. You have a lot of explaining to do..” Ji Hyun watched one of them tapped his foot impatiently against the floor, smirking.

Kai gave them a disapproval look and started walking again, with the rest of them quickly smiling at Ji Hyun and catching up with him, leaving Ji Hyun shooting Kai a look of disbelief.

“So he just ditches me here like that? Wow, such a gentleman.” She rolled her eyes, finding his attitude unbelievable, and frowning at his figure along with his group of friends. Sighing, Ji Hyun trudged down the road, following the 5 boys from a distance. “And he was supposed to introduce this area to me.. Fat hope, Lee Ji Hyun.”

“Seoul University,” Ji Hyun read off the large banner hung up infront of the big building she’s standing infront of right now, “Finally..”

Considering that school started only at 9am here, Ji Hyun checked her phone for the timing, “8:40am”. There were only a few students strolling in the school gate. Great, that gave her 20 minutes to venture around the huge school compound. Ji Hyun started walking into the school as she looked around.

Rooms, rooms, and more rooms, she mumbled.

The classroom walls were washed with a thick coat of white, chairs and tables neatly aligned. She smiled slightly, this was what she had missed since Kindergarten days. Korean classrooms just gave her that cozy vibe, always.

Exiting the classroom blocks, she made her way to where she assumed was the back garden of the school. Wow, really pretty in here, she breathed out, impressed at the sight – colourful flower beds, tall trees, and a few benches and swings.

“Woof! Woof, woof!”

Startled, Ji Hyun turned to where the soft bark was coming from. It wasn’t really of a bark, more like a soft painful mewl. Making her way towards the source of the sound, she frowned as it came from a large dustbin with a close lid at the side of the garden. The dustbin rattled slightly and Ji Hyun guessed it was a trapped animal inside of the dustbin.

Without hesitation, she quickly opened the lid of the dustbin and there it was, - a little puppy at the bottom of the bin with large doe eyes. It let out soft mewls and Ji Hyun noticed it was dirty with black marks over it.

“Oh you poor thing.” Ji Hyun cooed and quickly stretched her arms in to retrieve the scared puppy. Ignoring the pungent smell of the rubbish bin, the girl soothed the once soft fur of the puppy and pat its head lightly as it cuddled itself comfortably into Ji Hyun’s uniform, “How did you land in there hmm? Do you have a home?”

As though the puppy could understand, it leaped off Ji Hyun’s arms and then as she noticed, it limped its way to a small corner. She watched as the puppy snuggled into a place of cupboard boxes and there was leftover food at a corner for it. “Wow, who did this for you?” Ji Hyun asked the puppy as she squat down to look at its home.

“Me. You are..?”

Hearing a voice from behind, Ji Hyun immediately turned around. A guy was staring down at her. Ji Hyun noticed that he was holding onto a little container. He was wearing a cute smile and he had black fluffy hair.

“Lee Ji Hyun,” she stood up and greeted him with a smile, “And you’re.. Byun Baekhyun?” She read his name of his name tag and turned to look at him.

He nodded, “Baekhyun’s the name. And the puppy..”

“Ah,” Ji Hyun turned her attention back to the puppy and picked it up from the cupboard boxes, “I found him trapped in the dustbin there earlier. And also, I think its hurt because it was limping too. Are you perhaps the owner of him?” She looked up at Baekhyun.

He nodded and smiled kindly at Ji Hyun, “Well, sort of.. yeah. Thank you for saving him. I saw what you did earlier on just now. He’s name is Joon Gu. He’s a playful one.. He must have jumped into the dustbin and then got trapped in it.” Baekhyun the puppy’s head with tender care and a look of concern as he checked Joon Gu’s injury.

Ji Hyun nodded as she listened, “Is there a school vet here or something? It looks kind of serious.”

“Yeah, we should bring him to get his wound checked.” Baekhyun agreed as he held onto the puppy in his arms and led the way, along with Ji Hyun following beside.

“This little guy needs some help, Mrs Park.” Baekhyun placed Joon Gu delicately on the treating area of the sick bay, “He’s the puppy at the school garden, the one I recently discovered.”

Mrs Park, the school vet, soothed the puppy and smiled back at Baekhyun, “Only you have the heart to take care of what’s going on in the back garden, Baekhyun ah. And who’s this pretty miss?”

Ji Hyun smiled and bowed, “Nice to meet you, I’m Lee Ji Hyun. I’m a new student here. Joon Gu was limping earlier on, I think he has some wounds at his left paw..”

Mrs Park said, “Ah, sure sure. I’ll tend to him now, no worries. He’ll be fine. I’ll keep him here for a couple of days until he’s fully recovered okay?”

Baekhyun and Ji Hyun both smiled and thanked Mrs Park, before saying goodbye to Joon Gu. The little puppy nuzzled its face into Ji Hyun’s warm hands one last time before the duo left the room for it to get treated.

“Joon Gu likes you. Nuzzling into someone’s embrace is his way of saying ‘thank you’ or ‘I love you’.” Baekhyun grinned at Ji Hyun as they walked towards the classroom block for the first class, “And thank you again, for saving him. If it wasn’t for you..”

Smiling, Ji Hyun shrugged lightly, “Nah, it’s nothing much.”

“Do you wanna wash up? That was really brave of you to save Joon Gu earlier but I don’t think you considered twice about plunging into a dustbin to save a poor doggy right?” He chuckled lightly and pretended to dodge away from her because of the smell.

Ji Hyun’s eyes widened in shock, “Damn. Ah right! I really smell bad now right?” She let out a small laugh and blushed as she sniffed her hair.

“Don’t worry, it isn’t that bad. I’m thankful towards you for saving Joon Gu. I won’t run away from you that quickly.” He laughed, “Come on, I’ll show you the way to the toilet.”

“So.. You’re new here right? Is it your first day?” Baekhyun continued.

Nodding, Ji Hyun turned to look at him, “Yeah. I actually lived in America for about 13 years. I just moved back to Seoul yesterday. Still trying to adapt to the new environment here. But Seoul is really nice, I like it here so far.” She smiled sheepishly.  

Baekhyun raised his brows curiously, “Wow, that’s cool. You speak Korean really well though!”

“That’s because I’m originally Korean and my parents make sure I keep some of my cultures and customs inculcated in me.” She chuckled.

He laughed lightly, “Yeah, definitely. Well, we’re here.” He pointed to the ladies’ restroom, “You can go clean up slightly inside, I’ll just wait for you here. Figured you need a guide to guide you to your first class since it’s your first day right? Don’t reject me, you just saved my puppy’s life.” He grinned.

Ji Hyun chuckled and muttered, “Thanks, Baekhyun.”

After 10 mins, Ji Hyun came out of the toilet looking fresh again. “How is it? Do I look and smell okay now? People might think I found my way to the rubbish dump instead of class on my first day.” She joked as she asked Baekhyun.

“You look good, Ji Hyun, don’t worry.” He grinned and led her to their first class, the both of them chatting along the way.

Meanwhile, at a corner, was Kai and his 4 friends as they grabbed their stuff from the locker, happening to watch the whole scene infront of them.

“Woah, how did Baekhyun know that chick?”

“No wonder Baekhyun couldn’t join us earlier on..”

“Guys, stop making false accusations at that poor girl. She’s new.”

“And she’s living under the same roof as Kai.”

“Aish, shut up.” Kai grumbled at his group of friends as he was reminded about the fact again. He watched Baekhyun and Ji Hyun walked to class together and he raised his brows, you’ve got some guts there, Lee Ji Hyun. 

a/n : here's chapter 3! just to let y'all know, some scenes here might be similar to the ones from the show  "playful kiss' bc that show's really cute and i decided to make some similar scenes by writing it here~ pls look forward and subcribe, comment and upvote <333 i rlly like reading comments huehue :) thank you for reading, enjoy! 

xx

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