CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Are you free this weekend?”

       I opened my eyes and looked up at the boy who had just destroyed my short time of peace before the next class. I glared at him.

       “In fact, Jongin,” I started and stood up. “That depends on if my professor next class is a nice or a not so nice professor.”

       Jongin let out a small chuckle.

       “Can you tell me when you know how nice that professor is then?” he asked with glittering hope in his eyes.

       “Sure,” I shrugged. Then I excused myself and left a smiling Jongin behind for my class.

       Having only two months left now, I had been slightly more engaged in my future plans in the past week. I had even done some research and I had maybe or maybe not found at least something. My seonsaeng-nim was much more pleased with my efforts than he was two months ago and I felt like finally I had some control over my life. I was so excited when I told Yixing about my plans, and no matter how much he seemed to reflect my feelings, there was something I couldn’t quite put my finger on that didn’t feel right. Like there was something I had missed. That day was such a day when Yixing and I were sitting in that park again, still trying to do at least something productive, and once again failing to do so. Instead we had both been deeply absorbed in a conversation about how Korean values differed from Chinese ones. That was, before we were interrupted.

       “HYEJIN!” I heard someone yell from far away. I stopped in the middle of the sentence and turned my head to see who was yelling. Sujin came running towards us and waved her hands. Well, at least before she stumbled on a tuft of grass and face planted with her nose first.

       “Sujin!” I exclaimed and drudged myself up from a sitting position and ran over to her to make sure she was okay.

       “It’s okay, I’m fine.” she coughed and spat with full of grass.

       “I can see that.” I said sarcastically and rolled my eyes, but helped her stand up.

       “So this is the Chinese boy.” Sujin stated and pointed at Yixing who blushed when he realised we were talking about him.

       “Yeah that’s him.”

       “Hel-lo. My na-me is Su-jin.” she said slowly, as if he barely would understand.

       “I do understand Korean, you know.” Yixing whispered and Sujin laughed but disregarded a need for a comeback.

       “Yixing, right?” she instead asked and he nodded. She thought for a brief second before she brought up her phone and took a photo of him.

       “Hey what happened to privacy?” I defended but she fended it off.

       “I need to have something to show Inna too. She also has to approve.”

       “Approve of what?” Yixing’s clueless expression perfectly reflected what I felt. Sujin looked like she was watching some kind of comedy show because she was on the edge of laughing her off. She raised her phone again and took a photo of both of us before giggling.

       “You two are so funny, I really see how this happened. Anyways, you’ll probably find out.” she winked, but then she grew serious. “But what are you going to do about Jongin?”

       “Jongin?” Yixing asked and looked at me for answers.

       “A friend.” I simply said and remembered that night in front of the cinema, hoping Yixing would understand what I was talking about. Which he seemed to do.

       “Ah.”

       “So?” Sujin stressed

       “I don’t know what you expect me to answer.” I said and just hoped she would let it go.

       “Fine then, you’ll have to deal with it sooner or later.” she said and raised her hands in defeat while shaking her head.

After Sujin had gone off to find her girlfriend, I was left alone with Yixing once again. He shyly looked up at me for a brief second, but then turned his gaze down into the ground again.

       “So... that’s your best friend?” he asked, almost pouting.

       “Since preschool yeah.” I said with a satisfied sigh. He nodded.

       “She was... intense.”

       “I know right?” I laughed and winked at him. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

       “I hope so.” he was still looking down into the ground, but I saw the corners of his mouth started twitching. When he was sitting there in the grass, with his dark hair glittering in the sunlight, his slender figure resting on the ground, he was quite beautiful actually, when I thought about it. Almost like an angel.

       I could hear him laugh from the distance of the outside world. I came back to my senses and looked at the boy who was now smirking for a reason I didn’t know.

       “Why are suddenly mentioning that?” he giggled and I could swear I felt my heart completely stop. All the blood in my face disappeared for a little while until it suddenly came back in huge waves.

       “Did I say something out loud?” I breathed as I tried to regain some kind of control but failed miserably.

       “Yeah you did.” he was smiling like a mad man, and I just felt so… confused and powerless.

       “What did I say?” I asked, desperate for a confirmation that I didn’t say something weird.

       “Not telling you~” he sang with his Chinese accent that was just too adorable for me to handle.

       “Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?” I begged but he was so stubborn.

       “It’s my little secret, can’t I also have secrets too?” he said and made the biggest, saddest puppy eyes I’d seen in my whole life. No. I wouldn’t give in.

       “Not when they're secrets about me!” I flailed my arms in the air until I caught his wrist. And as I thought I would be able to wrestle the boy to the ground, I felt something in my chest that made me immediately let go of him. With heavy breaths I put my hand on my chest, right over my heart that for the moment was racing. Racing much faster than when I’d run for a long time or had gotten stressed over something. No, this was something different.

       Yixing made a worried face and asked if I was okay.

       “Yeah, I’m okay.” I whispered. I knew he heard, that boy had an amazing hearing.

       “Good. Because we need to go to class.” he said and stood up, offering his hand to help me. I stretched out my arm to grab it, but as his hand wrapped around mine, it felt like a lightning went right through me. I only let him drag me up before I quickly let go again.  

       “Is something wrong?” Yixing asked and when I looked up, he was still wearing his worried facial expression.  

       “I’m-” I started, but then felt invisible fingers fumble on my skin until they at last settled on my heart. I hesitated.

       “I don’t know.”

       “Alright, you go rest and I’ll bring my notes when class is over.” he patted my head, and ran off. I was alone. I decided to consult Sujin on the matter.

       Sent 2.45 PM

       Sujin-ah I need your help.

       Received 2.46 PM

       Oh, so now you want my help?

       Sent 2.46 PM

       I’m sorry. I just… The lightning keeps coming.

       Received 2.48 PM

       STAY WHERE YOU ARE! I’LL COME AND FIND YOU!

       I looked at the last message she sent me with confusion. Like sure, the feeling of electricity inside me was strange and it bothered me, but it wasn’t THAT important that it was worth dropping everything for. I curled up in a corner of a bench and waited for Sujin to find me.

And that was where she did find me a couple of minutes later. She grabbed me by the shoulders and I squeezed my eyes shut to wait for the electricity to come back again. But it didn’t.

       “I think I’m fine now, it disappeared.” I exhaled and felt the muscles in my body relax a bit.

       “Silly, thick-headed fool!” Sujin yelled and shook me violently. “It’s not a problem, it’s wonderful!”

       “How can it be wonderful to feel like your whole body is getting grilled from the inside?”

       “When did you first experience these electric shocks of yours?” she conjured a pair of glasses which she put on really close to the tip of her nose, as if she was a professor.

       “When I was going to wrestle down Yixing because he wouldn’t tell me something.” I admitted.

       “And has this happened any more times?” she raised an eyebrow and gave me her typical don’t-even-try-to-lie-look.

       “When he was helping me up from the ground a little while later.”

       “Aha!” she exclaimed. “I knew it!”

       “Knew what?” I asked. But as she looked at me with a knowing smile, the answer started to emerge within me. She smiled ever wider when she saw the realisation in my eyes.

       “Told ya!” she petted my head and laughed as I just sat there. The thing I had tried to avoid at all cost was now a fact: I liked him. Actually I didn’t know why I had tried to avoid it. Maybe because I was scared. Maybe because I knew that I would have to expose my heart to another person, something I didn’t know if I was prepared to do. Maybe I didn’t want to be hurt.

       “I have to tell him!” I said in panic, but Sujin was still holding onto me.

       “NO NO NO NO! NOT NOW! It’s all about timing!” she whispered. Probably she was right. I decided to wait for the right timing.

But as Yixing then half an hour later approached me, I could feel it within every single molecule, every atom in my body, how I needed to tell him somehow. His presence was radiating seriousness as he walked towards me with determined steps.

       “I need to tell you something.” he said.

       “What a coincidence, I also wanted to say something.” I said without thinking. Maybe this would be the turning point in our lives.

       “Say yours first.” he said with a frown.

       “No you say yours first.” I was hoping that maybe he was thinking the same thing as me, maybe he was so determined to actually say the three words I wanted to hear.

       “Hyejin-ah…” his voice failed him, it broke as he was trying to continue. At last he took a trembling deep breath and looked straight into my eyes.

       “Hyejin-ah, I need to go back to China.”

A/N: 

Hello people~

So finally the new chapter is out, and as I have a huge pile of stuff I have to do before christmas, AFF is going to get less prioritized. But as fast as the winter holiday is up and going, I'll be trying to write loads for you guys <3 Also, I uploaded a KaiSoo oneshot not too recently, called "I'd Order You", you can click >>here<< if you wanna check it out (planning to write a sequel to it when I have time too so please anticipate it!)

Thank you for staying with this story and thank you to you who just started reading, all this positive response makes me really wanna continue writing~

So stay awesome everyone <3