“You stayed at school pretty late today, Lady Jiwon,” Gongchan gave me my coat as we were about to step outside the school building. Rain pitter pattered down, lightly dancing.

“Is that wrong?” I asked him in a defensive manner. “My friend and I had to finish a project,” I remembered getting kicked out of the library and so we traveled around to find a place to work. Min Jee would apologize over again, but I was laughing too hard to care. My mouth curved into a small smile, remembering the incident.

Gongchan gave me a large grin as he grasped my hand. He brought it to his face.

“A friend? Lady Jiwon did you call one of your classmates a friend?” he looked too excited. I shook off his grasp as I stopped myself from blushing.

“Is...Is that wrong??” I asked him again as I stepped slightly away. Rubbing my black hair between  my pointer finger and thumb, I gave an embarrassed look.

“No of course not!!” He gave me a cheeky grin. “They must finally understand the Lady’s feelings!”

“Actually though this whole day, people have become…more friendly to me…I wonder why…” I mumbled to myself.

“Maybe an angel granted your wish,” a voice said. I turned around to see Luhan leaning against the white, solid pillars with his book bag on the floor. Holding an apple in his right hand, he walked towards me. Paranoia filled me as I cautiously watched him come closer.

“You did something…” My eyes narrowed.

“Nope,” He replied. I raised an eye brow and scoffed. “Why should I trust you?” I asked snappishly. Unintentionally, of course.

“Why not?” He took a strand of my hair and twirled it in his fingers. For a moment, all he did was look into my brown eyes with his own sparkling ones. Unwillingly, I became entranced by those soft, milky eyes.  

“B-because…you…you are a very suspicious person,” I ended with finality. Luhan laughed as he released my hair.

“Well, I’m not as suspicious as you believe me to be. I think though I know you better than anyone else in this school,” He leaned in once more to whisper into my ear.

“That’s pretty suspicious, are you some kind of stalker?” I replied back. Luhan shook his head, grinning. He stepped away and waved as he walked outside.  

“See you tomorrow, Jiwon” He said to me with a chuckle. My eyes widened because the rain began to pound even harder than before. Even if he had a car parked at the end of the walkway, he would be completely drenched.

“Ah! But it’s raining!” Gongchan called to him. Luhan though just waved him off as if it was no big deal. I quickly walked to the door, my fingers pressed against the cold glass. Gongchan was beside me instantly, grasping my arm so that I wouldn’t run outside myself. Squinting hard, I could see no car waiting for him at the end of the walkway. Yet, Luhan kept walking out in the rain, disappearing.

Biting my lower lip, I carefully walked to my own car after Gongchan ushering me to go home for tea and a warm bath.

“Does he always walk home?” I asked in the car.My head was turned towards the window, but the rain prevented me to see anything, but a blur. It had been raining unpleasantly frequently. My fingers tapped on the black leather, bored.

“Ah, yes Mr. Xi does indeed,” Gongchan cleared his throat as he spoke.

“No servant, comes in the middle of the school year, Chinese, and he even walks home. He seems more like a commoner than a rich boy,”

“You seem to have an interest in Mr. Xi. You two are very close, aren’t you,” Gongchan commented.

“What makes you say that?” I asked in a bored tone. My fingers tapped mindlessly on the window.

“Well, he was the first student that you seem to have constant contact with, and you don’t seem to dislike him,”

I turned around to see Gongchan uncomfortably fixing his gloves. His eyes were downcast.

“PFft, are you worried?” I asked him. I moved a little bit closer to him.

“Me? Never,” he gave me a half smile. I then reached out for his hair. I gently patted him.
“He is just a suspicious person,” I said with a smile. Gongchan’s eyes widened at the touch.

“Yes Milady,” Gongchan replied as he gave me his grin.

*****

“Therefore, we need everyone’s participation. So what would our class like to do?” The class rep fixed his glasses as he looked at each of our faces. If I recalled, his name was Jonathan, a foreign exchange student and son of a large car industry.  However, no one said a word.

‘Of course no one will care’ I thought, rolling my pencil around.

“I would like to remind you all this is an important event the school holds at the end of September to allow each one of you to shine as individuals,” The girl class rep added. I think her name was Mio, but she was definitely the daughter of a steel company.

‘Yes that makes it soo much better’ I sarcastically thought.

“Or it’s just so that the school itself can show off,” Min Jee muttered, and I stifled a chuckle at her comment, completely agreeing with her. She twirled her mechanical pencil in her hand.  Ky pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew this was going nowhere.

“How about a play?” Luhan suddenly asked. He held up the Romeo and Juliet book. My fists suddenly tightened and my heart skipped a beat. ‘A play?’ I thought, biting my lower lip.

“Oooo a play?  That does seem interesting,” A girl commented. She batted her eyelashes at Luhan.

“Will you play Romeo, Luhan?” another asked.

Luhan merely laughed. “I think we should pick people randomly to keep it fair,” he said.

“Ah…I guess we can do that, if no one else has any other ideas,” Ky’s voice was though drowned out by the other’s planning. I tightened my grip on my pencil causing Gongchan to look down at me in concern.  

“If we have a play, then we should have circular tables so that people can get drinks and snacks,”

“Ooo! A café?? How about we have a theater room, obviously we’ll request the largest one and a reception area after the play”

“Those who don’t have a ticket, must wait outside and watch it on a screen though. We are exclusive people,”

Everyone was pitching in ideas, but I just sat there frozen, tapping my fingers upon the wooden desk. Gongchan gave me another slightly anxious look, but I just ignored him. There was no way to stop this now. Everyone was so excited.

“Then…” Luhan’s eyes looked straight at me. “Let’s start by picking the cast, so we know who is which role. Those who do not get a role can always help out back stage and with the idea of an exclusive café,” He smiled at me.

I narrowed my own. ‘What are you up to?’

A box was passed around soon, and we had to pick a strip of paper. Each strip was either blank or had a role written on it. If the strip was blank, that means that person would not participate in the play, but help coordinate the reception area and other backstage technicalities. It finally made itself to me and I just dipped my hand in it. Being the last one of the girl’s row, there was only one strip left. Praying silently, I hoped for a blank strip of paper. I took it out and kept it in my hand so I wouldn’t see what I got.

“Now open your papers,” Ky said loudly. For a moment, there was just the sound of paper rustling. And soon a mixture of cheers and groans filled the classroom.

“Ah, Luhan you got Romeo!” A boy pointed out loudly after looking over Luhan’s shoulder.

“Then who got Juliet?” Min Jee asked out just as loudly. ‘Isn’t this school supposed to be for the proper edict?’ I wondered.

“Lady Jiwon, I suggest you open your piece of paper now,” Gongchan said with a smile. I realized I had not opened it at all. I gently opened it to find the dreaded name.

Juliet

‘You must be kidding me’ I looked up slowly to meet Luhan’s eyes that seemed to be laughing yet smiling.

Fine. To be honest, if I gotten a role, I would have had to deal with going up on stage, but of all the roles in the entire play I had to get the main female character? I will be on stage for a good portion of the play!

“So who got Juliet?” A girl asked to the classroom.

“I think, Jiwon did,” Luhan had a playful smile on his lips. The class slowly turned their heads towards me. I shot a glare at Luhan who returned my expression with a peace sign and I almost threw my book at the irritating guy.

I knew I couldn’t blame him for anything, but

I couldn’t help think he had secretly pulled some strings, magically.

‘Suspicious, freaky, Chinese, Beautiful looking stalker!’ I breathed heavily as I clenched the ends of my desk wanting to melt into my seat.