ILJIN

10 | ROLLER-COASTER

"I saw Huang Renjun with them. They all looked way too close." Hyewon sank her teeth into her lower lip, "We should report this to-"

"No," he cut her off sharply. "The things Huang Renjun does and the people he befriends rarely does reflect on that of his cousin. Liu Yangyang has never been a subject of our interest either. Leave it."

She cast him a long look, wanting to rebut, but not knowing how to without seeming rude.

"If there's nothing else, you should leave. Least we be spotted together."

Reluctantly, she dropped into a bow and exited, head more clouded than it had been when she entered.

..

The Liu Clan heir was a conscious man. Almost too conscious, some may say, but it was something that instinctively grew in him after nearly getting himself walloped, not just in school but at home as well, too many times. He was especially aware whenever people looked at him, which made crushing on him without him knowing an excruciating hard task. But the eyes he felt on him the moment he stepped through the gates of Saejong High earlier didn't hold appreciation, or liking, or anything positive actually. More of suspicion and wariness.

It definitely didn't make him feel any better about the school when he saw the boy who Yilin was defending. He looked familiar, way too familiar. As did that girl who tried to give him flowers. Yangyang had a faint idea who they could be, but he wasn't entirely sure.

He exhaled out a sigh, shaking his head in hopes to rid of his thoughts. Then hiking up his parcel, he rapped his knuckles against the door. "Delivery! Is anyone home?"

There was a rustle on the other side of the door and frantic footsteps scrambling down steps, "Coming!"

The household he was delivering to was a middle-income family of five. They were as normal as a normal family could be, aside from the fact someone amongst them or perhaps all of them had an obsession with Glutinous Pu'er tea. Whatever it was was none of Yangyang's business though. He was just in charge of delivering. As long as they could afford it, then whatever, Yangyang didn't care.

The one who answered the door was the family's second daughter, a regular struggling middle-schooler. Her face lit up with a big bright smile when she opened the door, a pink hue colouring her cheeks as she drank in the sight the boy.

"You-you dyed your hair again," she bit down on her lip, trying to stop herself from smiling even wider. "You look good."

Liu Yangyang supposed going 'I know' would be considered too rude seeing how they weren't that close, so he opted for the socially acceptable 'thank you'.

He held out the package towards the girl, "Your item."

"Oh yeah," she said, startled, reaching forward to take it from him, not very slickly brushing her hands across his. "Thanks."

He nodded and stepped away, dropping his hands. "If there's any problems regarding the quality of the tea, come back with the receipt. We'd give you a refund."

The girl's beam was looking a little too tiring to hold now, "Y-yeah, yeah, thanks!"

He bid her a polite goodbye and left, the irritating customer service grin dropping from his lips.

Unfortunately for him, that short commercial break couldn't even make him forget the uncomfortable feeling that he had been watched earlier, that someone actually recognised him in Saejong High- a place he'd never so much as stepped a single foot into until that day. This had to be a first time. He wasn't that prominent a figure in the Underground, or at least no one really knew his face, which was how he had been able to sneak around and do shit without getting caught. Someone he didn't know actually knowing his elaborated identity was giving him legitimate anxiety, making him irrational.