young & alive | yang jungwon

chapter 16.

hii reply if you're reading this!! 🌟

for the rest of the school day, eunji couldn't concentrate the slightest.

"miss choi, are you listening?" was something she heard at least once per class.

and even with hyejin at lunch, she couldn't bare to tell her that she fell victim to a trap full of lies.

"i seriously feel bad though! if you won't say anything to him, then i will," hyejin encouraged.

"no, no, it's okay! you don't have to, i was the one who said it, i'll take the fall," the younger girl quickly rushed to take the guilt off her friend.

"fine, but do it by tonight okay? this has been going on for way too long."

letting out a sigh and ready to finally face her fear, eunji agreed. her new plan was to find him after school and apologize.

————————— <3 —————————

"if i was yang jungwon, where would i be?"

"hey sunghoon!" she shouted down the hallway, "have you seen jungwon?" the boy smiled at the girl but shook his head and apologized, causing the girl to sigh and continue walking around.

checking the classroom, hallways, and even the roof, she couldn't find him. so she continued her search outside.

...

finally she spotted the boy she needed to see most, sitting alone on a bleacher on the empty soccer field. it was all or nothing and she knew she would regret it if they never resolved this.

walking up, she saw that he looked hurt as he stared at different spots on his body.

"yang jungwon, there you are! what the hell happened to you?"

the boy full of pain, didn't bother looking up to her. his arm was bruised and his left eye was dark purple.

"i'm not joking! who did this to you?" eunji ran over and raised her voice, making sure he heard her that time.

he looked up at her and scoffed back, "why do you care?" the view of his swollen eye was much clearer, and a lot worse than she originally thought.

he let out a disappointed laugh, "what? are you gonna call me names already? my gym bag is by the showers by the way, thought i'd give you a head start."

though he never said a name, eunji could make a pretty good guess at who it was. "don't tell me it was..." she muttered.

"surprise, surprise, it was him." he finished her sentence. "the guy who's so in love with you. again, why do you care so much?!"

eunji ignored his question and ran down to the health closet, picking up the first aid kit. as the girl passed the ice machine, she made sure to get an extra full bag of ice.

eunji climbed back up and sat down next to him, quickly bandaging up his arm. she placed the ice in her hand and held it up to his eye, grabbing his head to tilt it to the right angle.

"i can do this on my own, you know."

"shut up, just let me do this." the boy winced at the coldness of the ice against his eye, resulting in her having to tilt his face again so the bag went back in the right place.

"i really don't get it. one second you're calling me a jackass and now you're looking for me and helping after your 'boyfriend' punched me?"

"he's not my boyfriend, not at all," she painfully laughed to herself. "i kinda learned the hard way that he wasn't the best person."

"yeah no shit," he let out a quiet chuckle.

"listen, answer honestly. did you mean all those words? like everything you said in the library?"

"god no, not at all. it was the heat of the moment and i was saying all this stuff without thinking."

the girl's eyes were on him the entire time and the boy could tell she looked truly apologetic.

"i said all that because i was fed lies about you from doyum, jungwon," she gulped. "i feel terrible, genuinely."

"and you believed them?"

"i know, that's on me. i messed up and i'm sorry. i really do think highly of you," she began.

"and i'm sorry for everything that i said, especially the parents thing. i know you trusted me with that and i broke it, and i totally understand if you don't want to talk to me after this because i-,"

eunji's eyes met with the boy and instead of receiving a harsh glare, she got a gentle look.

"listen," he sighed, "i'll only let you off because it wasn't your fault, you didn't know."

the boy was admittedly disappointed in the little faith the girl had in her, but considering their past, he felt like he could understand.

"but please, if anything like this ever happens again, talk to me. i don't bite," he let out a small laugh, "i promise."

the girl finally let go of her breath and let out a sigh of relief. "i will. and hey, to be fair you didn't talk to me!"

"i thought you hated my guts?!" he defended himself. "and now look at you, you actually care about me," the boy dramatically dropped his jaw and slapped his hand over his mouth.

aaaaand they were back.

"nope i don't, but only i'm allowed to hurt you." she playfully hit him with the ice, but cautious to not make his eye worse.

"fine! have it your way," he complied, resting his uninjured arm behind him to support his body as he closed his eyes. he let the breeze wash by his face as a flushed color started to appear.

immediately spotting the new color, she couldn't hold herself back.

"why are you turning red? do you like me or something?" she dramatically teased the boy. there was a silence in the air for a few seconds.

jungwon suddenly choked on his words and widened his eyes. "no i don't, what the," he cleared his throat and turned back, "a-anyways are you done yet?"

"i wish i wasn't."

if his cheeks weren't red enough already, they were most definitely now. he looked at her, causing the girl to look up as well, feeling his gaze. even eunji could admit, it wasn't hard to stare at him, jungwon's eyes felt comforting in a way.

"ah, we, .. fuck!"

he suddenly yelled, not out of pain, but the realization that they've been holding hands for a while now.

"uh, thanks for helping me out eunji," he quickly muttered, letting go.

"yeah, no problem. seriously the least i could do," she answered, scratching the back of her neck. the girl quickly turned away from him and focused on putting everything back into the first aid kit.

"uh, s-so we're good?" she turned back, lending out her hand.

"yeah, we're good," he smiled, shaking her hand.

— a/n
parts of this scene were inspired by a twitter thread i saw! so thank you twitter i guess <3