Be Our Star Forever // TXT

11. Perfect Partner

"Good afternoon Mr. Lee. Did you look for me?" Taehyun entered the office and walked up to the science teacher who called him.

"Yes, I'd like to discuss the Science fair that will be held in two weeks. Like I told you before, you should have a partner this time." Mr. Lee explained Taehyun who just arrived at his desk.

"But I can do it myself Mr. Lee, I don't need a partner. I haven't found a match one for me yet." Taehyun tried to give him an excuse, he doesn't like having a partner. They'll only trouble him instead of helping.

"You don't have to worry, I've got a partner for you, she'll be here soon." and then they heard sound of someone knocking on the office door and a student popping up afterwards.

"Excuse me Mr. Lee." Byeol went into the room and saw Taehyun standing by Mr. Lee's desk.

"Well... Taehyun, she's your partner now." Byeol and Taehyun are just as shocked as they just heard. Byeol tried to look at Taehyun. But when she found Taehyun's eyes, all she got was the sharp stare from Taehyun's big eyes. And it made Byeol turn her face straight away trying to look the other way.

'What is this? Not enough she's be my seatmate. Now she's also my scientific partner.' Taehyun grumbled in his heart, didn't believe he'll spend more time with Byeol who's just a nuisance to him.

"I hope you two will be able to do just as well. I have great hopes for you both."

Taehyun who initially put on an angry face pointed his polite smile at the teacher. "Of course. We'll do our best Mr. Lee. Then we excuse ourselves." Taehyun went out of the office followed by Byeol that still look confused.

Once they've completely left the office. Taehyun formerly friendly expression turned cold. "Meet me at the library after school."

Taehyun didn't waste time to hear Byeol's answer and left her alone. "What's wrong with that boy? How Can his expression change that drastically?" Byeol asked in her heart to see Taehyun's attitude that could change in seconds.

~~~

"I'm sorry I'm late, today is my class schedule. Have you waited too long?" Byeol just arrived on the library, still panting because she just ran from her class to the library.

"Here's a list of books we need, help me to get it up and I'll start to work on the beginning part." Taehyun gave Byeol the list of books s0he needs to find without looking at Byeol, he keeps concentrating on the book in front of him. Byeol took that list, read it and started circling the library.

Almost thirty minutes passed, Taehyun began to wonder where Byeol was. "Why is she so long, is she lost?" Taehyun went on from his seat and decided to find Byeol.

When he found Byeol, Taehyun saw her talking to someone. Taehyun slowly approached them, and walk behind the bookshelf right behind Byeol.

"So you're Kang Taehyun's scientific partner? How poor you are? To be his partner." That's the first line Taehyun heard when he got close. "Taehyun was just nice and polite to the teacher, but he was really bad and rude to the other students. I knew it, because I was his friend." Actually, Taehyun used to hear that, all the students at school never liked him. But Taehyun never wanted to care, for him he just had to be the best. But this time he's upset to hear the student say it.

"Really?" Taehyun heard Byeol's voice, trying to see the expression that Byeol showed from behind that shelf. "No, I mean... Are you really Kang Taehyun's friend, if you were his friend, you wouldn't talk so bad about him." Byeol said to surprise Taehyun, he didn't think Byeol would answer that way. The student who said bad things about Taehyun also surprised by the answer of Byeol, he seemed very unhappy with the response he received from Byeol. The student got upset and tried to curse Byeol. But Taehyun immediately came out of the back of the bookshelf and walked towards Byeol. Took the student by surprise and quickly left them.

"You're supposed to find a book. But instead, i found you chatting with someone." Taehyun's still very upset with what the student just said. Seeing Byeol's innocent is making him even more upset.

"Sorry, he helped me get the book, but..."

"Enough, I'm not so excited anymore working our project." Taehyun cut Byeol off and left Byeol immediately, who still confused and surprised by his words and actions.

Taehyun took his bag out of the library and walk through the school hallway With his still firmly plaited hands. He stepped on his foot into the back of the school to  an old unused science room. In that room Taehyun started to exude his emotions, screaming and yelling. He never showed his emotions to anyone, he'd just hold and drain that somewhere where no one would see him.

Taehyun kept yelling and yelling until he saw the door was open and someone was standing there. "What are you doing here?"

Byeol who saw Taehyun like that for the first time. Can't hide the confusion look on her face. "I'm actually here to apologize, about what happened at the library. But I don't think the time is right."

Taehyun who's nervous to see Byeol who was about to leave. Take Byeol's hand and drag her into that room. "How did you know I was here?"

"I asked the guard, he said he saw you this way, so I came here and saw you were..."

"Forget what you saw and heard." Taehyun's cut off Byeol again. He sighed and tried to calm down, let go of Byeol's hand. "Just go home"

"But what about the scientific project, I'm still feel a little bit guilty, hasn't helped you at all."

"I said go home" Taehyun started losing patience, facing Byeol who turned out to be stubborn.

"I'm not going home until I can do something about the project." Byeol insisted on staying.

"Whatever..." Taehyun who's finally chose not to argue with her, let Byeol do what she wants. Because it seems that Byeol won't change her mind either. And they started working on their scientific projects in that room.

Taehyun finished with his part, when he looked out the window, the sky is getting dark. So Taehyun decided to get his thing and get ready to go home.

Taehyun also called Byeol to get ready to go home, but He didn't get an answer. When he turned to the back table where Byeol sat, it turned out Byeol was sleeping on the table. Her face was so calm in her sleep, that Taehyun couldn't wake her up. Taehyun looked at Byeol's sleeping face, so calm and peaceful.

Seeing Byeol's face was like that, instantly Taehyun feel his cheeks warm. He grabbed both his cheeks with his hands. Then he patted his cheek to remove what he just felt. And woke up Byeol because of the sound Taehyun made.

"Eh..?? I fell asleep, huh?? Why are your cheeks red?" Byeol who still sleepy, rubbing her eyes with one of her hands and the other pointing at Taehyun's still red cheeks.

"There was a mosquito, so I spontaneously slapped it, Let's get up. It's time to go home." Taehyun tried to make excuses and kept covering his cheeks.

Byeol cleaned up the equipment and was about going out from that room until Taehyun called her, made Byeol stop and look at him. "Where's your home? It's getting late. I'll take you home."

All the way home, they don't talk to each other. They didn't know what to talk about so they choose to be quiet.

"We're here, thank you for taking me home." Byeol thanks Taehyun with a wide smile glistened on her face.

Seeing that smile, Taehyun's cheeks felt Warm again. "Hey look at that, the star is so pretty" Taehyun tried to keep Byeol from seeing his red cheeks again by pointing at the direction of the sky full of stars.

Byeol looks up at the sky, she's so impressed with the view she saw. Taehyun who initially looked up at the sky couldn't to not look at Byeol's face, Byeol's eyes who were looking up at the star, radiates the light that he's seen somewhere.

"All right, new student, see you later."

"Don't call me new student, I have a name." Byeol upset to hear Taehyun still calling her 'new student'.

"Yeah I know. Your name is Jung Byeol. See you Jung Byeol." Taehyun waved his hand at Byeol who went into her house after waved her hand to him.

Taehyun feels something familiar with Byeol. But Taehyun chose to get rid of that feeling and started to step on his feet leaving Byeol's house.