afterglow ‣ s.jy

005

How she ended up in the 50th, he had no idea.

She checked it diligently before pushing the paper back to his table. "It's correct."

He sighed in relief after finally finishing the physics activity. "You're not messing with me, right?" He asked, just to make sure that this wasn't part of her devious scheme to fail him.

Siyeon scowled. "Then ask Lee. He's your friend, right?" Lee Heeseung?

"Maybe I will." He says, even if he had placed his trust in her earlier for a second or two.

When their break came, Jake swiftly stood up and grabbed the paper from his table. From the corner of his eye, she crossed her arms as she watched him quickly stride to the exit of the classroom.

It didn't take him very long to spot his friends settling at one table. Heeseung sat there with surprisingly, his always-absent friend, Sunghoon, and Niki, who most of the time is with his girlfriend. Immediately making his way to them, Heeseung spots the paper in his hand, and from there, he already knew what Jake was going to say.

"Check it." Jake places the paper on the table, pushing it closer to Heeseung.

"Wait a minute." Heeseung sighed before grabbing his pen from his pocket and ripping a paper from the notebook he was carrying.

"Wow, I came to school for the first time in two weeks and you're not even going to say hi to your friend." Sunghoon sulks when his supposed best friend ignored his presence.

"Siyeon probably bested him in physics again and he's trying to look for a loophole," Niki says, shrugging carelessly while he ate the bag of chips he bought from a convenience store before class.

Jake's eyes narrowed at the younger, gazing after his best friend who was busily writing his number on a piece of paper. "Why are you writing your phone number on a piece of paper? And, we're going to hang out tomorrow anyway!"

"He has a tutor now," Heeseung replies for Sunghoon while simultaneously solving the physics problem laid out to him.

"Your tutor isn't Heeseung?" Niki asked. Sunghoon shook his head as he sighed.

"I'm already tutoring someone," Heeseung adds.

"Hana?" Jake asked, wondering if it was his cousin because knowing her, if she knew it was Heeseung tutoring her, she would've said yes in a heartbeat.

He scoffed. "No, she doesn't need a tutor. And here, your answers are correct. At least I hope it's yours." He said, pushing the paper back to Jake and returning finally to his food that has been laying cold on the side.

But instead of being happy like the rest expected, Jake was a mixture of surprised and dissatisfied as he stared at his paper. "So Siyeon really checked it." He muttered yet apparently it was loud enough for everyone at the table to hear.

"Siyeon checked it?" Heeseung managed to mask the shock in his expression was saying.

"Siyeon? As in the Siyeon who drives you nuts because she keeps challenging your answers?" Sunghoon recalled and everyone gave him a nod. "Since when were you two... close?"

"We're not close. I sit next to her now and... it's a long story." The annoyance lingered in his tone, enough for everyone to notice it.

"I've never seen you dislike someone so much." Niki chuckles, crossing his arms while he leaned on his seat. "Are you sure it's not some crush hiding behind those layers of hatred?"

Jake raised his eyebrow. "Since when do you speak like that? And don't even say that! I almost got the chills!"

The younger shrugged, his downward smile appearing on his face. "No idea."

Sunghoon, all of a sudden, stood up and made his way to another table, probably to hand his number to his new tutor. Jake didn't pay him much attention, he remained fixated on the paper that Siyeon had checked. He acted as if he had not placed his trust in her earlier when he asked her if his answers were correct.

Setting thoughts related to Siyeon aside, he decided to pour all his attention on his friends that were busy teasing Sunghoon for how he gave his number to his tutor. He looked around the cafeteria, searching for Hyejin who just never seems to be there unless one of her friends pull her out of the music room where she's usually cooped in. He wanted to go to her but he already knew she'd be busy with practice and would barely have the time to entertain a friend.

"I'm going back to class, see you all later." He excused himself from his friends and carried his juice to class with his paper folded neatly in his pocket.

Jake was astounded when he sees the classroom occupied only by Siyeon. Glancing at his watch, he realized that there was quite a lot of time left before the next class. She wasn't asleep, she was busy writing in a notebook that he could only guess was her notes. He just stood there, unable to go near her or distract her from whatever she was doing.

Dropping the pencil, she buried her face in her palms, pushing her hair after as she bends her head. For some reason, he could tell she was tired.

"You okay?" He finally spoke, instantly stealing her attention and closing the notebook in front of her.

"How long have you been standing there?" She asked, fixing her posture in the process.

He sat next to her before answering her question. "I saw you dancing." He teased, earning a scornful glare from the latter.

"I'm guessing not very long." She said nonchalantly, shoving her notebook back into her bag.

"Why are you all alone here?" He asked, looking around the empty room which was usually filled with the chatters of his classmate.

She placed her elbow on the desk, resting the side of her cheek on her palm. "They all went out after hearing about the fight in class e."

Jake recalled hearing about it also but since neither of his friends made the effort to check it out, he stayed put. He would hear about it anyway from

Hana, who at the same time would hear about it from her classmate.

Minutes after, everyone began to return to class. Jake fixed his posture as soon as the teacher entered the room, and while she neatly placed her stuff on the desk in front, she had announced to the class that they were tasked to do a presentation by pair. He was a bit complacent that he was going to be paired with Jay since the teacher played favoritism with his friend, but her next announcement drained all the color from his face.

"The person sitting next to you is your partner. I don't have the energy to pair you randomly right now."

Upon hearing that, both Siyeon and Jake instinctively glanced at each other, sharing the same staggered expression. They have never been in the same group, and while neither of them had any idea why, the two liked it that way. They both believed that none could get any work done if they were put together in a job.

Just as when they were both about to protest, the teacher's somber face gave away that going against her decision would likely cost the two trouble.

Oh, this is going to be hard.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE :

i swear my laptop kept acting up while i was writing this