Chapter 18

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"Kim Jungwoo. Kindly stop staring outside and listen or get out. You have no room to fail from the very first week."

"Sorry." Jungwoo replied quickly, eyes wide as he felt himself shrink under the gaze of all the other students.

Normally, Chaemin would be sitting beside him in that one specific class, even before he knew who she was. They didn’t speak during those times but after he met her, he seemed to notice her more and she was always one to ask an odd question for no particular reason.

Unfortunately, she wasn't around and that left him to be like how he always was, alone and bored to death. Not even Lucas who shared a few classes with him was anywhere to be seen.

Not that he wanted to see him in the first place but his heart longed and that made it all the more worse.

For hours he sat through classes and wrote notes in hope that he would be distracted and for the most part, it worked perfectly fine. Even when lunch rolled around and Ten offered to beat the hell out of Lucas and he smiled a bit, did he not feel much better. He held no appetite but he managed to occupy himself by taking a walk to different parts of the school, such as the library.

Being a full time student also meant he had little to no time for other things that didn't revolve around school. It was continuous homework from the very start so when Jungwoo found himself walking home that evening, he didn't expect to run into Chaemin.

Quite literally.

See, the whole situation was as such.

Calmly, unbothered, unthinking, Jungwoo made his way home at a leisurely pace, deciding homework wasn’t necessary when his entire being felt as such.

But as he made his way closer to home, he so happened to see the person he had been dreading since days prior.

"Oh no," Jungwoo whispered, figuring his only option was to speed walk and look away.

It worked, mostly, until it didn't.

"Hey! Why are you running?! It's me! Euntae!"

And Jungwoo knew he had to speed up.

Dashing into a sprint, he headed in the direction of home, desperate to get away.

"Hey! How could you leave me?!" Euntae yelled, running after Jungwoo.

He didn't want to look back but the curiousity of how much faster he needed to go was eating away. With a quick look back, Jungwoo felt his insides relax just a bit upon seeing that Euntae wasn't the best of runners but that was short lived the moment he felt a simultaneously hard and soft object collide against him in such severity, they were immediately knocked out of balance.

Both him and Chaemin yelled in pain, tumbling to the ground in an undignified heap. Blinking down at her, he suddenly felt the situation shift and a genius idea went through him.

"Chae! Do me- me a favour!" Jungwoo gushed quietly. "That boy is chasing me! He- he likes me so help!"

Chaemin, who lay on the ground with a stupid smile for whatever reason, glanced up quickly and nodded, ready to help in any way possible.

"OH BABE LOOK WHERE I FIND YOU!" Chaemin exclaimed loudly, definitely loud enough for Euntae to hear. "DESTINY REALLY DOES LOVE US TOGETHER TO THE POINT WE EVEN MEET ON THE GROUND! I KNEW EVERYTHING I NEEDED WAS ON THE GROUND BUT THIS IS IRONIC NOW!"

Jungwoo wanted to die.

This wasn't what he had in mind but he'd accept. Who knew Chaemin was such a nutcase?

"Yeah. Interesting," Jungwoo responded, keeping his face away from where Euntae would be approaching as he helped Chaemin up from the ground.

"Wait, why’s he chasing you?" Chaemin asked, her 'oblivious' face on as she frowned at Euntae. "Is he your friend?"

"My, my, my, hello to you too," Euntae greeted, pretending to tilt an invisible hat. "Did he break up with his boyfriend since you were saying that or are you really dating him because at this point, I wouldn't mind any of you."

"Now, now, don't get ahead of yourself, silly," Chaemin scolded, pulling Jungwoo behind her as she stood up against Euntae. "We're both taken so back off or I'll be having a problem."

Euntae rolled his eyes, holding up a palm as if to either disregard the words Chaemin spoke or to signalize he was tired of everyone being taken. Slowly, he reached into his pocket and for a terrifying second, Chaemin wanted to believe he was taking out some form of weapon but fortunately, it was just a piece of paper with words messily scribbled over it.

"Call me if you're ever interested. I'm always single and more than ready to mingle," Euntae sighed, walking off with his hands stuffed deep in his pocket.

He was gone and they were both now free from his presence, only leaving Jungwoo stuck with Chaemin as they both blinked after the retreating figure.

"That was easier than expected," Chaemin commented. "I was more than ready to pick a fight but I guess one look from me was more than enough to terrify him!"

"Yeah," Jungwoo responded blankly, feeling himself go a bit weak from both the run and the fall.

It didn't help that he had finally eaten more than normal several days before and his body still wasn’t used to the sudden shift. Especially now that he had broken into a run, it wasn't helping his situation at all. He really needed to eat but he also wasn't feeling that hungry. 

It was an endless cycle of a battle in eating.

"Why were you- you running?" Jungwoo asked, suddenly realizing Chaemin literally came running out of nowhere.

"Oh nothing really! Y’know, just getting chased by a group of boys who were trying to get me to shut up about something I heard them speaking about, but then I found you and either they gave up or they ran past while we were distracted so they wouldn’t cause a bigger scene."

"Oh."

Jungwoo literally didn't know what to say, opting to simply start walking away while Chaemin skipped beside him all too happily.

"So, where are we going?"

"My house."

Chaemin hummed in response, continuing to skip as she followed him. Really, Jungwoo had no choice but to let her follow because frankly, he didn't think he could be by himself at that moment and even if she did leave, what if he suddenly felt himself go light headed?

Chaemin was probably a blessing in disguise and he was thankful.

"Hey, we should set up a date with that guy."

Or mayhaps she wasn't.

"What?" Jungwoo asked in surprise. Hadn't she seen the events that had just taken place?

"Don't be scared! Its a good idea!" Chaemin insisted, grabbing Jungwoo's arm to loop with hers. "Why don't we take a seat so I can explain? Yeah? Great!"

"But- but homework," Jungwoo tried, suddenly deciding that he'd rather do that instead of doing whatever Chaemin would suggest. This girl was starting to get out of hand. Her personality was so different from Johnny’s, it was almost scary.

"That can wait. I'll buy you ice cream and help you if you want."

Jungwoo sighed. If he knew befriending her would have led to this, he probably wouldn't have tried in the first place. Well, he had no option but to follow along now.

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