Lovers in the Night | Yang Jungwon

XIX

Across the line, Jake gasps, "He called her a woman. He never does that!" Then the guys start cheering with him, relieved that Jungwon may be interested in someone of the opposite gender.

Jungwon then realizes that Ms Song was already in the room, talking to the class. He was missing all of it. "Guys, shut up!" he reprimands.

"Jungwon!" Heeseung and Sunghoon exclaim, acting offended.

"Jungwon?" Instantly after hearing the pretty voice, he snaps out of his daze and returns to Human reality. Danah had her body turned towards him, eyeing him.

"Sorry," he bobs his head as a bow. He didn't realize how invested he was in his conversation with his buddies.

Danah chuckles, "You looked like you were fighting your inner demons." Yes, I was, Jungwon sighs. "Was it a telepathic argument with your friends?" her voice appears in his head.

She had recalled his friends silently standing at the door for unusually longer than they should've been, intensely staring at Jungwon. Therefore, she assumed that they had been talking.

Jungwon looks at her, almost forgetting that she was aware of that concept now. He was glad that one less person would find him weird for regularly zoning out in social environments. "Yes," he responds.

Danah gives him an assuring smile. She could now understand why Jungwon previously was always in the presence of silence, he had many things going on his mind. Literally. Heck, maybe that's why he's a top student. Does he cheat on exams through telepathy?

"What are we doing in class today?" Jungwon nervously places a hand on the back of his nape, reverting back to verbal communication.

"You're lucky," Danah plays around with her mechanical pencil. "Most of today is a work block, you can use this time to catch up on the work you missed yesterday."

He nods, standing up from his desk to request the pages he'd missed from Ms Song. She gladly hands them over to her Mr First Place Student. If that were me, she'd give me a pep talk.

At an instant, the once quiet classroom turned into a monkey house. Their classmates were laughing while doing work and chit-chatting about nonsense.

"When is this due?" Minji leans over to Wonyoung, pointing at the project they'd received a couple days back.

Wonyoung's body leans towards Minji but it took her eyes a few seconds to leave the paragraph she was reading, "Tomorrow." Minji sighs.

When Jungwon returns, he places the work on his desk and looks at her. "I've just been reminded of the project you and I were paired for, do you want to work on it together soon?"

"I already basically finished it," Danah responds and his eyes widen, automatically feeling bad. "Don't worry about it, I know you've had a busy weekend."

She winks, and Jungwon couldn't hold back a little chuckle because of it. From afar, two students whisper to each other, a bit intrigued by what they were witnessing.

"Are they dating?" one asks the other.
"Looks like it," the other shrugs.
"Hey, are you guys talking about?" It wasn't long before it spread around.

≡

At the end of the day, Jungwon and Danah were walking to her house from school together. When they met outside prior, they received a couple of jealous stares from other students that were interested in Jungwon, but Danah could care less.

Their arms awkwardly hung loosely on their sides, as if they were meant to be holding one another. Passerbys would assume they were together if it weren't for that.

It was quiet, however the two didn't mind. They'd actually enjoy the silence, basking in its essence. Since still in the mindset of winter, the sun was already getting ready to set, so they decided to admire the sky.

At last, Jungwon notices their hands' awkward placements and grins to himself. As if natural, he holds her hand, intertwining their fingers together.

Danah was completely caught guard, her eyes widen and her heart skips two beats. She felt butterflies in her stomach and couldn't help but look at him in the eyes.

He returns the stare, and it didn't take him long to get lost in her eyes. "What?" he innocently asks her. She's so beautiful.

Danah was in the state of feeling perplexed. Didn't he friendzone her a while back? What was he doing?

"I can tell you're confused," Jungwon swallows slowly. "I am too." A bit ashamed, he looks down.

"Ah," she mirrors his movement. Her heart ached, realizing that he wasn't so sure of what she was to him.

Jungwon, I've been in love with you since the first day of middle school — The day you stood up for me against my past bullies. And somehow, I fell in love with you again as Sheep.

How could they ever work? One was a Vampire and one was a Human, they were too different. One is staying immortal while the other is enjoying their mortality, their values were in contrast.

However, they were lost in the moment. Both their eyes sparkled as if seeing some sort of future in them.

Jungwon raises up his hand, positioning it beside Danah's face. Her eyes never leave his, wondering what he was planning. He brushes his hand against her cheek then pushes her front strands of hair behind her ear, admiring her.

Jungwon was holding back, but Danah waited as if wanting him to cross the line. Naturally, his eyes fall to her lips. Hesitantly, he tilts his head and slightly parts his lips, leaning closer to her face until they were only inches apart.

He was going to kiss her.
Unfortunately, his lips never reach hers. Danah notices a scarily familiar figure behind him. Before she could figure it out, Jungwon's body reacts to something that makes his body slightly jolt forewarn.

Danah was still in daze, so she furrows her brows, wondering what was going on. Jungwon looks down, so she does too. When her eyes reach to wherever Jungwon was looking at, she sees a sword impaled into him from behind.

She shrieks, caught off guard.. The sword quickly redraws, and Jungwon makes an exasperated noise. "Jungwon?!" Danah panics and he falls into her arms.

"I did say I was coming for her," Rose menacingly whispers into Jungwon's ear from behind then smirks at Danah.

With that, Danah gets grabbed from behind. "Let me go, fucker!" she struggles.

"No," Jungwon falls into his knees, weak. The sword had some sort of doozy serum on it. Rose creates a portal then her minion injects something that makes Danah pass out.