𝙼𝚘𝚗 𝚌𝚘𝚎𝚞𝚛 𝚝❜𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚝

4

"Out on a date, will be home by 10, want to see dinner on table"

My eye scanned the sticky note left on the dinner table, a big sigh released from my lips. You could see she was in a rush, the handwriting being barely eligible, but knowing her I could easily translate nonsensical characters to ones that actually made sense.

I slipped off my backpack, taking out my phone to check the time, the four digits cut in half by the colons. 07:13. "Nearest store closes at nine," I mumbled to myself. I can just finish half my homework, head to the store, get something along the way and come finish the rest of my work if I feel like it.

-

I recounted everything in my cart, making sure I got everything. I realized I was just wasting time, looking at the list and looking back at the cart. Now that all the groceries were in, I felt like treating myself. I made my way over to the snack aisle, the shelves were stacked with cookies, which led to fried stuff to the actual chips themselves.

My eyes scanned the bags, trying to find a specific one but for the first few minutes were useless, only coming across bags of potato chips. Finally, I laid my stare on a familiar bag, it was orange and the label read, "shrimp crackers". I smiled, my hand reaching out to grab it. At the same time another hand brushed against mine, trying to reach for the chips. I looked up at the owner to come face to face with Hyunjin.

"Can you stop following me?" I complained, slapping his hand away.

"Following you? No one would be stupid enough to follow you, you'd probably jump on them like the crazy person that you are." The comment made me scoff, annoyed and with it being dark, I had no intention in trying to cause trouble. "You gonna hand over the bag?"

I raised an eyebrow, "This is mine, I saw it first, so get your nasty filthy finger off my food." The boy's mouth opened as if to say something in retaliation but there was nothing. I couldn't tell if I was being overdramatic but the boy was definitely plotting something.

I threw the chips in my cart, backing away slowly as his eyes stared me down. "I will ruin your life at school if you don't hand over the bag."

"I'd rather kill myself," I spat turning around, pushing the cart at a much faster speed. I heard loud footsteps behind me and of course that only signaled for my speed to increase. I couldn't tell if the guy was intentionally slowing down or was genuinely tired, even so I wasn't stopping until I checked out.

"Get the fuck back here!" The yell echoed through the store. That was one thing I learned about the guy, he has no filter. I didn't mind that he cursed but why would you scream it in a place where children could hear.

Thankfully the store seemed to be a wasteland, the only cashier being a girl in her mid twenties, at least that's what I thought. I had sharp turns, at some points I felt like my cart would topple over from the sudden curves but luck was finally on my side. I made my way to the one checkout area where it was open. The girl, whose name read, Jiwon, gave me a concerned stare. I tried to give her a smile but my muscles seemed to have gone numb. Too bad.

As Jiwon checked out every item, I checked my phone for the time again. 08:43. Just in time, the beeping noises stopped. I looked up to see the girl typing in things on the keypad, when I put in my card, the fox eyed boy showed up right next to me.

I grabbed the bags, with them being lightweight, it wasn't much of an issue. "Let me assist you...Yeonjin." My name left his mouth like a bitter aftertaste.

"No, it's okay, I wouldn't want you to hurt your dainty finger." I did my best to sugarcoat everything, though it came out as I had planned I cringed. I just wanted to go home, and take a long nap. Maybe even a nap I wouldn't want to wake from.

I pulled out my phone, groaning at the loading screen of the uber app. Amazing timing.

"I'll give you a ride?" You didn't have to know the boy to realize he was up to something. It was very hard not to feel the danger of already being near him.

"And get drugged, maybe killed? I'm alright." I answered quickly, heaving a sigh of relief as the screen finally loaded. The relaxation was cut short when I laid my eyes on the nearest uber.

15 minutes away.

"Come on Yeonjin."

"I'm good, don't you have a girlfriend," I paused, "She's probably looking for you." My voice became quieter as I finished the sentence, realizing how stupid I sounded.

Putting the feeling aside, I pulled out my phone. My eyebrows furrowed, seeing my battery and how far the uber was. Thirteen minutes away, oh my god. thirteen minutes stuck here with this...thing.

"Gold of you to assume I would date any of those people at school," Hyunjin murmured. I looked up, not really giving a shit to his response. My eyes went everywhere but to the boy next to me who I could feel was eyeing my bags.

"You're not getting anything Jin, might as well give up." There was a second of silence before the guy spoke.

"Jin?" The confusion in his voice made me so close to laughing, it sounded too vulnerable.

"It's obvious you're not gonna leave me alone and I don't want to keep saying your name, so I shortened it to Jin," I explained receiving a scoff from the boy. The reaction only signaled me to check how many more minutes it would be until my uber arrived. Nine minutes? Seriously?

"I'm older than you by a few months for sure, you need to call me by my full name.."

This time I scoffed, shaking my head. "Give you the respect you don't deserve?" I looked at the guy just in time to see him roll his eyes. Seeing him annoyed made me smile, but I dismissed it as quickly as it appeared.

Finally a car pulled up in front of us, the man in the car rolled down his window. He continued by asking for my name, a smile made its way to my face as I told the man my name.

"I'm saying this one last time, Yeonjin, give me the bag." His voice was too gentle to sound like a warning so there was really no reason for me to be scared.

"And if I don't?" I asked, pausing.

"Just wait and see," The boy grinned. I continued putting my bags in the seat before getting in as well.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow, Jin," I said, the vehicle driving out the parking lot.

Just as the car was a yard or so away from the front of the store, I heard a yell.

"Don't call me Jin, Yeon!"

I froze at the nickname, it wasn't bad but I guess I understood why he didn't want me to call him three letters of his name. Oh well.

-

"Miss, I know it's not my place to ask but are you two friends?" The driver suddenly asked, "You two just seemed– in a way close."

I laughed, "No it's okay, but no he's just a classmate, nothing more. It was a coincidence that we met." The man did a little, 'ohh' and continued driving.

On the road, my mind trailed to his warning. I gave a soft chuckle at the thought of him acting intimidating, there's no way he thought I'd get scared. Besides what's the worst he could do, print up pictures of me, doodle on them and stick them around the school?