pulling on cosmic strings ꩜ pi hanwool, study group

7. the no longer oh-so-quiet minju

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"Please stop avoiding me like this. I didn't know you'd be this upset over me calling an attack."

"An attack? For 'changing his environment'?" Minju used her hands to form air quotes. "You can't mess with some random teachers for fun, Hanwool."

"I don't get why you're so worked up about it, she doesn't even teach you."

"She does now, I joined the study group," Minju retaliated.

"I heard," Hanwool gritted his teeth. "You should stay away from them, they're just going to cause trouble, Minju. Yoon Gamin, Ms. Lee, the study group, all of them."

She furrowed her brows, "You're blowing it out of proportion, stop making assumptions for no reason."

"They're not for no reason."

"Oh yeah? Then enlighten me."

Hanwool dragged his hand down his face, "I can't fucking tell you."

"Great talk," Minju snapped sarcastically.

"I don't get it. Why are you so pressed about this? Why are you all of a sudden socializing and joining the study group, out of everything else?"

Frustrated at not being able to tell him the truth, Minju avoided his gaze and stayed silent. As much as she wanted to convince Hanwool the study group was going to help them, she couldn't tell him so early on, afraid that him not being convinced could lead him to doing worse things, hindering her plan.

"This isn't like you. You've never given a shit about this kind of stuff before."

Minju huffed, "Well maybe I changed my mind. I don't like this anymore. Starting random fights, ignoring the consequences, blindly following my father's orders."

"I don't want to do this anymore," she whispered.

"And you should stop with this too," Minju lifted her right hand to point at him.

Hanwool closed his eyes for a second, an attempt to calm himself down. When he opened them, his eyes landed on her hand, in which the bandages were stained red. Without thinking, he grabbed it and unfurled her fingers.

"Aren't these supposed to be healed by now?" he asked as he inspected the bandages.

Minju tried to pull her hand away, but he kept his grip on her strong, although gentle enough not to hurt her.

"They are, it's just that I got into an incident earlier."

"What incident?" Hanwool narrowed his eyes.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

Hanwool pursed his lips at the response. He held her hand, careful not to injure it further, and took her down to the infirmary.

The nurse paid them no mind, Hanwool's demeanor indicating that they didn't need her assistance. He left her standing next to the bed while he rummaged through the cupboards to find some disinfectants, ointments, and new bandages.

Minju sat on the bed, her feet dangling off the edge. Hanwool returned with the items and grabbed a chair, sitting down right in front of her.

She didn't protest once as Hanwool started unwrapping her old bandages and treating her wounds, before replacing them with new ones.

After a moment of silence, Hanwool spoke, "You're still not going to tell me what happened?"

"What about you? Not going to explain why you're so against the study group?"

Sensing she probably wouldn't be getting a response, Minju sighed and offered an olive branch, "There was an altercation in class earlier."

"With who?"

"It was between some girls. Gamin and I tried to help, then Gyujin showed up."

Hanwool was already irritated at the mention of Gamin, but he later paused when she mentioned the latter.

"Gyujin?"

"Yeah, did you know he's fucked up in the head? He was about to hit his 'girlfriend' if I didn't step in."

Hanwool tightened the bandages around her hand, fastening it securely. He was silent for a moment before saying something quietly.

"That bastard has what's coming for him."

"What?"

Hanwool didn't offer a reply.

"Hanwool, what did you do?"

‧｡ ₊ ⭑˚ ꩜ ⋆ 𓂃 ₊ ⊹

Author's Note

Thank you for 600 reads! I didn't expect for this chapter to be this long, but I wanted it to end at a specific scene, so there you go! I feel like there's a lot more dialogue in this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it :)

When I first saw Jiwoo in the Webtoon, all I could think was, "DAMN SHE'S HOT." Her and Hyunwoo are literally power siblings. On the contrary, Gyujin is fucking disgusting LOL. What did you guys think about the Gyujin-Hyunwoo backstory?

Also, I feel like I never wrote them cursing in the first few chapters, just because I didn't want it to be so vulgar at the start. But honestly, I personally curse a lot and I feel like the story would be bland without it. I mean, they curse in the Webtoon and K-Drama, so it should be fine, right?