Finding the Right Words

Chapter 27- Do I Get A Hug?

Min Hee snorted. "Don't let her fool you. She's always like that."

I glared at her, and she looked away. 

Wookie just looked at me for a moment, and then burst out laughing. "You're so crazy!" He fnally giggled, making me feel ten times worse. 

But then he reached up and patted me on the back. "Don't worry about it, I think it's good to be a tough girl! I'm really glad you can stand up for yourself! Especially when you have to deal with someone as crazy as Henry!"

"Ya!" Henry yelled. 

"Hey, you know it's true. After all, you-" Ryeowook's pocket buzzed, and he stopped talking to look at it. "Henry, that's the manager-hyung. He's wondering what's taking so long."

"Oh, well..." Henry looked at me, then back at Ryeowook, then back at me.  Finally he sighed, and said, "I'm going to take my skates off, Hyung. I'll be back in a little bit."

Skating wasn't going to be much fun without Henry. Already the mood in the building had plummetted as we realized that it was time for him to go. "I'm going, too," I suddenly declared, going off after him. 

He was unlacing them when I got there. I sat down next to him and started to do the same, not knowing what to say. I don't think he knew, either, because we were sitting in silence for a long time.

"If you have a boyfriend when I come back, I swear I'm going to kill you." 

"Why are you worrying about that?"

"I'm your Oppa! You don't get a boyfriend until I approve of him!"

I laughed, "You'll have to get past my sister, first. Technically she has first dibs, since she was my sibling before you were."

"But I'm older."

"True. But I don't think she's going to relinquish her right to you because of that. She can be quite stubborn."

"I'll get it from her somehow!" He replied determinedly. Without even realizing it, we had relapsed into our normal way of talking about completely random and useless things, and being comfortable with it. "I'll use force if I have to!"

"Oh, really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow, "You do know that my sister knows Escrima, right? Of course she's still a little Bambi, but that's more martial arts than you know."

"Bambi?"

"Oh, sorry. Inside joke. My sister has really big brown eyes that make her look like a cute, harmless baby deer."

"And you're saying that she's going to beat me up?" He asked doubtfully.

"She can be kind of scary sometimes."

"Oh."

We relapsed into silence again, and I slipped my skates off. When I couldn't stand the lack of sound any longer, I blurted, "Thank you for everything, Henry."

"Hey, hey, you say that like I'm leaving forever! It's just a month!"

"A month with no one to protect me from Jessica! It might as well be forever!"

Did I forget to mention that she had been repeatedly horrible for the past few weeks? Maybe it's because I was trying my best to keep it out of my brain. Yeah, I can't count the number of times that I'd been pushed over in the hallways, tripped, slandered, and harassed by her. The only times it didn't happen was when I was with one of the members, usually Henry. Almost always Henry, actually. The only exception was that one time with Sungmin...

I shook my head to prevent my eyes from glazing over. Not the time to be daydreaming about Sungmin. Anyway, let's just say that she was wearing my tolerance level threadbare. I probably would've snapped by now if it hadn't been for Henry.