That Stupid List (A Seventeen Fanfic)

Chapter 32: Owing Him

The next day, Jin went to college anxious again.

Why is it that whenever I come with the intention of confronting him, I feel anxious? Jin thought grudgingly. Italways happened with him. She always felt this uncomfortable pit in her stomach whenever anything involved him. She wondered how he became such a source of distress for her. Why did her life always happen to involve him so much?

She grumbled to herself. She did not want to talk to him at all. If it were up to her, she would have just ignored him and pretended she never saw that stupid envelope. But she did slap him, and she couldn't bear to live with the guilt of doing something like that without apologizing, even for a jerk like Vernon.

What's going to happen this time? Will it end in something dramatic again? Will he be angry with her? Jin didn't think so. If he were angry, he would have done something ages ago.

When lunchtime finally came, and she saw Vernon sitting there with his obnoxious friends, she figured it was time.

She approached him, that pit in her stomach feeling heavier and heavier with every step.

"Can I talk to you alone?" she said before he even noticed her. His obnoxious friends started to snicker. He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Here to apologize, Frostbite?" he sneered.

Jin hated being put on the spot. She was nervous about apologizing to begin with, and she hated that she was being made to do so in front of his friends. She hated that they reacted to everything she said. It made her feel self-conscious, and she just did not want to do it.

"No," she replied to Vernon, and then turned to leave. Vernon got up from his table and grabbed her arm before she could.

"Let's talk," he said, letting go of her arm and walking over the same empty lecture hall she had slapped him in. She followed him inside.

When they were both inside, he turned to her and crossed his arms, waiting expectantly for Jin to say something.

Jin looked to the floor. She couldn't even bring herself to make eye contact with him. She was sorry, but also scared of him at the same time. Hence, she stood there frozen in her attempts to come out with it and say sorry.

"Well?" he asked when he saw that no words were coming form her mouth.

She gulped and then looked up and faced him, "I thought you were the one that started the rumor about Wonwoo," she explained.

"I'm not that much of a jerk," he scoffed.

"Well, I thought you were," Jin said with a shrug.

"Are you going to apologize or what?" he asked, frowning.

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely and bowed fully. "I misjudged you. I should not have slapped you." She held her bowing position. She didn't want to straighten up, because that meant she had to make eye contact and eye contact with him made her nervous.

"That's good and all," Vernon said, "but, do you know how humiliating it is to be slapped?"

Jin groaned internally. She knew he wouldn't let it go so easily.

"It's humiliating, and I don't easily forgive when people humiliate me," Vernon said with a slight smirk. "I need to humiliate you the same way you humiliated me. It's only fair, right?"

"Slap me then," Jin said looking up to offer her cheek to him.

"I don't like hitting people," Vernon said. "I'll make it easy for you." He pointed to his cheek and lowered his face. "My cheek still hurts from when you slapped it," he explained, "it needs a kiss to make it better."