STARSTRUCK | IJB

02

—

"so, she should be alright, right?" jaebum was interviewed by the nurse and a police officer outside of the room, waiting for her to wake up.

"she should be, she has a personal doctor but i believe her blood pressure lowered quickly which can be alarming if it was out of the blue. otherwise it was probably just a small faint."

"did you get a license plate?" the officer interjected himself in, asking away. he was tall and intimidating, a combo that did not quite fit well for interviewing a high school student.

"no, i already said that it was extremely dark out," jaebum exasperated, his head tilting over to see if she was awake yet.

after a few more questions, jaebum left the main building. at this time he would normally be heading to the back of the west field or the westward court but the morning just wasn't something he could just shake off and continue on with his life. he walked to the east side of the building instead, looking for a familiar face.

he couldn't stop thinking about how terrified she looked. he found it odd that she tripped on almost nothing but air which she recovered in an understandable time. it was just how he could see the blood drain from her face, even in the dark she looked when that car came from nowhere.

it turned from the corner and by the time she took off her headphones, it was coming at her. he remembered how her steps staggered backward then forward. without a doubt, he immediately ran over to get her out of the way.

"oh come on, you have to introduce me to the foreign students! you told me they were hot!" a loud booming voice, belonging to a girl echoed, waking him up from his own thoughts.

"for the love of god i was just— hyung?" jaebum shot his head upwards, seeing exactly who he was expecting, accompanied by a fellow student.

"jinyoung!" jaebum smiled and ran over to the two, standing next to jinyoung as he continued to walk towards the east gates.

"jinyoungie or peachy," the person besides jinyoung was a girl with chestnut hair cut about to her shoulders. she had red brimmed sunglasses in her hands as she nudged him a few more times.

"go sunmi, stop," jinyoung covered his eyes as the girl besides him kept thinking of a nickname for him. "i know that they said for us to get closer but that doesn't mean you can call me names like that. jinyoung should suffice. not peachy, not jinyoungie, or junior."

"oh come on, don't be so sour mr. future class president," sunmi elbowed his side to mess with him more.

"sunmi?" jaebum had to think for a moment for where he heard that name. "you mean the go sunmi that terrorizes y—" jinyoung stepped on jaebum's foot and defensively pulled on his ear out of instinct.

"excuse me? i do not terrorize him." sunmi's facial expression screamed offended, staring at jinyoung as if he were a mother mad at a child for speaking out rudely.

"you're the only person that makes him talk whenever he reads a book, you gotta show me how you do that." jaebum mumbled, trying to get away from jinyoung.

eventually after their little sprawl, the trio walked into the school, a few students even behind them.

jaebum found it odd how sunmi would always be surprised seeing something simple like a bird or a piano. but if it was the way she made jinyoung talk, it worked.

"tsk. i swear, eunha isn't replying to my messages." sunmi moped as they all walked down the hallways.

"so why aren't you at the field?" jinyoung started conversation with jaebum, ignoring sunmi.

"look at this gross scrape," jaebum rolled up his sleeves. "i got into a small accident with another student earlier this morning."

"really? who?" jinyoung and sunmi perched themselves closer together to gossip.

"i dunno, just someone from my bus stop," jaebum noted. he always remember walking past her, wondering what she could be doing in the mornings.

"was she pretty?" sunmi popped a few questions.

"she isn't ugly," jaebum kept it short and simple.

jinyoung laughed a bit, which was then greeted by two other boys walking down the hallway.

"see you later  yugyeom and bambam!" jinyoung waved them ado, sunmi poking her head from behind jinyoung.

"what kind of name is bambam? is he a foreigner?!" she got excited.

"yeah, but don't go scare him off." jinyoung casually replied as he pulled out sunmi's schedule for this year. "oh. we have a relatively similar schedule."

jaebum, jinyoung, and sunmi all walked into their designated spots realizing that bambam, yugyeom, and youngjae was in the class next to them. leaving jackson and mark with jaebum and jinyoung.

"oh? eunha!" sunmi ran up to a girl upon inspection on bandages on her right leg and a bit of everywhere else like jaebum.

"yo," she rolled her eyes since others were staring at her.

"what happened to you?" sunmi looked over at jaebum connecting the dots. "jesus, you mean?"

eunha nodded as jaebum kinda just looked at her confused. he didn't realize sunmi were friends with sophmores, something that didn't happen often because of how their schedules were set up.

"i really don't wanna be here." eunha sat down, rubbing her eyes, definitely sleep deprived. "my dad is gonna kill me if he finds out i fainted at school."

as the bell rang, other students walked in, filling the class seats quickly. jaebum sat behind her once he realized that there weren't many spots open left. role call immediately started.

he was just in a daze. was she really not a sophmore? maybe she was lost?

"go sunmi."

"here."

"han eunha."

"present."

oh. okay. well. maybe she was some genius child that skipped a few grades. jaebum was certain that this girl was younger.

"im jaebum."

"here!"

he inspected her behavior, expecting her to be punctual and pay attention. he meant, maybe she was a genius child and skipped a grade or two.

but instead? she went right to sleep.

when it came time to actually filling out unnecessary amounts of forums about health issues, sight issues, and everything in between that literally no one cared about, he saw her take out a pair of half framed glasses, receiving a small comment from the person diagonally situation from him.

"you know eunha, you look better when you don't have your glasses on." the boy made a suggestive comment that made her turn around, completely unamused.

"first of all, you know namseon, you look better when i don't have my glasses on too."

sunmi almost started snorting. a few other students friends with namseon started cackling, and jaebum couldn't stop himself from dying in his seat.

the whole section was called out by their teacher, shutting up quickly, jaebum quietly mumbling, "this year is gonna be interesting."

eunha, turning around to see her red faced 'savior' and raised her brow. wondering what was going through his mind.