chapter 12
~iced coffee~
present time~
"Oh, look!" Soojin exclaimed, snapping the idling group member from his daydreams. "The others are here."
Sure enough, they soon were joined by Tae-hoon as well, who took his seat next to Sua. Seojun glanced upwards to see a perpetually annoyed Suho enter the classroom, trailed by the new, but timid girl.
Seojun couldn't bear to look at Suho at all and refused to acknowledge his arrival, slumping back in his seat with an irritated huff. The little stunt the boy had pulled in the kitchen pantry had taken up a lot of his energy, and he decided Lee Suho was the last person he wanted to spend his precious energy on at that moment. Seojun's dark eyes instead focused on the slouching figure of Lim Jukyung who had taken a seat next to him. The girl's head was lowered, as though she were sleeping.
"Why does she seem so familiar?" Seojun murmured to himself, bending down to take a good look at the girl beyond the voluminous mass of hair that covered her face.
However, the dark-haired boy was roused out of his musings upon hearing a soft thud on the table in front of him.
Seojun turned to see a very stunned Yoon-ah staring at Lee Suho in disbelief. His curious gaze fell on the latter's hands to see the very man he loathed hold out a small bottle of iced coffee out for his friend. Seojun's eyes set ablaze with a fury, which was unlike anything he had experienced before.
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Yoon-ah finally felt alive again after taking a few sips of the strawberry milkshake. Although she was not fond of strawberry-flavored stuff, she knew Seojun had no way of knowing that, she was still grateful he had taken the trouble to buy her the drink.
Well, technically speaking, Seojun was the root cause of the problem and he ought to have done something about it anyways. Still, Yoon-ah flashed him a grateful smile which he reciprocated with a proud grin, before turning away and laying her head on the table again.
The soft thud of another bottle being placed on the table made Yoon-ah draw in a sharp breath. The brunette looked up, astonished, to find a little bottle of cold coffee lying on the desk. Within moments, Yoon-ah noticed the atmosphere grow tense. Everyone stopped talking, their attention fixated on her next actions.
After staring at the iced coffee for a moment, Yoon-ah's gaze flitted to the person who put it there. Her brown eyes widened when they focused on Lee Suho's brooding face. He pointedly kept his face turned away, doing so as nonchalantly as possible while pressing the bottle into her hands.
"What are you doing?" the girl questioned blankly, quite aware of Seojun's angry glare trained on them.
What was happening at that moment genuinely escaped her. It would normally seem as though Lee Suho lacked the bare minimum decency to converse with other people, let alone bother about them. Then, why on earth would he-
She tilted her head in confusion, looking at Suho with questioning eyes. The said boy looked down, finally focusing his attention on her. "I got this for you," he said flatly.
In a manner that was almost comical in its nature, Yoon-ah stilled in her tracks, staring blankly at the boy as her brain processed what he had just said. "You what?!"
"Don't flatter yourself. You'd be shocked by the amount of chaos you cause in the corridors," Suho grumbled, shaking his head. "I don't care what you do with this bottle. Burn it, throw it in the garbage, or drink it. The only thing I ask is for you to stop giving me a god-awful migraine."
That was the most she had ever heard him speak in her life.
Yoon-ah raised her brows. "Be honest, did you poison it?"
The boy shot her a withering look, ready to retract his hand, however, Yoon-ah beat him to it, swiping the bottle away from him.
"I was only asking because it's very unlike you. Don't take it to heart," she said. "I'll take it. You went through all this trouble to resolve the 'god-wful migraine' of yours, after all," the girl added, making air quotes with her hands.
Suho only glared back in response, as one would expect of him.
The brunette held back a snark response. After all, the boy had gone through the trouble of getting her favorite drink for her- whatever his reasoning may have been. Yoon-ah got the faint impression the boy was more caring than he let on.
"Thanks, Suho, you're such a doll!" she finished, her face brightening up a notch.
On the other hand, the boy looked at Yoon-ah with scornful eyes and bumped her seat on purpose as he took a seat next to her. A swaying Yoon-ah was forced to grab her new seatmate's shoulder in order to steady herself.
"Yah!" she exclaimed. "It would have been so much simpler just to say that you didn't like being thanked, you nasty jerk!"
Turning around to scowl at Suho, her gaze was met by a pair of shocked hazel eyes. Suho's light brown eyes were wide and his mouth hung open in surprise. It was then that Yoon-ah realized she still had her hand on Suho's shoulder, leaning heavily on the boy to support herself.
A harsh hand slammed against the table, snapping two out of the moment. Suho jerked back in his seat and Yoon-ah pulled her hand back to her chest as quickly as she could. Coughing to cover her reddening face, the girl turned her head away from Suho, only to meet Seojun's fiery gaze.
A dangerous fire burned in the boy's eyes as he withdrew his clenched hand from the table.
"I think," Seojun gritted through clenched teeth. "We have waited enough. Let's begin."
"You're right," Yoon-ah breathed, averting her eyes. She nodded quickly, keeping her gaze fixed on her bracelet while she played with it. "Let's start the discussion."
The brunette felt acutely aware of Suho's curious gaze on her, but at the same time, she was also very aware of Seojun's angry eyes set on her as she uttered those words. The air was thick with tension, Yoon-ah squirmed in her seat with a certain unease.
Wait a second...she thought, eyes widening.
Why am I feeling uncomfortable?
What did I do wrong?
"Aish, these boys," Yoon-ah grumbled. "It's no wonder the other students dread their confrontations, I'm getting goosebumps just by being in the same room as them."
As luck would have it, Mr. Han clapped his hands together in order to call the attention of the class to himself.
"Have you guys done the research on the poets I mentioned?" he asked.
"Yes, sir!" the class echoed.
"You will work with the groups I assigned for the project," the kind teacher continued. "So discuss your work as one till the project ends...hmm?"
"Sure," the girl muttered under her breath. "If we make it out of this one discussion alive, that is."
Clearly having heard her grumbling, Suho directed an amused gaze at the girl, which Yoon-ah ignored.
"So.." Soojin interrupted, making all heads on the table turn towards her. "What topic should we cover?"
The group members pondered over the question, mulling over the options in their minds.
"I've got it!" Hyun-kyu declared suddenly, slamming his hands on the table and startling the others. "We can make a presentation on rebellious poets."
"But won't there be a lot of material on them?" Sua countered. "Everyone else will try to do them too."
"You're right as always Sua-yah" Tae-hoon cooed, looking at his girlfriend with a fond smile. Yoon-ah shared a look with Soojin, pretending to gag at his statement.
"What about romantic poets?" Tae-hoon wondered out loud. "There could be some beautiful poetry I could readout for my lovely Sua."
A collective groan sounded from the group's table while Sua cooed at him and pinched her boyfriend's cheeks.
"If Sua were an actual country, yeah." Yoon-ah made a face. "I hate to be the one to say this...But Tae-hoon-ah, I don't think you know what romantic poets actually wrote about."
"What else did they write about? We call the poets romantics. RO-MAN-TIC...That means L-O-V-E," Tae-hoon reasoned, a bewildered look on his face.
Soojin laughed. "That's not it!"
His brows knit together in apparent confusion. "I don't understand," he said. "What do you mean?"
"Mr. Han might be able to assist you," Yoon-ah hummed in thought. "I can suggest some reading too. If you meet me at the library later--"
"That's not necessary," Seojun suddenly interjected. "Let's do rebellious poets. I like that idea better."
"Okay," the girl looked at Seojun, confused by his sudden odd behavior. "Jukyung-ah, what do you think?"
Yoon-ah turned to the girl who sat unmoving on her seat, her head craned downwards still.
"Is she okay?" Seojun tapped on the girl's shoulder with concern.
"That poor animal with the long neck, always so calm," Mr. Han said suddenly, approaching their table. "Jukyung, are you asleep?"
The girl raised her head with a distressed expression on her face.
"No, sir." She shook her head.
Jukyung glanced up at Suho only to return her gaze to the table in a woeful state.
"I'm glad," Mr. Han remarked with a tight-lipped smile and continued his rounds.
Jukyung let out a frustrated groan as soon as their Literature teacher went out of earshot, her eyes tearful. She sniffled a little, before giving Yoon-ah a small smile.
"So, we're doing rebellious poets?" Soojin questioned, quirking her brows.
Yoon-ah looked around the table for approval. The entire group nodded in agreement, bar Suho.
"Hey," she called out in an attempt to grab his attention. "Should we choose rebellious poets? Are you okay with that?"
"Go ahead," Suho murmured, with a curt nod in her direction. "Do whatever."
"Okay," The brunette clicked her tongue in disapproval and turned around to see Seojun's eyes trained on them yet again. Before the boy could open his mouth, she waved a dismissive hand and motioned for him to let her concentrate on the task at hand.
"All that remains now is to divide the work," she continued.
All the group members fell silent for a moment while Soojin scrutinized Seojun for a while before addressing him.
"Yah, Han Seojun," she spoke up. "How come your jaw is bruised? Did you get in another fight?"
"You could say that," Seojun said, glaring at Yoon-ah who shot the boy a rueful smile. "A certain brat decided that punching people in the face without any reason was amusing."
"I'm sure the 'brat' had her reasons," Yoon-ah shot back, keeping her voice unusually cheery. "And I bet she'd be happy to do it again."
"Why do I feel like I'm missing something here?" Tae-hoon murmured.
"That's all very good to know," Soojin uttered with an exasperated look. "But, more importantly, do you think you can arrange a PPT file?"
"Fitting, did you say? Of course," the boy said, a proud smirk making its way onto his face."I worked as a part-time model, you see," Seojun continued, flicking his hair to the side and smirking at Yoon-ah. The girl scoffed in an attempt to cover up the laugh threatening to escape her lips.
"Sure. Whatever you say," Soojin said uncertainly, sharing a look with the brunette. "Yoon-ah-ya, how about we- no, on second thoughts, how about you and Seojun create the PPT file together, while Suho and I can do the base research? Is that okay, Lee Suho?"
Tearing his eyes away from Seojun, the boy hummed in reply, trying hard not to dwell too long on Seojun's self-satisfied smirk and cocked brows.
"Would you like to meet up at my place for the fitting?" the tall boy asked.
As much as Yoon-ah was itching to disagree with the arrangement and point out the fact that it was not a freaking fitting, she found herself nodding her head in agreement nonetheless. She realized it would be impossible to reach any other agreement with the two warring boys in the same group anyways.
Seeing the innocent smile spread across Seojun's face at her acceptance, Yoon-ah decided to let it be, for the sake of everyone's sanity. Although she was reluctant to acknowledge it to herself, deep down, she knew her restraint also had something to do with the way Seojun's face had lit up when she had agreed to work with him.
That, and the fact that nobody else in the group would be able to get him to do work anyways.
"It might be easier if Yoon-ah and Suho did the research instead," Tae-hoon suggested suddenly. "They are both our top students, so they can provide us with some great research material."
"It doesn't matter to me," Suho replied, glancing at Yoon-ah with his usual blank expression. She didn't reply.
"Okay then, Soojin and Seoju- Or not," Tae-hoon cut himself off quickly, shrinking back in his seat under the weight of two particular sets of death glares directed at him.
Yoon-ah shook her head in disbelief. Not that she would've minded the former, really. As much as the girl knew she would have enjoyed Seojun's company, if it wasn't for Suho's habit of perpetually acting like a prick, maybe she would have found some opportunity to get to know the boy while working with him.
"I think Soojin is right," Tae-hoon repeated, nodding his head vigorously. "Her arrangement sounds good."
Han Seojun muttered something under his breath, looking pointedly away from the boy.
"Come sit next to me. Let's discuss," Seojun piqued up suddenly, looking at the brunette with an expectant expression. In doing so, he noticed Suho's gaze on his friend, and a scornful expression flashed across his face. For the time being, however, the boy chose to ignore it.
"You. Move," Seojun said, turning to the side with a huff and prodding Jukyung with a pen. "Go sit at that seat. Yoon-ah'll sit here."
Sua's sharp eyes darted between the dark-haired boy and her snickering friend.
What is this Han Seojun playing at?
Yoon-ah noticed Jukyung's horrified face as the girl contemplated the prospect of sitting next to Lee Suho. Of course, Jukyung was bound to be intimidated by the brooding boy, Yoon-ah thought. He wasn't exactly known for being very kind.
"We can't do that till the research is emailed to us first Seojun-ah," Yoon-ah chided, laughing.
Confused, Seojun furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. Yoon-ah held up a finger to silence him before he protested something along the lines of 'why they needed research for a fitting' or whatever.
"Let's assign everyone a role first," she said. "It is important for Tae-hoon, Sua, Jukyung, and Hyun-kyu to contribute as well."
"Right," Seojun said with a sideways glance at the new girl. His unhappy expression morphed into one of confusion. He stared at Jukyung as though for the first time, taking her in. Was she the one with Yoon-ah that night?
Seojun was yet to talk to the brunette about it. As he gazed at Jukyung, a strange sense of familiarity tugged at his brain, but his mind came up blank, having no memory of ever having seen Jukyung outside of school.
By the end of the Literature class, the group members had discussed their project and assigned specific roles to the members. However, Yoon-ah had noticed Jukyung to be visibly distressed throughout the discussion, often glancing at Suho timidly. Yoon-ah sneaked a sideways glance to see the boy staring back at her friend with his characteristic blank expression on his face.
Having a strange feeling that she was invading something personal, Yoon-ah looked away, only to be met by a dagger-like gaze, belonging to none other than her dear friend, Han Seojun. The girl realized with a start that he had caught her staring at Lee Suho yet again, and his hands were twitching as he held them closed in fists by his sides. Yoon-ah cleared her throat and looked down at the table, her fingers making their way toward her chain bracelet.
The ending bell rang and Suho took his eyes off Jukyung, only to meet Seojun's deadly glare. The two boys locked eyes and a dark look passed across their faces.
With the air around her getting ten times colder and having a gut feeling that some drama was about to go down, Yoon-ah nonchalantly hopped out of her seat with the unfinished bottle of strawberry milkshake in her hand. When Yoon-ah reached forward to grab the bottle of iced coffee she had been itching to drink ever since Suho gave it to her, a hand swiped it away before her.
Gritting her teeth, Yoon-ah looked up to see Seojun handing over the bottle to Hyun-kyu, who hesitantly took ahold of it, only to have it snatched away from his hands by Yoon-ah.
"Yah!" Yoon-ah cried out in a haste, clutching the bottle closer to herself protectively as Seojun reached forward to grab it out of her hands again. "What do you think you are doing?"
"You don't need that."
"Oh?" Yoon-ah quirked her brows in response.
"I already got you the strawberry milkshake. Why would you want that?"
"Because," Yoon-ah replied while holding up the pink shake and the brown coffee bottles next to each other and examining them. "They look good together, no? Like the two of you."
"Knock it off," Seojun grumbled and sat back in his seat with his arms crossed.
"Aish, I don't care. It was for me, not you." Yoon-ah said, sticking out her tongue at him. "Anyhow, I'll see you later, yeah?"
She smiled up at him, turning to Jukyung, who had been sitting next to him quietly and hooking her arm with hers. "Let's go!"
Once they were out of hearing distance, Jukyung whispered to Yoon-ah. "Do you know him well?"
"Who, Han Seojun?"
Jukyung nodded back in response, while Yoon-ah paused for a moment to think. She did not really know what relationship she shared with Han Seojun, since they had only ever spoken to each other outside the school walls.
Today was his first day back at school, and Seojun hadn't given her much of a cold shoulder since morning, as had been the case in the past. In fact, now that Yoon-ah thought about it, Seojun had been as soft toward her as he could allow himself to be while maintaining his characteristic bad boy persona at the same time. Would that be considered friendship?
"Maybe."
"Is he scary?" Jukyung asked. "How dangerous is he? Not murder-level dangerous or anything, right?"
"What? No!" Yoon-ah laughed, raising her brows in surprise. "Why do you ask that?"
"No reason," Jukyung gulped, clearly frightened.
Seojun's dark eyes followed the two girls as they walked away from the table, followed by Sua and Soojin. A strange feeling prickled at his heart, but before he could identify what it was, his gaze fell upon Lee Suho, a look of pure hatred flashing across his face. Seojun followed the boy's gaze as it trailed behind the group of girls walking down the corridor. He did not fail to notice the way Suho's gaze lingered on the newcomer. With a scowl of disdain, Seojun shoved his hands in his pockets and walked away.
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A/N-
I'm so sorry for the delay in the update of this chapter guys.
I have been awfully busy. I have my national board exams within a month and the studying is killing me (though I'm not gonna lie...I haven't been doing much of it in the past few days so I'm pretty much screwed😃)
But I love this book so much and I'm still nowhere near getting over my Seojun fever lol, so even if the next chapter gets delayed...I promise you I'm somewhere still writing it and editing it for posting.