"Follow the instructions written on the board, make sure to put the exact amount of each liquid in order to achieve the results of this experiment. And please be careful in handling the materials, especially the fragile ones." the Chemistry teacher spoke.
For their class today, they were tasked to conduct an experiment - and they had to do it in groups of 4.
They were allowed to group up with anyone, so naturally, Minji, Sunoo and Niki were group mates just like what they do all the time. But now with the addition of Jungwon in their circle of friends, of course they had to include him, after all, they were missing one more member.
"Not too much. Okay that's good. Wait actually, just add a little more." Minji guided Jungwon.
He carefully added liquid B to the test tube already filled with liquid A, making sure as to not spill any of it on the table.
After that, they observed the tube - observed what happened as the liquids mixed.
Jungwon was in charge of keeping an eye on the liquid and saying what's happening, Minji was the one writing down their observations on the paper, meanwhile Sunoo and Niki...well they were being Sunoo and Niki.
"Sunoo hyung look." Niki called for Sunoo's attention.
Niki placed a flask with a triangular shape in front of his face. Because there was liquid inside it, the refraction of the liquid made his face look weird and funny.
Sunoo laughed at how Niki looked like. It looked like he had those snapchat filters that made your face look wide. He laughed at the younger before joining him in his shenanigans.
"Look look." Sunoo called Niki - placing a circular flask in front of his face. Niki laughed at how Sunoo's face looked through the glass.
Both of them kept laughing and playing around with different tubes and flasks - barely even helping Minji and Jungwon.
"Guys..." Minji tried getting their attention, but she failed. They were to busy laughing, and Minji isn't the type of person strict enough to get mad at the two.
"Guys you have to stop. If Jungwon sees you..."
Jungwon noticed that he and Minji were the only ones doing the work - shifting his focus on Sunoo and Niki and looking at them seriously. As the two were continuing to play, Jungwon snatched the flasks from their hand.
"If you don't have the decency to help, at least have the decency to keep quiet." he said, scoffing at the two before returning to work on their experiment.
The two quickly stopped playing around and kept quiet - both of them going nearer to Minji and Jungwon so that they can help.
Minji just smiled at the two awkwardly, doing the 'I told you so' face at them.
---
"There, we're done cleaning the table." Sunoo told Jungwon.
"Good." he replied.
It was already their dismissal time. Usually, classes would end at 4:00 pm, but their schedule for Mondays made their dismissal time earlier than usual. It was only 2:30, and none of them wanted to go home yet. They had no homework, and none of them had anything to do at home anyway.
Jungwon in particular looked forward to dismissal. Ever since his talk with Jake in the library yesterday, he thought that he should take some time and go an extra mile to interact with the others. Not interact like casually talking to them, but interact like joining the others and see what their life is like outside of academics.
"By the way, I have to drop by the publications office and turn in my article for the school paper first. You guys can go ahead to the skating rink, I'll catch up." Minji told Sunoo and Niki.
"Skating rink?" Jungwon asked. "We have a skating rink in school???"
"Oh yeahhh, we forgot to tell Jungwon. So we're basically just going to watch Sunghoon hyung practice since we have nothing else to do. You should join us!" Sunoo told the younger.
"And yes, we do have a skating rink here. This place isn't one of Korea's most prestigious schools for no reason y'know?" he added.
"Hmm, okay sure. But I'll go with Minji. I want to see what the publications office look like." Jungwon responded.
He wanted to go with as many of them as he can - so he decided that he would go with Minji before they visit Sunghoon.
Minji didn't mind Jungwon coming with her. In fact, she was happy that someone would keep her company
Minji and Jungwon grabbed their bags and left the laboratory, while Sunoo and Niki were left behind to finish answering the remaining questions on their group paper - it was the punishment Jungwon gave them for not helping sooner.
---
"Yes that's all of it. Ohh, sure I can do that! Alright, goodbye sir!" Minji said as she closed the door to the office.
Minji was talking to the teacher in charge of supervising the production of the school papers. She had just turned in her work - a few sports articles she came up with after she interviewed some student athletes. Minji loved writing for the school paper. Even if she didn't necessarily want to be a journalist or a writer in the future, she found writing as something fun.
"What was that?" Jungwon asked. He wanted to start a conversation.
"The teacher asked me to interview someone from the Basketball team. Since 'that' incident...you know...those boys that bullied you. Remember that?"
"Yeah, how could I forget that."
"Since that incident, the Basketball team had a bad reputation. So the teacher asked me to interview someone and make an article to highlight their recent accomplishments."
"Ahh, I see. You can ask Jay hyung. He's part of the basketball team if I remember correctly."
"OH righttt! Thanks for the idea!" she said, playfully hitting his arm.
As the two of them were on their way to see Sunghoon, they happened to pass by the person they were just talking about, Jay.
But...he's with a girl.
Jungwon looked at who Jay was with - and he was not pleased at all to see Jay hanging out with that particular girl.
"Katsumi." he said her name with much hate in his head.
"Hi Jay! Oh- hey Jungwon, isn't she your friend?" Minji asked Jungwon as soon as she recognized Katsumi's face.
Jungwon scoffed at the sight of Katsumi hanging out with Jay. He didn't like the idea of it, not even a bit.
"Hello Minji, hello Jungwon. Wait, you guys know who she is?" Jay responded as he pointed at Katsumi.
"Yup, she's Jungwon's friend. We've met before."
"This guy is Jungwon's friend??? Mhmm, interesting. I guess you have more use than I thought pretty boy." Katsumi thought in her head.
Originally she had planned to use Jay the same way she used the boy who works at the ice cream shop, and the same way she's used every single boy who fell for her. The only thing that made Jay different from the other boys was that he was the one that approached Katsumi first.
She didn't have to charm Jay, it was his own will to talk to her.
She smiled at Jay the same way she does whenever she does something bad. Of course, Jungwon saw that smile, and he automatically knew he had to save Jay from this horrid woman.
"So Jay, how did you meet Katsu-" Minji asked, but Jungwon interrupted her.
"Minji, didn't you say you need to interview Jay?"
"Yeah, but it doesn't need to be now-"
"Why don't you and Jay go ahead. I need to have a talk with Katsumi."
Jungwon looked at Katsumi seriously - to which she replied with a smirk. It's like they were having a staring contest.
His gaze was enough to have someone tremble in fear, but not Katsumi. She's not afraid of him, if anything - he should be afraid of her.
"Oh- uhh okay, but where will we wait for you?"
"You can go ahead to the skating rink, I'll catch up."
"Jay, are you going to do something?" Minji asked Jay.
"Nope, I have no plans. I was going to show Katsumi around the school but I guess Jungwon and her need to talk." Jay replied.
"Okie, c'mon let's go watch Sunghoon ice-skate."
"Watch Sunghoon?? Again??? Jake's been dragging me multiple times to watch Sunghoon, at this point I probably know how to skate just like Sunghoon."Jay groaned in despair.
"C'mon~ at least you'll watch with me this time!" Minji said as they left - her dragging Jay along.
"You. Stay away from Jay. If you even think about using him for your own selfish needs, I won't hesitate to-"
"To what? Kill me? Is little Jungwon going to kill me?" Katsumi laughed at him.
"You'll only wish you were dead." Jungwon responded, not hesitating to threaten Katsumi.
Katsumi laughed even more. She could not believe that he was threatening her. Obviously, he doesn't know how much Katsumi changed within the past few years.
"What's this I see? Has Jungwon gone soft? Where's the Jungwon that didn't care about anyone not himself?"
"Jay is my friend, of course I care about him."
"You care about a friend?? That's new. Last time you had a friend, you made them disappear. What's his name again? Haku, right?"
"Jay's different. He didn't do anything bad to me, and I doubt he will. He's a good guy."
"Hmm, I remember you telling me the exact same thing about Haku."
Jungwon glared at her. Does she really have to bring up so many bad memories in his life? And no, of course he doesn't think Jay will do something bad. He believes that Jay is a good person.
"Drop your mind-control on Jay and don't come near him again."
"Tch." Katsumi scoffed at Jungwon. "Excuse me, but I didn't do anything to that boy. He's the one who came to me in a café, I didn't charm him whatsoever."
"You're lying."
"Am I? Ask him yourself then."
Jay fell for a girl like her?? Why?? Jungwon can't believe what she just said - the only thing he can do about it is ask Jay himself.
---
"Good afternoon Heeseung. The usual?"
"Yup!" Heeseung replied.
He's currently at the ice cream shop - it's basically his go to place. Since college students have different schedules from the senior high school students, there are times when he is all by himself. Today is one of those days where his schedule doesn't match with those of his senior high school friends.
He went to the ice cream shop to eat some dessert and stay there until he has to go back to school for his 4:30 class.
"Here you go Heeseung, two scoops of dark chocolate ice cream with extra chocolate sauce." the girl working at the ice cream shop said.
"Thanks Chae!" he told the girl as he took his order.
Heeseung always goes to this shop, that he's basically friends with the staff. With that said, he noticed something different in the store - particularly the staff.
"Hey Chae, where's Beomseok? Isn't it his shift right now?" Heeseung asked out of curiosity.
As she heard Heeseung say the boy's name, her expression changed. She looked like she was very worried.
"We haven't seen Beomseok in three days. All we know is that he left early last Saturday, he said he had a date with some girl. And then we haven't seen him since."
"Maybe he's sick??"
"No, he isn't picking up his calls. We even called his family, they said they haven't seen him too. He just suddenly disappeared..."
"Ohmy...."
'What could have happened to Beomseok?' Heeseung thought. Is he hiding somewhere...
or did someone do something to him?
----
A/N:
btw Beomseok and Chae are just side characters who work at the store, I just wanted to give them names ehe - just saying so that some people won't get confused that there's suddenly 2 new names.