━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
JAKE
Jake was beyond annoyed.
And he didn't even know who he truly was annoyed with. Was it the teacher that had put him beside the classmate he never wanted to sit next to? Was it Siyeon who has once again challenged his answer by defending her (hopefully) wrong answer? Was it with himself because he couldn't stomach the fact that Siyeon would once again disprove his answer? Or was it with his friend that was taking so damn long to solve a physics problem?
Heeseung was by far his smartest friend and if he wanted to get the correct answer, he knew it was Heeseung he had to approach. But the thing was, he was taking so long to solve the problem that Jake was starting to grow impatient. Well, perhaps it's his fault too considering his friend was busily eating when he slammed a piece of paper and a pen on the table.
"She's correct, Jake."
His heart dropped. "Are you sure? Check again!"
Heeseung lets out a sigh. "I could happily consult another smart student but I'm telling you, Siyeon's answer is correct."
Jake huffs in annoyance and crumpled the paper, leaning on his seat as he annoyingly crossed his arms.
It was only last month when Jo Siyeon transferred to class b, and at first, he never paid attention to her presence. She just sat there quietly and raised her hand maybe twice every day. She kept her presence low and never even spoke to any of her classmates. But that all changed when she and Jake would often get different answers to a physics problem.
He let her go once. He didn't even argue and just corrected himself. But the more she contested his answers, the more provoked he felt. As if she was doing that on purpose, and if it was playtime for her it wasn't for him. Nevertheless, he doubted it was playtime for her considering she was often— if not always— annoyed when opposing him.
He didn't like Siyeon, not even a little bit.
"Oh for heaven's sake, be the man and accept you're wrong." Sunoo appeared behind him, sitting next to Jake as he spoke. "Mr. Choi already put you two together, must you ask for another punishment?"
"Sunoo's right," Jay adds, sitting next to Heeseung.
"She's just so annoying! She can't let it go when she's wrong and of course, I can't let it go if she thinks my answer is wrong!" Jake argued but as if he was talking to a wall, nothing changed with his friend's expression. "You just don't get it."
"I'm number one. Do you think number two doesn't challenge mine daily?" Heeseung glared at him. "And do you think I don't challenge hers?"
"You're friends with her. That's different." His eyes narrowed. "And I don't think any of you are as short-tempered as Siyeon."
"As short-tempered as you, you mean." Jay comments.
Growing more annoyed than he already was, he looked at his watch, and relief washed over his face when he realized he had a valid excuse to get away from them. Standing up, he excused himself from his friends and went back to his classroom to grab something from his bag. Lucky for him, Siyeon has yet to return from lunch so he didn't have to worry about running into her.
After getting the brown paper bag, he made his way to the music room. And upon pushing the door open, he was welcomed by the beautiful sound of Debussy playing in the background. A smile crept to his lips as he watched Hyejin gracefully play the piano, closing her eyes as she felt the sound resonate with everything she had.
She only stopped when she heard the sound of the door closing. "Jake?" Her sweet voice called his name, and he swore he stopped breathing when she glanced at him.
"It's lunch, Hyejin. From what I heard people are supposed to eat during lunch." He chuckles, putting the brown paper bag next to her. "Mom cooked you pasta."
She smiled. "Aunt didn't have to do this." She insisted, checking the bag and then locking eyes with him. "You don't look very happy. You argued with Siyeon, didn't you?"
"Something like that." He guiltily answers, looking away with a frown.
She sighed. "I told you to be nice to her. She's not as bad as you make her seem." She was quick to scold him. "She's very nice!"
He rolled his eyes. "You should've seen Siyeon every time she gets the correct answer. There's always that smug look on her face."
Hyejin glared at him. "You're even worse than my classmates in class a." She opened the container and began to eat.
Jake sat next to her, pressing random keys on the piano to preoccupy himself. Hyejin has been his best friend for as long as he could remember, and during all those times, he could never imagine a time when he wasn't in love with her. He remembered thinking she was incredibly beautiful when he first met her, especially the way she carried herself. She was talented in the field of music, possessing the innate talent of a pianist. If she had been born any earlier, she would have made a perfect noble.
She was smart only because she had to be. That was the only way her parents would allow her to continue playing the piano. Jake admired that side of her, her love for music was so intense that she was willing to sacrifice so much to continue playing.
Another thing worth mentioning was the fact their families already accepted them as if they were already a couple or to be married someday. Of course, he would love to act on his feelings and truly call her his girlfriend, but he knew it was too soon. They had every time in the world. Whenever he thought of the future, Hyejin always had a place.
"Why aren't you eating?" She asked. "If you're going to play the piano, at least play twinkle twinkle little stars. Pressing the same key can be annoying when done over and over again."
He laughed. "I'm not hungry plus I have plans to eat with my cousin later."
"Hm? What's the occasion?" She asked again.
"She failed her quiz for the seventh time this week so we're celebrating before uncle punishes her." He shrugged and Hyejin almost choked on her food because of the laugh that suddenly came out of her mouth.
She coughed before speaking. "You have the weirdest relationship with your cousin." Then she looked at her watch and realized what time it was already. "Oh, lunch is almost over. You should go, I'm excused for the next class for practice."
He frowned. "I should've pushed on with the violin at a young age."
She laughed. "See you later." She said and returned her focus on the food she was eating as she examined the sheet music placed by the piano.
He smiled first before taking his leave and returning to his classroom where he, unfortunately, sees Siyeon already there. Taking a deep breath, he made his way to his new seat trying to avoid meeting her eye or insinuating a conversation with her.
He looked at Jay, who sat the nearest to him. He was holding his laughter along with his seatmate, Sunoo. Jake glared at them, but they only covered their mouths as a way to stop themselves from letting out a snort. They only stopped when Jungwon threw them a crumpled paper, making sure to hit both their faces.
Suddenly he felt a pencil roll to his shoulder that was resting on his desk. He looked to his side and realized it was Siyeon's.
"Sorry." She mumbled, grabbing it before returning to whatever she's writing in her notebook.
"Don't trespass in my space." He tells her.
Siyeon puts her pencil down, crossing her arms as she faced him. "Stop being so petty. This is your fault anyway."
"My fault?! How is it my fault? You're the one who's at fault here!" He argues, and she rolled her eyes. "Why are you rolling your eyes? It's true!"
"You're the one who's short-tempered and always needs to be right!" Siyeon fires back, and that only made him furious.
"You're the one who can't accept you have the wrong answer!"
"You—" They were cut off when a book went in between them.
Jungwon stood there, holding the book that was blocking their field of view of each other. "Dear heavens, it hasn't even been a day since you two became seatmates, and you're already bickering."
"Sorry." Siyeon apologized to Jungwon.
Jake scoffed but later on mumbled an apology to his friend. By the time the teacher arrived, they both fixed their posture and made sure that their eyes would not travel to the side. They hated each other so much, that just looking at each other would mean insinuating a long argument between them on who's really at fault for the situation they were put in.
Jake leaned on his chair, writing in his notebook the math equations being discussed by the teacher. Then a question was asked, he had no idea how to solve it so he kept quiet, and quite frankly it was the case for everyone in the class but Siyeon, who raised her hand confidently to answer the problem.
She was from class a.It was understandable that her knowledge far exceeded everyone in the class. She stood up and made her way to the front. While she answered, Jake took the liberty to wander his eyes around, not until his gaze fell to her notebook that was open. He was originally going to ignore it, but when he saw his name, he immediately reads it.
Sim's breathing is so loud. How annoying.
"What?!" His sudden outburst stole everyone's attention, including the writer herself that was busily solving in front beforehand. Siyeon's eyes fell to her notebook that was wide open, and she covered her mouth to stifle a snort. It seems like she realized what had caused his outburst. "Sorry."
"Mr. Shim since it seems you're wide awake, you'll answer the next question." The teacher said, taking the marker from Siyeon, who finished solving the problem.
She walked back to her seat, whispering a sarcastic 'good luck' to her seatmate as she watched in joy how he struggled with the question.
As soon as he returned to his seat, he mouthed 'egomaniac' to her. She smirked, tilting her head as a way to tease him.
'Asshole' she mouthed back.
With one final glare, they looked away from each other, already concluding that sitting next to each other was the worst possible torture the teachers could give them both.
Jake could not wait for the seating arrangement to be changed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
AUTHOR'S NOTE :
you're going to see a lot of arguments between them ;>