(A/N: An Image of Lee Know's artistic masterpiece named Jureumi is attached above.)
Choi Iseul
I felt really bad for laughing. Believe me, I really did. But the look on Minho's face after Hyunjin told him that we had to draw was priceless. It was as if someone threw a bucket of water at his face.
He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly shut it, coming to sit on a seat on the opposite side of the table.
"You can start drawing now!" Seonhui, the student representative of the club spoke up.
I didn't really put much thought into what I was going to draw and decided to make a simple flower field.
I took a peak at Hyunjin's page and saw that he was drawing a funny cartoon of a puppy, chicken, rabbit, wolf, squirrel, ferret, fox and...was that a pig? I don't know.
I was done with my drawing in a few minutes. Some of the people were still drawing. My eyes suddenly went towards Minho, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. Soon, he was done with his drawing too. I was curious about what he drew.
After a few minutes, everyone was told to show their drawings.
Everyone showed their drawings one by one and soon it was my turn.
"Wow.."
"That's amazing!"
"I can't believe you drew it in such a short amount of time!"
The responses of other students somehow made me blush. I wasn't really good at taking compliments it seems, as Eunseol put it.
Soon it was Minho's turn, and he very confidently showed his drawing to all of us.
Silence.
There was utter silence in the room for a few seconds, until Minho spoke up.
"This is Jureumi."
After that, the entire room burst into laughter. The stick figure that Minho drew was hilarious.
Hyunjin was the one who was laughing the most.
"Not Jureumi again," I heard him mutter under his breath as he was laughing.
"Who's Jureumi?" I asked him, now very curious.
Hyunjin only laughed at my question.
"That was an amazing joke, Minho. Now show us your real drawing!" One of the boys from our class spoke up.
"This is my real drawing." Minho stated, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Soon everyone stopped laughing and were now staring at him.
"Wait... It wasn't a joke just to make us all laugh?" Seonhui asked.
"No, why would I do that?" He replied.
"So you mean to say that... You can't draw?" Another person asked.
Minho nodded at his words.
Soon, Hyunjin spoke up after he finally calmed down.
"I'm sorry, I should've warned you all beforehand." He said. "Minho here isn't that good at drawing yet."
"Then why did you join the arts club?" Asked Seonhui.
"Because I was curious. I wanted to learn more about it." Said Minho, directly looking in my eyes as he answered Seonhui's question.
For some reason, his words created an unfamiliar sensation in the pit of my stomach.
"Oh... Well then you have a lot of learning to do, I guess." Said Seonhui.
"I'll work hard!" Said Minho.
After that, things continued smoothly. After about thirty minutes, all of the students started making their way towards their homes. We were told about the upcoming club activity, and I was really excited about it.
Me, Hyunjin and Minho exited the club room together.
"Hyunjin, you need to have a talk with me today." Said Minho, glaring at Hyunjin.
"I think I'm kinda busy today." Said Hyunjin. He looked nervous for some reason.
"Oh yeah?" Muttered Minho. "We'll see about that later."
"You know what? I just remembered I had something really important to. I think I'll have to leave sooner. Bye guys!" Said Hyunjin, immediately running towards the exit.
I tried not to laugh when Hyunjin almost tripped on his way out.
"Is he always like that?" I asked Minho while laughing. Somehow Hyunjin's dramatic behaviour lightened up the mood, making the atmosphere less tense.
"Yeah. All the time. There's a reason why we call him a drama queen." Said Minho as he chuckled.
The two of us soon fell in a silence on our way back home. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't shake the memory of him staring at me during lunch from my mind.
Suddenly, everyone's words from before rang in my head.
"What if he... likes you? The two of you would make a cute couple!" Eunseol said, a weird glint coming in her eyes.
"Oh my god, I ship." Jeongin screamed from behind.
"Guys, the two of them barely talk to each other." Jisung sighed. "I'll go check on Minho."
"But what if they do end up becoming a couple?" Eunseol pouted.
"Shut up. That's not happening anytime soon." I told her firmly.
I heaved a sigh, suddenly noticing something from the corner of my eye.
I felt Minho taking glances at me from time to time, which made me wonder if he had something to say.
"You keep looking at me." I said, catching Minho off-guard.
Wow Iseul, where is this confidence coming from?
"Uh, well... I wanted to ask you something," He said, running his hand through his hair.
"And that is?" I asked, getting curious.
"Would you perhaps... Want to teach me how to draw?" He said. He sounded very genuine.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting him to say that. So I couldn't really form a response that quickly, making the silence even longer.
"Is your silence supposed to be a no?" He asked, looking at me expectantly.
"No, absolutely not. I was just a little taken aback, that's all!" I said hurriedly. I didn't even know why I was giving him an explanation.
I hated the fact that I couldn't say no to anyone. No matter how much I tried, I just couldn't.
"So?" He said, refering to his previous question.
"Sure, I have no problem with it." I answered.
Actually, I do have a lot of problem. But it's not like I can tell you that.
"Really?" He spoke up, looking surprised. "I didn't expect you to agree so easily."
"I didn't expect myself to agree that easily either," I muttered under my breath.
"Sorry? I didn't catch that part." Said Minho.
"Oh, it's nothing!" I said hastily, not believing I said that out aloud. I mentally face palmed myself.
"Well, when would you be free?" He asked me.
"This weekend, I suppose."
"That's great, I guess I'll be texting you later then." He said with a wide smile on his face.
He looked so excited, just like a child. It was cute.
We were having a small conversation when we reached near my house and I bid Minho goodbye.
I can't believe I just agreed to help him.
Without looking back, I made my way towards my room, hoping that he forgets about our plan to meet up this weekend.
I could barely hold a conversation with him for a few minutes, how would I be able to do it for longer?
I groaned into my pillow as I let myself fall on my bed.
God really loved torturing people, I guess.
***
"Iseul!" I heard Eunseol whine. "Tell Jeongin to shut up."
She came to my seat and hid behind me from Jeongin.
"What are you two arguing about this time?" I asked while laughing.
"He's threatening to show my elementary school pictures to everyone!" She said.
"Why is that a bad thing?" I asked, not understanding why she was upset about that.
"Are you serious? I used to look like a complete disaster!" She said.
"No, you didn't, you idiot." Said Jeongin as he made his way towards me, quickly unlocking his phone to show me her picture. "You were much worse than just a disaster."
I burst out into laughter after seeing her picture. She was in a garden, with her hair flying out in all directions.
"See! You're laughing too!" She said and hid her face in her hands.
"It's cute!" I told her.
"Stop lying, Iseul!" She said in embarrassment.
Just then, our homeroom teacher, Ms Kim entered the class, forcing Eunseol to go back to her seat.
"So today, students, we will be electing the class president and your seating plan will be decided." She announced.
Many students groaned at the second part.
"Now, who all would be interested in contesting for the elections?" Ms Kim asked.
Many students raised their hands, including Eunseol and Jeongin.
The teacher quickly selected five candidates and asked all of us to write the names of our selected candidates and hand it to her.
I voted for Eunseol, obviously.
Soon it was time to count the votes. Eunseol was currently on top, with a total of 12 votes in her favour. She seemed to be proud of herself. I was almost sure that she would win.
But she didn't.
Because Jeongin won with a total of 13 votes, and looked smugly towards Eunseol.
I didn't miss the way she mouthed a curse at him.
"Congratulations, Jeongin! Now we finally have our class president!" Ms Kim announced. "And, the person with second highest votes will be the class vice president."
She quickly turned her head to look at the results on the blackboard.
"The class vice president is Eunseol!"
Everyone cheered for them, but Eunseol looked anything but happy. She was glaring daggers at Jeongin the entire time.
I guess she wasn't the kind of person who took defeats that well.
I wasn't given much time to think anything when Ms Kim suddenly started changing our seats.
The pit in my stomach was growing with every second.
I hoped I'd be seated next to a sensible person, hopefully a friend. Not like I had many, but still.
I was seated on the fourth seat of the second row from left. I would've preferred the one next to window more, but I didn't really have a choice.
And to my right was the one and only Kim Seungmin. His seating partener was a girl named Haerin. He passed me a grin, showing me a thumbs up.
I was having a bright smile on my face when suddenly, my seating partener was announced.
And to my dismay, it was Minho.
Obviously, it had to be him.
I guess he noticed how my smile fell, because he passed me a bitter smile the very next moment.
"I'm sure you would've preferred to sit with someone else. But it's not like we have a choice here. So, bear with me, I guess." He said, plopping down on the seat next to mine.
"No, I'm quite happy it's you actually. Atleast I don't have to sit with a complete stranger." I hastily gave an explanation.
"Your expression says otherwise." He simply stated.
"Minho, I didn't mean to-" I began, but soon got interrupted by him.
"It's okay, I understand." And that was the last proper sentence he said to me that day.
After that, I wasn't really given a chance to talk to him because we had study periods the entire time.
He talked to me only when it was necessary, and gave me curt replies. It kinda hurt, actually.
But I completely understood where this sudden change in behaviour was coming from.
I basically acted like I wasn't happy to be seated with him. He looked happy, but I ruined his mood because of my stupid expressions. He was trying to approach me from the last two weeks, afterall.
And it was then when I realised that he was the only one who made any efforts of keeping a conversation alive between the two of us. Because when he suddenly grew quieter, we didn't talk once.
And that was also when I realised that in all these past few days, he had only been kind to me and I tried to push him away all the time like the idiot I am.
I actually felt sorry for him. Suddenly it all seemed pointless to me. I was only wasting everyone's time and burdening them with my presence. I was only making them upset.
Even Minho was upset just because of me.
I knew I was being too greedy, trying to have a group of friends all of a sudden. I knew I didn't deserve it.
I knew I was too selfish, just like my mother said.
Just like my father said when I saw him for the last time.
No, I'm not going to think about it right now. Absolutely not.
Suddenly the classroom felt much smaller, and I found it hard to breathe.
This was not happening today, and in the class, of all places.
I'm not going to make a fool out of myself in this school as well.
I tried to calm myself down for the rest of the period, not bothering to listen to what the teacher was explaining.
I guess Minho noticed that I wasn't writing anymore and had suddenly frozen.
"You good?" He asked me, his gaze holding a hint of concern as he studied my expression.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I answered, trying to sound somewhere reassuring.
And I guess I managed to fool him, because he just shrugged and continued listening to the teacher.
The moment the bell rang, I was the first one to get up. I quickly made my way outside of the classroom and basically ran towards the rooftop. The only place where I knew no one would disturb me.
For some reason, I suddenly felt like throwing up, and it felt as if my chest was burning.
I want to go home.
I thought to myself and tears clouded my vision.
But then I realised that I had no home. Because home was a place where a family lived together, and where they were happy.
But I destroyed that myself two years ago.
I just didn't deserve a home anymore.
***
Double update on the occasion of STAY day! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.
Let me know your opinions on this chapter! See you guys next Tuesday ❤️