"Come on tell me!" The dark haired girl pestered the boy in front of her as he continued to walk ahead.
"—You know I can't stand you ignoring me~"
"Jun~~" Yeoreum tried to act cute as she jumped in front of the the brown haired boy, making him stop in his tracks. He felt his heart drop as he tried to hide his facial expressions. The brown haired boy really wanted to be mad at Yeoreum but he couldn't, not when she looked like that.
Having enough of Jun giving her the silent treatment, Yeoreum huffed the hair out of her face and scowled. "Oi— if I've done something you don't like just tell me. You're making me walk on egg shells and it's unnerving." The girl had just about had enough of going back and forth with the boy as it would happen almost every time. Jun wasn't one to talk about how he felt often and she felt like he had been holding back much more than she had been.
Jun was taken aback from Yeoreum's outburst and couldn't help but stare at her. He felt like he was frozen in time, not knowing what to do. He couldn't remember when Yeoreum had ever been mad at him. Yeoreum on the other hand had reached her breaking point at the lack of Jun's reaction and simply smoothed out the crease between her eyebrows, "Yeah it's always like this, I do all the talking." She turned back up to look at him with a blank expression ,
"—Jun... don't call me for now." She turned around and started to walk away when the shaken boy suddenly took a step forward and frantically held onto the girls hair.
Yeoreum was whipped back and she groaned as she held onto her head. Jun quickly let go and looked flustered as he tried to grasp what was going on. The angered girl was glaring at him, practically shooting daggers, "Jun!! Do you want to fight me?!?!?"
The boy quickly took a few steps back and put his hands up, surrendering, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to, I panicked." He really meant what he said. He had been so out of it that instead of grabbing onto her sleeve he had grabbed onto her hair.
Realising how out of it he was, Yeoreum sighed and sat on the ledge in front of the window. She tapped on the space next to her, inviting Jun to join her. "Honestly, what's wrong with you?"
Jun sat down, taking a deep breath in and then out. He turned to look at Yeoreum who was already staring at him. He couldn't tell what was going on in that brain of hers at all. "Are you really bent on hanging out with Dohyun? I told you he's no good for you."
"This again?" Yeoreum finally hearing what Jun had to say furrowed her brow trying to understand why he was so bothered. She then slumped back after pausing for a while, a smirk forming across her lips, "Wait— are you jealous or something?"
Jun coughed, choking on nothing as he was taken aback by Yeoreum suggestion. Whether this was because she was right or wrong he didn't know. Was he jealous? He couldn't tell if he was upset because Yeoreum was now hanging out with another boy other than him or the fact that she was meddling in business she should be leaving alone. "Pfft me? Jealous? Why?"
The pair had shared a moment of silence between themselves, staring at each other in the eyes as they tried to grasp the unspoken language in the air. Things had been tense recently and the problem was that neither wanted to come clean about what exactly was bothering them. Although Yeoreums only problem was Jun's lack of communication.
Taking another deep breath and breaking the silence, Yeoreum leaned back and crossed her arms, "Well if you want to waste our entire break and the rest of our classes today, feel free because I'm not letting you go until we speak this out."
The boy looked at her, a smile forming subtly so it would go unnoticed, "You're always like this."
"The reason why I'm so against you talking to Dohyun is because—" the boy turned his gaze to the ground for a second as if he were contemplating whether to continue speaking before he turned back up to look at the girl beside him, who eyes were eager.
"Harim...." The boy paused again, "Before she disappeared there were...how do I put it— odd rumours about her... Same thing about Dohyun too."
"Odd rumours?" The intrigued girl had now sat up straight, inching closer to the boy next her as she tried to gain more information. "— like what?"
"That she was pregnant..."
"—and that it was Dohyun's."
_________
"Before she dissapeared there were odd rumours her."
"That she was pregnant."
"And that it was Dohyun's"
"So please stop talking to him."
It all made sense to Yeoreum now. Why Jun had been so extra and kept telling her to step out of Harims case. Why he kept telling her to leave Dohyun alone. Yeoreum wasn't surprised that Dohyun was at the centre of rumours again as this was a normal occurrence that happened every other week but what struck a chord within her was that it had something to do with Harim.
The girl repeatedly clicked the end of her pen and she found herself lost in her thoughts.
She was pregnant.
Pregnant?
Her? No way... surely it can't be Dohyun's.
Harim and Dohyun were like two different worlds. Despite being in the same class they had never once spoke to each other. So to think that they had that sort of relationship outside of school was hard to fathom.
Yeoreum suddenly stopped clicking her pen as she finally realised something. Rumours are often lies that sometimes have an element of truth. Dohyun said she had seen Harim the night she had disappeared and that same day she had also heard Harim speaking with a man she couldn't identify.
She knew she had to clarify whether Dohyun had just briefly seen Harim or had indeed been with her that night. And there was no other better way than to check the school's private bulletin board.
The girl stood up abruptly, interrupting the flow of the classroom as the students turned back to look at her, a dark haired girl in particular glaring through her glasses.
"Sorry miss, could I go to bathroom please?"
"You had all break to do so but I'll allow it."
"Thank you."
____
Yeoreum ran to the bathroom in the hopes of reading through the school chatroom. She knew she had to focus in class so Yejun wouldn't beat her up but this was something she had to figure out. If she didn't figure it out, Harim could really go missing without anyone looking for her.
Scrolling through the bulletin board, Yeoreum couldn't help but sigh as she found nothing of substance. Everything was either about school notes or the occasional confession which sprouted non ending tea telling.
However when she was just about to give up she came across a chat labelled as H, upon first glance it was easy to mistake it for a simply chat that was created by accident however when Yeoreum had tried to click on it she found that it was locked.
"Wait a minute...why is it locked? There's something isn't it." In excitement she paced around in the bathroom trying to find of a way to gain access when her mood soon turned sour. The person in charge of the chatroom was the class president and the class president was Cho Eun. A relationship she would rather keep forgotten.
She bit the insides of her cheek as she hovered over the the girls contact.
To text or not to text, that was the question.
"It's okay, she can't still be bitter it happened a year ago." The girl shook her head and tapped on the contact, something stung within her as she couldn't help but notice that she hadn't changed her name.
It was still saved as Eun<3, as if it were still two years ago and they were still the best of friends. She swallowed hard as she tried to forget such memories, typing a short message.
Hi Eun, just wondering if you have access to—
Before she could finish typing the message she decided to clear it and write a note instead. Sending a message was a clear way for her to get ignored.
"Since that's decided... Dohyun...what do I do with him?"
Dohyun was another problem too. He had tasked Yeoreum with retrieving back his stuff from the teachers lounge.
Yeoreum looked at the watch on her wrist and noticed that it had been about 5 minutes since she had left. It was any time soon until the teacher realised that she had gone somewhere other than the toilet. She had to make her choice and make it now.
Walking out of the bathroom stall she quickly washed her hands and left, sneaking her way down to the teachers lounge in the hopes that no one was there and all the teachers had been in class.
Just as she wanted, she opened the door to find an empty class. The girl wasted no time and ran to Mr Namgoong's desk, rummaging through the drawer which was home to various confisicated items. Yeoreum paused for a bit as she couldn't exactly remember what she was meant to look for until the memory hit her.
"It's a box."
Taking sight of the box in front of her, Yeoreum stared at it for a few seconds before blowing out air from her pursed lips. She couldn't believe Dohyun had wasted her time by telling her to get what appeared to be a box of cigarettes.
Maybe all the rumours about him were true?
"Yeoreum...never judge a book by its cover."
A sudden memory had come to Yeoreum, leaving her in slightly blue mood. She shook her head as if she were trying to push the thoughts down. "...why did I think of that now."
Picking up the box, a sound was heard from the other end of the corridor when the girl stopped in her tracks. Taking that as her cue to leave, she rushed out the room in an attempt to head back to class. She gulped as she knew she was missing for too long but had a foolproof plan that would work.
"Wait—" Just before she opened the classroom door she couldn't help but stop for a second, shaking the box of supposed cigarettes as she noticed it was too heavy.
"...what's this...?"
_____
"Kang Yeoreum!! What made you so late? You have been gone for 20 minutes." Miss Jang yelled, her voice nearly cracking from the strain.
Although Yeoreum wasnt phased at all. She had already known this would happen and had a foolproof plan in case she had stayed out too long.
The girl put on her best performance, as if she were drama student, slightly bowing " I apologise...it was..." she paused as although it was a plan that would definitely work, it did leave her a bit embarassed to say out loud. However, if she got a detention she'd suffer the wrath of her cousin. "—it was that time of the month..." her voice trailed off as she saw her teacher's expression soften as she cleared her throat.
"You can go sit down."
Yeoreum nodded her head as she headed towards her seat. She glanced towards Eun who had stuck her head into her book, writing away with a thought. Yeoreum smiled slightly as she noticed Eun's habit of biting her lower lip when concetrating. It was a shame it was a bittersweet memory. Swiftly, the short haired girl slipped the note onto the table, asking Eun to let her into the H chatroom.
Eun looked up for a second and upon noticing who it was, a deep scowl formed across her face. Without any words she was able to express the deep distaste she had for the short haired girl, however this had gone unnoticed by Yeoreum as she had already sat down rows behind her.
_____
YEOREUM LOOKED back to the box in her hand, remembering what she had seen inside. She wouldn't help but think that Dohyun might not be as cool as everyone thought he was but rather quite odd.
~
"Whats this?"
"Who puts a pocket watch inside a cigarette box?"
~
Yeoreum turned to look at Dohyun from across the class and noticed that he had already been staring at her. His gaze was intense as he laid his head in the comfort of his arms. And yet despite his expression being filled with endless words it was also unreadable.
The girl tilted her head slightly as she tried to understand what was going on.
-...Is he staring or is he glaring?-
Before she could show the black haired boy the box she had retrieved, he turned around and faced the other side, showing her the back of his head. Feeling somewhat disspointed, Yeoreum tched, placing the box into her pocket.
Everything seemed to be going fine and Yeoreum had been able to get in a few moments to admire Jun from where he sat. Afterall, she couldnt gaze at him when they were together.
However, this peace was soon disrupted.
"Yeoreum!"
The girl shot up, hurting her neck in the process as she heard the teacher calling her name.
Miss Jang had looked furious, although Yeoreum was confused and had no idea why.
"Y-yes?" The girl answered, just about squeezing through a stutter.
"I sent you to the bathroom and you wrote notes instead?"
"— detention."
Yeoreum sat there in confusion for a few seconds before what had happened had dawned on her. Her mouth gaped wide as she was in shock. She turned to Eun in front of her, who smirked and then whipped her head back to the front to carry on her work.
She had been betrayed.
Twice by the person she once considered her best friend.
_____
THE CLOCK TICKED and tocked as Yeoreum sat the remainder of the class staring into space. Her mind was a mess, a jungle almost, as she tried to make sense of everything that had happened recently.
Jeon Harim had disappeared.
The same night, she had heard Harim speaking with a man.
Dohyun had seen Harim the very same night.
And now apparently she was pregnant and it could have been Dohyun's?
All of this didn't make sense to her but she felt as if she was missing an essential piece. A clue so essential that she shouldn't miss it.
The pencil case? What was her pencil case doing under Mr Namgoong's table...
"Wait..." Yeoreum felt as if she had finally found the essential piece to finally puzzling together her starting point.
Forget about Dohyun... Mr Namgoong is definitely involved.
Pulling out the pen she had seen in the teachers lounge she realised she had skipped over something fundamental. So fundamental that it made her feel stupid for not thinking of it when she first saw it.
There was no reason for a student and a teacher to have matching personalised pens.
Looking at the one in front of her, she twirled it about and came across the initials
N ♡ H
Namgoong and Harim...?
Staring at the pen for a while, she couldn't help but laugh as she thought it was a ridiculous idea. But what if I'm right? — her little voice cointined to tell her. She had felt odd vibes from the teacher so it wouldn't be far fetched. Before she could delve into the thought deeper, the bell rang and she sighed.
It was time for her one hour detention.
Jun came up to her table, placing a book of notes down. Yeoreum looked up at him, her eyes sparkling as she welcomed the gesture. She really wanted to tell him how she felt but just couldn't risk it. She was scared.
What if he doesn't like me?
What if he doesn't want to be my friend.
But most importantly
If I don't have him... who do I have?
"I'll wait for you to finish your detention. Try to catch up on the work you missed during the lesson." He stared at Yeoreum for a while before bringing out a bottle of orange juice from his blazer pocket. Extending his arm out and placing the drink in Yeoreum's hands, he continued, "Also drink this... you need the vitamin C."
Yeoreum laughed at Jun's randomness. "Vitamin C? Really? Why?" She just wanted to tease him now. He could tell when he would get shy as he would avoid eye contact. Jun wasn't as expressive as Yeoreum and so when he would gift her with things, his shyness would come out. Although that was a trait Yeoreum found cute.
"It's good for studying."
"But why is it good for studying?"
"Yeoreum..." The short haired girl sat there, her heart thumping through her chest. Hearing him say her name really made her nervous.
"Huh?"
"Stop asking too many questions and go to your detention."
The girl pouted as the brown haired boy flicked her head and waved goodbye. Turning back to the drink in her hand she grinned from ear to ear.
Ah...I don't want to drink it.
____
Huh?
Why . is . he . here?!?!?
And why is there only two of us?
Yeoreum had come to her detention to find that there were only two of them sat in the class and one of them was Dohyun.
A boy she could just not figure out.