a/n: sorry guys i know i promised two chapters last week (i wrote this note in november😭) but i got jumped on halloween night and i had to take my friend to the er. then i had tryouts (i made the team!!) and i got sick after...anyways enjoy!
"y/n...i think i cracked the code!" su-ae's voice echoes off of the speaker in your phone.
"what is it?" you tap your pen on the sheet of paper in front of you.
there's a beat.
you blink, awaiting her answer.
"nevermind, he didn't comment."
"who didn't comment? ...and is that running water i hear in the background?" you shake your head and smile, placing your phone in between your ear and shoulder so you can finish some homework questions.
"the ceo of marang." she pauses, seeming to be thinking about how to word her next sentence. that's when you hear the rustling noise of your sheets moving. you turn halfway to look back but that's when su-ae starts again, "i thought he was the number one fan of my book but the user didn't comment after reading it." she responded, only answering your first question.
you drop your shoulders—shocked at how soon this part of the manhwa has come—which lets your phone slip away and fall flat onto your bedroom floor.
"y/n? are you okay?"
you scramble to pick up your phone, "huh...oh yeah i'm fine."
"okay, well i gotta go...but i'll tell you all about this on monday."
"okay, and su-ae?"
"yeah?"
"don't second guess yourself. trust your gut." you say to hopefully help her realize that she is indeed correct and on the right path.
"okay, thank you, y/n. bye." you can hear a slight smile in her voice as she hangs up.
your room goes silent as you put you phone face down onto your desk, completely forgetting about the sheet rustling issue.
two strong arms lazily wrap around your shoulders as a groggy voice whispers in your ear, "what did she say?"
you flinch at the sudden touch but relax soon after, "sorry, did i wake you?" you direct your head to look up at the man standing before you, your secret boyfriend, your dohwa.
"mmm no," dohwa hums against your neck as he slowly places soft yet sloppy kisses on your neck. his mouth was tickling you which formed a giggle in your throat that eventually weaselled its way out.
your parents were in another town visiting their old high school friends, and ha-na was at your grandma's house—as per usual—so you decided to invite dohwa over to hang out.
"she just told me about a book she's reading," a little white lie never hurt anyone right? you look up more to see dohwa's full face as he moves his lips off of your skin. you tilt your head up to kiss him on the cheek.
dohwa smiles contently but then drops it when he realizes something.
"i should get going...i have to go to work," he frowns, taking his arms off of your body.
he starts to head for your bedroom door.
"this late?" you spin your chair around and stand up to follow him on his way out. the clock on your desk reads 8:03PM and darkness was all you could see when looking outside.
"fast food waits for no one," he turns around to face you after sliding his golden goose shoes on.
standing on the lower platform near the door area, dohwa was now at your eye level—or a few centimetres higher. you notice the visible eye bags that sat below his eyes, that exhausted look he had in his eyes, and the tired grin he wore. it made you feel like shit, knowing he does so much everyday just to be able to afford the necessities.
even when you called and asked him to come over earlier, no matter how tired he was, he showed up. and while you two were watching a movie he struggled with keeping his eyes open—until he eventually fell asleep with his head on your chest.
"okay well, stay safe," you softly smile at him.
he nods with a tired smile appearing on his face. he turns around to exit but you grab his wrist, "oh, and dohwa?"
"yeah?" he turns around, looking down at your hand that was holding his wrist and then looking up into your eyes.
"i think we should finally tell eunhyuk and su-ae about our secret relationship."
his eyebrows raise and his heart warms at the fact that you're finally comfortable talking about your relationship with others—sure, the others in question were just su-ae and eunhyuk...but still.
"if thats what you want babe," he comes closer and kisses your cheek.
babe. that was new. and definitely a good kind of new.
you look down to hide the big grin on your face. dohwa notices this.
"what? you like the nickname babe?" the corners of his lips tilt upwards and he leans down so that he can look at your face that was still looking down.
"babe, babe, babe." he grins.
"ugh don't you have a job to get to?" you roll your eyes even though your cheeks were heating up.
"i do, but it would be kind of hard to get to my job when someones holding my wrist, don't you think so?"
you realize you've gripping his wrist and quickly let it go.
"sorry," you sheepishly smile.
he opens his mouth to say something but the alarm on his watch goes off, probably signifying that it was time to get the heck out of here and start heading to his workplace.
"oh, shit. it's already 8:10?" he kisses your cheek again, but this time quicker, before sprinting out the door, "bye babe, i'll see you tomorrow!" he grins.
this guy...he still managed to tease you even while he was stressing and hurrying out the door.
you lock the door and slide down it, wondering how you were going to tell su-ae and eunhyuk about you and dohwa.
--2 days later, monday—
the lunch bell had just rung. groups of people were bustling in the hallways.
or- well, as much as you could see with your view of the windows from the bench you were sat on in the school's garden area. you and su-ae snuck away from eunhyuk and dohwa so that the two of you would be able to safely talk about marang entertainment.
su-ae was standing up while you were sitting camly on the bench. you could tell that she was restless and was ready to tell someone about her encounter with mr. ceo.
"Y/N I MET HIM- AND HE WAS GORGEOUS, BUT SO STUCK UP. AND THEN HE ASKED IF HE LOOKED CUTE AND I TOLD HIM NO...BUT BEFORE THAT-" she explodes with a variety of emotions.
"shhh lower your voice, su-ae" you warn her, noticing the people around you two giving you dirty looks. you send a polite smile at them which makes them look away immediately. serves them right.
"oh...right," she looks around before sitting down and noticably lowering her voice, "anways...i met the ceo of marang..." su-ae starts and you widen your eyes to act as shocked as possible, "and wow was he gorgeous- i mean i've seen gorgeous but not his kind of gorgeous...of course, you're gorgeous too, y/n but-"
you clear your throat and look at her with a deadpan expression.
"right! back on topic, um...i made a deal with him! he promised me that he will no longer bother us."
you honestly felt so proud of her. as your response, you wrap your arms around her. it was an impulsive decision but you thought she needed a hug at the moment. while reading the webtoon, you wished you could go through the screen and give su-ae a hug for going through all this alone. now, it's no longer a dream and instead is your reality, she finally has someone she can count on—even if you two started out as enemies...
"you did well, i'm proud of you," you softly tell her.
at first she stayed frozen but, almost as if she has been waiting for a hug, she slowly lifts her arms up to wrap them around your waist. she snuggles into the hug and you could tell that she needed it. especially since she couldn't dare tell anyone else about her jelly pop.
su-ae breaks the silence by whispering something into your ear, "and...eunhyuk and i kissed."
you jump out of your seat and cup your hands around your mouth. this time, you weren't faking your reaction. it was genuine, as genuine as your initial reaction when you first saw them kiss in the webtoon.
you wore the biggest grin that was apparently contagious as it showed up on su-ae's face too.
"well? how was it????" you sit back down, eager to hear her point of view.
"it was...amazing. and after, he told me he missed me," she blushes, "but then i got embarrassed and started acting all awkward," she hides her face in her hands.
"oh my god he said that?" you're practically screaming inside. the fangirl in you is going crazy, she's running laps inside your mind and banging her head against an imaginary wall.
"yes." she starts giggling, which makes you giggle too. though, it wasnt a gossip/making fun of someone giggle, it was more of a swooning giggle.
dohwa rests his crossed forearms on the top of the bench, leaning right in between you and su-ae.
"what are you two giggling about?" he smiles and turns his focus more onto you.
you panic, sharing a look with su-ae who held equally as much panic, racking your brain on a normal response. but thankfully, you didn't have to respond with anything- and you have eunhyuk to thank for that.
eunhyuk shoves dohwas face which catches dohwa off guard and makes him stagger off to the side. eunhyuk happily takes his spot, resting his hands on the top of the bench while leaning his weight on his two arms.
dohwa quickly recovers and shows off by jumping over the bench and landing right beside you. he has a boasting expression on his face as he stares down eunhyuk. you look over to eunhyuk and see that he has an expression that tells you he was not expecting that at all.
you don't know why they're still beefing since they're not fighting over the same girl anymore. but their fued is still pretty funny to you. su-ae doesnt seem to think the same as she always has a funny confused expression when they fight.
then you realize that you need to announce something to su-ae and eunhyuk and theres no better time than the present, right?
you turn to give dohwa 'the look' but he stays clueless, as per usual. you take in your surroundings and notice that no one is around the four of you.
'now's the perfect time' you think.
"i need to tell you two something..." you speak up, catching the attention of everyone around you. they all fall more silent than before and dohwa leans in from behind you to be able to hear your shocking confession (that he already knows about). this doofus. anyways, you take that as a sign to continue.
"okay so..." you pause, kinda scared of the reactions to come, "me and dohwa are dating and have been dating for a while." you said it, you finally let it out after taking weeks to find the courage to.
however, eunhyuk's expression stays the same. at least su-ae makes an effort to act shocked. you were expecting at least a slight shock factor to settle in the two...
"uh yeah? havent you two been dating since the movie double date..." eunhyuk scratches the back of his neck. his gaze moves to where dohwa—who you could tell was equally as confused as you—was sitting.
you instantly turn your head to look directly at him, studying him, studying his expressions, studying his body language, to see if he was playing tricks on you. it was possible that he could've been joking, but no...there wasn't even a tiny hint of insincerity in him.
you could see su-ae frantically waving her hands in the corner of your eye, trying to get eunhyuk to shut up, but apparently he can't take a hint.
"no...?" you respond, confused.
"what?! you two didn't start dating the moment he asked you to the movie date?" he's more shocked at this than your confession of you and dohwa secretly dating.
you panic. were the two of you that obvious? if eunhyuk and su-ae knew then who else did? you turn to look at su-ae to get more answers.
"did you know about this too, su-ae?"
her eyes dart between you and dohwa, "uhhh, i kinda had a feeling..."
but her eyes avoid eye contact with you, she looks to the ground trying to act all subtle. that's when you knew she was hiding something.
"su-ae?" you tilt your head slightly and she shamefully lifts her head to look at you, "is there anything else you wanna tell us?"
theres a beat.
"...okay! maybe i saw you and dohwa kissing near the bus stop on ha-na's birthday...and maybe i told eunhyuk about it..."
you sigh, slumping back in your seat, feeling relieved that that was all it was.
"you two should be ashamed of yourselves. being nosy like that!" dohwa jokingly scolds them.
"dohwa!" you slap his hand lightly, "don't joke about it like that, i was seriously panicking!" you try to act angry at him but you couldn't help but crack a smile at him and his jokes.
"so you arent angry at us, y/n?" su-ae asks.
you sigh, "no...i was just worried."
"why would she be mad? i told her that she and dohwa acted like a real couple. it was basically a compliment." eunhyuk shrugs.
su-ae immediately glares at him and he realizes that he should shut up because su-ae knows best.
and with that, the lunch bell rings.
you all get up to leave in sync. even dohwa, who doesnt usually care about school, gets up without you having to force him up. he's a changed man!
as you're all headed towards the entrance, your pocket starts vibrating. someone's calling you. you stop walking to pull out your phone and check it. dohwa stops alongside you, while su-ae and eunhyuk keep walking.
you look at the caller id and see that its your father. "oh, my dad is calling me. you go ahead."
dohwa hesitates to leave you but respects your privacy and follows behind su-ae and eunhyuk.
after a few minutes of talking on the phone, you hang up. your dad had just called you to let you know that a seriously injured patient showed up, so he and mom won't be home until early morning tomorrow.
you slide your phone back in your pocket, starting to walk to the entrance again.
but suddenly, a very familiar trio of girls show up in front of your path.
the trio consisting of a pale girl starts slowly walking up to you with darkened expressions. (refer to chapter 22 [XXII])
oh shit.
they weren't exactly your biggest fans...
you try to walk around them but the pale girl slides in front of you to block your path yet again.
"hi y/n." she doesn't even bother to smile.
"what?" you say, trying not to get all pissed off right her.
"i'll cut straight to the point." she puts a finger on your chest as an act of dominance, "my friend sang-hee here overheard your conversation with eunhyuk, dohwa, and su-ae just now."
you roll your eyes, fucking of course. just your luck to have someone overhear your conversation, even though you double checked to see if anyone was around.
"yeah, you said something about dating dohwa...?" the fair skinned girl's friend, sang-hee, says as her eye twitches.
"so what?" you spit at her, crossing your arms.
"'so what' this bitch says," sang-hee turns to her other friends to speak as if you aren't there.
"who are you calling a bitch?" you step closer to her and stand up straight to look down at her—she was only a few centimeters shorter than you, but still.
the fair skinned girl harshly pushes you away from sang-hee. your hands ball up into fists, 'who do these people think they are?' as you're about to push her back you remember something.