"Hello? Earth to Emily," Jia waved her hands in front of Emily, "What are you thinking about? I've been talking to you for the past five minutes."
"Sorry," Emily said, shaking her said slightly.
"Take some more," Jia said, gesturing to the ramen sitting on the portable gas stove at the floor of Jia's room.
This year Jia bought a portable gas stove for her room alongside with a mini fridge so she could so some mini cooking in her room by herself, figuring its better than to share the common kitchen with everyone else. Additionally, its easier for her to eat when she gets midnight cravings every time she pulls an all nighter, similar to tonight.
Emily also wants to buy a gas stove but is still debating whether or not to actually go through with it since she won't even be here half of the time. So for now she is sharing with Jia, who is having a small snack while Emily is having her dinner.
Reaching out with her chopsticks, Emily picks up the kimchi she brought back from her grandmother's home and lays it down on top of the ramen.
"What are you so stressed about?" Jia asked, "It can't be uni. We just started today."
"No," Emily agreed, "It's just Jeonghan-"
Jia paused, barely looking up at Emily. Truth to be told, Emily hates talking about what happened so much that not even Jia and the other girls know a hundred percent what went down between the two. All they know is that Emily avoids Jeonghan as if he is the sole carrier of the coronavirus and avoids talking about him as well. Not to mention that Jia also avoids the topic of Jeonghan altogether since she ends up remembering the time Seungcheol and her broke up. Of course she doesn't like him but she unfortunately cannot change her boyfriend's best friend either.
"Jeonghan?" Jia asks, slowly.
"Yeah," Emily paused, debating whether to go into details or not but instead says, "Just seeing him makes my mood go down. And he was literally everywhere today. It's annoying."
"Oh," Jia straightened her back, "Maybe tomorrow you won't see him as much."
"Hopefully," Emily said, "Now that we are third years, we don't even take the same foundation classes anymore."
"What is he majoring in by the way?" Jia asked.
"Psychology," Emily answered, "Kind of ironic, if you ask me since his brain is all messed up. Or maybe he is studying it to be a proper sociopath."
Jia looked at her again in surprise.
Chuckling a bit nervously, she said, "What do they feed you at the training center? Since when did you become so aggressive?"
"I've always been like this. Just because I didn't show it before..." Emily trailed off, "Whatever. I don't want to think about him anymore."
Emily finished up her dinner and got up. "I'll clean up the dishes and give these back to you tomorrow," she said getting up.
Jia hummed in reply, "Have a good night."
"You too," Emily said. She left Jia's room and walked over to the stairways, going to the third floor. She first went towards the common kitchen area and washed the dirty dishes in the sink before putting them away from drying. One good thing about living in a girl's only dorm was that there was rarely ever stealing happening. And if things even did get stolen from the common areas, there were cameras in the common rooms to catch the thief.
Going back to her room, she repeated the same routine of taking a shower and preparing for the next day before following to sleep.
Following morning, Emily woke up at soon as her alarm rang at 5:30 am. It is still dark and gloomy outside, with sunrise still away for at least forty to fifty minutes. She turned on the lights immediately, because otherwise Emily would have just fallen back to sleep. This part of the day is probably the hardest. Trying to get up on time.
Without eating anything, Emily groggily gets changed into her athletic gear and heads out for her morning run. Although it will be difficult for her to keep up with the exact routine she followed at the training center, Emily is determined to keep up with it as much as she can while attending university.
She ran the two kilometers to a small park she had discovered last year where barely anyone went. Over there she practiced fast sprinting before doing the 50 crunches and 50 push ups and 100 jumping jacks. This part of her workout was her least favorite but it is important to keep her body's water weight down.
When she returned back to the Maple Dorm after her run, the sun had risen and it everyone is slowly starting to wake up. Emily headed straight for a shower, cleaning up quickly. Slipping into a simple leggings with a slightly oversized sweatshirt. She grabbed her backpack along with her swimming bag and went to the common room to retrieve Jia's pots and quickly going back to her room to pop them in her room. She wanted to just give them to Jia but she isn't sure if Jia is awake already or is still asleep and leaving them right outside of her room felt a little risky.
She first heads towards the sports building. First things first, she really needs to find her AirPods. Now that it is brighter and early in the morning, Emily hopes to find it first, praying that no one else will get to it before she will. Though deep down she has hope that she will get to them first since no one else will be this early to go to the sports center. Especially not this early in the semester.
The walk this morning feels particularly long and brooding, now that Emily doesn't have her buds to listen to music with. Though stereotypical, an athletes life is incomplete without listening to music before games to hype themselves up or calm themselves down, as it is with Emily's case.
As the sports center comes into view, she slowly spots a familiar figure standing in front of it, sitting on the steps lazily, doing nothing in particular. As Emily walks in closer, he spots her and a bright smile erupts on his face and Jeonghan says, "I knew it."
Emily didn't say anything but her face must have given her away because Jeonghan explains, "Wake up at 5:30? Go for a run? Come back shower? I took a wild guess and did the calculations when you would come here."
"Why would you do that?" Emily asked.
"I told you last night. That I would help you," Jeonghan answered, cooly. He is still sitting on the steps, his arms stretched out behind him, supporting his body weight as he looks up at her. Emily hates that almost nothing seems to faze Jeonghan. She hates how he always wears the same face the entire time.
"I don't need your help," Emily answered, climbing the steps and walking past him. She hears him get up and knows he is following her.
"A promise is a promise," Jeonghan answered and Emily snorted. She could go on and on about what a liar Jeonghan can be but decides she doesn't need that energy this morning.
Jeonghan frowns behind her back. He doesn't like this new attitude of hers. Before she was too meek to even talk back to him but now she seems to have no fear.
Emily walks past the doors and immediately starts squinting at the floor in search of her airpods. She knows they must be around this area since last night she wasn't standing too far away from the entrance.
Jeonghan fell in a quiet trance and helped her as well.
A couple of minutes later, Jeonghan points out a white square like object in the distance. Picking it up, he says, "Found it."
Emily turned around on her heels to face him. Sure enough, in his hands she saw her AirPods.
Without saying anything, she walked over and swiftly took away the case in one cleans swipe.
Jeonghan narrowed his eyes and said, " Is that what you say when someone helps you?"
Emily rolled her eyes and muttered a tiny thank you. Not sparing him another glance, she began to walk away in the direction of the pool.
Emily hoped Jeonghan would find that as a clue for him to now leave her alone but clearly he has some other plans.
"What's up with you and Jackson?" Jeonghan asked, his footsteps echoing behind her.
Emily already knows he is only doing this to irritate her and luckily for him, it's already working.
"Nothing," Emily answered before she even realized it. She bit back her tongue and regret. She should have just stayed quiet.
"Doesn't seem like nothing to Jackson," Jeonghan echoed.
"Jackson is like that with everyone," Emily said.
"Oh trust me, Jackson is not like that with everyone," Jeonghan said.
Emily sighed, "Why do you even care?"
"Oh I don't," Jeonghan said, "But...I guess I just wanted to see how low you drop down after me."
Emily sucked in a deep breath and stopped in her steps. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, turning around to look at him and said, "Just......leave."
Jeonghan pouted and said, "Aww...I don't feel like it."
Emily rolled her eyes. She doesn't know why she thought that would work. Jeonghan doesn't listen to anyone and she is certainly down on that list.
She continued walking towards the pool. Maybe ignoring him will work.
"Honestly, I thought you had better taste. Jackson? Seriously? That jerk is the last person anyone or anything should ever stoop down too," Jeonghan continued and Emily felt her blood boil again. She may not be a big fan of Jackson but she doesn't think Jackson deserves to be talked about like this either. On the contrary, if she looks past his annoying habits, Jackson has been just friendly to Emily.
"At least I bet he doens't string along a line on girls on false promises and has the actual balls to break things off like a man. Not like some people who can't even bother facing their parter when dumping them," Emily snapped.
She knows that must have punched Jeonghan in the gut slightly because she stopped and looked at him before pushing past the doors to the pool and walking inside.
Jeonghan, on the other hand, recovered rather quickly and followed her into the pool area. "You can't be seriously hung over that till now. You need to move on," Jeonghan said.
"It's funny you say that when you are the one who's following me and asking me questions about my personal life. If anything, you're the one hung over me. So I'd suggest you leave me alone and we both go along our merry ways and never talk to each other ever again," Emily said, forcing a bright smile on her face as if she were making a joke.
Emily pushed past the girl's locker room and walked inside. At least he won't follow her here. She only came here to put her swimwear in her locker for later so she doesn't have to carry it around the whole day long, but maybe she will stay in here for a few more minutes. Maybe that will give Jeonghan enough time to leave and for her to be at peace finally.
Emily opens her locker and stuffs her gym bag inside.
The door to the locker room opens and in walks Jeonghan.
Emily gasps in surprise.
"Jeonghan!" She said aggressively, "Are you mad? You can't walk in here."
"No one else is here," Jeonghan waved her off.
"Anyone can walk in. Get out," Emily told him but of course Jeonghan isn't one to listen. He walked in closer, making Emily back up against a wall, clearly disregarding all forms of personal space/
"Jeonghan," Emily tried again, "Leave."
Emily's back is now against the wall and she has no where else to go. Jeonghan leans in, leaving little to minimal space in between them, and lazily places his left hand beside Emily's head, bending over so their eyes are at the same level.
"Don't pretend like you don't like this cupcake."
Emily blinked. The words struck a cord in her and involuntarily images flashed in her eyes.
"Don't pretend like you don't like this cupcake."
"Jeonghan," Emily hit him lightly at the chest but a small smile still sat on her lips, "What if someone walks in? You shouldn't be here."
"I don't care," Jeonghan mumbled, closing the tiny distance in between them and joining their lips. Emily automatically wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning into his touch. Jeonghan broke off the kiss and buried his face in the crook on his neck.
"Why can't you just ditch practice? It's hard enough to sneak around everyone," Jeonghan mumbled.
"I can't" Emily said, still holding on to him tightly, "Sorry. But I promise I will make it up to you."
"Pinky promise?"
"Pinky promise,"
"Emily!" Coach Yoo yelled out loud. Her voice coming outside of the locker room.
Emily's eyes widened and she pushed Jeonghan off her.
"Emily? Are you in here?" Coach Yoo called again.
"Y-yes!" Emily yelled back.
"Quick. Hide quickly," Emily whispered to Jeonghan.
Judging by how still and quiet Jeonghan had suddenly gotten, Emily knows he is thinking of the same thing. Something clicked inside her and Emily and she pushed Jeonghan away from her, hard.
Her heart beat quickly and she looked down at the floor, unable to comprehend what would have happened if she didn't come to her senses. She can't believe she let him in that easily again.
Without sparing him a glance, Emily tried walking off but Jeonghan grabbed her wrist when she walked past him.
"Emily-"
She turned around and slapped him. It might be an overreaction but it felt good.
"Don't touch me ever again," Emily said, "And don't speak to me. Leave me alone."
Hello guys!
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I am going to be traveling for the new year so I will try my best to update a much as I can.