"She's here!" Someone calls out and points at Jjoo. It's currently Monday morning after a long and tiring weekend where I did absolutely nothing and everyone in the class is talking about Jjoo with her new boyfriend. Soo-ah immediately jumps out of her seat and runs over to Jjoo, grabbing her arm and leading her to her seat, "Ya, ImJjoo, you got a boyfriend and you didn't tell me?" Soo-ah pouts, "Where does he go? If he doesn't go to this school, where does he go? Tell me!" Soo-ah stomps her foot.
"Who told you that?" Jjoo looks around at all of us and locks eyes with me and I just make an 'I-don't-know' face since by the time I walked into the room they were all already in full gossip mode so I had no idea who started it. Soo-ah looks over and points and all our heads turn and look at Hyun-kyu.
"I saw them at K-mall!" He says innocently, "She was hiding him so we wouldn't see," Jjoo walks over to him grumpily and stops in front of him and crosses her arms angrily.
"Ya! I told you that wasn't what happened,"
"Why be embarrassed about dating someone?" Hyun-kyu scoffs, "You're overreacting a bit, someone might think you're dating an idol or something," Everyone 'oooo's and starts teasing Jjoo as she lowers her head and stalks back over to her seat.
"Tell me who it is, are you seeing someone?" Soo-ah pesters.
"That's not what happened," Jjoo waves her off.
"Then what's he on about?"
"Hya!" Seo-jun yells randomly and we all jump in surprise. "Go back to your seats," I knew it just needed some time to sink in. The people around him trip over their own feet to get back to their desks and sit down before he has another temper tantrum.
During our ten minute break I was just yapping to Jjoo about a dream I had last night while she was on her phone, occasionally responding with an 'mhm' or 'yeah'. I'm about to ask her if she's even listening, which she clearly isn't, when she sets her phone down only to receive a notification and pick it right back up. I groan and almost snatch it from her when she gasps dramatically. "What?" I ask looking over her shoulder to see she had accidentally sent a picture of her and Su-ho to Hyun-kyu.
"Ahn Hyun-kyu?" She looks at me worriedly, "Why him of all people?"
"Honestly," I agree, "He gossips more than me and Soo-ah combined," She groans and looks around quickly, trying to find him.
"Let's go find him," She says and stands up and I follow her out of the room. We start down the hallway and I almost run into her as she stops behind a pillar and stares at Hyun-kyu.
"All we need to do is grab his phone and delete that picture, got it?"
"Yeah," She says shakily.
"You grab it, I'll distract," She nods surely and runs for it, she runs into Hyun-kyu and his friends trying to copy the Stray Kids 'Thunderous' move where they sit on eachothers backs and they all fall over. I pull out my phone, fix my hair and reapply my lip oil before walking out there and leaning down beside Hyun-kyu. "Are you okay?" I ask sweetly, cringing at the sound of my own voice.
He seems at a loss for words and just nods dumbly before shaking out of his daze and clearing his throat, "I'm great," His voice drops an octave, I stifle my laugh and help him stand up by grabbing his hand and pulling him up. I slyly tuck my hair behind my ear and smile innocently.
"You guys should be more careful, you don't wanna get hurt," He stutters but just ends with a smile as his friends start dragging him back to class once the break was over and he turns back around and winks at me, I give him two awkward thumbs up back and walk into the class behind them. Before I sit down I crouch beside Jjoo and whisper, "Did you get in?" She shakes her head and I huff, I did all that for nothing? I sit in my seat and stare at the history teacher, not fully processing his words.
"Is Soo-ah currently learning in her sleep?" The history teacher asks and I look over at Soo-ah and smile.
"Cute," Tae-hoon swoons from the back and I smile, Soo-ah and Tae-hoon are really goals. I sigh and put my head down once the teacher leaves.
"Wait, why do you have my phone?" I hear Hyun-kyu's voice from the back of the class and whip my head over to see Jjoo standing in front of him with his phone in her hand. Seo-jun shows up behind them and snatchess the phone from her hand and Jjoo waves me over urgently, I quietly make my way to her side.
"What's this about?" Seo-jun looks down at the phone.
"Oh, it's nothing!" Jjoo grabs his phone from Seo-jun and deletes the picture before setting the phone down on Hyun-kyu's desk. "Sorry about that," I smile at Hyun-kyu and he grins back, seemingly forgetting about what just happened and I walk out of the class with Jjoo.
✦•················•✦
"Seriously, why has she been sleeping all day?" Soo-jin sits on the desk next to Jjoo's.
"She was up all night looking for a part time job," I laugh.
"What? A part-time job?" Soo-jin grins and leans over and moves a piece of Jjoo's hair from her neck, "No wonder she's tired," Soo-jin stops dead in her tracks and stares at Jjoo's neck. I frown and lean over to see what she was staring at when I see the expensive swan necklace that Jjoo was always wearing. I wonder why Soo-jin looks so upset at that.
"You guys wanna go to the cafeteria first?" Soo-ah asks and Soo-jin turns around and walks out of the classroom making Soo-ah and I look at each other in confusion.
"I'm gonna wait for Jjoo, you and Tae-hoon can go ahead," Soo-ah nods and stands up, skipping to Tae-hoon.
Jjoo wakes up after 5 minutes and I set my phone down and she sits up. "Jjoo, I had a question," I say as we start walking to the cafeteria.
"Shoot,"
"Where'd you get that necklace?" I point at the swan.
"Oh, this?" She holds it up and smiles at it, "Su-ho gave it to me," My eyes widen once all the dots connect, of course Soo-jin liked Su-ho everything makes sense. The way she looked at him, the jealousy whenever Jjoo and Su-ho were together. She must be pissed right now.
✦•················•✦
"Why did you have to drag me to find part-time jobs with you?" I groan as Jjoo drags me to the fifth location. "Also, where's my fried chicken?"
"Is that the only reason you came?" Jjoo glares at me.
"Obviously, you're the one who offered fried chicken,"
"Shut up, I'll get it for you after we're done," I huff and follow her into the cafe and sit on the couch as she talks to the manager. After 10 minutes Jjoo finally walks back out from behind the curtains and I run up to her. "Finding a part-time job isn't easy," She pouts.
"You're so right," I sympathise, "Can I have fried chicken now?"
She glares at me and nods before pulling out her phone and calling someone but when they don't pick up she sets it back in her pocket. "Who was that?"
"Su-ho, he's not picking up," She frowns.
"He's probably busy," I shrug, "Before we eat can I go to the bathroom?" She nods and follows me to the bathrooms and I walk into a stall. When I get out I gasp and cover my eyes at the sight of Seo-jun pulling off his top in the middle of the bathroom. "What the fuck, Seo-jun?!" I yelled and hit him with my bag, "You weirdo, get out!" I continue and he winces with every hit.
"What's your problem?" He huffs once I finally back off.
"What's my problem? You're the one stripping in the girl's bathroom!"
"This isn't the girls..." He looks around and sighs before turning around and running across the hall to the boys' washrooms. I walk out of the washroom to see Jjoo standing against the brick wall and I stand next to her.
"You ready to go?" She asks.
"Almost, let's wait for Seo-jun,"
"What?" I recount the bathroom's events and she bursts out into laughter. "Yeah sure, I wanna know what's going on too," Seo-jun finally walks out the bathroom, dusting something off his black shirt and Jjoo goes and stands next to him. "You look like a model," She teases and I go and stand next to Jjoo and cross my arms, walking beside the bickering two awkwardly. "Are you doing a photoshoot today?" She asks.
"Yes, see you," He continued walking away.
"Wait, really?" She jogs a bit to catch up to him and I sigh before following, I just wanna eat my fried chicken.
It's been ten minutes and there's no fried chicken in sight, not in a 10 feet radius, probably not even a 10 kilometer radius. I sit on a couch and pout, I just wanna eat fried chicken, why was that wish so difficult?
"Okay that looks great!" The photographer gushes and Seo-jun walks up to us and takes off his jacket and hands it to an employee.
"What're you two still doing here?" Seo-jun looks at the two of us as I sat in the chair with his name on the back and went on my phone
"It looked cool so we stayed," Jjoo supplied. Back in Chicago, I modeled a lot so I knew sets like these like the back of my hand.
"I didn't ask to be here," I called out from my seat.
"Wait a minute, are you Seo-jun's girlfriend?" The photographer walks up to them and I hide my face with my phone.
"No, she's not," Seo-jun glares as Jjoo bows at the photographer.
"Why didn't you tell me you had such a pretty friend?" He hits Seo-jun's arm.
"She's not pretty," Seo-jun avoids Jjoo's gaze. "Get out of here,"
Jjoo glares but turns around, "Fine,"
"Wait, wait," The photographer stops her, "Why are you kicking her out? Are you Seo-jun's friend? How would you like to do a shoot today?" Jjoo looks at him confused then at Seo-jun, "The female model didn't show up so I'm in a bit of a pickle,"
"Me?" Jjoo looks at me and I give her a thumbs up.
"Hiya, not everyone can be a model!" Seo-jun exclaims. "Ya, just leave already,"
"We need to update the newly released product, so it's kinda urgent," The photographer pushes Seo-jun back, "What do you say? Are you interested?"
"I've never tried this before," She shakes her head.
"That's why you can do it even better," He pushes, "And I'll pay you more since you're Seo-jun's friend,"
"You're gonna pay me?" Her eyes widened, "Then I'll give it a try!"
"Hiya!" Seo-jun glares and Jjoo smiles innocently at him. I pout and fake cry into my hands, now it's gonna be even longer until I can eat my fried chicken.
"Try being natural!" The photographer says for the 100th time as Jjoo poses awkwardly again.
"Are you seriously gonna let her keep doing this?" Seo-jun frowns.
"I'm not used to doing this, I'm sorry," Holds her hands together.
"It's normal to be awkward, he was like this at first too, isn't that right, Seo-jun?" The photographer comforts. "Seo-jun why don't you try to be more friendly? Pose like you guys are really close friends," I close my eyes and sigh, done with this. I stand up and walk up to the two of them.
"I'm helping you with this because if you don't finish in 10 minutes, I'm gonna start crying," I glare at Jjoo and she nods. I grab her arm and pull it over Seo-jun's shoulders and lean her head on his shoulder, I grab his arm and pull it around her waist and set his head down on hers. I walk back a couple of steps and look at them, pretty good. I turn around to walk back to my seat when the photographer gasps and I wince.
"Guys, let's take 5!" He walks up to me and I smile, "You're Choi Ha-eun right?" I nod, "Like, the model who modeled for big brands, Choi Ha-eun?"
"The one and only," I nod.
"You modeled for Dior, Calvin Klein, Chanel, YSL, and LV, didn't you?"
"I modeled for more than that," I scratch the back of my neck thinking about the entirety of 11th grade.
He gasps excitedly, "This is my entertainment company's business card," He hands it to me and I bow gratefully, "Please call, it would be an honor to have you model for us, if I knew you were here I would've asked you to model," He gushes.
"It's fine, I'm glad my friend got a chance to make some more money," I nod and go back to my seat. I reopen my phone when I see Seo-jun and Jjoo out of the corner of my eye and my heart starts twisting again, I shake my head and look back down at In-su's message. In-su: 'You wanna hang out?'
Me: 'I would love to, depends when, though,'
In-su: 'I'll let you know, my schedule's been really busy lately,'
Me: 'I can relate,'
In-su: 'It's fine, I'll clear it up for the amazing Choi Ha-eun,' I roll my eyes and grin at his message dumbly when Jjoo comes to stand beside me and looks down at my phone. "Is that the science school guy?" She gasps loudly and exclaims and I signal for her to quiet down but Seo-jun had already heard and walked up to us. "He wants to hang out? He so likes you, you like him too, right?" I nod a bit and change the topic.
"Let's go eat fried chicken," I beg.
"Alright, alright, I promised Seo-jun could come too, though," I sigh and put my face in my hands, I can't believe I can't even enjoy my fried chicken in peace without him breathing down my neck.
long chap to celebrate 30 chapterssssss also have u guys heard what happened at the hanteo awards my jaw literally dropped like how does someone literally shart at an awards show like thats so wild if i was there i would dip so fast like i may jokingly say like 'i would shit my pants if i ever met huh yunjin' but i wouldnt ACTUALLY SHIT MY PANTS anyway
what're ur opinions on the book so far we js hit more than 60 k words in total which is so wild n is there anything u guys wanna see in the next chapters?
thanks for reading, see u guys next chapter, mwah
- lise