"Donghun-ah, have you heard?"
The boy squirmed around, trapped in the friendly headlock his friend had suddenly got him in and attempted to elbow the friend's stomach a few times, not that it hurt though.
"What, you punk?" Donghun clicked his tongue, annoyed that he had to put up with that idiot early in the morning, not that he disliked him because Donghun definitely enjoys his company sometimes, just not in the morning.
Not letting him loose, the particular friend only pulled him into a tighter lock playfully, "Someone's transferring to performing arts section. From this semester on, apparently."
Donghun twisted the other's arm somehow and managed to escape being held prisoner before brushing off his shoulder and gave a look at him, "And what does that have to do with me?"
Joonhyuk stared baffled at Donghun who was walking away uninterested. "It does have something to do with you. They're Harin's friend."
Donghun stopped at the name before heaving a long sigh, showing signs of frustration.
"Is it another one of them?" he asked, willing to engage into the conversation now.
Grinning, Joonhyuk wrapped his arm around Donghun who stopped midway, walking with him, "Yah.. You really can't turn a blind eye when Harin's involved."
Another tired sigh escaped his lips sharply, "Well, I am her childhood friend. Someone has to keep their eyes on her and unfortunately, I was appointed for it."
They walked past the gates and entered the university grounds. Upon entering, the pair recognised the bunch easily with just one glance, "So, who is it? I'll have to take her away if he's those despising type."
Donghun scanned the few boys circling the tall slender girl like ants surrounding a fallen candy. He tried to figure out which 'friend' was the new male recruit without Joonhyuk telling, knowing that he was able to tell the guys apart.
"Sorry to break it for you, Mr. Harin's guardian. It's not a guy this time."
Donghun whipped back at him ever so quickly, brow creased and questioned with a serious expression, "What do you mean it's not a guy? Is it a ghost?"
Joonhyuk paused, unsure whether to laugh because it sounded like a joke to him but Donghun had such a serious tone that it made it seem like it was actually a possibility.
"Does a girl not come to your mind first? Is that too out of question?" he patted on Donghun's head, knocking almost, checking for some loose screws.
Donghun raised a brow which made it look like he was glaring, "Harin? A female friend?"
His friend lifted both hands up, as if surrendering, "Hey, that's what I heard. Don't glare at me like that."
He turned to the bunch crowding the middle of the field and waited quietly before gasping, 'It is a girl.' he thought. Noticing a smaller figure in the crowd facing back, their jet flowy long black hair had a shine reflected from the sun and their trimmed nails that were bare of any polish unlike Harin's, tucking strands of hair behind their ear.
"There she is! Oh, Harin spotted us. Let's go, Donghun." Joonhyuk began to walk and move his buddy along as well.
Harin, the taller female with light brown hair had her arms waved around in the air, giving the two strutting male a sign that she was somewhere in the crowd.
"Joonhyuk-ah! Donghun looks a little.. Blank? What's wrong?" Harin pushed herself past the crowd of men who's eyes were still on her.
Donghun in the other end looked completely baffled and couldn't help but stare at the figure he noticed, ignoring everything else around him.
Joonhyuk shook him a little before sighing, "Nope, he's no good. He's surprised to see.. Her."
He pointed at the figure Donghun had long stared at before Harin gleamed out of excitement, "You guys noticed?"
That was when Donghun snapped back to participate in the conversation, "We would be blind if we didn't." he muttered, scanning the only two girls in the midst of Harin's 'followers'.
"I must introduce her to you." she shrieked slightly, still excited before going back to the crowd to squeeze the unknown figure through the crowd who then finally faced in front of both Donghun and Joonhyuk.
"Ooh.. Harin, you finally found a friend. And she's quite the beauty too, don't you think?" Joonhyuk nudged at Donghun's elbow before turning to him and realised that Donghun had no longer stared at the figure, instead he was scanning her all over with his brows knotted partly.
The girl was indeed a long haired beauty, bangs swept to one side. Her beauty and Harin's could compare to each other and she might not even lose with a large margin. Donghun agreed the same. However, that part of her was slightly suspicious.
'A rival? Does she want to pretend to be friends and stab Harin in the back? Possible.' he raised a possibility in his mind, recalling several similar incidents Harin went through whilst staring intently at the girl again, his stare turning more like a glare.
"Donghun?"
He snapped back again, replying with a slight nod. The girl smirked and stared back at him confidently, eyes unwavering from the stare before turning back to Harin, smiling.
Harin giggled when she saw him respond, "If you keep staring at her, you'd look like a perverted stalker."
He snorted, Harin had always been talented in rubbing people the wrong way, which made her an airhead, which may be highly charming to men but she had never been adored by her kind, in short, girls hated her for her personality.
Harin pulled the girl by wrapping her arms around one of hers before introducing Donghun and Joonhyuk to her, "This is Joonhyuk, he's also in the same major and our band's bassist."
The girl smiled at him and shook his hand he extended for a handshake and retracted her hand right after.
"And this is-"
Donghun took a sharp breath and introduced himself shortly with a small smile, "Lee Donghun. Childhood friend."
The girl parted her mouth with a smile and raised her brow curiously, "Ah.. DongDong?"
The smile on his face was erased and he swiftly turned to Harin who was pretending that she had not spilled anything personal about him. Donghun disliked getting teased, and what Harin did was beyond teasing, he liked to call it harassment. A friendly harassment was what she called it, proudly.
The girl chuckled, a sign that she too knew perfectly well that he was affected by it but kept it like that. She then extended her hand for a handshake in which he just stared at, after being slightly offended.
But she didn't just stop there, she continued to smile while saying, "Is one handshake too hard? I'd prefer one than silent stares in front of and behind me."
Donghun snorted before he finally took her hand and shook it briefly as she introduced herself.
"Yang Heeyeon. The new broadcasting major transfer."
Donghun gave a small smile before he returned to his usual expressionless appearance.
They both retracted their hand after a short handshake before Harin chimed in again, "Let's head to class together."
As she announced their leave for the class, she grabbed Heeyeon by the arm again and led her into the building with the same few men following after them.
After their figures disappeared into the building, Donghun heaved a sigh. Joonhyuk then nudged him for the second time, but this time he responded to it.
"You're evaluating her too strictly. And now you look obvious that you're not happy to meet her." he mumbled to Donghun.
Donghun swatted the air sluggishly, "It doesn't matter if I'm being too obvious. She isn't affected at all."
"So she's okay? As Harin's friend?"
Donghun sighed again, taking heavy steps into the building as Joonhyuk followed a heartbeat later.
"I'm not too sure yet. She's sharp, I don't know how or why she became friends with that airhead."
Joonhyuk clicked his tongue at Donghun's reply, "Don't be so uptight now. Maybe she can be an influence for Harin to start paying attention to class more instead of sleeping in class sometimes."
"Yeah, hopefully." he mumbled softly, making his way to their class.
.
.
.
Biting on his lips for the fifth time in just the first quarter of the hour, Donghun rested one elbow on table, hand pressed tightly on one ear, blocking out the disruption.
If Joonhyuk was anything, he was wrong.
Giggles and chatters were heard from Donghun's right, who happened to be Harin and Heeyeon just one seat separated from each other because Harin wanted Donghun and Heeyeon to get closer as 'friends'.
He sighed, his concentration was disrupted solely because the two girls were chattering mildly loudly (to him, the rest of the class in the vast hall took no notice of the small giggles) as he was just next to them.
Harin sleeping was one problem, she was awake now, but for him, this was way worse in a sense that he was now bothered when it was peaceful when she had only slept.
"I found a cafe close to the bus stop, let's check it out sometimes. They have really cute decorations and nice food, I take pictures there a lot of times." Heeyeon giggled, recommending a nearby cafe to Harin who looked a hundred percent ready to board on.
Harin tried to suppress all her excitement with one soft squeak, "What about when we're dismissed? With Donghun and Joonhyuk."
Donghun rolled his eyes at their conversation, he was not on board with the idea, maybe because he was in an unpleasant mood knowing that they were hindering his progress in studying.
"Why not we decide later? Donghun isn't listening and he's paying attention to the class now." Joonhyuk who was to Donghun's left, interfered in the conversation after seeing Donghun's sour expression in attempt to lighten up his mood.
"He is? He looks slightly out of it."
Donghun wanted to snort out loud when he heard Heeyeon said so. He thought with annoyance, 'Who do you think it's because?'
"Might as well ask him to have a chat with us if it's like that." she continued, continuing to push his wrong buttons.
Donghun smacked the pen he was using down on his notebook and let it roll in place on its own. He then turned towards the two girls with a cold stare and a sarcastic smile.
"No thank you, I'll pass on the conversation. I am listening to the class, do you not see?" he eyed Heeyeon directly, giving a sign that he was referring to her.
Heeyeon smiled and chuckled, acting indifferently from when she was conversing with Harin and continued to speak naturally, "Then you must have good ears I assume, to have heard both us and the lecturer at the same time."
Donghun's sarcastic smile was wiped out of his face and he frowned slightly.
"Continue scribbling on your perfectly clean notes, DongDong." Heeyeon threw in a sarcastic remark accompanied by an impish smile before she turned away to looking at her phone she had standing still on a tripod.
Harin and Joonhyuk looked at each other, both overwhelmed and confused by the two who were giving each other the cold shoulder and it was only their first meeting. The atmosphere between the four were too far from good, Harin did not expect them to be like this and she did not particularly liked it.
Donghun bit his lips with a smile, a habit he did when he was raging inside. He chuckled, contrasting his suppressed anger and stared at Heeyeon who was messing with her phone.
"A rogue. An new kind of irritating one." he muttered to himself, eyes still set on the girl who he believed he would not come to like.