~*~
Why do I care so much about a person that I just knew for a couple of days?
Since knowing that something was somehow wrong with Hendery, and Jaehyun blaming me for what happened to him, I felt something else more than just guilt.
I was so worried, that I couldn't stop thinking about it.
I should be in the Dining Hall, with my friends, eat dinner, and heck maybe dance afterward. But I couldn't do it. All I wanted to do was to find Hendery, and nothing could stop me at the moment.
Of course, I didn't know where to look, nor do I have any idea where I was going. I luckily remember the familiar hallway that Hendery and I were using to go to the hedge maze at the back of the institute. The hallway was lit better than the rest as it was way brighter. There was a familiar looking giant door that literally was screaming I am the backdoor.
Could Hendery be in Lotus City?
When he described Lotus City, he sounded like it was his favorite place in the entire world.
I pushed open the door and it made a loud creaking sound. I was immediately greeted by the strong, howling wind. As it hit my skin I shivered, but I continued to walk nonetheless. I walked down the stairs, leading to the hedge maze.
Something caught my attention. There was a rustling sound of someone stepping on the dry grass somewhere on my right. I stopped on my track and took a right turn, following the noise.
I spotted a figure, looking over Lotus City from the balcony.
I had to stop myself and stared at the breathtaking view before I approached the figure. I was hoping that it was Hendery. The silhouette of the figure looked more like him as I got closer. Then I reached out my hand to tap his shoulder.
He turned all of a sudden just when I was a few inches away from tapping his shoulder. He grabbed my hand, a very tight, strong grip. Then he pulled me closer.
I flinched in pain and tried to take back my hand.
From glaring, Hendery's eyes softened as he realized who I was. He let go of my hand and stepped back. "I'm sorry— I thought you were— Are you okay?" His voice turned from being surprised to sounding like he was worried. He stepped forward, closer to me, and nudged my shoulder.
"What are you doing here alone?" I asked, ignoring his question.
His expression turned dark all of a sudden. "You shouldn't be here, you should be in the Dining Hall."
"Well, I was actually, but I needed to get out of there. I'm not used to be around so many people at the same time." I lied and I smiled at him. "You know, it's kinda overwhelming."
"Don't worry. I'm still not used to it either. I don't think I'll ever be." Hendery chuckled.
I leaned on the railing and took in the view of Lotus City from the institute. "I don't think I will get used to this either," I said, referring to the view.
"So, how's everything going?" Hendery said as he leaned beside me.
"I was just with the Black Velvet." I said.
"Did they tell you how much we suck?" Hendery said.
I turned to face him. "You never told me about the 127."
Hendery lightly chuckled to himself. "There's not much to tell, really. You met them before you passed out at Lotus. You certainly have met Jaehyun, Yuta, and Xiaojun."
I snickered hearing Jaehyun's name.
"And the other two guys were Mark and Ten. Maybe next time I'll officially introduce you to them."
I frowned at the thought that I would be seeing Jaehyun again. "Jaehyun hates me," I mumbled.
"Why do you think so?" Hendery knitted his eyebrows together like what I just said didn't make sense to him.
"Hendery," I said, softly, which caught his attention. "They told me you..."
Hendery frowned.
"You haven't been yourself lately." I continued. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"Who are they?" Hendery asked back, ignoring my question.
"Hendery... If I did something to you, I'm sorry...I wish I can do something to—"
"Don't apologize, Juli. You did nothing wrong. I'm the one who should be sorry if my teammates were bothering you with this." Hendery said.
"Then why are you here? Alone?"
"You don't know me, Juli." Hendery said, quietly.
"That doesn't mean that I don't care about—" I stopped myself. "Your teammates are worried, you know."
Hendery chuckled sarcastically. "Wow, if you're here on behalf of Jaehyun, you don't have to waste your time like this on something you don't even give a damn about."
I frowned at his answer. "I'm not here because of that asshole." I refused, in a calm manner.
"Then why are you here?"
Because I wanted to. I wanted to make sure that everything is okay. I wanted to make sure that you are not fucking up, somehow.
Jaehyun was pretty upset about what's going on with him. That's enough for me to know that it's a serious thing. Even Yuta has confirmed that he is not acting like his usual self.
"Just say it, Juli." Hendery said. "Just tell me why you're here."
Hendery stared at me, looking at me in the eye, waiting for an answer. There's something off about him. His eyes were softer than usual like he was tired, or sad.
"I don't know what's going on but whatever happened, I'm always here for you—If you need me." I stepped closer to him, nudged his arm with my elbow, and smiled.
He kept staring at me after I said that, like he always did. It was like we were on a silent conversation.
"Juli," Hendery called, like my attention wasn't already on him.
I raised my eyebrow at him, "yeah?"
He stayed silent for a few seconds and just stared at me, darting between my lips and my eyes. "This is the part where you walk away, and call it a night." Hendery said softly, almost a whisper.
I smiled and turned to look at the view of Lotus City. "Why would I do that?" I grinned at the view. "I've never been more awake."
I knew that Hendery was still staring at me, which made me so nervous that I didn't dare to look back at him at the time.
"Because... if you don't..." He trailed off.
The next thing I knew, I felt his palm on my cheek and he pulled my face closer to his before he slammed his lips into mine.
The world fell behind me. It was slow and soft, so comforting that I couldn't imagine a way to describe it. I could feel the rapid beat of his heart under my hand.
I held his hand which was cupping my cheek and pulled back to look at him in surprise. Then I realized I regretted that I did that.
We looked at each other, catching our breaths.
~
We made our way back to the institute the same way we came, but it felt certainly different.
I don't know what just happened, and why do I have mixed feelings about this. What was that kiss all about? Does it mean he likes me? Or was that because we were too carried away by the moment with the beautiful view and the romantic garden?
Seriously, what was that all about?
I was too afraid to ask, I didn't want to make things awkward as it already was. Could it be that he did that out of frustration? If it was, I would just let this pass.
I actually don't have any clue.
We decided to make our way back to the Dining Hall, because we didn't want people to realize that we both were gone together.
"But making an entrance together will defeat the purpose of not drawing attention to ourselves." I said as we walked together side by side.
"We can act like we don't know each other." Hendery said passively.
A part of me felt a minor disappointment after hearing that. "Alright." I said.
I spotted a ray of light from the left wall illuminating the dark hallway. It must be the Dinning Hall.
I walked into the Dinning Hall tailing Hendery at his back. He went to the right side of the room and I went to the left side where the Black Velvet was at. I sat on my previous seat and the girls were all staring at me.
"What?" I asked, completely clueless about how they were reacting.
Wendy eyed me with concern. "Tell me that you and Hendery coming together is just a coincidence."
Oh gods, they noticed.
"Juli, I hate that I'll sound like a bitch but I'm gonna say it: they are not the people you should be hanging out with." Rosé said.
I tried to not show that I was so annoyed with the warnings about 127. "I'm not hanging out with the rest of the group. Hendery is my only friend, and he helped me a lot. I think that he is a good friend."
Irene and Seulgi shared a concerned look.
"If you say so," Irene said. "We just don't want anything bad to happen to you, Juli. Not all first years know about this stuff."
"Why are they so dangerous anyway?" I asked.
"Among all the top groups here, they are the group that goes on more missions than the rest of us. You'll see for yourself soon, you won't be seeing them around. The more you go on missions, the more enemies you make." Jisoo said.
"And worse, most of their missions are S ranked." Seulgi said.
"Victor always gives us A ranked missions. He doesn't trust us to go for S." Jennie said. "Even though we are completely capable."
"Good evening, ladies."
I heard a voice behind me said. Before turning around, I caught the unamused faces from the girls as they eyed the newcomer. I turned my head over the shoulder and looked up.
It was Xiaojun, as I remembered.
"Would you have a dance with me?"
My mind went blank. What the hell is happening? Why is Xiaojun asking me to dance with him all of a sudden?
If he wasn't from 127, I would gladly accept it. I just didn't want the attention on me.
The new kid dancing with one of the stars of the school?
"I am not taking no as an answer." Xiaojun kept reaching out his hand for me to take.
"Go have fun, girl." Wendy said, surprisingly.
I met Xiaojun's beautiful big eyes who were looking down at me, it was as if I was sired to just take his hand, and I did.
Xiaojun led me to the front of the Dining Hall where the small orchestra was. He slid his hand under my robe and rested it on my waist. Our fingers were intertwined with each other and I put my free hand on his shoulder.
"I never had a dance," I mumbled nervously as my attention wasn't on Xiaojun. I was too afraid to mess up in front of the entire school, around students who were dancing just fine.
"Hey," Xiaojun tried to catch my attention and it worked.
I met his glimmering eyes and was dazed once more.
"Just focus on me, I have a feeling you'll be just fine." He smiled.
We started to twirl and step around following the melody and rhythm of the music. Not as expected, it wasn't hard as it seemed.
"You're a natural." Xiaojun grinned and I've never seen anything so beautiful.
Beautiful things make me nervous.
"So who are you, Juli? Where do you come from?" Xiaojun asked as he spun me around before pulling me back to him.
I smiled back at him, trying to show confidence. Here I go, I am about to lie again.
"I don't remember where I came from, but before I came here I was from Earth." I said.
Xiaojun knitted his eyebrows together like he was concerned about something. "I heard the Earth is not really an ideal place to live anymore."
"It was tough. But I'm glad I'm here."
"I'm glad to hear that too." Xiaojun smiled. "So, are you a bender?"
My heartbeat went faster, "yes— a firebender."
"Ah, interesting. And what are you going to major?"
"I still don't know yet." I muttered, which he heard.
"Ah, a Dummy."
I frowned.
Xiaojun chuckled lightly. "I hope you'll find your style soon."
"How about you?" I asked.
"I'm Apollo's son. God of the sun, music, poetry, art, and archery." He said.
"So you're in art style?" I asked.
He shook his head lightly. "No. You see, I'm in the same group with Hendery, Jaehyun, Yuta, Mark, and Ten. And we are all taking fighting style. We should hang out sometime."
I shifted my gaze away from his. "I don't know why you are so nice to me."
"You seem like a nice person." Xiaojun shrugged.
I scowled in a joking manner. "Come on, there are a lot of people who are nice."
Xiaojun chuckled. "It's rare to see Hendery talk to anyone else other than the five of us. So we are thankful that you can get him out of his shell."
Should've figured.
"Speaking of which, he is behind you right now and is about to ask you to dance with him."
I raised my eyebrow and quickly turned my head around. Hendery held out his hand and had his other hand behind his back. He bowed a bit.
I felt my lips curled upwards at the sight.
Xiaojun brought my hand from his grip and placed it on Hendery which Hendery gladly accepted.
The next thing I knew, I was dancing with Hendery.
~*~
A/N:
Sorry if the last few chapters seem like I'm just vomiting information of this AU in the narrative 😬
HAPPY READING