"I'm heading to class now. Don't be late Minju." Jeno reminded her, accepting the incoming call from Donghyuck while taking his stuff then heading out of the library in a hurry.
But that was almost ten minutes ago, the ringing bell went unnoticed and Minju hasn't even moved from her position yet. Her eyes are glued on her computer screen, the almost finished project story in display. She was working on it during the lunchbreak with Jeno sitting across her, finishing his history essay.
Minju's mind flies back to the scene in the Lius' resident once again for the nth time ever since she left. It's unbelievable how such an incident can occupy her mind constantly. Even she thinks it's astonishing.
"Maybe if you stop thinking of how to murder the killer in our story - perhaps we can actually finish it."
She blinks and her eyes shoot up to meet Liu Yangyang's trademark, sassy expression pursing his lips and moving his finger on the touchpad to open their document.
Wow, Minju didn't see nor sensed him arrive at all. That's how deep she was in her thoughts.
"S-sorry. Don't worry though- I-I did work on it during lunchbreak." She stammers, suddenly feeling guilty.
Yangyang furrows his brows up then shaking his head before sighing. He averts his eyes back to the document and starts editing Minju's text. But when Yangyang finishes and Minju hasn't written anything new, he looks up to see her staring at him - like she wants to tell him something so bad.
"Have you been staring at me this whole time?ㅡ" Yangyang asks rather sharply, cutting through the calm atmosphere.
Minju spoke almost immediately after his question, "How are you feeling?" she asks - not stammering, eyes narrowing slightly and ready to analyse his facial expression.
Once again, he is taken aback by her sudden unhesitant outburst as if she wasn't just flabbergasting when Yangyang caught her glaring at the microsmall air molecules a while ago.
When Yangyang finally catches up to her question, his stunned face changes to a standoffish one - an expression telling people to back off.
"Look, it's none of your business. I'm not going to open up to you now and I never will. It's too late now. You chose to leave." Yangyang tells her off, momentarily closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to calm himself down a bit.
Wow, he sounded a bit salty there.
She slightly tilts her head to the side in confusion, "Too late..? You wanted me to comfort you..?" Minju tentatively asks, expression softening.
Yangyang clears his throat, not meeting Minju's eyes, furiously typing the next paragraph - avoiding confrontation. "Well it's too late now, Kyungri already did."
"Kyungri..? Oh..Okay.."
Minju should've expected that. Kyungri is in Yangyang's circle of friends afterall - for being his neighbour and his closest childhood friend. If someone is to know everything about Liu Yangyang, it's Park Kyungri.
Silence wraps the tension between the two, Yangyang is now also staring at his laptop screen blankly.
Minju unexpectedly breaks it with her soft voice, "I'm sorry I didn't.. choose to comfort you.. I thought you needed time by.. yourselfㅡ"
"Well I didn't."
"..Okay.. Sorry.."
"Stop apologising."
"Sorryㅡ" Yangyang glares at her, "..I meanㅡ I'll stop.." Her gaze lowers in defeat, cowering under his intense look.
A breathy chuckle uncontrollably escapes Yangyang's lips. The mood suddenly lightens.
He brings his elbow on the table, resting the side of his head on his palm, cocking an eyebrow at Minju who watches him with an unreadable expression.
"Are you that scared of me?" he asks - a little amused of her submissive personality. He watches as her eyes narrow slightly and her brows furrow down in utter confusion.
"I'm.. scared of you?"
"Maybe." The corners of his lips lift then he realises he's smiling. It somehow feels unusual to do so in front of Minju so he drops it down to his usual scowl, clearing his throat afterwards.
"Get working, we only got this week to finish."
Minju stares at the Weekly German Test board, looking for her name. Usually, it wouldn't take her more than two seconds to find it - but today is different.
She searched for more than two seconds, eventually finding her name at the second spot - right below Liu Yangyang's, who is placed first this week.
A weak smile stretches on her lips. She's happy for Yangyang, but kind of down because she purposely didn't really did her best during the test.
She figured, to ease Yangyang's heavy mood - she would have to somehow make him feel like atleast something else is going great ㅡ and maybe so it can lower his grudge for her. Maybe.. just maybe.
She turns to leave for her next class and as if on cue, Liu Yangyang is standing before her, waiting for the crowd to clear in front of the board. Minju steps aside, giving Yangyang the space to peek.
Almost instantly, his lips lift upwards and he heaves out a breath.
Minju leaves before he could even try mocking her for being second place for the first time. When she is out of the crowd, her phone vibrates - signalling a message.
📨 𝗟𝗜𝗨 𝗬𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗬𝗔𝗡𝗚
ㅡ Meet up in the library after school.
𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗝𝗨 📨
Okay. ㅡ
"Where are you going?" Minju asks as soon as she sees Yangyang turn his back and starts leaving the library ㅡ reminding her of their first day as project partners.
That wasn't the best start of their partnership.
"Out of the school, duh." He responds and when Minju gives him a confused expression, he sighs and clicks his tounge. "We can't celebrate your loss by spending time in the library now can we?"
"I thought you wanted to finish the project..?"
Liu Yangyang rolls his eyes, stomps towards Minju, grabs her wrist and starts pulling her out of the library.
"No, stupid. I don't wanna go home yet and I just topped you in the test so that means I have to rub it in on you by having fun." That is probably the longest sentence Minju has ever heard Yangyang say to her in one breath.
"Okay.." She lets him drag her out of the school, a smile plastered on his face as if this day wouldn't get any better.
"To the left to the left!! Oh my God! You suck!" Yangyang exclaims, he didn't know someone could be worse than him in shooting clays then he meet Minju. "Why are you shooting theㅡ Sigh."
"Sorry.." Minju apologises, earning a glare from Yangyang. "Well atleast I'm not the one who got three strikes at the baseball game.." She mumbles.
"I heard that." He takes the toy gun from Minju's hands and starts shooting on the clays like some crazy lunatic but with sharp accuracy - eventually announcing him the winner of the screen sports game.
Minju applauds him and he cockily exits the area and move on to the football goal game. Surprisingly, Minju did pretty good at it. Yangyang didn't give her reactions though.
"Ah! He keeps blocking my goal!" He complains when the screen goalkeeper easily tackles his ball for the third time.
"I think you have to kick it faster.." Minju quietly suggests, hoping Yangyang would take it to account ㅡ and he did.
He skips to the ball, lifts his kicking foot backwards - giving himself a momentum then sends it. But instead of kicking the ball, his foot misses and hits the air instead - causing him to reel down to the ground.
Minju's first instict was to laugh - but she stifles it and walks over to help a groaning slash whining Yangyang soothing the pain on his butt by rubbing it.
"Are you okay?" She asks, biting her bottom lip to stop herself from laughing.
"Hey! Stop laughing at me, I just fell down!"
"I'm not-"
Yangyang watches her hold back, her eyes contradicting and lights up instead. The sight is new. He realises that Minju has never really fully smiled at him. Only half hearted ones - those that don't reach her eyes.
Her smile is warm, hugging his spirit and comforting the coldness in him. The brightness of it seems to lighten up the semi-dark room and his vision. Yangyang skims the sight long as if he's trying to memorise every detail of it. It's a smile that he wouldn't get sick of. And he decided... he wants to see it again.
He snaps from his trance when a worker of the screen sports center tells them, "We're closing in a few minutes." and Yangyang sighs - so did Minju.
Way to end such an undeniably fun time.