[SJFF] That Someone Is You - Chapter 9
Title: That Someone Is You
Characters: Eunhyuk, OC, SJ members
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance, Drama
Word Count: 2,940
Summary: She was fully prepared to submit herself to a life that she wasn't remotely interested in living. Then she met him. Unfortunately, life has no intentions in going easy on the both of them.
~ * ~
09
He rolled his eyes when he could sense that someone was tailing him down the hallways of the university leading towards the cafeteria. It had been going on for quite a while now, and he felt plain irritated by it. What made it worse was the fact that this stalker of his wasn’t at all bothered about the amount of noise her heels made when it clicked with the marble flooring.
“Woman, could you be any less subtle about following me around?” he called out sarcastically, halting in his steps and turning around to look at the person. His voice resonated down the hallway long after he had uttered those words, considering how deserted it was on a long weekend. Most of the students had returned to their respective homes, except for those who lived too far away to pay a trip back - namely, him and said stalker.
She let out a mirthless chuckle at that. “You could have ignored me outright if you wanted to,” she shrugged. “No one’s stopping you from doing that.”
“Whatever,” he snorted, folding his arms in front of his chest. “Let’s get straight down to the point, shall we? What do you want with me?”
“Good that we see eye to eye. I’ve told you this once - you mess with her, you mess with me. Stay away from her,” she hissed, still keeping the distance between them intact. She didn’t really want to be anywhere near him at all.
“What will you do if I refuse to acknowledge your request?” he challenged her with a smirk on his face. “I believe I’ll have to remind you that I’m not always the one who initiates the conversations between us.”
“You have no idea what you’re getting yourself involved in. Consider this my final warning. Hurt her, and you’ll regret it for life,” she declared, before turning on her heels and headed down the direction they had came from.
He stood in his position for a moment longer as he watched her disappear down the hallway, the smirk never leaving his face.
He’d like to see what that woman could carry off by herself.
* * * * *
Hyukjae stretched happily as he walked down the familiar path leading to the waterfront, feeling oddly relaxed for the first time in a very long while. His management company was kind enough to allow them to have a week off from their schedules after their most reason Super Show concert in Shanghai, and he was making full use of that to catch up with his lessons in the university.
Although he was tempted to take the week off to sleep at home instead, he knew very well that education was equally important as emphasised by both his parents. In addition, if he decided to skip out on the week’s lessons, he would have to catch up on them sooner or later anyway. Not a smart move, as he had learned.
He pulled his jacket closer to himself when a gust of cold air blew in his direction, shivering slightly at the chilly atmosphere. If anything, he was thankful that it wasn’t as cold as he had anticipated this winter to be. He wasn’t really looking forward to be walking around in several thick layers of cold at all.
A smile lit up his face as he approached the wooden bridge leading out to the lake, noticing a familiar figure seated there as usual. She was dressed in a black fur jacket, scribbling away in her notebook just like the first time he had seen her there. The girl was evidently in a good mood, as she kept looking up from her book every now and then, inhaling the fresh winter air around her. The satisfied expressions and the smile playing on her lips after every action of hers subconsciously made his heart skip a beat.
The dancer then glanced around him, carefully assessing his surroundings. When he was sure that there was no one else in the vicinity, he reached up to his face and pulled off his face mask. He figured out that he would probably be safe in the mean time. Hyukjae mimicked her actions in taking in the cold winter air, feeling completely refreshed in the next moment.
Hyukjae casted another look in the direction of the girl, relieved that she was still seated in her previous position and was very much occupied with what she was doing. He bit on his lower lip in hesitation for a short moment, before taking bold steps in her direction.
As usual, he kept a small distance between the two of them, pretending to be admiring the scenery as he threw subtle glances at her. This had been his habit over the past month whenever he would stumble upon her hanging out at the waterfront, but even until now, he couldn’t bring himself to utter a single word to the girl.
He didn’t know what to say to her, even if Donghae kept egging him on and asked him to just walk up to her like a man and say ‘hi’. Hyukjae sauntered off with a frown on his face every single time the younger man brought up the topic. Things were… complicated on his side, especially when half the girls in his university who knew that he was studying there were going after him because of his status as a celebrity.
He was sick of being pursued for such superficial reasons.
Sighing, Hyukjae’s eyes wandered off to the pristine white pages of the girl’s notebook again. He squinted a little, trying to make out what the contents were. Reading along, he found himself admiring her neat handwriting printed across the lines, but without even thinking, he blurted the very words out. “You have beautiful handwriting,” he had said.
When he realised what had just escaped his lips, a hand immediately flew up to clamp his mouth shut. He frantically hoped that the girl was too engrossed in doing whatever she usually does to the extent that she could not hear him. However, much to his dismay (and perhaps a little joy), the girl actually stopped writing for once and looked directly at him, probably wondering whether it was this stranger who had made that random comment.
His heart raced at the sight of that clueless but slightly amused expression of hers. Hyukjae mentally berated himself when he felt his cheeks burn up at the embarrassing slip of his tongue. He was even more conscious of the heat emanating from his face as a result of the cold air surrounding him, and he had the sudden urge to pull out his face mask and make a run for it.
Hyukjae was about to translate his thoughts into actions after muttering a quick apology when a soft chuckle came from his right, pulling his attention back towards the girl.
“Thank you for the kind compliment; I believe that was the first time anyone had praised my handwriting,” she mused, not feeling the least bit reserved with her words. However, her sentences were also peppered with politeness, reflecting the way she was brought up at home - strict, perhaps. “I was beginning to wonder when you were going to talk to me,” the girl laughed again.
Hyukjae blinked at her. “You noticed me hanging around?” he found himself asking without processing his words again. He grimaced for the second time that day at his tactless responses. So much for keeping a decent first impression, he thought dryly.
“Well yes, it’s hard to ignore the feeling you get when someone stares at you all the time, if you know what I mean,” she commented with a grin, closing her notebook for the first time since he saw her at the waterfront, apart from the times when she was gearing up to leave.
“Sorry,” he muttered sheepishly, averting his gaze from her. “You must think that I’m weird and creepy.”
“Don’t worry about it,” came the reply. “You’re not the first person in this university who hangs out near me without even introducing yourself first,” she said, eyes crinkling in amusement. Hyukjae relaxed a little at her words, as he could sense the humour in them. She wasn’t the least bit offended or freaked out by his blatant stalking, and for that he was thankful.
“So… what are you doing out here on your own?” he then asked, though he cringed a little at his probably lame attempt at striking up another conversation. He didn’t know why he was being so affected by a girl he hardly knew; usually he was more confident than this - or so he’d like to believe.
“Talking to you?” she said as-a-matter-of-factly, the corner of her mouth pulling up in a half-smile. It was as though she was trying to repress a laugh from escaping. “If you’re wondering what I was doing before this, I was writing,” the girl then amended herself, sensing how Hyukjae was struggling to find the right thing to say. The amused smile remained on her pink lips.
“Writing a report in the cold? Why don’t you do it in your dorm room instead? I mean, you’re attending university here, aren’t you?” Hyukjae queried, feeling slightly confused. Although he would occasionally find couples who weren’t from his university strolling along the riverbank, he was pretty sure that this girl studied here.
“Yes, I am,” she confirmed. “And no, of course I’m not that crazy to write a report and risk myself freezing to death out here. I’m actually writing a novel. It’s my way of releasing the stress I get from university, otherwise you would probably see me in a mental asylum instead,” she joked, earning a hearty laugh from Hyukjae.
The first impression he had of her stuck with him; she was a captivating person.
He had a hunch that she didn’t really know who he was - which was fine by him, really - considering how she hadn’t jumped at him to ask for an autograph yet. The girl seemed genuinely interested in sustaining the conversation with him, and wasn’t trying too hard to gain his attention like everyone else. She had this natural charm which made him subconsciously gravitate towards her.
“That’s certainly an interesting way of putting things,” he flashed that gummy grin of his. “Are you a freshman here?”
She seemed pleasantly surprised at the question aimed at her. “Well, yes, you’re right. How did you know?”
“An intelligent guess,” he winked. “I haven’t seen you around here before the new academic year. I figured that if you loved this place so much, you would’ve been here more often.”
The girl nodded in understanding, impressed by his deduction skills. “Not bad,” she praised. “Speaking of which, I haven’t seen much of you on campus either. Do you really study here?”
“I’m one year ahead of you. Do you want me to show you my student ID?” Hyukjae asked, mock hurt by her words. However, a smile appeared on his face again within a split second, indicating that he was just joking. “Trust me; I’d like to stick around a lot more if I could. But unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury to do that.”
She looked at him oddly at the sound of his statement, wondering about the reasons behind it. He didn’t seem to be sickly, so she couldn’t fathom why he could not attend classes frequently on campus. “Is there a special reason why?” she therefore asked in a polite manner, scooting a little to Hyukjae in order to better scrutinise his facial features at a closer proximity.
That simple move was more than adequate to make him squirm under her gaze, and he secretly wondered whether she was trying to return his favour for making her feel uncomfortable whenever he looked at her from a distance. He cleared his throat, embarrassed, and turned away slightly. “There is, but I don’t think I can tell you just yet,” he flashed a thin smile at her, eyes flickering away in the next second.
Although he had expected her to frown at his reply, Hyukjae was pleasantly surprised to find that radiant smile on her face. “It’s alright if you can’t fill me in on the information just yet. I understand how you feel - I mean, we’ve just met after all,” she beamed.
“So… I can still talk to you after this?” Hyukjae blurted, eyes widening at the underlying message.
A hearty laugh escaped her throat once again at his question. “Of course we can! You do intend to do so in the future, don’t you?”
“Certainly!” he replied without even thinking, feeling much happier than he probably should.
“That’s good to hear then,” the girl grinned at him, before pulling herself up into a standing position. “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to take my leave now. I trust that you’ll be able to find me if you’d like to talk again?”
Hyukjae mimicked her actions, fluidly hopping up from his seat. He dusted the back of his pants to get rid of the frost and the cold, that gummy smile automatically finding its way back to his expressions again. “Unless you decide to change your hang out spot after today, I’ll see you here again.”
“Great! I’ll see you around then,” she chirruped, before taking large strides in the direction of the dorms.
Hyukjae stared at her retreating back for a short moment, grinning in a silly manner to himself, when he suddenly remembered something and promptly broke into a run after the girl. “Wait!” he called out. “I don’t think I got your name!”
Much to his relief, the girl halted in her steps and turned around beaming widely, causing Hyukjae’s heart to do a quick flip again. He prayed hard that his face was not in a deep shade of scarlet, pulling his scarf up to hide his cheeks just in case.
“I’m sorry, I believe I forgot to ask for your name,” he said again when he managed to catch up with her, feeling embarrassed for the umpteenth time at his blunders.
She chuckled and held out her hand. “I’m Shin Seohyeon. Nice to meet you.”
“Lee Hyukjae,” he offered. This is definitely a good start, he thought.
* * * * *
“You’re doing that creepy thing again,” a voice spoke up from the other end of the room, startling Seohyeon who was concentrating on the books in front of her. The short-haired girl glanced up at the other occupant, eyebrows furrowed at her.
“I thought you weren’t speaking to me,” she gave a half-hearted scowl, remembering about the number of times she had tried to initiate a conversation with her roommate for the past two weeks, only to be given a cold shoulder instead.
She gave up trying half a week ago, no longer having the motivation of getting back into the good books of her supposed best friend. There was nothing she could do when it was a one-way initiative. It wasn’t as though she was the person at fault to begin with.
“It’s fine with me if you don’t want to talk about it. Suit yourself,” her roommate, whose hair was now in a shade of chestnut brown, shrugged and returned her attention to the magazine in her hands.
Seohyeon let out a dismayed sigh at that, walking towards Min-ae’s side of the room before hopping onto the latter’s bed and snaking her arms around her friend’s waist. “Min, stop doing this to me. It’s not fair that you keep ignoring me. We’ve never been involved in such a huge fight before, and I just want it to stop. Please.”
Min-ae tore her eyes away from the pages of the magazine at the gesture, also sighing as she hugged the other girl back. “I’m sorry, Hyeon. I just… I don’t know what got into me,” she confessed, feeling guilty that she had ignored her best friend for such a long period of time.
The shorter one of the pair shook her head. “It’s partially my fault too, Min. I shouldn’t have agreed to go on a date with Shin-il sunbae without discussing about it with you first.”
“About that…” Min-ae started, biting on her lip. “That’s completely my fault. I don’t have the right to control your life, Hyeon. I shouldn’t have blown my top just because you wanted to go out with him.”
“So… you’re fine with it now?”
“No, I still don’t trust him at all,” came the honest answer, causing Seohyeon to wince a little at how blunt her friend was being. “But I’m not going to stop you from seeing him. It’s your life; it’s your choice to hang out with anyone you please.”
Seohyeon frowned at her roommate. “Do you mind telling me why exactly you’re so against Shin-il sunbae?” she asked good-naturedly, not wanting to risk getting her friend angry again.
Min-ae shook her head. “It’s just a hunch. I have a feeling that he’s up to no good,” she pointed out. “Promise me you’ll be careful when you’re out with him?”
“Fine, I promise,” Seohyeon sighed, laughing a little as she did the pinkie-promise with Min-ae. “Just don’t give him such a hard time, alright?”
“We’ll see,” the other girl answered noncommittally. “So what was that creepy grin earlier all about?”
The brown-haired girl flushed a deep shade of red at the question, muttering something incoherent before escaping from Min-ae’s grip. The latter wasn’t about to give up, however, as she chased after her best friend and attempted to annoy the answer out of her.
Characters: Eunhyuk, OC, SJ members
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance, Drama
Word Count: 2,940
Summary: She was fully prepared to submit herself to a life that she wasn't remotely interested in living. Then she met him. Unfortunately, life has no intentions in going easy on the both of them.
~ * ~
09
He rolled his eyes when he could sense that someone was tailing him down the hallways of the university leading towards the cafeteria. It had been going on for quite a while now, and he felt plain irritated by it. What made it worse was the fact that this stalker of his wasn’t at all bothered about the amount of noise her heels made when it clicked with the marble flooring.
“Woman, could you be any less subtle about following me around?” he called out sarcastically, halting in his steps and turning around to look at the person. His voice resonated down the hallway long after he had uttered those words, considering how deserted it was on a long weekend. Most of the students had returned to their respective homes, except for those who lived too far away to pay a trip back - namely, him and said stalker.
She let out a mirthless chuckle at that. “You could have ignored me outright if you wanted to,” she shrugged. “No one’s stopping you from doing that.”
“Whatever,” he snorted, folding his arms in front of his chest. “Let’s get straight down to the point, shall we? What do you want with me?”
“Good that we see eye to eye. I’ve told you this once - you mess with her, you mess with me. Stay away from her,” she hissed, still keeping the distance between them intact. She didn’t really want to be anywhere near him at all.
“What will you do if I refuse to acknowledge your request?” he challenged her with a smirk on his face. “I believe I’ll have to remind you that I’m not always the one who initiates the conversations between us.”
“You have no idea what you’re getting yourself involved in. Consider this my final warning. Hurt her, and you’ll regret it for life,” she declared, before turning on her heels and headed down the direction they had came from.
He stood in his position for a moment longer as he watched her disappear down the hallway, the smirk never leaving his face.
He’d like to see what that woman could carry off by herself.
* * * * *
Hyukjae stretched happily as he walked down the familiar path leading to the waterfront, feeling oddly relaxed for the first time in a very long while. His management company was kind enough to allow them to have a week off from their schedules after their most reason Super Show concert in Shanghai, and he was making full use of that to catch up with his lessons in the university.
Although he was tempted to take the week off to sleep at home instead, he knew very well that education was equally important as emphasised by both his parents. In addition, if he decided to skip out on the week’s lessons, he would have to catch up on them sooner or later anyway. Not a smart move, as he had learned.
He pulled his jacket closer to himself when a gust of cold air blew in his direction, shivering slightly at the chilly atmosphere. If anything, he was thankful that it wasn’t as cold as he had anticipated this winter to be. He wasn’t really looking forward to be walking around in several thick layers of cold at all.
A smile lit up his face as he approached the wooden bridge leading out to the lake, noticing a familiar figure seated there as usual. She was dressed in a black fur jacket, scribbling away in her notebook just like the first time he had seen her there. The girl was evidently in a good mood, as she kept looking up from her book every now and then, inhaling the fresh winter air around her. The satisfied expressions and the smile playing on her lips after every action of hers subconsciously made his heart skip a beat.
The dancer then glanced around him, carefully assessing his surroundings. When he was sure that there was no one else in the vicinity, he reached up to his face and pulled off his face mask. He figured out that he would probably be safe in the mean time. Hyukjae mimicked her actions in taking in the cold winter air, feeling completely refreshed in the next moment.
Hyukjae casted another look in the direction of the girl, relieved that she was still seated in her previous position and was very much occupied with what she was doing. He bit on his lower lip in hesitation for a short moment, before taking bold steps in her direction.
As usual, he kept a small distance between the two of them, pretending to be admiring the scenery as he threw subtle glances at her. This had been his habit over the past month whenever he would stumble upon her hanging out at the waterfront, but even until now, he couldn’t bring himself to utter a single word to the girl.
He didn’t know what to say to her, even if Donghae kept egging him on and asked him to just walk up to her like a man and say ‘hi’. Hyukjae sauntered off with a frown on his face every single time the younger man brought up the topic. Things were… complicated on his side, especially when half the girls in his university who knew that he was studying there were going after him because of his status as a celebrity.
He was sick of being pursued for such superficial reasons.
Sighing, Hyukjae’s eyes wandered off to the pristine white pages of the girl’s notebook again. He squinted a little, trying to make out what the contents were. Reading along, he found himself admiring her neat handwriting printed across the lines, but without even thinking, he blurted the very words out. “You have beautiful handwriting,” he had said.
When he realised what had just escaped his lips, a hand immediately flew up to clamp his mouth shut. He frantically hoped that the girl was too engrossed in doing whatever she usually does to the extent that she could not hear him. However, much to his dismay (and perhaps a little joy), the girl actually stopped writing for once and looked directly at him, probably wondering whether it was this stranger who had made that random comment.
His heart raced at the sight of that clueless but slightly amused expression of hers. Hyukjae mentally berated himself when he felt his cheeks burn up at the embarrassing slip of his tongue. He was even more conscious of the heat emanating from his face as a result of the cold air surrounding him, and he had the sudden urge to pull out his face mask and make a run for it.
Hyukjae was about to translate his thoughts into actions after muttering a quick apology when a soft chuckle came from his right, pulling his attention back towards the girl.
“Thank you for the kind compliment; I believe that was the first time anyone had praised my handwriting,” she mused, not feeling the least bit reserved with her words. However, her sentences were also peppered with politeness, reflecting the way she was brought up at home - strict, perhaps. “I was beginning to wonder when you were going to talk to me,” the girl laughed again.
Hyukjae blinked at her. “You noticed me hanging around?” he found himself asking without processing his words again. He grimaced for the second time that day at his tactless responses. So much for keeping a decent first impression, he thought dryly.
“Well yes, it’s hard to ignore the feeling you get when someone stares at you all the time, if you know what I mean,” she commented with a grin, closing her notebook for the first time since he saw her at the waterfront, apart from the times when she was gearing up to leave.
“Sorry,” he muttered sheepishly, averting his gaze from her. “You must think that I’m weird and creepy.”
“Don’t worry about it,” came the reply. “You’re not the first person in this university who hangs out near me without even introducing yourself first,” she said, eyes crinkling in amusement. Hyukjae relaxed a little at her words, as he could sense the humour in them. She wasn’t the least bit offended or freaked out by his blatant stalking, and for that he was thankful.
“So… what are you doing out here on your own?” he then asked, though he cringed a little at his probably lame attempt at striking up another conversation. He didn’t know why he was being so affected by a girl he hardly knew; usually he was more confident than this - or so he’d like to believe.
“Talking to you?” she said as-a-matter-of-factly, the corner of her mouth pulling up in a half-smile. It was as though she was trying to repress a laugh from escaping. “If you’re wondering what I was doing before this, I was writing,” the girl then amended herself, sensing how Hyukjae was struggling to find the right thing to say. The amused smile remained on her pink lips.
“Writing a report in the cold? Why don’t you do it in your dorm room instead? I mean, you’re attending university here, aren’t you?” Hyukjae queried, feeling slightly confused. Although he would occasionally find couples who weren’t from his university strolling along the riverbank, he was pretty sure that this girl studied here.
“Yes, I am,” she confirmed. “And no, of course I’m not that crazy to write a report and risk myself freezing to death out here. I’m actually writing a novel. It’s my way of releasing the stress I get from university, otherwise you would probably see me in a mental asylum instead,” she joked, earning a hearty laugh from Hyukjae.
The first impression he had of her stuck with him; she was a captivating person.
He had a hunch that she didn’t really know who he was - which was fine by him, really - considering how she hadn’t jumped at him to ask for an autograph yet. The girl seemed genuinely interested in sustaining the conversation with him, and wasn’t trying too hard to gain his attention like everyone else. She had this natural charm which made him subconsciously gravitate towards her.
“That’s certainly an interesting way of putting things,” he flashed that gummy grin of his. “Are you a freshman here?”
She seemed pleasantly surprised at the question aimed at her. “Well, yes, you’re right. How did you know?”
“An intelligent guess,” he winked. “I haven’t seen you around here before the new academic year. I figured that if you loved this place so much, you would’ve been here more often.”
The girl nodded in understanding, impressed by his deduction skills. “Not bad,” she praised. “Speaking of which, I haven’t seen much of you on campus either. Do you really study here?”
“I’m one year ahead of you. Do you want me to show you my student ID?” Hyukjae asked, mock hurt by her words. However, a smile appeared on his face again within a split second, indicating that he was just joking. “Trust me; I’d like to stick around a lot more if I could. But unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury to do that.”
She looked at him oddly at the sound of his statement, wondering about the reasons behind it. He didn’t seem to be sickly, so she couldn’t fathom why he could not attend classes frequently on campus. “Is there a special reason why?” she therefore asked in a polite manner, scooting a little to Hyukjae in order to better scrutinise his facial features at a closer proximity.
That simple move was more than adequate to make him squirm under her gaze, and he secretly wondered whether she was trying to return his favour for making her feel uncomfortable whenever he looked at her from a distance. He cleared his throat, embarrassed, and turned away slightly. “There is, but I don’t think I can tell you just yet,” he flashed a thin smile at her, eyes flickering away in the next second.
Although he had expected her to frown at his reply, Hyukjae was pleasantly surprised to find that radiant smile on her face. “It’s alright if you can’t fill me in on the information just yet. I understand how you feel - I mean, we’ve just met after all,” she beamed.
“So… I can still talk to you after this?” Hyukjae blurted, eyes widening at the underlying message.
A hearty laugh escaped her throat once again at his question. “Of course we can! You do intend to do so in the future, don’t you?”
“Certainly!” he replied without even thinking, feeling much happier than he probably should.
“That’s good to hear then,” the girl grinned at him, before pulling herself up into a standing position. “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to take my leave now. I trust that you’ll be able to find me if you’d like to talk again?”
Hyukjae mimicked her actions, fluidly hopping up from his seat. He dusted the back of his pants to get rid of the frost and the cold, that gummy smile automatically finding its way back to his expressions again. “Unless you decide to change your hang out spot after today, I’ll see you here again.”
“Great! I’ll see you around then,” she chirruped, before taking large strides in the direction of the dorms.
Hyukjae stared at her retreating back for a short moment, grinning in a silly manner to himself, when he suddenly remembered something and promptly broke into a run after the girl. “Wait!” he called out. “I don’t think I got your name!”
Much to his relief, the girl halted in her steps and turned around beaming widely, causing Hyukjae’s heart to do a quick flip again. He prayed hard that his face was not in a deep shade of scarlet, pulling his scarf up to hide his cheeks just in case.
“I’m sorry, I believe I forgot to ask for your name,” he said again when he managed to catch up with her, feeling embarrassed for the umpteenth time at his blunders.
She chuckled and held out her hand. “I’m Shin Seohyeon. Nice to meet you.”
“Lee Hyukjae,” he offered. This is definitely a good start, he thought.
* * * * *
“You’re doing that creepy thing again,” a voice spoke up from the other end of the room, startling Seohyeon who was concentrating on the books in front of her. The short-haired girl glanced up at the other occupant, eyebrows furrowed at her.
“I thought you weren’t speaking to me,” she gave a half-hearted scowl, remembering about the number of times she had tried to initiate a conversation with her roommate for the past two weeks, only to be given a cold shoulder instead.
She gave up trying half a week ago, no longer having the motivation of getting back into the good books of her supposed best friend. There was nothing she could do when it was a one-way initiative. It wasn’t as though she was the person at fault to begin with.
“It’s fine with me if you don’t want to talk about it. Suit yourself,” her roommate, whose hair was now in a shade of chestnut brown, shrugged and returned her attention to the magazine in her hands.
Seohyeon let out a dismayed sigh at that, walking towards Min-ae’s side of the room before hopping onto the latter’s bed and snaking her arms around her friend’s waist. “Min, stop doing this to me. It’s not fair that you keep ignoring me. We’ve never been involved in such a huge fight before, and I just want it to stop. Please.”
Min-ae tore her eyes away from the pages of the magazine at the gesture, also sighing as she hugged the other girl back. “I’m sorry, Hyeon. I just… I don’t know what got into me,” she confessed, feeling guilty that she had ignored her best friend for such a long period of time.
The shorter one of the pair shook her head. “It’s partially my fault too, Min. I shouldn’t have agreed to go on a date with Shin-il sunbae without discussing about it with you first.”
“About that…” Min-ae started, biting on her lip. “That’s completely my fault. I don’t have the right to control your life, Hyeon. I shouldn’t have blown my top just because you wanted to go out with him.”
“So… you’re fine with it now?”
“No, I still don’t trust him at all,” came the honest answer, causing Seohyeon to wince a little at how blunt her friend was being. “But I’m not going to stop you from seeing him. It’s your life; it’s your choice to hang out with anyone you please.”
Seohyeon frowned at her roommate. “Do you mind telling me why exactly you’re so against Shin-il sunbae?” she asked good-naturedly, not wanting to risk getting her friend angry again.
Min-ae shook her head. “It’s just a hunch. I have a feeling that he’s up to no good,” she pointed out. “Promise me you’ll be careful when you’re out with him?”
“Fine, I promise,” Seohyeon sighed, laughing a little as she did the pinkie-promise with Min-ae. “Just don’t give him such a hard time, alright?”
“We’ll see,” the other girl answered noncommittally. “So what was that creepy grin earlier all about?”
The brown-haired girl flushed a deep shade of red at the question, muttering something incoherent before escaping from Min-ae’s grip. The latter wasn’t about to give up, however, as she chased after her best friend and attempted to annoy the answer out of her.