A world of my own - MINSUNG

Part 4 - Lee Know

As we piled into the classroom, my eyes naturally scanned the room for Jisung. He wasn't anywhere around. I started to feel a little nervous about kissing him yesterday. What if he told everybody? I couldn't lose my girlfriend, the prettiest girl in the school. The rest of the boys already thirsted after her like vultures. Just as I was thinking about her, she came into my line of vision and waved a hand in front of my face.

"Minho hyung? Are you OK?" Chaeryoung said. I felt bad as I looked at her dainty, anxious face. She was a nice girl and I knew she actually cared about me, not my looks. But as sad as the truth may be I had just lost all physical interest in her. The butterflies I felt when she looked at me a couple of months ago weren't there anymore.

I tried to smile at her. "Yeah, I'm fine, Chaeryoung. My foot just hurts a little." I winced as I shifted from one foot to another. The stabbing pains I had felt along my foot the whole night due to Jisung aggressively stepping on me had created a lot of bruises. My bag felt heavy with what was inside.

"Where is that quokka boy?" I muttered to myself frustratedly as we went for lunch. We usually had lunch in the music room because Hyunjin had access to it, being a scholarship student, but sometimes went to the lunch hall when the food was good.

Chris looked at me quizzically but didn't comment. As we sat at our usual table, I heard snippets of the conversation from Jisung's two friends, the Seungmin guy wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"...should get it to him before it gets cold."

"Didn't Seungmin hyung tell you to get a cake?! It's his birthday!"

"Oh shit! I forgot about the cake."

"Whose birthday is it?" I said loudly enough that the two boys had to hear me. They both looked up surprised. I never said a single word to either of them since the time I'd been at this school. Chris, Hyunjin and Changbin also stared at me.

Lee Felix curled his lip at me. It was clear knowledge that because Jisung didn't like me, the rest of their crew didn't either. He said, "It's Jisungie's birthday today."

It was his birthday?!

Then Seungmin came over. "Why are you talking to these guys? Come on, let's go."

The three of them walked away. Hyunjin rolled his eyes, but Chris was looking at me thoughtfully. "Minho, what's up? You OK?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm fine."

-

The fact that it was Jisung's birthday and that I had kissed him yesterday wouldn't leave my mind, as if the two thoughts were connected. Finally, I just couldn't stand it any longer and instead of making my way home, I hauled my ass to his apartment, even though my foot was really starting to ache now.

(Don't ask me how I know where he lives, the way I found out was really embarrassing. But that's a story for another time.)

My bag hit my leg with every other step until I just wanted to ditch in on the sidewalk. Finally, I got to his block of flats. When I got in front of his front door I had a second thought about the whole thing, but I told myself if I chickened away I would just be back here again tomorrow.

I knocked on the door a few times but nobody answered so I started to lock harder. Then he came and wrenched the door open.

"Lee Minho?!"

I could feel my cheeks growing warm - he must have just gotten out of bed, his eyes were sleepy and his hair was messy. He looked so cute my hair started to thump way too fast. Was this how it was going to be? Was I going to want to kiss him every time I saw him?

"What the hell are you doing here? How do you know where I live?" he asked angrily. 

I ignored him and made my way into his flat. "Nice apartment you have here," I said, making him scowl.

"What do you want?" he said. "Get out of my house."

"Not so fast, Quokka," I said. He blushed. What? Did he honestly think I wouldn't know his nickname? Everybody knows it.

I took off my bag and sat down on the living room chair. "You're responsible for this," I said, taking my shoe off. My foot was still red and purple with bruises.

His scowl only deepened. "I don't care. You jumped on me, you deserve it."

I sighed. "Fine, pretty boy. I thought you might say that." I opened my bag while he watched suspiciously, still standing by the doorway. Then I took out my plastic bag and threw it on the table.

He came over and opened the bag, as a shower of broken glass fell all over the carpet. He yelped and moved away. "What the fu-?"

"You broke this when you were leaving my house yesterday. It's literally an antique glass plant holder my mother brought from Dubai and it cost her almost a thousand dollars."

His face paled. "What?"

I leaned back in the seat. "You either pay me back for my plant holder, or carry me to school every day on your back until my foot heals."

He bit his lip looking terrified.

Then I leaned forward. "Or you can keep your mouth shut about what happened yesterday."

His head jerked up. "What?"

"Yesterday was an accident, OK? It never happened. You slip out even a single word to anybody, pretty boy, and I'll slit your throat, got it? But if you keep silent, you can forget about paying."

He nodded slowly, some of the colour returning to his squirrel cheeks. 

"Good." I got up, carfeul to lean on my foot as I did. "Don't mention anything to anybody at school."

His face was blank. "Sure."

As he locked the door behind me, I felt a little bad for threatening him like that, especially since the plant holder he'd  broken was actually some wimpy thing that cost barely three bucks at the convenience store. My mother would never leave anything that cost a thousand bucks outside where anyone could touch them; Han Jisung really was just a gullible quokka.

Of course, she'd never leave anythign so expensive outside. But she wouldn't really care if it broke, either.