━ 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆

02

Sooyoung pov:

"Eomma, do I have a sweater?" I asked while waiting for her to respond. She put down the spatula that she was using to cook breakfast and stared at me as if I had grown a tail. 

"Nope, you don't have one. Why do you need a sweater anyway? Isn't it like summer right now? You will get a heat stroke if you wear a sweater to school."

 I sighed and showed my wrist to her, gesturing to the initials, and continued, "These initials belong to Choi Yeonjun." 

"Ok...? Isn't he one of the popular boys in your class? Chaewon hangs out with him together with Soobin right?" My mum questioned, looking a little confused.

"Ya, that's Yeonjun. Point is, he's the most popular guy in class and if word gets out that I'm his soulmate, all his crazy fangirls won't leave me alone for the rest of my life, especially Jiyoon. She's the most popular girl in the class and likes Yeonjun too. And I'm not even good enough for him. I don't want to drag him down." I ended, sighing for the umpteenth time since I got my initials.

"Sooyoung-ah, how many times have I told you that you are good enough. Ignore all those other girls, haters gotta hate. But if they bully you, you have to tell me, ok? Don't compare yourself to others, just be your beautiful self and it'll be fine."

"Can I have the sweater though?" I asked hopefully.

"Oh alright. Go get my sweater from my wardrobe. I'm sorry if it's old-fashioned or anything. If you want, we can go get a sweater for you when you get home today."

"Thank you Eomma!" I ran to her room to get her sweater, with more energy than I had before. It will suffice for today, at least until I get a sweater of my own. 

~Time skip~

"Good morning Sooyoung!" Chaewon chirped as she walked into the classroom. Then she stopped, staring at me just like my mum did earlier. 

"What?" I asked, puzzled at her expression.

"Uh, why are you wearing a sweater?" She asked incredulously. 

"My wrist?" I said, pointing to it, while Chaewon still looked on in disbelief.

 "You wore a sweater in the middle of summer just to cover your wrist. How marvelous Sooyoung. Bestie, we got into this school cos we were smart. You could've just worn a watch or something."

"A watch would slide. Never mind, it isn't that warm anyways, I'll survive."

"If you say so," Chaewon said, still looking at me with a judging look as she sighed in defeat and shook her head.  

"But if you get too warm, just take it off for goodness sake, I don't wanna lose my bestie to a sweater. And if anyone dares to bully you just because you're Yeonjun's soulmate, which is ridiculous, they'll get it from me." Chaewon said, punching the air in triumph, making me laugh.

What happened afterward in class wasn't funny to me at all though.

"Yeonjun, please move to the seat beside Sooyoung." Miss Hwang, my form teacher said as murmurs broke out immediately.

My head snapped up from my textbook in horror and turned to look at Chaewon. Turns out that she was looking at me too. 

Our eyes met as she gave me a huge smile and mouthed "Fighting!" to me. I gave her a warning face and slumped down into my seat, rubbing my temples.

I winced when I heard some of those murmurs. They weren't what I would call comments of envy, they were quite the opposite.

"Yeonjun's sitting beside that nerd? Seriously?" Someone remarked as some laughs could be heard.