Paper Lilies | Jeong Yunho

03

Yunho's POV

"Yah! Earth to Jeong Yunho!"

I look up to see my best friend standing from his seat across me while waving his hand in front of my face. He drops down his hand seeing my questioning look.

"Were you even listening to what I was saying?" he asked, sitting back with a pout.

"What?"

He stares at me with a look of betrayal. I shrugged my shoulders and continued to eat my kimchi fried rice.

The next thing I knew, my shin was hardly kicked.

"Ow! What the heck?"

I glare at the silver-haired man in front of me who had a smug look on his face. He munches on his bacon and egg sandwich while looking around, completely ignoring my glowering eyes. Not wanting to continue this not-ending-squabble, I soften my gaze and sighed.

"Alright Min, I'm sorry. I just had something in mind lately."

He looks back at me, placing down his half-eaten sandwich before resting his head on the palm of his right hand.

"Hm, is Ms. Seo bothering you again? Did someone gave you another love letter? Or did your brother messed with your guitar for the ninth time?"

I shook my head indicating 'no'. I lift up a spoonful of rice just as a raven-haired girl enters the cafeteria. She walks to a corner and sat at the single-chaired table. I frown when I see a small skin color bandage on her forehead and left cheek. She opens her bag expecting her to take out a lunchbox only to be surprised when she pulls out her worn-out sketchbook.

Why isn't she eating?

"Choi Nari from Section A? The loner top student?"

I dart my eyes back to my best friend, who had a confused look on his face. I look down at my lunch, eating the last spoonful of my fried rice.

"Finish up your food, Mingi. We don't want to be late to class."

- time skip -

The bells rings as it indicates that class is over for today. Students hurried to get out of their classroom as if they didn't wanted to be here in the first place. Yunho and his best friend, Mingi, took their time to pack up their things. They exit their classroom, Section B, together as they walk across the now empty hallway, quietly chatting with each other.

They turn to the left and see the raven-haired girl talking to something, or someone inside her locker. I push Mingi back as we hide at the school walls. Nari looks around oblivious of the two men stalking her before pulling out an animal cage with the cat - Riri was it? - from the bridge yesterday.

"Wait, aren't we not supposed to bring an animal at school?"

I shake my head, "that's the cat she was with at the bridge yesterday."

"Wait- you met her?"

"I can't really say met, she was coincidentally there when I went to get some fresh air," I chuckle, "she didn't even realised I was her school mate and called me 'mister tall man'. Then she ran away, with the cat."

"Well maybe because she actually doesn't know you, you idiot." Mingi lightly hits my arm, "gosh, she must've thought you were gonna kidnap her and ran away."

"Oh, shut up."

The sound of the locker closing brought our attention back to the girl. She wraps her hand around the cage before dashing away to the back door of the school. I grab Mingi's hand as I drag us out of school, also going to the back door.

"Let's go."

"Wait, wait- you're not actually gonna follow her, right?"

"I'm not following her, I'm just trying to see if she gets home safely."

"But that's basically following, more like stalking."

I stopped my walking feet to look at Mingi who seems to be confused as to why I'm so interested about Choi Nari's safety.

"Look, I got a bad feeling about this. About why the cat is in a cage when I clearly saw yesterday that it's a stray cat that lives in the bridge who Nari occasionally feeds. And about the bandages on her face— something must've happened," I look back to the direction where Nari went.

"Shit, we lost her."