𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 ♧ SeungJin

IX

"Maybe growing up means disappointing the people we love."
Nicola Yoon : Everything Everything

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Before Hyunjin new it he was putting on his good pants in order to go meet the Kim family. He hoped that it wouldn't be as boring as his parents made it seem, only talking about business and politics and business and politics. Maybe their kid could even keep him company, though he'd always have Mi-Young tagging around.

His parents wanted him to look especially presentable, so he was wearing a nice silk shirt tucked into some dress pants and some shoes that Hyunjin personally hated but his father seemed to love. Mi-Young was stuffed into a frilly white dress and her hair was done up into a loose yet classy bun.

"Hyunjin! We're going to be late if you don't get down here in the next 30 seconds!" He nearly jumped out of his skin when his mother started screeching at him from down the hall. He rolled his eyes, muttering complaints to himself and checked his appearance in the mirror one more time before heading out of his room and towards the front hall.

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Seungmin picked at his hair, bending over his dresser to inspect his hairline. Something just seemed wrong with it yet he was unable to pin point what it was. Maybe there was a peice of hair on the wrong side? Was it receding? Already? No, he was only 18 after all, though that wasn't totally uncommon...

He sighed and gave up now, placing his heels back onto the ground and getting off his tippy toes. Straightening out his dress shirt he sprayed himself one more time with his perfume, just for good luck. The last thing he'd want was to smell bad when the Hwang's came over, that would be the absolute worst thing to ever happen in the history of man kind.

Seungmin quickly jumped around a bit to get the gitters out of his system. He was worried about making a good first impression on these people because it was a huge business opportunity and he didn't want to be the reason it fell through. All of this was clearly very important to his parents.

He nearly jumped when he heard people start talking downstairs, muffled greetings being exchanged. He knew that the guests had arrived, so he scrambled down the long hall and down the stairwell, emerging into the front hall entrance. He spotted two middle aged people; a man and a woman, both wearing business clothing, and a young girl who looked about 10, did they not say that the Hwang family had a son though-

"Apologies we're a tiny but late, our son was being picky about his outfit. You know teenagers." The woman said. She then looked over from his parents and made eye contact with Seungmin, "Ah, you must be Seungmin, so good to see you. This is our daughter, Mi-Young, and our elder son should be here any moment now." The two shook hands and Seungmin gave a polite smile.

"It's nice to see you as well Mrs. Hwang."

"Oh please, call me Eun-Woo, and this is my husband Chin-Hwa." She gestured to the other man with her spare hand.

She then stepped away and the young girl said hello as well, bowing. Seungmin nodded, then spotting someone enter the house, another boy. He froze.

"My apologies for being late, I was just-" the two made eye contact, Hyunjin now also stopped mid sentence.

"Oh Hyunjin this is Seungmin," Eun-Woo pats him on the back, oblivious to how the boys stared at eachother in horror, "Seungmin, Mr. And Mrs. Kim, this is our son, Hyunjin. He's just about the same age as Seungmin I believe."

"Lovely to meet you Hyunjin," Mr. Kim reached out and shook the boys hand firmly. Hyunjin could only muster a weak smile, still disturbed by the boy standing only a few meters away from him. Seungmin on the other hand, could barely manage to peel his eyes away, completely stunned. He really should have seen this coming.

"You two should take Mi-Young and go to your room Seungmin, now that we've all said hello to one another." Mrs. Kim says, ushering the children away, "Try to all get along okay? We'll come get you when it's time to go." The mothers seemed to push the children off, not wanting to deal with their awkward teenage antics anymore, though they did pity Mi-Young who would have to deal with them for the rest of the night.

Seungmin cleared his throat, regaining consciousness. His eyes flickered around the room wanting and not wanting to stare at Hyunjin all at the same time. "Oh, yeah, uhm, I'll show you the way." He tried to smile but wasn't really able to, only wanting to look polite for the adults in the room. He started to walk off, Mi-Young quickly dragging her older brother behind her when he made no effort to follow.

Mi-Young said the first thing once they were all out of earshot from their parents, "So are you the same Seungmin from Jinnie's school? Is that why you're so awkward?"

Hyunjin lightly hit his sister on the head, "It doesn't matter." He scolded, "No asking questions if you know what's best for you." He said in a hushed voice. He wanted to go home, so, so badly.

"Yeah.. we are." Seungmin said plainly, answering despite how Hyunjin had blown the question off. Why lie? She wasn't asking anything beyond that.

"Ohhh..." Mi-Young nods, understanding, "Y'know Jinnie's friends are sayin-" Hyunjin slapped his hands over her mouth but quickly retracted it when he felt her lick bis palm. Gross. It was enough to stop her from finishing her sentence though, "Hey, why are you covering my mouth?"

"Anything my friends are saying is probably a lie. Don't repeat lies." Hyunjin warned and the girl finally got the memo to not talk about how they had all been shipping the two of them together for the past week or so. Disgusting.

Seungmin looked at them from the corner of his eye. He should have known Hwang Hyunjin would be the one, considering the last name and how he had just moved to Korea or whatever. All the facts lined up perfectly, he just didn't bother to think about them... and now Hyunjin, or Jinnie as his sister says, is standing inside of his bedroom.

Mi-Young quickly took a seat on the neatly made bed driving off into Lala land and peering all around the room. Hyunjin took the moment to drag Seungmin away, with a little more force than he intended. He swallowed hard, holding the boy by his shoulder tightly, "Listen," his eyes landed on his sister, making sure she was preoccupied, "I'm only gonna put up with you to make my parents happy, got it? None of this means we'll be even remotely close to friends."

"Obviously." Seungmin snapped, though he felt the last hope of Hyunjin ever seeing him as more than an annoying fly seep from his heart.

Hyunjin would always hate him.