second lead. | 정원

chapter 27.

xxvii.

"I'm not really interested in girls," Sangwon spoke, looking at his friends around him. "Wait, that sounded wrong out of context—"

The room door slammed open, revealing a group of boys. They were the school heartthrobs, labeled by the students themselves. Their leader, Zen, came in with his three friends trailing behind him. He was well known because of his visuals and also because he was team captain of the boy's volleyball team, even went to nationals once.

The boy casually settled down on the spot beside Nam Kitae, "What's this? You guys playing a game without me?" Without saying another word, Zen snatched the paper from Hamin's grip and scanned the contents. "Ah, you're ranking girls you have crushes on? Half of them are my exes, haha."

Another fact about Zen was that he was a player. The male couldn't seem to stick with one girl for so long, always changing every month. From all the knowledge Jungwon knew, he had dated half of the girls at school already.

"If I were to pick, I'd probably choose that one girl from class two. What was her name again?" Zen questioned himself while snapping his fingers, trying to remember the person's name that was buried somewhere in his mind.

"Which one?" One of his friends queried.

"The girl with long dark brown hair. She has a pretty nose and cute cheeks. About 164 centimeters I think? I heard she's a straight-A student. OH, SHE'S RELATED TO OUR CHEM TEACHER!" Zen exclaimed, hitting a jackpot as he looked at his buddy expectantly. "Jeon... Jeon Minhee? Miya? Minha?"

"Jeon Mira?"

"Yes her!" Zen clapped loudly in victory and nodded his head. "Jeon Mira. I choose her just because I've never dated her before and she caught my eyes. Maybe I could finally have a relationship that will last for more than a month," He joked.

Meanwhile, Yang Jungwon had his lips pursed in annoyance when Mira's name was spoken of. It stirred something inside him and he felt bothered that she had caught the school heartthrob's attention unknowingly. The boy looked down at his lap, pulling his sleeves lower out of habit, remaining silent.

"Mira?" Kitae frowned. "I heard she has a boyfriend."

"What?!" Zen shouted in disbelief and pulled on the male's collar, "Don't lie to me. She doesn't have a boyfriend. How the heck am I supposed to date her if she's taken already??"

It was true that Zen was a player/playboy, but he had sworn to not go for people who were taken. He would always target the single ones because he believed stealing someone away from their partners and ruining their relationship would cause more problems and Zen wasn't having any of that.

"I don't know, bro. I just heard Heeyoung talking about it with her friends on the bus," Kitae raised his hands in surrender, earning another tug of his collar. "Not sure if it's true."

The rest of the boys were surprised at the newfound info. Jungwon watched with wide eyes as he wondered how Heeyoung knew about this. He swallowed the lump in his throat and caught Ni-ki's confused stare. It was as if the younger boy was saying, 'It's you, right? It can't be anyone else.'

Oh, how Jungwon wished that was what the rest of the students are thinking. He knew Mira was often shipped by a lot of guys she interacted with even though it was for school purposes. It sort of made Jungwon insecure until he reminded himself that he was the only other boy Mira was closest with, apart from Sunoo.

Zen scoffed loudly. "Okay then. So who's this so-called boyfriend of hers?"

"Dunno."

"You're useless," He pushed Kitae away and supported his body with his arm. He had his jaw clenched as he started listing Mira's possible boyfriends inside his head. "Bet I would look so much better with her than whoever her boyfriend is," Zen enunciated the word as he rolled his eyes.

"Hold on. Where did Heeyoung hear this from?" Kim Sunoo spoke up. His eyebrows furrowed and confusion was etched all over his face. "Not like I'm against it. Mira is my best friend but she didn't tell me about this. For all we know Heeyoung could be creating rumors, no?"

"Heeyoung would never do that," Zen defended.

"She's capable of creating fake news. Don't you know who she is? I thought you dated her before?" Sunoo protested, sassily lifting a brow up. Ni-ki nodded his head to support his best friend.

Zen huffed, "We did date but like I said, it's not serious. She isn't the type of person to make false rumors. Sure, she's bossy and gossiped a lot but she never actually brought someone's mental health down."

Jungwon bit his lip at the drama happening in front of him, feeling frustrated. "That's enough, guys."

Zen scoffed and stood up, "Whatever. I'm leaving." As the boy slid the door open and stepped out of the room, he suddenly let out a high-pitched scream upon seeing the person standing before him. His bad-boy aura immediately going down the drain.

"H-hey, what are you doing here?" Zen stammered, leaning against the doorway cooly to shrug off the embarrassment he felt. His expression smoldered to impress the person infront of him. Mira only stared at him quietly before looking over his shoulder towards the boys who still formed a circle on the floor.

"Is Yang Jungwon here?" Mira asked.

The said boy instantly looked up upon hearing his name being called by the familiar voice. He met eyes with Mira and raised his eyebrows in question.

"I need to talk to you," She nudged her head outside, completely ignoring Zen who was trying his best to get her attention.

"Aye girl, come on now. Why are you ignoring the most handsome guy at school, huh? Talk to me babygi—" Mira walked away, leaving Zen speechless as he stared at her back with a dropped jaw. "Playing hard to get I see. Definitely my type."

a/n; let me know your thoughts about this chapter! do drop some ideas on what you want to happen next and I might consider it <3