Treat You Better - Park Jeongwoo

VII

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chapter 6
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Jeongwoo drove Yeri to university. Hewon told them her boyfriend would be picking her up.

"I didn't know Hewon had a boyfriend." Yeri muttered.
"I didn't know my brother had a boyfriend either." Jeongwoo said.

"Well I knew about your brother." Yeri admitted.
"Who is it? Jihoon doesn't tell me much."

"It's that blonde guy who works at the cafe near our uni." Yeri told him.
"What's his name?" Jeongwoo asked.
"It's Choi Hyunsuk."

"Do you want coffee Yeri?" Jeongwoo asked, pulling up into the car parking in front of the cafe.
"Don't kill him. He's a nice guy." Yeri laughed, getting out of the car.

"Hi Yeri!" The blonde answered.

His appearance was quite striking to Jeongwoo. He had eyebrow and lip piercings. His clothes were baggy and stylish with a lot of accesories.

"Hi Hyunsuk!" Yeri answered.

Hyunsuk hesitated a bit before greeting Jeongwoo. "Hi." He said, careful not to mention his name.

Jeongwoo knew that Hyunsuk knew him.
"So..." Jeongwoo said, trying to be intimidating. Yeri kicked him on his shin, making him stand up straight.

"Two hazelnut lattes to go please." Yeri asked politely.
"On the house." Hyunsuk smiled.

"Thanks Hyunsuk. Have a great day." Yeri told him, taking her hazelnut latte.
"Jeongwoo!" She whispered when she realised Jeongwoo had been staring at the poor man for way too long, intimidating him.

"So..." Jeongwoo began.
"You're Jihoon's brother right?" Hyunsuk asked.

Yeri shit Hyunsuk an apologetic look.
"And you are?" the tallest one asked.

"His boyfriend." Hyunsuk muttered without hesitation.

"Jeongwoo!" Jihoon called as he entered the cafe. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

Jeongwoo opened his mouth to answer but what happened next kept his mouth hanging open.

Jihoon walked beside the counter and pulled Hyunsuk closer, kissing him passionately.

"Let's give them alone time... Let's go Jeongwoo." Yeri said  grabbing his hand and pulling him out.

She giggled, seating Jeongwoo in the passenger seat, as he still looked shocked. Too shocked to drive.

"You look like you've seen a ghost Jeongwoo." Yeri laughed, driving.

"Well...Atleast they're happy." Jeongwoo mumbled.
"Try the latte." Yeri urged him.

'Hazelnut." Jeongwoo observed. He took a sip. And another. And another till half the latte was gone.

"Looks like you'll be seeing more of Hyunsuk now." Yeri observed.
"For this latte? Yes." Jeongwoo answered.

Yeri felt comfortable around Jeongwoo. He didn't being up last night's kiss even though he'd been dying to talk about it. He wanted to give her some time to think about it before asking her out.

Over the next few days, Jeongwoo gave Yeri rides to school, they sat together during classes and lunch, laughing endlessly. There had been so much Yeri and Jeongwoo had been missing on.

They were the perfect best friends. Hewon claimed she'd never seen Yeri that happy before.

But one guy wasn't happy. Haruto didn't like to see Yeri that happy. He wanted to take it away from her. He felt that Yeri couldn't be happier without him.

He stopped Jeongwoo in the middle of the hallway. "You know she's mine. Right?" Haruto asked in his ear.

"You're so full of yourself. Move." Jeongwoo said, pushing him aside.

"Man! Meet me at the rooftop at midnight today if you want Yeri." Haruto challenged as a few bystanders cheered.

"Come if you wanna lose." Jeongwoo muttered.

***

Yeri was falling asleep when she got a call from Jeongwoo. "I'm standing outside." Jeongwoo said as Heri ran outside her room and quickly opened the door.

"Jeongwoo?!" She said in disbelief. "What the fuck just happened to you?"

"Nothing..." Jeongwoo mumbled. "Do you have ice?" He asked.

"Yeah wait... I have an ice pack in the freezer..."
The brunette gave him the ice pack as he put it on his eye to prevent it from turning black the next day.

"What did you get yourself into Jeongwoo?" Yeri asked as she bought a few bandages and ointment.

"Nothing Yeri." Jeongwoo answered.
"Uou can't just show up at my house, beaten and say that it was nothing!" Yeri said.

"Well Jihoon would kill me if I had shown up at my house like this." Jeongwoo said.

"It's not gonna be hard to tell from the bruises tomorrow!" Yeri told him.

Yeri carefully applied ointment on his open wounds as he but his lip to avoid the pain. "Don't bite your lip. Wait." Heri told him.

She got up and bought him a caramel toffee and put it in his mouth. "That'll distract you from the pain." She muttered.

After bandaging him up, Yeri packed up the stuff. "There's nothing I can do for that eye of yours." Yeri said. "Take the ice pack off...Let me see how bad it is."

"It's not that bad Jeongwoo. I don't think it'll turn black tomorrow. It'll be a little red tomorrow but it should go away." Yeri said.

"How do you know all this?" Jeongwoo asked.
"Personal experience. I'm glad I don't have to experience any of that anymore." Yeri said.

"Oh." Jeongwoo said, realising the person who had beat him up had hurt her too, that she was familiar to his wounds.

"Yeri." Jeongwoo called slowly.
"Hmm?" She hummed, getting him Red Ginseng Tea.

"This'll help in recovery." She handed him the tea, sitting beside him on the couch.

"Thanks..." Jeongwoo said taking a sip and almost throwing up.
"Drink up." Yeri told him, giggling.

"It's terrible." Jeongwoo mumbled.
"I know. Now drink up." Yeri told him sternly as he gulped the tea quickly.

"Yeri, can I sleepover tonight?" Jeongwoo asked, regretting his choice of words. "Jihoon will slaughter me if I show up home like this."

"Yeah sure..." Yeri said. "But you'll have to face him tomorrow." Yeri told him.

"Yeah." Jeongwoo mumbled, already imagining Jihoon being disappointed.

"In my defence..." Jeongwoo hiccuped, "...The other guy looked way worse."

"Now sleep." Yeri told, bringing a blanket from inside.
"The couch is too small for me." Jeongwoo said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Then you sleep in my room." Yeri offered. "I'll sleep with Hewon. She has a huge bed for no reason." Yeri rolled her eyes, still in a good mood.

"Good night." Jeongwoo told her, before hitting the soft bed and falling fast asleep.

"Cute." Yeri mumbled before closing the door.