The Real Us

. chapter 5 .

A few weeks later, a group of students sat in class 2, listening to Yuri go on and on about how excited she was for their school trip for the millionth time. Although more than half of them weren't even in class 2, they still liked to spend time there during breaks. "I know right? I've never been to Jeju-do before," Ni-ki, another Japanese first year exclaimed in response to Yuri's excitement.

As the two squealed and joked about the upcoming trip, Taeryoung was preoccupied trying to finish a chemistry assignment before the bell rang. She had fallen asleep on accident the night before and forgotten to do the assignment.

As she ran her hands through her hair in frustration she heard a voice, "Do you need help with that?" Jake, who was also a second year student, scooted his chair behind her. "I'm good at chemistry if you want me to explain."

The girl sighed and nodded, handing the pen she was holding to the boy. As he explained the topic, (which she still didn't understand at all), the girl was suddenly pulled off her chair by her wrist.

Standing there, holding the girl's wrist, was Park Sunghoon, who was also one of Jake's friends. However, he had a slight frustration apparent on his face as he pursed his lips, making his dimples show a bit. "Hey, what do you think you're-"

Taeryoung's voice was cut off by Jake who failed to keep his laughter in seeing Sunghoon's jealous face. It was weird seeing him jealous like this, especially because Jake (along with Hyejin, Nayoung, and Jay) knew that the relationship was all fake.

Startled by the entire situation, Jungwon, who had been silently scrolling on his phone peeked up to see his friend gripping a poor girl's wrist and his other friends either laughing or just looking confused.

Sunghoon was honestly a little surprised with his own actions and he felt the tips of his ears turning red as the girl he was holding by the wrist tilted her head up at him, clearly lost as to what he was doing.

"I need to talk to her," the male mumbled as he pulled her behind him out of the class.

"Hey! what are you doing?" The girl finally managed to free her hand from the boy's extremely strong grip. "Do you have something to say to me?" Her voice was sharp and her fox eyes narrowed at the male. This was the first time she had sounded actually annoyed at him.

The two looked at each other in a tense silence before the boy finally spoke.

"Nevermind." He broke eye contact and ruffled his black hair. The girl could tell he was a bit flustered. Her expression softened but her voice remained stern. "If you have nothing to say, I'm leaving."

She turned and left the male standing, frozen and stunned. He stood thinking about what had just happened. Had he been jealous?

He bit his lip and furrowed his brows. It's all fake. He thought to himself.

-

As the bell rang, signifying lunch break had begun, Taeryoung was still a bit upset with what had happened that morning. What was his problem? She thought as she aggressively shoved her things into her bag.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain at the tip of her finger. A paper cut. Great. As if this day couldn't get any worse. She thought while she stared intently at the wound as if she believed it would go away if she stared hard enough. On top of all of the already pent up frustration she had, the girl abruptly remembered what today was. How could she forget?

"Earth to Taer?" The girl's angry trance was broken by her friend's voice. Nayoung waved her hand in front of her friend's face. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." The girl clearly wasn't in the mood, so Nayoung informed her that she and the other girls were going to go ahead to the square, where they usually ate their lunch.

Taeryoung hung her bag on her shoulder and walked to the only place she could clear her mind from her troubles. The rooftop.

She pushed the door to the rooftop open and peeked her head out, checking if any other students were present. Seeing nobody, she walked towards the small makeshift garden one of the school clubs had grown and sat on one of the two benches beside it.