Confused | Hwang Hyunjin

chapter 18

Nori's POV:

I'm in my kitchen eating breakfast before I head out to walk to school. I remembered what happened yesterday and I promised to keep my word. It shouldn't be that hard anyways, to ignore Hyunjin. I'm about to take a spoonful of cereal when my mom peeks out the window, "Honey, there's a boy waiting outside our door. Do you know him?" I respond, "Oh, uh, I think it's just some guy from my school. He'll leave soon, don't worry."

Once my mom left the window, I walked to it and peeked out to see who it is. It's Hyunjin. He's sitting down on my front porch steps, waiting for me to come outside. I silently curse to myself and close the curtain. I grab my bag and say bye to my mom. I put my shoes on and walk to the backyard door. I escape the backyard and try running across the front of my house so Hyunjin doesn't see me. I start sprinting across the street until my house isn't in my sight anymore. I sigh to myself and walk slower to school.

I'm sitting in math, waiting for the teacher to arrive. As I'm sitting down on my chair, I can tell that Hyunjin walked in by his voice as he greeted his friends. He took his seat behind me and tapped my shoulder. I didn't turn around, so he leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear, "Where were you this morning? I was outside your house but you didn't come out." I was thinking about what to do, if I should just ignore him or not, but thankfully the teacher came just in time. Hyunjin sits back in his chair and I let out a sigh. It feels like I've been holding my breath in this whole time.

When Mrs. Jun left us to do something, Hyunjin leaned closer to me again, "Hey, are you gonna talk to me?" I ignore his question and continue writing on my workbook. He called my name a few times, but I still didn't answer. He then started hitting my shoulder with his pencil. To be honest, nothing he did really bothered me. I just kept working and he eventually stopped.

Math eventually finished and I piled all my books and stood up to leave. I left the classroom and walked through the hallway to get to my locker. I suddenly felt a hand strongly grab my wrist, making me stumble and turn around. "Nori, is there something bothering you? Are you mad at me?" Hyunjin complained while still gripping onto my wrist. "Hyunjin, I don't wanna talk to you right now." I try walking away from him, but he just pulls me back towards him again, "Can we just talk it out? It's never gonna get better if you stay quiet about it. Please, Nori." I slide his hand off my wrist, "Hyunjin, just go. I don't have time for this." I finally am able to walk away from him and get to my locker.

I really don't know how I'm going to get through biology. He's definitely going to start nagging me even more. Once I finish putting my math books back and getting my biology ones, I close my locker and walk to biology.

I'm the first one in the classroom and I heavily sigh as I put down my books and sit down on my seat. I put my head down and look out the window until the bell rang. The trees moved from side to side as the wind heavily went through them, a class playing soccer on the field, and students sitting outside on the picnic tables while chatting. I'm suddenly interrupted as a figure blocks my view, making it unable for me to look out the window. I put my head up and see Hyunjin sitting beside me. He's quiet. Usually, he greets me with a smile or a little shove to start the class. But today, nothing. He probably took our last conversation as a sign to just stay away from me.

Today, Mrs. Lee assigned us independent work. I'm so relieved. The class was quiet and everyone was focusing on their work, and so was I. I had a random thought of food because I didn't eat enough breakfast this morning. Suddenly, my stomach rumbled. I scrunched my face in embarrassment and slowly turned around to check if anyone noticed. Thankfully, no one seemed to. I quickly got back to my work, but that didn't stop my stomach from taking another move. It was even louder this time.

It started hurting, so I dropped my pencil and put pressure on my stomach with my arms. It just kept going and going. At this point, I'm pretty sure Hyunjin heard every rumble. I notice him taking something out of his bag on the floor beside him. He pulls out a granola bar. Oh, how I want to grab it out of his hand and eat it so bad right now. Just thirty more minutes to bare and I can run to the cafeteria.

As I'm about to pick up my pencil to continue working, Hyunjin slides the granola bar over to me. I take a quick glance at him and think about saying thank you, but I hold back. I open the granola bar and quietly snack on it, trying not to get caught by the teacher.