IN BLOOM ; PARK GUNWOOK

three.

╰ IN BLOOM.

"I almost fell asleep in history," I mumble, setting down my lunch tray next to Yeonhee.

"It's the first week of school, how are you already sleep deprived?" Seori asks me, crossing her arms.

"I don't know, maybe ask the teachers who are giving me a million assignments?"

Seori sighs as she shakes her head and watches me as I weakly eat my miso soup. You could tell my condition just by the state of my appearance—the messy bun, the no-makeup look, the fatal combination of sweatpants and an over-sized hoodie, and the glasses all gave it away. I'm barely paying attention to the girls' chatter—I'm reading through my notes for an upcoming test—, but I perk my ears when I hear a certain phrase.

    "So... I'm going to Kum Junhyeon's house today," Yeonhee reveals.

That one sentence makes all three of us whip our heads to the youngest of our group in shock.

"You're doing what?"

    "Oh my god, relax. It's for the English project," Yeonhee explains.

    "Wait, Kum Junhyeon is your partner?" I ask, looking up from my notes.

    "Yeah?"

    "Why didn't you tell us?" Seori asks, looking slightly offended.

    Yeonhee just shrugs in return. "I didn't think it was important,"

    "Not important?" I raise a brow. "You literally got paired with one of the most popular boys at this school, and you didn't think it was important?"

    "Yeah, it's just as important as Navin getting paired with Park Gunwook," Haeyun adds.

    "Sorry for not telling you guys, but I didn't have the time to tell you. We really needed to find a time to meet for the mandatory worksheet," Yeonhee explains.

    Then it hits me. I slap my hand over my mouth and look at Yeonhee with wide eyes, "Oh my god, I totally forgot about that,"

    "Yeah? Well, you and Gunwook better do something because it's due tomorrow," Yeonhee reminds me and I rub my forehead in despair.

    "You could ask him right now," Seori suggests, her gaze looking past me. I turn my head toward the place she was looking at and I find a group of very familiar boys sitting at a table, chatting and laughing. I shake my head immediately as I turn back around to the girls.

"There's no way I'm walking up there,"

"Oh come on, Nav. It won't be that bad," Seori says, attempting to convince me.

"Yeah, what's so hard about it? Even your brother's over there," Haeyun adds.

    I look at them with doubt and I feel like jumping off a cliff just by the thought of walking up to that table. But I could tell the the girls were calling me pathetic through the look of their face and I give up. It's gotta be done at some point.

    "Ugh, fine. I'll go," I say before getting up from my seat. As I'm walking, I look back at my table and see the girls sending me gestures of encouragement. I shake my head at their useless support and drag my feet toward the chatty table.

The table quiets down as they sense a new presence in their area and one by one, they begin turning their heads toward me. I take a deep breath before placing my hand on their table, right between Gyuvin and Gunwook. I face Gunwook—who slowly turns their head to look up at me—and I quickly begin, "Hi. We need to meet for our project. After school. Today,"

    "Okay?" he raises a brow as if this matter didn't concern him whatsoever.

    "So..?" I ask, waiting for him to figure it out.

    It takes a few seconds of silence before Gunwook finally answers. "Fine. I know where your house is, now shoo,"

    He waves his hand as if I was an annoying fly and I scoff at his ridiculousness, "I never said my house was open,"

"Yeah, but Gyuvin did," Gunwook replies, munching on his food. At those words, I whip my head to the other side and glare at that brother of mine. I can't believe he voluntarily, personally invited Park Gunwook to our house.

He shrugs and says, "It was inevitable,"

I silently groan and throw my head back in frustration. I then look at Gunwook again and say before storming off, "It's your house next time,"

I return to my table with a much worse mood than before. I can tell that the girls can feel my fury through Seori's cautious tone when she asks me, "How did it go?"

    "I'm going to kill Kim Gyuvin,"

#

I found myself hurriedly cleaning my room; picking up the dirty clothes and stuffing them into my even dirtier closet, organizing the contents of my desk, making the bed, throwing away week-old snacks, and whatnot.

    I had been pushing back cleaning my room due to such a busy schedule, but here I was, cleaning it because Park Gunwook was coming over. Though he had been to my house quite a few times and even had slept over at our house a number of times, he had never inside my room.

    I could really careless about what he thought of me, but I didn't want to look like a klutz who lived in a filthy room. I couldn't have rumors of me spreading around school. I was the model student.

    Just when I had thrown the last piece of trash into the garbage can, I hear the door unlock and there I see two, unbelievably, tall males walk through the door. Their laughter ceases as soon as they notice me in the living room and I cross my arms.

    "Oh, look who it is, it's Little Vin," Gunwook says with a smile, approaching me.

    I roll my eyes. "Can we not with the nicknames?"

    "Why? I think it's pretty funny," Gyuvin laughs, placing a hand on top of my head. I immediately slap it away, irritated by the indirect reference to my smaller figure—which, by the way, measures to about a height of 172 centimeters and is over ten centimeters taller than the average height of a Korean woman.

    Although, compared to these two abnormal giants, I was as tiny as a rat.

    "Shut up, no one asked you," I reply, glaring at the boy. I avert my gaze back to the other tall boy and begin to lead the way to my room. "Let's just go already,"

    Gunwook bids Gyuvin farewell as if he was being taken away forever before following me into the room. I close the door behind him and I see him immediately throw his bag onto the floor and sit down on my bed. Gosh, the way this guy makes himself comfortable everywhere.

    "Did you bring the weekly worksheet?" I ask him, plopping down on my chair as I grab for my bag.

Then I hear a gasp. Gunwook looks at me with a shocked expression for a few seconds before he gives me a shy smile. "I forgot to bring it,"

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me,"

IN BLOOM.╯