before & after ‣ 엔하이픈

010 ; present

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AERI

Aeri walks inside the long hallways of her school, playing with the ends of her hair as she stride forward while all eyes continued to watch her. 

For that specific morning, Sunghoon had made the best decision of leaving her alone because when she got out of her house, no pesky car was waiting around the corner to ambush her and pressure her into coming in. Well, she was actually unsure why he hadn't showed up but there was a big chance that he's still asleep. Either way, whatever could've positively happened to her neighbor greatly benefited her.

But Aeri should've known better than to expect having such a peaceful morning because as she was just about to enter her room and sit beside Haesu and Seeun, who were already there, she felt a tug on her arm, causing her to spin around and face the the person who was responsible of disrupting her peace. Her first guess would've been Sunghoon because he was the only one who would be bold enough to disrupt her peace and better yet, do it in a public space just so she'd be more annoyed. However, at those moments, she felt another kind of surprise, something so irrational and near the feeling of panic.

Jake stood in all his glory, looking at the girl with the same eyes that got her down in the knees during the past summer. But what made this encounter all the more wrong for her is the fact that they were standing and talking way too close in a public space when they swore to each other that whatever they had stays between them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Aeri grits her teeth as she pulls away her wrist from his hold. "You know people are watching."

Jake takes a brief look at his surrounding before his gaze returned to her. "Look, I'm sorry, Aeri, for what happened last week. I understand how you must've felt seeing us but it was really nothing. I was just trying to clear some things up with her, but that was it. I'm sorry for how I handled it and for how I spoke to you."

As lovely as the gesture and his words were, the fact remains that they were settling something that should've been done in private, out in the public. Even while she merely stood there, unable to utter even a single word, she could feel the gazes even sharper as ever, like tiny needles poking at her skin. She wanted nothing more but to get away from the attention she was getting, to go home and hide herself until they have completely forgotten how the queen bee and the most famous jock in their school was found speaking outside her classroom. 

"Why are you doing this in public, Jake?" That was the first thing she says. "Let's talk about this later." She turns her back on him and took one glance at the doorway of her classroom just behind her but the first set of eyes she captures was Bora, whose gaze has probably been watching them since the moment he grabbed her wrist and spun her around. 

"Wait, Aeri—" Jake stops Aeri before she could go in for the second time around. "I-I actually don't know why I'm doing this out in the open, I just can't handle the thought of having you angry with me. We fought back then but we never fought like this."

Aeri sighed, trying her best not to gaze over his shoulder, where she could see two students looking over at them, or at the classroom behind her, where she was sure her classmates were all watching. She knew she had to forgive him, otherwise this theatric would continue on and she would forever be doomed with the title of queen bee. And before she knew it, everyone around her would find out that the perfect girl they all seemed to envy was nothing more but a conman sired from a family so complicated her brother had to take the reins just to fix it all. She never liked being queen bee, but that didn't mean she wanted her reality to be displayed all around.