Phobia-Duty After School

Sixteen

The next day, Il-ha kept his eyes on Wang Tae-man. Every little thing he did before turned into him giving conscious looks toward Tae-man. He used to sum up the behavior of Tae-man to being Min—ha's childhood friend and forced himself to not be jealous over her guy best friend, but now it was all thrown away. He was a different status.

Throughout class, Il-ha caught Tae-man staring holes into Min-ha. He was talking to her, smiling, joking around with her. Every little thing he did with Min-ha was seen in such a different light. The way he held such admiration and envy in his eyes when he was staring at her. He stood close to her, towered over her and smiled with such sincerity. Il-ha stayed far away from Min-ha to avoid all of the talk, but he got to watch Tae-man touch, talk and joke around with Min-ha.

The worst part about Tae-man was that wherever Min-ha went, he followed behind. There was never a moment without the two talking and laughing together. There were so many folds and layers to their relationship, Il-ha would never be able to compare to him. Tae-man wasnt just a friend Il-ha could tell Min-ha he didnt like having around. They were known for their inseparability.

Every little thing Tae-man did pissed him off.

***

Dinner time came around for the group and the cafeteria was bustling with students eating their dull, flavorless, and sad looking dinners placed in trays. Everyone went through the lines and stuck to their classrooms religiously. Nobody really mingled and sat with other tables with foreign students.

"My hair's so greasy." Joon-hee complained as the two girls walked together through the lunch room. Min-ha nodded without any words, touching her bangs with a sigh. Her whole body felt severely greasy.

"Lets sit over here." Min-ha said, nodding her head to a prfect spot. That perfect spot was next to one person at the end of the table, near the wall. Il-ha was sitting across of Hee-rak with his back directed towards the two girls. Luckily, when there was military training, Il-ha and Min-ha were always paired together without fail. Their partners never really changed, so this led to Min-ha getting to spend one on one time with the boy she really liked.

"Hi ladies." Hee-rak smiled, looking at Il-ha with a big smile and a bob of his eyebrows. Min-ha sat next to Il-ha and Joon-hee walked around to sit beside Hee-rak.

"How are you guys today?" Min-ha asked, before Joon-hee could go on her complaining rant.

"Sore." Il-ha answered, striaghtening out his back and glancing down at Min-ha. They both smiled at one another for a short moment beofre Minn-ha tore away her eyes with a bit of an exhale through her nose. She did not want to blush in front of him. She was already a bit embarrassed all her make up was off at this point.

"When you guys with the challenges, i just hope you know its not fucking fair." Hee-rak sighed, throwing down his chopsticks on the tray. Today, their assignment was partnerwork on teams. They were challenged with aiming and Min-ha was a good distraction for Il-ha to take out a lot of the teams they were going against. The only team they lost to was Ha-ra and Yeong-ju. No one could win against Ha-ra.

"Youre just mad you cant win and youre one of the worst shooters in the class." Joon-hee scoffed and gave him a glare from the side of her eyes before rolling them and starting to eat her rice and watery kimchi.

"You didnt win either. You never even won once. You should fucking be thankful Jang-su is your fucking savior." He glared.

"How're you feeling?" Il-ha asked Min-0ha as the other two bickered back at one another.

"Im sore too. I want to take a long bath with candles and bubbles and stay in there forever." Min-ha smiled at the wistful dream.

"I want a good fucking decent meal that doesnt make me want to fucking gag and throw up." He shook his head, poking at the disgusting food. Min-ha nodded her head.