I Like You || kyy || completed ||

Chapter 13

"Schedule." Hongseol thrust the flimsy piece of paper into my hands, her lips curved slightly at the edges. I glanced over at her, before sighing and unfolding the slightly crumpled paper to exam what my schedule for the rest of the school year would be. But of course, instead of it being in neatly printed English, like the schedule I would have been handed back home, but neatly printed Korean instead.

I let out a soft sigh in irritation before gripping the edges of the paper in my hand. "I can't read this," I explained when I tried to hand the paper back to Hongseol. Her lips pursed in confusion, but she still took the paper from me.

She looked over the paper, her eyes flickering as she lead the printed characters, until her eyes lit up and her lips, glossed slightly with a light sheen of lip gloss, lifted in a smile. "Same as mine!" She exclaimed, gesturing quickly between the both of us, as if I didn't understand the broken English that she was speaking.

"Oh okay," I smiled and nodded in understanding, Hongseol's shoulders slumping in relief that I understood, before grabbing my wrist, similar to how she did yesterday, and pulled me towards the glass doors that would lead us inside, and out of the August heat.

"Hey. Hey you." A rise in voices, many footsteps, and a sharp jerk on my arm had me stumbling backwards, a loud cry of surprise slipping from my lips. I managed to regain my footing, turning quickly on my heel to stare at the person who yanked me from Hongseol's side. The ticket booth girl. She had been a fleeting memory, but the sight of her eyes, the ones that had flickered so quickly from me to the group of boys that had surrounded me, were now steady, her dark, chocolate eyes, were now judgmental and filled with hate.

"What-" I struggled to stop the racing of my heart, distracting my shaky hands by fixing my rumpled uniform, "What do you want?"

"You. I saw you."

I felt my chest tighten in panic as stragglers, people missing class, arriving late, gathered around the ticket booth girl, her entourage, and me. I tried to keep my gaze from faltering, tried to keep it from slipping over to the many unknown faces that had gathered. "Where?" I muttered, my voice not sounding nearly as strong as I would have liked, "Where did you see me?"

"At zoo," The girl was gaining confidence from my mellow attitude, "I saw you with Got7." A small rise in noise from the group of people gathered, and I couldn't help the scoff that I had been holding back.

"Seriously? So what? I could be related to one of them for all you know!" The girl stepped back at the outburst, her eyes widening , and the nervousness that had been clouding her deep brown eyes on the day of the zoo trip, returned, if only for a second. "You don't know anything about me."

"Are you dating one of them?" The question came so suddenly, so left field, that I felt my face heat up.

"What?" The one word, some how managed to slip past my lips in a jumbled mess. They must have taken that as a sign of conformation, because most of the younger looking girls' bodies tensed and their loud, shrill voices filled the air.

"You are."

"Which one?"

"You don't deserve them."

These people didn't even know me. Had no proof of the words they were saying. Yet they were taking what this girl, this insignificant girl that had no authority to back her words, and running with it. I wasn't sure what to do. I wanted to yell, wanted to scream at them and tell them that they sounded stupid, but I wasn't given the chance.

Thankfully, by now, Hongseol had shoved her way through the small, yet closely packed girls, to me. She grabbed ahold of my upper arm, and pulled me through the group of girls, many of them attempting to grab ahold of me, to keep me back and continue their useless slander.