Faded // Bang Chan

Chapter 12 - Locker 376

Chan brushed past Jungsoo while heading to his usual place, the rooftop. He just wanted to clear his head and talk himself out of going back into that classroom and stopping Bo Ra from getting herself into trouble. Jungsoo was about to call Chan out on his abrupt behaviour but judging by Chan's troubled expression he chose against it.

Jungsoo being the person he was wanted to know the source of Chan's problems. Despite the bell ringing for the start of school both boys chose to ignore it and continued with their previous plans. Chan stormed up the stairs, taking two at a time to get to the roof whereas Jungsoo headed in the opposite direction to classroom 43 despite that not being his class.

He stood at the doorway to see nobody but Na Ri and Bo Ra inside sitting next to each other in silence. The two girls looked his way but neither greeted him. He took note of the tension between them and the bright red mark on the side of Na Ri's face and pieced parts of the situation together.

Jungsoo felt pleased with himself. His plan had worked well and now Bo Ra believed Na Ri had been the one to spread the rumour. He smirked before turning away and heading to his classroom. Now all he needed was for Na Ri to trust him.

The day was passing slowly for both Na Ri and Chan who were desperate to avoid other people for the same reason, glares. Na Ri had been on the receiving end of some pretty nasty comments and looks so when the time for lunch came she felt overjoyed that she'd signed up for study.

She placed her books in a neat pile on a table in the second last row near the window, right in front of Chan who only spared her a quick glance before dipping his head back into his English novel. She was quite surprised to see that Chan had actually turned up seeing how this morning went but something felt very different. He seemed to be ignoring her more than usual. She didn't think the kiss meant anything but he's acting as if it never happened. Na Ri hadn't expected Saturday's events to change much between them but she assumed they'd at least talk more freely at school and yet here he was disregarding her existence.

She shook away her thoughts and opened her science book to begin revision but halfway through the first page she felt a presence sit at the table beside her. She rolled her eyes the moment Jungsoo greeted her with his toothy grin.

"Well that's not very nice, now is it?" He teased her. "Look, I really just came here to study and I don't know what your problem is so please just leave me alone. If this is about the rumour then I really didn't spr-" Na Ri started to explain but Jungsoo smirked. "I know you didn't spread it. Silly girl, I did!" Jungsoo admitted nonchalantly with a small shrug of his shoulders.

"Then why the heck do people think I did it?" Na Ri interjected. Jungsoo could sense her patience was beginning to run dry so making a good impression now was vital. "I told them I heard it from you but I have good reasoning, I promise. I just can't tell you yet." He replied.

"How convincing!" She scoffed before returning to her book. "Just trust me, okay? Can you please just forget that you dislike me for a minute and think about why I'm even bothering to sit here attempting to talk to you while you push me away. I wouldn't do that for no damn reason now would I?" He explained and she took in his point.

"Why should I trust you? Why do you even need my trust?" Na Ri was sceptical of Jungsoo's motives. She wasn't entirely sure why she didn't like him but she always felt on edge in his presence. She felt as though Jungsoo was hiding something but she really didn't want to know what, being honest, she didn't actually care.

"Just stay away from Bo Ra. You're better off without her." He warned as the teacher monitoring study entered the room. She wanted to question him more on this but now wasn't the time. "Can you meet me after school?" She whispered to him and he nodded. "Wait for me at my locker." She instructed earning an eye roll from Chan who had been listening in. He found their constant chatting to be really irritating but he couldn't block it out. He felt the need to know what they were discussing and couldn't deny that he was annoyed they were making plans together. Chan really despised Jungsoo who seemed to take everything that ever meant anything to him.