BETWEEN US || STRAY KID'S HWANG HYUNJIN

06

hyunjin limped his way into class with the rest behind him.

"i still can't believe hyunjin did that!" woojin said, the rest agreeing with him.

"i just felt bad, okay?" hyunjin regretted telling them what he said to aeri yesterday.. he should have seen this coming.

"hey, look!" jeongin pointed at the food on his table.

the girl obviously bought a little more snacks for him today than usual.

felix rushed to his desk and held up a chocolate bar happily, "i'm taking this!"

hyunjin walked over to him, snatching the chocolate back and sitting down. "they're for me."

"woah, calm down. i'm sorry.. you usually don't want them so i thought.." felix backed away, putting his arms up in surrender and pouting.

jisung took the post-it aeri stuck on the desk. changbin took a peek at the note, "she has nice handwriting."

"good morning hyunjin! don't throw the food away again okay? they'll come in handy when you get hungry in the middle of lessons. i hope you'll have a great day today. smiley face. from j.a, jung aeri." jisung read out loud in a girly voice.

"her voice doesn't sound like that." hyunjin stated, taking the note from jisung and putting it in his pocket.

seungmin nodded, agreeing with hyunjin.

hyunjin tore open the carton of strawberry milk aeri bought and drank it all in a gulp.

"what is with this sudden change? i'm not used to this!" minho jumped around excitedly at hyunjin's new attitude towards aeri.

"what did aeri do to our jinnie?" chan asked and the boys started acting all dramatic.

hyunjin groaned, crushing the carton and throwing it in chan's face.

"hey!"

**
[AERI'S POV]

"can we sit here?" it was seungmin who asked us this time.

"sure." i replied, moving a little to give them more space to sit. they had 9 people so we had to split into two tables.

woojin, minho, jeongin changbin and felix went to another table beside us.

hyunjin sat across me while seungmin sat beside me.

chan and yoojung sat beside each other beside hyunjin, and jisung sat beside seungmin.

"how's your knee?" i asked hyunjin.

"it's fine." he replied before continuing to eat.

"he's lying, he can't even walk properly!" jisung exposed hyunjin, causing hyunjin to try and kick jisung's leg under the table, but he ended up accidentally kicking seungmin.

seungmin held onto his leg in pain.

"are you ok?" i pat seungmin's back. he did an 'ok' hand gesture to me but his face clearly showed he was still in pain.

"sorry, that was an accident." hyunjin apologized while jisung stuck out his tongue at hyunjin.

kids, i swear.

how hard did hyunjin even kick?

"do you need me to get anything that will make you feel better? i can go get an ice pack or something? if that will help?" i offered.

"y-you don't have to get anything, you can just.." he pointed at his cheek with his index finger, tilting his cheek towards me slightly.

what was he doing?

"what?"

"you can just give me a kiss on my cheek, i will instantly feel better." he winked at me, earning him another kick from both hyunjin and i.

"owww!! i was just joking!"

"i think i'll need to protect my lips from seungmin from now onwards, he's a pervert." i jokingly covered my lips with my hands, laughing.

seungmin played along, puckering his lips in my face. "don't you want a taste of these lips?"

"no, i don't."

yoojung covered her lips too after seeing seungmin acting like that. "these boys are dangerous."

"stop it." hyunjin said, slapping seungmin's lips with two fingers before returning his food tray and walking out of the cafeteria.

"i'll go too! bye!" i took my tray and returned it in a hurry before trying to find hyunjin.

i saw him walking to his classroom.

"boo!" i tried scaring him but he didn't even flinch a bit, he just turned around to look at me before walking into his class and going to his seat.

well, plan failed.

"why are you following me?"

"i don't know? i didn't want you to be alone while everyone else was eating." i shrugged, sitting beside him at his seat.

there was no one in class yet, everyone was probably still eating.

"i like being alone. you're just being a nuisance now." he laid his head on his table, plugging in his earphones.

i ignored his comment and laid my head on the table too, admiring his facial features.

he had this mole under his left eye which was extremely adorable, a cute nose and plump lips.

i took one side of his earphone out of his ear, putting it into my ear.

he opened his eyes, we were now facing each other.

we ended up staring at each other without breaking the eye contact even once.

'you are' by got7 started playing.

hyunjin and i have similar taste in music, i like got7 and their songs too.

my heart started beating faster and faster, i felt butterflies in my stomach.

'i don't like him, i just want to see him happy, right?'

hyunjin shifted his gaze to my lips, staring at them.

"is there something on my mouth?" i asked quietly, wiping my lips with the back of my hand.

he quickly shook his head, slowly getting red.

he took his earphone out of my ear and turned his head the other way, not facing me anymore.

"you should really cover your lips with a mask or something whenever you're alone with a guy."

huh?

"what do you mean?" i sat up.

"nothing."

what is he saying?