critical beauty - hongseok

two ● hongseok

When I woke up, I was greeted by Jaehwa's upside-down face.

"Wake up, sleepyhead. We're going to be late for school," she said, smiling.

I found myself on her couch, a book of Shakespeare's completed works open face-down on my chest.

Jaehwa took her backpack from a hook near the door, saying offhandedly, "You know, you should probably sleep on your side. It's a great solution for snoring."

Ignoring that comment, I said, "I need to dash next door to grab some-"

Jaehwa threw a black turtleneck, white jeans, and a denim jacket at me. "You're lucky you're my older brother's size."

"Thanks." I changed my top, but when my hands went to the waistband of my worn-out pair blue jeans, Jaehwa interjected.

"Hey, um, j-just an idea, but you should probably change in the bathroom." She pointed, her face red as a tomato.

"Oh. Right." I put my hand on the back of my neck, flustered. When I came out, fully dressed, Jaehwa nodded her head, impressed.

"Not bad, Seok."

"That's what you're going to call me now?"

"Yep. Let's go." She slung her hand around my neck, having to stand on the tips of her toes. That's weird. She never does this.

●

When I slammed my locker door shut, I was confronted by Sooyun, who was one of the prettiest girls in school and someone I totally am not interested in.

"Hey Hongseok." She preened, trying to find the most "attractive" pose possible.

I huffed. I had told her so many times that I didn't see her that way, but I guess her ears only work when there's gossip involved. "Hey." I said, walking away.

"Wait!"

"No thanks." I called over my shoulder, and entered the AP history classroom, a couple minutes late.

"Mr. Yang, late as usual, I see." Ms. Soon, our teacher, said.

"Sorry, Ms. S." I apologized, giving her the Grin™ and taking a seat.

"Anyway, as I was saying," she turned around and clapped her hands. "Class, I have a very special project for you all that I'm very excited about! We're going to be creating our own countries! For this project, you'll need a partner, so go get one! I'll come around with your assignment papers."

Sounds fun. I tilted my head at Jaehwa, who sat across the classroom from me. She looked at me, then looked at Kino giving Shinwon a high five, then pressed her lips together and nodded. Jaehwa came and sat in the vacant seat next to me.

"Okay, so, first order of business. It says here that we need a form of government. What should it be?" She said all matter-of-factly.

"Some system of representative democracy should be the way to go. Most modern countries have it."

Jaehwa nodded. "Right. The next thing we need is a location. I feel like Europe is a good continent to be in."

"I... kind of want it to be in Asia."

Jaehwa furrowed her brow. "Why?"

"'Cause then it'll near home."

Jaehwa pinched the bridge of her nose, which she always did when she couldn't take someone's stupidity, usually mine. "Hongseok, this is a fictional country that we're supposed to be living in. Geographical location doesn't matter so much as which countries we're associating with."

"Fine. Europe it is." I replied, looking down, pretending to be upset. Jaehwa's usually very gullible.

"Hongseok, if you want, it could be in Asia..." She said, genuinely concerned.

I looked up, smiling. "Fell for it again."

She sighed harshly and crossed her arms. "Be serious."

"Sorry. But, in all seriousness, Europe's a good idea." I said, giving her an apologetic look.

The bell rang and I headed out, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. My next class was Choir. When I told my mom I wanted it as an elective, she was disappointed. "Why not something useful?" She had said. She wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer, like most Asian parents, and disapproved of my passion for music. I had to sneak out of the house for voice lessons (that I had signed up for without permission). Choir was the only time when I was allowed to sing, according to my mom.

The rest of the school day passed by quickly. On the walk home, I said to Jaehwa,

"Hey, so... I've been thinking..."

"Yeah?" She smiled up at me, making my heart skip a beat.

"Would you ever want to go on a date with me?"

She screwed up her lips, gazed downwards, and sighed. "I guess... someday... in the future?"

My jaw dropped. For the past six years, I've been asking variants of this question, and always got the same answer.

Were Jaehwa's feelings towards me changing?

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

A/N: No duh, Hongseok.

This chapter was shorter, but the Wattpad servers shut down while I was writing this and I had to completely change the ending. Moral of the story: Save after every huge chunk of writing!

QOTD: What's your favorite subject in school?