CHAOS - Park Seonghwa

Chapter 12

~ two weeks later ~

He had just exited his lecture hall after 2 hours and his phone rang.

"Hello?" he asked, exhaustion lacing his voice.

"I'm in the parking lot. Let's go out to eat. Everyone's here." Hongjoong said on the other side and as if on cue, his stomach grumbled in hunger.

"Will be there in 5" he said and increased his pace to go there faster. He saw his friends as soon as he exited the building in the parking lot and said "let's go."

San looked at him with an apologetic expression. "I have Soojung's stuff with me. Mind if we wait for 10 or 15 minutes?" Seonghwa nodded, wondering where she was. He hadn't seen her since the morning. He won't lie, he missed her.

They had gotten rather close in the past two weeks. There had been nights where they talked on phone till sunrise and he would go to lectures in the morning half-dead whereas she would come after lunch. They had gotten into the habit of getting coffee in the evening almost daily together, sometimes with someone else too, but mostly just those two. Even San had accepted that there was something going on but that did not stopped his whining of being left alone and bestfriend-less. Because of this they had gone to club thrice in the past two weeks, which resulted in them staying mostly sober and talking in the club and then a sleepover at her place.

Even her place has become more home-ly now after becoming an unofficial hanging spot for them. They would complete assignments (with her being the most helpful, no shit she was the highest scorer) and have dinner there (sometimes takeouts, sometimes Seonghwa and Soojung cooking for others) and they had started dropping little things here and there to make it more of a home since they would almost hangout there daily.

She still had been high key flirting with him and he would rarely respond, usually giving an eye roll with laughing or ignoring her totally but no other occasion had come like last time at the alley behind the club where they almost kissed. That was one thing that maybe he was sad about.

"Where is she?" he finally asked San, out of his thoughts now.

"Just uhh.. Here or there I guess." San spoke rather nervously which was a bit awkward.

"Okay?" he said, not fully convinced.

He saw San looking someplace behind him and turned around to see Soojung coming from the old building which was rarely used. He was about to wave at her when he saw a guy coming up from behind her, patting his hair, looking positively disheveled. He tried to touch her who swatted his hand away and waved at them and started walking toward them.

As she came closer, he could see her hair weren't particularly tamed either but which would not be apparent to someone who didn't knew her as well as he did. She spoke to everyone and then came closer to him and San.

"Hey pretty boy." she spoke to him, taking her stuff from San and looking at him, head to toe.

"Nice pants!" She spoke looking at the skinny black jeans he was wearing and smirked at him.

He cleaned the little bit of smudged lipstick below her lower lip and she looked at him in surprise. If she noticed how stiff he looked, she didn't comment on it.

"Where are you all going?" she asked Seonghwa who just looked away.

"Lunch." San spoke from beside him, fully aware of the sensitivity of the situation at hand. She nodded at him and spoke to Seonghwa again, "I have lectures. I'll see you in the evening?" he nodded at her and then crossed her to go to Hongjoong.

He remembered what his bestfriend had said to him the morning she dropped them off at his after they were drunk and crashed at hers for the first time. "Hwa, be careful. I know there's something going on between you two and sooner or later you're gonna realize it too. But choose soon what you want. Because if you take too long and she leaves, it'll only hurt you."

He felt as if his words were coming to life now. How could she do whatever she did with the guy and then casually ask him for coffee just after what, 10 minutes? It was frustrating.

He saw her going towards the new building and wondered why he agreed for the coffee when she apparently has lost her interest in him.

He sighed and got in the car with the others to grab lunch.

She entered the lecture hall and went towards the back and took a seat. She wished Seonghwa hadn't seen her after what she did. But what can she do? She wasn't sure if he was even interested and more importantly, this was who she was. Even if she had gotten a bit distracted for a while. 'And anyway, it's not like we are dating!' she internally convinced herself.

Suddenly her phone rang, indicating a text.

'You should not have done that.' It was from San. She sighed and decided to focus on the lecture.

Hongjoong dropped Seonghwa back to university gates since he was the only one who had an afternoon lecture. He had seen what happened and he wanted to talk to him as well, but seeing how upset he already looked, Hongjoong decided not to talk to him, at least today.

Seonghwa decided to sit on the bench outside his lecture hall since he was early and the previous lecture was still going on. He knew Soojung was in and he wasn't in a mood to see her again. He sighed and took out his phone, ready to plug in earphone when someone sat down beside him with a "hey".

He looked warily at Hyejung and replied with a "what"

She was smirking and he already was having a bad day, he didn't need her too.

"I saw you guys in the parking lot."

He just stared at her. She sighed and decided to go on, "she's never gonna be loyal to you Seonghwa. I may have cheated on you and you may hate me all you want, but I have the best interest for you when I say that leave her. He wasn't the first guy she fucked since she started seeing you."

He looked coldly at her, "we are not seeing each other."

"Don't go around moping then since you caught her." She spoke swiftly as well and when the students started coming out from the lecture hall, they both stood up and saw as Soojung came out of the lecture hall, looking round and waving at him, then narrowing her eyes at Hyejung. It was her cue to leave, and that she did, but she did left a doubt in his head. It wasn't that hard to believe that that guy might not be the first guy in the past three weeks. He had heard enough of her and San's shenanigans to know she sleeps around a lot. So there might be some substance in what Hyejung said. But he was too tired. He didn't return her wave and went past her into the hall, ignoring her calling his name.

She stared at his back as he went inside, ignoring her calls. She also saw Hyejung going in as well, not before giving her a smirk.

Soon she got a text. 'I can't make it to coffee today.' No sorry, no nothing. She felt numb.

'Let's go out tonight' she messaged San.

'Everyone agreed. Let's go.' San replied in a while. She groaned. Everyone? He'll be there too. But maybe it'll be for the best. Maybe she can manage to talk to him there?

Maybe it'll be a blessing in disguise. She sighed and went to the parking lot to go to her apartment, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.