cupid ⠀song mingi

five

"did you bring kyunghee home? this fast?" i asked, mingi avoided eye contact, making him seem like he doesn't want to be with me right now — "oh, i just saw you on the way. kyunghee said she'd stay at that barbeque house since her big sister works there." he answered, then held onto my wrist, "let's go, i'll take you home." he offered.

i pulled my hand away from his because i didn't like him holding it for more times than one since we're not supposed to be that close. "okay." was all i answered, not bothering to explain why i took my wrist away from him. i looked at the fishcake lady and bowed my head, she had a really kind smile as we walked away.

"damn, you ran all the way here?" mingi asked, almost like making fun of me. i didn't answer because i didn't want to go to the point where i tell him that i only did it because i didn't want to stand with seonghwa — that i was too embarrassed by myself.

i snapped out of my thoughts as the thunder rumbled, kelly, my 5 year old cousin tapped on my shoulder lightly and asked, "was that boy your boyfriend? the tall one!" i looked at her irritated then shrugged my shoulders, and that made her chuckle for whatever reason. "you said you don't like boys." she added.

"we're friends!" i exclaimed, out of my control. "agh! let's just watch the news." i picked up the remote then changed the channel. i should have watched this last night so i could bring an umbrella earlier, but kelly was busy watching some children's show, even dancing to it.

"classes in all levels in seoul will be suspended for tomorrow ..." the newscaster continued to speak as i threw my hands in the air, "thank god." i stood up, then gave the remote to kelly, "you can continue watching that penguin now." i told her, she cheerfully smiled then hooray-ed. i then walked to my room.

"thank god i won't have to see mingi or whoever tomorrow." i talked to myself as i lied down on my bed. i'm still bugged by what mingi said, the "kyunghee said she'd stay at that barbeque house since her big sister works there."

"kyunghee said that?" i hugged my pillow, "she doesn't even have a big sister." i scoffed. she didn't do it to avoid mingi, right? because she can't be that disgusted with him.. mingi isn't even a weirdo or anything. what did she have to lie for?

™

classes also got suspended the next day, so that was extra rest, but even with all that free time, i still didn't have the gut to ask kyunghee why she did it. maybe because i don't want to hate her for hating mingi, but whose side should i even be taking?

"as you all know," our teacher spoke in front, whilst i didn't even notice that he was already inside, also because nobody in school ever greets anyone anymore. "we offered our gym house for those who needed shelter from the storm." he announced. wow, my school has a good heart.

"not this again.." yuqi complained all of a sudden, so i immediately asked her, "what's wrong?" she scratched the back of her head then pointed at the teacher, and he was writing something on the whiteboard.

'CLASS VOLUNTEERS'

"oh," i replied to nobody, mr. kang fixed his glasses then pointed at the class, "somebody's going to have to help them." he told us, then raised his hand, "any volunteers?" he asked. nobody raised their hand, so a moment of silence for his embarrassment, of course everybody has their own life to take care of, why bother staying late in school to help strangers?

"oops." mr. kang covered his mouth to play it cool, i chuckled too loud and everybody did so too. "since we don't have volunteers, we're getting nominees!" he said all cheerfully, and my heart started beating fast. he had to make everyone nervous?

"don't even fucking try." kyunghee warned us not to nominate her, and i also crossed my hands, "i won't nominate y'all if you don't nominate me." i told my friends. and the class started making a ruckus, some were complaining and some were already planning shit.

"i nominate yunho!" mingi's annoying ass said out loud, everybody in class started laughing because yunho looked at him in betrayal, mr. kang proceeded to write his name on the board. then yunho raised his hand, the whole class was watching them, i was even lowkey evil-laughing because i knew that the volunteers would end up being the two of them.

yunho stood up then looked at me, my heart leaped out my body. h-he's probably looking at kyunghee, right? since my vision is kind of ba— "i-i nominate hyerin!" he exclaimed, and i was speechless.

"WHAT?!" i yelled, then felt everyone's eyes on me. the teacher chuckled as he wrote my name and i felt like the whole world was going against me, there's no way i'm going to help, right? i looked at kyunghee because i felt like if i was going to do work, then she should, too.

i raised my hand without thinking carefully about it, then kyunghee pulled my sleeve, "don't even-" since everything felt too fast and my eyes just randomly made its way to mingi. without control, i said, "i nominate mingi!"

"out of nowhere?!" tzuyu asked in surprise, then the whole class made an impressed sound, like they weren't expecting me to disrespect mingi like that. mingi didn't look pleased, he even seemed pissed. sorry man, you're not the only one— was all i could (telepathically) probably tell him.

mingi couldn't continue the spree since he already nominated yunho. the class stayed silent for a few seconds until yeosang raised his hand, with a hurrying expression, "i nominate kyunghee!" he spoke. everybody gasped because they didn't expect kyunghee's name to be called.

"motherfucker!—" kyunghee cursed out loud, everybody looked shocked. but before kyunghee could say more words, mr. kang banged on the whiteboard to get our attention, "let's have these four nominees." he announced, and i felt really in defeat.

"hey, let's just vote yunho and mingi." kyunghee spoke like the freaking wind, "look. we can make this work—" mr. kang banged the whiteboard again, way to make my heart leap for the nth time. kyunghee stopped speaking as mr. kang pointed at his writings, "one girl and one boy." he announced.

"NO!" yunho yelled, and i almost did too, i just kept myself calm. all i need is to have mingi and kyunghee together! i can make this work! as long as the voting starts with the guys— everything will go well... right...?

"starting with kyunghee and hyerin." i exhaled too much as mr. kang said this. i looked at my friends and they were all looking at me. "d-don't pick me.." i begged, whilst kyunghee didn't even speak, all she did was keep this really scary face while looking at the chair in front of her.

"raise your hand if you vote for hyerin." the teacher gave the instructions, and i did my best not to scream when i saw my friends raising their hands. kyunghee was also raising her hand, the only people in my group whose hands are down are me and jiwoo. no fucking way is this happening.

"seems like hyerin's win?" mr. kang asked, my classmates answered a yes and i was left speechless by myself. "okay. now with mingi and yunho." he said. wait, this is going too fast. "raise your hand if you would like yunho to volunteer."

when you look at mingi and his group of friends, you'll see yunho as someone that already knows he's embarrassing. meanwhile mingi gives off a vibe that he feels like he's won the 'best boy' award, and that tends to make people want to make fun of him.. you know, this has been in my mind ever since earlier, i had a feeling that mingi and i would be paired because the gods hate me and won't spare mercy to grant my wishes not to be involved with him anymore longer. but here it was, happening before me;

"song mingi and jung hyerin. come meet me in my office after class, okay?" mr. kang gave a proud smile as he clapped once to end things.

because whatever i do, it seems that the universe just want to make fun of me all the time.