Veil || Lee Donghyuck

Chapter 2: From the Staircase

Lee Donghyuck was the exact kind of person Dani promised herself she would avoid for the rest of her high school career.

Loud, outgoing, sociable.

Someone who just naturally strikes up a conversation with another, whether or not they're a stranger. Donghyuck always made himself known in school, classmates always following after him like a pack of wolves to their leader. He just oozed charisma, and has a face that everyone would imagine themselves to be friends with.

Dani probably had known Donghyuck the longest out of the Dream Four too, as they had gone to the same daycare.

But not once had she ever struck up any conversation with the tan boy before. She thought she never would, as they were on different ends of the spectrum of the school hierarchy. He was always someone who drew attention to himself through his friendly nature, while Dani liked to stay in the shadows and live her school life in peace.

Yet, here they were, in the back staircase of their school, in which Lee Donghyuck had dragged Dani all the way to.

And for what?

For some utter horseshit?

"I'm sorry?" Dani sputtered out with utmost confusion. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to remember the boy's request from only seconds before. Did she jumble up his words? Has her brain finally turned to goop and stopped processing words correctly? "Did you just say?—"

"Baek Sua, yes," Donghyuck answered with a small nod. He was fumbling with his fingers. Dani stared at him, he looked like a lovesick fool, it was making her stomach churn from the shock. "You two are related, right?"

Dani scrunched her nose. "How on earth do you know that?"

The boy's eyes widened, as he waved his hands at her in his defense. He must've realized how weird that was to say. "Ah, hold on! I know that sounds bad but I-I happened to see you with my friends yesterday at that one popular cafe nearby the university that, uh, Sua-noona worked at and you two looked close and you had the same last name, so you two must be related. I really fell for noona when we first went to the cafe! She's so pretty and sweet and cool—"

Dani's mind flashed back to the day before to when she went on her dreaded errand. Why did she not recognize them then? She remembers now. Donghyuck was there at the cafe yesterday... along with the rest of the Dream Four. She cursed internally. Never would she think she'd regret going to that cafe more than before.

She held up a hand, putting a halt to Donghyuck's jabbering, "Save the life story, I honestly don't care. Why on earth would you think I'd ever help in hooking you up with my cousin?"

"Ah, so she's your cousin! That makes much more sense because if she was your sister, wouldn't she have gone to this high school too?" He shook his head, realizing how off-topic he was. "You're the only person that could possibly help me in getting a date with her! It's the perfect opportunity!"

"The perfect opportunity, my ass," Dani huffed, arms crossed over her chest. "As far as I know, we aren't friends, Lee Donghyuck."

"Well, we can be!"

"I'm not interested." She peered down her phone screen, noticing how much time they have spent in this musky back staircase. Dani definitely didn't want to spend any more time chatting about her cousin. "Look, Donghyuck, I didn't want to come off as rude, but please figure out some other way to win over Sua-unnie. Good luck, okay?"

With that, she walked past the boy to exit the small space. Peeking out through the metal door, there were only so few students left in the hallways, all which were already scrambling into their classrooms. Dani sighed, as she left the staircase and picked up her pace to make it before the bell rang.