𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙚 | 𝘽𝙮𝙪𝙣 𝘽𝙖𝙚𝙠𝙝𝙮𝙪𝙣

Chapter 1

"Alright, boys and girls. That is it for today on the world war II," Ms. Jones clapped her hands together as the bell rang to let us know the end of the period. "Don't forget to leave your assignments on the desk and I expect all of you to hand in the next one on Monday." Students swarmed out of the big classroom, not wanting to hear another one of her dreadful words.

"God, get this woman a life, please." Mia exasperatedly sighed while walking stroking her perfect blond hair.

"I don't know, the world war is a pretty interesting subject." I shrugged.

"And give this girl her love life back please god, I can't take it anymore." She dramatically dragged her hand across her face.

"I'm doing just fine-" 

"Do NOT tell me you're fine." She cut me off mid sentence. "Drowning yourself in books and lectures while the world goes to hell is not being 'fine'." She huffed out.

"You just got out of a 2 year old relationship. It's okay not to be fine, Jess." Her features softened, which only happened on rare occasions. She grabbed my neck to pull me into a hug.

She was right. It's been 3 days since my breakup, my life has been all about all nighters and libraries and extra classes since then. Even though, I knew now was the time i needed to take care of myself the most, I just couldn't do it. Staying busy is how I take my mind off of this. Off of him.

"Hey, Jessica!" She broke the hug to look to the direction of the voice. "Well, if it ain't the advocate of heartbreak." She rolled her eyes and started walking to the other direction. 

"See you at lunch," I shouted to which She only waved, not even looking back.

He stood there at the end of the hallway, in a plaid shirt he wore for the third time that week, his hair disshelved. But still making the girls around him swoon. Clear evidence of last nights study session. I smiled to myself. Classic Mark.

"Looks like someone forgot the deadline of their assignment." I chuckled as I walked closer to him.

"You okay?" He cut straight to the chase. He has always been like that.

My smile faded slowly. More like I let it fade away. I was tired of wearing the mask. I kept saying I was fine, when all I wanted to be was not fine. I didn't have to pretend with him. He was clever, he read me like one of those damned science books of his.

"I- I don't know, Mark." I sighed. "I'm trying, really. I don't know what to do. I just wanna stay in bed all day, i wanna have ice cream and cry about what he did wrong to me, I want to-" my voice trembled, "I want to face myself. But I just can't bring myself to do that." My eyes started tearing up. Mark stepped closer and grabbed hold of my forearm.

"Did he call?" His voice was grim as his brown eyes bored into my black ones. I shook my head, not looking up.

He inhaled and exhaled slowly. Kinda like he was pulling himself together. "Right. Well, let's go get you that ice cream, shall we?" 

"But what about your class?" I sniffed as he took my hand to lead me to the cafeteria.

"What class?" he winked while we walked straight past his AP biology class.

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"I don't know what I did wrong. He calls me the first time in 2 weeks and says he wants to end things. " I shoved some ice cream in my mouth to stop myself from sobbing. "Can you believe that bastard?"

We were now sitting in the empty basketball court with a tub full of ice cream.

Mark patted my head while I almost choked on the mouthful of food. "Maybe he had his reasons?" he tried at a failed attempt of calming me down.

"It's not like him, Mark." I threw my hands up in frustration. "If Jun had a reason to break up, he should've told me. I deserve to know."

Maybe the reason I was so heartbroken was that I never got closure. My ass got dumped and in the worst way possible. My ego is making me beat myself up even more.

Both of us just sat there for some time. The gently blowing spring breeze settled us in a comfortable silence. I got lost in my own thoughts. The thoughts of us.

The annoying sound of my ringtone snapped us out of our worlds. The caller id showed "father" and I let out a sigh. I really didn't have the energy to do this now.

"I need to take this, Mark. You go ahead, I'll catch you in lunch?" We both stood up.

He smiled a little. "See you then." He slightly touched my nose and walked away.

I didn't pick up in the first ring. I never did. I was halfway to the library building when he called me again.

I took a deep breath and picked up. "Father. Hello." I tried to swallow some of the bitterness in my voice but I was pretty sure my father caught it. He always did.

"Jessica, How are you?" Came his intimidating voice from the other line.

I'm pretty sure you don't care.

"I'm good. What's up? Did you come back home already?"

"No. I'm not sure when I'll return." He paused. "Jess. I need you to do something for me."

Oh god. There it is. There's that voice.

I paused in my tracks.

"It might be the last thing you'll have to do for me."

"What is it, Father?" I held my breath.

"You have to get married." His voice didn't even shake for one second.

I didn't know that it was possible for my heart to shrink even more. I felt like someone had took out my insides. My stomach churned.

"W-what?" I managed to get it out.

"Yes, Honey. And it's important. It's what will keep us alive. He went to your college to meet you. You have to talk everything out. Okay?" He didn't even wait for me to reply, he hung up.

That was my father's way of saying "You better talk things out." An 'or else' always hung heavy in the air when it came to him. Can't really expect anything else when making threats is what he does for a living.

Marriage? When I only started my senior year in college? I'm 21, for fuck's sake. And he wants me to get married?

A loud car horn honked from behind me while I was halfway through contemplating my life. I looked back and a black Audi screeched to halt beside me.

Seconds later, my jaw practically hit the floor. Because stepping dowm from the car was the person I least expected to see here right now.

Byun Baekhyun.

Byun. Fucking. Baekhyun.