Luminous • Jisung

27 • Reason

• Chapter 27 •

Jisung grabbed Cho-a's arm, stopping her right when the two were about to part ways. She turned around hastily, looked at the older one in surprise. 

"Where are you going?" he asked. 

"Home." 

"Alone?" 

Cho-a nodded and glimpsed past the boy at the clock on the wall behind him. 
"You are picking up Jaemin and Jeno in five minutes," she reminded him. "And then the three of you are going to meet the others at the restaurant right afterwards. Who am I supposed to go with?" 

Looking at the girl mindlessly, Jisung agreed with all she said. An absent-minded hum slipped past his lips. Head tilted to the side, he looked down, quickly grabbing his phone. 

"I'll call Yuta to-"

But Cho-a swiftly to take the phone out of his hands. She held it with a tight grip, frowned at the boy's behaviour. 

It wasn't quite clear to her why he was acting as if she needed a babysitter. When she thought back to what could've given him a reason to behave this way, the first thing that came to her mind was, 

"This is not because of Kyung-soon, right?" she questioned, then watched as Jisung hesitated. "Are you kidding me?" 

"I don't trust her," he said simply, shrugged. At Cho-a's disbelief, he pulled his hand away, letting go of her. 

She nodded. 
"Me neither but what is she supposed to do? She can't do anything to me."

"Unless you let her," he retorted. "You didn't defend yourself when she was about to slap you, you provoked her when she got angry but then didn't do anything except wait for me." 

Cho-a seemed unimpressed. 
"Right, Renjun and you were there both times. Good for me," she replied. "Well then, if anything else happens, I'll just wait for you again." 

"Cho-a," Jisung warned sternly, voice low. However, the girl just smiled. She rolled her eyes, gave the boy his phone back. 

"Make sure you won't be late if I need you," she joked, gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Have fun - and remind Haechan that we have tutoring tomorrow." 

And with that she left, leaving a borderline irritated Jisung behind. 

Passing by the bus station, Cho-a considered waiting for it but then decided to just keep walking. 

Though she took the bus quite often, Cho-a actually enjoyed walking the small distance back home. Passing by busy streets and boring shops and stressed people made her feel at ease. Overlooked by all the passersby she didn't feel like she didn't fit in. 

She was just one of many. 

It was calming almost. 

Her steps sounded quiet on the dry asphalt. Eyes darting up at the cloudy sky, she smiled. She liked this time of the year. She didn't really get cold, she got to appreciate the colours changing and atmosphere shifting. 

Autumn was pretty. 

Lost in thoughts, she strolled through the streets, when she was suddenly pulled back into reality by someone tapping her shoulder. 

"Excuse me?" a female voice asked shyly. Cho-a stopped right away and turned around to the girl. 

Turning around, she already wore a polite smile on her lips. 
"Yes?" she asked. "Can I hel-" 

Grey. 

Before her stood a girl with eyes a dark, cloudy grey. 

Cho-a froze at the sight, her smile melting.  

She didn't know what to do. 

Who was that girl? 

The edges of her lips suddenly pulled up, her smile drew sharp lines. It was intimidating, scary. 

"So you can actually see me, huh?" the girl asked excitedly, tilted her head to the side to inspect Cho-a more thoroughly. She looked amused when she took a step closer and even more so when Cho-a made a respective step back. 

Seeing how tense Cho-a got all of a sudden, the girl suddenly pushed her lips out. Rounded in surprise, she let out a mocking oh. 
"Wasn't I supposed to know that?" she asked, hand above her heart. "I bet it's a little dangerous for others to figure that out, right?" 

Although initially almost afraid by the sudden revelation, Cho-a slowly started to turn irritated by the girl's sarcastic and mocking tone. 

"What do you want?" Cho-a asked. 

"A conversation," the stranger said casually, bobbed her head a little. "Not with you though." 

Which confused her even more. However, she just smiled. 
"Great," Cho-a breathed, side-eyed a man that passed her on the sidewalk. He frowned at her for seemingly talking to the air. 

Turning her body a little, ducking her head, she stepped forward. 
"I'll get going then-" 

However, the girl quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a nearby side-street. Cho-a clenched her teeth at the stinging sensation. 

"Your nails are digging into my skin," she stated bluntly, made an attempt to rip her arm out of the other one's grip, yet failed. 

The girl smiled her smile again. Just as sharp and intimidating, though with her rosy cheeks and the soft edges of her jaw, it almost seemed sweet. 

"I hope it hurts." 

Cho-a stayed still and considered her options...

she didn't have any. 

There was nothing she could have done. 

Acting under the assumption that the girl before her thought she was human, it would've been unwise had Cho-a even attempted to try to use her barely existent strength to free herself. She had no one to ask for help either. 

All she could do was wait. 

"I'm going to ask again," Cho-a said, voice lower now. It held less energy, less patience. "What do you want?" 

"I just need to borrow you," the other one explained. She spoke casually as if it was supposed to make sense. 

But Cho-a just gave her a baffled look. 

"I need to meet someone who doesn't want to meet me," she continued, sighed heavily at the thought. "So if I want to get him to go and see me I need to give him a reason to..." 

She trailed off, her glance got lost on Cho-a who felt uncomfortable under her heavy glare. She kept her eyes on her lips before her dark grey orbs locked with Cho-a's soft brown ones. 

"If only I had something he wanted," she said almost mockingly, then started grinning. 

Feeling uneasy, Cho-a wanted to take a step back to gain more distance but she couldn't. Not only was there no use in doing so, it would've also shown her discomfort. It would've given her away even more. 

So out of confusion, Cho-a asked, 
"Who is it that you want to meet?" 

The other girl just grinned.
"You'll find out." 

• Reason •