39. studying blues

Han Seojun was exhausted after studying for two days straight. Kang Soojin was not going to let him breathe in peace since the last two days and every time he begged for a break, she did not budge once.

Seojun groaned in irritation as he leaned on the table when a customer asked him for their order. He was covering a shift of a fellow worker who needed to head home on medical reasons and even though Seojun did not work shifts on school days, he could make an exception.

Only to get a break from studying.

"Oppa, why you look like you are dying?"

Seojun lifted his gaze from the glass table at I-seul's chirpy voice, he was glad to see her and at the same time, tired to reply.

"Because I am dying, I-seul-ah." He wrote the orders of the customers on the paper which was then stuck to the rotating wheel. "Why are you here on a school night?"

"I am here to study with my friends," She pointed to the lot of teens in the farthest corner of the cafe, "should you not be studying too?"

"Do you want me to disown you?" Seojun's straight face was the cue of this not being a funny remark and I-seul shook her head, "because if anyone mentions studying one more time, I am going to beat-"

"Aah," I-seul chuckled, leaning on the table and looking at him with a goofy grin. "You have the blues!"

"The what now?" Seojun tilted his head, these english words would be the death of him. "Blue? Is that not a color?"

"Blues," I-seul corrected Seojun, who seemed least bothered to learn new words. "It means being depressed or sad. You got the studying blues."

"Ya I-seul," Seojun passed the drinks to the customer ahead of her and eyed the cheerful girl, "I have the studying blues, green, red, black everything!" That made I-seul to grin even wider, "how are you so happy to study?"

"Well, because I may not like studying, but I do like studying with friends." She took her coffee mug, "plus, its not that bad considering this is your last term and soon you will be graduating, Oppa. Trust me you will miss studying..." She bowed and left to sit with her friends as Seojun shook his head.

There is no way he is going to miss studying.

"Ya Han Seojun."

Seojun groaned louder, because he'd rather study than face the person who called out to him.

"Should have been with us," The old nemesis of Seojun, Lee Sung-yong, walked towards the counter mocking him, "then maybe you would not have to work odd jobs as these."

"What do you want?" Han Seojun had gotten a warning for the last time he had a dispute with these goons and he did not want to lose his job. "If its not coffee, you better leave."

The guy was without the gang, just him and his duo, laughing at each other. "What else would I be here for?"

He ordered two cappuccinos to go while Seojun wondered why he had not asked for the money like he always did. Seojun also realised how they had not bothered him since a long time. He did not encounter them in the familiar places where they often crossed paths. Nor did they bother him at work, nor at home.

"Two cappuccinos," Seojun wrote their names, handing them their go-to cups.

They were ready to leave when the other one turned, "say hi to your girlfriend from us."

Seojun frowned, "girlfriend?"

They must be really high to be joking around this late in the evening, "what girlfriend?"

"Wait," Sung-yong turned, chuckling as he looked at Seojun, "that bitch is not your girlfriend? Wow, Han Seojun be really having girls pay up for his shit." They chuckled at their own joke while Seojun was getting closer to raise his voice.

"YA, what do you mean?"

"The money you owed us, your girlfriend paid up the amount."

Seojun was just as lost, if not more, because nothing he said made sense.

"What was her name again?" He asked his duo.

"Kang Soojin."

_

Soojin was working on the presentation, and was yet to hear Seojun's music video.

Apparently he wanted to release the song they were working on as a proper album song, and while that sounded silly, it really was not.

Rather, it was brilliant. Soojin wondered how she never got this idea, because while they were illustrating on how music is composed, having the end product being released as a proper song was just brilliant.

Since Seojun was working on the song, she had to put it in words and everything he had explained to her was running in her head. Her ankle was healing, thanks to ointment Seojun had brought for her and her mind was diverted completely by the project they had to submit.

They had spent hours post school on the project, after which he had to leave to cover someone's shift.

Soojin was marvelled at how kind Seojun was. He was tired from studying, had taken lead in making her understand about music and how he composed the new song and yet readily helped someone.

For all the times Soojin was with Seojun, she had learnt how easy it was to brush people off and equally easy to be kind and helpful.

Maybe if they had been friends before, Soojin would have learnt a lot from the kind boy.

"Kang Soojin," The loud nasty voice Soojin hated was heard from against the door, "come out, I need to speak with you."

Soojin had half a mind to escape through the window, but she was no Han Seojun to do that, plus knowing her mental state, she would jump off rather than gliding. So she got up, and entered the passcode, only to see her father standing expressionless in front of her.

"Lee Suho's father has invited us for an impromptu dinner party. Ready up."

Before Soojin could even reply, he was gone. She checked her mobile and surely there was Mr. Lee's message for her amongst tons of other notifications, asking her to join the dinner with him and Suho.

She did not understand why her and Suho's father would pretend like they cared for each other and have fancy dinner parties when in reality they just wanted to show off. Suho would easily get off these parties because he did not care about anyone, but Soojin would have to hear the end of it if she did.

So she threw her laptop in her bag, wore an evening gown which lay untouched in the corner of her wardrobe and brushed her hair with the intention of working on the project at dinner. Seojun was already working his ass off, studying for the terms and earning money through odd jobs, all she had to do was help him pass. After all he had done for her in these two months, it seemed only fair that she helped him score well.

Her phone rang, nonchalantly she picked up whilst applying the red shade of lipstick, "yeoboseyo..."

"Soojin,"

Why was Suho calling her?

She frowned, putting the lipstick down and focusing on the call.

"Lee Suho? What do you want?"

"So there is this dinner party..."

"Yes, I got the memo."

She sat back in the chair, massaging her temples, "why does your father like hosting dinner parties like a 18th century maiden and why does he invites us when clearly he had no fondness towards us?"

"Mian-he, you know how our fathers love showing us off."

Soojin scoffed. "More like showing you off," She brushed the unfinished lipstick off with wet tissues, "my father does not like showing me off, considering how big of a loser I am when put against you."

"Don't say that. You know I hate whenever you put yourself down."

The scoff tuned into a sigh, "what do you want Lee Suho?"

"Is it possible for you to come home first?"

"why?"

"Seojun wants to talk."

"who?"

"Han Seojun."

Soojin frowned, she checked the time, it was past eight and he told her it was a late night shift.

"why?"

"I don't know. He texted me and asked me to ask you."

"Why didn't he ask me?"

"I asked him that, but he said your phone was switched off."

Soojin did not know what to make of the situation. She sighed, "arasseo, my parents will be leaving early anyways, and I'll drop by your house before leaving."

"Also, the dinner party is to celebrate my birthday."

"Your birthday is in six months."

"Yes, but dad wants to make up for all the lost birthdays so..."

"No matter how sweet that is, I am not getting you a gift."

Suho chuckled. It was weird to hear Suho laugh at something she said. If this was before, Soojin would have gone crazy but at that moment, she wondered what changed.

"Your presence is enough." Suho said, softly and then with a see you soon, he kept the call. Soojin sighed, eyeing herself in the mirror.

She was dressed in a black gown, hair tied by a butterfly clip and light make-up to complete the look. She quickly applied the lipstick, and checked her mobile to see ten missed calls from Seojun and one text that said:

'need to talk, pick up.'

What in the world.

_

Seojun sat on Suho's couch, playing a racing game in his mobile when Suho walked out looking good in the dark maroon blazer over the white button down shirt. His hair set to a side, and his handsome looks more on the charming than the icy side.

Seojun however did not look at the dressed up guy, rather grunted in response when Suho asked him if he looked okay.

"Would not kill you to look at me once." Suho said, adjusting his bow-tie, in the mirror, "also, did my father not invite you too?"

"He did, but poor people don't have time or money to spend on dinner parties." Seojun replied nonchalantly, racing through the screen and overtaking the second place, "that and I would look like the second most idiotic person if I wore that bow-tie."

"Second most?"

Seojun raised his eyebrow and looked pointedly at him only to get a smug look in response.

"Where is Kang Soojin? The smell of your expensive perfume is killing me." He continued playing on his mobile when the bell rang and Suho opened the door to greet Soojin.

"Annyeong," Suho said, asking her to come in while Seojun overtook the first racer, almost winning the race. "Seojun, Soojin's here."

Seojun glanced at the duo, asking her to wait while he wanted to finish the race but he looked up again at the girl in front of her and the sight of Kang Soojin, dressed to impress made his bike icon to crash into a pole and his heart to skip a beat.

He stood up, eyeing the girl, and almost forgot to breathe.

"Han Seojun?" She said, tilting her head to the side and snapping at him, "what is wrong with him?"

Suho only smiled, eyeing the very lovesick Seojun and then at the oblivious Soojin.

"Tap him, his battery dies at times."

With that Suho moved out of the house as Seojun kept staring at the very beautiful Soojin, forgetting everything he was here for.

Kang Soojin took steady steps towards the frozen boy. She stood a step away and tapped his shoulder lightly, "Ajhussi? All okay?"

From being calm and composed with girls fawning over him to losing his shit on seeing a girl he claimed to hate for life.

"Yeppeuda..." He muttered meeting her dark eyes, "pretty."

_