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━━━  " 📂 " ‍..⃗. ༉

𝘾 𝙍 𝙔 𝘽 𝘼 𝘽 𝙔

! chapter fourteen ─── ʚĭɞ

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It seemed, at least to Yeori, that Suho's poor treatment of Jugyeong slowly diminished - in school anyway. There were a couple of incidents, and Yeori watched with distaste one lunch as Jugyeong was pulled away from the admittedly delicious stir-fried pork they had been served simply because Suho asked her to, but other than that, there seemed to be no obvious moments. It appeared, especially as Jugyeong's mood at school lightened, that Suho had taken some of her advice... or demanding into account. 

But it seemed otherwise. 

Perhaps Yeori had just been preoccupied - the school talent show was coming up after all, and having danced competitively and recreationally throughout the years a few of her friends through that had asked her to group up with them to perform a K-Pop dance - because a week or so later, Jugyeong seemed to be saddened once more. 

Yeori had a look of utter disgust on her face as she passed Taehoon and Hyunkyu wearing their own, considerably colourful, home clothes over elements of their uniform, rapping horrendously in English, Sooa, Soojin and Jugyeong beside her as they left class and headed towards lunch. 

"What is your boyfriend doing?" Yeori asked as they left the room. "He's not eating again, why is he starving himself?" 

Soojin glanced back at the pair with obvious disgust, as the four girls linked arms. "Yeah. Why isn't he eating again? He's not planning another celebration, is he?" 

"He's practising to try out for the school talent show." Sooa replied, and Yeori and Soojin shared a look, truly questioning everything about Taehoon at that moment. "Ton of people applied, so they're only picking five teams."

"Oh, that's why Yeonsoo and Hyeryung asked me." Yeori hummed. "I thought they just needed another girl." 

Soojin nodded slowly, before her attention turned elsewhere. "Jugyeong, why do you look so down?" Yeori's head snapped towards the girl between herself and Sooa. "Did something happen?" Soojin asked. 

"What?" Jugyeong looked confused, and slightly vacant, as though she had just been woken up. "No, nothing happened."

"She's just hungry." Sooa excused, to ease Soojin's worries, but Yeori knew better, and she watched as Jugeyong looked down at her phone, and seemingly woke up.

Her eyes widened, and her mouth formed into a neat 'o' as she gasped. Her arms slipped out of Yeori and Sooa's, and she pulled back. "I need to go somewhere." She announced, and Yeori felt a pit of despair and anger directed, unusually, straight to Suho and Jugyeong dashed away down the corridor, faster than any of the three could have ever expected. 

"Jjoo!" Sooa shouted after her. "What about lunch?" She asked.

"She has been acting strange lately." Soojin hummed, as the three of them watched Jugyeong disappearing around the corner. "Hm." And she broke off from Sooa and Yeori and followed after them. 

"No worries." Yeori smiled, as Sooa looked upset. "C'mon, we'll go to lunch, Soojin will turn up in a minute. I think there's tofu today."

And the two of them made their way to the cafeteria to find that Yeori was right and they had tofu. Soojin didn't appear for quite some time, and when she did, it was with a look of stern distaste and... particularly concerning news. She told them that, apparently, Jugyeong was so down because Seojun was bullying her. Yeori knew that not to be true at all, that Seojun was not a bully as much as his friends helped him appear that way, but certainly, there had to be something for Soojin to think that way. 

She cleared her tray before Soojin and Sooa had finished. The former had come later, and the latter spent too much time chattering on and on about everything she could think of that stopped her from eating her lunch. And Yeori left the lunchroom, making her way down to an old, forgotten corner of the school where the storerooms for extra exams desks had been broken into and was occupied, now, with Seojun and his group. 

There was an outburst of exclamatory 'oohs' as she approached, and Seojun sat up in his seat as she turned the corner. "Second visitor of the day." He hummed. "What can I do for you?"

"She won't call us twerps, will she?" Jinwoong asked, uncertain. Yeori rolled her eyes and offered him something of a smile. 

"It's not Kang Soojin, it's Yeori." Chorong properly smiled at her, even though her attention seemed to be directed towards Seojun alone. "Do you want us to go?" He asked her. 

"No, no, Seojun can just come with me for a moment." Yeori replied. "If he can be bothered to get up off his ass and actually do something for once."

The attention of the group turned to their so-called leader, who didn't say anything for a moment, considering his options. He let out a sigh and sat up. "Fine." He replied. "If I must." Yeori turned back around the corner and he stood up to follow her, coming to lean against the red brick wall.

He looked down at her. "Is this about Soojin? Because she got the wrong idea." Seojun replied. 

"Ah, so you're not bullying Jugyeong. Good to know you haven't stooped low enough to that level yet." 

"As much as it would be good for my reputation, I am not bullying your friend." Seojun replied, pushing his hands into his pockets and tilting his head. He leant forward to meet her eyeline. "But you would know that, wouldn't you?" 

Yeori blinked. "Huh?" 

"You like to think you know me, don't you?" Seojun said. "So I think you know that I wouldn't bully Jugyeong, yet here you are, asking me whether or not I'm doing something you know full well that I wouldn't."

Yeori's eyebrows furrowed and her arms crossed. "What are you implying, Seojun?"

"You're a clever girl, Yeori, can't you figure it out?" 

"I'm not going to give you the pleasure of me saying it." Yeori shook her head as her eyes narrowed, quick to catch up on his tricks, could see that teasing gleam in his eye. "I know you wouldn't bully someone, or at least I did. But certainly, for Soojin to come to that conclusion, something had to happen." 

"No, no, not, certainly. She's made a mistake, like I already told you." Seojun straightened up, messed with his fringe a little. "Jugyeong was running up the stairs and bumped into me we talked for a moment. She must have gotten the wrong idea."

"Fine. But I'm talking to Jugyeong too because she has enough problems with Lee Suho already and she shouldn't have to deal with you too!" 

Seojun looked mildly more interested in the conversation than he had been initially. "What's he done now?" 

Yeori realised her mistake in an instant. "Nothing." She replied defensively. 

A smile crept across her ex boyfriend's face. "Come on, you can tell me. What did that bastard do this time." He nudged her gently with his elbow, hands still in his pockets. "Surely it can't be as bad as supposedly bullying the new girl." 

"Yeah, well." Yeori rolled her eyes. "He's just... I don't know the full story, he's just being Suho." She shrugged, before realising where she was, and the easy smile she had slipped into slid off her face with ease. "Never mind. As long as you're not bullying Jugyeong." 

"I'm not." Seojun replied, as he too eased back into that all too effortless coldness. "So you don't have to worry about that."

"I wasn't worrying. I was more pissed off again than anything." She shifted. "Well, I suppose I can enjoy the rest of my lunch now."

"Suppose you can." Seojun watched as she straightened up, turning towards the path back to school. "Hey, Yeori." He called after her, taking a few paces towards her when she stopped. He pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to her.

"Banana milk?" She asked, staring at the familiar bottle.

"I don't want it." He shrugged. "I know you like it. And I want my gloves back." 

"Ah, so you're bribing me." Yeori said, and seemed to be considering, before reaching to snatching it from his grasps. "Thanks for the milk, Seojun. No promises on the gloves though." She shrugged, and turned the corner.

"I'll come and watch your little dance!" Seojun called after her, words lost in the hum of the school.