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━━━ " 📂  " ‍..⃗. ༉

𝘾 𝙍 𝙔   𝘽 𝘼 𝘽 𝙔

! chapter twenty eight ─── ʚĭɞ

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She hadn't necessarily contemplated the repercussions she would face for any of this whole Seojun thing. When they were dating their classmates were too much, when they broke up it got even worse and she should have taken the hint from Sihyun and Hyunkyu that if they were ever to even be friends again... if you could even call Seojun carrying her all the way to the classroom friendly, that it would be nightmarish.

They were all such gossips and certainly, Sooa was the worst. Everyone else had gotten a look straight at the sight of Yeori sitting quite helpless in his arms (much to her chagrin) were only fuelling the fire and Yeori was terrified that by the time the rumour mill had circled the school as it always did, it would do irreparable damage.

It wasn't that she didn't like the idea of having Seojun doing everything for her. It actually sounded pretty good. All the free drinks she could get, all the free, not-nearly-out-of-date-from-her-dad's-convenience-store snacks she could get for free, and if her legs started to ache then all she had to do was ask him to carry her somewhere. Maybe she should set up a schedule. Being carried home after dance practice sounded rather nice.

But that wasn't the point. Sure, she wanted to abuse the hell out of the offer, but she had a reputation to uphold. Since she and Seojun had broken up... and for some time before that, Yeori had built up a reputation that had slowly, but surely, become very important for her to uphold. That reputation could disappear in an instant if Seojun kept acting like he was doing. He was her ex-boyfriend, after all.

"Are you dating again?" Sooa asked, with a complete lack of tact and very matter-of-fact.

"Are you kidding me?" Yeori stabbed at her pork cutlet. Soojin and Sooa shared a look. "Of course, we're not dating again, he just wants to annoy him because I set his gloves on fire and now that he's decided to come back to school we keep bumping into each other everywhere. He's an idiot."

"...You're not dating him?" Taehoon repeated, eyeing the cutlet warily.

Yeori glared at him. "No." She repeated, taking a bite of the pork. "No," she shook her head, and reached into her pocket, "he just wants me to look after these for him, and he's being an ass about it." She set the keys down on the table. "Damn motorbike."

"You're supposed to be keeping them safe." A hand swooped over in front of her, picking up the keys by the loop of one of the chains. "Leaving them on a table in the cafeteria isn't safe, is it, Kwon Yeori?"

Yeori didn't spare so much as a glance as the seat beside her was filled. She knew who it was, she could recognise that annoying tone anywhere. "I thought you were only listening to me." She picked at one of the side dishes.

"Yeah." Seojun nodded.

"Then surely if I think the table is the best place to look after your keys then I'm correct, right?" She asked him, eyebrows raised.

"Don't look so angry about it..." Seojun pulled a bottle out from his coat and set it on the table next to her. "I'm only doing what you say. Here, it's peach and lemon." He nudged the bottle towards her.

Yeori studied the bottle for a moment. "Did you go and get this?"

"Huh?"

"They don't stock this at the snack shop." Yeori pursed her lips. "They never have this brand. Did you go and get it, or did you get Chorong to do your busy work?" Seojun didn't reply. "I told you this morning that if you were only going to do what I said then you had to do everything."

"Kim Chorong!" Seojun looked up and Yeori almost jumped out of her skin when the boy appeared, as if from nowhere.

"What are you doing?" She hissed.

"Kim Chorong, did you go and get this drink?"

"No, I did not!" Chorong replied with the ferocity of a soldier responding to commands. "And neither did anyone else," he added, in a much more normal tone. "I'm so happy you and Seojun are back together, he's been so grumpy-"

"Hey! We are not back together!" Yeori rolled her eyes. "Now move, so Jugyeong can sit down. Chorong, go eat, idiot." She added, and behind her the boy disappeared.

"No, no, that's alright." Jugyeong quickly replied, unnecessarily polite as always and watching the scene with wide eyes. "I can sit over here, it's fine." She turned the corner, placing her tray down next to Taehoon. Yeori offered her a weak smile; maybe it was for the best if Jugyeong didn't sit near Seojun, last time he was anywhere near her and a fight had broken out.

"Han Seojun, if you keep acting like this I'll go on a date with another man." Yeori drawled, all too brazenly. Sooa and Taehoon gasped. Seojun sat up.

"Huh?"

"You heard."

"Another man?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"But who?"

"Hmmm, I was thinking Kim Jinyoung. In the year above?" Yeori smiled, head tilted as she looked back at him. "You remember Jinyoung, don't you?"

Seojun narrowed his eyes. Of course, he remembered Jinyoung; he asked Yeori out halfway through their first year of dating. "Why are you speaking so casually?" He asked.

"That's what he said when we had that conversation beforehand." Yeori blinked oh-so-innocently, and returned to her food. 

Seojun scoffed, sitting back in his chair. "You wouldn't go out with another man." He said. 

"...Why do you care if I do?" Yeori asked, eyebrows raised and wholly focused on her lunch. If she was going to have this pointless conversation with him, she certainly wasn't going to let it ruin her food. Then she'd just be in a bad mood for the rest of the day. 

Seojun spluttered. "I don't. It's just that if you get another boyfriend then how am I supposed to only do what you say?" He asked. "I'm sure he wouldn't like that." 

Yeori paused, spoonful of the miso soup halfway to her mouth. "I'll just date one of your stupid friends then." She decided. "It's not like they'll say anything against you, they'd follow you blindly into oblivion." Yeori shrugged. 

Taehoon nudged his girlfriend, who was looking between the pair with wide eyes. It had become clear that this was beyond gossip that they were dating again. This was much, much better. 

"Hey, Han Seojun," Soojin interrupted. "Why don't you go and eat somewhere else? Mind your own business and leave Yeori alone so we can eat in peace." 

"Hey, Kang Soojin," Seojun copied, "Is your name Kwon Yeori?" A beat of silence followed. "Didn't think so. Can't do what you ask me to do, I only listen to Yeori." 

"So if I asked you to go away so we can eat in peace, would you listen then?" Yeori already knew the answer, but yet somehow her tone remained hopeful. 

"Ah, I have my limits." Seojun shrugged. "Hey - what happened to your pork cutlet! Why is all mangled?" 

"I was imagining it was your-"

"Sooa!" Taehoon stood up all of a sudden, stopping Yeori before she could finish her sentence. Curious glances landed on him from all around the cafeteria. "You... You look so pretty today!" He finished, and sat back down. 

"Awww, Hoonie!" Sooa was smiling, her arms wrapped around his giddily at the compliment. She didn't seem to realise what the interference had been for. 

"Isn't pork your favourite side dish?" Seojun asked, and Yeori finally gave up on the idea of having a peaceful lunch once and for all. She didn't know where he was going with this, and nodded slowly. He looked up, and away from her for the briefest of seconds, and clapped twice. "Hey, bring the pork cutlets." He said. 

Yeori looked around, confused, at the sound of a chant of 'pork cutlets' echoed around the room. 

Chorong had appeared at her side again. "Ta-da!" He said, and the two boys behind him lowered two trays filled with the fried pork cutlets down in front of her. 

Yeori's nose wrinkled. "You want me to eat all of these?" She asked. All three nodded. "Seriously?" 

"I carried you to class." Seojun drawled. "You're as light as a feather."

"Is this a crush or a crash?" Sooa asked. "I can't tell." 

Yeori couldn't either. She had no idea why Seojun was doing this, and maybe she didn't want to know. It was all too hard to understand. 

"You need to eat more to dance properly, right?" Seojun asked, drawing Yeori's focus from the mounds of pork cutlet back to him, where he had an elbow on the table and was watching her. 

"For fuck's sake." She muttered, slumping down in her chair, hand resting on her forehead and hoping that if she closed her eyes they would all disappear into nothingness. "Start dishing them out to my friends. And give a tray to those idiots." Her free hand jerked behind her, to where the rest of Seojun's group had purposefully sat and were now crowded around, clinging onto one another in anticipation. 

"Woah, woah, woah." Seojun hummed, and all of a sudden Yeori felt an arm around her back and the feeling of her hair being pulled back, and tucked behind her ear. "Don't eat your hair, though." He said. 

Across the table, Taehoon dropped his chopsticks, and a low hum of disbelief and teasing rose from the audience.

"What a gentleman!" Hyunkyu announced to the table. Yeori's eyes opened again, glaring at Seojun. Just over his shoulder, she saw two girls from Chorong's class raise their phones. 

"Hey!" She sat up. "Hey! Delete those!" The girls shared a glance. "Delete those before I come over there and-" She didn't realise she was rising up out of her seat until Seojun pulled her back down. "Hey, get your hands off me, idiot. And here, take your stupid keys back, I'm done with this." 

Seojun watched as she set the keys down on the table again, and a finger looped through the chain. "What would I do with these..." He asked, swinging them in front of her face, "When my motorcycle is parked right in front of your dad's shop?" 

Yeori froze. That was... Christ, he was so stupid. How could one person simply be so stupid? She couldn't believe it, him and all his friends and all those stupid pork cutlets that were now being diligently loaded onto each of her friends' trays, the pile of decently stabbed pork on her own being now covered up in a stack of fresh cutlets.

He had left his bike in front of the shop? The same shop he had dropped her in front of the night before? Geez, that must have been where he got the drink from as well. She couldn't believe it, especially not after having that conversation with her dad the night before, when he asked if they were dating again simply because he had heard a motorcycle in front of that shop. What was her dad going to think now that Seojun had shown up and just left it there? What was Donghyun going to think when he came back from school and saw it? 

Yeori had far too much to do to even consider cleaning up this mess. She had dance, and the study group, and they had exams soon, and the stack of pork cutlets was only getting bigger and bigger. 

"Hey," Han Seojun reached up, flicking the ends of the red velvet ribbon that sat at the heart of her collar and she was brought back to reality. "Don't go falling asleep on me." 

"Seojun," Yeori said, as calmly as she could manage. "If you only listen to what I tell you to do, then listen to me now. If you don't get your hands off of me, and go and find somewhere else to sit and take your stupid friends with you, then I am going to kill you." 

She wasn't confused anymore, that was for certain.