The Real You || Jung Sungchan

Chapter 20

Miyoung:

The next morning, I was released from the hospital. Turns out, I had a severe panic attack that lasted almost an hour and my parents thought I had another medical condition that needed medical attention. When I got back home, my parents told me to rest and that I have to decide if I'm going to school or not the next day. I woke up this morning feeling fine, so I got ready and went downstairs to tell them that I was going to school. My brother didn't look good and I was worried about him. While my parents were cleaning the dishes, I looked at him and asked him what was wrong and he just hugged me. I smiled and hugged him back.

"I thought you almost died, Miyoung! You don't know how scared I was..." He cries and holds me tighter, I sigh and hug him tighter as well. After we let go from the hug, Mingyeom tells my parents that we'll just walk to school together even if it's late, which everyone knows that I hate.

We left the house at 7:15 and got to school at around 7:35. My brother hugged me in front of all of his friends — which he never does by the way — and we separated before we entered the school. He was probably worried sick about me which is why he's so attached. I was happy that my brother cares about me. He probably doesn't want to lose me after the scandal so he's doing everything he does to make me stay. While him and his friends were walking away, I heard them whispering.

"Your sister is Yoo Miyoung? The goddess senior?"

"You have to introduce me to her!"

"In your dreams, uglies. You wish you could date my sister. I won't let you." I hear Mingyeom say and I smile.

I pushed the school doors open and whispers and comments immediately filled the hallway.

"Is that Miyoung?"

"Didn't she get hospitalized?"

"I hope she's feeling better now!"

"I wonder what happened to her..."

It was all fine, just the normal people asking about me until I reached the floor my classroom is on. The hallway was filled with people looking into my classroom window and once they saw me, they surrounded me in a second. They were all huddled around me and I could feel my heart pounding again. I didn't want to have another panic attack, so I stood in the middle of everyone and looked down as I tried to calm myself down. I drowned out all of the whispers and comments that people were making and tried to find my inner peace. However, it was all broken when a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me to their chest. They wrapped their arms around me and I could just tell who it was.

"Sungchan..." I say softly.

There were whispers again.

"What the hell is he doing?"

"Who does he think he is?"

"Sungchan? Dating Miyoung? She could do way better."

"I thought I told you to stay in your place, Sungchan." I hear a familiar voice behind me. I tried to turn around but Sungchan placed his hand on the back of my head.

"And I thought I told you to not hurt Miyoung." Sungchan replies and the people in the hallways stand in shock.

"I said that you can hurt me all you want. But don't you even dare hurt Miyoung." Sungchan says, my heart started to do flutter.

"She wasn't even hurt, what's his problem?"

"Is he crazy?"

"He's out of his mind."

I could tell Sungchan had enough of the comments everyone was making of him, so I pulled out of his embrace and grabbed his hand and ran inside of our classroom. Everyone followed behind us and I stopped when I saw all of the gifts and flowers on my desk. I looked at Sungchan and he nodded at me, taking everything on my desk and handing it to the crowd of people around our desk. I told them to leave and they immediately did. The one guy that Sungchan was arguing with looked angry, but every time he looked at me, he looks like he fell in love. Gross.

Sungchan and I sit down and I just look outside the window. I hear him rustle through his backpack and place many things on my desk. I turned to look at him and on my desk there were all of my favorite peach-flavored drinks and snacks. I smiled and thanked him. He smiled back at me and opened the peach milk for me first since he knows how much I love it. As I drank the milk, Sungchan grabs something else out of his bag.

"Here. I felt really bad for leaving you and ignoring you for all that time. I know you love Red Velvet and I was lucky enough to get your favorite album for you with their signatures. I'm sorry, Miyoung. It wasn't my intention." Sungchan hands me a Red Velvet album with their autographs and apologizes. My heart started to flutter and my cheeks turned red.

"Oh... are you okay? You're turning red." Sungchan asks and places a hand on my forehead. I immediately took his hand off my forehead since I was turning even more red and he just smiled. I took the album from his hand and smiled.

"Thank you, Sungchan." I reply and he nods.

"I can tell you everything at lunch. I'm so sorry for leaving you in the dark like that." He apologizes again and I nod. I placed the album and all of the snacks in my bag and took out everything I need for our first class. I drank the rest of the peach milk and Sungchan threw it away for me. My heart couldn't stop beating during class. Why does Sungchan make me feel this way?

— time skip

Sungchan and I decided to order food from a local place near the school for lunch. Since we're seniors we can get away with this but for the other classes they can't unless they sneak and don't get caught. We sat and ate by the cherry blossom tree behind the school again. He kept placing more and more meat and other side dishes on my plate and I ate them all. I was worried that he might be on a diet, so I offered to buy him something after school or another time and he agreed.

I was still really confused about why Sungchan ignored me but I didn't know when to bring it up. He told me during class that he'd explain at lunch and we've finished eating and we're just sitting in silence. This silence made me awfully uncomfortable and I can tell it also made him uncomfortable. We made awkward eye contact and I was the first one to look away. Then Sungchan tapped my shoulder which caused me to turn my head back at him.

"Here." He says, handing me my keychain that I lost. I let out a sigh of relief and started smiling.

"Oh my god! Thank you! I've been looking for this for ages! Where did you find it?" I ask, Sungchan smiles.

"It fell off your bag when you were frantically packing to get away from people. I've had it for a long time because I didn't know when to give it to you." He says and I nod, putting the keychain back on my bag.

"So.." Sungchan starts and I turn my attention back to him.

"The reason I ignored you was because of Byunghoon, Chanyoung, and Jaeho. It was mostly Byunghoon because he has a really big crush on you. He noticed us getting friendlier and he was jealous so he threatened to spread malicious rumors about me if I didn't stop. I didn't want to risk my career so I ignored you because he has a lot more resources than you think. Please don't think I did it because I wanted to. To be honest, in the time I ignored you, I was so blue. I wanted to talk to you so bad but he was always watching us. Today... I don't know what overcame me today. But I knew you were in trouble and I had to be there for you no matter what. I'm sorry, Miyoung. I really am." Sungchan explains and I smile.

"I understand... I forgive you. My brother had a girlfriend for a week and after they broke up she threatened to spread a rumor that he was a bad boyfriend if he didn't stop hanging out with some girl. I totally get it okay? And thank you for today.. I was really surprised that you did that actually, but I'm so thankful that you did." I say and Sungchan smiles. My heart starts beating again. Why is he making me feel this way?

"But... Byunghoon was there. What about your career?" I ask, worried. Sungchan just laughed.

"I'm pretty sure you scared him off. Don't worry about him. I'm sure I'll be fine." He says.

"And besides, I did it because I care about you. I also wanted to protect you." Sungchan says, coming closer to me.

There goes my heart again.

.