Pandora's Box | kim mingyu & jeon wonwoo

14

Despite the confrontation I had witnessed between Nayoung and our peers, I was still surprised when I found out that Nayoung had not shown up to school the next day. I imagined it was because of what had occurred between her and the girls, and I imagined I played a big part in her absence too.

For a moment, I was overwhelmed with a sense of guilt mixed in with a bit of relief. Guilt, because I hadn't apologized ye. Relief, because I didn't have to face her yet.

I was so out of it, that I decided against picking Wonwoo up on my way to school. This was unheard of. I always picked Wonwoo up, and I had not missed a day since we became friends my second year in junior high. 

Even on the days where seeing him would cause me pain, I would bear it and see him anyway.

But there had been something about his disappointment in me that cut me so deeply; I didn't want to see him, not until I had to.

In the end, it had been Wonwoo who had reached out to me first. I had been in the middle of walking with Seokmin and Myungho to the local arcade when my phone suddenly vibrated. Wonwoo's text had been simple:

Wonwoo:

meet me at the back of the main building. don't take too long.

I ran so fast my legs had ached for days.

"Wonwoo?"

The sky was starting to turn orange by the time I had made my way back to the school. It was far from empty, of course, as normal club activities were still in session. Still, as I walked the back of my school's building, I could not help but be consumed by a sense of eeriness.

I had always been a bit of a scaredy-cat.

"I'm here," Wonwoo called back to me. Once he said it though, my eyes had already found him. He was sitting on the floor, and part of me was ready to chide him for getting his uniform dirty. I did not. I was not sure where we stood after our last talk. Anyway, considering there was nothing but a dumpster back here, it was impossible to miss Wonwoo.

"Sorry I took so long," I apologized, deciding to stand right in front of Wonwoo. Still, I was unsure of letting my eyes land on him so up close. "I was on my way to the arcade with some friends."

Wonwoo nodded at that, but he did not offer up a smile. "Sorry, I didn't expect you to have plans. Just figured this was pretty important."

I could not help but feel that something had ripped here. Small talk for us was the easiest thing in the world; I loved talking to Wonwoo. I never had to think about the words coming out of my mouth, I never had to guess whether Wonwoo meant what he said. Until that moment, I had not realized how much I just wanted to fucking talk to him without the thought of Nayoung lingering between us.

Frustrated, I blurted out, "So is this what you called me for? Are we just going to stand here?"

Annoyed, he replied, "No, I guess not. But you didn't have to be such an ass about it. Of course, you've been making that a bit of a habit lately, haven't you?"

I said nothing to that and instead decided to answer the question I know he was dying to ask me. "I haven't apologized to Nayoung yet if that's what this is about," I noticed the way he opened his mouth to jump at me but I was quick to put a stop to it, "not because I don't want to. I just haven't been able to catch her, that's all." I looked at him and watched the way he sat there, looking at me but thinking of her. I wanted to cry. I did not. "Besides, Nayoung has bigger things to worry about than some shit I said to her some days ago."

"What are you talking about?" Wonwoo snapped.

I wanted to laugh cruelly, but I did not. "Yesterday. I was on my way to the shack, putting some gym equipment away when I heard some girls ganging up on Nayoung. I don't think it got physical, but they definitely verbally berated her," I shrugged, going for a careless look, "I mean if I were her, I wouldn't have come to school either if I found out half of the female population hated me. I mean-"

"And you didn't do anything?" Wonwoo was standing now, and his tone had gone from concern to something I had never heard before. "You just stood there?"

As I tilted my head to meet his gaze, I tried my best to straighten my composure and come off as serious as possible. I didn't want to seem like I couldn't read the room. "I didn't do anything," I replied, unable to hold back my defensiveness. "If you're going to be upset with anyone, be mad at the girls who called her there and ambushed her," I said, turning my head away from him again and shaking my head, "blame Nayoung for being so insufferable."

Thinking back on it now, I like to think that I could feel the shift in his attitude. That somehow, I knew what was coming before it happened. The truth was, however, that I was taken completely by surprise.

I hadn't even processed when Wonwoo placed a hand on one of my shoulders and turned us around, my back suddenly to the wall. I couldn't think of a reason why he looked so upset, and why his face was beat-red. My brain refused to think of why he reached out and punched me right across the face with all his might.

I stumbled back, crashing straight into the school building's brick wall. At the collision, my head began to throb. I didn't get to wallow in my pain, however, as Wonwoo was quick to shove against me and push me harder against the wall. He got close to my face, his breaths tickling my nose and my groans likely doing the same to him. "You're a fucking coward Mingyu," he spat, real anger behind his tone. He shook his head, disappointment, and disgust in his eyes. "You're walking garbage, that's what you fucking are." And after that, he was seemingly satisfied. He grunted and pulled away from me. After taking a couple of steps back, he looked me over once again and then cast his gaze to the floor, shaking his head once more.

As he turned around and began to walk away from me, all I could bring myself to do was watch. And as I slid down the brick wall and gently took a seat on the dirty ground, the only thing I could do was to think of tomorrow.

By tomorrow, this would all be over. By tomorrow, this would all blow over. It had to.

Wonwoo and I had a friendship that was written in the stars, and I just didn't see how this little spat could ever come in between that.

I was wrong.