Mixed Blood

17: Say The Name

Three days after their Quelpart Island escapade, Section Rose Quartz was back in their classroom. Jieun, Zico, Sunmi and Chungha were minding their own business. Jessi was still talkative as ever. The seven "Dreamies", or so what they call themselves, were separated according to their soulmates. The thirteen friends were also huddled together in one corner of the classroom. Everything seemed totally normal, but there was more to this than meets the eye.

"Okay, so for your assignment, choose a piece of classical music and write an essay about what the composer may want to convey in their music," the Music teacher instructed. "For this assignment, I will allow you to work in pairs or trios. Please use the rest of the period to find your partners and discuss what you are going to do. The assignment is due tomorrow."

Immediately, the class erupted into restrained mumblings. Coincidentally, almost everyone reformed their groups from the Literature project. Jihoon was looking around, hoping to find someone else, but sighed heavily when Soonyoung was the only left without a partner.

"Uhm, do you want to do the assignment together?" Jihoon approached Soonyoung.

Soonyoung's smile vanished when Jihoon talked to him, "Oh, really? You want to work with me?"

Jihoon noticed Soonyoung's cold response, "I-if you want to."

"Ok, sure."

Jihoon was confused on why Soonyoung was acting cold with him. Usually, Soonyoung would either bicker with him or annoy the living daylights with him throughout the day.

"Maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He'll be fine later," Jihoon thought.

But, Jihoon was completely wrong. Even during lunch, Soonyoung was still acting cold.

"Yah, dwarf, could you move a little bit?" Jihoon told Soonyoung in his usual tone when talking to him. Unusually, Soonyoung just shuffled a bit to the side.

Jihoon thought Soonyoung was just having a bad day. However, Jihoon was sharp. He noticed that Soonyoung acted cold with him and not with everyone else. This greatly bothered Jihoon. He was not expecting this treatment from Soonyoung at all.

The cold treatment continued even in their Mathematics, Science and Literature class. The longer Soonyoung was ignoring Jihoon, the greater the guilt Jihoon was feeling. He did not even know if it was something he did.

Because their Vampirology class was still not meeting for the second time, Jihoon decided to utilize the extra free time to start working on their Music assignment.

"Uhm, dwarf? Can we start doing our Music assignment now?" Jihoon told Soonyoung while the thirteen of them were huddled together.

"Sure. Where do you want to do it?" Soonyoung replied flatly.

"How about the university garden? They have tables and chairs there," Jihoon suggested.

"Fine," Soonyoung simply replied.

The two of them ultimately reached the garden. It was peaceful and there was no else in there but them considering it was technically still classes hours.

"So, I am planning to write an essay about all of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Do you have any other ideas?" Jihoon started their work.

"Fine by me. You are the one who's more interested in music between the two of us," Soonyoung emotionlessly answered. "I'll just do whatever you need."

Jihoon's guilt increased. He didn't know what to do anymore. This side of Soonyoung was untested waters for Jihoon. He didn't know how to react.

To turn his mind away from his troubles, Jihoon started listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Afterwards, he started writing an essay on his own. He was afraid to ask Soonyoung for any help. He planned to hard carry the two of them for this particular assignment. However, it was not easy for Jihoon. Try as he might, he really couldn't concentrate. Yes, he had silence and he wasn't alone but the silence was downright awkward and his companion was absolutely ignoring him.