<< T o x i c >>

Panic

Joo Seokkyung isn't here to make friends. She wanted to get away from home. She wanted to get away from the weird domesticity inside her home, she wanted to get away from being a perfect family member, she wanted to get away from... home.

Weird isn't it? She craved a normal life, a quiet life, a peaceful life. And when she got exactly that, she ran away. Some people are just not used to warmth. She's not used to warmth. At least the warmth at home. She asked for spring, and the skies decided to give her a tropical climate. Be careful for what you wished for, they said.

And yet, all her mother could worry about was whether she has made any friends. Oh they talked, finally. 2 weeks of avoiding her finally ticked off Shim Suryeon. During the call she noticed how everyone at home calls her Mrs. Lee now. That's fine. But when Logan and her mom shared a smooch in front of her, she did nothing but smile awkwardly. That's the tropical climate she was referring to.

Sipping her cup of coffee, she flips through the pages of her textbook. It's late, the lights in the dorm hallways are out by now. But there she is, fully awake, fueled by the coffee to review her lessons.

She had gotten used to it now, staying up late, and working hard, although the most hard work she had done before coming here was memorizing the test answers ahead of time. But she doesn't know why, she wants to do something here. It's not like there are many options of things to do for her. So studying it is.

"SOOJIN NOONAA"

"NOONA HOW ARE YOU?"

"NOONA I WANT TO GO THERE DURING AUTUMN BREAK"

Her focus is broken by the shrieks of two boys coming from Soojin's laptop.

"YA YA SHUT UP WAIT--" Soojin faces Seokkyung and threw her an apologetic look.

"Sorry my brothers" she mouths those words while pointing at her laptop screen, showing two boys smiling from ear to ear, probably excited about seeing their sister.

Seokkyung waves her hand as a notion of telling her it's fine. It's not like Minhyuk and Jenny weren't loud when they called her in the middle of the night the other day.

"Noona, who's that? She's pretty" one of the boys said. Seokkyung spits the coffee she just sipped.

"Ya Kang Kijoon, think of something else. She's pretty but out of your league. Anyway how's school?"

Their conversation continued as a blur. Seokkyung was keen on finishing this review tonight. Drowning herself in her notes, she didn't realize Soojin had ended the call.

"Sorry for disturbing. Those boys can never not be loud" Soojin chuckled.

"Nah it's fine. My friends were loud too the other night"

"Your friends are a whole new level of loud tho"

They chuckled, and then they fall into an awkward silence. They've never been exactly this friendly before.

"Aight I'm gonna sleep, you better not beat me in tests Joo Seokkyung"

"Or else?"

"Or else my dad will come down here and beat the shit out of me"

_

"Help"

"What?"

"Help"

"Ya, Han Seojun, how desperate are you that you actually ask for my help?" Baek Kyung stares at him in disbelief.

"Fucking desperate. The test is in 2 days, and I can't even remember a single thing. I mean who the fuck speaks Latin?" Seojun runs his fingers over his hair frustratingly.

"No one. It's a dead language"

"THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE WE BEING TAUGHT THIS?"

"I don't know, ask the headmaster or whoever put Latin here in the first place" He shrugs.

"I thought French was hell, now I have to deal with Latin" he sighs before dropping his head onto his desk.

"Your seat mate's pretty good at it. Well actually she's good at them both"
Baek Kyung said, adjusting his tie in front of the mirror.

"Yea, how do you know?"

"Because" Baek Kyung extends his hand to his bed, searching for his bag. He panics a bit when he couldn't find his bag on his bed. He panics even more when he realized he had left his bag in the class yesterday.

"The songs she used to sing are French, and uh I think there are some in Latin idk, they sound the same to me. But that's that" He continued absentmindedly before giving a quick insincere smile then whisks himself away, running to Soojin's dorm.

"YA JOO SEOKKYUNG!" He shouts while running towards the girls' dorm, at the same time he sees Seokkyung walking out the dorm.

"Too late Kyung, she's already at the dining room. She's ready to kill you" she replies without even looking at him.

Baek Kyung closes his eyes and sighs. He's so dead, she's really gonna slap him in the dining room, or worse, pour milk all over him like she did last year.

Taking out his phone, he types a message to Soojin.

Kang Soojin

Ya, whatever you're gonna do
Please don't pour anything on me

Get your ass over here first.

He did. He stopped running before reaching the dining room door. He calmed himself before walking to her, trying not to catch anyone's attention.

"Soojin I--" he said while approaching her who is sitting down while eating her breakfast.

She stood up, and instead of slapping him, she gives him a smile, the creepiest smile he's ever seen coming from her.

"Care to join me for breakfast, Kyung?" she said, sliding over a bowl of cereal to him.

He sits down next to her.

Please don't pour anything on me please don't pour anything on me

He keeps repeating those words inside his mind like a prayer.

Soojin leans in closer to him, pulls him by the shoulder and whispers to him

"Leave one more mess for me to clean up for, and I swear to God I'm calling your grandfather to tell him you cheated on me with that whore Eun Dan Oh"