deshita | y.ji

six.

Jeongin was already waiting outside your home when you got out. You knew, your parents also knew. He has been knocking at the front door and politely asking your parents to tell you to rush your morning routine for him.

Strawberry jam and bread crumbs stained the corners of your mouth as you held your small breakfast steadily between your teeth. Jeongin grabbed a hold of the top of your school bag and held it away from you so you could fix the back of your blazer easier. You were grunting at him the whole time, whining and complaining about his tendency to rush to school, while he tried to talk over you about arriving at classes on time.

"Don't 'ugh' me! How many times do I have to tell you half an hour is not sufficient enough to go from our home to the school?" Jeongin exclaimed after he let your school bag bounce against your back.

You sighed in irritation. It was seven-thirty in the morning and he already found something unnecessary to bother you about. Your eyes rolled up to make your frustration more visible as you took the bread between your fingers, then you took a big bite of it with a harsh pull of your hand. You spoke and chewed at the same time. "We are literally never late to school."

"Almost late. We are sometimes almost late. More times than needed, too!" He argued and came to a stop at the bus queue. "Being scared of arriving at school late is not the exciting experience you think it is."

"Again, we are never late to school," you retorted, your voice muffled by the food. "This route and timeline has been proven to work just fine so what's the fuss? We are not that far away from school, Jeongin."

How should he explain this? He already did, technically.

Although you two were, indeed, never late to school, Jeongin never liked the idea of being late. He didn't like the risk of having the school gate close at his face, and then him having to climb over it and sneak into school. The worst-case scenario would either be having to return home and explain what happened to his parents or being chased around the front field by the teacher in charge and then be sent home because of tardiness anyway.

He did not like the anxiousness of shifting his gaze between the road and the clock in his phone, tapping his feet and clicking his tongue as he waited for the bus to stop so he could run to school.

You seemed to have no problem with it, though, which was quite typical of you. Curse his inability to break a cycle, but your mothers' establishment of the tradition of two always going to school together was impossible to break through. If you two were going to the same destination, you two were going together; you would be told to take care of each other, to look after each other. Never leave each others' side and come home together.

"I'm full," you muttered suddenly, not letting Jeongin a chance to continue his nagging.

He looked down at the half-eaten bread in your hand and frowned, but without further questions, he took it from your hand and shoved the food inside his mouth. "Already?" The word was very muffled.

You shrugged. "I didn't feel like eating today. Maybe I will after the big thing I plan to do today."

"What big thing?"

"I am confessing to Hyunjin."

Jeongin expected he would choke on the food, but he was abnormally calm about your suggestion. If anything, he was more suspicious than shocked at your decision to go after Hyunjin once again after your failure to do so on the official Valentine's Day. He finished swallowing the bread, taking an awful lot of energy to gulp the dry food down his throat to mirror his uncertainty, then he grimaced.

"Why?" He asked. "You didn't have the guts to do before. What makes you think you can do it now?"

You scoffed in disbelief. His lack of emotional support was unwelcome and unexpected. "Well! I thought I could confess before spring break, then I have the whole holiday to recover from my rejection–"