|JAKEHOON| Unique in All the World

23

"Hey, Jake! Over here!"

As Huening Kai was waving his hand, Somi and Taehyun froze. As they saw a brown-haired boy jogging over to where they were, the two slowly turned to Sunghoon. 

The raven-haired boy had a stoic expression on his face. It was void of any emotions, so much so that it was almost frightening. 

"Uh- I forgot, but Sunghoon and I had a thing we had to do !" Somi exclaimed as she grabbed Sunghoon's arm and tried to pull him away from the cafeteria. 

However, the raven-haired boy didn't budge.

Somi pulled harder at his arm. "Come on, man. We've got to go."

Sunghoon turned to look at his friend who was offering him an easy way out. She didn't know what exactly had happened the day before, but she was willing to make up an excuse so that he wouldn't be uncomfortable. 

Sunghoon was grateful to have a friend like Somi, but he was done with the easy way out.  He had avoided Jake before and it had done him no good. Now, all he wanted was to go through no matter how uncomfortable things would get. 

"No," he said. "We don't."

The raven-haired boy stood his ground as he watched Jaeyoon jogging toward him. He watched as the boy faltered in his steps and the smile ran away from his face. 

"Jake! This is Taehyun! The pen-pal I told you about!" Huening said to Jake as he gestured at Taehyun.

"Hey," Jake said to Taehyun, his voice slightly shaking. 

"Um... Hi," Taehyun replied hesitantly. 

Time seemed to have stopped for everyone except for the enthusiastic exchange student from Hawaii. 

"Great! I don't know if you've met, but this is Somi," Kai said gesturing to Somi before nodding at Sunghoon. "And um... I'm so sorry, I forgot your name-"

"Sunghoon," Jake said as he looked into the raven-haired boy's eyes. They were piercingly sharp, but Jake could see the glimmer of pain that they held deep inside.

"Oh yeah!" Kai exclaimed. 

"Um..." Kai looked around the group in confusion. "So... are we waiting for someone?" 

"Erm, no!" Somi said. "Let's go eat."

Somi's words were meant to sound eager, but everyone but Huening entered the building as if attending a funeral. 

The five students found a round table that they could sit together. As they were approaching the table, Somi quickly beckoned at Taehyun to go to the other side of Sunghoon so that they could take the seats next to the raven-haired boy.