never | h.rj

6.

"Eunbin," Renjun said, fixing his tie. "Why did we have to come all the way up to the roof for this?" He asked, even though he was enjoying the refreshing feeling of the wind in his hair.

"We can't get caught, Renjun. I'm just being cautious." Eunbin replied. "I think people are starting to become suspicious. You already know what could happen if anyone finds out." She shot him a warning look.

"I think you're just paranoid." Renjun shrugged his shoulders. "We've been doing this for almost three years now, why would anyone find out now? Who would even care?"

"You'd be surprised," she scoffed. "We're the most popular couple in school, people would love to see us fall."

"Especially, Saito Mina."

Renjun froze at the mention of her name. For no particular reason other than the pure feeling of dread that came over him, remembering that he would have to work with her later on.

"Why do you say that?" Renjun tilted his head, running his fingers through his hair.

"You two hate each other and I know she's not too fond of me either," Eunbin said, kicking a rock that was sitting innocently by her shoe.

"It would be the highlight of her year if we were to be kicked out of Hayan."

Renjun hummed in response. "I guess you're right."

"I don't understand how you're always so unbothered. How can you be so calm about this?" Eunbin asked in pure exasperation.

Renjun is always coolheaded...except when it comes to Mina. And his dad. He has enough stress in his life already, so he sees no reason to purposefully add more by being tense about everything. He calls it, "choosing his battles".

Renjun didn't answer Eunbin's question. He just shrugged his shoulders, earning another scoff and an eye-roll from the girl.

"Come on, we need to get to class." She said, walking to the door.

"Eunbin," Renjun called. "Aren't you forgetting something?" He extended a stack of papers to the girl standing in front of him. She grabbed them and stuffed them into her book bag.

"Thanks."

~

"Ugh, you're insufferable," Mina exclaimed. She and Renjun had been trying to choose what type of project to do for this week but Renjun kept turning down all of her ideas.

"It's not my fault all of your ideas sound like you got them off of the back of a cereal box."

"Listen here, dipstick. It's Friday. The project is due Monday." Mina stated, tapping her finger on the table to add emphasis. "It was your idea to wait until Friday anyway. You can at least cooperate."

"Cooperation is not the problem. I'm not turning in an elementary-level project in high school." Renjun crossed his arms over his chest.

"Fine. You come up with the project, and if you can't, we'll write an essay." Mina checked the time on her phone. "You have twenty minutes."

While she waited for Renjun to miraculously pull a project idea out of his a-...brain, Mina scrolled through Instagram on her phone.

She came across a post from one of her old classmates, Kim Yerim. She used to be good friends with Mina and Renjun back in middle school. They only grew apart because she chose to go to a different high school.

Yerim attends Euntae High. The rival school of Hayan Academy, where Renjun and Mina attend.

Euntae's colors were the complete opposite of Hayan's. They wore black ties, black bottoms, and white button-down shirts. The thing that made their uniform stand out was the bright red blazer. They kind of resembled a school of vampires.

Similar to Renjun and Mina, the schools were constantly in competition. Whether it was sports, arts, or academics, one of them had to be the best at all three. Every three years, a large competition is held between the schools to rank them in each category.

So far, Hayan has been the best in every category except sports.

Mina studied the girl's picture of her in her school uniform. She couldn't help but notice how perfect her body looked in the uniform. A feeling of envy washed over the girl, distorting her view of her own figure.

"Earth to Mina," Renjun waved his hand in front of the girl's face, finally grasping her attention. "Hey dummy, I'm not going to explain this again so pay attention."

"We'll do a slide show presentation. I'll do the first five and you do the last five. We'll both work on the introduction and conclusion, got it?"

"How is this any better than my idea? This is boring." Mina complained.

"Well, I'm sorry that you think a sophisticated project is boring." Renjun retorted.

Mina's idea was to do an illustration. Renjun would have to do the illustration since Mina couldn't even draw a stick figure to save her life. She would write out the information and label the illustration. But Renjun called her idea immature.

Lacking the energy to protest, Mina just accepted and got to work.

~

As Mina was leaving, her phone chimed. She read the message, still standing outside of Renjun's house. It was from the demon himself, telling her that she left her purse and that he'd give it to her at school tomorrow.

Since she was still outside, Mina decided just to go back and get it. She didn't bother texting Renjun either.

Mina walked up the steps to the boy's bedroom. She normally would have knocked before walking in, but the door was open so she just walked in. However, she wasn't expecting to see Renjun standing there...shirtless.

"Umm, sorry I was just coming to grab my...purse." She stumbled back over to the desk, not taking her eyes off of him.

Ugh, what is wrong with you?

She squeezed her eyes shut to snap herself out of it.

Renjun couldn't help but smirk at how she became so flustered all of a sudden. His shirt was in his hand but instead of putting it on, he walked over to the desk to kindly hand Mina her purse.

When Mina opened her eyes they immediately fixated on his midriff. She could feel her face getting hot. She glanced up to see the smug look on Renjun's face. He was enjoying this too much.

"Who knew you were such a perv, Mina?"

"I really hate you so much." She snatched her purse out of hands and stormed out of the house.

Renjun stood there chuckling at her reaction. He had never seen a reaction quite like that from Mina, even in all of his years of knowing her.

Once she was in the clear, Mina placed the back of her cold hands onto her burning face to reduce the heat. She took deep breaths to regain her composure.

"Whyyyy" she whined, banging her head slowly on her steering wheel. "Why couldn't he be ugly?"

"He may be attractive but that doesn't change the fact that he's a total pain in the as- neck." She corrected herself.

Mina tries her best not to use profanity.

~

Renjun ran his hand over his side. He looked into the mirror and checked the skin near his rib cage.

"It's still visible..." he said. "Well, it's a good thing she didn't notice." He sighed, somewhat relieved but another feeling washed over him simultaneously. He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.