Meant To Be » 𝐉𝐀𝐊𝐄

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“Emma, I won't be able to pick you up today. Is that okay with you?” Chris grimaced as soon as he hit the brakes.

“Why?” I looked at him.

“My parents insisted that I spend today with them and have dinner at their place. You'll be okay with it, right?”

“Uhm...sure. I'm old enough to take care of myself,” I nodded, quite unsure.

“Okay, good. I would ask you to go with me but I know that you're going to refuse.”

I laughed, “Yeah. Don't worry much about me, by the way. No unnecessary calls, alright?”

“Alright,” he grinned, “You know who to call if there's an emergency.”

៚ · •

“Good morning, Emma,” Jay greeted first just like every morning.

“Good morning,” I smiled before sitting down behind him. I cringed as I suddenly remembered our conversation the previous night. I might be overthinking but what if he really likes me?

Jake walked in with Sunghoon again that morning but he didn't even bother to share a glance at me. Sunghoon, on the other hand, shot me another glare. Why does he have beef with me? I furrowed my brows.

I took out the notebook where I had noted down the ways I could get closer to finding more about Youngjae. I striked off Jake and Sunghoon from it and left only Jay on it.

I pursed my lips as I stared at it. Maybe he found me weird as well when he heard about what I was interested in yesterday.

I took out another notebook where I wrote down each cases about the "biting" situation and jotted down the things I remembered hearing from the news before I had left for school.

Jay slightly turned around before fully turning around, “There's another one?”

I hummed while continuing to write. He watched as I did. “What would you do if your theories are correct?” He suddenly asked, making me look up at him.

“Uh...probably follow the ways I came up with on how we can stop the massacre? I would submit a copy of my notes to the government and hopefully, they make good use of it,” I answered as I nodded.

“Oh? What kind of ways? Can I take a look?” He asked.

“Sure, I guess. I'm not really sure if it'll work though,” I spoke as I handed him a particular book.

He quietly read it and continued to flip the pages. I picked on my nails as he did. I felt flustered since it was the first time someone had offered to look at the nonsense I note down.

“You clearly don't believe in the myth about vampires, do you?” He chuckled.

“Obviously. Those people can suck other people's blood but still live and walk around under the sun. If they can do that they can probably eat garlic and react normally when they see a cross,” I stated.

Jay merely nodded before handing me back the book, “You have a point. So, you mentioned a type of weapon here. What do you mean by that?”

“Ah, just a tiny weapon you can carry around with you all the time. Preferable a pepper spray? That way, you won't kill anyone but hurt them to distract them so that you'll have the time to run away.”

“Impressive, do you have it with you right now?” He asked.

“Yeah, I always bring it with me ever since I moved here. I thought a lot of people will try to take advantage of me since I'm a foreigner.”

“Makes sense. I wouldn't have gotten mugged if I had one with me when I was younger,” he randomly spoke.

“What? You got mugged?”

“I sure did. I'd tell you the whole story but you probably want to focus on the class for the rest of the day again.”

I cackled, “It's alright. We could talk about it after school? I can stay out a little late after school.”

“If you say so. No ditching.”

៚ · •

“Hey, why are you following us?” Jay asked Jungwon, who was walking beside us.

Jungwon looked at him, “Emma invited me to tag along.”

Jay turned to me and asked in English, “Did you?”

“Yeah. I need to make up for yesterday, he asked to hang out after school but I wasn't able to then so I'm treating him today,” I grinned.

“So, where are we going?” Jungwon asked.

“The coffeehouse right next to my place,” Jay answered.

“Oh, nice. Why didn't Jake come along?” Jungwon turned to me.

“He...I didn't ask him—”

“He stopped talking to Emma so we supposed he won't want to join us,” Jay answered instead of me. I smiled awkwardly while Jungwon stared at me in confusion.

“I thought you two would end up being best friends. What happened? Jake doesn't do that. I've never seen him being friendly and then suddenly shutting out someone,” Jungwon spoke.

I merely chuckled, “Maybe it's something I said...let's not think too deep about it.”

Jungwon nodded and we continued to walk in silence before he spoke up again, “Did you bring up Youngjae?”

I instantly got flustered but managed to act dumbfounded, “Who?”

“Ah...never mind,” Jungwon grimaced.

I released a breath and gripped onto the straps of my bag. That was close...

៚ · •

“Alright, see you tomorrow,” I waved at the two of them as we got ready to leave for our own homes.

“Hold on, Emma. It's quite late and the way to your house is gonna be a bit eerie since the roads are always deserted and I believe you're going home on foot, don't you want me to walk you home?” Jay insisted.

“I'll be fine. I got my spray with me, don't worry about me,” I spoke in between my chuckles. People should stop worrying about me. I can take care of myself.

“I'm really concerned but if you're that sure about being okay going home alone, I won't push further. Get home safely, you two,” he bobbed his head once.

“We will. Emma, make sure to sneak in one plushie to school tomorrow,” Jungwon gave me a thumb up and I grinned as I nodded.

We parted our ways and I shifted my bag as I turned to a corner. I immediately widened my eyes when I noticed that Jay wasn't being dramatic when he said the roads were eerie and deserted.

I shook off my thoughts and decided to walk through it, keeping my hand ready to pull out the spray if anyone jumped out from the corners to tackle me.

My eyes discreetly browsed every corner as I continued to walk through the quiet road.

Just as I was about to step away from the eerie road, I was grabbed from my bag as the person pulled me back and helped me dodge a man who jumped from a corner I had missed to observe.

The guy who pulled me away from the man's attack stepped in front of me defensively while facing the man, “Get lost.”

I peeked to see that the man was about to scoff and make fun of the guy when the man suddenly turned pale and ran for his life.

I sighed in relief as I clutched onto my chest, feeling my racing heartbeat, “Thank you so much!”

The guy turned around with a worried expression, “You didn't get hurt, did you?” He asked.

I nodded and looked up at him, just to freeze on the spot as I saw Jake at first glance. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes before looking at him again. I got even flustered after clearly seeing who it was.

“Heeseung?”

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