YOUR FLOWERS

06: rejection

"Oh, look who's here." Haeun says snarkily, nudging Jinae with her elbow. When Jinae takes a glance at where Haeun is looking, she snaps her head back and covers her mouth with her hand, making Haeun laugh hysterically.

"Haeun! you should have told me that he was there!" She says, frantically fixing her hair and checking her earlobes to make sure she has earrings in. It's what makes her feel pretty.

"I just did! But it's ok, he's gone now. Not meaning to crush your dreams or anything, but he didn't even see you." Haeun comments matter-of-factly, not wanting to lie to her friend to give her the temporary high of 'my crush noticed me!' when it wouldn't even be real.

"Oh, good!" Jinae sighs, making Haeun side eye her a little. Good? Why would she be happy about not being noticed by someone that she likes so much? Love is so weird. Haeun mentally sighs for her friend. "I look horrible!" She explains a little, still nervously brushing through her hair with her fingers. Haeun laughs quietly this time. Her friend has never been like this until she met Jake. And thankfully, they have actually spoken at least once, so they do know each other just a bit and Jinae is not just creepily admiring him from afar.

Like someone who's name begins with a 'Y' and ends with an 'ejin'.

"Shut up, you look perfect." Haeun assures her, gently taking her hands away from fixing herself. "Now just be confident and you'll be more than perfect." She adds, making Jinae smile at her friend gleefully.

When they finish talking about their biology exam, and what it may consist of, a tall boy approaches them and looks at Haeun serenely. To be honest, that look freaks her out, because this boy isn't just some boy. He's more like 'the boy', because everyone knows him so well. And it's definitely not for good reasons. The serene look doesn't suit Park Jay one single bit, and he is mistaken if he thinks it makes him look innocent to Haeun. Which is what he thought and is what Haeun rightfully assumed.

The fact that he is solely known for toying around with girls and breaking their hearts makes Haeun not want to talk to him already. But it's a bit too late when he locks eyes with her and begins speaking. "Hey." He says simply.

The boy is handsome, tall and relatively expensive looking if you will, so no wonder so many girls fall for the trap hidden beneath his shiny dress shoes and ever so slightly loosened up tie. But Haeun always thinks beyond such thing. It's a habit at this point: to look through people's appearances for who they really are inside and judge them off of that. She doesn't know Jay very much, due to her lack of interest and patience for people like him, but he clearly has a ridiculously terrible personality, so if he is here to come and trick her too, she certainly won't be falling for it.

"Hi...?" Haeun answers awkwardly, trying super hard not to make her greeting sound like a question, but apparently her brain just can't allow that.

"So I'll just cut straight to the chase...I was wondering if you'd like to um..." He starts, sounding really uncomfortable, but smiling softly yet awkwardly. But Haeun knows that all this is can only be a great deal of wonderful acting, coming from piles of tossed away relationships worth of experience. Being a renowned school player comes with the skills, doesn't it? "You're really pretty, and I'd love to take you out." He blurts out, the whole hallway staring at them now, anticipating Haeun's answer. meanwhile, she just wants to laugh at the way this clearly confident guy is speaking as timidly as possible, but she doesn't. That would probably be really rude.

"Um...I'm sure you're a great person." Haeun lies, trying to sugar coat what she's about to say next, to cushion the impact a little. "But sorry, I'll have to say no. I don't really know you very well. Especially personally" She explains.

"What? You don't know me?" He mumbles in disbelief, making the people in the hallway laugh like the background audience of a comedy show. "Damn, you're really getting on my nerves." He clenches his jaw, the laughter of the crowd triggering him. Or maybe it's just scratching his pride a little.

"Then don't come and strike up a conversation with me?" Haeun snaps back, making the hallway fill up with 'ooh!'s, as if she had just won a rap battle or something.

"You know what, f*** you. Absolute b****." The boy mumbles, about to walk away, but Haeun wasn't taking it.

"What?" She scoffs, now glaring at him menacingly. He turns around, his eyes venom. But Haeun doesn't show a splint of fear as she stands there. She's not even close to being scared of such a loser. Plus, the hallway is clearly rooting for her right now.

She ignores Jinae's little warning whisper of her name, signaling that she should probably not say anything. Haeun doesn't care. She's not going to let people go around and call her things like that. She's not going to let people swear at her because they're such losers that they cannot accept the fact that they've been rejected because they are a terrible person. People like this deserve a real whooping on the butt.

"What do you mean what? Do you really want me to answer that? Hey, maybe you should watch your tongue." He says, lifting up a fist above Haeun's head height. She finds this confusing, if not mildly amusing. He's picking a fight right here in this hallway? A hallway full of people? What a stupid way to tarnish your reputation. Maybe he doesn't care though. His reputation is ruined enough anyway.

The next sudden few seconds play out in slow motion to Haeun. Someone grabs the idiot's wrist, and gripping it tightly, he steps in the space between Haeun and Jay. Haeun looks at the tall boy's hair, and realizes:

It's Sunghoon.

Haeun looks at Jinae who is already looking at her and they share a what-on-earth-is-going-on look before Haeun directs her attention back to the dramatic K-drama scene right in front of her.

"Oh man, didn't know she had a boyfriend." Jay says ominously, with Sunghoon still holding onto his wrist. Clearly, he was trying to be funny, but no one in the hallway is laughing anymore. He went a step too far with that fist of his. "Damn, let go. Blood is gonna stop flowing to my hand."

Sunghoon lets go, but trains his glare on the boy in front of him. He still doesn't deny the boyfriend part but instead he says: "Why don't you stop being such a loser, Jay?" He says 'Jay' with so much disgust, that you would think they were the worst enemies ever in their past lives.

"Are you picking a fight with me?" Jay answers with another question, even though he knew he would be dead doing that. That grip on his wrist was intense; there's still a red hand mark where Sunghoon's clutch lay.

"No, I'm just telling you to back off." Sunghoon replies, still glaring with fire filled eyes. He looks so mad that even Jinae is standing cooped up beside Haeun, shivers coldly being sent down her spine.

"Fine. But this isn't the last you'll see of me." He smirks and walks away, taking a glance at Haeun on his way and making a sour face. What he said totally made her think of every villain in any show ever.

The hallway goes back to not paying attention to them, and Haeun opens her mouth to thank Sunghoon, but he just walks away like nothing ever happened. He doesn't even take one look back at her.

She closes her mouth, her feet frozen to the spot that she is standing in. Unsure and overwhelmed by everything that just rolled out in front of her like an uncontrollable landslide, she looks over at Jinae and they share that same look again. Though this time it's more of a what-on-earth-just-happened.