1996 | Y.Jw

| 36 |

Jungwon had made it a habit of his to grab my hand the moment he woke up each morning, and would usually refuse to let it go before our first class began. He would hold it while eating breakfast, while brushing his teeth, in the car on the way to school, walking through the hallways, whenever we would sit in our seats waiting for class to start.

It was almost as if he was too scared to let go of me, like I would disappear the moment he did let go. And surely this morning was no different from all the others. 

Once we had stepped into school Jungwon had tightened his grip around my hand and pulled me in closer to him in order to not lose me in the large mass of people rushing around.

"I was thinking... we could watch a movie when we get home today," Jungwon commented as he nudged a person aside in order for us to pass by them, "Soomin had some, where going to a prom and such was the main event," he waved it off before looking down at me, "I was thinking it would be nice... I told her to get oranges for you as well."

"Hmmm, that's nice," I murmured quietly as he tugged me into the classroom, "but is it any good movie?"

"Soomin said so," he nodded as he dropped his bag down by his usual seat and I wandered over to my own seat, "she said it was quite cute and such..."

"Hmm, sounds nice," I nodded in agreement as Jungwon happily squeezed my hand, "will there be any day where I can use both my hands in the morning?" 

"Absolutely not a chance," he proudly shook his head in return.

I smiled softly at him as I tried to pull my hand from his grip, he did not even budge once. Didn't even loosen his grip on my hand, so I was just left struggling to pull my hand out of his grip, all the while small laughs escaped from both of us.

"I have a suspicion," Tiffany declared her thoughts loudly as she stepped into the classroom.

I immediately gave up my attempts of pulling my hand out of Jungwon's grip by the sound of her voice. Possibly because it tended to give me migraines lately.

"Oy, cheer up," Jungwon murmured and poked my cheek to pull the corner of my lip up slightly.

"I suspect that you are one of those commies wandering around in our school to hide from the authorities," Tiffany announced as she sat down in her seat and turned to Jungwon and I, "aren't you Jillian?"

"Oh my god she's dumber than I thought," I murmured and rubbed a hand over my face, "no, Tiffany. I am not some randomly escaped prisoner from whatever prison," I sighed at her, "can't you get that into that thick skull of yours."

"Oh yeah? You suddenly show up out of the blue and is a new student, but not only that. You suddenly get some insane flu that has you sick for almost a week. Don't you think that's a bit suspicious?" Tiffany questioned and I simply snorted before shaking my head.

"Tell me... have you never been sick?" Jungwon chuckled in amusement, "it's the winter months, of course she's more prone to be sick and for a longer time."

"I find it suspicious, and I plan on telling on you by the end of the day," she huffed and I immediately looked towards Jungwon, "something is off about her."

"If she was one of those prisoners do you then suppose they would be going to the Christmas Ball?" Jungwon questioned confidently making Tiffany frown at us.

"No of course not," she snorted, "only if they had someone to spy on."

"Well..." Jungwon trailed off, "then I can calm you down by informing you that Jillian and I are going to the Christmas ball together... and we will be enjoying it just like anybody else."

"I'll have to see it before I believe it," Tiffany sneered as she looked me up and down.

"Well... then it seems like you can't turn her in before then, can you?" Jungwon questioned with a sarcastic smile printed onto his face.

I smiled softly in return as I looked over at him. Meanwhile his sarcastic smile slowly turned into one that looked proud and satisfied.

"I can," Tiffany remarked, "and then it'll be too bad, because they'll have to take her in for questioning at least, and then who are you gonna go to the Christmas ball with?"

"I'm only gonna go with Jillian," Jungwon shook his head with a small shrug.

"Are you sure? I don't have anyone to go with yet," Tiffany remarked with a small smile.

"I understand that," I murmured making Jungwon let out a small series of coughs as an attempt to hide his snort.

"If I am not going with my girlfriend I don't want to go," Jungwon shook his head as he managed to compose himself.

"Oh right... that is your girlfriend," Tiffany murmured as she looked back at me once again, eventually (finally) turning back to her desk, leaving Jungwon and I alone.

"I can't stand her," I whispered quietly.

"No way, you don't say. I hadn't noticed," Jungwon gasped in an overdramatic way, "try and show it more next time."

"Gladly," I muttered and he snickered in amusement.

He hummed quietly as he looked to the table, slowly his eyebrows furrowed together as if he was thniking about something. When he carefully wettened his lips I was only confirmed in my suspicion of him being lost in deep thoughts.

"I was thinking..." he trailed off before sighing and leaning back in his chair, "maybe... before we watch that movie after school, you could tell me what the trials were...?"

"Why do you want to know?" I chuckled quietly at him, trying to hide my confusion and discomfort with the idea, "they're not happening anymore."

"I suspect your nightmares have somethnig to do with them," he shrugged casually, "and... Sunoo told me the car you and Emi chased was one of the trial cars. So there were cars involved."

"I'll tell you it shortly now," I sighed at him and he immediately turned his whole body towards me and gave me his undivided attention, "you know before us girls were set up with you boys we went through the trials."

"I've heard so," he hummed with a small nod.

"So what they did was... we were driven to another lab somewhere else. In those cars, that's why we recognized it. They basically ran a whole lot of tests on us, and I guess... we're still not sure of this. But we think they put us in some sort of coma and had us live through various scenarios in our heads," I murmured with a small frown, "we're not completely sure, but we have a lot of different traumatic, I guess you could say, experiences from that time."

"Oh..." he slowly trailed off with a small nod, "that makes sense..."

"It does?" I questioned and he immediately nodded at me.

"They were always so obssessed with our brainwaves," he reminded and I slowly nodded in agreement, "so it sort of makes sense that they'll put you in these trances to expose you to various scenarios, no matter how traumatic, while reading your brainwaves," he shrugged casually, "it is technically one of the only ways they could expose you to terrifying things without physically harming you."

"I hate that you sound to be correct," I sneered, making him chuckle at me before simply ruffling my hair carefully.