betwixt - enhypen

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞: 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞

sim jake was the first person that joori saw when she took her seat in the auditorium. it took every fibre of her being to not walk straight out of the door she had just come through. to put it politely, she hated him. to put it bluntly, she fucking despised him.

the two had broken up before college started, and, all things considered, joori took the news well. she didn't cut her hair off, or dye it, and she didn't even hesitate when she deleted his contact.

but still, as she looked over at her ex, and the new person that he had become, she felt her heart sink: from the nose piercing to the jet black hair, and even the black jean jacket, he hardly resembled the boy she had dated mere months ago. it was a harsh slap of reality that he had moved on, and that he was in a new phase of his life: one without her.

unfortunately for her, she had devoted her life to him entirely, in the hopes that they would last forever. she had struggled through the summer alone and was ready to do the same for the next year. with no real friends, joori set herself up for a year of college with no expectations.

soon enough though, she felt disappointed. even if she had tried her best to move on, it hadn't worked. she still felt drawn to him, whether she wanted to be or not. her disappointment only grew when she saw the new girl that jake was with.

the girl leaned on jake's shoulder and whispered something that made him laugh. he looked up, over his shoulder at joori, and the girl felt her heart drop through her chest and into the floor. she sunk deeper and deeper into her chair, wanting the moment to end just as it had begun.

thankfully for her, getting to the room before the lecture started meant that she chose where she sat; which she chose to be as far away from him as possible; right at the back.

sitting at the back gave her a clear view of jake, but she wasn't constrained to just watching him: in fact, she could see almost anyone from where she was.

taking off her cardigan and using it as a cushion, she took her small pencil case out, and her new computer. looking at the syllabus that she had set as her background, she reminded herself that she had come to college to work towards her future and that he was barely worth her time.

not long after she had opened up her notes, the professor came in. she wore a smile, and made eye contact with joori, which made joori feel welcome for the first time that day.

joori had enrolled in two courses; politics and linguistics; but she had only one politics class every week to three linguistics classes. today, it was a linguistics class, so joori was happy to have a nice professor, to say the least.

she knew that jake would be in this class, unfortunately. she thought back to each time that he would mess up his korean, and she would correct him. he would get annoyed that her english was always perfect, and sneak her secret notes in front of his otherwise monolingual friends.

after both being the top two students in english at the school, the principal heavily encouraged them to pick linguistics at college, and at the time, it seemed like a great idea.

joori had her focus entirely on the work for the majority of the two hours that the class lasted. it looked like it would stay that way, until her concentration was interrupted by the back door opening in the middle of the aisle, a few seats from her.

it caught everyone's attention. he caught everyone's attention. clad in a black leather biker jacket, a black beanie and joggers to match, he stood out against the white room. for the first time, she heard the professor shout, and her tone alone scared her beyond reason.

"what do you think you're doing sir?" her voice echoed through the speakers around the auditorium.

"i'm here for a lecture," he spoke confidently. joori couldn't find even a trace of nervousness in his voice.