frivolous || yang jungwon

001

The classroom was filled with the soft hum of whispered conversations and the occasional shuffle of papers.

Some students were focused, taking notes or working on assignments, while others glanced around or whispering to a neighbor. Posters and educational materials decorated the walls, and a clock ticked steadily in the background.

And in the middle of the whole scene was her.
Her hair covered the earphones she put in to try and fade out the annoying clock and the teacher's annoying voice.

Which obviously didn't work despite the noise cancelling she made sure to include as an option when buying her brand-new earphones that of course costed her mother a whole fortune.

And now they didn't work either.
She forcefully pulled them out, loudly drawing the attention of the people around her.

Her classmates turned to look at her. Afterwards they whispered and laughed.

Some things never change.

Eunji directed her eyes downward to look at her workbook. A shade of red suddenly making its way to her face. It was getting warm again.

Before her train of thought could continue Jungwon's feathery voice caught her off guard.

He brought his hand down again and answered the teacher's question with such enthusiasm that she internally scoffed to herself. His weirdly straight posture and constant smile was starting to get on her nerves.

Did he never get tired? Of being so... perfect? He did it so effortlessly it drove her mad.

How stuck-up. She thought and turned her attention away.

Silence.

Jungwon turned around to her.

Weird, he never did that before.

She watched his eyes widen as his eyebrows were furrowed in confusion.

Did she— Her heart stopped, the shade of red on her face deepening drastically that she thought she would die from the additional heat.

She had said it out loud.

And it ended up in Jungwon crying and their classmates hating her even more than before.

That happened in third grade.
Almost a decade has passed since that fateful incident and Eunji still felt like she owe him a huge apology.
He cried for god's sake! Of course, he did! That boy couldn't stand anyone disliking or thinking ill of him. Especially when he tried so hard for others to like him.

Especially when Eunji had no reason to insult him the way she did.

Especially when he did nothing wrong. He was an angel. To this day.

Not a lot has changed after that. She was still a loner. But of her own accord. She was still considered, let me recite, pointy headed. A nickname she definitely did not ask for.

And to this day she still didn't understand why Jungwon hadn't hit her in the face yet for humiliating him back then. Somehow they ended up in the same class every year and had never spoken to each other again.

Except for a few polite greetings and smiles from his side there was nothing. Not enough substance to create a significant relationship such as friendship or even acquaintances.