When We're Together [양정완]

19.

The students of Class 3, Aera included, nervously awaited the arrival of the new male student. The clock hit 8:00 am and, just on time, a tall, wavy haired male entered the class along side Mrs. Jeon.

"Oh my go-" Yoona was cut short by a kick in the shin, delivered by none other than her deskmate.

The unfamiliar male stood in front of the class with an intimidating stare. Aera had to admit, he had the visuals of a model.

"Hello, my name is Baek Junhyun. I will be joining your class today." He bowed politely and Aera smiled at him.

Throughout the class, she noticed her friends taking peeks at him, but it was pretty obvious considering that most of them sat at the front and the boy was in the far back.

When the bell finally rang at noon to let the students out for lunch, almost all of the students flocked to the boy's desk, drowning him in questions. Aera, who had planned to try to get to know the boy, decided she would wait until he was free to talk to him. She looked around the class, noticing a few other people still in their seats, or about to leave.

Kim Sunoo was sitting at his desk, playing a game on his phone. Aera made her way to his desk and knocked on it. "Huh? Oh, Aera." he said once he noticed it was her. "What's up?"

The girl bent down to whisper in his ear. "Do you know anything about the new guy?" Sunoo paused his game and eyed the girl standing beside him. "Huh? Why?"

"I want to get to know him, but I feel bad becoming part of that group of interrogators, so I'm going for a more indirect approach." she explained as she sat on the chair in front of Sunoo. "So?"

"Why would I know?" he averted his gaze back to his phone and continued his game.

Aera raised an eyebrow at the boy. "You know everybody. You're Kim Sunoo." The boy failed to hide a grin as he heard her words. He quietly shut off his phone and turned to her with crossed arms. "Fine. I heard something about him having studied in Japan for a while. Apparently that's why he's coming back right now, something with the system there didn't line up."

"Ah, I see." Aera nodded, "Anything else?" The boy thought for a second before shaking his head. "I'll tell you if I figure out anything interesting though."

Aera smiled and thanked the boy before walking back to her desk to grab her things. She swung her bag over her shoulder and was about to leave the room, when a deep voice called from behind. "Excuse me."

She turned to find the classroom was now completely empty except for her and Junhyun. Even Sunoo had somehow disappeared.

The girl pointed to herself, "Me?" The new boy nodded at her with a slight smile. "What's your name?"

~~~

After lunch, Yang Jungwon, along with some of his friends, made his way to the gym for PE/Health Fitness. Usually the class was pretty boring, so none of the boys were really looking forward to it.

They changed into their PE uniforms and made their way to the gym. They were about to start playing around with a basketball when Jungwon saw something out of the corner of his eye. He quickly passed the ball he was holding to Sunoo and muttered, "I'll be right back."

He turned to see Chae Aera and the same boy he had seen in the photo that morning walking and laughing together. The two went to sit on the bleachers. Jungwon pursed his lips. He walked over to where they were sitting and casually placed himself beside Aera.

"Oh? Jungwon, this is Baek Junhyun!" Aera smiled with that cute, sunny-eyed smile she liked to do. Why did she have to look so pretty today? "And Junhyun, this is Yang Jungwon."

The boys stared at each other for a moment before they forced smiles at each other. "Nice to meet you." Junhyun muttered through gritted teeth. Just then, their coach/teacher, Mr. Hwang, blew his whistle.