Meant To Be » 𝐉𝐀𝐊𝐄

» XVII «

Sunghoon was the first person to leave the classroom when the last bell rang. Jay glanced at him as he was walking out and stuffed his books into his bag in a hurry before turning to me.

“You said that you'll be free tomorrow, right?” He asked.

I nodded, “I don't have any plans for tomorrow as of now.”

“Great, then I can invite myself over to your place,” he grinned.

“Wait, you're really trying to come over to my place?”

“Of course, remember you said you won't be allowed to go out.”

“Ah...well, okay, if you want to,” I laughed.

He stood up with a smile, “I'll see you tomorrow then, bye.”

He waved and rushed out, supposedly running after Sunghoon. I had eventually started packing up slowly, when someone sat backwards on the chair in front of me.

“Jungwon—” I paused as soon as I looked up to see Jake, resting his chin on his hands while he looked at me with a smile.

“I'm not Jungwon.”

“I thought you already left. You're not leaving early today?” I questioned with an embarrassed chuckle.

He browsed around the room for a moment, “Just wanted to make sure that nobody disses you after school when we're all gone. They haven't bothered you, right?”

I shook my head proudly, “Not even a little. They'll stop if I find some more friends to shut them up so don't worry about it.”

“It really surprised me when I heard that they targetted you, out of all people, to stir up drama.”

“I'm used to being seen as the main person to start a problem, so it wasn't as surprising for me, actually,” I stood up from my seat and he did as well.

“It's good if you know how to handle it. Where is Jungwon? I thought he always comes this side to walk out with you.”

“Yeah, I was waiting for him to be honest. He's taking longer than expected today,” I looked down at my watch as the last person left the classroom, leaving me and Jake alone.

Jake released a breath, “We're walking pass his classroom anyway so we should just go and see what's keeping him busy.”

I merely bobbed my head once and carried my bag before walking out of the room with him. I looked everywhere except for his side as I was reminded of what had happened the day before.

“Look,” he started, “I want to apologise for my action yesterday, if I had made you uncomfortable.”

“What? No,” I laughed awkwardly, “I wasn't uncomfortable at all, you literally saved me, you don't need to apologise.” Dang, he's actually straightforward about what happened.

He chuckled, “Acting like nothing happened or as if it wasn't a big deal would just lead to us having more questions about it so, I just wanted to make myself clear.”

“E-Eh?” Can he read my mind or something?

He grinned, “Nothing. There he is,” he shifted his gaze to Jungwon, who was busy writing something down in his notebook with a frustrated look on his face.

“What is he doing?” I furrowed my brows.

Jake took a clearer look inside the classroom, “There's a teacher inside. He probably got into trouble during class. He's currently writing his imposition, I assume.”

“Imposition? But he doesn't look like someone who'd end up with a punishment like that.”

“Maybe he got framed,” Jake chuckled and folded his arms, leaning back on the wall behind him.

Jungwon soon noticed our figures outside the room and he quickly motioned us to go on along without him before the teacher could see him. I nodded and waved at him before nudging Jake's arm.

“Looks like he still has a long way to go with his imposition. Let's go,” I spoke, gripping onto my bag straps.

“Poor guy,” Jake exclaimed and took a brief look inside.

We were simply walking in the corridors when I noticed it was taking me longer than usual to walk out from the school building. Maybe it's because Jake walks slow, or it's because we took long pauses on the way.

“I overheard your plans with Jay for tomorrow,” he suddenly spoke, “I was actually trying to make up to you by inviting you over for lunch tomorrow.”

“Oh, make up for what?”

“For suddenly stopping to reach out to you. I bet I made you feel bad with my selfless actions,” he grimaced.

“No, not at all,” I laughed, “It's all good, we all have those days. I mean, I myself was in the wrong for doing the same thing to you.”

He looked down at his feet as we continued to walk, “Well, I still feel kinda bad about it. What do you say?”

“I...don't know. You know, Jay and I had already talked about hanging out this weekend a few days ago,” I spoke.

He turned to me and briefly nodded, “I won't force you further if you don't want to.”

“I-It's not that I don't want to—” I thought for a moment, “Honestly, it won't hurt Jay, right?”

He smiled, “It might or might not.”

“Ah...” I chuckled, “I'll cancel it for you then.”

“Really?” He beamed, his smile never faltering.

I nodded with a grin, “I actually prefer to hang out with you more than to talk about the same topic with Jay for the whole day.”

He laughed, “Is that so?”

“Yeah, I need to take a break from all the conspiracy theories from time to time.”

“I agree. Then, shall we meet up somewhere? Or do you want me to—”

“Let's meet up at a given time.”

P O V

“Cancelled? Why?” Jay spoke in confusion to Emma through the phone. He remained quiet as she explained and merely nodded.

“Wow, so you're picking me over Jake?” He jokingly uttered but there was a hint of anger and jealousy in his tone.

The person from the other line laughed awkwardly before continuing to excuse herself and telling him that they could postpone it to another day unless he wanted to tag along.

“I don't want to third wheel,” he rolled his eyes, “Oh, well. I guess changing the date won't be much of a problem.”

He remained silent for a few seconds before humming, “Sure. Sunday, got it. See you then.”

He chuckled, “Goodnight.”

He waited the latter to hang up as he stared at the screen of his phone before placing it beside him on his bed. He rubbed his face with both his hands and laid down on the soft mattress with a sigh. If he does anything to make her avoid me, I swear.

© 2022 -JAKISM