Promise; Lee Su-hyeok

016. Gut Feeling

1055 words
Dedicated to KimMisaAh <3

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"Fuck no."

Obviously, I'm quick to reject Ji-min's idea. Who wouldn't be? "Na-yeon is the last person that should be allowed to talk to him."

Still, everyone goes out of their way to look at Na-yeon, expectantly. She sits there, with her back straight and hands laying on her lap. As if expecting us to look at her, she answers right away. "Why should I?"

"He's like this because of you." Ji-min angrily rushes over to her, but On-jo grabs her arm and stops her.

"What did I do?"

I roll my eyes. At this point, she's just playing dumb. "Like you don't know. Did all that hair dye and makeup finally seep into your brain?" I blink, "If you even have one."

"Was it wrong to suspect him?" She looks around, chin held high once again. "You did too. Everyone did. It wasn't just me."

I cough, "Well, you see-"

"I always believed him," Cheong-san intersects. Dae-su raises his hand, "Me too."

"Well, I didn't," Ji-min admits. "She's right." 

I blow the hair out of my face. "Okay, that may be true, but you didn't insult him like she did." I glare at Na-yeon.

She blinks all innocently. "Why are you picking on me?" She whines.

I sigh, "Becau-"

Once again, I'm interrupted. "Cause you deserve it," Ji-min states bluntly. No sugar coating or anything.

"That's enough, Ji-min."

"No it's not." I half smile, "Ms. Park, I say this with all due respect, bu-" The rest of my sentence is muffled because On-jo covers my mouth with her hand.

Su-hyeok shakes his head, "N/n, no." I roll my eyes, again, and On-jo lets go. She shoos me away, "Flirt with your husband or something." I cross my arms across my chest and glumly shuffle away from them.

Ms. Park goes over to Na-yeon. She bends down just enough so they're the same height. "You remember your promise. Right?" She tilts her head, "After 30 minutes you would apologize."

Na-yeon looks away. It is clear she's urgently trying to avoid eye contact. "Okay." She's always acting all holier-than-thou. But when someone who has authority over her calls her out on her bullshit, she pussies out.

Ms. Park stands up. She crosses her arms, "It's been 30 minutes."

Na-yeon looks up, eyes wide. "All right."

She looks at every single one of us, slowly. She stops at the end of the line and stares. Can you guess who was standing there?

Yep. It's me. I guess I'm so cool that she can't help but get charmed. I'm the charmer, you know?

"What are you looking at?"

She scoffs and drags her feet to the broadcasting room's door. She opens the door and goes inside. When it shuts, it makes an extremely loud noise. Still, I catch the small click the lock makes.

If I ever shut my bedroom door like that, I'd get smacked so hard I would be able to smell words. I'm not kidding. My grandma is scary.

I get goosebumps along my arms and the hair on them stand up. I'm getting the gut feeling thing again. Somehow, it's worse than ever. It's like my stomach's burning.

"Get her out," I urge. "Or have someone go in there with them."

Cheong-san pats my shoulder. "N/n, I don't like it either. But once she apologizes, it'll all be over."

That's what I'm afraid of.

"Come on, listen to me. I've been giving you guys different types of wanrings all day, yet you haven't listened once." I fidget with the chalky, tan rubber band on my wrist. "And don't say, they were wrong, because all of them were correct."

I look at everyone, hoping someone would agree. Su-hyeok and I make eye contact. "Won't you just trust me?" His gaze softens, or at least I think. I don't really know what it means.

I look at On-jo, "Do you trust me?" She stays silent, and looks away. I scoff, trying not to let the hurt show on my face.

I guess she's still pissed about the I-sak thing. Or maybe she just doesn't trust me in general.

"I- this isn't fair." I groan and plop down on the floor next to Nam-ra. I ignore Nam-ra's gaze, too busy struggling to find a comfortable position.

Everyone's watching Gyeong-su and Na-yeon through the window, worry very evident on their faces. If they were so worried about him, they'd have made Na-yeon apologize to him outside.

Actually, no. He would refuse to go out until after the apology. At least leave the door ajar slightly. Or, as I had mentioned before, go in there with them.

I'd go but it would probably cause Na-yeon to not want to apologize. I stick my hand into my pocket and after a few tries, pull out a small travel mirror. With the sleeve of my white blouse, I wipe off the light make up on my face. It was all sweaty, so there's no point of keeping it on.

I cringe when I see the bags under my eyes. Cheong-san insisted for me to stay up with him last night on Minecraft because he wanted us to finish our animal farm. I mean, at some point we kinda just gave up trying to complete it on time and started babbling nonsense.

That's what I like to call 'all-nighter's high.' Kind of like runner's high, but not really. Just sleep version.

Mmm, I stand corrected. Sleepless version.

Then, I finally ended up falling alseep because he's boring as fuck. But at 4 a.m. according to Cheong-san. Some sleep is better than no sleep, I guess.

Altough I wake up at 5 a.m. but okay.

I look back at all of them. They're still watching through the glass window panel thing.

"She's doing it," Dae-su whispers, startling me. "Holy shit. She's really doing it."

I raise my brows, "Doing it? She's doing what exactly?" I stand up, holding onto the wall mext to me when black clouds my vision. Nam-ra narrows here eyes, "Are you okay?" I hum, "Yep." I make my way next to everyone.

Na-yeon approaches Gyeong-su.

"Hey."