Mirage

03

"Let's date."

"Are you crazy?"

Sunwoo looked at the girl who was shamelessly asking him out with an uninterested look upon his stoic face, intimidating her with his sharp gaze underneath a raised brow. 

However, to his surprise, Haeun pondered, not quite registering his action.

A genius indeed was weird.

Haeun's eyes wandered around as if she were thinking and suddenly she clasped her hands together, smiling like a fool.

"I am crazy," her smile broadening in which, for a moment she did scare Sunwoo to the core. "Crazy for you."

Scoffing, the boy felt a flaming rage slowly but surely start sparking from inside him. He was annoyed to the extent that he could not help himself from rolling his eyes.

"Listen Kim Haeun," straightening his posture, he lazily pocketed his hands as he said, "you can go find someone else to entertain you. I'm not interested."

At that, he turned on his heels, dragging his feet lazily to go back to his class. But then he internally slapped himself on the face as he trailed the hallway at the sudden realisation.

Kim Haeun was sitting next to him in class.

"But Sunwoo," the girl jogged to his side, trying to earn his attention. "I don't want anyone else, I just want you."

Sunwoo abruptly halted, glaring at the girl. He tried to find something from her face that maybe portrayed that she was making some unfunny joke but there was nothing.

Instead, what Sunwoo saw in her eyes was a hopeful stare with a tint of sincerity.

"Why me?" he unknowingly asked, not breaking the stare into her orbs.

"Because it's my wish list."

The answer made Sunwoo grit his teeth, his lips twitching upwards just to show how frustrated he was. What kind of joke was this? - he thought.

Maybe if it were other boys Haeun were trying, she might have succeeded. But unfortunately, it was Kim Sunwoo - a boy who was a bit sceptical about a perfect girl like her.

If Sunwoo needed to list out his ideal type of a girl, Haeun would never make it. Because she was in a group of girls he wished he had never met.

Just by a glance, he could tell that she was living her life perfectly. Those designer shoes she was wearing and even the schoolbag that was from a famous brand, she must have come from a wealthy family. Not to mention her good brain in study - though it was a disaster last year, this type of girl would be troublesome.

Because they thought they could get anything they wanted.

And Sunwoo definitely would never sacrifice himself for someone like this.

"I'm telling you this only one time," he sighed, stretching out his neck to both sides, and small pops were heard in the process. "Let's just stay as seatmates. Never cross the line."

Haeun was supposed to be hurt, she just got rejected. She was supposed to feel down when Sunwoo walked away, as if her confession was nothing but invisible. Nonetheless, her jaw dropped and she covered it with her palm.

"How can he be so cool?"

Little did the boy know that his effort to make her disappear was a failure.

Haeun had never cared about the restriction Sunwoo put between them. She would constantly bug him in classes, asking some unnecessary questions like what his favourite colour was, his hobby or what he did in his free time.

Sunwoo had had enough.

"How could you end up being in this class? Why couldn't you just stay in that elite class?" he questioned with knitted brows, his heart-shaped lips shut closed. Suddenly, a wave of guilt came crashing over him.

Though he was known for his bad reputation and not so good personalities, Kim Sunwoo did have a pure heart. He would never say something that might have scratched one's heart.

But, this time he did. It somehow alerted him to Haeun's reaction. He would never hesitate to apologise if the girl ended up crying a river just because of his words.

"I was absent from the last exam," but the girl's answer was too far from his expectation. "And I don't want to retake an exam."

There was something in her explanation that made Sunwoo suddenly soften. Or maybe it was her way of explaining things well?

One thing was for sure, she had that effect that made one completely focused whenever she was talking.

Insane.

Sunwoo shrugged. He wiped those things that did not fit his image out of his head before he looked at her again - uninterested. She was still smiling and would always be whenever their eyes met and it was threatening for him.

Why would this girl not fear him?

"You're funny you know," he spoke up his mind, comfortably lazing against the chair. "Everyone is dying to have a spot in that elite class but you were giving it up."

"I'm okay with it, though," drawing a few icons that did not seem like the original one inside her journal, she nodded at every word escaping her lips.

"But I'm not."

It was then that her body tensed upon hearing it with a deep voice she never knew she would need. It sounded more like an assurance that even a bit it managed to trigger her heartbeat.

Haeun put down the pencil she had been using to doodle around earlier, her head immediately turned towards the boy next to her, and a slight hope was shimmering through her eyes.

"You...are worried about me?"

"No, I'm worried about myself," like in any drama, the glass on the screen suddenly cracked, together with the character of the lead actor or actress after an unexpected turn. "If only you managed to secure your position in that elite class, my life would not be this chaotic."

He eyed her up and down, hoping that once again, it would intimidate her. Nonetheless, she had not affected at all.