past, present, and future | hwang hyunjin

t w o

c h a p t e r   t w o

Soon enough, I started hearing Sana's soft snores coming from the bunk above me. I however, was having an extremely unwanted case of insomnia. I kept rolling around and shifting my position, at one point almost falling of the bed, but nothing worked.

Fall asleep, Areum. Fall asleep. Fall asleep. FALL ASLEEP!

Yeah, that wasn't going to work.

I sat up and sighed. With all my strength, I hauled myself up from bed. After pacing around the room for a bit, I grabbed my phone, threw over a jacket to cover my ugly pajamas, and headed out of the room for some fresh air. I wanted to take a little stroll to tire myself out so I could fall asleep faster.

I headed through the hallways, passing the training rooms, the other JYP groups' dorms, producing rooms, etc. At some point, I wasn't really looking where I was going and just walking forward. My legs got tired fast, especially after all the dancing I had done today.

That's when I bumped into someone's shoulder. Really hard.

"Ow," The recipient of my body force grunted. "That hurts."

I rubbed the side of my face, which was probably about to get a huge red bump, and looked upwards at the person who had been so awfully fated to crash into me.

I was met with the most beautiful, shining eyes I had seen in a while. Besides that, this boy's face shape was perfect, and his lips looked so soft and plump. In other words, he was the definition of perfection.

I felt like I'd seen him somewhere on TV before, but I couldn't remember what group he belonged to. I knew JYP had a 4th generation boy group, but since I didn't really keep up with 4th generation much, I didn't know who he was.

The first thing he said to me was, "Oh! It's you!"

I was dumbfounded. "Have we met before?"

"No, but I've seen you before." he clarified. "In the training rooms, I mean."

"Should I know you?" I asked him.

"Probably." He shrugged, then flipped his hair. "I am just one of the most popular and handsome 4th generation idols, after all. And just idols in general too."

"I don't keep up with 4th generation." I sighed. This boy was getting on my nerves. He was so arrogant, but as annoying as it was to admit, he was handsome.

He faked a dramatic fainting scene, and I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "Care to actually introduce yourself properly?"

At that, he got up quickly and bowed to me. "Yeah, sure. I'm Hwang Hyunjin, one of the eight members of the group Stray Kids, but you can just call me Hyunjin." Then he muttered something that sounded like, "I thought trainees were like, required to know the idols of their own company? Oh, whatever."

Fancy name he got there, and as much as it pained me to admit, it sounded like it could be a prince's name. It also rang a bell in my head, and that's when I remembered where I saw him before on TV. I'd tuned into MBC's "Music Core" one night, and he happened to be the MC.

I bowed back and introduced myself as well. "I'm Kang Areum, an idol-to-be. I'll be part of the group Island-I soon. We'll debut in around 2 weeks."

"Nice name," Hyunjin said, and when I looked at him expectantly, he raised his hands in defense. "What? I don't know what else to say!"

"You could've at least asked for a few more details about my debut?" I shrugged. "That's all you could come up with?"

"You wouldn't be so talkative with me if you were actually a fan of my group," he said arrogantly, flipping his hair again with an annoying smirk on his face.

This boy really got on my nerves.

"Come on, are you really not even the slightest bit interested in me?" He asked pointedly.

I shook my head. "No. The only person I see in front of me is a stuck-up, good-for-nothing, arrogant bast-"

That's when he put a finger to my mouth. "Nuh-uh. No swearing. You're gonna be an idol soon, it won't do you any good to swear in front of people."

I batted his finger away. That's when I looked up and realized he was closer than before. I could feel my heart rate speeding up.

"Get away from me, you annoying -" I was about to swear again when he covered my mouth with his entire hand.

Smirking, he reminded me. "No swearing!"

"Whatever, I don't care! I'm gonna leave now." I was about to run away back to my dorm when he suddenly grabbed my hand. His touch immediately sent a faint blush onto my face. This was so embarrassing! How was I blushing because of him, the most annoying and stuck-up boy I'd ever met? 

"Come on," he said, and I could practically hear the smirk on his face even though I wasn't looking at him. "You're not even going to tell me why you're here?"

I twisted my hand free, and managed to get my heart rate down to a reasonable pace. "I had a bad case of insomnia, okay? Now let me get back to my dorm."

After hearing that, his eyes immediately softened a little. "Oh. I get it, I had really bad insomnia right before I debuted as well. I'm sorry."

I was about to retort with something like how could such an arrogant guy like you understand, when I realized I would ruin my only chance of getting him to be not annoying for once. So all I said was, "Thanks. I should probably go now."

That usual smirk of his was back on his face before I could finish counting the number of moles on his face, which was one. I started to head off back to my dorm, only turning around once to make sure he wasn't following me. "See you around!" He waved.

When I didn't bother to return the wave, he shouted, "Not even a wave back? Come on!"

"Nope, sorry." I muttered quietly. He wouldn't have heard it, as he was already too far away.

The only thing I knew for certain is that this Hyunjin boy was going to be the death of me.