promises | ahn sooho

[4]

Things moved quickly after that. Sieun was whisked away by the teacher, and the ambulance someone had called arrived, taking Yeongbin away, who was still on the ground moaning in pain. Sieun only looked straight ahead, expressionless as always, not meeting Harin's piercing gaze.

The whole ordeal was over 30 minutes later. Since their teacher for the lesson was not there, the class was dismissed early. However, most were too disturbed by the incident to even think about celebrating, just leaving quietly instead.

Similarly, Harin sauntered down the big driveway, leading from the school building to the gates. A frown was permanantly etched onto her face as she listened to Mina and Nari gossip about what could have possibly happened to make Sieun snap.

"I'm telling you, Yeongbin had it coming. He's been annoying Sieun a lot lately. Hyuk next to me told me that he even choked him in the locker rooms yesterday."

Nari only shook her head. "But that makes no sense. Why would he snap in the middle of the exams for no reason? There has to have been a trigger, right?"

All four turned to Harin on the very left of the group, asking for her insight. But Harin was elsewhere with her thoughts.

She had quickly pieced the clues together and understood what had happened. Yeongbin got Beomseok to drug Sieun to make him fail his exam—the one thing dearest to him.

She sighed, her gaze falling onto Sooho, who had just arrived at his motorcycle and was busy getting ready to drive off.

Unaware of her friends' attention on her, she continued looking at him while she moved her head in their direction to speak to them.

"Guys, you can go ahead. I need to talk with Sooho real quick."

"What do you mean you'll-" Mina frowned at her, complaining to her friend, but was quickly interrupted by Jieun and Nari, who held their hands over the girl's mouth and encouraged Harin to go.

Harin could have sworn that she even heard one of them say, 'Yes, girl, get your man'

"Sooho! Hey, Ahn Sooho!"

She basically sprinted away from her girls, eager to catch the boy in question, ignoring the teasing words instead of complaining for once. The few meters were quickly crossed, and Harin came to a halt next to the boy who raised his head from his motorcycle's dashboard, about to start the machine. He leant back instead, clearly happy to see her.

"Oh, it's you, princess. To what do I owe my savior the pleasure?" Harin only rolled her eyes in order to not show how flustered she was at his nicknames for her.

"Stop calling me that." Sooho's smile only widened into a grin, almost as if challenging her.

"Which one? Princess or savior?"
Harin only snorted as she raised her eyebrows at him, clearly not impressed.

"Both, preferably." Sooho only shrugged his shoulders, acting helpless.

"No can do. Sorry, princess." Harin would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the pet names. Instead, she dropped the topic for now, roaming the length of his body with her eyes, looking for injuries.

"Are you okay, by the way? Sieun didn't get you, right?" Sooho only flexed his arms as if to prove his strength. Harin's eyes shifted to these ripped biceps before they returned to Sooho's face again.

"Not a single scrape." He assured her before he returned the concern. "Shouldn't I be worried about you instead? Are all of your friends psycho's like him?" Harin rolled her eyes, worry wrapping around her shoulders.

"He's not normally like that, I promise." She looked at the ground in front of her feet for a few moments. Her shoulders were tense, and worry wrapped itself around her throat. Then she pulled herself out of it, shooting Sooho a quick smile.