Rank One (Park Sunghoon FF)

15

Juna raised her eyebrows. "You knew?"

Sunghoon chuckled, his eyes squeezing together and his hair shuffled around his face. The sight was almost unreal. Juna blinked a few times and looked away. He tugged on the hand that was holding onto his backpack so she would look back at him.

"You were staring at it the whole morning, of course I knew. You wanted to give it to me that bad?" He teased, still casually holding onto Juna's hand which made her face feel warm. 

What is this other side of him? How come I've never seen it before? Actually, I don't think anyone's seen Park Sunghoon smiling so sweetly and holding a girl's hand like this. Am I dreaming?

"Why don't you act like this more?" Juna blurted out before she could think about what she was doing.

"Come on, if I act like this with everyone then they'd all think they're special," Sunghoon said with a slight smirk.

"So I'm special?"

He poked the inside of his cheek with his tongue and thought for a second. "No comment." He let go of Juna's hand and started to walk away.

"Wait, what?" She stood up but groaned when her ankle refused to cooperate. Sunghoon whipped his head back. He walked to Juna and knelt down with his back to her. She stared at him, dumbfounded. 

"You're something, alright?" Sunghoon slowly admitted. "I'm not saying I like you or anything but...you know, from the what, three days that I've talked to you, I'd say you're pretty interesting. Plus, I lied when I said I didn't know who you were."

Juna kept staring at his back with her mouth open like an idiot. Then she quickly closed it before he could turn around and see.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Sunghoon turned back and chuckled. "Do you need me to spell it out for you? Fine, just know that I wanted to talk to you before, and believe it or not, I was happy when you talked to me first."

Juna's eyes widened. "You...you sure didn't act like it."

"I thought you were trying to confess, and I mean, also gotta keep up my image somehow."

"You mean that jerk-ass persona of yours? Oh, please, I like this better." Juna allowed herself to genuinely smile at him. "Why did you want to talk to me, anyway?"

"Get on. My knees hurt." Sunghoon turned back around, bluntly avoiding Juna's question. She jokingly slapped his back before getting on and hesitantly wrapping her arms around his neck. The smell of his cologne was intoxicating but in a good way. She couldn't help but lean closer to him but tensed up when she suddenly remembered that nothing she did with him was supposed to be real. She had one goal and one goal only.

I can't get distracted.

A male voice scared both Sunghoon and Juna as they both snapped their heads towards the door. "Juna, I'm late! I'm sorry, I-"

Heeseung. Wait, no, you can't see this.

Juna quickly tapped Sunghoon's shoulder continuously as a sign to let her down but he pulled on her wrist with his hand to make sure she didn't hop off.

"Hey, Heeseung," Sunghoon greeted him. Juna didn't know if he was ignoring or pretending not to see the heartbroken look on Heeseung's face. She closed her eyes and looked away, not wanting to see the pain in his eyes when they looked at each other.

When Juna looked back, she saw Heeseung's furrowed brows, and his fists were clenched together. No one spoke for a whole minute; the three stood there awkwardly with no one wanting to break the silence. Juna looked down at the ground, avoiding her best friend's eyes. 

Juna's hand naturally wandered to where Sunghoon's tie was and started fidgeting with it out of nervousness. Both boys seemed to notice this gesture.

Finally, with a swipe of his hair, Heeseung let his lips curve upwards in a forced smile. "See you tomorrow, Hoon. And take care, Juna." With that, he left the other two alone in the classroom, the tense atmosphere still surrounding them. Juna chewed on her lip and immediately felt guilty for making Heeseung sad.

After a while, Sunghoon spoke up as he held both their backpacks in one hand and started heading out of the room. Juna couldn't help but peek at his arm, surprised by his strength, so much that she almost didn't catch what he said. "I heard his confession today."

Not knowing how to reply, Juna hummed.

"Do you know your answer?"

She nodded slowly even though he couldn't see or feel her movements. "I just don't know if I'm ready to tell him."

"Is he just a friend to you?"

"Honestly, yes. There have been times when I've almost mistaken my gratefulness for him as romantic love but I think I just love him because he's my only close friend. He's just always been there for me, you know? And we've been friends for so long, it hurts me because I don't like him back. If I do then this would be so easy, wouldn't it? I don't know why my heart doesn't respond to him even though I know he's a guy every girl would be lucky to have." Juna found herself rambling on and on about her feelings. It was the first time she had revealed so much about her thoughts to someone who wasn't Heeseung.

Sunghoon shrugged. "You can't force yourself to like someone. Sure, Heeseung's a good guy but it's not your fault you don't have feelings for him. Don't beat yourself over it. I'm sure he'll move on eventually. If he loves you then he'll be happy when you are."

Juna heaved a sigh, finally resting her head on Sunghoon's shoulder instead of tensing up her back and neck. She felt him flinch slightly when she it but didn't pull her head away. "I hope you're right. Besides...there are so many other pretty and smart and kind girls who want a chance with him. Maybe he'll find someone who actually deserves him."

"Are you saying you don't? Because that's not true." Sunghoon turned around suddenly and Juna yanked her head back when she saw how close he was. He turned away and she heard him quietly laugh. "We're here." His voice became serious again.

Juna was too emerged into their conversation that she didn't even notice they had arrived in front of the detention room. Sunghoon opened the door and set their stuff down at the two nearest desks.

The pair jumped with Sunghoon almost losing his balance when Mister Choi cleared his throat from the front of the classroom.

"Took a while," he said with a hint of disappointment. "Didn't know you two had something going on."

"I don't think this is your business, Mister Choi. And I was just helping her because she injured her ankle. You would know that if you paid more attention to your students instead of their ranks." Sunghoon slowly bent down so Juna could get off. She immediately bowed to the teacher, trembling in fear. She nudged Sunghoon and shook her head so that he wouldn't say anything else.

"Why don't you use your words in that apology essay?" Mister Choi said, heading towards them and slamming a stack of notebook paper on one desk. "Bring them to the lounge when you're done. Neither of you will leave until I sense genuine remorse in your words, understand?"

With that, he walked out of the room mumbling under his breath about persuasive essays, leaving Sunghoon and Juna alone in the room.

-

"I want to give Heeseung a chance, I really do. But I can't lie to myself - my heart doesn't beat for him."

Ahn Juna