Rank One (Park Sunghoon FF)

25

As soon as Sunghoon disappeared from their sight, Heeseung grabbed Juna's wrist and looked at her with the wide and pretty eyes that she could never say no to. But this time, she shook his hand off. He had crossed the line and she wasn't going to forgive him that easily. Plus, she needed to go after Sunghoon first.

"Juna," Heeseung spoke softly, stepping closer to her. She took a step back and bumped into Jay, who grabbed both her arms to steady her. Heeseung's eyes hardened and diverted them elsewhere before Juna could see more of the sight.

"Don't talk to me," Juna said numbly, slipped out of Jay's grasp, and started walking in the direction Sunghoon went as Niki followed behind her. She noticed his presence but didn't say anything until they were out of the group's hearing range. Then she turned to the younger boy with a raised eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"Showing you where Sunghoon goes whenever he needs to hide from his fangirls," Niki shrugged with a casual smirk. "I'm sure he's there right now."

Juna nodded and let Niki lead the way. She thought to herself that he seemed like a nice kid, despite the rumors surrounding him being an annoying guy who was stuck-up due to many girls liking him. But she didn't see Niki that way. Yes, sometimes he was a bit immature but she couldn't really blame him since he was almost two years younger and had just started high school, anyway.

After a bit of walking, they arrived at the school's sports storage. Juna raised an eyebrow at the blue metal doors.

"The storage?" She asked, confused as to why Sunghoon would pick this as his hiding spot.

Niki shrugged. "It's the closest space to the courts where he usually gets the most confessions, you know after they see him sweaty and stuff...or something like that. They think it's hot. And also, no girl would want to set foot in this hell of a storage. Actually, even guys don't."

Juna understood what Niki was complaining about when he opened the door to the storage area and it reeked of the smell of sweat and other body odors as if none of the equipment had ever been properly cleaned. She immediately pinched her nose as she took a small step in with Niki, who shut the door behind them. Juna turned to him with a questioning look.

"You know, just in case the teachers catch us," Niki said. "Only athletes of approval are allowed to be in here. It's for your sake."

Juna nodded at his reasoning.

"Sunghoon?" She called out softly, releasing her nose and taking a step further into the space. "Are you in here?"

There was no reply even when they waited for a full minute.

Juna turned to Niki, scowling and pointing a finger accusingly, "You lied."

Niki gave an exaggerated shrug. "How was I supposed to know he didn't run off into here this time?"

"Okay...now let's get out of here before we both suffocate." Juna made her way to the double doors and pulled on the handles. It didn't budge. She pulled on it again, harder that time. Still nothing. "What the..."

Niki gulped audibly. "Oh...I forgot I was supposed to put the stopper in between since the door's broken." He slowly lifted his finger and pointed to the piece of black rubber - not far from where Juna was standing - that was used to hold the doors slightly open before.

"What?!" Juna slapped a hand to her forehead. "We're locked in here?!"

"Most likely, yeah..." Niki chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck as Juna exasperatedly pressed her head against the door with a groan.

"I shouldn't have trusted you, Nishimura Riki."

"Hey, why are you using the full-name card? It's scary," Niki said, imitating a shuddering sound.

Juna turned around and slid down to the ground, her back against the door. "What now? What if I'm late to my class?" She put her face between her hands. "I can't afford another tardy after that jerk Sunghoon gave me my first one this semester!"

"Come on, stop being so dramatic." Niki rolled his eyes. "But wait...so does that mean what Heeseung said...is true? You don't like Sunghoon?"

Juna froze. She had accidentally revealed her thoughts on Sunghoon. Or at least what she used to think of him. She raised her head and looked at Niki who then went to sit down against the door next to her, still waiting for an answer.

"No, it's not like that," Juna admitted truthfully. "At least not anymore."

"So you used to hate him?"

"Well, at first I thought he was just egocentric and annoying," Juna told half of the truth, omitting the part where she hated him because of his rank. "But once I got to spend more time with him, I realized that he's not that bad at all. Quite the opposite actually. He's nice and caring and even sweet to me."

"Yeah, you're the first." Niki snorted. "He's never been this nice to a girl. Usually, he's pretty closed off and doesn't trust anyone. I'm glad he's found someone he can laugh around, other than us six."

Juna nodded and let her chin rest on one of her knees as she curled up. "I think I've grown to like him," she mumbled, more to herself than to the boy sitting next to her.

"What's going on between you and Heeseung?" Niki asked, tilting his head. "I've heard about you a lot from him ever since we became friends. And you two seemed to have a pretty good relationship."

Juna heaved a sigh. "I don't know what's wrong with Heeseung these days. I mean, it's not like I don't understand what he's going through but I just feel like things would be different if we could actually sit down and talk about us. Our friendship. But instead, he ignored me for two weeks, showed up late to my concert, and threw away the flowers he got me. And after that? He went back to avoiding me. Earlier, what he said wasn't wrong. I really do miss him, but at the same time, I couldn't stand the way he talked to Sunghoon. And now I don't even know where he is! Does he even know that I was trying to defend him? I don't even know what to do anymore." She rambled on about her feelings as Niki listened in silence. She just wanted to tell someone about it since like always, she had bottled up her thoughts for too long. "Sorry...I just needed to let it out."

Niki quickly shook his head. "No, it's totally fine. To be honest, I kind of wanted to know anyway."

Juna turned her head to look at him. "So what do you think I should do?"

Niki tapped his chin and looked up at the ceiling as if it would give him ideas. "I think you should resolve what you have with Sunghoon first, then come back to Heeseung later."

"How can I do that when he's mad at me right now?"

Niki waved his hand dismissively. "I don't think he's mad at you. More at Heeseung."

"No, but he's disappointed in me because Heeseung said I hated him. But did you hear what he said? He said 'I hope you're happy now, Juna' before he left. It hurts because I'm nowhere near content."

"It's because he's obviously jealous!" Niki exclaimed. "I've never seen Sunghoon look like that before. He rarely reacted that bad to anything."

"Do you think he likes me?" Juna hesitantly asked, as if testing the waters.

"Oh, he definitely feels something for you. So what I'm thinking is, go to his skating competition this weekend and cheer him on. Show him that you don't hate him anymore. That way he'll stop misunderstanding."

"Yeah, thanks, Niki. I was going to go either way," Juna smiled a bit just thinking about seeing Sunghoon figure skate. "I just hope he doesn't hate me now."

Both Niki and Juna turned their heads at a muffled ruffling sound from a corner of the room. Before they could check to see what it was, a small click behind their heads turned their attention to the storage door being unlocked from the outside.

-

"Hate is far from the right word, Juna."

Park Sunghoon