3 Things I Hate About You

17. Life moves on like a conveyor belt

Chapter 17 - Life moves on like a conveyor belt

Daehyun's POV

"So you bastard finally showed up huh..." I turned my face towards the incoming footsteps and straightened my back. "Great."

I was half-astounded when I looked at the slender figure in front of me walking disconsolately as he dodged eye contact and physical contact (not that I wanted to touch him or something). It was the first time I saw someone's face to be in full misery.

But, yet again, he was actually here after thousands and thousands of calling him from SM building to meet me in a quiet park.

He quickly smiled. "I'm sorry."

"Save that for later," I shook my head. "I will ask you straightly - just what exactly are you doing to her?"

What I saw in a glance was him coughing with an addition of blood on the side of his mouth which he wiped it off rather quickly. Now I was concerned, because I didn't do any of that to him. No, this was so astounding to me I couldn't even continue on talking for a while.

"Hey... you..." I didn't know what to say, my brain was bombarding itself with thoughts. "Are you alright?"

He leaned on a wall crossing his arms. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'm just... pretty tired."

I frowned deeply, all of the raging emotions I had towards him were gradually dissipating as I was overly concerned with the person in front of me. It must have been sympathy that I've been too keen on caring about not-close people or classmates to the point where I have to use forceful methods to spill out the beans.

Not that I wanted to, my brain and my body doesn't seem to be cooperating with each other sometimes, most of the time it's just reflexes. Still doesn't seem to go the way I want it to be.

"Did anyone punch you in the face?"

The shocked expression on his face completed my analysis - he was beaten up. But the real question here was: why was he beaten up? What the hell did he do?

"N-no, no." He tried to reassure me. "Nobody did."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure...?"

"Yeah, why are you asking again?"

"...Are you sure-"

"I just said yes!" He yelled and then clenched his stomach, kneeling down from the pain.

I looked down; my bangs covered my eyes as I stared at the ground hard. My eyes were widening and I started to breathe deeply and no my asthma attack didn't come back. Not that I had any lung problems before. His problem was just interfering with what I was trying to ask him.

Seriously, out of all the times that this whole an-eye-for-an-eye thing could happen (or so I have thought), why now when I want to ask him a very important question?

"Who beat you up?" As the guy with straightforward questions, I didn't hesitate to ask.

He was once again shocked, for the second time now. He got up to his feet with his head looking down, reluctantly opening his mouth to my disclosure. It wasn't because I threatened him or anything of course.

"Group... group members."

Yongguk's POV

"Why... why are you just telling me this now?" A reasonably quite voice escaped from my mouth after several seconds of processing the supposedly truth that my father just said. The burning sensation in my throat was growing larger than ever as I felt the anger rising.