Love in the Air

Chapter 6

It's Monday morning and it's my first day of school in Korea. I'm freaking out because this is the first time I'll be the new kid. I change into my uniform put on my backpack and step outside. I take a deep breath and start walking. I walk passed the boys' house and wish one of them would run out and accompany me or convince me to ditch so we could go to the arcade or something but that doesn't happen and I keep walking. When I get to school, there are a lot of very pretentious looking kids hanging around in their little cliques but I walk straight in to figure out where I'm supposed to go. Without too much trouble I make it to my first class with about 45 seconds to spare. Mrs. Kwon makes me introduce myself and I manage to make it through my first few classes with very little interaction with other students but then lunch time came.
I get my food and I sit at the first table I find that isn't too crowded. There are two nerdy looking girl and one guy nearby that look like they won't cause any trouble and that's all I can hope for. "You're the new kid right?" One of them says after I've begun to eat my food.
"Yeah. I'm Rigi," I say.
"Hello, I'm Aetae. This is Jisang," she says motioning to the guy, "and this is Daeun," she says motioning toward the girl.
"Hello," I say to them.
"Hi," they reply. We all begin talking and when they find out I'm from America they flood me with questions. I'm glad I didn't have to go through this whole day alone and managed to make friends fairly quickly. Jisang and Aetae are in the same grade as I am but Daeun is one year younger, she's Aetae's cousin. Lunch end and they ask me what class I'm going to.
"Umm Korean class I think," I double check my schedule before I confirm. "Yup, Korean with Mr. Choi."
"Oh that's my class," Jisang says. "We can walk together."
"Oh cool," I say. We say bye to Aetae and Daeun and then head to class.
"How are you liking Korea so far?" he asks in an attempt to break the silence between us.
"It's fine. I managed to make friends with the neighbors and I'm glad I met you guys during lunch so I wouldn't have to be all alone. I just miss California sometimes," I saw truthfully.
"I can imagine it'd be hard. I'm also glad to have met you," he smile down and me and my heart skips a beat.
"Why are all the guys I've met so cute and tall?" I think to myself in frustration. We get to class and I introduce myself like I have in every other class and Mr. Choi sits me behind Jisang which makes me happy because at least there is someone near me I know that can help me if I need it. When class ends Jisang and I have to part ways.
"Maybe I'll see you after school," he says.
"Yeah maybe. Well I'll see you around. Bye," I say.
"Bye," he takes off toward his next class and I head off the opposite direction. By the time school ends I just want to go home and take a nap, it was too much new stuff for one day. I start heading toward my house when I hear someone behind me say, "you walk pretty fast." I turn around and find Jisang looking at me, he smirks and walks up beside me.
"Yeah I just want to get home," I say.
"Where do you live?" he asks.
"Over by the park," I say since I still have no idea where anything is.
"Oh I live by there too," he replies. "I'll walk with you then." We walk and make small talk until we get to my house.
"Okay well this is me. I'll see you tomorrow," I say.
"I like you house. Bye then, see you soon," he takes off in the direction we came from.
"Wait are you going back?" I ask.
"Yup. We passed my house about three blocks ago. See ya," he says smiling as he starts running down the street. I laugh a little bit and start walking up the walkway toward my house.
"Hi Rigi." I turn and see Wonsik waving at me.
"Oh hi sunbae," I say, glad to be home and see him.
"You had your first day of school?" he asks.
"Yup."
"How was it? Make a lot of new friends? I saw you had a boy walk you home," he says with a little smirk on his face.
"It was okay. I met two girls and that guy at lunch so I wasn't alone the whole day. He told me he lived nearby so he walked me home but I guess he lives a little further back," I reply trying to make it seem like it was no big deal.
"That's good. Study hard Rigi, we might be able to help you if you ever have trouble at school okay so don't hesitate to ask. Fighting!" he says sweetly.
"Thanks sunbae. I'll see you later, I'm going to go rest now."
"Bye," he says. I walk into the house and my mom asks me about my day. I answer her questions and walk into my room to try to lessen the mountain of homework I already have. I have to ask my mom to help me decipher some of the instructions since they're nothing like the ones I'm used to back home.
I manage to finish earlier than I thought I would and lay in bed around 9 o'clock. I check my phone and I have a few texts from Hyuk. "Hyung tells me you had your first day of school. How was it? You can tell me if you have any problems okay, I'm the youngest so remember school the best. Don't let other kids be mean to you. Fighting!"
I smile a little bit at my screen and reply, "thank you, Hyuk. It was fine, I can tell you more about it later if you want."
"Okay Rigi, see you later," he replies. I fall asleep happy to know I'll have these boys next door here if I ever need their help.
As the days pass I begin spending more and more time with Aetae, Daeun and Jisang. I try not to attract too much attention but as the new kid I do end up being taunted by a few preppy rich girls but I try not to pay any attention to them. Jisang stopped them from teasing me a few times and since I never really did much to warrant it in the first place they stop messing with me. I tell Hyuk about it one night and he starts acting strangely protective. I think it's sweet that he'd get like that but I tell him it's no big deal and that Jisang had my back. His reaction seemed a little strange after that, almost as though he were disappointed that he couldn't have been the one to stop it but I shrug it off and go to sleep.
Once the week is finally over I go home and head straight for bed. Before long, I get some texts from Jisang inviting me to go see a movie with him, Aetae and Daeun Saturday night. I accept the invitation and he seems excited. Just then I hear the doorbell ring. "Rigi," mom calls out. "You have some visitors." I head out to the living room and find six boys sitting on my couches. I stand there and look at them with a somewhat blank expression on my face with the exception of my pursed lips.
"Hey guys," I say.
"Rigi!" Jaehwan jumps up and wraps his arms and legs around me so that I'm carrying him. I almost lose my balance but I manage to regain it.
"Missed you too Jaehwan. Can you get off now please," I say. He jumps down, smiles, pats my head and sits back down.
I take the seat next to Hongbin and he asks me how I'm liking school so far.
"It's different but I'm getting the hang of it," I reply.
"We're you're cheerleaders here. Study hard and do well okay," he says as he smiles and holds his hand up in a fist.
"Thank you. I missed you guys this week. Maybe we can hang out a little more this weekend since I probably won't have that much time this week either," I say.
"We missed you too, we knew you were probably busy so we didn't want to bug you until the weekend so we waited until today to come see you," Hakyeon says.
"Yeah I've been busy but I'm really happy to see all of you again. It feels like it's been ages," I say.
"How about we all go out tomorrow night?" Hyuk suggests.
"Oh... I actually have plans tomorrow night with Jisang and two other friends. Sorry. I guess you guys could come if you want or we could just hang out in the morning instead," I say, feeling a little bad.
"Ah... Yeah I guess you should make time for your school friends too," Hyuk says.
"School friends?! Who could be better than us?" Jaehwan says, sounding very offended.
"No one is better than you Jaehwan," I humor him.
"Let's just do something in the morning then," Wonsik says.
"Sounds good to me," Hongbin replies.
"I brought you guys some snacks," says mom and she walks in and places a platter o snacks on the table.
"Thank you eomeoni!" Jaehwan yells and he jumps up and grabs what ever is closest to him and shoves it in his mouth.
"Let me know if you want anything else," she says and then leaves the room.
"My future mother in law sure is great isn't she, Taekwoon," Jaehwan says.
"Shut up," he replies. I laugh and Taekwoon looks up at me as though he was confused as to what I was laughing about.
"So what's the plan?" I ask.
"Let's drive to the beach! I haven't been to the beach in a long time," Hakyeon says.
"How far is the beach from here?" I ask since I'm not used to anything around here.
"Rigi we live in Busan... It's not very far," Hongbin says.
"Oh... Heh," I laugh awkwardly as in sink further into my seat.
"Great, we should probably get our things ready tonight so we can leave early so we can bring Rigi back on time," Hakyeon says.
"We won't be going out until 6ish I think so we have time," I say. "Do you guys want to watch a movie right now then?"
"I want to watch a Japanese romance film," Taekwoon says.
"Umm... Let's see what Netflix has then," I say. I hook up my phone to the tv and give it to Taekwoon so that he can choose whatever movie he wants. I run into the kitchen to grab a few more snacks since the ones we had were long gone and by the time I came back, the movie had begun. It seems like a typical romantic movie and before long I'm nodding off again. It had been a long week and I was exhausted but things in the movie are starting to get real so I don't want to fall asleep; not to mention it'd be the second time I fall asleep watching a movie with these guys and it's not normally something I do so I don't want to give them the impression that I'm one of those people that goes to the movies to sleep or something. But the exhaustion overtakes me and as I'm falling asleep I feel Hongbin gently push my head into his shoulder. Though I'm conscious enough to realize this, I'm already too asleep to care. I drift in and out of sleep catching only snippets of what is going on around me.
"Our Rigi is cute isn't she," Jaehwan says.
"Stop tormenting the girl so much Jaehwan, you're just gonna confuse her or something," says Wonsik.
"You're always so protective," Jaehwan replies.
"Hyung," Hyuk says firmly, "please stop being so flirty with her. I don't like it."

"It's okay if you do," Hakyeon says sounding very caring.
"I don't know hyung. I'm confused still," Hyuk says

"I'll back off," Jaehwan says.
"Now you just have to worry about this Jisang guy," says Wonsik
"I don't know about that," Hongbin says cooly.

The next time I start to come to I actually lift my head. Jaehwan looks at me and says, "our sleeping beauty has awoken."
I blink a few time and rub the sleep out of my eyes before I apologize for falling asleep during a movie again.
"It's okay Rigi, we know you must have had a long week so we just let you sleep," Wonsik says.
"Thanks for being so supportive you guys," I say genuinely. I suddenly remember everything I heard and my eyes flash to Hyuk. "Wait... Does Hyuk like me?" I think to myself, "what was a dream right?" He smiles and in order to not let him know I heard some of what happened I smile back as best and I can. I decide not to look at Hongbin as I feel him tense up next to me.
"Maybe we should get going," Hakyeon says sounding slightly alarmed.
"Yes, we should," Wonsik replies.
"Sorry I fell asleep for half of your visit. I'll see you guys tomorrow then, it'll be fun," I say as we start walking toward the door.
"It'll be a lot of fun," Hongbin says as he smiles down at me.
"Bye Rigi, see you tomorrow," Hakyeon says.
"I'll text you in the morning," says Hyuk.
Hongbin's eyes flicker towards Hyuk and then Taekwoon and then land back on me. He smiles again and says, "see you tomorrow," as he winks.
My heart again melts and I utter a few simple goodbyes before shutting the door and heading toward my room. I'm halfway there when there's a knock on the door. I was back expecting it to be one of the boys who forgot something but when I open the door there is no one but I do see a shadow race into their house. On the floor by the door is a small piece of paper folded like a crane. I pick it up and smile. On one of the wings it says "open me" in small, neat handwriting and when I do I find the words, "I like you."

*sorry it took me a while to get this chapter up, I was out of the country*