SpartAce I: School Love Affair

Friends

Kim Jong Kook sees Joong Ki on the seat across him gesture something, something like pointing to Ji Hyo.

He follows what he is referring to, and sees his seatmate dozing off. Her head is leaning forward, but she seems to be too fast asleep to care.

"This girl can sleep anywhere. ", he says to Joong Ki, who nods in agreement.

Then he sees her leaning even more that he has to cover her forehead as it bumps against the back of the seat in front of her.

That wakes her up, finding Jong Kook's palm on her forehead.

She leans back when she realizes this.

"Tss. Do you usually sleep anywhere like this? ", he asks.

"No! ", she denies.

He just gives her a look and stays silent.

"Anyway.. ", she starts, her voice turning low and gentle. "Thank you for la---! "

"Don't mention it. ", he cuts off. "It's not like i did it because i want to, anyway. "

"What did you say? ", she asks, her always-angry-tone back again.

"Nothing. "

"Do you cut off words of geatitude like this? ", she asks.

"No! ", he denies.

"Tss. ", is all she could say and looks out the window.

The next rime he glances on Ji Hyo's direction, she is asleep again, her forehead leaning against the window.

He shakes his head in disbelief.

Later, they all gets off the bus in the nearest bus stop of Ji Hyo's house.

"Yah, have you slept all through the ride? ", Jae Suk asks Ji Hyo, whose eyes look swelling due to sleeping.

"She did. ", Joong Ki says, smiling.

Ji Hyo ignores them and just heads to the direction of her home.

"Aren't you even saying goodbye? ", Dong Hoon asks.

"What for? I'm gonna see you in school, anyway. "

"This girl has no inch of sentimentality. ", Dong Hoon mutters.

"Let's walk her home. Let's return her from where we took her. ", Seok Jin  suggests.

"Right. ", Jae Suk agrees.

Ji Hyo looks back at them. "What am i? A book ?", she asks, annoyed at Seok Jin's use of words.

"Let's go, Ji Hyo-ah. ", Gary says, taking a bag from her hands and leading the way.

The rest of them follow Gary.

"Let's go, Noona. ", Joong Ki says as he pushes her gently to follow the others.

She walks fast, though. "Yah! Where do you think you're going?!", she yells.

But they continue walking as if they had not heard her. So she runs ahead of them and faces them.

"Yah! Go home! There's no need for you guys to do this! ", she says, grabbing her things from Gary but he refuses to give it.

She blocks Jong Kook's way but he instead turns her around and pushes her gently towards the way.

"Yah! No! ", she yells, trying to turn around but he holds her shoulders to keep her from turning around. "Kim Jong Kook! You better let go of me! Yah! "

But she reaches the front of her house still in Jong Kook's clutches.

Her eyes widens when she spots a familiar white car in their driveway. She instantly feels urgent as she shrugs Jong Kook's hold off and blocks them.

"Eommoni! We're back! ", Jae Suk announces before she can stop him.

"Aaarrgghh! ", she grunts in frustration.

"Why? ", Seok Jin asks.

As if to answer his question, a sophisticated looking woman steps out from the front door, wearing a smiling but stony expression in her face.

"Who's that? ", Jong Kook hears Gary ask Ji Hyo.

"You're back? ", the woman asks Ji Hyo. "Why don't you let your friends come in for a while. "

She might be smiling, but Jong Kook feels a little nervous just by looking at it. And judging from the other's expression, he knows that they feel the same way.

The woman goes back in, and Ji Hyo faces them with an anxious expression.

"I told you to just go home! ", she says in a low voice.

"Who is that? ", Kwang Soo asks.

"My aunt. ", she says as she leads the way to their house.

They later found theirselves sitting in line in the long couch of the Song's living room, with Ji Hyo's aunt sitting in a love seat, her weird smile still in her face as if it was plastered.

Ji Hyo's mom comes in and serves them some snacks.

"So you are Ji Hyo's friends? ", she asks, vreaking the eery silence.

"Uh.. Y-yes. ", Jae Suk answers.

"I did not know you had friends. Specifically boys. ", Ji Hyo's aunt says to her.

She keeps her gaze down, as if she is afraid to meet her aunt's eyes.

Ji Hyo is back to the old expressionless, cold one that they had known before leadership training.

"They're.. part of the org. It's a given that we would be f..friends. ", she says.

It seems like she has difficulty in saying the word, as if she is not used to it.

And their afternoon is spent trembling in front of Ji Hyo's aunt, who seems to be a lioness hiding inside a lamb's fur.