tangled; park woojin

14

Yoon Soojin was officially de-lonered.

It's a term she came up with two years ago. Usually, it would take a month for her to make friends in her new class. She befriended Hayun in three weeks. It hasn't even been more than two since the Brand New™ boys happened. She was slightly glad she lost her phone that one time. Only slightly.

She had gotten past that issue with Woojin. They barely interact at all—not that Soojin minded. He didn't annoy her anymore. Youngmin replaced him.

Ever since she accepted Youngmin's friend request, the guy began pestering her on Messenger. At first she was okay with it. It's not like she had anything to better to do, anyway. But he suddenly began talking to her about Hayun.

Men never failed to disappoint her.

Onto more important things. Soojin's mom texted her that she won't be able to pick her up. she usually does since Soojin's school was just a few blocks away from her workplace, but because of reasons she failed to mention, Soojin had to go home alone. Luckily, she only had to take the bus and walk a little.

"Will you be okay alone?" Donghyun asked her. He gets picked up as well and him and Soojin and Hayun would wait at the lobby together. It had been a while after dismissal when her mom texted her, so a good number of students have already gone home.

"Yeah, it's not my first time," Soojin replied.

"Be careful!" Hayun called out as walked away. "And don't get robbed!"

Soojin hoped to both God and Buddha she wouldn't. She put her best strong, independent woman face on and tried not to look like easy prey.

Thankfully, after a few minutes, she safely reached the nearest bus stop. There were already a lot of people waiting. Tired from walking, she decided to sit down while waiting. Everything was fine until someone suddenly sat beside her and nudged her side.

Soojin's first instinct was to hit the person with the Chemistry book she was carrying with her as self-defense of some sort, but when she looked properly, she realized it was just Park Woojin.

She felt slightly relieved but mostly attacked.

"Geez, you surprised me—"

"Are you stalking me?" he accused. Why must he always be this suspecting?

"W-what?" Soojin said. "Of course not! Why would I do that? Why are you always accusing me of things?"

"You don't commute," he said. "Aren't you supposed to go home with your mom?"

"I was, but she wasn't available," Soojin explained.

"Oh."

It was silence after that. Soojin thought he was going to leave after but he didn't. They both bore the awkwardness together until the bus arrived. Then they both stood to get on.

"You're taking the bus, too?"

Soojin sighed in exasperation. "Why else would I be here?"

"Take another bus," Woojin said.

Soojin rolled her eyes at him and pushed him out of the way. She got in first. Not that it mattered, since there were only two seats left, and those two seats happened to be in the same aisle, one in front of the other.

Soojin sat on the seat on the front. Woojin sat behind her.

It was a quiet bus ride. Traffic wasn't that bad either. The only difference between riding a bus and getting picked up by her mom are the occasional stops, which aren't really much of a bother. And that she had to pay for the ride.

Still, not bad.

After a while, she felt someone lightly tapping her shoulder from behind. Soojin pretended to be asleep.

"I know you're not asleep, dummy," she heard Woojin say.

Soojin inwardly sighed. She didn't deserve this.

"What is it now?"

"Why aren't you getting off yet?" he asked.

"Because we haven't reached my place yet?" Soojin answered.

"Uh, yes, we have," Woojin said. "We're, like, kilometers away from your stop now."

"WHAT?"

Soojin wanted to cry now. She rarely commuted, and consequently, she doesn't know her way around the area past her bus stop. She quickly grabbed her stuff and asked the driver to drop her off, and he obliged.

What she didn't expect was Park Woojin getting off the bus after her.

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Hshs i realized most start school around sept or august but lets just accept that they have it around early june for the sake of the story wow im horrible at this