Shy Boy Next Door

˗ˏˋ ☁️ 02┊wandering eyes ☁️ ˎˊ˗

Eunbyul walks into the cafeteria with her friends, Doyeon and Jangmi. Although she's been at this school for two years, they're the only friends she trusts. She's a pretty easy person to approach, but she rarely considers people her friends. Classmates who talk to her now and then are really just acquaintances. But with Doyeon and Jangmi, it's different. They talk and hangout outside of school and she knows they'll stick with her through thick and thin.

The three girls find a table and sit down, knowing that that table will most likely be their permanent spot in the cafeteria for the whole year. Immediately, Eunbyul's eyes scan around to look for Jinyoung. She still feels a bit of excitement from their conversation this morning. With him avoiding her so ruthlessly, she's bound to assume that he doesn't like her. But after the bus ride, she's happy to know that he doesn't have any negative feelings towards her. He talked to her like friends do, and that's all she really wanted all along.

She remembers where he used to sit with his friends and finds him when she searches the tables on the upper left-hand corner of the cafeteria. Sadly, she sits on the right side, but at least she can still see him from afar. It's the same in their classroom. Jinyoung and Eunbyul are put in the same homeroom again, but they sit across the entire classroom from each other like always. It's strange that she still takes glances at him, but maybe it's because she still has a lot to learn about him.

"Hey, aren't you going to get lunch?" Doyeon asks, breaking Eunbyul's gaze on Jinyoung.

"Huh? Oh, no. I'm not that hungry. You should go get something if you are."

"You want to go buy lunch with me?" Doyeon walks over to the other side of the table and clings onto Jangmi's arm, trying her best to convince Jangmi to agree.

"No, thanks. I'm good." Jangmi gives Doyeon an apologizing smile like she always does when she rejects people.

"Tch, you guys are no fun. It's the first day of school, I don't want to walk around by myself," she whines, but gives up and leaves when the other two girls don't respond. "Fine, I'll go by myself. Don't expect me to share my snacks with you, traitors!"

After Doyeon leaves, Eunbyul sighs. "I guess she didn't change over the summer." She chuckles at how cute Doyeon still is.

"She still tries to act like the youngest, but aegyo doesn't work on me," Jangmi says and smiles. "You didn't change either, right? Sorry, I couldn't contact you much. Camps aren't the most convenient at times."

"It's okay. I stayed at home by myself through the whole break; it was nice to hide in my room and rot." Eunbyul places an elbow on the table and rests her chin on her palm.

"Sounds like you had a blast," Jangmi sarcastically says while giving Eunbyul a smile to know she's kidding. "I wonder how long Doyeon is gonna take. She loves food way too much."

"Well, I guess I can't comment on that since I also love food way too much. I'm just not feeling it today, probably because it's the first day of school," Eunbyul says then quickly takes a glance at Jinyoung.

Suddenly, Jinyoung and his friends stand up to walk to the lunch line. Because Eunbyul is sitting right next to where the line runs, there's a high chance of Jinyoung taking notice of her as he moves up. Usually, she's not shy in front of him since they both ignore each other anyway. She knows that he's a lot friendlier now, but just because they talked to each other a single morning doesn't make them friends. He has always kept his distance from her at school and she did the same. Her friends don't even know that they're neighbors. However, she has a bit of hope that they grew a teeny tiny bit closer after this morning. Hence, she doesn't know if she should greet him or not. It'll be awkward if their eyes meet and they just look at each other in silence. So should she say "hi" to him? Or wave at him at least?