Amor de mi Alma || 2Jae

Chapter 8

"And I have officially lost my mind," Youngjae says in exasperation, closing his textbook for French. 

"Did your Chemistry exam go well?" asks Mark, handing Youngjae a cheeseburger (without cucumbers this time) and a cup of coffee.

"I guess so." Youngjae shrugs and takes a sip of the coffee - which apparently is with creamer and sweetener - and picks up his notebook. 

"What's French about this year?"

"First half is Passe Compose, Imparfait, and part Futur Simple," Youngjae says, sighing afterwards. "And I have yet to do the fundraiser for Band and it's due the first day back."

"I'll buy some, cakes right?"

"Yeah, basically anything sweet." 

"What's all those French things about?" asks Yugyeom.

"Passe Compose is a completed action in the past, Imparfait is an ongoing, repeated, or undefined action in the past, and what we're writing on for Futur Simple is a future event that's going to occur. But we're only writing about the words and basic rules of it all for Futur Simple and at the end of the year, during finals, we'll be writing the whole sentences and stuff."

"And you really don't want to do that, I'm guessing?"

"Correct."

Youngjae sighs and sinks down in his chair. He is completely bored out of his mind, he had hoped that there would be more people in the cafeteria and that at least more friends of his showed up but it is currently only him, Yugyeom, and Mark at their usual lunch table, as Jinyoung doesn't have any exams anymore and thus will be excused from attending anything until Monday; Kunpimook doesn't have an exam today but will be taking his Math exam with Youngjae and Yugyeom the following day; Jackson, like Jinyoung, finished his exams already; and Jaebum doesn't have anything today either.

Conclusion; Youngjae is bored.

"Give me that," Mark says, prying the notebook from Youngjae's hands and opening it to the first page, which has Passe Compose written above it. "What has to be used while those verbs are used?"

"An accord," Youngjae says. "This is all easy, Mark. I just hate having to review things that I already know."

"Then why are you complaining about how you've lost your mind studying?"

"Because I have!" Youngjae says in exasperation. "I don't want to fail so I just read my notes over and over!"

"Do you have anything after lunch?"

"There's only a Spanish review class going on and I am not attending that at all," Youngjae huffs. "I don't even know anything in Spanish other than the words Amor de mi Alma but that is because of Band!"

"What does it mean, then?" asks Mark.

"Love of my Soul," Youngjae replies. "Kind of cliche if you ask me, but oh well."

"But back to the point, why are you even here?" Yugyeom asks. "I'm pretty sure that you said on the phone this morning before school that you had to go to work immediately after lunch and -"

"Shit." Youngjae drew a breath between his teeth. "Fuck, shit, I'm late."

Though his boss isn't happy with Youngjae being late, he only gets one strike added to his already existing strike (in his second week on the job he had slept in once and missed the first hour of his shift) for being ten minutes late, and much to Youngjae's relief, Callisto had taken over the cashier for the ten minutes Youngjae was late for.

"You owe me, Choi!" Callisto laughs, as she moves from the cashier. Youngjae, red-faced, begins to take orders.

He sees a few familiar faces come by - three kids from his French class who are reviewing, Ariana Sharpe and Yukari Kobayashi from Band, and he even sees Kunpimook wit his brothers and sisters dropping by to pick up coffee (and for Kunpimook to tease and annoy Youngjae).

He also sees the rude man from Christmas break, this time on less of a time schedule and more calm. Youngjae also gets the chance to see his face, as last time the man came his mouth and nose were the only things visible due to a hat half-covering his eyes. The man somehow reminds Youngjae of Jaebum, as he is Asian and he has the same nose and chin as Jaebum. Youngjae watches him as he sits down and takes out his phone immediately answering a call. Must be a business man, he thought.

The day passes eventfully and, once it is eight in the evening, it is already dark outside and Youngjae empties the tip-jar, taking the money that he had been tipped and pocketing it before tucking his work-cap in his backpack and pulling on his jacket. Youngjae leaves the cafe, closing the door behind him while putting in his earphones. 

The walk to his house is ten minutes at the least, if he were to hurry up and if the traffic wouldn't be too bad. But it seems that his plans of returning home quick are stopped when he feels a sudden tap on his shoulder when he passes a dark alley.

"Hello?" Youngjae calls, taking out his earphones and turning around. No-one is in sight and Youngjae frowns before raising his hands to put his earphones back in.

That is when a hand takes his wrist and Youngjae freezes in his tracks, looking at the hand first before at the owner of it, and he suppressed a gasp.

It's the man from the cafe, the rude man that always seems to be on his phone except for this time. Now he is smirking at Youngjae and attempting to pull him into the dark alley, and Youngjae can feel his heartbeat begin to speed up when the man digs into his pocket.

"L-let go of me - let go!" Youngjae attempts - but fails - to pull his arm free.

"It's fine, I won't hurt ya," the man says. Youngjae can still smell the coffee on his breath and then he wonders how long the man has been waiting for someone to pass by. Or maybe he wanted to target Youngjae and he succeeded in his plan. It doesn't help with calming Yongjae down all that much.

"Let go of me you ass!" Youngjae yells, digging his heels into the frozen snow and trying once more to pull his arm free. He succeeds in doing so but only for a few seconds because the man is fast and his hand comes flying to grasp Youngjae's wrist again, this time holding on so tightly that Youngjae swears he'll have bruises tomorrow. "Fucking - let - go!"

Youngjae finally comes to his senses on what his mom had told him to do when someone was trying to kidnap him and raises one leg, kicking the man in the groin. The man doubles over in pain, letting go of Youngjae's arm in the process, and Youngjae takes his chance to leave.

His earphones are dragging over the solid snow and he can feel wetness seeping into his shoes but Youngjae doesn't care, digging into his pocket as soon as he is away from the alley. He turns many corners and rushes by many houses before finally picking up his headphones and clutching them between his fist, his other hand pulling his keys from his pocket.

Once he reaches his house, he unlocks the front door and rushes inside. His parents are still on a business trip - they will return the following Sunday - and Jaehee is out with her friends and Youngjae has no clue where Jaehoon is, but that is better for him because he pulls down his sleeve to reveal the extremely red marks on his wrist that are sure to be bruised by the end of the night. He doesn't feel like explaining to his siblings what happened.

He locks the front door and kicks off his soaking wet shoes before walking up the stairs, not bothering to take off his jacket. His mind is still reeling with what just happened. He was almost kidnapped, and who knows what could've happened to him.

With that thought in mind, Youngjae walks to the bathroom and turns on the shower.

Oof, I really don't know any French so I just googled 11th Grade French Lessons lol, hope it's correct (Feel free to correct me in the comments or anything, French just isn't my thing. If you want Dutch, then I'm your gurl heyaa). Anyway, apparently I have to do some gymnastics tricks in Performing Arts so there's that.