admirer • jongho

seventy-six

everything seemed to cool off. the students was slowly averting their attention away from hyejin. ryujin had managed to take back what she had said somehow. and being one of the most influential student, almost the whole school had agreed to stop talking about the things they barely knew.

with the atmosphere slowly turning back to normal, hyejin was of course grateful. the girl sighed in content as she took a seat in her place.

she could finally get some peace in school. the only problem was that she's still trapped in her own fear and nightmares. but it's fine because she had her brother and friends to help her go through it so there isn't any other problem she's yet to face.

or so she thought.

"yo, hyejin. jongho hyung was wondering if you still needed him to tutor you" jeongin said, approaching her.

'shit' her eyes widened.

hyejin panicked.

'i nearly forgot about him'

she felt like a total idiot at the moment. how could she forget about him?

well if you ask me, i, too, don't understand how she can possibly forget about THE choi jongho but heh this is hyejin we're talking about. not surprised.

'shut up author. you made us both cowards in this story what did you expect' the girl snapped.

she sighed. she rubbed her face a few times before letting out a frustrated groan. she glanced to the front. jeongin was staring at her for the past five minutes, unamused.

"you done deciding?" the boy asked boredly.

hyejin scratched her head awkwardly. "uhm maybe no"

jeongin continued to stare at her with his stoic face, scanning hyejin's expression for any sign of lying. she gulped nervously under his dead stare.

after staring at each other for a good three minutes, jeongin finally beamed.

"okay then! i'll inform him" he exclaimed before turning back to the front.

hyejin blinked a few times before letting out a sigh of relief. she averted her gaze to the window and caught sight a familiar figure of the devil himself. choi jongho. duh who else.

he was at the basketball court alone. she watched as he mindlessly played around with the ball in hand. he seemed to be deep in thought.

the senior on the other hand was indeed deep in his tangled thoughts. jongho glanced up at the sky above. he sighed.

"great. i like her but it seems like i'm too late. somehow.." his smile saddened.

"why am i such a coward?" he asked, scoffing at himself. "san, wooyoung and yeosang easily befriended her what the hell"

he blinked. he was disappointed at himself for failing to make a move. scratch that, he wasn't even by her side when the whole school was against her. but.. at least he protected her behind her back right..? it was the only thing he was capable of doing.

he remembered the day when hyejin passed out in the hallway the first day the rumors went out. he still remember he was walking quietly with hyunjin that morning. they bumped into jeongin who was heading the opposite way and were about to greet the younger. however, seconds after, his eyes widened at the sight from behind us and dashed away in a blink of an eye. he still remember how his heavy footsteps was loud in the hallway.

jongho and hyunjin was taken aback at the sudden action. the two immediately turned around and jongho had never seen hyunjin reacted so fast in his entire life. before he knew it, hyunjin had already disappeared from beside him and rushed to jeongin's side.

jongho was clueless though.

he couldn't make out what exactly was happening but it sure wasn't a good thing. with that, jongho hurried his way to jeogin and hyunjin.

the moment he caught up on what was happening, he had never felt so pained in his heart before. it breaks his heart seeing hyejin in tears. she looked so fragile at the time that jongho was afraid to near her, afraid he would break her more if he did.

hyunjin had asked him to bring her to the nurse while he and jeongin cleared the crowd.

sitting beside her unconscious figure in the infirmary, jongho felt uneasy. he was worried sick for the girl. although watching her peaceful sleeping did somehow calmed him down a bit. after a while, hyunjin returned and dismissed jongho, saying he'd watch over his sister on his own.

jongho wanted to take care of her instead. but considering that he and hyejin was somehow in a not-so-good terms with each other, jongho decided to let her brother do the job.

ever since then, he and hyejin nver had a proper interaction anymore. and it saddened him.

the boy let go of the ball in his hand before kicking it away mindlessly. "jongho the coward" he whispered to himself before letting out humorless chuckle.

we're close to the end. i'm so going to miss writing this story :')