partners ⁀➷ k.sw ✓

6

Biology was the class I had with Sunwoo. Unfortunately I'll have to sit next to him for an hour, including the time we have after school to work on the project. I walk into biology class with my notebook in hand, seeing Sunwoo already in his seat. I walk over to our desks and sit down next to him, not looking at him for even a second.

When the whole class arrived, Mr. Kim got out of his chair, standing up in front of the class.

"Alright. It's been a day or two of you guys hopefully working on the project. You'll have to submit an initial model and essay telling me what you and your partner plans to do. It's due by the end of the day today. If you didn't start working on it, and you don't submit what I want, I will fail you." Mr. Kim looks at all of us with a serious expression.

"Now, because I am the nicest teacher here, I will let you guys work on the project in class today. If I see any of you engaging with other people from other teams, you'll get a zero for the whole project. Understand?"

"Yes" the class said in unison, with a monotone voice.

"Get to work." Mr. Kim sat back at his desk.

The class began to get louder, more people starting to talk to one another. I flip to the pages in my notebook where we took notes from yesterday.

"I was thinking of this, for our initial layout." I point to my sketch.

I'm still avoiding eye contact with Sunwoo, but it seems like he's looking at the notebook, which is what I wanted.

"Seems good." He responded.

"Mm, okay." I nod, satisfied with his agreement.

"Like you said yesterday, I came up with some more hypotheses. We just have to revise them and such." I point to my list of different hypotheses that we could use.

"Perfect." He says enthusiastically.

"Okay, great. I can't really focus with so many people talking, so we'll just have to continue this at your house." I nod again.

"My- My house?" He stutters.

I look up at him, furrowing my eyebrows. His eyes seemed sad, and his overall facial expression was less happy.

"Yeah..?" I mumble.

"Can't we go to your house?" He frowns.

"What's wrong with going to yours? We can take turns." I reply.

"You just.. I don't want you to come over my house." He shakes his head no.

"... alright then. My house it is." I finally agree.

"Thanks, Jihyun."

"Mhmmm" I mumble.

"Did you take more notes yesterday?" I ask him.

"No.. I couldn't."

"What do you mean you couldn't? Of course you could have." I frown.

"No, it's complicated.." he mutters.

"Or did you just not want to?" I raise an eyebrow at him.

"No, I wanted to. Really badly. I wanted to continue, but I just couldn't when I got home." Sunwoo says.

"..hm. Okay" I respond, skeptical.

The rest of the period we spent reading in our textbooks, taking more notes.

third period - lunch

I left the biology classroom and went to the lockers to put my notebooks from first and second period away. I close the locker, locking it. I stood there, waiting for Eric. Quick few minutes later I saw him, and he walks up to me.

"Let's go to lunch?" He smiles.

"Duh." I deadpan.

He giggles and we walk to the cafeteria together. The cafeteria was probably the worst part; it makes you realize how much stuck-up and spoiled students there really was. Each table had their own "clique". It was either you were popular or you were just a loser to everyone else.

I followed Eric, not paying attention to where because I was on my phone. He suddenly stops and I bump into him, looking up. He stopped at a table where all of his friends were sitting.

"What's up, dudes." Eric sits down.

"What the.." I mutter under my breath.

"You can, sit here together. I'm gonna leave the school and buy food." I say to Eric.

"You're not going anywhere, dumb ass. Now sit down next to me."

I can feel all 11 of their gazes on me, their attention all poured onto me. I can also feel the dirty stares from the back of my head, and also the whispering and talking shit coming from jealous crazy girls.

I eventually sit down next to Eric. I gulp, tensing up.

"So, these are my friends. Introduce yourselves, hyungs!" Eric exclaimed.

"Sunwoo" he started.

"Hyunjae~" the one next to him cooed.

"I'm Juyeon." He smiles at me.

"Sangyeon." Another guy smiles at me as well.

"Haknyeon"

"I'm Kevin, what's up."

"Jacob"

"Younghoon" A really handsome guy said.

"Chanhee!" A cheery guy exclaimed.

"Changmin."

"And I'm Jihyun's best friend, Eric" Eric giggles sheepishly.

"I'm Kang Jihyun." I introduce myself.

"I've seen you around. You're pretty!" I think his name was Kevin, said to me.

"Definitely prettier than all of these average girls." Hyunjae nods.

"Yeah. You have nice beauty." Younghoon added.

"Hyungs, stop flirting!" Eric yelled.

"I'm sure there's other guys in the school hitting on Jihyun. Yo, Jihyun," Jacob looks at me.

"If there's any boys bothering you, we'll beat them up." He smiles at me.

"Way to be dramatic, Jacob." Changmin snickers.

"He's not wrong." Juyeon shrugs.

"Who asked you, Juyeon!" Changmin yelled.

"I asked myself." Juyeon smirks.

"They're a little.. off." Eric whispers in my ear.

"I know you think they're like everyone else, but they're really different." He adds.

"Oh yeah, Jihyun works with Sunwoo for a project. How's that going?" Juyeon looks at me.

"Good. Slow progress, but it's steady." I respond quickly, excited that they mentioned school.

"Is Sunwoo helping?" Sangyeon glares at him.

"Why wouldn't I be, hyung?" Sunwoo glares back.

"He works hard when he wants to. Does he help you?" Hyunjae laughs.

"Yeah." I nod.

"You guys are all trying to hit on her, stop being creepy!" Eric whined.

"You're just obsessed with her, Eric." Haknyeon smirks.

"Right? All you do is talk about her." Chanhee laughed out loud.

"So? What's the problem with that? I love my best friend, and she loves me too!" Eric yelled.

I sigh, rubbing my temples.