The Rogue||Choi Yeonjun

Chapter 10; Vulnerable

"I'm gonna kill that brat!" Eun-Bi muttered under her breath as she stomped out of yet, another lecture and failed in persuading Soobin to go to the party with her.

"Gosh, I think I need a breather."

She went to her office, tied her hair into a bun, and took off her jacket as she plopped down on her chair and exhaled deeply. She had so much to do at the moment; present the final schedule of the annual event to the principle, take auditions, select and rehearse her performance, look for a member to complete her team, and worst of all, she had a hell lot of tests.

Her next lecture was in an hour, so she had ample time to relax and de-stress. She crossed her arms behind her head and reclined on them, slowly closing her eyes. As she closed them, she drifted away to a land of fantasies and imagination where the sky was pink, the land, blue and the grass was, the grass was still green. The trees grew candy canes and chocolate flowed in the rivers. (Eun-Bi, you're so childish.) She hopped around on this unrealistic land and when she inhaled and tried to smell the scent of the candy cane trees, she couldn't. This broke the continuity of her imagination and she came back to her office. The monotony of her office made her gloomy and sad. She pushed her head back in annoyance and groaned.

"You know what? Earth has beautiful sights to offer too." She thought, trying to comfort herself and walked to the door.

She got up from the chair and went out. As soon as she got to the ground floor and into the greenery, she whiffed a deep breath, taking in the scent of the soil.

Wierd.

Something was weird about the scent.

She slightly raised her eyebrow as she took another breath, took a few steps forward and the eerie smell got stronger. It was coming from the midst of the area and when Eun-Bi got there, she saw Yeonjun holding a cigarette in his hand. She gasped at the horrendous sight.

"Hey, Choi Yeonjun!" She ran towards the bench, snatched the cigarette from his hand and threw it on the grass.

He raised his eyebrow as he looked at her and rolled his eyes.

"Go away..." He said, annoyed, and took another cigarette out of the box.

"This isn't cool, young man!" She folded her arms on her chest rather aggressively.

Yeonjun clicked his tongue as he ignored her and lit up the stick, breathing the smoke. Eun-Bi heaved an 'I'm done with you' sigh as she threw the stick from his hands making Yeonjun glare at her.

"What is your problem, nerd?!" The boy shouted as irritation grew on his face.

"Woah Woah, calm your punk-ness." She blinked her eyes repeatedly, surprised by his impudence.

"What's with the shouting?"

"Why? Can't I shout?" He raised his head and looked right in her eyes, the ice in them had thawed and now lava boiled within.

"I will raise my voice even if it doesn't change anything!"

Eun-Bi furrowed her brows in worry as she looked at the vexed boy. His breath shook as he shouted the last sentence as if what he had said wasn't enough to relieve the storm within him. The storm was tearing up his insides for when Eun-Bi was about to say something, he stood up, grabbed her by her shoulders and pinned her to the old tree's trunk, trapping her within his arms.

"What does the world have against me?!" His voice cracked as he spoke, tears accumulated within in his eyes, asking for approval to flow out.

The captive Eun-Bi was more worried than she was scared by his abrupt actions. She hadn't seen this much stress on someone's face for so long and it troubled her. She traced his face with her eyes. Every single pore of his face was overflowing with tension and even though he pinned Eun-Bi to the tree with little to no effort, his body looked weak and frail.

"Let me breathe, please!" He pleaded with every last bit of energy he had within his body before it gave up on him. His eyelids slowly dropped and his arms, that trapped Eun-Bi, lost their grip and the boy almost fell to the ground but Eun-Bi was quick in holding him by the pits.

Panic struck Eun-Bi as she found herself helpless and her decision-making sense disappeared under the circumstances. She dragged him back to the bench and put him on it.

"How am I going to take him to the nurse's office?" She didn't even have her phone with her because it was in her jacket and her jacket was in her office. She pondered for a solution until one came to her mind.

There is one way.

"Here goes nothing." She muttered as squatted down and tried to carry Yeonjun on her back. As soon as she tried to stand up with Yeonjun on her back, her bones gave a cracking sound.

I better start drinking milk. Noted.

Yeonjun was undoubtedly heavy for her, so she rushed to the nurse before someone else had to carry them both.

***

"He has mild gastrospasm, probably by stress and just like you mentioned, smoking might have caused it too." The nurse explained to Eun-Bi while Yeonjun was tucked in one of the beds.

"I gave him medicine, so he should wake up soon. Make sure he doesn't overthink and avoids smoking."

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much!" Eun-Bi bowed to the nurse expressing gratitude as the nurse left the room leaving her alone with a sleeping Yeonjun.

Eun-Bi walked to the adjacent bed, securing her skirt under her back as she sat down. He looked as peaceful as a lone cloud bobbing along on a blue summer sky. His blue hair lightly brushed on his eyelids and his lips were slightly parted. Eun-Bi's hand involuntarily reached forward and brushed the hair away from his face, revealing his handsome forehead.

Man, he's handsome.

She hadn't quite noticed that until now. Under her busy schedule, the only thing she cared about except school was going to the biennial party. As her hand slid down to his cheek to touch their softness, Yeonjun suddenly held her wrist and opened his eyes.

"There you go again." He stared at her through drowsy eyes and his coarse voice increased the enchanting effect he had on her.

"Taking advantage of a handsome young man."

A/N:

One lesson I learned is 'never make promises' cuz every time I say 'I'm gonna update soon', I end up updating after centuries. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and pretty soon, in a few chapters, we'll get to the most awaited part of this book, so stick with me until then, BYE!

Your very favourite, Author-nim.