Internal Noise | Haechan

t w e n t y o n e

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Ｉｎｔｅｒｎａｌ Ｎｏｉｓｅ
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If I could rate how good I did my job on a regular basis I would say it was at least an eight out ten, but being a chaperone for a dance... that was a different story.

"Hey! Hey! Stop making out! This is a hallway not your bedroom!" I couldn't believe I was screaming such a sentence to a pair of twelve-year-olds.

The kids started to run away, but I was able to get a quick glimpse of their faces.

Jeongin and Yuna... hah! When I suspected someone had a crush in my class, I wasn't wrong. I knew it!

I shook my head. I had decided to take a walk to wake myself up from the boredom of the night. No matter how much I loved Halloween, this wasn't the way I wanted to spend the day.

They're too young to have all those hormones.

I made my way back into the gym, where the actual party was. Taking a look around I spotted some more kids doing some inappropriate things, but I couldn't be bothered to say anything.

Like I said, when it comes to chaperoning, I'm awful. I'd rate myself a four out of ten—and that's pushing it.

"Aren't they too young to be dancing like that?" I asked Taeyong, who stood next to me. Thankfully, I wasn't completely alone in my night of misery. He had been unlucky enough to run into Principal Park and was made a chaperone too.

"Nah," he said, slightly chuckling.

I squinted my eyes to get a better look at the scene in front of me, "I guess it isn't so bad."

He laughed, "why? How did you dance when you were thirteen?"

"I didn't. I played with barbies."

"Mhm. Sure," he showed me a disbelief look, "don't tell me you weren't boy crazy when you were their age. There's only one way a middle school party goes down and it's exactly like this. Half the kids are scared to be close to the opposite gender and the other half gets way out of control."

He wasn't wrong. The crowd was perfectly split in two. I looked away, annoyed I had to keep watch over those kids during my favorite holiday.

"I didn't even get to dress up..." I muttered to myself.

— ☔︎ —

When nine o'clock finally struck I felt a weight lift from my shoulders. It was over! Finally over! Well, not really, we had to stay and clean some things up, but at least the kids were gone.

I went around grabbing the little plastic cups and plates left behind when I felt something on my head. I immediately ducked and turned around at the sudden touch, only to be met with Taeyong's big eyes.

"There. Now you got to dress up," he said with a smile.

Huh? Dressed up?

I looked up and saw he had placed a purple witch hat on my head. I smiled happily.

He must've heard what I said earlier.

"Where'd you get this? I'm sure someone's looking for it."

"But everyone's gone," he looked around and I noticed we were the only two people left in the gym.

"Hm... I guess I'm a witch now then," I said with a proud smile, which rapidly turned into a smug look, "abracadabra!" I screamed.

He looked at me puzzled, "what?"

"I just magicked you into doing all my cleaning! Did it work?"

"No, and I'm pretty sure witches don't say 'abracadabra'..."

"Oh..."

We laughed and kept picking up cups. We went like that for a while. Joking around and trying to finish as fast as possible.

"Is there something going on with you?" He randomly asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know... you seem different lately."

"I do?"

"Yeah," he said taking a seat on the bleachers that were left open, "I don't mean it in a bad way, it's just... you've been spacing out a lot lately in rehearsals."

Oh... that's what he meant.

"Sorry..."

"Why are you apologizing? I just wanna know what's going on. You can tell me. Aren't we friends?"

I took a seat next to him. Maybe confiding in someone would do me good... "well... there's this guy I've been seeing..."

"You're dating?!" I almost jumped at his words. His loudness taking me by surprise.

"We're not dating... it's... complicated," I looked down not finding the right words to explain it to Taeyong. Also, not wanting him to get the wrong idea.

He turned to me, taking my hands in his, I was taken aback by the touch, but he just looked at me sweetly, "Nari, you can talk to me. What's going on?"

The way he looked at me made me feel warm inside. He was truly so easy to talk to. He was always there. "Well..." I started, "it's nothing, I'm just- I'm starting to really like him and... I think he likes me too, or at least I hope he does... I don't know it sounds kinda childish when I say it..." I chuckled trying to dissolve the tense mood in the room.

"It's not childish," he shook his head, "I'm sure he likes you too," he comforted me, "but hey, if it doesn't work out, remember there's a million guys that would kill to be with you!"

I laughed at his exaggeration, "yeah, sure. You know I haven't had a proper boyfriend in like what? Two years?"

"That's because you didn't want to, not because no-one liked you!"

"Okay, who liked me then?" I asked with an incredulous look.

"Two years ago?"

"Mhm."

"Me."

My eyes opened to an unreal extent, it was as if a bucket of cold water had just been thrown on me, "w-what?"

"Yeah," he said, sounding carefree, "but then I got to know you and realized how annoying you are..."

"Hey! I'm not annoying!"

He laughed, "you're very annoying. You're annoying me right now."

I lightly shoved him to the side, "you asked me what was going on!"

"Yeah, but I didn't know it was about a guy."

I narrowed my eyes, smiling evilly, "ooh, why does that bother you Mr. Lee? You still have a crush on me?" I wiggled my brows.

"Ha! You wish! I'm too hot for you. You said so yourself," he laughed.

"Shut up!"