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Previously,
"Why would I joke around about this, Chaeng?"
He had called her Chaeng. This meant that he was being completely serious.
"You like me." She said softly, more so to herself than to him, very much aware that his eyes were on her, awaiting for her reply. He was waiting for her to say that she felt the same. And she knew that she wasn't being completely honest with herself if she were to deny that she liked him too. She had thought about it more than once ever since that night at the party happened. She thought about him many times in fact and even cried over it in frustration.
Maybe Jongin was right.
Maybe she did love to hate him because, truth is, she surely didn't want to like him.
However, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the school bell as it rung loudly throughout the classroom, causing the teacher to quickly pause the documentary that was playing. The light switch was flicked on not too long afterwards and students started moving their desks back to their original places as Mrs. Moon quickly gave them information on their homework assignment.
"Well?" He said awkwardly as he stood up and gathered his things, a shy smile crept on his face as he continued, "I guess you weren't expecting this confession."
As long as Rosé had known Jongin, he had presented himself as anything but shy. Confident? Yes. Cocky? Annoyingly so. The teenage girl had to blink a couple of times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating but that ever fascinating coy smile was still there on his face. It was strange to her, almost as foreign as she felt at times among South Korean society whenever she opened her mouth.
Due to her thick Australian accent seeping through her sentences, people instantly knew she wasn't born and raised here when she started talking. They immediately asked her what her nationality was before deciding whether they would continue conversing with her. It didn't matter that she looked Korean. They still saw her as a foreigner and because of that she didn't feel 100% embraced.
However, she wasn't ashamed and she had no problem making friends and acquaintances at school who embraced her with ease, much to her delight. A lot them had, in fact, studied abroad and also knew English so that made her feel much more comfortable. Still she worked to perfect her Korean each and everyday and only talked in English when something or someone evoked a strong reaction from her.
Of course, most of the time that someone was Kim Jongin.
Even so, she would never forget when they first met back in freshmen year. She remembered how quiet he had been when his friend Baekhyun had indirectly introduced her to him. It was like his eyes were drawn to her every other minute, he would stare at her as she talked and she didn't know he was hanging onto every word she spoke and every bit of laughter that left her lips. Baekhyun, a junior at the time, was always making jokes and although Rosé had just met him, he had made her feel comfortable and introduced her to lots of people who had eventually become close friends and acquaintances of hers over time.
