Within These Shadows || Park Chanyeol/Do Kyungsoo || Book 1

25

"Mae, please don't do that! Please!" Jay was sitting on the floor and hugging Mae's leg tightly.

"I will do it! You deserve it!" Mae was walking forcefully towards her door, dragging Jay across the floor.

"Mae do you really hate me that much that you want me to return the books you borrowed from Landon, to him?" Jay tried pulling harder.

"Yes. After what you did today, yes, I do hate you." Mae stopped on her track, and looked down at Jay. "How could you disappear like that? Do you know how worried DO was? On top of that, you don't even have his number!"

"I do have his number now. Besides, your phone was switched off. If it were on, I could've found you guys sooner." Jay looked up at Mae.

"Don't you dare put this on me, Jayline Woods!" Mae crossed her arms. "You know full well that this one is on you!"

Jay bit her tongue, that was a wrong thing to say. She told herself that she would accept it all and not say anything back at Mae. "Mianhae! (I'm sorry!) I take it back! It's my fault, I admit it. But please, don't make me return those books to Willy!" Jay pulled Mae's leg again.

"Nope, this is your punishment, and you have to do it. Go." Mae pulled her leg out of Jay's grasp.

Jay let out a huff. "Fine, I'll go." She got up, grabbed the books from Mae's table and walked out of their room. She didn't want to piss off her best friend, so she'd do anything to keep her calm.

*

Jay saw Landon standing outside the girls dorm when she came downstairs with the books Mae had borrowed.

"Jay! Hi!" Landon waved when he spotted her.

Jay took a deep breath in and walked towards the boy.

"Hey, Willy," Jay smiled hesitantly.

"Thanks." He smiled, taking the books from Jay.

"No problem, no problem at all," Jay laughed nervously. "Alright then, bye I guess." Jay turned to go back into the dorm.

"Jay?" Landon called out before she could leave, causing her to turn around slowly.

"Yeah?"

"If you don't mind, can we talk for a few minutes?"

"Uh, sure." Jay agreed, hesitantly, yet again.

~~~

"Here," Jay handed the lemonade bottle, that she got from the vending machine, to Landon, who was sitting on one of the benches, a couple of yards away from the girls dorm.

"Thanks," Landon thanked her, taking the bottle.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" She took her seat beside him, maintaining a good two feet distance.

"I know this might sound a bit straightforward, but, why do you dislike me, Jay?"

Jay, who was drinking apple juice from the bottle she had gotten for herself, choked on her drink. She almost sprayed out the juice from her mouth but stopped just in time. After coughing for a few seconds, she managed to collect herself.

"That's quite sudden," Jay looked at the boy beside her, wiping her mouth.

"I'm sorry, didn't mean to startle you like that," Landon bowed slightly. "It's just that, I know you're not a bad person, neither are you mean. Because if you were, you would have bullied me, or any other weak person in the University. But you don't do that. As far as I've heard, you hate bullies. And yet, you seem to dislike me. I wanted to know if I've done anything wrong. If I have, then I'd really like to fix it."