Vantage || Hwang Hyunjin

~Chapter 7~

Hyunjin's POV

"Hey, Minju" I asked her while on class. She eyed me, hesitant of replying.

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"I mean you already are so go ahead."

"Why do you and Aeri hate me?"

"Why do you ask?"

"It's obvious, and Aeri was a little rude with me this morning. Not that it hurt me, but I got curious."

"You still have the nerve to ask." She Chuckled very annoyed.

"If I'm asking is because I don't know. If I knew I wouldn't be asking, don't you think? Also, we don't know how long is it going to take being like this, we probably have to get along at least."

Minju sighed rolling her eyes, turning to me.

"You and your friends are bullies. You hurt our friends and you hurt other people. I just don't like you, but Aeri hates you, sorry."

"I can tell she hates me. But we're not doing those things anymore. And besides, you say "bullies" as if we tortured people or something, that's not it, and I didn't hurt anyone."

"Hey, you don't have to give me any explanations, I don't care."

"Do you believe me?"

"Not really. I'm just here to help Aeri."

I sighed, turning back to the front. They don't really know what they're talking about, I'm not like they think, and the boys aren't either; they already apologized to everybody in school too.

Aeri's POV

After classes, Hyunjin was waiting for me, again, outside school. I wanted to ditch him, but what Felix told me earlier was haunting me nonstop. I didn't want to pity him, that'd make it worse, but somehow I wanted to help him, I misjudged him and acted like a total bitch towards him. 

It's not like I want to become best friends with him, but I wanted to understand what's going on inside his head. An idea popped in my head.

"How about we go to my place today? We can still investigate about this." I suggested.

"Isn't your place a bit too crowded? I mean I don't have any problem, it's just that in my house we can talk about it more freely." He hesitated.

"It's okay, trust me. Call my parents and tell them you're inviting someone."

He did as I told him, I cringed at his tone with my mom. I'm sweet with her yeah but he sounded Whiny and I don't do that.

"I don't talk like that." I said.

"I don't know how you talk normally, but my way is way too dry. I'm sure you do talk like this tho." He chuckled, making me chuckle too.

"Oh? You're laughing with me? Who are you and what happened to Aeri?"

"What a lame inner joke. Come on, let's go "MeJin"."

"MeJin?"

"You know, you're Hyunjin but in me. MeJin."

"That's even more lame than my joke."

"What ever." I started to walk, leaving him behind. I facepalmed at my stupid attempt of socializing with him.

"Wait for me, MeRi"  he said giggling, walking faster and leaving me behind instead.

I stopped at his joke, and actually laughed while looking down, I don't know why I felt kind of happy.

We got to my house, my mom welcomed us with a big hug, except she hugged Hyunjin, of course. I bowed and "introduced" myself to her and my dad. They both stared at me, from head to toes, smirking. I can't blame them; my mom always wanted me to bring a boy she could meet, if only she knew what was happening.

We got to my room and sat down on the floor, doing nothing at first. Eventually, we started talking again about all this mess; this situation was completely messed up. I mean, how can we revert something like this? This is something you only see in movies; it never crosses your head something like this actually happening in real life, less to you.

"Do you think the universe did this because you hate me?" He tried to joke around.

I actually felt bad about it now. After what Felix told me, I couldn't just say I hated him, I didn't know anything about his family or his life in general. How could I decide I hated him without even knowing? I'm not usually like this. I don't even know what's wrong with me. Now that I had a small taste of what his life is really like, should I give him a chance? 

"I...don't hate hate you." 

"You don't hate hate me?" He put a confused face, pouting.

"I mean I don't quite like you, but I don't hate you."

"Minju told me you hated me." Damn you Minju.

"Let's just focus on what can we do."  

Not long after that small talk, my mom came to my room to "check" on us. She offered us food and kissed my cheek, giving me a hug; only it was to Hyunjin, not to me. I missed my mom so much, and my dad too. Their constant love and support and just them in general. Hyunjin hugged her back, but I noticed it.

He enjoyed that hug.

He must feel very lonely, he doesn't have his parents around, and even when his dad is, he doesn't show any affection, and that made my heart sink. Seeing Hyunjin hugging my mom back and actually enjoying it, made my heart warm, and at the same time sink, to the point my eyes started watering.

I missed my parents like crazy, but if Hyunjin was feeling affection, I could wait patiently for a solution for this, as long as he feels loved.

We had dinner with my parents, it was the most embarrassing dinner ever, they were questioning us to see if we were dating or something, and it was extremely cringey for me, as all the questions were for me, obviously. 

Eventually, after dodging  all their questions, he stood for a while in my room googling anything about our situation, finding absolutely nothing, unfortunately. I decided to go back to his house to rest, it was late.

"Do you want me to take you?" He asked. How cute; he forgot I'm trapped in a 5'10 body with scary resting bitch face, whilst he was trapped in a 5'4 with a not being able to kill a fly face.

"I think I'm fine" I chuckled. "Thank you tho." And with that I went back to his house. When I got there, it was of course, empty. I found a note on the fridge

"This week I'm not coming home, out on business trip. I left money on your bed."

I felt horrible. He has to come back from school to this every single day, yet he manages to hide it so well.