Vantage || Hwang Hyunjin

~Chapter 12~

As soon as the bell rang for lunch break, Minju and I rushed out of the classroom and went looking for Hyunjin and Felix. I told Minju everything that happened as we walked through the school corridors.

Finally, I spotted Hyunjin out of the crowd of the cafeteria, he was also looking for us, along with Felix. I waved at Hyunjin to go outside so we could talk about this more freely.

"What happened?" I asked Hyunjin.

"I'm as confused as you are. I suddenly felt sleepy and eventually fell asleep in class."

"Did you know what time it was?"

"I have no idea."

"Minju, did you happened to notice the tim-" I turned to Minju, who was clearly not paying attention to me or Hyunjin. She was smiling all flirty while saying hi to Felix, and he was all the same.

"MINJU" I raised my voice a bit so she could actually snap out of Felix and look at me.

"Y-yeah sorry, you were saying?" She blinked like ten times while talking. I sighed.

"Do you know what time was it when Hyunjin fell asleep?"

"Uh... maybe 11:35? I'm not very sure." She said.

"Why does time matter?" Hyunjin asked me, clearly impatient.

"I don't know, but we sure fell asleep at the same time, and I don't think that's normal." I said, touching my forehead.

"We should discuss this as soon as we get out of class today." Felix added.

"Yup, I think so too. School is not a good place to talk about this, it's weird and someone could notice." Minju followed.

Hyunjin looked at me with his brows raised, as we both kind of knew something was odd between those two.

After lunch break, we we're back in class and I was absolutely ready to question Minju about lunch time, but she kept avoiding my eyes all the time. The teacher came in, so her ass got saved by him.

"Okay everybody, remember we're having the school trip in two days. There's still people who haven't handed their parents' signed permission, so tomorrow's the last day."

Damn it. These days have been so weird that I forgot to ask my parents for permission. Maybe we'd have free time during the trip to talk about all this mess. Now, I'm actually clueless and confused. I thought I figured out how did the body switching thing worked, but today happened twice and I didn't move a finger over that shell, so something's definitely not right.

After class, I waited for Hyunjin at the entrance, along with  Minju. He came with Felix, of course.

"We can go to my house if you all want." I suggested.

"Y-yeah sure." Minju said hesitant while looking at Felix.

I sighed. "Okay fine. You can go on your little date, you don't have to come." I said. Hyunjin widened his eyes at me and then at them, and they were shocked too. Not wasting any time, they both left.

"How did you know?" Hyunjin asked me.

"It's obvious. And I know Minju likes him a lot so I'll let them be."

"Felix likes her too." He chuckled.

"Well aren't they lucky." I laughed

"Do you like me?"

His question got me by surprise, and I didn't know what to say. I just stood there with my mouth slightly open, moving my eyes everywhere but to his.

"I- uh- we-"

"I'm joking Aeri."

I closed my mouth and made a blank face. He started to laugh as if it was nothing. I walked passed him, not before hiting his chest.

"Ow!" He was still slightly laughing. "Why did you do that?"

I said nothing and kept walking, him walking behind me. I felt completely awkward at my reaction.

I didn't say no, and that worried me a lot.

Do I like him?

When we were getting closer to my house, he ran up the hill.

"Where are you going!?" I yelled at him.

"I'm just changing clothes, that's all! I'll be back!" He yelled back.  

I got into the house, my parents weren't home yet; I headed to my room to check the pearl. Maybe it fell or moved and that's why we changed again.

I found the pearl inside my drawer, where I left it before leaving. I don't get what's happening, at all. I feared I had to tell Hyunjin the truth now, so we could both discuss what was happening to us, but I wasn't fully ready.

Not long after, he knocked the door and came in. Again, we spent all evening looking for information about it. I looked for info about the pearl, without him noticing, but I didn't find anything either.

"Can I ask you something?"  He broke the silence.

"It depends."

"On what?"

"On what is it."

"How would you know if I don't ask you?" He asked sarcastically.

"Fine. What is it."

He stood up from the bed and sat down beside me on the floor, making my heart beat faster immediately.

"Why didn't you answer?"

"A-answer what?" I asked nervously

"You know what I mean. I need to know, Aeri."

"I don't  know what you're talking about." I tried shrugging him off, but I couldn't, as he grabbed my hand tightly.

"Don't lie. Do you like me?"

"No."

"Aeri."

"Stop it." I couldn't be any more blushed, I wasn't sure myself if I liked him or not. We've spent so much time together, and I've got to know him a bit more every day, but I wasn't sure.

"Please, be honest with me." He tried finding My eyes.

"Why do you ask this?"

He was about to answer, when my parents arrived home. We both flinched, and he got a bit away from me, just in case.

"I should go now, it's late." He scratched the back of his neck.

"Y-yeah.." I looked down.

"I'll wait for your answer." He said. I looked at him, but he already had grabbed his things and walked out of the room. I heard him greeting my mom and leaving. My heart couldn't stop beating, and every time I remembered his low voice and his deep gaze looking at me, it got faster and faster.

Maybe I do like him.

I remembered about the trip, so I asked my mom if I could go. She said yes, of course, they always allowed me to go to school trips and such. I wanted to tell Hyunjin about my feelings during the trip, but I still wasn't sure if I did like him and if it was a good time do to so, maybe it was best to fix everything first.