Hye-jin felt like Seo-jun was avoiding her at school since yesterday. He left abruptly without even telling her the reason. And of course, Ji-Hoon told her about the conversation. She knew why he got angry and left but at the same time, he didn't have any right to be angry.
Ji-Hoon was right, their relationship was indeed complicated but both of them valued each other a lot. Ji-Hoon means a lot to Hye-jin. And to Ji-Hoon, she was his ride or die.
They were walking around Seoul as Ji-Hoon wanted to see more parts of the beautiful city. They bumped into Sung-yong.
"Ah Hye-jin..I was looking for you" Hye-jin looked at the guy, he had band aids on his face. Ji-Hoon observed the guy and Hye-jin's look on her face.
"I am sorry for hitting you that day. I wou-" Before he could continue his sentence, Ji-Hoon had already grabbed his collar. "Did you do that to her??" He screamed at him and the other guy was even more scared of him.
"Hye-jin I am sorry okay?? I have already suffered a lot because of my actions!!" Hye-jin looked at him confused. "Ji-Hoon leave him.." she asked Ji-Hoon who reluctantly obliged.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked Sung-yeon to explain. "Well, Seo-jun came to beat me up, then that Soo-ho guy threatened me to apologise to you and Kim Hyun-woo came to my school!!" He said "Is he your dad??" He asked Hye-jin.
"Why did my dad come to your school??" Hye-jin asked even more curious. "Well, he got me suspended and warned me not to repeat this ever again. Look, I am sorry for what I did. So, please let me go...I don't want another one of your guys beating me up!!" He said and ran away. Ji-Hoon was about to follow him.
"Yah leave him" she said. "But that guy!!" he groaned. "I want to beat him up, how dare he touch you??" he said while caressing her face.
"It's fine...AND I was the one who did that to his face!!" she said proudly. "Ahh really!!That's my Hye-jin, you did well!!" He said almost as proudly. . . . . .
"Lee Soo-ho and Kwang Hye-jin, both of you have the highest grades in your year!!" Mr.Han declared. Everyone applauded.
"How does she manage to be first place all the time??"
"She must be lucky"
Hye-jin have often heard other people disregard her hard work by saying that she's just like. It made her upset in the past as she really worked hard for it but now she just got used to these comments.
"Everyone let's give a round of applause for Ahn Ji-Hoon. He came second although he's new to our class". Everyone started clapping, suprised that he came in second.
"Wahh he got it all"
"He's a genius!!"
Hye-jin scoffed at the double standards. Nonetheless, she was proud of him. Ji-Hoon smiled at her in a cocky manner while she chuckled. Seo-jun was staring at the two in anger.
'How could she?' that was on his mind. How could she just forget about what they had?? She already found someone else???' He was angry but it easily got replaced with guilt yet again.
'It's my fault that we ended. She deserves to be happy. I am being selfish' He didn't know how to feel about it, so he decided to distract himself from her. He did so by following around Ju-kyung, annoying her. . . . Ji-Hoon was sitting infront of her and talking when a commotion broke out. A guy came in and stood infront of Ju-kyung.
"What are you doing here?" Ju-kyung asked, shocked to see that 'Hyun Jin' guy there.
"I came to see you...Take this" he said offering a baseball to her. Me and Ji-Hoon looked at the scene amused.
"I have a jinx so I can't play without this ball"
"Then why are you giving me this?"
"So I can ask you to come to the final match" he said handing her the ball.
"If I win the game, I want to ask you something"
"Can't you just ask me here?"
"No way. I can't ask you out here."
While others swooned over his words, Seo-jun stood up and made his way to them. Ji-Hoon became more invested while Hye-jin looked curiously.
"Ju Kyung, you're awfully popular. Up until recently, people thought she was dating me." he said looking at the guy.
"You can't move on so quickly. You have no respect for your ex."
He said those words looking at Hye-jin. It was obvious that those words were meant for her. Ji-Hoon clenched his jaw while Hye-jin avoided Seo-jun's eyes.
"What are you guys doing? You little punks!!Who are you??" The vice principal asked looking at that guy
"Make sure to come to the final match, pretty" he said and ran, jumping out the window. Everyone ran to the window while Seo-jun glared at Ji-Hoon and Hye-jin.
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"Jagiya, has this school always been this dramatic?" he said, still glaring at Seo-jun while smirking. . . . . . Hye-jin and Ji-hoon was in her room. He was laying on her lap while she was reading a book. "Hye-jin..." he called to which she hummed signalling him to continue, not taking her eyes off her book.
"How are things with Seo-jun and Soo-ho??" he asked curiously. She looked at him now and signed. He sat up wanting her to talk.
"I don't know. I tried to avoid them when I came back. I couldn't stop myself from talking to Soo-ho because I know how much he is still suffering. We talked a bit but things are still awkward. And...Seo-jun. I have been trying to avoid him but somehow we always end up talking but I don't want to...after what happened. Both of them are suffering a lot and I know that things will never go back to how it was."
Ji-Hoon looked at her in pity, "Babe, know that things will never go back to how things were but that doesn't mean that new changes will be bad. You have to let people in and most importantly you have to let them know what you went through. They have to know" he said choosing his words carefully.
"I can't, when they are going through much more" she said, now tearing up. Ji-hoon immediately wrapped his arms around her pulling her to his lap. "Sweetie, stop thinking that what you went through was nothing. Stop downplaying your struggles. Don't compare what you want through with others because people go through different things which are all struggles in their own way." he said while holding Hye-jin who now was sobbing.
"I admire how strong you are and how you still care about everyone after everything you went through. You are a gem, Hyejin-ah." He said while caressing her. She didn't say anything but held onto him even more tightly.
He was the only person who knew about everything and she would be lying if she said that he wasn't her safe place.
