Chapter 59: Always the Ones You Least Suspect

Friday | April 12th, 2024 | 6:11 PM

This week has been one of my best in a while, I can't lie. My conscience wasn’t bothering me about Ningning, which was a plus. My head has been more clear since my deep talk with Haerin which has made focusing on school feel much easier. And Chaewon has just been the sweetest girlfriend lately, we've even had study sessions over the phone, which granted me some nice brownie points with her.

Haerin's advice and the conversation with her overall stuck with me. It wasn't a direct cure-all, more of a quiet hum in the back of my mind, a gentle reminder of the person I wanted to be for someone who believed in me. I found myself actually trying to focus in class, the concepts starting to click into place the more I paid attention. The guilt over my grades was lessening which I guess in turn lessened some of the guilt I carried for my argument with Chaewon too. Life was feeling... easier. Stable.

I even made it a point to hang out and study with Haerin and the others after letting myself be a ghost for so long. Even if hanging out meant sitting at a table for hours in occasional silence while I did my schoolwork. Speaking of which, the occasional silence was broken when Hanni threw a balled-up napkin at my forehead, making me lose my place.

"Speaking to you, space cadet," she grinned as she sat across from me. Next to her, Haerin was quietly tracing a page of her textbook with the back of her pen, not looking at anyone but her mind was clearly there listening in with the small upturning corner of her lips.

"I'm trying to graduate, you should try it," I threw the napkin back at her. She yelped, ducking her head as the napkin flew behind and onto the floor. Danielle chimed in with a small giggle from the side of me where she tapped her fingers against the trackpad of her laptop. We were, of course, in our usual place on the second floor of the campus library.

"Sorry for trying to bring you back to Earth." Hanni leaned forward onto the table, her chin propped on her hands. "You weren't answering my question." Her long hair brushed against the open pages of her textbook. "It's important. My GPA depends on your response."

Haerin chuckled, "You were asking him what he did last night," she added, the words coming out as more of an observation. She hadn't looked up from her book, her long hair shielding her face.

I rolled my eyes and dropped them back into the binder open in front of me. "Yesterday was Thursday. I work on Tuesday and Thursday, Hanni," I retorted, my voice monotone.

"Ah," Hanni drew out the syllable, a smirk in her voice. "Right, you're right. I forgot." Her eyes, sharp and playful, darted from my face to Haerin's and then over to Danielle. Something unspoken passed between them. Well, more one-sided than one of them would like. I could feel it like a change in air pressure.

Danielle, ever the peacemaker, picked up on the tension and defused it with a bright, sunny smile. "Leave him alone, Hanni. Can't you see he's in the zone?" she reached across the table, grabbing one of my pens and scribbling a crude but funny doodle on my notepad. A smiling stick figure with scribbles for messy hair.

"He's always in the zone," Hanni shrugged, not taking her eyes off me as she leaned forward on her elbows. "He's starting to look like the robot." The robot, in question, was referring to Haerin, who was still too busy studying to contribute her input, besides the faint smile on her lips remained a fixed and permanent line across her face.

A couple minutes passed by, a few pages were flipped. A few quiet coughs. The rustle of papers and the soft clicks from Danielle's laptop. I thought the conversation had ended, but then Hanni's quiet sigh made me look up. She was staring up at the ceiling, looking bored.

"I'm hungry," She announced after her little yawn.

"You're always hungry," I commented, making a note in my binder.

"What's that supposed to mean," Hanni sat up from her previous lazy position, a smile growing on her face as she tried to press me. "Are you calling me fat?"

Danielle came in hot. "Just a little squishy, in a good way," She giggled, leaning over the table to pinch Hanni's cheek. That little gesture sent Hanni's face into a deep blush. She didn't flinch away, she only let her get away with it.

"Aish," Hanni swatted Danielle's hand away but not too hard, "This is bullying, the three of you against one." Her smile remained, though, a wide, happy thing.

"Three?" Haerin spoke up, her head finally lifting, her cat-like eyes wide with innocence. "I didn't say anything."

Hanni leaned over and hugged the other girl, "You're right. I'm sorry, my dear. I meant the two jerks across from us." The foreign girl started coddling and petting Haerin's hair, whispering more sweet apologies into her ear like Haerin was a cat she was trying to calm. Haerin accepted the affection, melting into it with a quiet hum.

I looked back down. Okay.

"C'mon, let's get something to eat," Hanni said, pulling away from a content Haerin. "What else is a Friday afternoon for?"

"Final exams," Haerin quietly corrected her, the smile in her voice giving her away.

"Not you, you drink oil," Hanni pointed back and Haerin's eyes narrowed in playful offense.

"I'm down," Danielle agreed, her arms crossed onto the table. "C'mon, Minjae, let's go." She looked at me, expectantly.

"I can't," I said, tapping the page I was on with the back of my pen. "I am going to be like Haerin and drink oil. I gotta pass."

"Studying is a mental exercise, Minjae. You can't overwork yourself," Hanni said dramatically. Her gaze lingered on me. "You've got to feed the brain and soul with good food. It's the rules of science."

I couldn't help the small laugh that escaped. "Is that what they're teaching these days?" I shot back, my gaze finally lifting from my notes to meet hers.

Danielle ripped my attention as she threw her two cents in, "You've been stuck on the same chapter for the past ten minutes anyways. You're starting to slow down, get some grub in you." she said, pointing at my textbook. She wasn't wrong. My brain was hitting a wall. The words on the page were starting to blur into meaningless shapes.

"You've been doing more of watching me study than you do studying yourself," I fired back.

"Got to supervise my favorite study groupie," she winked. The wink was subtle and fast, an action that would go unnoticed by the two other girls with me. I could see that teasing glint in her eyes, that playful demeanor that comes and goes so I could never get used to it. It always blindsided me whenever I least expected it. That flirty energy she gave off without any commitment was a whole other kind of confusing.

"Right," I coughed, turning back to my book, the text starting to blur. But I had a promise to keep.

Hanni kicked my leg under the table gently. "Stop it. We're getting food. All of us." She shoulder bumped Haerin, "Even you, I was kidding about the oil thing."

"I could eat," Haerin agreed with a shy smile.

"See? Decision's made," Hanni declared, looking back at me, "If Haerin, the study-bot, is hungry, we have to eat."

My eyes drifted back to Haerin again. She smiled at me for a second, her cat-like eyes catching the late afternoon sun streaming through the campus library windows. "If Minjae wants to study more, we can leave him," she said. She offered me a little half shrug, a look that said 'you have a way out of this.'

"Hmm, we can hit that burger joint near the quad. Or that pasta place in the Student Center that Hanni likes," Danielle was thinking out loud.

"A burger does sound nice," Hanni mused. Haerin seemed to not care what the choice was.

"Wait," Danielle stopped herself, turning her phone towards Hanni. "The art department gallery is having their free donut and coffee reception right now."

A collective 'oooo' went around the table, a shared understanding. Free food was holy. It was the currency of college life.

"C'mon, we have to go now. The good ones will go fast," Danielle said. I was starting to get swept up in the current with them but my phone vibrated in my pocket. Just one quick buzz. I fished it out. A text from Chaewon:

Chaewon

ughhh class was so tiring today

And there we go, my warning to not go for that little worm on the hook.

I looked back up at the group. Well actually, my eyes fell onto Haerin. She wasn't paying attention, looking to study the last few lines in her textbook before she left. Free food was promising, but I can't disappoint both Chaewon and Haerin. "I'll have to sit this one out guys." I tried to hide a sigh in my voice and not in my face.

"What?" Danielle sounded like I'd just said I was dropping out of school. "Free donuts, Minjae!" She lunged forward, both her hands planted onto my upper thigh as she pleaded, a movement both sudden and so close that I could smell her perfume. Something sweet and fruity. Then her hands started to squeeze. Just once.

The position was a bit too intimate for me. Her eyes looked up at me from under her bangs, big and pleading with screaming alarms of more than just friendly teasing. The way she leaned put her whole front on display as a gift for my eyes.

"U-uh," my words caught in my throat. "I'm not that hungry for a donut I guess," I replied. Her hands were still there, an unwelcome but not entirely unpleasant pressure. Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed Hanni shift slightly away, her posture becoming rigid as she looked straight at us. I cleared my throat, "Also... Chaewon would kill me if I stopped studying," I finally replied, lifting my phone as my excuse.

"Ugh," was all Danielle said as she removed her hands at once. The contact was gone and I could breathe again. I risked a glance over towards Hanni, and for the slightest second, she gave Danielle a look. A look that read completely of unguarded, pure daggers of irritation. It was fast and fleeting, replaced a millisecond later with that charming, bright smile.

"Suit yourself. More free stuff for us," Hanni shrugged, turning back to Haerin and Danielle. The three of them started to get up from their seats, "Watch our stuff, will you Minjae?" Hanni asked casually.