29. all face, no brain

"I hate her, I just hate her. She is such a..."

"Leave her be, Seojun-ah. Soojin is just different that does not make her bad." Se-yeon, the calmest of the trio often had comforting words for every human. 

Seojun rolled his eyes, "different does not mean being a rude bitch."

"YA Seojun," Suho looked at him, things were getting serious, "Soojin is my friend, do not speak like that about her."

"Jinjja? You are taking her side even after what happened today?" Seojun got up, keeping the guitar aside, irritated by Suho's bias towards the girl than him. He was immediately blocked by Suho, who also resonated the same anger.

"Why must you always act like a kid?" 

"Well, why do you always defend Kang Soojin," Seojun took a step closer to the upset Suho, Se-yeon could sense a huge fight coming. "Is she your girlfriend?" 

"Han Seojun, stop." Lee Suho hardly lost his cool, he was not a hothead like Seojun, but not cool as Se-yeon either. "You do not know half the story, so please, stay away."

"What story is there to a girl who humiliated and embarrassed me in front of the entire class." Seojun huffed, he did not mind smart people, he knew he was not gifted in intelligence and respected people who were but to see a girl mocking him, over a mere set of math problems, that he would not stand for. "Do you even know how little I felt today?" He was seething, the class had broken into laughter when Soojin called Seojun a 'all face no brain' boy because he did not know the basic formula for the equation.

"I understand, Seojun-ah," Suho stepped back, clearly Seojun was hurt and he needed to be the bigger person here. "But..." How was he to tell Seojun that Soojin's coping mechanism was to outsmart everyone. He could tell by her swollen eyes that she had cried the entire night again, and that seeing her back at school was a relief. "But..."

"But you just side with her," Seojun pushed Suho's hand from over his shoulder, to him it only seemed that Suho cared more about his childhood friend that his best friend. "Why not side with me?" 

"Seojun-nnie," Se-Yeon called out, he did not like fights, they always made him anxious but it was not just anger that Seojun had, it was more of heartbreak and shame. "Let's talk this out with ice-creams..."

Seojun scoffed, shaking his head in a low attempt to shake his tears off, "Why don't you ask Kang Soojin for it, sure Suho might like that more." With that, Seojun grabbed his jacket and took off, Se-yeon following the angry boy leaving Suho behind. 

For Seojun, Suho was a bad friend, someone who could not take a stand for him and let the class jeer and mock him, and for Suho, he was just trying his best to hold onto the both of them, albeit, making wrong choices by the end.

"So," Soojin tilted her head, looking at Seojun who was contemplating the choices he had, "what have you decided?" 

It was two days since the breakdown Soojin had in the Han house and two days since Seojun worrying over the girl like a puppy obsessing over its master. She did attend school the next day, but looked better than before and smiled more, if that was even possible for her. However, her smiles were reserved only for him, because the rest of the time, she kept herself busy with studying. 

"Why?" Seojun shifted his chair to align with Soojin's, he did not know what to make of the offer Soojin had placed, "why are you being kind?" 

Kang Soojin never felt what it was to be loved and pampered by someone, and when Han Seojun's mother held her, comforted her, tended to her sickness and called her thrice in the last two days to ask if she was feeling okay without her saying a single word to the lady, Soojin felt what love was. Mrs. Han had no obligation towards her, she was not even Seojun's friend in the sense of being treated like a family yet the lady had gone out of her way to reach out to her.

And if anything, Soojin would only want to see the kind lady smile.

So Kang Soojin thought over what she could do best to return the favour, and only one thing came to her mind that would make Mrs. Han happy.

Helping Seojun to study and pass in the term exams.

"I am not being kind," Soojin replied, she had to make adjustments to her schedule to accommodate studying time with Seojun, but she owed him that. "Just something I have to do." 

"Listen, if this is because of Omma then-"

"Ani," Soojin cut him off quickly, "it's just, we have not started with our project which needs to be completed in two weeks' and clearly, you do not want to study with Jugyeong because..." She trailed off, Seojun sitting back at that statement. "It is a win-win." 

"Does not seem win-win to me," Seojun shrugged, he really did not know what she was really thinking. "Why do you suddenly want to study with me?" 

Soojin sighed, this really was tough that she thought it would. However, Mr. Han, their homeroom teacher saved her the embarrassment of having to beg Seojun to study with her and got the attention of the class. He asked them to give a demo of the projects they chose before the final presentation and also wanted to know the progress of the different topics the kids had chosen. 

The topics were fun and interesting, some had picked topics on global hot topics such as censorship in movies, influencer as a career option, famous actresses from popular kdrama and their lifestyles, others had weird funny topics like 'how to avoid being late', or 'pink is not feminism'. One of the groups worked on making of a film with a short film to top it with the end presentation which intrigued the students. Suho, Jugyeong, Su-ah and Tae-Hoon were working on Shakespeare novel 'Romeo and Juliet' and why deaths made the story so famous. All in all, there was a lot of creativity that followed with the way kids had worked for the extra marks.

"That is interesting, I think all us are awaiting the short film," Mr. Han smiled at the group as they moved back towards their seats, "we have ten more minutes until the end of the period, whom should we call now?" He scanned the room, half of them had lowered their head and the other half had buried their heads under the tall books. Although, the duo which intrigued him the most was the smart Soojin who had joined hands with the creative Seojun and he called them. "Soojin, Seojun, come show us what you have prepared by now..."

Literally all of them woke up, back straightened and eyes darted towards the duo who sat next to each other for the past week. More like Seojun had changed seats to sit besides Soojin and to their surprise, she had not protested the change as they expected her to. The duo glanced at each other, and stood up, both of them nervous and under confident. They had not discussed anything other than the topic Han Seojun had chosen, because even though they were together almost all the time, things kept unravelling to their surprise which gave them zero time for the sole purpose they were together for.

"Teacher-nim," Seojun rubbed the back of his head, smiling nervously, "our topic is on music and we cannot have music without the instruments, now..." 

"Aah, no issues," He called out to the first bencher and asked her to get the guitar from the music room and that left the duo to accept the defeat and move towards the centre of the class. "Thank you," He took the acoustic guitar from the student's hand and passed it to Han Seojun, and the moment Seojun held the guitar, everyone sat back.

To listen to Seojun sing and play the guitar was a treat and while they got the chance at the field trip, they would not mind another session of his beautiful voice. 

Soojin stood at the side, as Seojun held the guitar seated on the teacher's desk with all of the eyes on him. Suho was thrilled to say the least to see Seojun back with the guitar and Jugyeong had her eyes on Soojin, the pale looking girl who looked clueless for the first time. 

"Um... before I start," Han Seojun cleared his throat, "Soojin would not be presenting with me now she is sick so..." He let her stand towards the very end and focused back at the crowd.

He had to do it, even though it was bringing back all the traumatic memories, he had to do it.

With a deep breath, he strummed the guitar in a fast-end pattern and the five second of his ecstatic strumming hitched a lot of breaths. He then proceeded to explain what he was doing, the verse, a new song, a different concept. Seojun's voice was always catching attention of everyone, even Mr. Han was quite indulged in the musical knowledge Seojun was sharing with the crowd. Suho had his eyes teary, he was the one who hardly blinked, admiring his best friend and Jugyeong had a smile on her face. 

But Soojin was starstruck. 

She was standing all by herself in the side, only observing Han Seojun, the guy who held the guitar and had one of the most purest smile. She noticed how his eyes lit up when he started strumming the guitar, how the smile he had lit so many other in the room and how handsome he looked with his hair falling over his face as he played the guitar. The song he sang, he had composed it, his muse was his best friend and his, the one who left him back alone. Soojin glanced at Suho, the mention of their late best friend finally made the cold boy cry a single tear. 

"It is not much," Seojun said when he was done playing with the first verse, "this is all we have for now, the entire presentation and composition will be explained at the final day." He shrugged, getting on his feet and facing the kids who cheered and clapped, both hyped and touched by the magic Seojun carried. 

"What is the title?" Tae Hoon asked, the other nodding in curiosity. "Come on we deserve to get a little hint." 

Seojun chuckled, he looked so boyish and cute whenever music was the topic of conversation. Soojin noticed how he rubbed the back of his head as he faced the crowd. "Promises," He said, glancing at the floor, "unsaid promises." Soojin tilted her head, admiring how vulnerable Seojun was and how he did not care about anyone else present in the room. 

"You are a rockstar HAN SEOJUN!" 

"YOU ARE AWESOME."

The entire class turned to see who were screaming and cheering the boy, Seojun was laughing and Soojin glanced at Chorong and gang who were waving at the boy from the backdoor to the class. They cheered and clapped while Han Seojun waved at them, only for them to ask him to sing them a song. The commotion increased and while their teacher walked out to ask them to leave, the class laughed at Chorong and his friends who were only finding different ways to be back. Seojun however, walked towards Soojin, unwrapping the guitar from his neck and smiled at her. 

"So? Nice save?" He winked, but Soojin did not react. She was frozen at her place, expressions far from being cold, eyes only holding respect for the boy and he snapped in front of her. "I know, I know, you probably have fallen for me by now... I don't do selfies, but I can give you an autograp-" 

"I am sorry," She cut him off, ashamed of herself for being so petty and insecure. "I am sorry."

"Wae?" 

"You are not all face no brains," She shook her head, the class was still in chaos because of Chorong and the others who were not ready to go back to their classes. "I was wrong, you are much more than that and in fact, everything I could not be." 

Han Seojun smiled, leaning to face her, "is the icy princess being soft and warm?" He teased her, knocking her forehead only for her to be taken aback, "annyeong, is Kang Soojin here? I need the one which hardly reacted to anyone else..." Soojin slapped his hand off her face, nevertheless smiling at the idiot who never let her have the upper hand. 

"You know what my bad, I should not have..." She raised her hands, Seojun falling back to his stance smiling at the girl. "It is my fault that I apologised. SORRY."

"See, that is an apology I will accept." He winked at her again, moving out of the class to tell his friends to go back to class and Soojin watched him closely. 

A smile on her lips, as the icy princess felt a little something for the wannabe gangster. A little something that would soon prove destructive. 

_

updates will be slower, i am working on a novel. anyway, what's up. 

happy 10K reads and also, have blessed Holy Week and happy Easter <3