( ⛅ )

❛ i heard a couple of cheerleaders
whispering by the lockers. ❜

—

a week had passed since mark had 'asked' miyong to be his girlfriend.

everything was looking uphill for mark.

he retained his ace and playboy status by 'dating' miyong, and supposedly being the one to break it off with hyejin.

he was doing much better in basketball games, now that he knew he had to work harder to gain hyejin's attention back.

and on top of that, his grades never faltered — not even a bit.

everyone loved him, just as they always had.

everything seemed to be going perfectly for him.

and miyong?

not so much.

( ⛅ )

the bell after third period rung, signaling that morning classes were over, and that students could take their lunch breaks.

miyong quickly sped walked to her locker, dropping off the textbooks she had used in classes prior.

she grabbed her water bottle — which she had left inside earlier that morning — and clicked her locker shut.

ready to leave, she stepped backwards, only to her surprise, she was met with a sharp sudden whisper beside her ear.

"hey."

out of shock, she whipped her head back, accidentally hitting the said 'whisperer' in the face with her elbow.

oops.

"owww! mimi... what the hell..." mark yelped then stammered, stumbling backwards. he scrunched his face and rubbed his left cheek with his hand.

"oh," miyong sighed in relief, closing her eyes briefly to calm her nerves, "it's you."

"just 'it's you'?" mark asked jokingly, "no 'omg mark! i'm sooo sorry for hitting your dearly precious, beautiful, handsome, adorable face with my awfully sharp, hard, and pointy elbow?'"

miyong blankly started back at him unamused, giving him a 'really?' look. mark sighed and decided to leave it be.

"who else would it be?" he asked, running a hand through his never-tidy-always-messy hair.

"i don't know... maybe one of your many adoring admirers?" miyong replied rolling her eyes, "harassing me for the fortieth time today?"

she laughed and played it off as if it were a joke, but in truth, none of it was a lie.

some random girls had cornered her, and pointed their four-inch claw-like nails directly in her face, yelling and accusing her of 'stealing the love of their lives from them'.

every. day. in. the. past. week.

because of this, she couldn't fall asleep at night, she couldn't eat in the day, she couldn't turn on her phone as all she would be faced with was attacks.

the echoing sounds of their angry screams rang in her ears, bringing her to tears in her sleep.

not many people knew this, but miyong had misophonia. a phobia in which certain sounds would trigger emotional or physiological responses.

and hers was the sound of angry screaming.

miyong was always ashamed as she thought it sounded stupid, but it was real. she couldn't stand being in the same room as someone yelling.

concern immediately flooded mark's face, as he gently gripped this girl's shoulders so that she turned to face him directly.

"is it... bad?" he grimaced guiltily, looking anywhere but her eyes. "i—"

"mark," miyong smiled, catching the boy's attention. "it's alright."

"i'm park miyong," she stepped back and gestured to herself, "nothing can break down this girl that easily."

mark smiled proudly in relief, swinging his arm over miyong's shoulder, "that's my girl." he said, ruffling her hair gently, before running his finger through and straightening playfully.

of course, this made miyong go insane on the inside, making her forget about all the worries the week had brought her.

mark lee? holding her close like this? playing with her hair? it was every girl's dream.

"sooo... what are you here for?" miyong asked breaking the slightly awkward silence between them as mark continued to play with the ends of her hair. "i thought you said you would meet me in the cafeteria?"

"well... i kind of have something i wanted to talk to you about." mark smiled cheekily before moving his arm off her shoulder and clasping his hand into hers smoothly.

"oh okay," miyong replied nodding, "should we go outside?"

"sure."

swinging their arms together back and forth, the couple walked out the school front doors. the loving look both wore on their faces, made it seem like they were truly together.

spring flowers of all shapes, colours, sizes, and types, blossomed elegantly in the trees above. stray petals and leaves gently drifted downwards, carried by the light, airy breeze. the dainty spring embellishments glided swiftly, until they landed at a stop, scattering along the cement sidewalk leading up to the school.

letting go of mark's hand for a quick second, miyong bent down to pick up a fallen pale pink blossom.

holding it tenderly in the palm of her hand, she pulled on mark's arm motioning for him to bend down.

though confused, he listened and bent down until miyong told him to stop.

he had to bend down quite a bit as miyong was only 5'4" compared to his 5'9".

'oh, to be tall.' miyong thought to herself, shaking her head.

gently, she pushed aside some loose piece of his hair, and tucked the blossom under his locks, resting it on his ear.

"there we go." she beamed, patted his head for good measure.

mark tried to hold back the growing smile on his face, but as hard as he tried, he just couldn't.

the way her eyes lit up when she put the flower by his ear, made mark feel an overwhelmingly warm sensation.

"you're cute." he laughed, winking at miyong, as he slowly straighten himself.

miyong's ears immediately reddened.

thankfully, the long dark locks on her head kept her flush invisible from the boy beside her.

miyong coughed awkwardly to compose herself before asking the other teen, "so... what did you want to talk about?"

"oh, right," mark grinned once again, "guess what i found out this morning?"

"what?" miyong curiously asked.

"i heard a couple of cheerleaders whispering by the lockers this morning," mark's eyes gleamed in delight, "i didn't mean to eavesdrop, but then i heard one of the whisper hyejin's name."

of course it was about hyejin.

miyong swallowed bitterly in jealousy, as it was a direct reminder that the one mark loved would never be her.

"wh... what did they say?" she finally managed.

mark didn't seem to notice the disappointed state his best friend was in as he gazed off into the distance, most likely thinking about perfect-beautiful-smart-charitable-talented-human-barbie-doll-hyejin.

"they were talking about us... hyejin was talking about you," mark shugged, clearly enjoying himself, "i overheard the cheerleaders laugh about how jealously pissed hyejin looked when we kissed in the cafeteria. oh, i wish i could've seen the look on her face — she was probably jealous out of her mind. straight-up jealous, i tell you... she definitely wants me back now."

miyong could only smile back weakly and nod in agreement as mark continued to go on.

little did he know that she too, was jealous.

jealous that he loved someone else, more than he would ever love her.

( ⛅ )

a/n !

hi ! let's not talk about the fact that it's 2am, and i've listened to anti-romantic by txt too many times to count while writing this

i swear there's at least twelve more rows after this 🥲 such a good song go stream rn tyvm

anyways i hope you're having an amazing day/night!! make sure to drink water and to eat something if you haven't already.

oh, and make sure you don't stay up on wattpad till 3am like me. this is your reminder to go sleep now :')