Areum’s POV

Being late to class is definitely not part of my plan, especially on the first day.

I hope that Kai guy doesn’t bother me anymore.

I feel bad for kicking him so hard but don’t regret it as he was really getting on my nerves. I have work immediately after school, but knowing that I’m going to be working with these twelve children, my hopes aren’t high at all.

The bell rings and the class disappears almost immediately. I rush to pack despite the tingling pain of my hand. I want to get out of here before Chanyeol or any of the boys decide to annoy me more. Sliding in my last text book, I look up and notice twelve pairs, no, fourteen pairs of eyes watching me.

I grimace. I thought I made it clear that we aren’t friends. And who are these girls?

I mentally stab myself over and over as I face them.

“Ari, let’s go.” Chanyeol smiles.

“Would you quit calling me that?” I say annoyed and slightly upset. “No one’s called me that since… “

Since you left me, Channie.

I want to finish the sentence but I know there’s no point in talking and wasting time.

I have to get to work.

I walk out of the room and take the bus to the diner. I find the same fourteen people come on the bus after me and I move to sit at the back of the bus. The further I am from them, the better. They stare at me in awkwardness from the front of the bus. I put my earphones in to cover the awkward atmosphere that fills the bus. I could tell that at least one of them wants to talk to me, I can sense it.

Baekhyun walks towards me and grabs the handle dangling from the bus ceiling in front of me. I study him quickly, making sure he doesn’t catch me staring.

He has bags under his eyes, he must be tired. As the son of the diner owner, I bet he gets the longest shifts and the most responsibilities.

I let my eyes fall to look at his hands. Bruised and red, probably from carrying those heavy loads of food, running all around the diner and everything. I find myself feeling sorry for him despite his annoying personality.

He looks down at me. I can tell he’s trying to act natural, finding the right time to start a conversation.

The same, cocky Baekhyun.

I look up at his face making a huge mistake as he was already staring at me. Our eyes lock and I see a huge smile spread across his face. He crouches and takes my earphones out.

“I know you’re not listening to music.” Baekhyun smiles.

“It still doesn’t give you the right to take them out.” I say annoyed and snatch them back from his hands. I wrap my earphones carefully and put them away, there is no point in pretending now.

“You’re probably wondering why I have all this right?” He says referring to his injuries on his hand.

I look away feeling embarrassed. He must’ve caught me staring.

“It’s a consequence.” Baekhyun’s voice was barely a whisper.

He holds up a hand for me to see and turns to rummage through his bag. He hands me a white water lily enclosed in a small jar, water filled halfway, the large roots still attached. My eyes widen and I my mouth gap opens in surprise.

“Chanyeol told me to give it to you.” Baekhyun beams at me. “He’s too much of a wussy to do it himself. Come to think of it, you don’t really seem to like him either. Did something happen between you two? Were you guys dating way back when? Are you hiding something from me? Why a white lily, why not purple, why white? Oh, and by the way, how are your hands feeling? Better? I didn’t get a chance to ask you but now that…”

He fires questions at me and I space out. There he goes again, being nosy.

“Ari-ah, close your eyes.” Chanyeol smiled. “I have a present for you.”

“Did your mom make some kimchi pancakes for us again?” I smiled, closing my eyes shut.

“Ani, something better. Remember what you told me earlier?” Chanyeol asked. “You wanted to have one of those water lilies in the school pond? Well-”

Chanyeol took my hand and gently pressed a stem to the palm of my hand. I opened my eyes and a huge smile rose across my face as I saw the beautiful water lily in my hand. I hugged Chanyeol so tight, I thought I might’ve killed him.

Then it continued.

He gave me one of those lily pads every day, until the teacher found out he’d been stealing water lilies from the school pond. The consequences were slaps on the hands with the ruler. The whole class watched him receive his punishment. One slap for every flower and there were thirty of them. I winced every time the ruler made contact with his hand but he didn’t seem to mind. He would catch my eye and grin as if he was the happiest person on earth. His hand was all bruised up and bloody afterwards, but he still had a smile on his face.

Why does Baekhyun’s hands look just like-

Don’t smile.

“It’s a consequence.” Baekhyun’s words circulate my brain.

I look over at Chanyeol who is too embarrassed to make eye contact with me. A smile plays on his lips just as it did before.

Don’t smile, it’s not something you should smile about.

I feel my brows furrow as I look at the small jar in my hand.

Even if you give me this and even if you smile, I still won’t forgive you.

We arrive at the diner just as Mr. Byun is about to run an errand. He passes the shop to Baekhyun who takes the responsibility without hesitation.

“He does this all the time,” Luhan says brushing past me as he ties an apron around his waist. “But don’t worry, Baek is very reliable.”

I struggle to tie my own apron. Why did I have to injure myself, I can’t even tie a knot properly.
I sigh just as a girl walks over to me.

“Here, let me help you.” She smiles and ties the knot perfectly.

“The name’s Lee Minah, but the boys call me Minnie.” She pats my shoulder. “I like you, your attitude I mean. It’s nice to have another girl working here, I’m so sick of seeing the boys being so, well childish.”

She pauses and I blink at her expecting her to continue. She does. “Stay away from Baekhyun though alright? He’s mine.”

For a moment, I thought I liked her, but when she started to talk about Baekhyun, she got annoying.

Just like the other girls.

Minah looks at me, expecting a “thank you” or some type of response.

“Aren’t you going to thank me or something? That’s the least you can do around here, trainee.” She folds her arms and when I don’t say anything, she continues. “I heard you and Chanyeol know each other. What’s with that stupid lily in a jar he gave you, a proposal or something?”

She starts laughing to herself and I look at her in disgust. What is up with this bitch.

“Yeah okay.” I clear my throat. “Let me tell you myself. Don’t bother me and we’ll be on good terms. I hate nosy and annoying girls like you.”

I walk past her and begin to take a table’s order. From the corners of my eyes I watch her talk to the other female worker.

“Tch.” She folds her arms. “She didn’t even tell me her name, who does she think she is?”

“Calm down.” The other girl smiles. “She’s lowerclassmen you know, don’t be too hard on her.”

“Hard? I was just introducing my-” She stops as she watches Baekhyun run over to help me.

“Yah Ari, I can take this table.” He whispers beside me. “Why did you start the first day of work serving such a large party of people?”

“Yah.” I hit the back of his head. “Don’t call me that. It’s fine I’ve done this before, I’m not that incompetent.”

He scratches the area I slapped and laughs cutely. I ignore him and continue to take the order.

“Are you two close?” The customers ask me, passing me the menu. “You look good together.”

“Ne, we’re close, we were brought together by ‘fate’.” Baekhyun teases.

I raise my hand threatenly making him duck out of the way and retreat a couple of steps back.

“Mian, mian sorry.” Baekhyun calls to me and moves to greet the new costumers that just walk in.

I turn back to the customers and resume taking their orders, fully aware of the glaring eyes that jab my back.

Behind me, Minah’s eyes are burning with anger. She clenches her hands into a fist and her shoulders shake. “I told her not to mess with him, she’s definitely going to get it tomorrow.”

Minutes became hours and, before I knew it, the day is over. I didn’t even have time to finish my homework and it’s already dark outside. I frown and look around the diner.

Maybe I should just do it here, then go home. It’s so dark already.

As I am getting ready to pull out my books, I hear Baekhyun humming while washing dishes in the back room.

Not really minding, I pull out my textbook and accidentally slam it on the table. Baekhyun peaks his head out and his eyes rest on me in surprise.

“What are you still doing here?” Baekhyun asks, cleaning a mug.

“Homework, I might as well just get it done here.” I shrug and sit down, tucking my hair behind my ears.

“Wait.” Baekhyun smiles and wipes his hands on his apron. I watch him grab his backpack from the backroom and he sits down before me. “Let’s do it together.”

I shrug again. I’m not helping him with any problems though.

Just as I’m about to start on the first word problem, Chanyeol slides open the back room door loudly.

“A-ari, you’re still here!” His excited voice pierces the air. “You’re doing homework too? Let’s do it together.”

“Yah, I was here first!” Baekhyun calls out to him and moves his backpack to occupy the seat next to him.

Chanyeol doesn’t acknowledge him and slides in to sit next to me. I toss him a glare from the corner of my eyes, but do nothing. The three of us sit in silence with only the sound of our scratching pencils to occupy us. I yawn as I finish up the last of my math problems and put the books away.

“Tch.”

Surprised at the sudden sound, I turn my head back and see a dark silhouette in the window.

“What’s wrong, Ari?” Chanyeol asks following my gaze. The shadow is gone.

“N-nothing.” I mutter. “I just thought I heard something.”

“Nope, it’s just us.” Baekhyun grins and winks at me as I turn my head back. He pats my hand.

Way too touchy.

“Yah, we should be working, not fooling around.” Chanyeol swats his hand in Baekhyun’s direction.

He frowns dryly at Chanyeol but returns to his assignment at the same.

Feeling the unsettling feeling at the pit of my stomach again, I turn to study the window. I flinch a little as the figure returns, only to realise that it was Minah.

What a nosy bitch.

Notes

ObsessedFanFic's turn to update today x3
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as much I enjoyed working on it with Alexis. We are still slowly cranking out chapters with our awesome team work. Trying to get over our different styles of writing and merging our ideas is quite difficult, but we are actually having alot of fun doing this collab. Hope you will support us to the end!

As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the story!

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no seriously.. comment, love seeing reactions on the chapters and any suggestions you may have <3 -O.F