ch. 14

"you know i can't show you me."

-truth untold

"come on in!"

eunbi cautiously enters the student dormitory as she clutches her backpack tightly. noticing her tense figure, her friend rubs circles on her back to loosen her nerves.

"it's okay eunbi," seonghwa consoles. "san is not mad at you anymore."

she flashes him a frightened expression. "are you sure? i was being a bit harsh on him in the group chat. what happens if he lashes out when he sees me?"

"he's fine, trust me." he shows the girl a reassuring smile. "but i think he might want a hug from you."

they walk past the lobby where most of the students were hanging out at, feeling stares following them. the loud chattering dies out and is soon replaced with whispers about the two, but the pair dismiss them as nothing. the upperclassman leads the girl to the kitchen that was reserved for only them and opens the door for her to enter.

"eunbi!!"

mingi rushes over to the said girl and embraces her in a tight hug, spinning her around in circles. he earns a squeal from her as she lightly punches his back to let her go.

once the tall beanpole releases her, a familiar black-haired male approaches her and grabs her hand.

"hello princess," he greets with a kiss on the hand. "glad you can make it."

the girl immediately retreats her hand away from him and rolls her eyes at him. "wooyoung, really?"

"i can't help it when princess is here," he purrs, earning a good whack in the head.

"well i can't help knocking some sense into you when you're here," she retorts before meeting the others, a smile betraying her annoyed expression.

yeosang and hongjoong both nod at her when she says hello to them as they continue furiously pressing on their electronic devices, one busy defeating a game while the latter adjusts beats to a song. she giggles at their focused expressions, not minding their lack of attention on her.

she moves on to the next person in sight, which causes her to take a step back and look for someone else. her eyes then search for the male with red highlights in his hair as she avoids the gaze of a specific someone with their significant lover.

she forgot that the couple would be here.

suddenly, she lets out a small yelp when a pair of arms wraps around her waist and pulls her into a back hug. the person holds her like no tomorrow and rests their head on her shoulder, nuzzling into the crook of her neck.

eunbi lifts her hand and brushes her fingers through their hair, feeling the softness of each strand, while the other hand holds onto their arm. with her back on their chest, she can feel every single heartbeat. turning her head to face them, she lets the name of the person roll off her tongue.

"san-ah."

the said boy doesn't say anything and continues to embrace her from behind.

"are you still mad at me?"

she can feel him shake his head on her shoulder.

the girl sighs. "i'm sorry for being too harsh on you, it wasn't my intention to do so."

a deep hum vibrates on her skin, telling her that he accepts her apology.

they take a few more minutes to embrace the moment before she has to greet the last two people in the room, but san would not let go. his arms tighten around her waist whenever she pushes his arms off her body.

"san," she whines, putting more force in her push. "you need to let me go. i have to say hi to the others."

"no," he whimpers.

she sighs in disappointment at his immature action, but proceeds to greet the people that make her heart ache.

dragging san along with her, the brunette waddles her way to her two closest friends, who are too busy looking at each other with infinite amounts of love. their arms are tangled around each other like vines draped on an ancient jungle temple.

eunbi wants to puke at the sight.

nonetheless, she taps their shoulders and flashes them a small smile. "hi guys."

"bestie!" yunho exclaims, removing his arm from his girlfriend's waist. his large hand plops onto her head and playfully ruffles her hair. "how are you?"

the boy on her back can feel her tense up at yunho's physical contact.

not so good when i saw you, she tells herself.

on the contrary, her smile still remains on her lips as she responds to him. "i'm great! seems like you're in a good mood."

"well obviously," he grins. "i'm with the one who makes me the happiest, right baby?"

siyeon flashes him a smile and pecks him on the cheek. "of course, babe."

feeling his friend's body trembling, the human koala realizes the current situation and immediately releases the embrace. he grasps her wrist with an awkward smile pulling on his lips when he makes eye contact with the couple. he pulls the frozen girl in the opposite direction of the two lovers.

"yah eunbi, everyone is waiting for you to begin cooking." he says loud and clear so the two can hear him. "you told me that you would be making everyone's lunch for tomorrow."

yunho's ears perk when he hears that eunbi is cooking for them, slightly confused by what his friend meant by that. he was told earlier that the girls would be coming over to hang out with them as seonghwa cooked a snack. the description siyeon gave him did not match up with what he had just heard.

from afar, he sees his best friend roll up her sleeves of her green sweater and put on a pink apron before washing her hands and the ingredients under the sink. the remaining boys hover around her, curious to see her cooking skills unfold in front of them. she yells at them for being too close to them, threatening them with her wet hands, and shoos them  farther away from her so she can tie her hair up.

the light brown haired boy begins to recall the memories between the two of them. ah, the nostalgic feelings rush through his body as he remembers the one time where he watched her make his favorite dish for his birthday: steak. he lifts his head to the ceiling as if the scent of the memory has entered his nose.

when the juicy meat in his mind was about to be devoured by his younger self, loud shouting brings him back to reality.

the boys were watching eunbi and seonghwa cut the carrots when the girl manages to cut the orange pieces at an insane pace and fling them into the pot beside her cutting board simultaneously. seonghwa falls to the ground, embarrassed about his cooking skills now, as mingi and wooyoung cheer her on and san as well as hongjoong watch in amazement.

unconsciously, yunho makes his way to the group, leaving his girlfriend behind. he stands besides hongjoong and leans forward to get a better view of the female in action.

her doe-eyes gazes at the ingredients like a hawk with its prey as she carefully holds a potato in place. with her handy-dandy knife, she reduces the sizes of the vegetable into little squares and sends the little shapes flying into the pot again. every time she pushes down on the metal tool, her arms slightly flex, revealing her hidden muscles. grinning at her accomplishment, she wipes her sweat with the apron that slightly lifts up her sweater.

he's going to be honest with himself- she looks attractive when she's cooking.

very attractive.

but before he can continue to admire eunbi from afar, his girlfriend yanks him away from the crowd. he looks over at her and sees a pouting expression written on her face.

"oppa," she says. "why did you leave me alone?"

he sheepishly rubs his neck in embarrassment, remembering his earlier thoughts. "it's been a while since i've seen eunbi cook, so i wanted to see how much she has improved."

she stomps her feet like a child, jealousy clearly seen in her actions. "why watch her when you have me, oppa? i can cook as good as her!"

abruptly, a bag of groceries floats in front of their faces, frightening the couple for a second. the sound of a drone hovers above them as the owner of the robot speaks up.

"you better start cooking your ass off now then," yeosang says with sass. "you're going to have to cook for the both of you since seonghwa only bought enough ingredients for eight people."

taken back at the sudden mission, siyeon marches up to the blonde with fury plastered on her face while her boyfriend grabs the groceries.

"what do you mean they are cooking for only eight people?" she demands, wanting an immediate answer.

he shrugs. "didn't she tell you? with the help of seonghwa, eunbi said that she was cooking lunch for everyone in our group chat," he slightly pokes her shoulder, "-and you guys are not in it."

anger builds in the girl and she roughly grabs the boy's collar. "why aren't we in it?"

for a second, he thinks of the reason before clapping his hands together. "are you single? no. only single people are allowed in the group chat."

and he leaves the couple behind to be with the remaining group of friends, a smirk making its way on his lips.

serves you right snake, he congratulates himself.

on the other hand, the girl tries to calm herself down before her anger breaks through; she needs to stay calm in front of yunho, in front of everyone.

she pulls out her phone to check her messages with her roommate to see that eunbi did indeed inform her about this situation, earning a groan from her. her friend knows that she can't cook for her life and that everyone thinks she is as good as her.

looking up from her phone, she glares at eunbi, who is feeding the guys a sample of the food before plating it in eight little lunchboxes.

why does everyone like her?

everything about her is absolutely disgusting.

it serves her right that she belongs in class f, away from her.

away from yunho.

away from her love.

she deserves all the pain the world can give her.

with that last thought, a scheme pops up in her head. a sly smirk pulls on her lips.

a little accident wouldn't hurt right?

siyeon begins her plan with her preparing to cook, tying her hair up and rolling up her sleeves. yunho notices her action and comes from behind to help her with her apron, knotting the strings tight.

she looks over to her girl friend to see if she has finished, and calls her over to help her cut the vegetables for her curry.

"eunbi-nie!" she says with a sickly, sweet voice as she cleans the ingredients. "can you teach me how to cut this?"

with nothing to do since the lunches were completed, the said girl nods before walking over to her with her knife and her cutting board. she settles her things down and grabs an orange vegetable from the sink.

"watch me first and then follow," the vocalist instructs, slowly cutting the carrot.

her eyes are focused on her technique as the other "innocently" observes her doing with astonishment, a hint of mischief in her gaze.

"wow you're so cool eunbi!" she exclaims, inching closer to the girl with a smirk itching to come out.

before anyone can notice...

siyeon dramatically loses her footing, grabbing onto eunbi, who is still slicing the carrot.

the knife misses the orange vegetable and cuts something else.

the girl closes her eyes for a second, expecting to hear a shriek and cries of pain echo in the room as the footsteps approach the pair...

but she hears nothing.

siyeon opens her eyes to see her girl friend looking at her finger that fell victim to her knife. all the boys hover around her to check her injury, seeing a crevasse on her finger.

but there is no blood.

what? the female dancer asks herself. that's impossible.

she feels a pair of strong arms lift her from the ground, turning her around to meet eyes with her boyfriend. he examines her whole body, making sure she is not harmed in any way, and hugs her worriedly.

"babe, don't scare me like that."

she lowers her head down, attempting to look sorry for her clumsiness. "i'm sorry, i'm just a clumsy girl."

she glances over her shoulder to see eunbi surrounded by the remaining male students as they check her wound. they run all over the kitchen, searching for an aid kit, while one of them stays with the girl.

"are you okay?" san asks. "does it hurt?"

eunbi looks at her cut and then back at him before laughing. the boy with red highlights in his hair tilts his head in confusion, wondering about the reason for her odd reaction.

"sorry," she replies, wiping a tear from her eye. "it's just that i think my guitar saved my life."

making him more confused, she decides to explain the meaning behind her statement.

"i've been playing guitar for a while and i think it has toughened the skin on my fingers," she reasons, earning an 'oh' from the male.

and they both chuckle.

siyeon feels sick just by watching them.

after the incident, all the lunches have been prepared for tomorrow and everyone cheers in joy. the boys, except yunho, all embrace their master chef in a suffocating group hug as a gift of gratitude, causing her to grin. the couple flashes her a smile for her assistance in making their lunch.

as the head master's son, yunho has a privilege to have his car near the dormitory, so he decides to escort the two girls home.

eunbi takes a step outside of the building and shivers when the coldness travels through her clothes. she brings her arms close to her and begins to rub her hands for warmth until a black jacket falls on her shoulders.

she looks to her side to see wooyoung smiling as he slings an arm around her shoulder.

she nods in gratitude to the boy. "thank you, wooyoung."

"anything for my princess," he replies with a teasing smirk. " i wouldn't want you to get sick."

she rolls her eyes, not wanting to argue with him, and allows his arm to stay on her shoulders. feeling the warmth radiating from his body, she scoots closer to the male and together they wait for yunho to pull up in front of the dormitory and siyeon to finish collecting her belongings.

silence is bestowed upon them while they stare into the starry night, not knowing what to say to keep the conversation alive. the boy can feel his cheeks heat up every second of the moment.

the girl then notices something off and tells her friend beside her. "i wonder why siyeon is taking so long to pack up."

the boy tenses at her comment, but plays it cool by laying his head on hers. "well, i hope she takes her time because i can spend more time with you, princess!"

"yah, your head is heavy." she raises her voice a little, but she feels comfortable in their position.

inside the building, siyeon places her phone into her bag before placing the strap on her shoulder. she brushes the dust from her purple shirt and takes a few steps toward the door of the kitchen until a group of familiar boys block her path.

with a polite smile pulling on her lips, she asks them to move out of the way.

"can you guys move from the door? i need to go home."

but they don't move an inch away from the door.

one of them steps up and glares at her with all the hatred he can muster.

"you really are a bitch," yeosang spats as he pokes her shoulder roughly. "a sneaky bitch."

she scrunches her eyebrows in confusion, pretending to not know where he is coming from. "that's not nice to call a girl that. i haven't even done anything to you."

mingi then stands beside the blonde, a furious expression waiting to explode any second. "you never did anything to us, but you did something to eunbi."

"p-pardon?" she stutters as she takes a step back. she's frightened due to the murderous demeanor in the atmosphere.

hongjoong gives her a 'are you stupid?' look. "you don't need to play dumb, we know what you did to her was not an accident."

she retreats another step back while bringing her hands up. "i-i honestly d-don't know what y-you are talking about."

seonghwa sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose in irritation. "honey, you really need to take some classes on acting- we can see right past your facade."

"i w-would never h-hurt her. s-she's my b-best f-friend."

"who said you hurt her?" the four boys question her in unison as they take another step forward.

and that's when siyeon knew she fucked up.

with another step backwards, her body feels something hard behind her and she turns around.

on san's face is an expression of predator, ready to feast on the weak prey before him, as his ears release hot steam. he cracks his knuckles slowly, so the girl can hear every single bone dislocate and relocate, growing the suspense in the situation. there is no hint of playfulness in his eyes, but intent to kill.

his demeanor is literally saying, "i'm going to kill her. i'm going to kill her. i'm going to kill her..."

never once in her life did siyeon feel like her life was at stake...

but now she does.

he roughly pushes her to the ground with all the anger he contained his body and kneels to her level.

"if you ever lay a finger on her again, we won't hesitate to hurt you."