"You better pray it isn't Yi Chihun… That boy works all day and night. So who knows when he will be back. I don't even know how he gets any school work done." And as Mrs. Matron mentioned school, a tiny bomb exploded in Doona's head. Her eyes widened, and she got fidgety.
"I'm late for my registration." She hopped quickly towards the elevator, stabbing the open button. "Oh no. If they tell mum, she will kill me."
---
"Are you Ae Doona?" A man wearing thick-rimmed glasses seated crossed-legged on his desk asked. Doona's breath hitched. "Can you not hear me?" He got off the table and started to walk towards Doona.
"I can hear fine," Doona screamed loud enough that the other professors in the office turned to see who was making all the noise.
"Fine, fine. You don't need to yell." The man turned away from Doona and sat back behind his desk. "Sit down. You're the new transfer student. I'll be handling your registration." Doona crossed the room and sat quietly opposite the man. "Why are you switching schools just after a year of studying in Seoul?" The man placed the papers in his hands down and stared intently at Doona.
Doona did not know what to say, she had hoped they would not bother with these questions but instead helped her sign up for her new classes and transfer her credits. "I believe that Busan has more to offer my studies and the future I want to have than my old university in Seoul." She smiled calmly, but the man just yawned like he had heard that a million times.
"You kids are very wishy-washy, in our time, we had loyalty to our universities." He laughed dryly as he typed something on his keyboard. Doona just wished he would hurry up and get this over with, she still needed to return home, so she could wait for Yip Cheepboon or whatever his name was.
The man got off his desk and headed towards the printer to pick up the printout. "Here you go." He held it out to Doona, who hesitated to collect it. "I said here you go." He pushes it into her hands and walked back to his chair. "It contains your school email, login and other information. On the back is the campus map." Doona flipped the paper over. "If you download the app written there, you can have a digital version of the map on your phone." The man clapped his hands and smiled at Doona. "Welcome and goodbye. Hopefully, I never see you here again. Because if I do, it means you're getting expelled or worse."
"Pfff. What could be worse than getting expelled?" Doona muttered as she pushed the door open and walked into the hallway. The university here at Busan was much bigger than the one she went to in Seoul. Hopefully, she would not get lost. "Where did I come from again?" Doona asked herself as she turned round and round, trying to retrace her whereabouts. After wandering around trying to backtrack for five whole minutes, she figured she was, without a doubt, lost.
A crowd was gathering around the theatre building, they were all intently watching the giant video display. Doona stood away from the crowd, intrigued at what all the fuss was about. The giant display flashed a beautiful girl with long auburn hair prancing around the stage, flipping her lovely locks and swishing her hips. She outshined the other girls dancing behind her, and her beautiful voice rang in Donna's chest. Who was this beauty? Doona thought as she blushed to herself.
"Crap, we're late for Minji's rehearsal?" A boy shoved past Doona. Then turned around to apologize. "Shit! sorry didn't see you there." He had frizzy hair and thick round glasses. Donna stepped away from him and his tall friend.
"Sorry, I was also at fault." She whispered as she prostrated to apologize.
"Bob-cut girl?" The tall figure spoke, and the familiar deep voice pricked Doona's ears. She could not help it, her cheeks turned red in anger as she looked up to stare at the handsome man that stole her suitcase.
"The thief..." she squeaked.
"What?" The man walked towards Doona because he could not hear what she was saying.
"Thief! Give me back my suitcase!" Doona yelled at the top of her lungs. She rubbed her hands together and lifted them close to her chest, as a way to calm herself down. The crowd that was once looking at Minji's performance turned their attention to the tiny commotion Donna's scream had caused.
"Did she call him a thief?" one whispered to her friend. "Wait Isn't that..." Another giggled. "He's so handsome up close." The next squealed.
"Thief?" The man with curly hair pranced towards Doona. "Chihun do you know what this pipsqueak is talking about?" The curly-haired man tried to place a hand on Doona's shoulders, but in a panic, Doona pushed him back, and she stumbled and bumped into another tall figure with piercings and his arms around a pretty woman.
"What the hell? Watch where you are going, stupid!" The man's deep voice echoed and attracted more attention.
"Woah! It's Sochun." One yelled. "Sochun... Is he here for his girlfriend?" "But that's not Minji." Another gasped. "Omg, he's cheating again. Let's take a picture." The crowd was now in full swing, huddled together watching what was supposed to be a simple discourse turned upside down by a handsome man and a cheater.
Sochun pushed Doona away. "You stepped on my shoe mushroom, wtf is this?" Sochun lifted his arm off the woman he was with, to moan and groan about his ruined shoes.
Doona couldn't bear to look up; she was already too ashamed. So she looked at his feet, and to her amazement, they weren't that ruined. It was just a little mud. "I'm sorry." She apologized. Doona sighed and thought, why was he making such a terrible fuss about nothing.
"Your suitcase..." Doona turned to look at the man who moments before she had called a thief. "I didn't steal it. I tried to return it to you, but you disappeared." Chihun walked closer to Doona to speak to her, but Doona backed up again and stepped on Sochun's shoes.
"This cow do you want to die?" Sochun stretched his arms out and fisted Doona's collar, then pulled her up to look in his face. "Do you even know who I am…" His voice trailed off. Doona, who finally was forced to look up at Sochun, was suddenly struck with a terrible case of nostalgia.
Her palms began to sweat, and when Sochun's lips curled into that all-too-familiar grin, she knew she had to get away from here. She pushed at his chest, trying her best to wrestle out of his grip. But unlike when they were kids, his grip was ten times stronger.
"If it isn't Ae Doodie..." Sochun whispered coyly at her. "I told you that if you ever return to Busan I'd r*pe you." his voice laced with malice forced Doona's eyes to tear up and her teeth chattered uncontrollably.
Her palms began to sweat, and when Sochun's lips curled into that all-too-familiar grin, she knew she had to get away from here. She pushed at his chest, trying her best to wrestle out of his grip. But unlike when they were kids, his grip was ten times stronger."If it isn't Ae Doodie..." Sochun whispered coyly at her. "I told you that if you ever return to Busan I'd r*pe you." his voice laced with malice forced Doona's eyes to tear up, and her teeth chattered uncontrollably.---Sochun eyed her up and down, sneering as he tightened his grip around her shirt. "You're still as ugly as ever. And you still have this freaking stupid haircut." He let go of her shirt and gripped her hair, to which Doona let out a yelp. "What aren't you going to cry for help, as you did before." Sochun pulled her hair tightly. Doona wrapped her hands around his wrist and dug her finger into his hands, but his grip only tightened. The crowd g
"It's fine, just hand me my jacket." He reached out his hand, and Doona slightly flinched. Chihun placed his hands at his sides and then reached them forward, and Doona immediately moved backwards again… What. In. The. Hell? He thought. "Are you scared of me?"Doona's eyes quickly darted around till they accidentally locked with Chihun's. His kind dark-brown eyes bored into hers, and Doona felt herself break into a cold sweat. "N...n-n-n...no." she sporadically muttered.---Sochun pulled his phone out of his pocket. He was going to pop a blood vessel, with how much he was fuming. How many years had it been since he had seen that mushroom topped woman? He thought to himself. "Was Ae Doodie, the thing that that old bastard needed help with?" He scoffed at himself. He dialled his father's cell phone and paced round the bus stop irritatedly. "And the gall of that Chihun asshole. It is bad enough that he is obsesse
"I said I don't hate anyone." She shouted at him. Then her eyes widened again. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." she bowed repeatedly. Was she tame or wild? Chihun could not figure her out. Doona began to walk, and Chihun followed quietly behind her, till a thought crept into his mind."Are you scared of men?" Right as he spoke those words, Doona froze. Chihun turned to see why Doona was not moving. She just stood still, her hands began to fidget, and she rubbed them fiercely. "I'm sorry. Did I say something wrong?" Chihun tried to walk up to her, but Doona yelled back shrilly."Stay back. I'm...I'm fine."---Chihun stepped back after hearing her scream at him. What a mess, he thought. This is why he hated getting involved with people. "Fine, fine." He held his hands up, to prove to her that he was no threat, and he only started walking when he made sure she was a good distance away from him. When they arrive
"You're lucky you're this gorgeous." He got off the couch and pulled out the first-aid kit from the cupboard. "Now let me see those toes?" Minji huffed and looked away from Sochun, as he counted her toes. "I think one is missing?" Sochun gasped."Crap really?" Minji looked at her feet… "asshole." She playfully fisted his hair and shook his head. "Patch me up, and pray this wound heals before the actual talent show.""Yes, yes my beautiful, pretty, talented Minmin." Sochun beamed at Minji, who tossed another pillow in his face.---Doona laid in her bed. The morning sun pierced her clenched eyes and made her turn away from the window. "I should have put up my curtains before going to sleep." Just as she buried her face in her pillow, the second alarm began to ring loudly. "Fine, fine. I'm up." She searched for her phone to turn off the blasted alarm. She had a psychology class she was already running thir
"Are they going to fight?" "Jiwoon started it..." "I thought Chihun sat at the front of the class, why is he at the back?" The class was suddenly filled with murmurs and whispers, everyone had stopped packing up to stare at the two of them."What is happening back there?" The professor slammed the board."Nothing professor. Just packing up." Chihun smiled at the man before he picked up Doona's bag and walked out of the classroom, leaving a fuming Jiwoon behind.---In a hurry to get out of her Psych class–and away from Jiwoon–Doona had foolishly forgotten her bag, books and even her phone. Now she was lost and turning her head around in circles. Being this exposed was dangerous, Doona could not risk bumping into Sochun again, she would really be dead. Maybe I should hide in the toilet, she thought as she looked around every corner before scurrying into the lady's room. Doona met an unexpected face.
"I what?" He glared at the ungrateful woman. "You were walking into a door." He sighed at her. Was she an idiot?"You were pushing me, you kept coming closer." She hissed back. "Don't come close to me anymore." Doona stuttered as she turned around then dashed away from Chihun."Am I some sort of glutton for humiliation?" Chihun sighed. "First, she calls me a thief, then all this..." He rubbed the back of his head, and as he turned to walk into the cafeteria, he heard a loud Yip!"If it isn't the little rabbit!"---Sochun stopped Doona dead in her tracks. He was accompanied by Jiwoon and two other men. "Lucky me, we meet again, rabbit." He walked up to her and stood at her front."I've seen you before..." Jiwoon rested his elbow on Sochun's shoulder. And they laughed when Sochun pushed Jiwoon off him. "Oh! I remember..." Jiwoon exclaimed."Where?" Sochun elbowed Jiwoon. Doona wanted to evap
"Are you stupid? For your sake, I hope your whore of a mother is sleeping with my dad because that's the only way you get out of this alive." He launched at her, Doona shut her eyes tightly and lifted her arms to protect herself from what always happened when Sochun got angry at her. The crowd gasped again, and Doona stood bewildered. She was patiently awaiting the worst, but nothing had happened to her yet. She slowly opened her eyes and was surprised to see Sochun's fists floating inches from her face, frozen still."Don't you get bored of acting like an animal?" Chihun was gripping Sochun's wrist, and as Sochun struggled to move, he squeezed harder. Sochun scoffed, ignoring the stinging feeling of her hands going numb. This should be entertaining, he thought.---"What's your deal with this pathetic bitch?" Sochun pulled his wrist out of Chihun's cement-like grip like it was nothing. He then stepped closer to Chihu
"I'm never coming back here," she muttered to herself. When the server dropped their meals, Doona got up briskly. She slammed some cash on the table, turned to a startled Chihun and yelled, "This should cover everything, keep the change and please forget about today." She stammered, then Doona picked up her bag and sprinted towards the exit.The server turned to Chihun and smiled, "Is she coming back? or should I pack it up for her?" She smiled, a little bewildered.Chihun did not even look up from his book when he responded. "No. Just throw it in the trash."---The server picked up the plate of food and walked back to the kitchen. Chihun let out a sigh of irritation. "She's the one that said, let me buy you lunch." Chihun scoffed. "But she just up and bolted". He looked over at the money she dropped carelessly on the table and huffed because she had even dropped triple the necessary amount. Chihun wondered if
"I was still hungry. So I'll order a late-night snack." Doona smiled shyly. She didn't want to admit that she was just a fat ass. "What about the email thing you wanted to do?" Doona got up to stare at an infuriated Chihun. "After we transform this dump into an apartment." He walked over to grab a trash bag. "You said it wasn't that bad." Doona cried out in embarrassment. "If you are Shrek, then it should fit you just right." Chihun chuckled dryly as he walked over to the oven. He looked carefully at it and assumed she must have hidden more boxes in there, so he reached to pull down the handle. --- Doona spotted Chihun at the oven, her eyes widened in horror, and she screamed. "Don't ope
"Really? Will you help me? Awesome!" Doona took a swig of her leftover champagne and rose to her feet. "Let me grab my laptop from my apartment. I'll be down soon." Doona strutted to the door, and Chihun called out to her."Maybe I should follow you." Doona turned around to see Chihun gracefully getting up from the table. His tight shirt stretched and contracted against his muscled skin; he picked up his hoodie and tossed it on, then he ran his slender fingers through his hair and began to walk towards Doona. The closer he got to her, the more her breath hitched."N-no you can't come!" Doona swung the door open quickly and ran towards the elevator. Chihun stared at her racing away from him, and the sides of his lips curled up.---Chihun used the stairs
"We were beating around the bush?" Sochun laid back on the couch and kicked his legs on the rest while crossing his hands behind his head."How's your sex life?" Dr. Mo dipped her pen in ink once again and positioned it above her notebook."Fantastic. On Monday, this model and I did it at the movies-" Sochun began speaking, but Dr. Mo let out a cough that cut him off."With Song Minji. Your girlfriend?" Dr. Mo added, and Sochun's expression twisted.---Chihun stared across his dining table to look at Doona struggling to open the champagne. She retorted to bitting the cork with her teeth like an animal. Chihun let out a sigh, and a yawn escaped. "Was this necessary?" He folded his arms on his broad chest."I've almost opened it." Doona huffed as she pulled on the cork on the bottle, but her hands kept slipping. "Just give me a second." She continued to bite at it. She looked back at Chihun, who wa
"I said yes, I want to contribute. Geez!" Doona yelled at Chihun before he could complete his sentence. Then she let out a huff and started stomping off. "For someone who is really smart, you can't even read body language..." Doona continued to shout as she stormed off. "Wear your glasses and stop pestering me." She got to an intersection and stopped, but she continued to tap her feet furiously. Chihun was initially surprised by her outburst, but he let out a chuckle at how frustrated she got.You shouldn't hold back with me, Chihun thought. "Just complain like this." He muttered with a quiet smile, then walked to meet Doona, who was now crossing the street with a giant frown on her small face.---"How is the relationship between you and your partner?" Dr. Mo spoke to Paek Sochun as he fiddled with her faux plants on her window sill. Sochun turned around to look at her, raised his shoulders, and walked back to the co
Doona let out a loud laugh, and Miri stared at her, confused, "I'm sorry, you just said something funny." Doona giggled, and her frame shook while Miri continued to stare at her perplexed. "I don't think Chihun cares much for all people. He's cold to everyone." Doona continued to laugh and walked past Miri.Miri clasped her fingers around one of her pigtails, and she squeezed it. "How can you say that when he was looking at you like that?" Miri muttered to herself. Then she turned around to show Doona to the check-outstation.---That was a disaster, Doona kept fumbling the checkout machine, and not to mention every time a male customer approached her, she would flee for her life. For a practice shift, Doona took fifteen minute breaks for every thirty minutes of work; her only saving grace was that Miri had to do inventory and was barely paying attention to her messing up. Doona pushed the changing room door open and
"We are a popular grocery store and one in many chains of the same parent company, so there is barely any bureaucracy on this level, to be honest." Miri tapped her chin, and when they arrived at their destination, she pushed the door of the changing room open. "This is the woman's changing room. The one over there is for the men." Doona nodded in agreement. Miri handed Doona a vest and store shirt. Doona collected the articles of clothing from Miri and walked into the room, but before she could change her shirt, she stopped and turned around to face Miri. "Miri. How many men work here?" Miri paused to think and responded. "Fifteen currently." Doona gulped, and Miri turned to close the door behind her; she cocked her head and muttered. "What a weird question." --- Doona was excited about working at the cashier, but it had slipped her mind that her customers would both be men and women. When she stepped out
Doona tried to calm herself down, she had to get back into a headspace of safety, and serenity like her therapist told her to do every time she felt out of control. Doona then smacked her cheeks softly. She strutted past Chihun towards the grocery store and stood in front of the giant sliding doors. She could not fall back into that dark hole, where her mind ran rampant, and she feared everything; she had an important interview, and even though Chihun was a capital A-Asshole, he had helped her with her resume. Doona stepped closer to the doors, and they slid open. "Doona!" Chihun called out to her, and Doona turned to look at him. A warm smile spread on Chihun's face as he said to her, "you look fine." His smile made Doona brandish a peace sign and a large smile too. Holding the resume papers in her hands she walked into the store courageously. --- Doona and Chihun walked into the sore a few feet apart from one a
"Wait! Now?" She hurried to pack while her mind raced around batting questions left and right. She wondered what she would say during her interview. Was she even dressed appropriately for this impromptu meeting?"Yes now. Hurry up and get out, I need to turn everything off." Chihun swung his bag over his broad shoulders and wore back on his denim jacket. Doona hurried to zip her bag and rushed out the door. Chihun looked at where Doona was seated earlier, and he let out a sigh. "She left her pencil case." He reached down to pick it up and paused when he noticed there was a sticker of a woman's face on it. He slowly picked up the case in his hands, and after he observed the case, he sighed again. "So she's Minji's fan."---Knock! Knock! Knock!A stylish woman, holding a drink in a Steuben glass, looks up from her laptop. Her desk is dotted with folders and papers with profile images clipped to each corner. She
"Why do you have a section in your resume called background history?" He tapped on the table, and Doona sat back down. She was beginning to think that Chihun, for a lack of better words, freaking despised her resume.Doona responded shyly, "I thought that the hiring manager would-" but she was cut off again by Chihun, who selected everything in the word document. Doona's eyes widened when she realized what he was going to do. "Wait!" She yelled at him. Before emailing him her resume, he told her to delete all the copies on her laptop, she thought it was to avoid having copies of the same file, this was his plan all along."Delete." Chihun let out a breath of relief, and Doona's eyes widened at the horror.---"How could you do that, after you made me delete all my backups," Doona yelled so loud, the unknowing people that passed outside their study room flinched. Chihun did not pay any attention to her squeals &