‘Well well well, what do we have here?’
All three girls’ head perked up at the sound of a stranger’s voice. It was only then did the girls realised that they had barged into a gym and they had company. Of course, the latter was more important.
Nicole stared absorbing in the scene in from of her. The gym was empty beside her, her friends and the two boys in front of her. One was a tall lean young man, with short cropped hair and captivating eyes. A model, perhaps? Nicole immediately assumed in her head. The other boy was slightly shorter and had longer hair sweeping over his eyebrows. His expression, however, was more vibrant than his smirking companion and much friendlier in Nicole’s opinion. Both were dressing in school uniform of course, but there was a striking contrast in their styles. The shorter boy was dressed more neatly, his tie up in the right place and short tucked, matched with a plain knitted vest over the top. The taller boy obviously didn’t like being neat as his tie was loosened and the top two buttons of his shirt were opened, the shirt untucked. Instead of wearing leather shoes as the dress code said, he wore a pair of white sneakers. In his arm propped against his hip was a basketball.
‘So, it’s not every day three pretty girls come barging into the gym; out of breath too.’ The voice was the same as the one that voiced the rhetorical question before, the taller of the two.
None of the girls answered, still trying process everything that had happened.
The boys took a step closer towards the girls. A smile spread across their faces. ‘Nice to meet you, Nicole Jung,’ the taller one smirked, ‘Goo Hara and Han Seungyeon.’ He nodded slightly to the other two.
Only Seungyeon was able to gather her sense whilst her two companions stiffened at the sound of their names coming from an unknown male, but then again, she was never one to panic in the strangest situations. She was more mature than that, she’d like to think.
‘Nice to meet you too, Choi Minho and Lee Onew,’ she smiled, though her voice implied she was everything but happy to see the two in front of her.
Did Seungyeon say Choi Minho and Lee Onew? The Shinee guys? Another revelation for Nicole to process in her already cluttered mind.
‘I don’t suppose you two were going to introduce yourselves anytime soon,’ Seungyeon continued.
‘Ahh, where are my manners?’ The taller boy replied, smiling at the brave girl speaking, eyes twinkling. ‘I’m sorry, I’m Choi Minho and he’s Lee Onew,’ Minho’s head nodded to the boy behind him, also smiling. Onew gave a little wave.
Minho clapped his hands, ‘Well, now that we all know each other, can you girls explain why you suddenly ran inside the gym like you’ve chased by a stampede of elephants?’
To the two boys surprise it was not Seungyeon who answered but the small girl on the other side of Nicole. ‘Excuse me,’ even Seungyeon looked surprise that it was Hara who spoke, ‘did you say we all know each other? Last time I checked, I only know of you two, and I doubt you know anything about us, other than our names, well maybe except Nicole..’
Minho smiled. Minho couldn’t recall the last time a girl was able to speak to him or his friends this way. The three girls in front of him were certainly something. His eyes twinkled in amusement.
‘Miss Goo Hara, daughter of the CEO of KARA. You often do some part-time modelling. ‘Miss Han Seungyeon here is the daughter of the famous Park Jin young the CEO of JYP entertainment,’ Minho coolly recited. There wasn’t a girl in the school whom he didn’t know the name of. He saw Hara’s eyes widen a bit and could’ve sworn he hear her mutter something which sounded extremely similar to ‘stalker’. ‘So any of you planning to answer my previous question?’
‘I’m not even going to ask how you know all this about us,’ Hara retorted. ‘Also, we are not obligated to tell you anything. We don’t even know you and you do not know us, why would you care?’
‘I’m sorry. Minho’s always been a bit…umm… blunt with his words.’ All the attention was now on Onew who was stepping forward. Minho opened his mouth to defend himself but Onew shot a meaningful look at him before he could utter a word.
‘Let me explain,’ Onew continued, ‘yes, we don’t know any of you, Miss Goo Hara, but that doesn’t mean we can’t care about three girls who suddenly barged into the gym looking very distressed. Both of us are still gentleman to care about the wellbeing of others, especially girls.’ Onew smiled slightly. ‘Why don’t we all go take a seat over there on the benches? I’m sure whoever were chasing the three of you are pretty persistent and are still probably looking for you three,’ Onew suggested, ‘I’m sure that you are tired from running.’
The girls exchanged glances before Nicole gave a small nod and followed Onew and Minho to the benches. They were tired and had no reason to refuse.
Once everyone sat down, no one spoke for a few minutes. It was too awkward. On one side, the girls spoke through their eyes, urging each other to speak out first to break the silence while Minho and Onew were waiting for the girls to gain composure.
‘So…’ Onew finally broke the silence. ‘May I ask why you were being chased? I assume it isn’t a normal occurrence for the three of you.’
Hara and Nicole smiled at the comment while Seungyeon’s face showed indifference and answered nonchalantly, ‘Sulli.’ One named explained everything, especially as Onew and Minho winced once they heard Seungyeon’s answer like she spoke of something tabooed.
‘I see you don’t fancy her either,’ Seungyeon added.
Onew chuckled, ‘That would be the understatement of the year but I’m sure Sulli would think like to think otherwise. Plus, we’ve experienced worse. The chasing is nothing compared to what she’s done with us… or tried to.’ Minho laughed. ‘I guess all that chasing was due to the article?’
Nicole simply nodded. She still had no idea how everyone knew it was her, other than Hara and Suengyeon, of course. They would recognise her if she dressed up as an old hag.
‘And was there truth in the article?’ The interrogation continued.
Hara butted in. ‘Is there a point in this interrogation? Why is it only you asking us questions? What you don’t believe Nicole’s good enough for him?’
‘Not when he’s in his right state of mind.’ Minho said pointedly.
Hara glared at Minho, ‘Women aren’t just looks. It’s not like Nicole threw herself to him. Technically, he took advantage of Nicole.’ Trust Hara to get heated up first. She could never tolerate when someone threw an insult at her or her friends. Her quick temper usually got her into quite at lot of trouble.
‘All women care about is looks, wealth and impressions, everything else is a façade.’
Hara stood up with hate filled eyes boring into Minho’s glare. Before Hara could formulate a rebuttal, Nicole stood between the two, cutting into their unofficial glaring contest.
‘He didn’t kiss me if that’s what you’re arguing about!’ Nicole’s voice echoed in the gym.
Whether it was fate or pure coincidence, Nicole felt grateful that the school bell decided to ring right there and then. Nicole quickly bowed to Minho and Onew, before grabbing Hara’s hand and dragging her out of the gym whilst d Seungyeon followed closely behind. Before they left the gym Nicole turned around at the sound of Onew’s voice and his waving hand.
‘Bye Nicole Jung, it was nice meeting you.’
***
Kibum was sitting in class, his usual spot in the back row right next to the window. He looked out peacefully as if he didn’t have a worry in the world. However, his mind was running through as many thoughts as possible. Yes, he had seen the article and was glad that the paper couldn’t identify Nicole, though her identity would soon be exposed as netizen’s would not rest until they discovered who she was. Normally, he wouldn’t be sitting alone in class waiting for everyone else to arrive. He would be with Minho and Onew in the gym playing basketball, but today, he wasn’t in the mood. His mind was occupied with too many things and he wasn’t ready to face the teasing from Minho and Onew. He sat there waiting for the bell to ring, wondering. Wondering why had this happened? Wondering why he was caught up in this contract? Wondering why he still needed to go to school even after he finished his exams. He just kept wondering, while staring out at the lovely blue sky and white fluffy clouds. And that was how Minho and Onew found him in the classroom.
‘So are you going to explain what’s going on?’ Minho asked as he sat down next to Kibum while Onew took the seat in from of him.
‘What do I need to explain? It’s all in the paper,’ Kibum replied without even glancing at his friends. He wasn’t in the mood for their interrogation.
Minho rolled his eyes. He knew he wouldn’t be able to force anything out of Kibum while he was in this mood so he decided to drop the subject. But Onew didn’t.
‘Oh, we just wanted to hear your point of view since we heard from Nicole Jung’s.’
Kibum’s head jerked towards Onew’s. ‘What do you mean?’ Kibum’s eyes narrowed, trying to evoke fear from Onew, though the curios tone in his voice didn’t help.
Onew smirked. ‘Oh we bumped into her at the gym and discussed things, things about you.’ Onew sensed victory and so did Minho as his facial expression soon mimicked Onews.
‘What things?’
‘How the both of you are together,’ onew had a glint in his eyes, he was ready to pull out all his cards. ‘Honestly, Kibum, I never thought you went for those types of girls, I thought you had more class than that.’
Kibum stood up attracting attention for the rest of his classmates who had eventually filled up the classroom waiting for their late homeroom teacher.
‘We’re not together!’
‘Oh? Nicole seemed to think you guys are and so do the paparazzi.’ It was Minho who added fuel to the fire.
Kibum seemed to have noticed all the attention and quietly sat back down, but his face hadn’t changed from the shock and anger it was before.
‘We’re only together because of a stupid contract,’ Kibum managed to say through his clenched teeth.
Both Minho and Onew gave each other a knowing smile. This revelation was certainly not what the expected. They were curious but for now it was enough. They knew if push any further he would shut himself from them again and they wouldn’t get anywhere.
As if it was planned, the homeroom teacher busted into the classroom repeatedly apologising for his lack of promptness though the straggling breaths.
A/N: I updated with a longer chapter as well :D Expect another update soon because I've already started writing chapter 10.
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