The Way He Is | Teen Ink

The Way He Is

September 4, 2019
By thisaintit, Atlanta, Georgia
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thisaintit, Atlanta, Georgia
0 articles 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
it surprised me, how long i was willing to wait for something that was only a possibility


                            DRAFT

 

Yeonmin cautiously walked through the corridor of the school towards the halls that were filled with students working to open their jammed lockers,her books pressed tightly against her chest as she tried her best not to cause attention towards herself, not that it was something she was worried about, no one ever really paid much attention to her as she was small and pretty average looking, the only thing that really stood out about her were her big light brown eyes, and even then most people never took more than a glance at her to notice them. Once in front of her locker Yeonmin dropped her book bag against the tiled floor that spread throughout the hall, a low metallic thump sounding from beneath it before she began twisting the knob on her locker with the numbers that consisted of the combination needed to open it, carefully swinging the door open as she reached up to grab the books she needed for her first period class, struggling a bit as she tried reaching for the math textbook that rest on the top shelf, she growled and groaned beneath her breath after a while of being unable to snatch it from the shelf “joon-woo” she grumbled, crossing her arms and furrowing her brows. she sighed and just decided to find her math teacher and explain the circumstances to him,  Yeonmin took a step back to turn from her locker and instantly felt a sudden warmth against her back as a high shadow set over her head indicating that someone tall stood behind her “ why is it that your calling my name minnie? “yeonmin felt her face flush completely of color at the sound of her nickname coming from the deep voice behind her slowly turning around to face the owner of this voice, ready to scold him for misplacing her items, her eyes instantly meeting a pair of slim dark brown eyes, then widening in shock when the face she’s met with doesn’t completely match the voice she recognizes very well as her best friend since middle school not even slightly meeting her expectations but greatly exceeding them, her eyes instinctively rolled down from his to scan his face entirely, slowly running over his broad nose down to his plump pink lips making sure to make a note of his almost perfectly clear skin “yeonmin?” he asked carefully after a while seeming to notice her stare, the slight concern evident in his voice making Yeonmin force her eyes to meet his again and blink to clear her shifting mind “ y-yes, yes” she took a moment to dip her head and shake it a bit, giving a small chuckle from behind her lips “ i’m sorry” she apologized raising her head to meet his gaze again “ you uhm, on the last day of school you left my book on the top shelf” she explained gesturing towards the book at the top of her locker “ now i can’t seem to reach it” he smiled and gave an understanding nod stepping forward to reach up and grab her book from the locker, leaving little room between them causing her to press back against the lockers, her cheeks tinting a slight red, joonwoo instantly and quite easily pulled the book down and handed it down towards yeonmin, who wrapped her arms tightly around it and pressed the book against her chest still looking up at him, taking a second to  admire his unrecognizable yet angelic features with awe, joonwoo did the same, gazing downward into her beautiful brown eyes with the same awe that covered her features resting apon his,both of them keeping this position for a while until joonwoo quickly raised his arm and grabbed her cheeks with his fingers pressed against them once the silence between them had stretched for too long ,squishing her face like a stress ball in his grasps making her lips poke out like a pufferfish causing him to smile as he gently pulled away from her still holding her face in his hand “ find me after class at our old hiding spot, lets catch up” he said finally letting go of her face and turning to walk down the hall, his hands shoved down his pockets, two higher class girls passing him and giggling as he made his way down the halls, yeonmin rolled her eyes at the girls and massaged her cheeks where joonwoo held them “ was that really joonwoo?” she asked herself as she padded along in the hall towards her first class “why does he look so different” she mumbled, placing her books down on a desk near to the front of the classroom claiming it as her seat for the rest of the year before settling into her seat and pulling her notebook over towards her to take the morning notes from the board. 

 

 

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“UNNIE!!” yeonmin heard a female voice almost scream to the left of her, she smiled and hopped up from her seat opening her arms, welcoming the girl for a hug, then waiting for the smaller female to crash into her, almost being pushed to the ground once she did.  “ unnie i missed you so much, i never thought i’d see you again” Yeonmin rolled her eyes and chuckled at the girls over exaggeration of the situation “ i was only gone for the summer, hyejin, you were bound to see me once school started again” Yeonmin explained hyejin then loosened her arms from around yeonmin and looked up towards her with big fake puppy eyes “ no i wasn’t you could’ve moved or found new friends, ten weeks is too long” she pouts and Yeonmin smiles shaking her head, “ ill never find friends better than you and Joonwoo” she says softly 

 

“ Oh! Joonwoo! Have you seen him? I want to talk to him” hyejin exclaimed  unwrapping her arms from around Yeonmin a new found urgency finding her voice, Yeonmin bit her lip and held her arms against her back quietly wondering to herself about why hyejin would be so urgent to find joonwoo “ yes, he helped me grab my books this morning, you haven’t seen him lately?” she asked curious on whether or not hyejin noticed how drastically Joonwoo’s looks shifted as well “ no i haven’t seen him in two months yeonmin, that’s why i want to talk to him” hyejin cocked her head aside and furrowed her brows “ is there something about him i should have seen?” yeonmin quickly shook her head at this making hyejin narrow her eyes in suspicion “ be truthful to me unnie, we’re best friends lies are not optional” Yeonmin hung her head at this and nodded “ joonwoo, just looks a bit different” she said not telling the full truth but not telling a lie either praying that hyejin wouldn’t ask how he looked different, hyejin surprisingly accepted the minimal explanation and nodded, turning to take her seat beside Yeonmin, who had also sat down, both girls sat working and laughing at each others jokes until the second bell rang and they both were let out for their break, yeonmin hastley waved hyejin goodbye and instantly rushed out from the school doors to back past the baseball field where an old moss covered shed lay pushed back behind a gross amount of overgrowth, camouflaging  the medium sized shed to look as if it were genuinely apart of the wood that lay behind it, yeonmin stood in front of the door that led into the shed and slowly slid her fingers over the vines that covered it momentarily taken back to memories from last year when she, hyejin and joonwoo had found the shed during a game of volleyball after the ball had shot over beside it, taking the time to fix it up and spending every free second they had in the shed as if it were a second home, yeonmin smiled to herself and gently pushed open the door, first peering into the shed then cautiously stepping inside, dropping her bag near the door and closing it behind her, the shed looked the same from how they left it last year except there was dust and dirt covering just about everything, yeonmin lifted a pillow to her chest and began dusting it, coughing and scrunching up her nose as the dust flew up towards her face, then finally looking down at the newly cleaned pillow and recognizing it as one joonwoo had given her for her birthday, the little letters sewn on top forming the words ‘ J + Y=Best Friends’ Yeonmin hugged the pillow against her and sighed beginning to wonder how joonwoo saw her now when suddenly an arm slid loosely around her waist completely catching her off guard, so much so, that she dropped the pillow and shoved her elbow back against the persons stomach, a low pain filled groan following the impact, the sound making her eyes widen as she realized her actions, swiftly turning to face the person who was now hunched over and groaning “ Joonwoo!” she quickly kneeled down and cupped his face between her palms, taking in the painfilled expression that covered his face “ oh my god joonwoo im so sorry”  she took one of her hands from his cheeks and placed it on his stomach where she had hit him, and found that his stomach felt different too, harder and more more chiseled like he had been working out and developed slight abs, she resisted the urge to run her fingers across his stomach and instead worked on standing him upright, and setting him down on the bench, briskly moving away from him once she did. Joonwoo, confused by this, reached up to grab her wrist before she got to far, his other hand still flat against where her elbow came in contact with his stomach “ why are you moving away? it was just an accident Yeonmin, im not mad at you or anything, hell, im the one who snuck up on you, i deserved it” joonwoo said and yeonmin shook her head then shifted to face him “ thats not why I moved away i’m just a little ashamed, but not particularly because i hit you, actually i agree, you did deserve it” she said giving him a small smile and slowly raising her hand to playfully push his shoulder. Joonwoo dipped his head and smiled at this action, making Yeonmin’s smile grow slightly bigger “ so why exactly were you ‘ashamed’?” joonwoo asked, interest filling his voice as he finally let go of Yeonmin’s wrist to lean back on the bench, yeonmin quickly trying to ignore the faint tingling feeling his fingers left across her wrist to pay more attention to the question he had asked, her cheeks turning pink once she remembered why she was ashamed of her actions “ i-uh-why do you ask so many questions?” yeonmin asked folding her arms as if she were very serious, joonwoo chuckled at her form and slowly stood up walking over to meet her near the middle of the shed “ why are you trying to deflect my question?” he retaliated tilting his head to emphasize his curiosity,yeonmin opened her mouth to respond but was quickly cut off by the shed door swinging open, conjoined laughter entering from the other side, joonwoo and yeonmin being met with the face of their best friend hyejin and a boy they’d never met before, a boy that was tall slinder, handsome and dressed casually in their school uniform, hyejin squealed upon seeing yeonmin with joonwoo, swiftly moving to yeonmin and jumping like a hyper child  “ oh my god! Yeonmin you have a boyfriend now??? He’s so handsome!” yeonmin felt her face burn red at hyejin’s words, joonwoo just snickered and looked over at yeonmin meeting her eyes with a smirk yeonmin quickly catching his eye and glaring at him “uhm actually-” yeonmin started to tell hyejin that it was actually joonwoo and that they just met to catch up but she was quickly cut off by joonwoo “ whats up hyejin?” he said simply drawing attention to the way he pronounced her name “ you really don’t recognize me?” he continued giving her a look filled with fake hurt hyejin’s mouth gaping open after obviously recognizing his voice “ joonwoo? That’s really you?” hyejin gasped “I don’t believe it” she mumbled squinting her eyes to find the resemblance to the boy she remembered from last year but not finding too much of any to connect the two “ wow, damn the glow up though” hyejin said and joonwoo couldn’t help tossing his head back in laughter “I wish I could say the same for you jin” he joked reaching up to ruffle her hair, making hyejin scowl at him, and provoking yeonjun to feel a small ping of jealousy deep within her chest “ so who’s your friend here?” joonwoo asked nodding his head towards the guy who stood leaned back on the door with his arms crossed over his chest, a scrutinizing look on his face as his eyes washed over joonwoo “ oh right!” hyejin exclaimed rushing back over to the boy and wrapping her arms tightly around his waist “ this is minsungie!...my boyfriend” hyejin said using aeygo sattori while looking up at him and scrunching up her nose, at which minsung smiled and tilted his head down nuzzling his nose against hers, yeonmin cooed out a small ‘Awe~’ at the couples lovey dovey actions and smiled sweetly, while joonwoo just looked at them with a disgusted look on his face, obviously cringing over the situation “hello” minsung said, speaking in an accent that was distinctive and obviously native to England even through his korean sattori “ i promise not to intrude on your friendship, i’ll try my hardest to become apart of this ‘ family’ as hyejin says it” he chuckled, flashing a charming smile at joonwoo and yeonmin, making joonwoo lift his arm and slide it around yeonmin’s waist, the scrutinizing look that minsung had on his face before now pointed at him by Joonwoo. “ Minsung” joonwoo began, an unnaturally calm tone coloring his voice “ haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” joonwoo asked his eyes narrowing at minsung “ No,” minsung said blandly his smile faltering a bit “not that i remember” Yeonmin, who was as stiff as an old loaf of bread when joonwoo’s arm first wrapped around her, gradually began forcing herself to relax against him when she saw the loathing look he gave minsung, noticing how the look in his eyes visibly softened once she did, joonwoo sighed and bit his lip " i'm gonna go to class now ok minnie?" yeonmin nodded and regained her straight posture against him "hyejin?" he asked and hyejin nodded as well but still keeping a love struck gaze on minsung. joonwoo scoffed and headed past minsung towards the door " i'll come with you" yeonmin said and rushed over after him,once yeonmin had catched up with joonwoo she found herself looking back at the cabin only to catch minsungs gaze a little lower than it should have been, yeonmin furrowed her brows and shook her head in disbelief, maybe she just saw it differently than what it was



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