Chapter 25: 20-2

"Thanks, you look pretty good yourself," I say back. "Even though I'm hot and sweaty?" "Especially because you're hot and sweaty," I softly say before holding his face and kissing him. His hands take no time to roam my back as he deepens the kiss. Then because the burning stares of the girls are irking me now, I pull away and glare at them. "What are you looking at?" I ask and they all immediately turn away, fear in their eyes. Jaewook bursts into laughter. "Man, you're good at terrifying people." He leans back in to touch his nose against mine. "Except me, you don't scare me one bit anymore baby." Just like that, I'm flustered again. "Oh no, your hickey is healing, looks like I'll have to re-do it again tonight." I hit him in the chest as he chuckles. "Im Jaewook! What are you doing?" His coach yells out. He kisses my lips one more time before lifting me off his lap. He effortlessly jumps down from the bleachers and bows to his coach. He says something to him that causes the coach to squint his eyes at me. Then recognition covers them, probably remembering me or my photo on the wall—it can't be that hard to recognize the only mixed student to graduate this school. He lets Jaewook go and the boy turns around to wiggle his eyebrows at me. He better not use me as an excuse to get out of everything. The girls don't look at me for the rest of their class. . . . I'm standing outside the front doors, waiting for Jaewook to come out. The amount of stares I've gotten today is tiring me out. Maybe I should put on my old uniform and straighten my hair next time to disguise myself. Eventually, a familiar face walks out the door, a face that lights up once it sees me. "Ready to go?" I ask. He holds onto my hand and nods. He seems completely oblivious to the students stopping to stare at us, as if the only thing he sees is me. We head home as the sun sets on the day. . . . Jaewook begs to come to my place, but he promises to sleep at home. It's like a routine now as he lays on my bed with me beside him. We talk for a while, and eventually the words those girls spoke before come back into my mind. "It seems like many people idolize you at school," I say. "Yeah but I don't have any real friends in school," he says with a bitter smirk. "Now don't give me that look, it's my choice. I just don't like getting too close to people. I have many guys I hang out with, but it's just one dimensional. They don't know much about me and that's how I like it." "But why?" He shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know. I just don't like talking about myself very much." "What about girls? You've really never had a girlfriend? I find it hard to believe sometimes since you clearly aren't clueless about kissing." "No," he softly laughs. "Never wanted one. So many girls confess to me just because of my looks. I hate it. They say that they like me just because they like my face, they know nothing about who I am. So I always say no." He sighs and begins to play with my hair. Because I didn't style it today, I let myself relax into his touch. "Sometimes a girl would ask to hang out with me, and I usually accepted. If they ask to hang out then it seems like an actual effort to get to know me, you know?" I nod. "But when I hung out with them it's always just to confess to me before learning anything about me. Like that girl in the bar that one day; she asked to hang out just to confess like everyone else, just because she likes how I look." He grimaces, a look of disgust covering his face. "I hate it. Sometimes they're so desperate that they'll beg me to sleep with them. After rejecting them they ask me to have sex with them, saying that afterwards, they'll leave me alone. At the beginning of high school, I agreed, what stupid high school boy would refuse?" I shrug my shoulders because he is right. Hormones tend to come before morals at that age for a guy, especially the most attractive guy at school. I would be lying if I said that I'm surprised he isn't a virgin. His expertise in all things physical made it very clear from the beginning that he wasn't, but at the same time, his lack of experience in relationships also proved that he had never dated before. "But I soon learned that they tried to use that as a trick. They had sex with me thinking that it'll make me fall in love with them. This one girl went berserk on me after. She expected me to confess my love but instead, I just got up and left her house. She stalked me for a month, even locked me in a storage room with her once where I had to pry her off me and deal with her bawling her eyes out as she tried to make me believe that she loved me. Loved me despite knowing shit about me." "That sucks Jae. I guess having a pretty face isn't all good." "What do you mean? Like you don't have burden from your face?" "Huh? No way," I chuckle. "People were either terrified of me in high school or hated me because I was different. And in university I've been so focused on studies that guys learned to not ask me out after the first few weeks." "Oh right, I forgot, Miss Class President." I softly laugh and push him over. "So why me then?" "Why you?" I nod and he moves closer to me. His fingers graze my cheek as his eyes explore my features. "Because you're hot." A silly smile covers his face as I roll my eyes. "Hypocrite." "No. But that was why I was first interested. When you moved here and I saw you for the first time I was just 16. What 16-year-old wouldn't get horny seeing their hot, curvy neighbour in short shorts and a tank top?" "What?" "Remember? My mom made me knock on your door to give you some rice cakes as a welcome gift. You were still moving in, wearing tight clothes and sweaty from moving furniture. It was sexy as hell. I probably went home and jerked off after." I hit his arm so hard that the loud sound shocks me. He collapses in little giggles, giggles so pure sounding that it's hard to believe he just said what he did. "Anyways. As I got older I just became really curious about you. You always seemed so tired and stressed out, and yet you still were able to keep your fiery attitude. Your disregard for me annoyed the hell out of me for a while. But I grew to like it a lot. After having girls act all sweet and perfect around me at school all day, it was nice to see a girl roll her eyes at me and not return my gestures." "Pft, you have issues man." "I know I do," he laughs but I know he's serious. "I was so tired of being lonely that I decided to make the tutoring plan. I wanted to get to know you more in some way." "It was your plan?" "Yeah. I saw your photo on that wall one day and recognized your name. When I realized you were a top student at my school before, I decided to ask my mom about getting a tutor. Since she never says no to me, it was pretty easy." He snickers a bit ironically at the mention of his mother. It's silent for a while as I trace circles on his face. "So," I begin, "you think I'm hot?" His toothy smile returns and his eyes crinkle. "That's what you got from all of that?" I snort with laughter. "What can I say, it was nice to hear." He places his hands on my jaw. "Yes, I think my Noona is smoking hot," he says lowly, causing his chest to vibrate beneath me. "And I think my baby boy is just the cutest thing ever," I baby talk to him and pinch his cheeks as he grimaces. "You may be older than me," he says while sitting up and holding onto me on his lap, "but I'm bigger than you." He lays me down in front of him before he comes over top, his arms holding him above me. My heart is beating all too fast as he looks at me with hungry eyes. "What happened to the innocent boy that couldn't even look me in the eyes four months ago?" I say breathlessly. He leans down to whisper in my ear, "he's no longer with us." "What the hell Jaewook," I laugh, "you sound like a psycho." He laughs along with me, his boyish charm returning.