Chapter Text
Namra was in bed thinking about all of the events that transpired tonight that will no doubtedly change the way she felt about a certain boy tonight.
Earlier that day…
The Class of 2-5 was excited.
The reason?
The reason was because there was going to be a birthday party. It was Gyeong-su’s birthday celebration.
That meant there were gonna be a lot of things you’d expect from teenagers. Like alcohol, cigarettes, and the like but mostly alcohol. His mom saved up just enough to give Gyeong-su some money to spend for a private celebration with his classmates. She specifically told him to spend it on good stuff like “chicken” and “cake”. As expected, the opposite happened and there were some fun stories to tell the next day.
However, we will be telling the tale of what happened that day from the view of our one and only, Choi Namra.
She was with On-jo and I-sak in the cafeteria when a conversation propped up about the party of Gyeong-su being held later tonight.
“Hey, what are you gonna wear for later?” asked I-sak.
“I don’t know to be honest. How about you come with me later on going home so you can help me pick out some clothes?” On-jo suggested it to her best friend while chewing on some beef.
She nodded enthusiastically and turned to look at Namra and asked “How about you, Pres?”
Namra ,who was enjoying her meal, turned to look at her two friends eyeing her waiting for a response. She finished chewing and swallowed before replying with a response that excited the girls even more so that it garnered a few stares from surrounding tables.
“Sure, I’ll come with you.” Namra said with a smile on her face.
She was going either way since Suhyeok had to beg on his knees (literally) earlier for her to come. She relented since her mom was out-of-town for a few days and it was a Friday so she decided to let loose and enjoy her time with her friends.
The three girls finished their meals and walked back to the classroom together. Talking about what might happen later and what time they might have to leave for the party considering that their class ends around 2 PM.
“Namra, what do you think you’re gonna wear?” asked Onjo.
Namra gave it some thought since she has dozens of clothes but she recently bought some clothes she hasn’t managed to wear outside yet and decided it was a perfect time to showcase it.
“I’ll show you later when I go to your unit, okay?” Namra replied with a soft tone and a smile.
On-jo smiled and asked with a pout on her face. “You better help, okay? There’s a boy I’m trying to impress.”
Namra simply smiled back at her and gave it a good guess as to who she was trying to impress. She isn’t blind to notice how both Cheong-san and On-jo were acting towards one another these past few weeks. She figures that something must have changed after one of their major fights since they both haven’t been fighting lately but are more chatty and affectionate with one another. Well..more affectionate than the class was used too.
“I-sak, do you have an outfit planned already?” Namra asked with interest.
“Mmhm, I’m gonna wear a red sweater with a dark shirt and black denim shorts. For shoes, I don’t know yet but I’ll probably wear something that matches the colour.” replied I-sak with an excited tone.
The conversation was interrupted suddenly by the birthday boy himself, Han Gyeong-su followed by Cheong-san and Dae-su. Cheong-san and On-jo smiled at one another before quickly looking away. Namra could only smile at how horrible they were at hiding something.
“What’s this about outfits?” asked Dae-su.
“It’s for later, man. Why? Are you gonna just wear your school uniform?” said Cheong-san interested in Dae-su’s answer on whether or not he might say something incredibly funny or incredibly stupid. Maybe even both since no one ever understood their friend’s thought process at times.
“Of course not! I’m not an idiot.” said Dae-su.
Namra thought to herself “I’m pretty sure everyone sighed in relief after hearing that.”
“Anyways, we’re already planning what to wear for later. What about you, boys? Are you gonna wear some boring plain clothes like usual or spice it up a little bit.” I-sak taunted.
“Hey, I’m the birthday boy! Of course, I’m gonna dress up today.” said Gyeong-su proudly.
“I’ll find something nice in my cabinet before I leave for the party. Just worry about putting on make-up for two hours, I-sak, okay?” teased Cheong-san who gestured to her face.
I-sak attempted to slap his arm which Cheong-san easily dodged with little effort. She threw up a middle finger and Cheong-san smiled back at her with a teasing smile while mouthing the words “bitch.” back at her. On-jo would walk to Cheong-san and pull on his sleeve before talking to him about something that she couldn’t hear about.
Gyeong-su smiled at the whole interaction and said “Party starts at 7 by the way and ends at whatever time you need to leave or get hammered and someone needs to take you home.”
All of them knew that there was gonna be alcohol but didn’t know how much of it was gonna be later. Namra hoped that she could walk home safely later but she suddenly remembered it’s gonna be okay since Suhyeok is gonna be there with her.
Lately, Suhyeok has been really attentive with her. Always there when she needs him to be even if she doesn’t expect him to be. To the point, Suhyeok probably knew every single thing about her. She wouldn’t be surprised at all if that was the case. She did tell him everything about herself starting from her story all the way to the things that mildly irritate her.
Cheong-san and Onjo were down the hallway already before anyone noticed they were gone. Gyeong-su started walking, facing backwards to speak to them before saying “I know you’re coming later, Pres. Dress well and come early! We have a party!” before running to catch up to Cheong-san with Dae-su bowing his head before following his friends shortly after.
I-sak roped her arms around Namra’s left hand and gestured for them to go back to class since it was almost time anyways.
She simply nodded in agreement and both made their way to the classroom.
They would talk about where the possible venue is going to be and what food they are going to expect. I-sak admitted that she hoped Cheong-san would bring her mother’s famous fried chicken that the entire class loved and Nam-ra agreed to that. Namra was brought back to the time she first went to Cheongsan’s restaurant at that moment.
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The first time she went to Cheongsan’s restaurant was when Cheongsan’s mom offered the group to try her new flavours, which some of them agreed to. She was accompanied by Suhyeok who said this was his fifth time here. She didn’t know what to do so she simply just followed Suhyeok’s lead since he was the more sociable one.
“Hello, Auntie!” yelled Suhyeok from the entrance who opened the door for both him and Namra.
He left the door open for Namra and gestured for her to go first which she obliged and nodded her head in thanks. He let the door close behind him and saw Cheongsan’s mother come from out of the kitchen.
“Suhyeok! Welcome! Welcome! Who is she? Is she your girlfriend?” she asked while slowly approaching the pair.
Namra just had wide eyes to the comment and Suhyeok just laughed nervously. He saved both of them from embarrassment and said.
“Ah, no. She’s the class president and my best friend. This is Choi Namra and I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of her from Cheong-san, correct?” as he gestured to her to which Cheongsan’s mother looked at her.
“Hello, miss.” She bowed delicately with a smile.
She smiled and replied warmly “Welcome, Namra. Come on, sit down. Cheong-san and On-jo are on the way from the mall since On-jo had to buy something for school.” as she slowly pushed them to the table nearest the kitchen.
“Come on, take a seat.” She told them and both of them looked at one another before sitting beside one another.
“Just wait here, I’ll prepare the food. Is there anything you’d like?”
Suhyeok turned to look at me and I at him. He probably knew what I was gonna say.
“Just water. Thank you, Auntie” He turned to look at Cheongsan’s mom who bowed and went to the kitchen. He turned to look at her and asked “You okay?”
She simply nodded and placed her bag beside her, Suhyeok doing the same.
“Have you ever tried the chicken here?”
“Once, I was at home studying when I felt like ordering something. It was good, I really like the original and soy garlic.” Namra said with a sheepish smile.
“I don’t have a favourite flavour. I just eat whatever’s given to me” Suhyeok jokes which garnered a soft slap on the arm by Namra.
“Of course, you’d say that. You aren’t one to complain about food after all.” Namra replied back.
At that moment, the doors of the restaurant opened to reveal Cheongsan and Onjo together once again but with a bag filled with school supplies they bought from the mall. They both saw Suhyeok and Namra and waved to them.
Cheongsan poked Onjo and handed the bag to her and said “Hey, take this. Go sit with them.”. Onjo simply nodded and made her way to the seat in front of Namra. Cheongsan would make his way to Suhyeok before pushing him a bit on his chair and quickly entering the kitchen to help out his mom to avoid retaliation.
On-jo waved to Namra and Suhyeok before taking a seat and placing her bag and the materials beside her.
“How long have you guys been here?” On-jo asked.
“We just got here so don’t worry.” Namra replied for both of them.
“Sorry, we took a while. I couldn’t find a specific material we needed for the English poster in any of the stores so we had to look somewhere else.” On-jo apologised and clarified what happened and what took them so long.
“It’s fine, at least you guys are here now.” Suhyeok said which Namra agreed to by nodding.
“Where’s Gyeong-su and the rest by the way?” Suhyeok asked.
“They’re busy with poster making for their group. Since we’re groupmates, I guess this is the perfect place to be.” On-jo replied.
“Everyone, make some room!” Cheongsan yelled from the kitchen slowly making his way to the table with food on hand.
Cheongsan placed three bowls of chicken on the table. His mom had a tray of glasses and set it down on the table before getting a 1.5 litre of coke and a pitcher of water.
“Here you go! Enjoy the brand new flavours of garlic parmesan, roasted sesame, and creamy salted egg.” Cheongsan’s mom stated.
“Thank you, miss!” said On-jo, Namra and Suhyeok and waited for Cheongsan to take a seat before they started eating.
“No problem, children. Anytime.” Cheongsan’s mom replied sweetly.
Cheongsan who came from the kitchen said, “Mom, we’re gonna go to On-jo’s unit to do a project together.” before taking a seat next to On-jo and placing his bag beside her.
Cheongsan’s mother replied with “Mm, okay. I’m gonna have to stay here and lock up anyways so you can go ahead.”
Cheongsan nodded and took a seat. They all started eating afterwards.
“Hey, do you like the taste of creamy salted egg?” Suhyeok whispered into Namra’s ear.
“It’s okay, I like garlic parmesan more though.” Namra replied by giving her thoughts on the food as well.
Suhyeok grabbed two glasses and poured water into both of them. He handed one to Namra and placed one for himself. Namra thanked him by nodding since she was chewing and couldn’t say anything.
Cheongsan would do the same except with Coca-cola for him and Onjo.
“Hey, did you hear about the bullies in our school?” asked On-jo.
“What happened?” asked Cheongsan.
Namra took a look at Suhyeok who was mindlessly eating and placed a hand on his shoulder to get him back from whatever he was thinking about while listening to the story Onjo heard.
Suhyeok was alerted by this and turned to look at Namra. She gestured to Onjo using her head and they both turned to On-jo who was explaining the story to Cheongsan.
“One of I-sak’s friends from a different class said that Gwi-nam got expelled a day ago. They said that they found evidence of him bullying people on CCTV with his gang. The rest are suspended until the committee knows what to do with them.” On-jo said to Cheongsan who listened carefully.
“Deserved.” Suhyeok muttered under his breath and continued to eat.
“I think that they got what they had coming to themselves. They were assholes after all” Cheongsan said and then took a drink from his Cola.
Namra and Onjo nodded in agreement to that in response. Namra continued to eat until Suhyeok poked Namra to say something.
“Your nose.” Suhyeok said smiling.
“What about it?” Namra asked with a questioning tone.
“Don’t worry, I got it.”
Suhyeok grabbed a tissue and softly removed the sauce of one of the chicken from her nose. She touched her nose and felt it was really clean.
“Thank you.” Namra said shyly in front of both Cheongsan and Onjo who were just looking at both of them.
“Don’t mention it, You want water?” Suhyeok asked again.
She raised a glass and Suhyeok poured water until the glass was somewhat full.
He placed the pitcher down and got some more chicken.
Cheongsan asked Onjo if she wanted more Roasted Sesame and she said yes. He placed the last remaining pieces for her which effectively finished that bowl of chicken. Onjo ate the most from roasted sesame so Cheongsan figured she might as well finish it as well.
Without even asking, Cheongsan grabbed her glass and poured the last bits of Coke left.
“Hey, Suhyeok. Pass me the pitcher.” Cheongsan asked with a mouth full of food.
Suhyeok nodded and passed the pitcher to him without stopping to look at him.
The boys continued eating as if nothing serious had happened. Suhyeok bit on a bone and slowly pulled it out of his mouth. He looked at the bone and at Cheongsan before throwing it at him. Cheongsan, irritated by this, threw a middle finger at him and was interrupted when his mom pulled his ear.
“Stop that.” his mom said after pulling his ear and making her way back into the kitchen.
Cheongsan rubbed his ear and saw a smirking Suhyeok who he kicked in the shin.
The shenanigans stopped there and now they were both even.
Namra and Onjo shared a look between them that made them both smile for a bit.
They ate the rest of their meal in peace and Suhyeok and Namra would take a look at one another and smile then continue eating.
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She smiled at the memory and hoped that they would do it again sometime soon. I-sak and Namra entered the classroom where the majority of the class was already inside and everyone going to the party was clustered into one big group in the middle of the classroom.
“Listen, this idea sounds crazy but if we pull it off. It’ll be a memorable ass night.” said Gyeong-su.
“I’m on board with this entire plan but the problem is how we’re gonna do it.” replied Joon-yeong.
“What’s going on?” asked I-sak.
“Gyeong-su said the venue will be at…school.” Woo-jin said with a little hesitance in his voice.
Namra made a face that screamed “what?” that Suhyeok can see so he spoke up about the plan.
“Okay, I know everyone here has some doubts about it but I have a very good idea on how we can make this work. The guards here in school don’t really stay too long after class so let’s say around 8-ish the school will be completely empty. We can slip in through the back with the tennis court? Do you guys know that? Yeah, we can slip in through there and enter the main building.” said Suhyeok.
“First off, how do you even know that? Second, what makes you so sure that they haven't changed the guard shifts since then?” asked Joon-yeong.
“One that’s nothing you should be worried about and two I had to spend an extra bit of time here for supplementary lessons in Mathematics. The janitor told me to lock up the classroom since nobody else was here around 7 PM.” said Suhyeok with a smile.
“Besides, I have a secret tool that can help us later.” He followed his statement up.
Everybody just looked at him in concern but quickly dismissed his comment.
Namra walked to Suhyeok and sat beside him.
“Hey, Pres. How was your meal?” Suhyeok said with a smile on his face.
“It was good, you should have come down. They had bulgogi.”
Suhyeok made a tsk sound and said “Nah, it’s okay. I already ate a lot this morning so I still feel a bit bloated from that.”
“So…will I pick you up later?” Suhyeok asked.
“You don’t have to. I’m going with On-jo and I-sak, we’re going to help On-jo pick out some clothes for later. She says she has to “impress” a boy.” said Namra with a joking tone.
They both laughed at that since they both knew who it was. Suhyeok’s look lingered on her for a bit before saying.
“If that’s the case, I’ll go ahead and make sure it’s safe to come to school, okay?”
Namra just nodded in response with a sheepish smile on her face.
“I’ll text you just in case and I mean we have a group chat so…y’know what to do.” Suhyeok said while showing a thumbs up as a sign of encouragement.
“Yeah, I know.” She replied softly.
“Dress nicely, okay. You can’t look ugly later.” Namra reminded Suhyeok with a small pat on the bicep.
“Me? Ugly? Do you know I am? I’m the most handsome boy in all of Hyosan High.” Suhyeok said proudly and jokingly
Namra laughed loudly and covered her mouth to stifle it. Suhyeok laughed with her and stopped to smile. He really liked it when he made Namra laugh, it’s something that gives him great pleasure since this girl barely even smiled back then. Now, she’s more expressive and more open with other people.
“If you’re the most handsome boy in school, then I’m the most beautiful girl in Hyosan with your joke.” Namra joked.
Suhyeok’s look lingered on her before saying with an affectionate tone “You are the most-”.
The soft moment was interrupted when Ms.Park opened the door and all the students quickly moved back to their seats. Namra and Suhyeok went to the back with Suhyeok and Namra splitting up with Suhyeok going with Woojin and Namra with Hyo-ryung.
“Okay, class. I hope you guys read pages 45 to 60 of Fahrenheit 451 since we are gonna be having oral recitation for today.” Ms.Park said with a collective groan being heard amongst the class.
Ms.Park smiled and continued to say “But first, I would like to greet Gyeong-su a happy birthday.”. The whole class followed this up and began singing Happy Birthday to him and it ended in applause.
“Anyways, open your books and get ready to recite or read or even both.” Ms.Park stated.
Suhyeok wasn’t going to listen either way so he decided to pass. He went ahead and fell asleep to pass the time faster. Namra on the other hand prepared herself to recite and take down some notes. Namra crumpled a small paper and threw it at Suhyeok to wake him up, which he did.
“Hey, text me later when you’re about to leave for the party.” She said to Suhyeok.
Suhyeok’s look lingered on her for a bit before simply saying “Yes, Pres.” and he went back to sleep.
“Hyo-ryung, what time are you going to leave for the party?” Namra said, turning to the girl beside her.
“Around 5. I want to be early since I want to leave early.” Hyo-ryung turned to face the girl and replied with an enthusiastic tone.
“Did you pack clothes?” Namra asked inquisitively.
Hyo-ryung shook her head in response and said “Nope, my house is near school anyways so I’ll be right back basically.”.
Namra said “ah” to the information and continued to ask “Is Ji-min gonna come?”.
Hyo-ryung nodded excitedly and quickly gave some thought to her words as she said “She is, she said she’ll be bringing some food…She’ll bring galbi.” ending the sentence with a raised finger as soon as she remembered the meal her best friend was bringing.
Namra nodded simply with understanding and went back to listening to Ms.Park discuss the relevance of one of the characters in the book. Hyo-ryong nodded back in response with a smile and also started taking notes.
Her gaze turned to the boy who quickly fell asleep as soon as he heard the words “book” and “recitation”. It was one filled with fondness and warmth. She returned to being the infamous class president after that and went back to her studies with thoughts of a birthday party in mind.