A week had passed since Emrald transferred to Kuo accademy and it was now Friday. Emrald still had no friends at all. She was staring out the window and thinking about how she should have asked her parents to let her live alone in Shinjuku.
*Sigh*
"Yo! What are you sighing for Emrald?" Asked Hyungwon who suddenly appeared before her.... That's right she hasn't made any friends except for Hyungwon who practically forced the friendship on her by accompanying her to the library everyday after school, however Emrald didn't consider Hyungwon as her friend yet.
It was lunch break and most students were out of the classroom, Hyungwon took the seat in front of her in order to face her and talk properly. "May I help you?" Asked Emrald.
"Nothing of the sort. It's just that the weather today is so nice, it'd be a waste to stay indoors don't you think?"
*Hey hey, why is Lee Hyungwon talking to that gloomy girl? Did you hear? He called her by her first name... What's their relationship? Do you think they're dating? Ha no way, he's too handsome, his standards can't be that low! Maybe they're cousins that's why?....* Whispered the other female students of the class, glaring like wild boars.
That annoyed Emrald enough for her to get up and respond with much authority; "Young ladies, what exactly is your problem? Instead of trash talking others and speculating about others amongst yourselves like petty cowards, come and say it in my face if you can! I am not Hyungwon's cousin and we are not dating! Hyungwon let's go to the rooftop since the weather is so nice it'd be a waste to stay indoors." Hyungwon and Emerald then calmly walked out the classroom and everyone stared.
They both went to the rooftop and had their lunches. It indeed was a great weather, the birds were chirping as well and despite this cold autumn, today was a particular warm day.
"Hey Emrald, I was wondering, Will we go to the library to study again today?" Asked Hyungwon as they lied down next to each other, staring at the sky. "Stop wondering. But of course I'm going, you are not obliged to come, I never asked you to in the first place." Said Emrald. "Man how cold of you, but today's Friday maybe you can take a break and we can go to a manhwa bookstore cafe instead and have a bit of fun?" Replied Hyungwon. There was no response from Emrald for a few minutes and Hyungwon anxious that she might've fallen asleep turned his head around to face her only to see her glaring intensely, he quickly turned his head away again while sweating on the face and neck and admitted defeat " okay okay, i get it no manhwa cafe, library and study it is yayyy haha."
"Fine by me... Hyungwon.... I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, why do you always tag along with me when I..."
"When you?" Asked Hyungwon but there was no response, so he turned around to face her and found her in a deep sleep. 'Oh she's cuter when she sleeps, that mouth of hers isn't uttering any cold hearted words... The stillness of time in this moment, however mundane it is, I wish I could be so carefree and sleep too...' thought Hyungwon while smiling gently. His face expression suddenly changed to a more serious one, he moved closer to her, put his arms over her and tried to wake her up as the bell for the next class to begin has rung, but she was not waking up.
"What should I do?... Should I slap her? No that's too harsh, let's try though" said Hyungwon. As he put his huge hand on her left cheek in preparation to slap her awake, he gave up on the idea, thinking it would be too harsh as she was still a lady and looked like a little squirrel in the moment; calm, carefree, adorable and sleep deprived.
"What am I going to do? If I slap or punch her It won't be very gentlemanly and she's a lady...", He then looked down at her face again, and his facial expression became serious again, "really Emrald, falling alseep like that when you're hanging out with a gentleman is very dangerous, didn't you dislike men? Then why are you so careless? You're lucky it's me and no other men. Wake up already little squirrel." He kept poking her cheeks all the while then had an idea.
Hyungwon fetched his water bottle and poured some water on Emrald's face to wake her up, no response... "maybe she's exhausted. I'll just carry her to the nurse's room and let her sleep there. Hyungwon carried her as he planned and went back to his classroom. They were having English class at the moment. "Mr Lee! May I know why you are five minutes late? And where is the other missing student? That impudent miss kaizen?"
Hyungwon felt his blood boiling when Mrs Lim insulted Emrald, he did not attract only the female students but the female staff as well, even the married ones and that was his dread.
"Emrald is sick sensei, I took her to the nurse's room, she's resting there and she needs someone to be beside her so I came here to pack our things and bring both our bags there. She's got no one available to come and get her which is why I'm taking her home, and I already got permission to do so from the chairman, thank you for being so kind to understand, now if you will excuse me." Said Hyungwon quite annoyed yet very calm. "What? Take her home? What are you to this wench?" Asked Mrs. Lim and then Hyungwon said "she's my betrothed!" With a serious look on his face and that shocked everyone present.
"What...where am I? What time is it?? Oh I was in school on the roof, and then I fell asleep, is this the nurse's room? My head hurts."
" Oh you're finally awake." Said Hyungwon.
Emrald quite shocked on hearing Hyungwon's voice rose from the bed, astonished she found out that she was in her very own bedroom and it was late at night. "What-what-what are you doing here? Why?" Asked the puzzled Emrald.
"You passed out on the roof at school and no matter how hard I tried to wake you, you wouldn't and so I brought you to the nurse's room. The school called your parents but no one was free to come pick you up so I brought you home. You were down with a fever thus I took care of you and made you some porridge, now then let me feed you the porridge, you have to eat so you can take youe medication." Answered Hyungwon. "What? Serious? Oh dear what an utter bummer , oh if it's as late as I see it's 10:00 pm my parents should be here so why are you still here?" Asked Emrald still baffled. "Wow that's quite a response you threw at me, what really? No gratitude at all? Don't worry I didn't do anything queer. The thing is I've had dinner with your parents two hours ago and since I live alone anyway as I'm an exchange student from South Korea, they insisted for me to stay the night today, so then I went to get my clothes and toothbrush, underwears and all, oh by the way do you want to see my new underwears?" Teased Hyungwon happily to loosen the tension.
Emrald, annoyed, threw her pillow right into Hyungwon's face and said "ugh why would I want to see the underwears you brought? You baka-ecchi! Stay here the night? Let me enlighten you, there are no spare rooms so where are you going to sleep?"
"Please do forgive me my lady, but I was only teasing you, as for where I shall be sleeping, not to worry, your dearest parents suggested that I sleep in your room, see, they even laid a futon for me on the floor right next to your bed. Now eat up and take your medications, I'm going to shower, you better shower as well, it's good to keep the fwver at bay." Answered Hyungwon before stepping for his shower. Emrald ate her porridge without saying anything else as she was famished, but the idea of sleeping in the same room as Hyungwon horrified her a little, she thought that if it was someone other than him she would have beaten them and scare them away. That moment, she realised that she was used to Hyungwon being around her and he was her first friend in Akihabara and Kuo accademy. She felt bad for being rude to him but the way he teases her with his jokes annoys her.
As Hyungwon walked towards the bathroom Mrs. Kaizen came to him and gave him a towel. "Thank you Mrs. kaizen, really thanks a lot!" Said Hyungwon. "Oh no it's okay dear you're welcomed here anytime, in fact I'm the one who should be thanking you. You see, ever since an incident in junior high Emrald started to dislike males; she was completely disgusted and when I ask her the reason she wouldn't say so we transferred her to yamasaki girl's accademy. To think that her first friend at Kuo accademy would be a boy and a handsome gentleman at that, she hates the handsome ones the most though this past week she looked a little brighter and happier than before, I'm guessing that it may have been because of you, thank you very much indeed, and please do me a favour." Said Mrs. Kaizen, then Hyungwon asked what the favour was and she said "please take care of my daughter" softly Which made Hyungwon smile, "Of course madam, do not worry, I swear I shall always protect her, you can count on me and I shall do my best."
Mrs. Kaizen thanked him, and hurried the stairs, back into the kitchen to drink some water, her eyes glistening with tears of joy.
After Hyungwon had finished his refreshing shower, he headed back to Emrald's room, with a towel fastened and secured around him as he left his pyjamas on the futon Mrs. kaizen laid out for him. "Kyahhh what do you think you're doing, showing up in front of me like that ?" Asked Emrald startled and ran off to the bathroom to take her shower.
"Ahh that was a nice steaming hot bath....What? Why are you still wearing that towel? You want to catch a cold so you have an excuse to skip school?" Asked Emrald after entering her room. Hyungwon slowly approached her, pinched her against the wall and leaned close to her face, "what's with your reaction? Never seen a gentleman's bare torso? "
He then loosened and turned around, Emrald grabbed his right arm. Hyungwon, startled, turned his face to face her; her face was as red as tomato juice, her head slightly tilted down, with averted eyes she said "t...thank you for all your help." Hyungwon blushed as well and pulled her in a huge hug, he then asked her if she was free the next day.
"I am going to Shinjuku to meet my friends from my previous school." Said Emrald, " I see. Since I have to go to shinjuku to meet some friends too why don't we all hang out? The more the merrier." Queried Hyungwon. "No" was Emrald's answer. "You're no fun... I can't see why not... No matter, I should get changed, let's go to sleep now or I will be the one who is sleep deprived" Said Hyungwon.
They finally turned off the lights; "Good night" they both said to each other and nodded.