The One Day Bet (6)

Geunyeoneun yeppeossda. — meaning she was pretty—

"She was pretty, actually, it was her heart that was truly pretty. I wished she knew how pretty she was, how much I really loved her smile and everything about her. She was unique, one of a kind and I resented this harsh and cruel world for hurting her, if I had known this would've been our outcome... I would have told her just how pretty she was."  —Park Baekhyun

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Early the next morning, I waited for Baekhyun by his locker, rather anxious to find out how things went with Siyeon. I finally spotted him making his way through the crowd of students.

"Good morning Seol." he said happily smiling and humming as he unlocked his locker putting his things inside, making me look at him strangely.

"Good morning, what's with the stupid expression on your face? You look like a glowing marshmallow." His skin was milky white and his hair platinum blonde, the expression he made almost made him look like he was glowing, I folded my arms and leaned against the lockers.

"Well it's because..." he began but then quickly changed his mind. "Never mind, I'll tell you later."

His words made me roll my eyes. "Anyway, how did it go? If you did anything to upset her, I'll kill you." I warned, showing him my fist.

"It went great, I took her to a cafe and then we went to an amusement park, she seemed to have a good time." His smile never disappeared.

"Well I don't completely trust you, but, since she didn't call me and complain about 'the guy I sent to her art glass' I'll assume for the time being she had fun, that could always change when I see her though."

"By the way Seol... there was a slight problem."

"What kind of problem?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"When we were at the cafe this guy... I think his name was Sin-jae approached her, I got him to leave her alone but she was still shaken up by the whole thing."

At the mention of that name I immediately looked at him. "WHAT?!! SIN-JAE?!!" I shouted, clenching my fist, Baekhyun flinched at my loud tone and just nodded in response; just hearing his name was enough to make my blood boil. I grabbed Baekhyun by the shoulders. "Did he hurt her? What did he do?! TELL ME!!!" I shouted, shaking Baekhyun by the collar.

"Okay, first of all calm down." He grabbed my hands, removing them from his shoulders. "He didn't hurt her, he did grab her arm but that's when I intervened."

"That psychopath, what is he even doing back here?" I mumbled to myself, feeling sorry for Siyeon. "She was just starting to become normal again, after spending time in the hospital because of her head injury she barely spoke to us or expressed herself, though she stopped dating and hanging out with us after school, she was still Siyeon... she still returned to her usual chirpy and smiling self after a while, this time I don't know how she'll react if he comes after her again." I told him my chest beginning to feel tight as I did, he had brought her so much pain, I didn't want her to go through that again.

"She told me about her past with him, but I didn't know about the hospital part."

I looked at him surprised by his words. "Wait, she told you everything herself... Siyeon did?" He nodded making my mouth hang open as I stared at him in disbelief. "She doesn't open up about that to just anyone, why would she tell you whom she just met?"

"Maybe... I'm... special to her." His smile reappeared along with that ridiculous glow as he became excited for some strange reason.

"Wait a second... no... don't tell me, do you like Siyeon?!" After I observed the look on his face, I arrived at that conclusion.

...

I finally arrived at school after a good night's rest; Simon didn't open his cage this time so I was able to sleep peacefully. I stretched and yawned as I walked down the hallway, I wondered if any of the girls had arrived yet, I did send them a text but no one answered, so I searched for them. As I reached the lockers I heard a voice which I recognized to be Seol's, she seemed to be having a conversation with someone.

"Oh, it's Baekhyun." I whispered smiling as his face came into view.

I didn't want to disturb them since they seemed deep in conversation so I waited for them to finish talking. I was on the opposite side of the hallway, they couldn't see me yet but I could clearly hear them.

"Answer me, do you like Siyeon?" Seol asked Baekhyun, making my heart beat quicker as she did.

Why was she even asking him such a question?

"I do." he responded making her eyes widen.

Even though he had told me himself, it still made my heart flutter hearing him say it again and to my bestfriend.

"After a day, seriously?!" she asked with a scoff.

"Yes, there's something special about her."

At that point I wasn't sure if it was right for me to be eavesdropping on them, but I couldn't stop listening, I wanted to know where exactly this conversation was going.

"True, she is special, but you aren't exactly her type and she isn't easily smitten either, so I'll say this now and save you the heart break, your chances are slim." she patted him on the shoulder in a sympathizing way.

I wouldn't say his chances are that slim.

"I think you might be wrong about that."

"Suit yourself, tell you what, if you ask her to the dance and she says yes, I'll acknowledged that maybe you have a thirty percent chance with her, I'll even help you woo her." 

"I wanted to ask her to the dance anyway."

"I can't believe this, I told you to take her out so she can have fun and you end up 'falling in love with her'." Seol shook her head while sucking her teeth as she spoke.

Her words left me puzzled me, what did she mean by she told him to take me out?

"I made a bet with Siyeon for one sole purpose and your job was essential to ensure my plan worked, all you had to do was go out with her," she paused taking some money out of her pocket before outstretching her hand so he could take it. "Here, it's the 200 dollars I promised you, I'm not sure if my plan worked yet but you did do what I asked." she finished and I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Does this mean that this whole thing was planned? Does this mean... he lied about his feelings for me? Did she do this in oder to win the bet? But why? Why would she do that to me?

My heart stung more and more with every question I asked myself, until I couldn't contain my emotions any longer, I wanted answers.

"Seol, about the money—"

"What did you just say?!" I suddenly asked from where I stood, cutting Baekhyun off causing them both to look at me, their faces began to show how shocked they were seeing me.

"Siyeon? What are you doing—" Seol was then unable to finish her sentence because I had thrown my bag at her, it had hit her in the forehead turning her face to the side upon impact. When she faced me again the area where she had been hit began bleeding, the blood trickling down her face and onto her white shirt.

Baekhyun looked between us with eyes of disbelief as the both of them couldn't believe what happened, the on looking students' attention was now on us as they started whispering to each other.

"REPEAT WHAT YOU JUST SAID YOU JERK!" I yelled at Seol my anger consuming me as tears began to well up in my eyes and my throat beginning to feel stuffy. I marched over to her. "Do you think it's fun to mess with someone's emotions? Why would you do that to me?! And for what? So you could win the stupid bet, well congratulations you WON!" I shouted letting myself go as I took a 100 dollar bill from my pocket, throwing it at her.

"Siyeon, please listen to me, it's not like that—" she began slowly walking towards me.

"Don't come any closer to me! I don't want to hear anymore of your lies! I can no longer be friends with someone like you!" my tears finally rolling down my face.

I then turned to Baekhyun. "And you, I thought you were different, I guess you're no different from that bastard, and to think I almost ended up dating you, how horrible that would've been." I spat, giving them both one last glare before picking my bag up and running in the opposite direction, hearing him call after me in the distance.

***

I watched as Siyeon ran away from us, Baekhyun soon yelled after her and was about to chase her when I grabbed his arm holding him back. "I don't think that's a good idea, we should wait until she cools off and talk to her then."  I decided to give her some space and time.

"Did you see the way she looked at me? She hates me now, if I don't talk to her now when will I ever get the chance to again?" His voice began to crack and his eyes beginning to water.

"Calm down, you will, I'll make sure you do, this isn't your fault so stop crying, will you?" I comforted, giving him a hug as his sobs became louder.

He then cried with his head on my shoulder as I rubbed his back and I realized how much he had really liked her and now thanks to me he probably won't have a chance to be with her. He then held his face up. "Okay, I'll wait." He wiped his tears, I smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Shouldn't you go to the nurse's office? You're actually bleeding a lot." he suggested taking a look at my injury.

It did hurt like hell, I wasn't expecting Siyeon to lose her temper like that, she wasn't the type to throw things out of anger, especially at someone, which meant she was probably devastated.

"I'll go now, I deserve this much for making Siyeon cry."

"Don't say that, This isn't your fault."

"Thanks for saying that... but, let's face it, we both know that's not true." I said to him before making my way to the nurse's office.

"Oh my god— what happened to your face this time?!" The nurse —Miss Lee— expressed when I entered, she was use to seeing me with cuts and bruises because I would always get into fights.

"That's not important." After taking a seat on the bed, she got up, went to the fridge, grabbed an ice pack and handed it to me.

"My god child, your whole face is covered in blood, look at how swollen your forehead is, I'm surprised you don't have a concussion." she said as she examined my forehead.

"My eyes were a bit blurry when I was walking over here, but they're fine now."

She then used her ophthalmoscope to examine my eyes, she then covered my left eye and moved her finger side to side so that my right eye could follow it she then did the same for the other.

"Your vision seems fine now, the blurriness was just temporary, however, you might experience headaches later on, thankfully the wound isn't that deep or wide. I'll got get you a badge to place on your head, meanwhile try to get rid of some of that blood and then keep the ice on your forehead." she instructed, leaving the room.

I did as I was told, wiping the blood away with napkins, then keeping the ice in place on my forehead. As I sat there the events that had taken place earlier and how hurt Siyeon was came back to me, I couldn't take it any longer, I had acted like I was okay in front of Baekhyun, for his sake, in order to comfort him, but in reality deep down I was just as afraid as he was, wondering to myself if I did go too far or if she'll ever be able to forgive me.

My tears fell down my face and landed on my ripped jeans turning that spot a darker blue than the rest of my jeans, I stayed there silently weeping alone until my eyes were red.

"I got a couple bandages for yo— oh my dear, are you crying?" The nurse said when she returned causing me to hurriedly wiped my tears away.

"I'm not." I denied turning my face away from her.

"Your eyes are way too red for you to be saying that, come on, tell me what's wrong." she took a stool and dragging it before sitting down in front of me.

"Why would I tell you anything, you're just a nurse, you wouldn't even understand." I grumbled still refusing to look at her.

"But you're forgetting that I'm also the school's guidance councillor, which means I'm basically the school's psychologist, so just say whatever's on your mind." she said, trying her best to make me confine in her.

I sighed looking at her, she was a very short and pretty woman with shoulder length wavy black hair and light brown eyes, who looked younger than her supposed age, because of her really tiny almost child like appearance it was even harder for me to take her seriously.

She looked as though she could barely take care of herself, but here she was trying to take care of me.

"I deeply hurt someone and I don't think I'll ever be able to fix it or far from that be forgiven."

"What exactly did you do?" she asked making me sigh once more, I proceeded to tell her of the earlier events. "So let me get this straight, correct me if I'm wrong, you were trying to help Siyeon date again which is why you started the bet but instead it backfired and now Siyeon thinks you made someone take her out just so you could win the bet, which is how you ended up with a swollen forehead ?"

I nodded. "Basically that's it." I responded, awkwardly playing with my fingers.

"Forgive my language but... the hell is wrong with you?!" she said suddenly causing me to look at her. "Why didn't you just find a nice guy to set her up with instead of doing something so complicated." 

"I would have if Siyeon was that simple, she refused to go on any dates, the only way I could think of to help her was to trick her, yes I admit it was a little overboard, but what else could I have done?"

"In my opinion, Siyeon is mad because she ended up liking this person and now she thinks that everything was fake and that he never liked her."

"See! Technically, my plan still worked."

She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you need to tell her the truth so that she knows your intentions were genuine, so she'll know that the guy really did end up liking her." I looked at her my eyes filled with doubt which she noticed. "Don't worry, she'll forgive you, maybe not right away but she will eventually, because you are her bestfriend, she's probably wondering if you're okay after hitting you. Be determined to apologize to her."

Strangely, I started to feel better after hearing her words. If what she said was correct and Siyeon did end up liking Baekhyun, that meant she was in even more pain than I thought.

"If you say so, I'll be confident." I gave her an unsure smile.

"Good, now time for you to go to class, I'll write a note for you, implying why you were late." I nodded and she stood to her feet.

...

If you liked this book and want another exciting book to read you can check out my contracted work: 'The Claytonia's Curse.' as well!