The One Day Bet (1)

"Is it wrong to be afraid of getting hurt? Is it wrong to hate losing? I don't want this pain caused by the longing for you, this pain that comes with the need to love you." —Siyeon

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Just like any other Monday morning, I waited in line for a much needed cup of hot coffee as I failed to eat breakfast once again.

"The favoured life of being an adult." I sighed grumpily to myself.

I honestly couldn't wait to get a job and perhaps even publish my first book, I wanted nothing more than all of my suffering through school to pay off, what better way to do that than to have a book with my name on it. I was an aspiring author who also majored in creative arts, I was attending one of the hardest to enter colleges in Seoul (SSOA) The Seoul School Of Arts.

Which came with the price of me over working myself and staying up late at night to make sure all my assignments were at the quality they needed to be. I couldn't remember the last time I hung out with my friends, I almost never had fun and it seemed like I forgot what fun was, to top it all off I was single, always had been and always will be it appeared, not that I mind.

The line move up a bit and it was almost my turn, I was already running late and my friends wouldn't stop pestering me about it over text, to say they annoyed me was an understatement they only added to my already bad mood. But I loved them nonetheless.

The reason behind my tardiness was uncanny because the same thing had been happening for the past three days.

My pet hamster —Simon—had somehow opened his cage and got out so we (My Parents and I) had no choice but to find him in fear the dog —a Samoyed named Winter— would squish him, she's a sweetheart but she tends to become overly excited when playing. My little brother is afraid of the hamster for some strange reason, so he wouldn't go to sleep until the hamster was caught so we had to search all night.

I was sleep deprived to say the least and the worst part is, I had to bare it some more until we got Simon a new cage.

"Next!" The cashier yelled bringing me out of my thoughts as I moved to the front of the line to order a Carmel flavored coffee with cream on top to go, I was graced with the beautiful sight of many different pastries which tempted me to buy them with their delicious smell, but I decided not to, though I enjoyed looking at them.

After placing my order I waited patiently until the lady who served me returned handing my order to me and I paid walking away with a big smile on my face, happy to finally have my coffee in my hands.

I was minding my own business happily humming a song when suddenly someone bumped into me hard, causing me to stumble and fall to the ground with a loud *THUMP* my coffee was sent flying into the air. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as I watched in horror as it came hurdling down spilling all over the floor.

'No! My coffee!' with a pout and outstretched hand I stared at the spilled beverage in a rage, preparing to yell at the ruffian who took my five second happiness away.

I looked up. "YAH! Watch where your goi—"

"I'm so sorry about that, are you okay?" My rampage cut short by his apology as he came down to my level reaching his hand out to help me up. I was then able to get a better look at him as he was now well within my view, he had milky-white skin, platinum blonde hair, gentle brown eyes and a beautiful jaw line. He was so handsome and he appeared to be so nice, with the way his eyes searched my face and body to see if I was hurt in any way.

"I—I'm fine." I stood up on my own refusing his hand —still upset about my spilled beverage, he was cute, cute enough to make me forget all the earful I was gonna give him.

He smiled standing to his feet with me. "I really am sorry about that, I didn't see you."

"Like I said before it's okay." I replied adjusting my bag strap on my shoulder giving him one last glare before deciding to leave as I didn't have enough time to get another drink, luckily none of the coffee spilled on my clothes, thank god or else things would've gotten much worse.

...

Seol —Music and Video making major— sat at her desk playing with a pencil in a noisy classroom, waiting for her bestfriend —Siyeon— to arrive who was surprisingly running late again.

You'd think collage kids would be a bit more civilized, but nope, they were just as annoying.

Sua —Dance and performing Arts major— and Joey —Art and cosmetics major— were both too busy laughing at something on Sua's phone to even be bothered by the noisy room.

Seol checked the time as she became a little impatient, class was almost about to begin and still no sign of Siyeon.

"Seol, are you still worried about Siyeon?" Joey asked, looking up from the phone noticing her friend's impatient shaking of her leg which she did whenever something was on her mind.

Seol made eye contact with her briefly before sitting back in the chair, folding her arms, sighing. "I'm not worried or anything, I just want to know what's taking her so long."

"Maybe you should call her." Sua then added to the conversation, leaning on the table facing the two.

"No, I texted her already she said she's on her way here so she should be arriving soon." 

"Well, she better hurry we have Mr. Ko a.k.a K. O first period and that man does not like it when you're late, she'll be lucky to get away with detention." Joey recalled her own experience, Seol flicked her forehead in response. "Oww! Why?!" she whined holding the throbbing area as she stared at Seol in anger.

"Come on we both know most of the teachers like Siyeon, just because you got detention last time doesn't mean she will, he might let her off the hook."

"That is, if she's late." Sua commented, as she comforted Joey, blowing on her reddening forehead.

"By the way Sua, what are we gonna do about Siyeon?" Joey asked making both Sua and Seol look at her in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's been two years already, when is she going to get back out there, Are you guys sure its okay to leave her alone? I love her and all but she barely smiles these days and she drowns herself in school work, that can't be healthy." Joey explained and Sua nodded.

Seol breathed in and sucked on her teeth. "Maybe, we can help her somehow."

"You mean like set her up on a date?" Sua said, with a raised eyebrow at Seol.

"There's no way she's going to agree to that." Joey commented, wondering what her purple-haired friend was getting at.

"She will, if she doesn't realize it's a date." Seol smiled smugly as an idea popped into her head. Seol stood to her feet, earning confused glances from her friends. "How about we make a bet with her, we'll bet she can fall in love in a day and she'll bet against it, however she won't be aware of the fact that I'll have someone take her out and spend the day with her." She explained to the two girls.

"That's evil." Joey commented, not entirely against the idea.

"But I like it." Sua agreed as she stood up wrapping her arm around Seol.

"But wait, you don't expect her to actually fall in love, do you?" Joey asked raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"Of course not, I don't even expect her to like him, the point of this whole thing is to show her that she shouldn't have to be afraid of having fun with a guy once in a while, I'm hoping to influence her to start dating again."

"Okay, but what guy do you have in mind?" Joey questioned once again.

"I'll find one, I have many friends who'd be willing to do something like this for 100 dollars." Seol told Joey with certainty even giving her a wink and an 'ok' sign with her hand.

"Now we just have to trap her when she arrives." Sua smirked evilly.

"How do we do that?"

"That's easy, without a doubt she's definitely going to be in a bad mood when she comes, all you have to do is provoke her a bit."

"Okay." Joey nodded.

"Oh, speak of the devil."  Seol expressed as she saw Siyeon enter the classroom from the corner of her eye; a frown evident on her face.

...

(A/N) Hope you enjoyed! Please check out my contracted work: 'The Claytonia's Curse.' as well!