Clinging to Friendship

Chapter 13

“Wait, what?” Ji-Yeong stared at me, his mouth slightly ajar in shock. “You like me?” Well, at least now I know that I wasn’t super obvious over the fact that I had caught some feelings. That kind of surprised me and yet it didn’t, I kind of felt proud that he hadn’t noticed it. Though I probably shouldn’t, it was probably because I’d been so hot and cold to him. I reached for his hand, which thankfully he gave me willingly.“I really didn’t want to tell you, but after what just happened and you confessing that you were bi… I just couldn’t hide it anymore,” I mumbled, confessing to him, just like he had to me. “I really like you.” Ji-Yeong cleared his throat. I hope that I hadn’t ruined everything by telling him this.“Seriously Kian? You moron… Honestly, there were times that I thought you really disliked me,” Ji-Yeong was quiet, but he sounded like he was truly happy. He was happy, there was no anger or disgust in his voice! I looked at our grasped hands and smiled, I told him I liked him. I couldn’t go back now and as much as I wanted to believe I wasn’t gay, and even though I was conflicted over the fact that I liked him, I told him. I felt so relieved. I closed my eyes and rested my head on Ji-Yeong’s shoulder.“I’m sorry about that… I was having a hard time with my feelings and I kind of treated you badly. Can you forgive m-?” I was cut off by Ji-Yeong pressing his lips against mine. His lips felt so soft… My heart seized in my chest and I almost pulled away from him, but it was impossible. This moment was truly amazing, and I couldn’t escape it. This is what these weeks of hardship had been leading up to; this kiss. I kissed him back, harder. I took my hand out of his and ran my hands through his silky soft hair, pulling him closer to me. I could feel him smile against me and he tentatively wrapped his arms around my neck.It wasn’t long before we finally pulled away from each other. The first thing, after we kissed, that I had to do was see Ji-Yeong’s face. His face was flushed, and, despite the fact that we hadn’t been kissing for too long he was out of breath. I’m pretty sure that I was the same way he was. Oh well.“So… Does this mean you like me too?” I asked, c*****g my eyebrow up.“You’re a total dumbass. And… Hey Kian. You’ve got a really stupid smile on your face,” Ji-Yeong joked, poking my cheek. I took his hand off my cheek and kissed his knuckles.“Well, that sucks, because you’ve got an even stupider smile on,” I replied. His eyes widened, and he covered his mouth with his free hand, shaking his head.“I do not,” His laugh was muffled by his hand. I peeled his hand away from his mouth, wanting to kiss him again and again, but that was when I remembered. That despite how warm it was right now beside him. There was still something… someone that had been outside of our door.“Wait… wait, wait, wait…” I repeated the words, trying to bring myself out of the daze I was in. “We have to go and warn Poppy and Layne. They don’t know that someone else is here,” I said, interrupting the moment. I looked toward the door, dreading the thought of leaving the safety of the room, but they were waiting for us and I didn’t want them to open the door to someone who wasn’t Ji-Yeong and me.“Yeah, I don’t want them getting hurt,” he said, Ji-Yeong stood up and held his hand out to me so that I could have help standing. I took it and pulled myself up, to stand beside him. Leaning down, I gave him a quick peck on the lips and it filled me with the courage I needed to leave the room.We walked closer to the door and I motioned for Ji-Yeong to stand behind me, so that way I could protect him from anything outside the door. I cautiously opened the door, peaked my head out, checking left and right. When I didn’t see anyone or anything suspicious, I stepped outside of the room, waiting for Ji-Yeong to follow behind me. I had barely taken two steps past the door when Ji-Yeong gasped and yanked on my sleeve, pulling my attention to the door. There splattered on the door in red, read the words “DIE”.“L-let’s go Ji-Yeong…” We had to get to Poppy and Layne NOW.I grabbed onto Ji-Yeong’s wrist and pulled him along as I ran. Fast, as fast as I could to the classroom we had been in with the two of them.“Ow… Ow! Kian. Wait! Wait please,” Ji-Yeong begged, pulling his hand out of my grasp. I tried to grab it once again, but he kept it out of my reach. We couldn’t stop, I didn’t want us to stop but reluctantly I stopped reaching for him and let him rest. “I can’t run… My knee…” Ji-Yeong murmured breathlessly. Oh god, I’d forgotten that he had had surgery recently. Damn it. Without a second thought, I wrapped an arm around his back and under his legs, lifting him up in a princess carry.“What th-? No Kian!!” His complaints fell on deaf ears as I started running again. It was so much harder. So much harder. His added weight was slowing me down a lot, I wasn’t athletic, my endurance was crap, and I could barely hold him up. He almost fell out of my arms, yet I held tight to him like my life depended on it. I had to get to them and fast.Thankfully we weren’t too far away from the original classroom, and once we reached it I set Ji-Yeong down on his feet. His face was flushed, and he looked like he was ten seconds from smacking me for doing that to him. I took a couple deep, steadying breaths before slamming my fist against the door.“Layne! Poppy! Open up! Are you ok?” The sound of Poppy’s laughter came from behind the door and it wasn’t long before it finally opened, and I could see the, thankfully, healthy face of Poppy.“Man, you guys did not last long at all. What was their time Layne?” Poppy teased us, I ignored her joking and pushed my way past her into the classroom. The door shut and locked behind us.“Shut up you guys and listen to us. Someone else is currently in the building right now. We had to lock ourselves into another classroom because someone was stalking us. Then they started banging on the door just like that monster in that story Skye told us about.”“It was terrifying,” Ji-Yeong spoke up, agreeing with me, “And when we finally left the room the door had the word “die” on it.”“Oh, come on. Do you really think that we’re that gullible?” Poppy asked us, one of her eyebrows raised.“Yeah, like you totally have to be messing with us,” Layne stated, though his voice was a pitch higher than normal. He was trying to hide it, but you could hear that he believed us.“No! We swear we aren’t messing with you! There’s seriously someone else here,” I persisted. “You guys can NOT go out there for your challenge.” Layne nodded, hopefully believing me and agreeing. I could always count on him being scared of the dark. Then that’d mean Poppy wouldn’t leave either.We were suddenly cut off when a low snarl sounded from outside the door.“What was that?” Poppy asked us, her voice quivering. She went silent when another snarl came.“I don’t know…” I whispered.“That didn’t happen last time,” Ji-Yeong mentioned, his voice hushed like mine. I walked over to stand beside him and firmly took his hand.“It’ll be ok, the door’s locked. Whoever it is, won’t get in.” I comforted, rubbing my thumb over his hand like I had done earlier in the night. He took in a shaky breath and headed away from the door, with me in tow, away from the door towards the other end of the classroom.“Come on over here you guys,” I commanded sternly. I had no clue what was going to happen after that growl, but I prayed that it wasn’t going to be anything serious.