chapter ten: guilt

    Jinwoo lifted up the arrowhead, studying it closely. “It’s a different kind of symbol than I’ve seen before.” He said, holding it out to Seunghoon.

                 Seunghoon looked up from where he was sitting on Jinwoo’s bed and glancing at the arrowhead, “How did it get here then?”

                 “Are there more people here?” Jinwoo muttered, walking back to his table and setting the arrowhead down into a case. “But wouldn’t we know if there were. This belongs to us.”

                 “Jinwoo oppa?” Jinwoo snapped his head to his doorway and in rapid movements closed the case and leaned against his desk just as Jae Ah appeared in the doorway. “Jinwoo oppa, I was looking for you.” She walked in, seeing the uneasy look on Jinwoo’s face. “Are you okay?”

                 “Yeah.” Jinwoo stepped away from his desk. “What are you doing here?” He was wondering if he regretted telling her the passcode into his apartment.

                 “I didn’t get to see you yesterday.” Jae Ah shrugged. After Jin Young had taken Mark away, she rushed off to class. Although she hadn’t been able to pay attention at all so she headed home right after and laid in her bed, wondering if Mark was okay.

                 Jinwoo suddenly remembered and looked back to her, “Yeah! Are you okay? Jaehyun said you were feeling sick.”

                 Jae Ah blinked at him, “What? Jaehyun told me that you canceled so that’s why I-“ she broke off, remembering the hatred between Mark and Jinwoo. “That’s why I didn’t call you.”

                 Jinwoo opened his mouth before closing it and sighing. “Jaehyun just screwed with us both.” He said as he walked closer to her. “I should have called you. I got busy though so I couldn’t.”

                 “It’s okay.” Her eyes trailed to Seunghoon, “Hi!”

                 Seunghoon lifted a hand to wave at her before she turned back to Jinwoo. Jinwoo reached out to take her hand in his, “Do you want to do something today? I don’t have any classes.”

                 Jae Ah’s eyes went to where his hand was touching hers but the only thing in her mind was how different it felt from Mark’s. While Mark’s hand had made her warm all over, Jinwoo’s hand seemed almost cold to her now even though she had loved that same hand close to her entire life.

                 “N-No,” Jae Ah pulled back from him but covered it up by fixing her shirt, “I have class. I just dropped by to visit.”

                 “Oh.” Jinwoo’s smile fell, “Well, I’ll see you later then.”

                 Jae Ah smiled but it wasn’t as real as it should have been. Jinwoo failed to notice and return it, which caused a bit of sadness in Jae Ah. She hoped he would know when she wasn’t really smiling.

                 “Did I disturb you?” She glanced behind at the case on the desk. “Were you doing something?”

                 Jinwoo shuffled back to hide the case from her view, “No, I was just looking at stuff for a class.”

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