Taehyung would be back today.

Kelly took a deep breath and walked into the classroom. She had the biggest crush on Taehyung since they were kids. It had been 6 years since now, and she had been unable to get over it. They didn’t really talk, and Kelly felt stupid for liking someone without knowing them well enough, and for so damn long. She had dated a guy in her class for like 2 months last year, but then she had been put in a group project with Taehyung, and her childhood crush was back in full, raging effect. She couldn’t do this to her then boyfriend, so she broke it off. It wasn’t working too well anyway, he only cared about dating the daughter of one of the richest families in the city. Oh well. She went in and her eyes scanned the room. There he is. Taehyung sat next to a window, looking out at the fields and the tennis courts. She walked slowly to a free seat next to him, trying her hardest to not make it seem like she was doing it to sit next to him. Ugh, why do I do this. I need to stop behaving like a child, I need to get over this! She tried to convince herself that she was doing this only to ask him if he was doing okay. He was so badly hurt, any nice person would ask him. A small voice in the back of her head however, said, you can ask him how he is doing without sitting next to him. Ignoring the voice, Kelly put her bag next to the chair and sat down. Taehyung turned to look at her and gave her a small smile.

“Hi,” she said softly.

“Kelly.” Taehyung said, nodding at her.

Before they could talk more, their teacher walked in, followed by Jungkook who came running and panting into the room, and settled down in the chair in front of Taehyung. Taehyung playfully pretended to look at his watch, and Jungkook just ignored him, trying to catch his breath. “Traffic,” he finally muttered, explaining the reason behind his lateness. He nodded at Kelly and turned around to take down notes for the day.

..........................................................................

…6 years ago, at the school playground…

The little girl with mousy brown hair was pushed back against the slides, and three bullies stood towering over her. She was really tiny, and the two boys and one girl were glaring at her and preventing her from running away.

“Give us your lunch money,” the big girl sneered at the small one.

“I…I…don’t have any.”

“Stop lying!” one of the guys screamed, and stamped on the little girl’s foot. Tears streamed down her face.

“You are horrible! I am going to tell teacher! And your parents!” the girl screamed back, bending down to rub her injured foot.

“Oh really, are you?” the other boy growled.

The girl didn’t reply. She was angry but scared. These three were the worst bullies, and had injured other kids much more badly. She just wanted to get away. But then, before she could do anything, she felt a sharp pain on the side. The boy had pushed her back, and the other boy and girl kicked her in the stomach. She felt the breath being knocked out of her, and when she felt a kick to , she tasted metallic blood. And at that very second, so much rage filled her that she thought she would burst. She saw nothing but red in front of her eyes. The red was replaced by Seunghyun’s bloodied face when these three had punched and kicked him in the face. Her poor brother. Kelly stood up, blood dripping down her chin, and with her tiny fists she hit one of the boys in jaw. She kicked the girl and actually bit the second boy. They howled with pain and shoved Kelly back. She hit her head on the side of the slide and her vision swam in front of her. She still tried to get up and hit them, flailing her arms and kicking and sputtering but refusing to give up. I am going to hurt them so bad that they will be scared of hurting anyone else again! Kelly screamed and kicked until she didn’t feel anything anymore. Her eyes fluttered open, and met light, brown ones. Who is this? A little boy hovered over her so she wouldn’t feel the kicks and punches anymore. He shut his eyes, to absorb the pain. Kelly’s heart hurt. Who was this stranger willing to help her like this?

“Hey,” she yelled at him, “what are you doing?”

His eyes flew open. “They’ll kill you!”

“If we don’t kill them first!”

The boy’s eyes flashed. And a grin spread across his face. He rolled over and pulled Kelly up. They screamed and charged towards the three bullies and climbed up their shoulders, pulling their hair and kicking them and punching their nose.

Kelly yelled, “How dare you! How dare you bully us? Do you know how much you hurt my brother??!!! You little, you little…” Kelly debated whether she should use the word her mother had told her not to use. Oh well. “You little…. ES!”

She heard her new friend laugh loudly when she said that, and she turned to look at him, and found him smiling back at her. The bullies were running away, and Taehyung and Kelly were bloody and bruised and their clothes were torn at several places. But they were happy 10-year olds. And proud.

The boy limped towards her and raised his hand to shake hers. “I am Taehyung,” he said, smiling. “Those…” he paused, “es.” He grinned at using Kelly’s word for them. “They hurt my best friend Jungkook so badly a few days ago. I couldn’t let them hurt anymore people. I am glad we could beat them up!”

Kelly nodded. “Thank you for helping me.”

“Of course,” Taehyung replied,grinning widely. “You were so brave, fighting three of them alone, I couldn’t just stand there and not do anything.”

Kelly blushed. She was called tiny and a mouse and delicate…never brave. She liked it. Before she could respond, Taehyung gave her a quick hug. This made Kelly blush even harder. “I will see you around! I need to go, my brother must be waiting…”

“That’s okay,” Kelly replied, smiling. “See you Taehyung.”