He was found.

This felt like the end for him. His junior would reveal this news of utmost importance to the public. His schoolmates, family and friends, as well as the principal and all the teachers, would find out about his reappearance in an extremely undignified way. He did not want things to turn out that way. What he had originally planned was to reveal himself to his classmates on his own will and sedately accept and face the consequences of his sudden disappearance and the unpleasant situation it had caused, rather than shamefully reveal himself after being coerced to do so by a fellow student – much less a junior.

He could hardly recall feeling more nervous in his entire life. It was impossible for him to stop worrying about the upcoming happenings after such a shocking encounter with Jeon Jungkook. He knew that guy was capable of doing much more than he stated. Being the son of a police officer and having a reputation for being one of the most intelligent and trustworthy students in the school, there was no way Jimin would get away with being spotted by that very guy. Jungkook was not the type of person to keep such significant situations as secrets.

With all these thoughts, Jimin hastily covered his face in his hood and rushed to the stairs that led to the bottom floor. He had to exit the school building as soon as possible. After everything that had happened, being seen by another student or teacher would make the situation far more awful than it already was.

As soon as he reached the ground floor, he ran as fast as he could to find the exit. The more desperately he wanted to finally leave that place, the longer the distance from the exit seemed to him. Although no one appeared to be there, he was still super nervous about being seen. After all, he had no idea why Jungkook was still inside the school despite the fact that it was night.

Even after he had exited the school building, he kept running as fast as he could. However, before he could avoid further trouble, he heard a feminine voice calling, “Oppa!”

He panicked at the thought that someone was there and he had probably been seen by another person. He knew he could not keep running, for the risk of being caught was much higher that way. Instead, he immediately hid behind one of the trees at the yard. When he took a peek at what was happening, he was extremely frustrated.

Jeon Jungkook was coming out of the building.

The girl that had been waiting for him there for hours ran to him and leaped into his arms. She was smiling in sincere joy now that her boyfriend had come back to her.

“Haeun, how many times have I told you not to call me ‘oppa’?” he told the said girl with a sweet smile while he was putting her down. “I’m only two months older than you.”

“I don’t care,” Haeun said, still with a wide smile. “Do you know how much I missed you?”

“I missed you more.” Jungkook had never been seen smiling so joyfully before.

Jimin watched the happy couple walk away holding hands. It was one of the most delightful yet heartbreaking sights he had ever seen. That was the kind of life he seeked. He longed to find his other half and live a happy love life, which was something he had never experienced and had always wanted to. He wanted a girlfriend that would be beautiful from the inside out and would treat him far more decently than his classmates. He craved the ecstasy that was all over Jungkook and Haeun.

When Jungkook and his girlfriend were finally out of sight, he carried on running, trying to get away from the area as soon as possible. The younger male’s words were continuously playing in Jimin’s head as he was running farther and farther away from the school building.

You are not helping yourself by not speaking. Hiding from everyone for so long isn’t really doing you any good. I promise you will not get away with this.

As much as he hated to admit it, Jungkook was right. Hiding from his classmates and loved ones for so long was not doing him any good. Despite how pleasant it felt to be away from the people who depressed him and made him feel worthless, it had also negatively affected the lives of his schoolmates, friends and family members. His sudden disappearance had upset so many people, and knowing this did not make Jimin feel at ease. He knew he had better return to his home and school soon.

However, what he was not totally sure about was when the right time for his reappearance would come. While he was willing to face all the consequences of his month-long disappearance, he still had to prepare himself thorougly, for that would not be an easy task.

For the time being, all he needed to do was get away from the school.

☼

All the students entered the classroom – slowly, calmly and soundlessly, as they always did. All the students, except Park Miyeon.

It was time for another lesson with Ms Han, the new teacher that was supposedly trying to make a difference after the once cheerful and noisy students lost their classmate, yet she was hardly making any difference. The humiliation of having a student who imprudently ran away from home in their own class was no feeling a teacher could relieve.

Miyeon herself did not feel like seeing that teacher at all. Her friends and loved ones had been attempting to cheer her up almost every day ever since the disappearance of her crush, so she was not in the mood to see one more person smiling and being happy with herself being on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Her former friend Hyejin, however, happened to come to her at that very moment. She sighed in frustration. Here we go again!

“Why aren’t you coming to class?” Hyejin asked Miyeon, looking as though she was mad at her for some reason.

“I don’t want to,” she simply answered.

Her reply, however, did not seem to have satisfied Hyejin, who glared at her for a moment, seemingly expecting a more detailed answer.

Seeing her former friend’s insistence, Miyeon continued in frustration, “I just don’t want to have a lesson with that new teacher again. What’s your problem?”

Hyejin sighed, also frustrated. “Come to class,” she ordered. “You are doing no good to the whole situation by skipping class, especially after causing my and my boyfriend’s breakup.”

“When are you going to stop blaming me for your breakup? You know very well why it happened, and so does Taehyung. It was all because of you!”

“Say that again.” Hyejin was utterly furious at Miyeon’s statement.

However, before she could further express her wrath, a third person joined the argument. “She’s right.”

The two girls turned around, only to see a serious and obviously angry Taehyung walking towards them. It was the first time he looked so enraged, so they were both totally surprised. Only a dreadful occurence would erase the permanent smile from his face.

He continued without hesitation, “You are the one that caused our breakup, my dear Hyejin. We broke up because I realized that I had messed with a two-faced little girl.”

Both Miyeon and Hyejin were shocked at Taehyung’s sudden straightforwardness. It was not like him to express his anger or downright opinion like that. No matter how he was treated, he always stayed calm and cheerful and never stopped smiling at anyone.

Hyejin was especially irritated at her ex-boyfriend’s audacity. “How dare you call me like that…?” she yelled, ready to punch him in the face.

“Stop!” Miyeon intervened, holding Hyejin back. She tried to calm down before turning to Taehyung. “Kim Taehyung, can you please stop being such a hypocrite?”

“What? How am I a hypocrite when she—”

Miyeon was not going to let Taehyung protest. “You are a huge hypocrite! You pretend to be mad at her for bullying her supposed friend, yet you do the exact same things to me! You wanted to become another one of my enemies just because you can’t accept the fact that I like Jimin!”

“That’s because you—”

“That’s because you are not the person that you seem to be” – this time, it was Hyejin that did not let Taehyung make any excuses. She then turned to Miyeon. “There are things this guy has done that you have no clue about, and if I tell you about those, you’ll never see him the same way again.”

There was a silence for a moment. During that moment, Miyeon kept switching her gaze between Taehyung and Hyejin, wondering whose attitude was worse. She could not stand hearing them both deny their actions and blaming the other for them. Taehyung, on the other hand, desperately wanted to stop Hyejin from speaking, but he knew there was no way he could.

“Do you want to hear what the most shocking of them is?” Hyejin continued. “My lovely ex-boyfriend called your crush a loser.”

Miyeon was overwhelmed with utter shock. Not knowing whose accusations to believe, she was lost for words. She rolled her eyes, unable to believe what she had just heard. There was no way Taehyung would call Jimin a loser. Ever.

Taehyung looked at the floor, mouth agape and unable to get a word out. He was definitely not in the mood to remember that incident, which had happened a day or two before Jimin’s mysterious disappearance.

It was lunch time. Hyejin was walking calmly on the hallway of the basement to the cafeteria, where she would meet Miyeon like she always did. She was not very energetic that day, as the fuss that had been made in the previous classes had exhausted her.

She was very alarmed when she heard her phone ring. Who’s in the mood for calling me right now? She picked it up, only to see it was no other than her friend Miyeon.

“Hi.”

“Where are you? I’ve been waiting for you here for ages!” Her friend’s whines could be heard from the phone.

“I’m coming…” She stopped when she saw someone from afar. She eyed him as discreetly as she could, forgetting that Miyeon was still on the line.

“Hello?” Miyeon exclaimed after seconds of Hyejin’s unresponsiveness.

“What is Park Jimin doing here alone?” she wondered as silently as she could so as to avoid being heard.

“Jimin? I don’t know. Maybe he’ll come a bit later.”

Without any more words, Hyejin hung up. She was about to continue walking, but she stopped when she saw someone else walking towards Jimin. With a closer look, she saw that it was her beloved boyfriend, Kim Taehyung.

Jimin looked up at Taehyung as he was approaching him, ready to deal with his classmate’s silliness once again. Instead, before he could even say a plain and rather half-hearted ‘hi’, he was greeted in a very odd way.

“Good morning, loser,” Taehyung muttered as he was passing by Jimin.

Jimin was amazed at those three words of Taehyung’s. Never had anyone dared to call him like that, especially a normally cheerful and silly boy like Taehyung. What had he done to him to deserve that treatment? It was the first time he had been hurt by a classmate’s behavior so much. He sadly walked away, not wanting to see any other classmate of his that day.

Hyejin, who was only standing a few meters away, had also heard those words and was totally astonished as well. It was not like Taehyung to behave like that, especially to someone who had done nothing wrong to him, or at least nothing she knew of. Taehyung had never been that rude or audacious. When had he and Jimin suddenly become enemies? Even if they were, Taehyung did not even treat his enemies in such an uncivil way.

Meanwhile, Taehyung passed by Hyejin with his usual smile without realizing she was standing right behind him.

“I don’t think Miyeon would be satisfied to hear you talk to him like that,” she said.

Startled, Taehyung turned around to see his girlfriend, who looked quite upset.

“Why did you call him a loser?” she asked, wrapping her arms in anger.

“Why wouldn’t I? He treats me the same way.”

After glaring at him for a minute, Hyejin threatened him, “I won’t tell Miyeon about what you did. However, watch your behavior towards him next time. Make my friend sad and our relationship is over.”

With these words, she coldly left him and continued walking to the cafeteria.

Miyeon stared at Taehyung, upset. She had never thought he would do such a thing. It was the first time she was discovering such an aggressive side of Taehyung’s. The Taehyung she knew was a bright and polite boy who treated everyone equally well, be it his friends or enemies. He would never reach the point where he would call someone a loser, let alone a close friend’s crush. Why would he call Jimin like that? Moreover, why had Hyejin covered it up by lying that she was the one that called him a loser?

Taehyung, on the other hand, was even more infuriated by Hyejin’s attitude. Even though they did not have each other’s trust anymore, he did not expect her to give his secret away all of a sudden.

“I’ve told you not to tell her, haven’t I?” he exclaimed, gritting his teeth in ire.

Ignoring him completely, Hyejin continued, “Yes! It’s true. Taehyung was the one that called your beloved Jimin a loser.” She then turned to Taehyung. “The truth has now been revealed, Kim Taehyung. Do you know what I did for you some time ago? I lied to her that it was me who did that. But it’s no use lying now that we aren’t together anymore.”

“Why did you do that?” a tongue-tied Miyeon managed to ask on the verge of tears. “What has Jimin done to you?”

“It was payback!” Taehyung yelled. “I was sick of his treating me like an outcast! All I wanted was to be friends with him, but he was mean to me every time I tried to talk to him!”

“He was nice to you at first! You made him sick of your company by sticking to him all the time! You know that not everyone can tolerate this behavior of yours like I can!”

There was a silence for what seemed like ages. No one knew what to say, what to do or even how to feel anymore. Taehyung did not know if he should regret his mistake and accept that there were better ways to treat Jimin than that, nor did Hyejin know how to handle the situation or whether to change her overall attitude.

“I will find that dude, and when I find him, I’ll make him regret the moment he was born.” These were Taehyung’s last words before he decided to leave the girls alone and go back to class.

Miyeon was annoyed at how Hyejin was not going back to class alongside Taehyung. “Can you for once tell me what you want from me?”

“Don’t you see what you’ve done? Can’t you see how much you have upset us all with your attitude? You have made all this mess just because your crush has gone missing when he doesn’t care about you the tiniest bit!” This time, it was Hyejin that was on the verge of tears.

“No. You and your friends started this only because you don’t like my crush. I thought you, Taehyung and Namjoon were my friends, but you all ended up being the most selfish people I’ve ever met.”

“You’ll regret those words,” Hyejin warned before finally leaving for the classroom.