Taeyeon was mindlessly listening to a new member of the vocal club record her own part of the new song they were working on; no matter how much he focused on his work, his thoughts always went back to the young couple. He had tried his best to keep his mind occupied for the past few days or so but nothing was working as planned. If it wasn't for Jessica who was keeping him company all this time, Taeyeon might have stopped working on new songs the moment the couple broke up. Jessica was his strength and his comfort; she was the person he relied on the most. 

“Oppa?”

“Taeyeon-oppa?”

The new girl frowned at how she was receiving zero response and was about to tap Taeyeon’s shoulder when she was stopped, coming face to face with a cold-looking blonde. She almost shivered at the stone gaze Jessica was giving her but thankfully explained what was going on. She had seen first-hand how Jessica’s gaze softened after hearing what was happening to her boyfriend. Everyone knew they were a couple, but never really saw their interactions up close – it was considered a privilege for this girl to be the one and only witness.

Jessica made sure the door was locked and she approached her boyfriend slowly, gently rubbing his shoulder to let him know that she was here. “Taeyeon? Are you okay?” Jessica asked softly, sitting in front of Taeyeon with a worried expression. She couldn’t bear to see the despondence in him; it was bad enough to see it come from Yuri all the time.

Taeyeon wrapped his arms around Jessica’s waist and pulled himself up, pressing his body against his girlfriend’s. He ignored the look of surprise in Jessica’s eyes, and rested his forehead against hers. He slid his hand down to the sides of her waist and sent her a charming smile, unaware of how bold he was being at the moment - perhaps it was because of the lack of skinship they had recently that was causing this behaviour. Jessica was blushing furiously; she had never expected such a move from Taeyeon, not when he had been through that incident back then with his ex-girlfriend. 

“Tae… w-what are you doing?”

“What do you think, Sica?”

Jessica’s eyes darkened and she flipped their positions so Taeyeon’s back was against the wall this time. She draped her arms around his neck, leaning closer towards his face; God knows how long Jessica had wanted to do this. The fact that Taeyeon wasn't getting terrified and hallucinating about that incident was starting to excite the blonde, knowing his past was about to be forgotten. He bit his lower lip and tried to contain his own excitement; it had been so long since he had gotten so much action in a relationship because of his past. 

Yet, a part of Jessica wanted to maintain Taeyeon's innocence. After all, they did have loads of time to change that along the way.

After a little more lip-locking and hands rustling against each other’s clothes, Jessica placed her palms on Taeyeon’s chest and panted slowly; the way their eyes kept a hold of each other was so, so attractive. She rubbed her thumb over Taeyeon's lower lip, her eyes transmitting the message she wanted to send. 

“Let’s just take it slow for now, okay?”

Taeyeon grinned, “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

The couple soon broke apart and intertwined their hands as they walked out of the recording studio; Taeyeon was a lot more relaxed as compared to when Jessica first came in. He wondered if the only distraction he would ever have was his girlfriend because Jessica always took his mind off things. As Jessica walked proudly with him by her side, Taeyeon felt an insane amount of pride fill his chest - this is a woman whom every man would want to have standing beside him. 

Jessica gave Taeyeon’s hand a squeeze when they saw a rather familiar redhead standing a couple of lockers away. Honestly, Sunmi hadn’t been bothering them at all for the past few weeks and she was not even trying to make a move on him anymore. Taeyeon wasn’t letting his guard down but Jessica was the one noticing something rather off about her behaviour lately. She didn't know why she was getting worried about someone who had done something bad to Taeyeon before but it was human nature. 

“Did you hear about what she did with Junho? Oh my god, it was disgusting!”

“I heard she was involved in a …”

“Really? I heard something else! I thought it was a …?”

Taeyeon was completely lost at what he was hearing from the people around him; he was flabbergasted at how they could be saying things like this without complete regard for anyone at all. He couldn't even continue unlocking his locker, not after hearing the kind of gossip that was going around the hallways. A part of him wanted to stand up for whoever was getting the most hurt from this but the other part of him was partially afraid to find out who the victim was. If it was someone that was important to him, Taeyeon was not going to take any of this well. 

Jessica furrowed her eyebrows; she was not going to stay still after hearing stuff like this. She let go of Taeyeon’s hand and walked across the hallway, making sure she got attention from the people who were gossiping so openly.

“Um,” Jessica tapped the girl’s shoulder and (tried not to) smiled politely to hide her amusement at how afraid she was. She pretended to be lost and asked, “who were you guys talking about? I heard something along that line too but I didn’t know which girl was the victim.”

“Oh! She’s right over there!”

If the couple didn’t know what it felt like to literally be faced with a shocking piece of news and freeze up because of it, they knew now. It was an uncomfortable, heart-wrenching feeling, especially when they knew the victim personally. Taeyeon had literally stopped every single action he was in the midst of doing and turned around, only to find the redhead wiping at her eyes desperately. He wanted to approach her but his legs wouldn’t listen to him no matter how much he wanted to. 

Sunmi had sworn to herself never to let a single tear fall because of anyone at this darn school. She only transferred here for one reason and it was to get Taeyeon back – if that couldn’t happen, then she’d just have to focus on her education without much of a choice.

“Hey… are you okay?”

She was more surprised to see who was talking to her.

“J-Jessica?”

The well-known ice princess had a genuinely worried expression on her face and it involuntarily touched Sunmi’s heart to know that she cared; no one else had stepped up for her. It was most ironic to see that it was her enemy in front of her, showing care and concern for her… it was completely different. No wonder there were excessive tears gathering in Sunmi's eyes; not everyone in the school was dead yet. She sniffled a little before feeling Jessica's arms around her, giving her the comfort she needed. Her tears unleashed themselves, wetting Jessica's jacket in the process. 

Maybe she could let Taeyeon go.

*

“Daddy, how could you do this?”

Yoona was absolutely devastated… and ten times as angry as she would have been if nothing happened in the first place. She raised her hand and continued to rub Yuri’s bruised cheek; no, he was obviously not conscious because Yoona wouldn’t do it if he was awake. Yuri's cheekbone was already turning purple, probably due to the harsh impact of her father's knuckles. Her father was not more well known as an ex-boxer for nothing, and Yoona knew that no one would be able to take a punch from him and remain perfectly fine afterward.

“He deserved it!”

“Even if he does,” Yoona sighed, glaring at her father, “he should be getting punished by me and me alone. I don’t care how angry you are, Daddy, I don’t want you or Sica-unnie to do anything to him.”

Mr Im huffed and rubbed his temples in frustration; why was his daught