Jiyoo had never been more grateful for Yugyeom before. It wasn’t just because he always managed to pull her out of sticky situations, but he was actually a really nice guy. He didn’t push her to become his mate and never forced her to tell him things. She enjoyed his presence and even found herself genuinely laughing despite her heavy heart.

It almost made her forget about the whole situation with Jungkook. Almost.

After pulling her away from yet another awkward lunch meetup, Jiyoo was finally able to breathe again. It didn’t help that Jungkook was beginning to take his anger out on her more and more whenever they were together. Just that day, he had scolded her for not looking at Jungah right, as if she were disrespecting her by looking her in the eye when she spoke. The whole situation was messed up, but Jiyoo had no one else to turn to at this point.

Jimin was overprotective as always, eventually making the fights worse when he decided to always argue for Jiyoo when she refused to say anything. Taehyung went from the loving goofball that she knew and loved to a silent statue, speaking almost as little as Suga did. The only thing Suga ever did these days was throw bags of bread at her.

And then came the eyes. The way they looked at Jiyoo were out of concern at first, but recently, they began to look more pitiful, as if she had some sort of incurable disease. It didn’t help that all of the boys did this now, not just Jimin. It scared her. She didn’t know what she was doing wrong and the boys never explained why they acted like that; her relationship with the boys wasn’t the same.

“Isn’t it pretty how the leaves are changing colors?” Yugyeom says suddenly, snapping Jiyoo out of her train of thought.

Jiyoo looks around and finds that Yugyeom has led them to the courtyard rather than their statistics class. She takes a moment to take the view in and nods, appreciating the silence.

“Hey Jiyoo, I’m gonna be honest.”

Jiyoo turns to look at Yugyeom and doesn’t realize that he’s right in front of her now. Yugyeom was really tall, maybe even taller than Jungkook. He holds his hands out to Jiyoo and she slowly places her hands into his own. It didn’t feel bad, but foreign. The feeling wasn’t the same as when she held hands with the others.

Shaking her head, she tried to focus on the situation at hand out of respect for Yugyeom. “What’s wrong?”

“I want you to become my mate.”

Jiyoo’s eyes widen. She knew Yugyeom was interested in her, but he’s never actually told her directly that he wanted her as a mate. Feeling flustered, she tries to pull her hands away, but Yugyeom wouldn’t let her. He held onto her fingers gingerly, yet firmly enough for her not to move. All the while, he held a small smile on his face.

Jiyoo squirms, not sure if the flush she felt on her cheeks was because she was embarrassed or if she was happy. “I-I don’t know… I’ve never even had a boyfriend before.”

“It’s fine if you don’t give me your answer right away.” Yugyeom chuckles, finally releasing her hands. “I just wanted to be selfish and tell you so you knew.”

He scratches the back of his head sheepishly. Jiyoo recognizes the way he looks at her and shyly keeps her attention to her feet. It was the same way that the boys used to look at her, so pure, yet almost loving.

“I can’t promise that I’ll agree, you know.” Jiyoo warns, not wanting to let him down in the end.

“I know you’re still in love with Jungkook, but it doesn’t seem like he’s going to appreciate you, so I’m gonna let you know that I will instead.” Yugyeom shrugs, “and I can do it much better, though there isn’t much competition here.”

Jiyoo lets out a chortle, understanding that Yugyeom just dissed Jungkook's behavior. He wasn’t wrong; Jungkook was being an recently. Then she freezes.

“Wait… Did it look like I was in love with Jungkook?” She asks curiously, “like, in love love with him?”

It was Yugyeom’s turn to be confused. “Yeah? I thought that was why you guys were always inseparable?”

Jiyoo shook her head. She loved Jungkook, but not in the prospect of being a mate. Or at least, that was the conclusion she came to. Jiyoo thought long and hard about why Jungah’s presence made her upset, and it was then that Jiyoo thought that it was just because her best friend was taken from her. It made sense, especially since her and Jungkook practically grew up together.

While Jiyoo was busy thinking, Yugyeom felt his Alpha side take over. Before he realized what he was doing, he placed a hand against Jiyoo’s cheek, leaning down and pressing his lips to her own. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but when Yugyeom pulled away, Jiyoo was a mess. Her face was beet red, slightly ajar as her lips moved with no words coming out.

“If you weren’t in love with him, then I don’t have to feel bad about doing that.” Yugyeom grins, “and even if you were, the only person I’d apologize is to you for kissing you without permission.”

Jiyoo smacks Yugyeom on the arm, her hits becoming more intense as he breaks into a fit of laughter. “This isn’t funny! That was my first kiss, Yugyeom!”

“That’s even better!” Yugyeom cackles, pulling her in for a hug and swinging her around.

Jiyoo continues to whine and complain, even as they walk back to class together. Yugyeom did nothing but the whole time. It was playful of course, though he couldn’t help but show how smug he was knowing he took Jiyoo’s first kiss.

At the end of their statistics class, he grabs her wrist, stopping her from running off to her next class.

“I’m sorry for doing something like that so suddenly.” He says seriously, though he couldn’t completely hide the smile on his face. “Do you hate me now?”

Jiyoo’s nose scrunches up. She merely smacks him again, “I don’t hate you, but don’t do that next time or I just might.”

Once Yugyeom lets her go, Jiyoo books it to her next class. It didn’t help that she was embarrassed, but the fact that it felt like people were staring at her made her feel even more self-conscious. It wasn’t as if everyone else knew too, right?

“You let Yugyeom just kiss you like that?” Jungkook almost yells at her.

If Jungkook somehow found out after practically ignoring her these days, Jiyoo knew for sure that everyone in the school knew now.

“I didn’t just let him!” Jiyoo hisses back.

When she realizes the rest of their graphics class was looking at her, she shrinks in her seat, burrowing her face into her hands. She was beyond embarrassed now.

Jungkook was fuming, not bothering to spare her any time to collect herself. “And you told me that you didn’t like him.”

“I don’t hate him, but I don’t like him like that.” Jiyoo grumbles.

She eventually pulls her backpack up and pulls out some homework. It wasn’t due anytime soon, but if she didn’t distract herself with something, the red flush on her cheeks would never go away.

“But you still let him kiss you?” Jungkook presses, not liking how she was trying to avoid the subject.

“Just leave me alone Jungkook.” Jiyoo groans, feeling a headache begin to form.

Jungkook continued to pester her for the rest of class, giving her sass about how weak she was that she couldn’t just kick Yugyeom where it hurts most before he kissed her. It wasn’t until he brought up that “Jungah would never let anyone have their way with her” that Jiyoo finally lost it.

“I’m not like Jungah. We’ve already established that she’s a great Alpha and I’m just an Omega.” Jiyoo says with clenched teeth.

How many times was she going to have to put herself down for Jungkook to leave her alone? She had to do it all the time during lunch just so he’d stop talking down on her, and now because of Yugyeom, she would have to do it during her classes too. Jiyoo felt bad, not wanting to put the blame only on Yugyeom, but at the same time, the kiss happened so suddenly that she couldn’t just push him away. She didn’t even realize what was happening until his lips were pulling away from her own.

Just thinking about how her first kiss had gotten taken from her made Jiyoo feel embarrassed all over again. She bumps her head against the desk, not liking how upset the whole situation was making her.

“And look at you! You can’t even control your pheromones! They’re stinking up the whole room!” Jungkook exasperates.

Jiyoo’s head snaps up, realizing the whole class was still looking at her. Some of the boys had flushed faces as they avoided making eye contact with her and Jiyoo felt her heart as it sank to her stomach. Quickly gathering up her books, she shoves them into her bag and heads out the door to the bathroom. If she couldn’t leave school, she was just going to hide out in the bathroom until it was over. At least then nobody would stare at her. Or yell at her.

--

“So… You like Yugyeom?”

Jiyoo could only sigh. Of course the other boys found out.

Once school was out, Jiyoo was ready to book it home if Jimin hadn’t stopped her before she left the campus. Then she had to wait for everyone before they all walked home together. Although she didn’t like the pitied look Jimin gave her, Jiyoo rationalized it because she knew he was just worried.

“I don’t like him.” Jiyoo says again for the tenth time that day thanks to Jungkook’s interrogation during class. “He just kissed me. I didn’t even have time to react.”

“You should’ve just kicked him right where it- Oh , here he comes!” Hoseok almost squeals.

Jiyoo almost gave herself whiplash. Yugyeom jogged over to her with a big smile, but made sure to stop and give her enough space to not make her more uncomfortable than she already was.

“Jiyoo! Let me walk you home!” Yugyeom says with a cheer.

His friends followed close behind and with all the eyes on her, Jiyoo couldn’t find the courage to tell him that he couldn’t. She merely nods her head and sticks close to Jimin’s side as Yugyeom walks on her other side.

“I don’t like how many people are in our group.” Jungah says with distaste.

“For once, I agree with you.” Jackson groans.

Yugyeom didn’t take his advice at all and was continuing to pursue Jiyoo, even though it was obvious that she wasn’t comfortable. He was all for his friend getting with a girl, but this girl was different. Jiyoo turned Yugyeom into an obedient dog, almost to the point where he didn’t believe that Yugyeom took initiative to kiss her first.

“What’s wrong with agreeing with me?” Jungah asks incredulously.

“No offense or anything, but you sound kind of mean whenever you talk during lunch.” Bambam adds in, not missing the way that Jimin snickered.

Bambam’s predictions were correct that some of the boys didn’t like Jungah. After all, if he didn’t, there were others that were bound to have some common sense.

“I’m not mean, I just speak the truth.” Jungah tries to argue.

“And that means it’s okay if it hurts peoples’ feelings?” Mark chimes in.

Jungah huffs, “if it’s the truth, I don’t see why their feelings would be hurt.”

Youngjae was next to interject. “So if someone said you were a , you wouldn’t be upset because you know it’s the truth, right?”

Jiyoo stared at Yugyeom, nudging him to tell his friends to back off. As glad as she felt that Jungah was finally getting a taste of her own medicine, calling her a ‘’ was too much. Yugyeom looks down at her and shrugs, slinging his arm around Jiyoo’s shoulder.

“God, you guys are ing rude!” Jungkook growls.

He made sure to stick next to Jungah, his chest puffed up from how irritated he was feeling. With those two visibly irritated, Yugyeom’s friends snickered to themselves, glad that they were able to shut them up finally.

The walk was more bearable after that, mostly because nobody was trying to cause any more fights. When they arrived at Jiyoo’s house, she was quick to squeeze Jimin’s hand before dashing to her door. As she fumbled with the keys, she felt a shadow loom over her and spun around to find Yugyeom standing with his hands behind his back.

It was weird because although Yugyeom was the main cause of the whole fiasco today, he stood a good distance away from her, as if he respected her personal space despite kissing her. Jiyoo couldn’t exactly stay mad at him either since she was mostly just embarrassed.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” He asks, tilting his head as he waits for her answer.

Jiyoo could only nod her head sheepishly, finally unlocking her door. Before she could completely run away, she gives him and the others a short wave and ducks into her house.

When the noise outside quiets down, Jiyoo finally feels room to breathe. She slumps down against the front door, tossing her backpack to the side.

She didn’t want to go to school tomorrow and groans at the thought of having to deal with another day of whatever the hell happened today.