Doyeon stood tall and unmoving towards the slacked figure inside of the classroom, who was leaning back in his chair; the face that had once been the object of many admirers and the central focus of cameras had a disgusting disfigurement across his nose, and the bruises that had patterned his face just weeks before had left just traces of sickening yellow, mirroring the fading bruises along Yoojung’s torso.

Yoojung nervously started fiddling with her hands, unsure of what to do in the face of someone who had done to her what he had done, before Doyeon had noticed and taken the shorter girl’s hand in her own. Her face was set in stone, unwilling to show any emotion in front of the abuser.

“Eunwoo,” Doyeon said slowly, not loudly but his name was enough to catch the attention of those already in the class, “What are you doing here?”

The boy in question simply laughed cruelly at the question, his eyes squinting at the pair of girls in the doorway. Everyone else in the room seemed uncomfortable at best, their eyes shifting nervously between Eunwoo and Doyeon, who was partially shielding Yoojung. The class looked like they weren’t sure what to make of the situation; at least until the teacher came, which was about in five minutes. Until then, those in the room would fall victim to every word that fell between Eunwoo, who seemed not to care for the girls, and Doyeon, who seemed to be seething but keeping it under control.

“You really think something like that would get me in trouble?” He taunted, smiling cruell.

“Are you ridiculous?” Doyeon wondered aloud, almost rolling her eyes, “You must be delusional to think that you’re above the rules.”

Eunwoo stood up at that, and stalked over to where Doyeon was stood, looming over her with a full ten centimeters of height advantage. Doyeon stood, unmoving, and his face contorted into an ugly sneer as he was sizing her up. The air was so tense, that the entire class looked as if they were holding their breath.

“You,” Eunwoo snarled, shoving Doyeon harshly with two of his fingers, causing her to step back in a stumble, “Are the one who is ridiculous, to think you can touch me with something as minor as this.”

As soon as Eunwoo had finished his sentence, and the words had sunk in, Doyeon her heel without warning and nearly dragged Yoojung through the hallways, with a sense of driven purpose. Yoojung was lucky enough that the other girl hadn’t let go of her hand just yet, otherwise she would’ve lost her in her chase to.. wherever Doyeon was going. She hadn’t even given consideration to the fact that she had her own classes to attend, because right then, nothing else seemed more important to Doyeon than going through the halls one by one.

“Doyeon, where are we-“

“Yoojung.” Doyeon abruptly said, stopping in her tracks and turning towards the other girl to face her, “I’m going to do what he deserves to get. I wasn’t going to, since you hadn’t said anything.. but if he thinks he can hurt you and get away with it, I won’t stand for it.”

The taller girl had given no time for a reply before she sped off again, the grip between their hands tighter than before. Yoojung tried to piece together what she had said as the pair speed walked through the maze of halls.

It couldn’t be..?

Yoojung yanked her hand out of Doyeon’s, effectively grabbing the attention of the other girl and stopping the continuous movement through the school.

“You can’t,” Yoojung said quietly, “Don’t.”

“Why not?” Doyeon demanded, “Yoojung, he hurt you and he thinks he can get away with it, he even called it ‘something minor’, but if we reported it to the principal-“

“Doyeon, if you said something, you know how this would go!” Yoojung cut her off, raising her tone slightly, “He has money and influence and is loved by all the teachers, why do you think he got away with hurting Dahyun? And Yerin? We all know the school is wrapped around his parent’s fingers, and if I tried to say anything, or you tried, we’d probably get in trouble ourselves!”

“It doesn’t matter! You never know until you try, you have to try and do what’s right, instead of hiding it like a coward!” Doyeon nearly shouted, getting in Yoojung’s face, so close that she could feel the angry huffs of breath from the taller girl.

The result of raising her voice had curious students looking into the hallways, getting their attention away from their lessons and towards the small argument between the two girls. It was as if they were zoo animals doing something mildly amusing, with the feeling of dozens of eyes set on them.

Yoojung broke the eye contact, looking down at the floor for a few seconds before speaking again, softly.

“You think I’m a coward, because of this?” She asked, not lifting her eyes off the floor.

Doyeon paused for a second, taken aback by the question, “You know that’s not what I meant-“

“It’s exactly what you meant.”

“Yoojung-“

“I’m going to go now. You can do whatever you want, Doyeon.”

Before the other girl could say anything after that, Yoojung started to walk away, leaving Doyeon standing alone, as a teacher came out into the hallway demanding what had just happened. She didn’t look back to see how lost Doyeon looked.

-

“Yoojung?”

It was near the end of lunch, and the girl in question had almost relaxed at the thought of Doyeon, or anyone, not being able to find her. Of course, such luck didn’t exist. Yoojung sighed, before she lifted her head and turned slightly to see Jieqiong standing by the entrance to the school roof. The girl looked slightly out of breath, as if she’d ran from one end of school to the other, and judging from that had probably spent half of her lunch time looking for her.

Without any response from Yoojung, the older girl took it as an okay signal to walk up to her and sit down on the floor next to her. Jieqiong mimicked the way that Yoojung had been sitting, bringing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. For a few moments, the pair sat quietly, in peace, watching the light breeze ruffle the plants that lined the edges of the rooftop, before the older girl spoke up.

“You didn’t show for lunch.. and Yeri told me in English you didn’t show up for math after you saw.. him.” Jieqiong started carefully, not wanting to touch a sensitive subject, “She said you were with Doyeon? I was half expecting her to be with you, but I saw her walking to Philosophy alone..”

Yoojung curled up at the thought of the other girl, tears threatening to spill, and it took Jieqiong a second to wrap her arm around the other girl, resting her head against the curled up version of Yoojung as she rubbed gentle circles on her back, in an attempt to comfort her.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize,” Jieqiong said softly, “It’s to do with her?”

“It’s okay, it is, I just..” Yoojung mumbled, unsure of how to phrase a reason as to why she’d run off, or why she’d missed her classes despite being a model student, “..I didn’t know what else to do.”

After a small pause, Jieqiong spoke up again to ask, “What do you mean?”

“I didn’t know what else to do other than walk away, Jie.”