Third Person POV

Cheer up baby, Cheer up baby~
Jom deo himeul lae~
Yeoj-

The song cuts halfway as Chaeyoung pulls herself up on her bed and looks at her dim lit phone screen that said "alarm snoozed"

"I was awake already." Chaeyoung says to no one in particular as she groans and lay back down.

She didn't get a wink of sleep last night. Her mind kept wandering on everything that happened the night before, everything that went wrong.

How broken Mina looked, how scared and desperate she sounded. No matter how many times Chaeyoung told herself throughout the night that all of that was fake, she couldn't believe herself. 

On the other hand, couldn't believe it was real either because every plausible scenario that she plays through in her head always ends with her being delusional. Chaeyoung even as the genius that she is couldn't think of any way where Mina would have actual emotions. It was safe to say that she was stuck.

She hangs her legs off the bed and looks at the wires and chords thrown all over the place. She looked at the lone hard drive securely placed in a case that was mounted on her table. The hard drive that served as a prison for Mina. 

It made Chaeyoung sick to her stomach. It made her sick that she left the crying girl in there by herself and trapped her inside of it. The more she thought about it, the more she was hating herself.

But there was nothing she could do at the time. She knew she couldn't face Mina in the state she is in right now. When she's stuck between two worlds herself.

Chaeyoung got up and started readying herself for school. She didn't want to go. Not in the slightest. The last thing she wants right now is to go to that place and get bullied again. 

But she knew if she stayed in the apartment for another two minutes she would plug those chords right back in and run back to Mina's arms.

She didn't want that to happen so she quickly got ready not bothering to wear make up or think too much about her clothes.

***

Clad in a black hoodie and Jeans Chaeyoung made her way inside the school gates. 

She could feel the disgusted stares of her schoolmates. She does notice some people who looked genuinely concerned for her. She also knew she looked like an undead zombie and she didn't care about any of that.

"Whoa is that Son Chae?? I didn't even recognize her"

"Is she okay? She looks so.. sad."

"Don't worry about her, she's just showing her true colors now that all her popularity is basically non existent."

Chaeyoung could hear all the whispers as she passed through the hallways. She just walked with her head down, hands in her hoodie pockets and a stoic expression on her face.

Tha dark aura around the girl didn't go unnoticed by the black haired boy that was watching her from afar. One of the few people that actually cared about her wellbeing.

Taehyung started following Chaeyoung as their little deal to protect Chaeyoung stated, atleast one from either group Twice and BTS should always be with Chaeyoung or at a distance where they could intervene if something bad happened.

Taehyung's instincts proved him right as not far into the hallway Chaeyoung was stopped by one of tha people that has effectively made her life in school hell.

Yeonwoo scoffs as she scanned the clothes that Chaeyoung was wearing.

Chaeyoung for the first time takes her eyes off the ground and looks up at the taller girl.

"Man I actually just got scared by your face." Yeonwoo says laughing to herself. Chaeyoung stoic expression stays as it is.

Taehyung was about to intervene when he saw something that surprised him.

Yeonwoo was about to take Chaeyoung's hood off her head but before her hand could reach, Chaeyoung grabs on to the girls hand. 

Yeonwoo squirms in her place as Chaeyoung's grip became tighter.

"Leave me alone." Is all Chaeyoung says. Her voice low and raspy.

Yeonwoo forcefully pulls her hand away and takes a few steps back. She had a startled and scared look on her face as she rubbed the spot on her arm which was now red and starting to bruise.

Taehyung can't help the little smirk that etched on his face as he watched. It was satisfying to see the bully be that scared for once.

"The whole school knows that I like girls now. You call have all your oppas to yourself so just off and leave me alone." Chaeyoung says with venom in her voice. 

Taehyung could only see the back off the smaller girl but he could still feel the glare she was giving Yeonwoo.

Chaeyoung doesn't even wait for the girl to back off and just starts walking. She bumps her shoulder on the taller girl's making her stumble away from the tiger's path.

Tae watched as the hooded girl puts her hands back in her pockets and just walks away.

"Something's definitely wrong. I need to tell the others." Taehyung says to himself as he turns around and starts walking. His slow walk slowly pacing up turning into a slow jog as he made his way back towards the gates to see if he could catch any of the Twice girls or Jungkook coming in.

***

It was at lunch time when Taehyung finally got the gang at one place, Everyone from twice except Chaeyoung was now at the table with the addition of Jungkook and Taehyung.

"Wait so your telling us she actually stood up for herself?" Jeongyeon asks with a surprised expression. 

"Yeah but that's not the part that shocked me. She actually cursed at Yeonwoo. She told her to off" Taehyung said.

"WHAT? MY BABY CUSSED??" Nayeon screams out as she hits the table and stands up.

"This is preposterous." She says as she sits down again. Jeongyeon throws an apologetic looks towards everyone as if she was apologizing for her girlfriend's overreaction.

"Yeah... and that's been bothering me the whole day. She never swears. I'm sure something bad happened before she got to school.. Her clothes too." Taehyung said thinking back to what chaeyoung was wearing. 

"Wait what do you mean her clothes?" Sana asks.

"Hey guys. You have a spot for me?" The gang hears a soft low voice coming from behind them making Sana yelp and jump into Dahyun's lap almost spilling her drink on both of them.

Everyone turns around to see Chaeyoung holding her food in her hand, hood pulled over her head covering her short hair.

"Oh." Sana says getting what Tae meant by her clothes.

Chaeng had a small smile on different from the stoic face she had when Tae saw her that morning. It was a sad smile but a smile nonethele