“Fatty”, one girl yelled.

“I don’t see why he even hangs out with you. A hottie like him friends with someone as ugly as you. Makes me sick.”

“I think he just feels sorry for her”, another girl said.

The group of girls just continued to make fun of you. This was how it went almost every day. People, girls mostly, would insult you. It’s been like this since the start of high school. They call you fat, ugly, stupid , among others. And they just won’t ever understand why someone like Taemin is friends with a plus sized girl like you. To them, those small minded people, they only look at someone on the outside instead of what’s on the inside. That’s what Taemin saw. He looked past your body and appearance and saw you for who you truly were.

“How many times do I have to tell you to leave her alone”, Taemin said coming up behind you and putting a protective arm around your shoulder.

The girls just stuck their noses high in the air and turned away, disgusted.

Small tears started to form behind your eyelids. You hated to have Taemin see you cry, even though he’s seen you shed enough tears to fill a swimming pool. You wanted to somehow prove that you didn’t always need him to come to your rescue, but you knew deep down, you would have never made it through the 4 years of school without him.

“Hey, don’t let those girls get to you. They’re just jealous”, Taemin said reassuringly.

“Ha, jealous of me!? What would they have to be jealous about?”

“Because you’re beautiful; inside and out. Because no matter how much makeup they put on their faces, there isn’t enough makeup in the entire world to cover up their hideous personalities. And because you have me and they don’t.”

Taemin always made you feel like anything was possible. Like you could face the day with your head held high.  

“Here, let me walk you to class.”

You nodded your head and Taemin walked with you down the halls to your next class. Just as you were passing the office, there was a guy, around you and Taemin’s age, staring at a piece of paper and every now and again, he’d look up from it with a frantic look. He saw you passing and his face became relieved.

“Oh excuse me. I’m new here and I can’t find my next class. Can you please point me in the right direction?”

“Sure”, Taemin said grabbing the boy’s schedule. “Oh, your next class is History. That’s just where we're off to. We’ll take you.”

“Oh, thank you so much!!”

“No problem dude. By the way I’m Taemin and this is ________.”

“I’m Kevin. Nice to meet you both”, Kevin said with a smile.

His smile was contagious and you couldn’t help but smile back at him. You eyed him curiously. He was quite good looking and looked very young and innocent.

“You two make a cute couple, by the way.”

His words made you blush. It was always like this. People that you didn’t know would come up to you when you were with Taemin and say, “Oh what a cute couple”. Honestly, you never thought of Taemin that way. He was just like an older brother to you.

Taemin laughed and said, “We’re not dating. We’re just really good friends.”

“Oh too bad”, Kevin said with a wink that you could’ve sworn was directed towards you.

Without another word, the three of you walked to class.