You’ll get it soon, Jongin… Jaejoong’s hand turned into a fist as he walked casually on the path leading towards school. He almost had his hands on Jongin yesterday if not for Joohyun. Again. He couldn’t understand the reason why she would actually stand for Jongin despite the things that he did to her before.  He couldn’t understand the reason why the faculty would protect Jongin when in fact, it was—

“Jaejoong!” a voice interrupted Jaejoong’s thoughts, and he turned around to look at the owner of the voice. His once grim face turned into a bright one as he saw his cousin running towards him. “Yunho hyung!” he responded with a wave of his arm.

The older male approached Jaejoong and gave the latter a pat on his shoulder. “How have you been, Jaejoong?” to which he replied with a sigh and shrug of his shoulders. “Same, I guess?”

Yunho looked at him wearily and sighed. “Is this about Jongin again?”

Jaejoong looked up to the older male, only to look down once again when he realized that his prediction was true. He’d been tiring himself out for almost a year, wanting to have Jongin kicked out of the school. Most people might have thought that it was pretty unreasonable to demand such thing, but he had reasons—they had reasons. It wasn’t just a childish hate. If it was, then it would have been solved a long time ago already; but no, it couldn’t and it never could be.

The older male sighed once again and looked down after seeing the reaction that he got from Jaejoong. Of course, it would be about that kid. What else would be the reason behind Jaejoong being in deep thoughts? As far as he could remember, Jaejoong was never like this. Only when that happened, Jaejoong changed abruptly and it even came to the point when he even questioned himself if it was Jaejoong that he was seeing.  “It’s been a year, Jaejoong.” He said carefully, giving his shoulder a light squeeze. “Why don’t you just forget about it?”

At the question, distaste was immediately shown on Jaejoong’s face and he pushed the older man’s hand away from his shoulder. “No.” he firmly said as he darted his gaze on the road ahead of them. “No matter how long has it been, I can never forget it, hyung. We can never forget it. You know that!” he stopped on his tracks as he shouted his last statement at the older. Pain can be seen on Jaejoong’s face, and Yunho suddenly felt sorry for his cousin. Sighing, Yunho placed his hand on Jaejoong’s shoulder once again and swallowed before saying, “I know… I’m sorry for asking you such a silly question.”

Jaejoong fell silent for a good minute. He was letting himself get carried away by that stupid thought of that stupid guy. Without saying any words to his cousin, Jaejoong turned his back on the latter and began walking towards his school once again. Jongin was destroying them—no, he already did. He destroyed them all, and he hated it that Jongin wasn’t aware about it.

***

The second subject for that day just finished and all the students were on their own groups once again for their snack. Everyone was laughing happily with each other, except for one person. Who else would it be? Jongin carefully unwrapped his bread and placed his bottle of water on the bench. Professor Miyoung didn’t allow him to stay inside the classroom for break time, telling him that he should try to socialize with his classmates. If not the latter, then the lower years.

He wondered why she would even make him do such thing when she was fully aware of how the students treated him. He refused to believe that the professor did that to actually expose him in dangerous things that might happen to him outside the classroom. She was too kind to even do that to him.

Sighing, Jongin quickly took a bite of his bread and chewed on it quickly. All he had to do was to stay away from the students’ sight and eat quickly so he can go back to the classroom. His eyes though, were cautiously looking out for that certain group of students which was the main reason why he wanted to be hidden inside the classroom. It won’t be good if they see him there at the bench. The possibility of him being bullied that day was very big if that happened. For no reason, his heart began to palpitate and his eyes immediately scanned the crowd. That feeling was so familiar, and he scared him for real. With trembling hands, Jongin grabbed his food and hid at the back of the big tree behind the bench. His hands were trembling furiously as he peeked out from his hiding place.

“Yah, let’s go and get some burger later. I really love that food lately.”

A man snorted. “Yah, are you pregnant or something?”

A round of laughter followed the question. Jongin, on the other hand, sighed in relief as he saw them sitting on the bench that he sitting on earlier. As expected, it was Jaejoong and his friends. For some reason, Jongin had learned to sense their presence even if they are far away from him. It must have been his fright that made him sensitive towards their mere presence; and for reason as well, he couldn’t seem to get his eyes away from Jaejoong.

While looking at him, he felt like he could actually fight back and beat the crap out of that bully. But then again, it must be the part of his mind that wanted him to fight for himself. But how could he? He couldn’t even hurt a fly. Breathing out in disappointment, Jongin turned around to leave the place, only to stop and yelp when a person suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of him. His yelp, however, was stifled by a hand and he was taken away from the place. As they ran inside the school building, Jongin’s eyes were wide open.

Why is she…?

They stopped in front of the Science laboratory and Jongin panted softly after what seemed like years of running. As he did so, he couldn’t help but look at the woman before him. Once again, the feeling that would struck him in his chest… he felt it again, and he didn’t know why it would always happen when she’s in front of him.

“Why are you such a scaredy-cat, huh?” Ailee asked as she brushed her hair to the back of her head. She wiped her sweaty forehead and looked at him after sighing for the last time. “Jongin, I need to talk to you.”

Jongin blinked nervously and nodded his head, “O-Okay… W-what a-are we going t-to talk about?”

Again with the stuttering… Ailee rolled her eyes and bit her lip out of frustration. “Before we start talking, can you please stop stuttering? It’s really annoying.”

The male swallowed thickly and looked down. How can he possibly do that when it’s a natural thing to him? “I’m s-sorry, Ailee. I-I can’t d-do that.”

She frowned. “Why?”

Jongin swallowed again. “B-Because i-it’s a natural th-thing to me—”

“No!” she yelled out, earning a surprised look on Jongin’s face. “Natural thing? It’s not a natural thing to you, Jongin! You never stuttered before when you talk to me!”

He frowned in confusion and shook his head, telling her that he wasn’t getting her point at all. He never stuttered before? What did she mean by that? He couldn’t understand at all. And why was she asking him that question like as if they were friends before? Or if not friends, she made it sound like they had a relationship before that made them talk to each other in a regular basis. But he couldn’t understand. They were never friends. He barely knew anything about her!

Ailee sighed heavily and looked at him disbelief. “Do you really hate me that much? Are you still holding onto that small mistake that I did before? It’s something so small, Jongin! Why are you like this to me?!”

Tears began to glisten at the side of her eyes, which made Jongin panic. His confusion got more serious because of the train of questions that she gave him. How was he supposed to answer all those questions when he didn’t even know the answers for it? Why would he hate her? What was that mistake that she just mentioned? How was he being like to her?

He didn’t remember being harsh to her, or doing anything bad to her. As far as he could remember, he’d always been kind to her and there were even times that he’d ignore her because there’s no reason for him to notice her presence. They’re not friends after all.

“I-I’m sorry, A-Ailee. I-I didn’t m-mean to be t-this way to you,” Jongin swallowed thickly and tried to find confidence as he apologized, only to find it crashing along with his heart because of the nervousness that he was feeling. “I-I don’t k-know what you’re t-talking about. I-I’m sorry.” With that, Jongin bowed his head and walked off, leaving a very confused and fuming Ailee.

She was used to Jongin walking out of her, but not in this way—not when he’s apologizing and she’s the one who’s mad. Everything’s just not the same.

Jongin, what happened to you?

***

Later that afternoon, Jongin decided to go home straight without cleaning the classroom. The stares that he got from his classmates, especially from Ailee, finally got the best of him and he was actually scared. Joohyun wasn’t around because she was sick, which made him really sad because he had no one by his side that day.

He sighed. Everything seemed to get harder and harder these past few days. The hatred that his classmates had harboured had become bigger than before. Their hatred towards him got stronger. If only he knew how to make it fade away.

He was a few steps away from his house when his phone rang. Stopping on his tracks, Jongin took his time to look for his phone inside his bag, and when he found it, he looked at the screen, only to gasp loudly at the name on the screen. He swallowed thickly and blinked a few times, contemplating if he should pick the phone up or not.

But he’ll get mad if I don’t.

For a moment he closed his eyes, calming his pounding heart and at the same time, gathering the courage to talk to this person. It took him a good minute or two before he finally swiped his finger across the screen and put the receiver against his ear. “H-Hello?”

“Yo, bro, how’s school?

--

Hey guys! ; A ; I'm sorry for not updating for a long time. Midterms just finished for me. Uhg, this update is really short and y. I'm sorry guys. My brain is still roasted from the overnight studying and such. Hopefully, by the next update, I'll do better. ; u ; LOVE YOU!