Hani:

Leaving the detention room, I found unnecessary attention to myself. I wanted to tell Jimin to keep what happened today away from Taehyung but I found no trace of him after the session. I gave up trying to call him at the corridor and returned to the room. “Where’s your form?” Joonmyun asked, stretching his hand at my direction. I ignored him and continued to walk towards the table again. I noticed that he was still arranging the other forms and it seemed like he was waiting for us to be alone.

Baekhyun yawned as he handed over his form and patted his friend’s back. “I’m going straight home.” I heard him saying. Deciding not to eavesdrop anymore, I kept my attention solely on packing my own stuff. I slung my bag around me and realized that the so-called sleeping beauty was staring at me. I flashed him an awkward smile before walking toward Joonmyun’s direction, giving him the form he gave us earlier.

“Let’s walk home together.” He offered, keeping everything inside his bag. My shoulder dropped and I shifted under his stare. He smiled at me and offered his hand. Instead of accepting it, I walked away with my hands both at my sides. I heard Suho reminding the remaining two students inside the room to lock everything securely before running to my side. “I’ll treat you to coffee.”

“I don’t drink coffee.” I made up an excuse. He seemed disappointed but still managed to trail beside me quietly. Gripping the strap of my bag tighter, I mumbled another excuse. “I just want to go back home. Now, if you excuse me—”

“I’m not leaving you hanging, Hanhee.” He said. Didn’t quite understanding his words, I looked up at him. Joonmyun was staring down at me with a determined look on his face. Sighing, I shook my head about to say something but he cut me off. “Stop trying to push me away. I just wanted to be there for you. So please, I beg you to let me.”

“I told you that there is no more reason for us to—”

“I like you.”

That made me completely stunned. Instead of looking at me like I had expected, Joonmyun kept his glance away. I noticed the blush on his face and couldn’t find any word to tell him off. H-He must be joking, right?

“There,” He paused and cleared his throat. “I gave you a reason, didn’t I?”

“Stop playing around and just go home.” I said, suddenly having a mental breakdown. I could see Joonmyun staring down at me unbelievably. I supposed that he was hurt or anything but the kid broke into a shy smile and nodded his head. I looked up at him, still couldn’t believe him. Did he just agree to just go home? Normally Joonmyun would pester me more until I walked away from him but he didn’t do any of them then.

Slowly, I picked my steps away from him. Was that a confession I just heard from Kim Joonmyun? I wanted to see his reaction behind my back but the pride was still stopping me. Instead of checking on him, I gathered my speed and increased my pace. Somehow, I was still smiling when I left the school. 

“Are you okay?” Taehyung asked as soon as he stepped into my house. As usual, I would also nod to his question. He opened his shoes and dragged himself to lie down on my sofa. I smiled at his daily routine and pulled his jacket off of him. He could get very lazy sometimes. Twisting his body so that he could look at me, Taehyung suddenly broke into a grin.

“I heard that you got into detention today.” Well he sounded a bit excited to feel bad for me. I nodded my head and hung his jacket inside the closet. “Make me a hot chrysanthemum tea first.” He blinked and I went towards the kitchen. Soon after that, I heard him trailing behind me as well.

I was just putting water inside the boiling kettle when he again asked me a question. “And I also heard that someone was hitting on you, leaning on your shoulder or something during detention.” That Jimin—why did I even bother putting my trust on him? “And I know that it had something to do with you acting all giddy today, Hanhee.”

I raised my brows at him and reached for the cupboard to get the chrysanthemum tea pack. Seeing me having to tip-toed on my toes, Taehyung crept behind me and took the package for me. I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. Suddenly, I punched a hit on his stomach using my elbow. Instead of tumbling with pain, Taehyung merely rubbed his belly and laughed at my strength. He put the package on the dining table and again fished my attention.

“You breathed like that on purpose.” I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling ticklish.

“Who was it?”

It was silent for a moment. I was hoping that Taehyung would understand my silence but he ignored my pledge. I dropped my sigh on the floor and fiddled with my legs.

“Kim Joonmyun.” I told him the truth. The moment Joonmyun’s name rolled off my tongue, a foreign feeling took control of me. I could feel myself having a twisted knot on my stomach and I tried to ease my flutters by looking at Taehyung’s face. Luckily the ‘Mr. Bean’ effect could still work on me and I had to stifle my laughter looking at him.

“Kim Joonmyun—isn’t he the student body president? Well, that’s a bit hard.” He commented.

“What—are you planning to hit him or what?” I scoffed, finally covering from my laugh. But then again, I wouldn’t dare to question Taehyung’s ability to do so. Since he had entered high school, he was already friends with some of the troublemakers—namely Jimin for an example.

“No,” Taehyung denied. He leaned against the counter and raised his brows at me. “I’m just going to interrogate him or something. Well, he’s too important for me to land my fist on.” Again, I rolled my eyes at his bluff sayings. “But how did you two know each other? My friend told me that he was giving extra attention to you—which he had never done before. Do you know him personally? As far as I knew, you’ve never mentioned him to me even once.”

“He knew about this.” I showed Taehyung my wrists. “And he was just sticking around to check on me, making sure that I won’t kill myself.” I explained, shrugging. But to the topic of my wrists being brought upon, Taehyung didn’t have any thoughts of Joonmyun in his head.

“How are you feeling?” He took a hold of my hand and rolled my sweater’s sleeve up to my elbow. Slowly, he traced his fingers at the scars while I locked my eyes at nothing particular. “You’ve been stopping, didn’t you?” He sounded too proud in my own likings. Smiling at me, he massaged my hand to ease my pain and finally letting my hand go. “That’s good.”

“Yeah, and you don’t have to waste any more of your bandage on me.” I excused, trying to lift up the atmosphere. Taehyung chuckled as well and took a hold of the hot water after it boiled. He poured his own chrysanthemum tea into a cup and I leaned against the table, facing him.

Taehyung, after all, is the only one that really knows me—even better than I do in myself—and he’s also the person that always be there for me. Whenever he comes after knowing that I had cut myself, he would clean the blood off and wrapped me securely in bandages. I was always thankful.

“I hope that you keep seeing him,” He commented. I looked up at him and noticed him smiling to his cup. “That Joonmyun I mean, I hope that he continues to approach you. I see changes in you, Hanhee. And I’m happy that it happened that way.”