My boys turned into bossy mother hens for the remainder of the weekend. Himchan ruled the apartment like the queen bee he was, never leaving my side. He made sure I ate, made sure I bathed, made sure that my wound was getting proper care. I stayed either in Yongguk’s bed or sprawled out on the sagging sofa in their living room, leg propped up because that’s what Himchan said to do.

Yongguk got fed up with Himchan’s bossiness pretty early on, but he had some work to do at the main house so he was able to disappear for long periods of time. Luckily I had Zelo and Youngjae, and by proxy Daehyun, to keep me entertained during my prison sentence. I was grateful for that, because if I had been waiting to hear from Jonghyun, I would’ve been left high and dry. Now that he had his father back, I didn’t hear a single word from him. I don’t know why that bothered me as much as it did.

Himchan didn’t like the idea of me returning to school on Monday, but I had a scholarship to maintain and I couldn’t really afford to miss any more school. Besides, my wound was healing nicely. I walked with a limp and it still hurt like hell, but pain was something I could deal with. Getting kicked out of school was something I could not.

Jessica and her band of bimbos cornered me after my first period Korean class the following morning. Because I was moving slower than usual due to my injury, I wasn’t able to get out of their line of sight quickly enough.

A big, wicked grin spread across Jessica’s face as she spotted me and sauntered over, flicking her hair and swaying her hips in that way she thought was irresistible but really just made her look like an idiot. There was no Amber with me for protection, and Jessica knew that made me fair game. “Narae-yah,” she practically purred, her voice deceptively friendly. “Long time no see. You skipped school last Friday.” She clucked her tongue and wagged her finger. “Naughty, naughty.”

I didn’t even give her the satisfaction of rolling my eyes. I simply shouldered my backpack and pushed my way through her wall of ditzy clones, trying to make it to my second period English class before the next bell rang.

Her hand lashed out like lightning, long fingers wrapping around my upper arm, acrylic nails digging through the material of my blazer and blouse to leave crescents in my flesh. “I’m talking to you, you snarky little , and you better ing-!”

She was cut off as someone forcibly removed her hand from my arm. I’m sure my expression of shock matched Jessica's and the others’ when we saw that my savior was none other than Kim Jonghyun. Though his voice was calm, his eyes were blazing. “And just what is going on here?” he asked, voice several octaves lower than usual.

Jessica got flustered immediately. It was no secret that she – and half the girls at school, really – was in love with Kim Jonghyun. “I-I…” she trailed off, unsure of how to respond. I’m sure she was horribly confused. Jonghyun had watched on as I was bullied on numerous occasions without stepping in before; this was very much out of his normal habit.

“What kind of cruel person picks on an injured girl?” Jonghyun continued coldly, still gripping her wrist so tightly that his knuckles were white. “You’re really pathetic. Get out of here.” He released her arm with a disgusted little snort.

Jessica didn’t even spare a glance for me as she bolted, terrified. Her friends fled after her, their heels clicking on the floor. I was left in the hallway with no one but Jonghyun since it was close to the start of second period and everyone else had already gone to class.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, looking down at my scuffed shoes. I don’t know why I was embarrassed. After all the things we had been through together, I should have been more than comfortable with him. But for some reason I wasn’t. I was still awkward and unsure.

“No problem,” he replied, and it was only a small consolation that he seemed just as unsure of our standing with one another as I was. He swallowed the lump in his throat and took a deep breath. “I wanted to say thank you. For…you know. Everything.”

“It’s okay,” I answered quickly, still staring at my shoes. “How’s your dad?”

“He was in pretty bad shape but the doctor says he’ll pull through,” Jonghyun answered, sounding a little more reassured now that the conversation had moved to something less threatening than the palpable tension between us. “They’re planning to move him from the ICU tomorrow, and hopefully he’ll be released with an in-home nurse in a couple of weeks.”

I forced my eyes up to his face so I could smile weakly. “That’s good.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, smiling. It was one of those rare, genuine smiles that I really enjoyed. Somehow I felt special that he would allow me to see it. “We should probably get going before we’re late. I’ll walk you to your next class.”

“Don’t bother,” I said quickly. “You’ll be late, too. I’ll be fine.”

He hesitated. “Are you sure? I really don’t mind.”

I forced a too-bright smile that made my cheeks hurt with strain and my heart hurt with deception. “I’m sure. See you later.”

He cornered me again after Biology, which was my last class before the lunch hour. “Kitten!” he called, surprising several people around us. “Come have lunch with us today!” He was smiling brightly, Amber bobbing along behind him with an equally excited smile.

I winced at their happy expressions. “No thanks,” I said quickly, trying to find my homemade lunch buried within the depths of my locker. “I don’t think your friends would be too welcoming.”

“Screw their stuck-up asses,” Amber insisted. “You’re our friend and we want you to eat lunch with us.”

I could tell that they weren’t going to give up – both Jonghyun and Amber could be as stubborn as I could, on occasion – and I was outnumbered two to one. “Fine,” I gave in with a heavy sigh. “But only for today.”

It felt like the entire student body came out of their classrooms to watch the three of us parade down the hallway together, Jonghyun on one side of me and Amber on the other. It would’ve looked like they were dragging me somewhere to beat me up or something except that Amber was chatting eagerly and Jonghyun was smiling this weird little smile.

It was even worse when we entered the cafeteria a few minutes later. Though it had been buzzing with conversation just a second before, the entire room fell silent when we walked through the double doors. I tried to look at no one in particular as I followed Jonghyun and Amber to their usual table in a secluded corner.

There were already several people sitting at the table. Though I’d never spoken to a single one of them, I of course knew who they were. This was the most popular group of students at Seol Chong. They were like ing royalty.

The majority of them were staring at me like I was something nasty they’d stepped on in their expensive designer shoes. Krystal, Jinri, and Sunyoung were all second years like me. They were the epitome of ladies of class: always impeccably dressed, hair expertly done, nails and makeup flawless. They were like supermodels who used the hallways at school as their runways. They didn’t outright sneer at me, but their expressions were far from welcoming. There was only one who was openly glaring at me, another second year who went by Key and was, as far as I could tell, Jonghyun’s closet friend.

The rest of them seemed mildly curious but they weren’t exactly unwelcoming, and that, at least, was something of a relief. I recognized two of them from the social sciences class Amber, Jonghyun, and I had together. Jinki and Minho were the two boys that Jonghyun always sat with in the back of that class. The other was a Chinese girl named Qian, who was in my calculus class at the end of the day and was fairly quiet despite her reputation as a goddess.

“Guys, this is Narae,” Amber introduced me cheerfully, putting a hand on my shoulder. “She’s going to be eating lunch with us today.” She glared around at her friends as if daring anyone to challenge her.

The only one who seemed brave enough to speak up against Amber was Jinri. She tapped her too-long fingernails on the tabletop and gave me a onceover that was clearly and successfully meant to be offensive. “Why?” she demanded haughtily. “Are you doing some kind of extra credit where you have to hang out with a total loser?” She snickered at her own joke, though no one else did.

Jonghyun’s piercing gaze snapped in her direction and Jinri fell silent at once. “Narae-yah is a friend of me and Amber. We invited her to eat lunch with us because we like her. If you have a problem with that, you’re more than welcome to leave this table.”

Jinri seemed alarmed and panicked that I might be replacing her. She shot me a death glare but said nothing else.

Jonghyun ignored her and pulled out a chair for me between him and Amber. “Here, Kitten. Sit by me.”

I rolled my eyes at him. It wasn’t that I particularly liked being treated like the scum of the earth, but this princess treatment certainly wasn’t for me either. I was a girl from the wrong side of town, after all; he should’ve known that by now.

“You’re in our social sciences class with Ms. Lee, right?” Jinki asked politely, a friendly and open smile on his handsome face. “You’re partners with Jjong for the yearlong project, yeah?”

I nodded, uncomfortably aware of how pathetic my cheap, homemade lunch was compared to theirs. I had made mine in a rush that morning before dashing off to catch the bus; theirs had probably all been made by five-star chefs in state-of-the-art kitchens. It almost made me lose my appetite. “Yes, we’re partners for the project. That’s how we got to be…” I almost said friends, but I didn’t want to be the one to put that out there and make assumptions.

“Friends,” Jonghyun finished for me. “We’re friends now.”

Jinki smirked like he knew something that was beyond the rest of us, but it wasn’t a mean or nasty or unpleasant sort of look. “I’m impressed,” he said to me, his eyes glittering mischievously. “Jonghyun doesn’t give new people a chance often. You must be a really interesting person.”

“If you only knew the half of it,” Jonghyun muttered under his breath.

I don’t know if he’d meant to say it just to me or just to Jinki or what, but the entire table heard him clearly. Jinri’s head snapped up immediately, and she looked both panicked and hurt that there might be something more to mine and Jonghyun’s relationship. Then she sent another glare in my direction. I had clearly done something above and beyond just being a scholarship student to make her hate me so much so quickly.

“So how is your project coming?” Jinki continued conversationally. “I got paired with Cha Sunwoo and he’s probably the most scatter-brained person I’ve ever met. I can’t get a single straight answer out of him. I’m getting nowhere on my dossier.” He chuckled and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

“At least you didn’t get paired with Yoon Bomi,” Minho pointed out with a low chuckle. “Instead of working on our project, all she does is ask me to go on a date with her. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell her no. She still keeps asking. She won’t take no for an answer, it seems.”

I surprised even myself when I spoke up. “Why don’t you just say yes then?” I suggested. “What’s the worst that could happen? You have a bad date? There’s nothing so bad about Yoon Bomi. Do you even know her?”

They all looked at me like I was an alien, even Jonghyun and Amber.

Then Minho chuckled again, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks. “I guess I never really saw it like that. You’re right. I guess it won’t kill me to go on one date with her.”

“You like to give people the benefit of the doubt, don’t you?” Jinki asked with that same mischievous smile still playing across his lips.

“I guess so,” I mumbled, playing with my food. I had grown up with people constantly judging me, judging me for where I was born and who my parents were and how much money I had. I didn’t like to do that to others. It was a philosophy I tried to live by, even if that was difficult in such a jaded place like Seol Chong Academy.

“So, if I asked you out on a date, you’d say yes?” Jinki teased.

I frowned at him, both surprised and flustered, but he wasn’t looking at me. Instead, he was staring at Jonghyun with a challenging quirk to his eyebrow.

“Yah, quit being so ridiculous!” Jonghyun snapped, growing flustered for some unexplainable reason. “Narae isn’t going to date you.”

Jinki’s smirk only widened, as if this was the exact answer he’d been wanting to hear.

I sighed. I certainly didn’t want or need any rumors starting, and I needed to clear the air here before anything got started. Though I wasn’t exactly clear on where I currently stood with Jonghyun, I knew that we weren’t dating and I wanted to make sure that everyone else knew this too. “Jonghyun and I aren’t dating, if that’s what you’re thinking,” I said bluntly, meeting Jinki’s gaze head-on. “We’re partners for the social sciences project and friends. That’s all.” I turned my fierce expression on Jinri then. “If that’s why you’re being particularly nasty to me, you can go ahead and stop. I’m not here to steal the guy you like.”

“Then why are you here?” It was Key who spoke, his first words since I’d arrived to disrupt their daily routine. His gaze was dark and judgmental. He had his chin resting in his open palm, head cocked to the side. He would have come across as almost innocent if it weren’t for the harsh glint in his dark cat-eyes.

It was Amber who spoke up on my behalf. “Because Jjong-oppa and I invited her. You got a problem with that?”

Key glared at her. “You don’t scare me. And I don’t want to be seen associating with someone who doesn’t know her Gucci from her Prada. I’ll be back when you guys decide to stop associating with trash.” And he gathered his things and left the cafeteria.

An awkward silence followed his rather dramatic exit. It was Jinki who broke it, laughing a bit uncomfortably. “Just ignore Key,” he suggested, giving me an apologetic look. “He’s all about social status. He’ll come around eventually.”

I forced a smile and nodded even though I didn’t believe Jinki. It was pretty impossible to think that Key would ever accept me. Luckily for me, Amber steered the conversation towards a new car model that was coming out soon. While Krystal, Jinri, Sunyoung, and Qian didn’t seem thrilled with this change of topic, Minho, Jonghyun, and Jinki did. They engaged me in conversation until the bell rang to end the lunch hour.

My next class was gym, which I had with Amber, Krystal, and Jinri. Amber suggested that we all walk together. This elicited an eye-roll from Jinri, but, since we were all heading to the same place, it only made sense for us to go together.

Before I could get too far, however, Jonghyun stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll meet you by your locker after school,” he told me –told, not asked. “You’re coming back to my house so we can work on our project. I’ll drive.”

“I can’t tonight,” I tried to protest. “I have stuff to do.” This wasn’t exactly true, but Himchan and Yongguk and the others were still being overbearing and motherly and they would be less than thrilled if I went to Jonghyun’s house so soon after my injury.

“Get out of it,” Jonghyun said simply with the air of someone who’s used to getting their way.

“You and oppa seem to be really close,” Krystal commented mildly as we walked. Though her tone was neutral, I could tell she was dying of curiosity about the true nature of our relationship.

“We’re not really,” I said, though I don’t know quite how true that statement was. After all the crazy things Jonghyun and I had been through together to get his father back from the Gongpo, our relationship status was up in the air. “We just discovered that we have some things in common while doing Ms. Lee’s project and we’re friends. That’s all.”

“So you really don’t want to date him?” Jinri demanded suspiciously.

I laughed out loud at the absurdity of that statement. “I don’t even think that warrants an answer, to be honest. He’s the richest, most popular guy in school. I’m me.” I gestured vaguely to myself, but they seemed to get what I meant.

Jinri still seemed suspicious, but Krystal believed me. Her smile seemed genuine, at least. 

Ta-dah! Finally an update! Sorry that I've been MIA lately. Things have been incredibly hectic for me lately. In just a few weeks I will officially be living in Korea and planning for that has taken up so much time OTL as well as trying to spend time with my friends and family. But anyhoo, I hope you enjoyed the update!