Tarian is still pissed off by the time school rolls around on Monday but, much to her relief, the extensive gossip network hasn’t picked up on what happened at the club Saturday night. Apparently the only people who recognized them were the ones involved, and no one has spilled the beans.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that she’s completely off the hook.

“Guess you and hyung really are a couple now,” Youngjae says wistfully when he slides into his seat about halfway through second period – he, Jongup, and Daehyun haven’t bothered to show up until now.

Tarian splutters and then chokes on the sip of water she’s just taken. “What?” she hisses, but it’s enough that the students around them stiffen as they try to overhear the conversation.

The boys don’t even bother to try and keep their voices low. “After what happened Saturday night. Everyone saw you kissing him. No one can doubt that the two of you are together now.”

“We’re not together!” Tarian insists. “God, do I need to get it tattooed on my forehead or something? I am not dating Yongguk!”

Youngjae and Jongup only smirk at one another, while Daehyun rolls his eyes in annoyance and sinks even lower in his seat in the corner.

Tarian is in a pretty foul mood by the time the next break comes. She’s pretty sure that half the people in her class have been texting secretly under their desks and the whole school probably thinks that she and Yongguk are dating by now. She lets her head fall onto her desk. everything.

“Tarian.”

Her head pops up so fast she’s fairly certain she’s got whiplash.

Yongguk is standing beside her desk, arms crossed over a uniform shirt that is ed, sleeves rolled up in a casual violation of how it’s supposed to be worn. Jongup and Youngjae are practically beside themselves behind him, giggling and whispering to one another. Everyone else in the class is positively rigid, trying to look like they’re not listening when in fact they are straining as hard as they can to hear and see everything.

Tarian’s eyes narrow at him. “Go away,” she mutters, putting her head back down. “Don’t you think you’ve caused me enough trouble?”

He actually has the audacity to sound amused. “Are you mad at me?” he asks in amused disbelief.

She glares at him again. “Everyone in the school thinks we’re dating because you kissed me on Saturday and these s can’t keep their ing mouths shut.” She wrinkles her nose. “And it wasn’t even a real kiss. You just kissed me to get your crazy ex-girlfriend to go away.”

He sounds like he’s enjoying this a great deal when he says, “So you’re mad because I didn’t kiss you for real?”

She huffs in annoyance. “I’m mad because you kissed me at all!” she exclaims. “I keep getting into trouble because everyone thinks I’m involved with you guys!”

“But you are, bunny,” Jongup points out, sounding a little confused. “You are involved with us.”

“Says who?” Tarian grumbles, the nickname just washing over her now that she’s heard it so many times. “Just go away.”

“I’m talking to you,” Yongguk says, deep voice rasping.

“Well I’m done talking to you,” Tarian retorts, closing her eyes. Maybe if she pretends to fall asleep, they’ll leave her alone.

Before she can pretend, however, Yongguk gets a good grip on her arm and hauls her bodily out of her seat. “Hey!” she shrieks in surprise, flailing for footing before she falls on her face. “Let me go!”

Yongguk ignores her protests and drags her towards the door, out into the hallway. The door slams shut behind them, but Tarian can see everyone scrambling out of their seats and rushing to the little window in the door, wanting to see what’s happening outside in the hallway.

“Let me go!” Tarian repeats, more shrilly.

But Yongguk doesn’t do as she asks. Instead, he slams her against the nearest wall, knocking the breath out of her. Before she can even recover, his mouth is slanting over hers.

This kiss is nothing like the one he’d given her at the club Saturday night. His lips were hard and insistent against hers, his tongue running along the seam of her lip so insistently that she loses all sense of what’s right and what’s wrong and she parts them so he slip inside. One of his hands pins her wrists against the wall above her head while the other rests on her waist, hot through the thin cotton of her blouse.

She’s light-headed and her mind is reeling when he finally pulls away, planting one last little kiss on her swollen lips.

“There,” he says, with a certain amount of smug satisfaction. “You were mad at me for fake-kissing you, so now I’ve kissed you for real.”

It isn’t until that moment that Tarian remembers the audience gaping from inside the classroom. “ off,” she mutters sullenly, wiping at her lips in an embarrassed sort of way. When she goes back into the classroom, Yongguk doesn’t follow her. He just smirks and heads back to his own class.

If Tarian had been worried about the rumors from Saturday night getting around school, it was nothing to how quickly news of hers and Yongguk’s hallway smooch spreads. By the time her next class ends, the entire school is convinced that she and Yongguk are officially an item.

Much to her surprise – or maybe it’s not really that much of a surprise – Yonghwa is waiting for her in the hallway when she steps out to get a drink from the vending machine. She cringes at the thought of having to face him. He must have heard all the rumors by now.

“Hi,” she says uncertainly, walking up to him. She’s not quite sure what his reaction is going to be. Sure none of what’s happened has been her fault, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to be okay with it.

“Hi,” he answers, and she cringes more. His voice is quiet and he’s not smiling. He’s obviously not happy.

A deafening silence falls between them even though the hallway is crowded with other students hurrying to and fro on their short break. Yonghwa just looks at Tarian and she feels like the lowest person on the earth even though nothing has been her fault and she sort of just wants the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

Eventually Yonghwa is the one to break the silence. “So…you and Yongguk, huh?”

“It’s not like that,” Tarian assures him quickly. “I don’t know what everyone’s been saying, but we’re not dating.”

“So you didn’t kiss him in the hallway?” Yonghwa asks with an eyebrow quirked in question.

“No way!” Tarian replies vehemently. “He kissed me!”

Yonghwa is silent for a long time, and this makes Tarian nervous. A guy like Yonghwa has never really shown interest in her before, and she doesn’t really want to it up before they’re even really dating.

Eventually he smiles at her, though it’s a little thin and it doesn’t fully reach his eyes. “Just stay away from that creep, okay Tarian?” he suggests. “But no matter what happens, I’m not going to stop fighting for you.”

Then he leans down and presses his lips to hers. It’s a chaste, sweet little kiss and, when he pulls back, Tarian finds herself wanting more.

Then he winks at her and smiles a bit more genuinely and then he disappears into the crowd to return to his own class.

And, for the second time in one day, Tarian has been kissed in the hallway with a crowd full of onlookers. She hasn’t even been at this school all that long and already the rumors surrounding her abound. Great. 

So this chapter is really short but it's actually one of my favorites so far lol 

Who do you guys want Tarian to end up with? Yongguk or Yonghwa? Or neither? LOL let me know in the comments!