Chapter 21
Anonymous Confessions
Taemin's POV
“I don’t want to go in,” I whined in protest as Kibum and I walked up the steps to our school.
He sighed impatiently and stared at me. “Don’t make me drag you in there,” he deadpanned.
I jotted out my lower lip in a pout. Any and all sympathy that my best had held for me had seemingly vanished in the time it took us to walk to school.
“Umma,” I whined, dragging out the last syllable for a while and shaking my head. “I don’t want to go.”
“You’re going to have to face Minho sooner or later, so just get it over with,” he urged. I whined again and he rolled his eyes. “Seriously Taemin, I will drag you into school if you don’t walk inside by yourself,” he threatened.
I glared at him and crossed my arms. Sighing, he looked at me with a straight laced expression one last time and raised his eyebrows. I shook my head.
“You asked for it,” he muttered before grabbing my wrist and pulling me along.
“Kibum!” I protested as I tried to hold myself back from setting my foot inside the school’s main lobby.
He gave me one last tug before I stumbled inside, running a few steps to keep from falling over. I glared at him. He sighed and placed his hand on my shoulder, looking into my eyes. “Look Minnie, I’m sorry about what happened, but you’re going to have to face it sometime or another,” he said, apology a clear emotion in his brown orbs.
I nodded and looked down. “I know,” I muttered.
“Good,” he said and ruffled my hair. I shrugged his hand off and began to smooth my red locks back into place. “Now, I wish I could stay and help you brave the day, but I’ve got my own problem to solve,” he said. With one last wave, he walked back out of the school.
“Yah!” I called after him. “Kibum!” I sighed as he disappeared from my view. “How am I supposed to do this alone?” I whispered sadly.
The previous day was only the shock that came with the fact of someone claiming to be the anonymous sender. Even then, I had pretty much cried my eyes out knowing my love would forever be unrequited. Kibum had offered to let me stay over at his house and had only gotten me to sleep by giving me warm milk and honey and telling me mindless gossip.
Today however, though I wasn’t crying, was a lot worse. The actual realization that I would have to see Minho each day while he and Krystal spent every second glued to each other had finally sunk in.
I took in a deep breath and shook my head. You can do this Taemin. Just act like nothing’s wrong, and it’ll all be fine.
“Hey,” a voice said, startling me out of my inner pep talk with a loud shriek of surprise.
I spun around to find Minho staring at me, blinking in confusion. “O-oh. Hi hyung,” I mumbled, moving my eyes down to my sneaker clad feet. I knew I was going to see him at some point today, mainly because we have the same first period, but I wasn’t expecting it to be now. I have no idea of what to say!
“Uh, so, how’ve you been?” Minho asked slowly. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to you much yesterday.”
Well if you’d stopped flirting with all of those girls, maybe you would’ve been able to, I wanted to scream. “I’ve been fine,” I said instead, my eyes still glued to my shoes.
“Really? Well I was just wondering, do you want to…“ Minho trailed off. At those words, I lifted my head just enough to look him in the eyes. “I thought that maybe you’d want to-“ But he was cut off by a warm yet loud voice.
“Oppa!”
Minho and I both turned our heads in the direction of the voice.
“Krystal!” Minho smiled as the petite girl reached him.
I tried not to scowl at the way his face brightened up when he saw her, and I definitely tried to ignore their clasped hands.
“Oh, you’re Taemin, right? Minho told me how you forced him into dying his hair over the weekend. But it really does look nice on him. Good choice!” She smiled as Minho placed one hand on the back of his neck.
“You don’t have to be embarrassing,” he muttered.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, my voice not sounding like it belonged to me. I was only half paying attention to them. The sight of their hands caused my stomach to churn. And then I broke out into a sprint.
“Taemin!” I heard Minho call after me, but I kept running.
My head buzzed, as if all of my thoughts had a mind of their own and were yelling out uncontrollably. I turned into the nearest bathroom, thanking all higher beings that it was completely vacant, and flung myself into a stall. My knees buckled and I collapsed onto the floor. Gripping my hands on either side of the toilet, I braced myself. My stomach coiled into a burning knot again, and I emptied my breakfast into the porcelain object in front of me.
Why?
It was the only question that ran through my head as I wiped my mouth with toilet paper and leaned my back against the stall door, my knees brought up to my chest.
Why did Krystal have to lie?
Why is it that Minho looked so much happier when she showed up?
Why couldn’t I just live with it instead of running away at the sight of them?
Why did I have to be so weak?
But mostly, why did I send the letter in the first place?
If I hadn’t, then this sure as hell wouldn’t be happening right now.
“Pabo,” I whispered to myself as tears started to cloud my eyes. “I’m such an idiot.”
The bell sounded through the school’s overhead speakers and echoed dully in the tiled bathroom. I stayed in my position, curled up by the stall door.
I didn’t know how much time had passed; only that it did, until I heard a low voice hesitantly call out my name.
“Taemin? Are you in here?”
I lifted my eyes from the spot on the tiled floor I had been staring at. “Minho?” I called back, my voice hoarse from the long period of silence that I had endured.
I heard his footsteps grow louder until they were right behind me. “Open up,” he said gently.
Though I didn’t get up from the floor, I slid to the side of the stall rather than the front and reached my hand up to unlock the latch. The stall swung open and Minho took a step into it. I didn’t look at him, though I could feel his eyes on me. Tears started to pool in my eyes again, but I refused to blink and let them out.
Silence resounded throughout the small area we were in for a few moments, until Minho coughed. “Taemin, are you okay?” he asked me, concern laced in his tone.
I looked up at him slowly, and though I had no idea what my face looked like, I assumed it must’ve been horrible by the way he gasped and widened his eyes.
“I-,” I started to croak out, but my stomach lurched again. I flung myself towards the toilet and gagged.
“Shh, it’s okay,” Minho whispered in a soothing voice as he reached over to me and held my shaggy hair back, rubbing circles on my back with his other hand.
Stop being so nice to me! Can’t you see what you’re doing to me?
I shakily pushed myself up, allowing Minho to drop his hands back down to his sides. As I stood weakly, Minho pulled me into a tight hug.
“I don’t know what happened, but you’ll be okay,” he cooed in my ear.
I didn’t want to fight back; the warmth his arms provided was too inviting. So I didn’t. I allowed him to rub comforting circles on my back and breathe softly on my neck, my tears sliding down my cheeks unconsciously.
I love you, Minho. So much.
But you’ll never be mine.
Anneyong ^^
So, I'm back. After like... a month OTL I'm so sorry ;-; I had writer's block. But I started writing this chapter earlier today and it all just kinda flowed into this ._. so, yeah haha.
I do realize that this chapter is depressing. And, probably not even close to something you even remotely wanted to read after a month of waiting, but this does play a role in the story line. Believe me, it does.
Anyways, I said that i was going to start a new fic, and I did. Shamelss advertising here I go:
My new fic is called The Game of Consequences. It's a Baekren/JRen (from NU'EST) love triangle kind of twist. Please read it~~~ :D I would be VERY happy.
Thank you to all of my subscribers, new and old, on this fic too ^^ When I started this, I never thought I'd get over 100 subs. But you guys just continue to amaze me ;~; I love you guys!
Btw, are you all dying to read Minho's POV of this situation? :3 (shamless author torturing her readers xD)
Until next time~
xoxo
This is a very late message, but if you haven't checked out my blog or profile yet, I'm currently on an indefinite hiatus. I'm not sure when I'll update. Sorry!
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