.seven

Once upon a time I was normal, and then a wild Baekhyun came into my life and threw all ordinary stuff I had out of the window and into oblivion, never to be seen again, replacing it with impossible and crazy things since I was eight, and then Kyungsoo came, which ed everything up all the more. Well, whatever. happens anyway—that’s why Minhyun was born.

I got to school the next day and surprisingly, nothing happened. I had expected everyone to suddenly pounce on me and interrogate my relationship with Luhan because of what happened yesterday but no. They were all normal—and uninterested, if you ask me.

Weird, I thought. But it’s not like I care anyway. All the more better if they didn’t notice me, right? I slam my locker close, making my way to the classroom as usual. Baekhyun immediately spots me before I could open the door, and suddenly drags me away.

“Yah! What the-”

He presses a finger on my lips to silence me, frowning. “Before you utter a word with that big, loud mouth of yours let me just explain something here. Concerning your friend Luhan,” I knew he purposely exclaimed the word ‘friend’, “he’s been debunked.”

I was about to yell at him for insulting my mouth when the words finally sink in. “He’s been what? Debunked? B-but how?”

Told you happens.

Debunked is a term here that basically means “to drop down the social ladder”. Once you fall, you fall quite hard. People who have been debunked are like people being thrown out of popularity and forced to become an outcast, bullied like the others. Not unless you have your own unpopular friends of course and someone to defend you, but Luhan being debunked…

“Rumors has it that he picked a fight with some gangsters, and because he couldn’t defend himself…they thought that he was too weak and thus debunked.”

No.

“I suggest you stay away from him for a little while.” He looks me with a worried face. I could tell that he’s being cautious, too. “Students involved with debunked people are usually bullied also, Yoonmi.”

XXX

Jongin brought me to the cafeteria for lunch again. Surprisingly, I didn’t mind being dragged by the wrist two floors down, I was even laughing, which is quite a feat because I wouldn’t so much as let him touch a single strand of my hair since the first day.

He’s a nice kid, I eventually decided. Jongin is a bit too