Jessica was annoyed. She felt like throwing a book at the girls making such noise in the classroom when the other students were trying to study. Jessica sighed and glanced at the two girls in the middle of the classroom, laughing and chatting with some other girls from another class who had ditched their class to be here instead.

Jessica rolled her eyes and tried to focus. The laughter escalated and the urge to throw something advanced.

Just because the teacher was away, and they had a self-study session instead, these girls acted however they wanted. But it wasn’t unusual. The girls usually did.

The door to the classroom suddenly opened. Making the girls stop in the middle of their laughter. Jessica turned towards the person who had entered, surprised to see the girl who had been absent most of the day. And seeing the girl’s appearance, Jessica’s heart dropped.

Taeyeon looked like she had been beaten up.

“Hey, Kim! Who did you get the blue eye from?” Sooyoung asked as Taeyeon closed the door to the classroom after she had entered.

Taeyeon said nothing and walked to her seat. Jessica watched as the girl completely ignored her friend, sat down, and picked up a book, and began reading. Everyone in the classroom watched in tension as Sooyoung, who didn’t seem to like to be ignored, made her way towards Taeyeon.

“I asked you something.” Sooyoung said and slammed her hands in front of Taeyeon on the desk.

Taeyeon acted like Sooyoung wasn’t there. She continued to read in silence, to Jessica’s amazement.

“Hey, Kim!” Sooyoung slapped the book out of Taeyeon’s hands. It flew across the desk and fell on the floor. This time Taeyeon turned towards Sooyoung, giving the taller girl the attention she had craved for.

“Who beat you up?” Sooyoung asked with a grin.

Taeyeon said nothing. Instead the girl rose from her seat, picked up the book, and went towards the door of the classroom.

“Hey!” Sooyoung grabbed the collar of Taeyeon’s shirt and prevented the girl from leaving. She yanked the girl back, making Taeyeon stumble backwards, crashing into another student’s desk.

“Sorry.” Taeyeon said her first word in two days, and bowed towards the student whose desk she had fallen into.

Sooyoung didn’t seem to care that Taeyeon was in the middle of apologizing and grabbed Taeyeon’s shirt once again. She dragged the girl towards her, still holding Taeyeon’s shirt tightly.

“You’re not so tough now, huh?” Sooyoung said.

You’re not so tough now, huh?

“Let her go!” Jessica was standing. Already on her way to make Sooyoung release the shorter girl. She gulped when she realized what she had done, and she had earned the whole class’ attention.

Sooyoung looked confused at her, and the moment of interruption seemed to have given Taeyeon enough time to get out of Sooyoung’s grip. This time she ran towards the door of the classroom, trying to get away from Sooyoung, or maybe getting away from the whole class.

“Get back here Kim!” Sooyoung shouted and ran after the short girl who had escaped. Yuri and the girls from the other class followed, and Jessica realized they wouldn’t go easy on Taeyeon.

Without thinking or caring what she did she ran after the girls. When she got outside of the classroom she saw that Yuri had managed to capture Taeyeon further down the hallway. She had the shorter girl pressed up against a locker, with the other girls standing around her.

C’mon Taeyeon. Fight back. Jessica thought as she jogged towards the girls. Why aren’t you fighting back now?!

She heard someone being hit. Jessica felt her heart stopping to beat when she saw Taeyeon was lying on the floor. went dry, and she hurried to reach the girls before Taeyeon would face any more harm.

“Don’t hit a person that’s lying down!” Jessica shouted and pushed Sooyoung out of the way. It gave Jessica space to stand between the girls and Taeyeon. She glared at the girls who were standing around the girl lying on the floor, she wouldn’t back down from them. She wouldn’t let the hurt Taeyeon anymore.

“Mind your own business, Jung.” Sooyoung growled.

“I am.” Jessica said. “This is my business.” She added.

She saw anger flickering in Sooyoung’s eyes. The taller girl stepped closer, but Jessica stood firm in her position. She wasn’t scared, she wasn’t intimidated. She was pissed, furious. She was ready to beat any of these girls down if she needed.

“I will– “ Sooyoung didn’t get to finish her sentence. A blow hit Sooyoung right across the chin. Jessica didn’t have time to react before she felt herself being dragged away from the girls, running away from the group towards the other direction of the hallway.

“Wait, wait, follow me.” Jessica changed direction. She took the lead and ran down the stairs towards the juniors’ hallway. She didn’t let go of Taeyeon’s hand, and Taeyeon didn’t let go of hers. Even when they had reached the unused classroom in the juniors’ hallway, they were still holding hands. With their backs pressed against the closed door, their chest heaving up and down as they tried calming down.

“You hit her.” Jessica said after minutes of silence.

“Yeah…” Taeyeon breathed out. “She would have hit you otherwise…”

Jessica turned towards the girl beside her. Blood from Taeyeon’s lip had dropped down on her shirt. Jessica’s grimaced in pain.

“You’re bleeding.” Jessica pointed out.

“Yeah…” Taeyeon tried wiping away the blood with her arm, but Jessica stopped her, holding her arm to prevent the girl from using it. Taeyeon looked confused at her, and Jessica looked just as confused at her. Questions swirled around her mind.

“What happened to you?” Jessica asked.

Taeyeon turned away from her. A painful expression appeared on her face, her jaw tightened, and Jessica felt the grip Taeyeon had on her hand tightened, but she didn’t pull away.

“My dad wasn’t pleased with my test results….” Taeyeon mumbled.

Jessica’s eyes widened. She blinked, as she tried to piece everything together.

“You were hiding your face yesterday…” Jessica said.

Taeyeon looked at her, and without any verbal response, Jessica knew that was the case. Jessica felt sorry for her, everyone had thought she had been sleeping, no one had taken their time to check on her, no one had taken her time to see if she was alright.

“I’m sorry.” Jessica said. “Were your test results that bad?”

“It was between 75 and 80…” Taeyeon said and looked away from her.

“What?! But that’s really good compared to your other tests!” Jessica exclaimed.

“Not good enough…” Taeyeon mumbled.

Jessica felt like beating up Taeyeon’s father. The girl had tried hard, and it was a really good result compared to the other girl’s tests. Taeyeon’s father should be proud. Jessica was proud. The girl had done well.

“Sit.” Jessica made Taeyeon sit down on the floor facing her. Taeyeon did without complaining. Jessica felt like they had a lot to talk about. A lot. And Jessica had a feeling Taeyeon would open up, she had a feeling that whatever that had been keeping Taeyeon from saying certain things was gone.

“You were bullied.” Jessica stated.

Taeyeon looked a bit confused, but she nodded her head. Jessica bit her lower lip as she tried to remember how Taeyeon had been before high school. How surprised Jessica had been by the complete transformation Taeyeon had gone through between middle school and high school.

“You began acting tough to not get bullied again.” Jessica said.

Taeyeon nodded her head again.

Jessica furrowed her eyebrows. Then it was only one question remaining. One unanswered mystery Jessica needed to know. One thing she had been wondering about since she started high school.

“But why didn’t you treat me like you treated everyone else?” Jessica asked.

Taeyeon’s eyes widened and she turned away from the girl. A small blush appeared on the girl’s cheeks. Jessica was confused. And she realized she needed to ask yes or no questions, otherwise she would get no answers out of this girl.

“Did you treat me differently because I knew you had been bullied before?” Jessica asked.

To her surprise, the answer was no.

Jessica blinked confused.

“Did you treat me differently because I’ve seen you weak?” Jessica asked.

Once again was the answer no.

Then what the heck was the reason.

“Then why?” Jessica asked. She felt she was getting frustrated. She needed to know. She needed to understand. She was so close now. So close, and it was making her go crazy that she didn’t know the real reason.

Taeyeon gulped. Jessica felt the girl shift her grip on her hand. The girl exhaled and inhaled before she turned to face her.

Taeyeon her lips. Gulped once again, and opened , and Jessica believed it would stop there, that the girl wouldn’t say anything like how she had done before. And she would still remain unaware.

“Because I like you.” Taeyeon confessed.

Jessica stared shocked and surprised at the girl.

That was a reason Jessica never could have imagined.