{Jihae}

            Baekhyun: Trust me. I have my ways.

Confusion sweeps through me as I re-read the message again. What the heck does Baekhyun mean when he sent that message? Why does he sound as though it is his duty for him to protect me? Just as I am immersed in a train of thoughts, someone snatches my phone away from me.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing—” I stutter when I turn around. Sooyeon is holding on to my phone, a smug look smacked on her countenance. Four other girls are behind her, equally conceited looks plastered on their faces.

“I beg your pardon? Can’t unnie here take a look at your phone?” she says with a twisted smile. Her eyes attack mine as though she's ready to devour me in one go.

“We’re the same age.” I mumble quietly, but she heard me.

“The kid has spoken. The gut of you to harass my oppa!” Sooyeon shouts as she scrolls through my chat history with Baekhyun. “You disgusting ! Flirting with him like that!” 

I resist rolling my eyes as she shoots me a slanted grin before whispering over to the other girls. They nod after she finishes. Then at her command, the four of them start grabbing me. Some get a hold of my collar, others my wrists. I try pulling back but their grips are deadly secure. And before I know it, they start dragging me out of the locker room and to the outdoors.

"Hey! What are you doing? Let me go!" I try budging away from them but their hold on me is too tight and I can't pull away.

My eyes lean in on a nearby lake. I look over to Sooyeon, a malevolent glint in her eyes as she turns to smirk at me. They are going to throw me into the lake. . If only I hadn’t refused to learn swimming back then. Now I am going to pay the fatal price of drowning to death. Yay me.

“Sooyeon?” I call her name, my feet barely a metre away from the edge of the lake. “Please!” I let out a desperate plea, but it seems that sympathy gets you only this far, especially when dealing with such crude people

“This is the price to pay for messing around with them.” She grins.

“I didn’t ask for it! It’s not my fault he sat beside me!” Just as the words escape from my lips, I feel a burning sensation on my left cheek. Sooyeon had slapped me.

“You still have not learnt your lesson have you? No one gets away from stealing Baekhyun. NO ONE!” She shrieks as she pushes me over. I grab on to the other girls for support but they all shake me off.

The plunging into the water part isn’t like what it seems like they portray in movies where everything goes slow-mo and it feels like a ten second drop into the water. No. None of all that. Instead, I find myself immediately being dunked inside the scary depths of the lake.

My hands wailing about as I try to hold on to something but to no avail. My legs kicking about in the air-like water, trying to find some land to stand on but there is none. My head sinks into the water as I feel water diving into my ears and I let out muffled screams.

The lake water isn’t as clean as it looks. Or at least it doesn’t taste as good. Because when I scream, I goodly intake a few millimetres of lake water which I desperately try to spit out but only end up drinking a few more gulps.

Is this how I die? Am I never going to do great stuff, achieve great goals and die together with the one I love peacefully in my sleep at the ripe age of ninety like I had pictured? Is this how I meet my end? In a freaking school pond! I guess I wouldn’t know. Because what follows next is darkness clouding my vision.

I think I feel a hand grabbing onto me, pulling me up. But then again it might have been an angel’s grasping my lost soul, leading me away to heaven.

•••••

I wake up in the arms of someone. But my eyes are too puffy from the lake water and I am unable to make out anything apart from the distorted blinding from the rays of the sun. Then I hear a familiar voice.

“My god thank god you’re awake!” The voice is similar to Luhan’s but of a different pitch and tone altogether. It is Baekhyun’s voice.

“Is this heaven?”

“Nope. This is as earthly as it’ll ever get.” The voice replies. “Are you better now?” His voice is so soft and gentle that I just want to embrace it. I nod because to open my mouth and speak again was too much work.

“I’ll get you to the nurses’ office okay?” He says. “Do you think you can get up by yourself?”

I nod again. Despite the wincing pain in my left temple, I place my palm on the ground and attempt to stand up. What follows next is a series of tumbling.

“I guess that’s a no.”

Before I know it, Baekhyun scoops me up and carries me into the school. If only I have the strength to resist, I would have. Because a guy carrying another girl bridal style to the nurses’ office, which is like at the other side of campus, will only spark up rumours. Not to mention Sooyeon and her gang up on me again.

But because I find myself as weak as ever, I lean in on his chest. The warmth it radiates is soothing and so I don’t back away. “Enjoying yourself?” He laughs. I pull away immediately when he said that and would have fallen off if he hadn’t caught me right away. “Woah steady now. I was just joking.”

When we enter the nurses’ office, he places me gently on the sick bay. One of the nurse grabs me a cup of warm water while another places a blanket over me. Baekhyun takes a seat beside my bed, it is only then I realise that his hair and practically his entire body is wet too, making me turn away because his shirt is a little see-through.

I have many questions. How did I end up in Baekhyun’s arms? Who saved me? Did he? How could he when the lake was so far away from campus. I am pretty sure there was no one around when Sooyeon pushed me in.

Baekhyun sees the perplexed expression on my face. “Just close your eyes Jihae. Sleep. Rest. Everything is okay. I’ll protect you.” The voice travels into my ears, reassuring me as I close my eye lids.

I’ll just leave the questions to later when I wake up.