“I can’t believe you would do that to me! I thought you would have been different and would actually care about someone other than yourself. Obviously I was wrong. But you know something? Despite my disappointment in you, I’m also disappointed with myself. I can’t believe it took me a month to find out.”

Without allowing any time for a response from your now ex-boyfriend, if you could even call him that, you stormed down the barren school halls and made your way to the comfort of your home. All Xiumin could do as he stood with sorrow filled eyes, was watch as your back started disappearing from his sight.

******* One month ago. ***********

It was currently lunch break and rather than sitting inside the cafeteria that Chaos occupied, you decided to sit under the skyscraper of a tree that you self-declared as yours.  Leaning comfortably against the trunk, you were sitting peacefully in the shade of the leaves with a sandwich in one hand and a book in the other.

Most people would describe you as an outcast, the single person in the entire school that everybody deemed a loner and an easy target. Sometimes you believed there was a flashing red arrow above your head that was visible to everybody else’s eyes but yours.

You tried making friends, even if they were out of pity, but they never lasted long. Your socially awkward and inverted self, made sure that friends were the last thing to ever stick to you, unlike the names that seemed to constantly float around your very being. The names like “loser” and “freak” were common and something that you gradually grew to accept. You never realized though that high school would exactly mimic a jungle, where the weak easily got preyed on.

Unfortunately for you, unlike the jungle there were no places to hide in high school. Everyone seemed to know exactly where everyone else was at all times. If people ever questioned the existence of psychic abilities they should really check out this high school, surely they would find something here.

As you took the final bite of your sandwich and continued reading the novel held carefully in your hand, the little bit of sun you allowed to shine down on you suddenly disappeared; shadow loomed all around you. Curiously looking up, your eyes widened at the sight in front of you. The source of the extra shadow that made the comforting warmth of the sun vanish was none other than one of the kingkas in the school: Xiumin.

To say you couldn’t believe your eyes was the understatement of the year. Here standing in front of you was the eldest member of the single most coolest yet stuck up group of individuals you ever had the displeasure (or pleasure on the rare occasions) of meeting. Before you could say anything to possibly save your dignity for the day, Xiumin spoke up.

“________ is your name right? I’m Xiumin. Can I sit here with you?”  Without waiting for an answer, Xiumin plopped his body right down and too close next to yours.

“Um, yah that’s my name and I know who you are. One of the 12 jerks.” You mumbled the last part but took notice of the glance Xiumin sent your way. The temperature in your cheeks rose a few degrees and you were afraid he might have actually heard what you said.

Xiumin sighed before he continued, “You know I always see you with a book. There is a life outside of pages and pages of words.”

“Typical, can’t use his brain for much else other than staring at himself in a mirror and giving compliments to himself. It’s surprising he even knows there are words on these pages.”

“Well I happen to like this life; less disappointment and ridicule. I also don’t get teased or mocked or embarrassed when I read pages and pages of words. Now what do you want?” You had to admit to yourself that was probably a bit harsh, but there was a reason you were outside. You wanted the peace and tranquility nature offered; you wanted some time to yourself before you had to brave the jungle’s predators, all while counting down the minutes until the day was finally over.

If Xiumin was fazed he didn’t show it; “Right to the point huh? Fine by me. I’ll get straight to the point too, go out with me; let me buy you a coffee.”

“No.” The words easily came out of your mouth without a second thought, but your brain was still trying to process what Xiumin just said. Go out? With him? Coffee? WHAT ? A kingka plus a social outcast, people see the wrong with that equation right?

“Oh come on, I’ll be a gentleman for everything. I’ll pick you up, open the car door for you every time, I’ll pull out your chair when we sit down and I’ll pay for your drink.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

With a sigh you turned your body to look him straight in the eye and voiced your thoughts that have been on a constant loop the moment he sat beside you.

“Because you are you; you are a part of the kingka group that the entire school and probably the entire neighbourhood know of. I on the other hand, am the social outcast that is probably a part of some game of who can make me the most embarrassed. This won’t work whatever you are trying. Frankly, it’s probably just some type of prank. So thanks but no thanks.”

You started packing your book into the bag that lay limply beside you, but before you could get up and find another place of solitude a hand on your arm prevented your escape.

“Give me a chance. Please. Look I understand where you are coming from, and I really am sorry. To be honest, I’m not a part of what the other stupid popular people do. Seriously, I’m popular by association that’s it. Give me a chance; I’m different than everyone else.”

You didn’t know what did it; whether it was the lost puppy pleading look in his eyes or the fact that you are too trust worthy for your own good, but you found yourself agreeing to the seemingly harmless coffee date. You had a stirring of a gut feeling though that this was too good to be true.

After that one simple coffee date, many more followed. The two of you went for dinners, movies and simple walks around the city. It had now been one month since the start of this unusual relationship, but you had to admit, you were starting to fall for this seemingly cold and arrogant guy.

As he promised, he was a gentleman on every date and his words of affection never ceased to make your heart increase from its normal pace. At school, things were a little different too. People gradually stopped calling you names, rather they simply just ignored you; and you were fine with that.

By the end of the month, life actually seemed to look up for you. You had a great boyfriend, your relationship with your family was better than ever and you were feeling genuinely happy all the time. But the biggest change of all was the fact that you actually looked forward to waking up in the morning and heading to that dreaded school of yours.

 It wasn’t until the last Friday of that single month though that things started to go rather quickly downhill.

It was a pleasant Friday afternoon and once again you found yourself sitting peacefully under your favourite tree. In the same position as always, you easily allowed your new fantasy novel the opportunity to alter the reality around you. You were too absorbed in your own little world that you failed to register the footsteps that were approaching your spot.

“Hey love. You’re looking beautiful as always.” You were startled out of your false-reality and quickly looked over to see your boyfriend sitting closely beside you.

“Hey yourself.” With a blush painting its way up from your neck, you quickly turned yourself away in hopes that Xiumin wouldn’t notice how his presence was starting to affect you.

“So listen, there’s a party that’s happening tonight at Sehun’s house and I was wondering if you would want to accompany me?” Xiumin looked at you calmly, not matching your wide-eyed stare you were currently modelling on your face. Before words could come out of your now parted lips, Xiumin once again started speaking.

“Ok before you deny, just know that I will be there with you all night, so you don’t have to worry about any drunken creeps trying to hit on you. And besides, I want the opportunity to take my girl to a party and show her off.”

The time was approaching 7:30 and you were deep in your wardrobe, sifting through each outfit you owned, quickly deciding that nothing was good enough. After you made your bedroom look as though a tornado specifically targeted your room, you finally decided on a purple sparkled tank top, black ripped skinny jeans and converse. Honestly, you were looking forward to dressing up a little bit, but had no clue what the typical dress code is for these types of parties.

Finishing the touch ups on your make-up and hair, you quickly made your way to the front door in both anticipation and nervousness for the arrival of your boyfriend. Apparently your thoughts were drifting away because the firm knock on the door made you jump a few feet.

“Hey. You’re right on time. I hope I look ok for this.” You opened the door for Xiumin and let out a soft hum of appreciation as you noticed his attire. Dark blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up atop black jeans made Xiumin look mighty fine in your honest opinion.

“You look absolutely stunning. Now come on we don’t want to be too late for the party.” Xiumin lead you to his car and before you knew it, the party house was directly in sight. Your heart began jumping in your chest and your nervousness from before was coming back full force.

Sensing this, Xiumin took your hand in his once he found a vacant spot to park the car.

“I know you must be nervous, but don’t worry. I will be there with you. Just try to relax ok?”

A slight nod of the head later and you were magically on the front porch of the house, the blasting music enticing you in through the doors. Walking slowly inside, you now understood why you choose to be alone; the music was too loud, the people were sort of dancing and amber liquid sloshed around in the air and floor. Yah this certainly wasn’t your scene; however, Xiumin seemed right at home.

“Hey, _________, I’m going to go get us a drink ok? Wait here by the stairs.” With that, he was gone, letting you stand awkwardly in the sea of grinding bodies and alcohol.

A few times, people bumped into you, not caring (or coherent) enough to apologize and more than a few times were guys trying to hit it off. At this point, the time when you would go home seemed much too far away.

It wasn’t until almost half an hour later as you were starting to really get anxious in this unfamiliar territory, did Xiumin decide to grace you with his presence, dragging along a few extra bodies whom you knew to be more kingkas.

“Hey, um, Xiumin, do you think we could get out of here? I’m not comfortable and I really want to get home.” Despite how long Xiumin left you for, you couldn’t get angry at him. You honestly only cared about going home and hiding under the blankets of your cozy bed. Unfortunately the sway of his body and undeniable stench coming from every pore told you he wasn’t going to be so understanding.

“What? Why d’ya wanna go ssho early? We jush got ‘ere.” The slur of his speech made you ever more nervous and your desire to leave grew steadily. It was at the point when Xiumin’s friends tried getting you to drink as well that you started to fully panic.

“Please Xiumin. I really don’t want to be here. Just take me home. You can always come back. I just don’t want to be here right now.”

“Wow Xiumin, I didn’t know she was this much of a loser. Sorry, we should have picked someone better for you.” One of Xiumin’s friends spoke up with a shockingly high amount of sobriety, but what he said made you turn your attention back to Xiumin for an explanation.

“Huh? Pick me? What is he talking about?”  You looked to Xiumin for an explanation, but certainly were not mentally prepared for the one you received.

“Th-they choose ya for a bet. Thish whole relashionship was from a shimple bet. It was nothing.”

You looked at Xiumin with a horrified expression, noting that what he said did not seem to faze his drunken demeanour even slightly. At that moment it didn’t matter if your house was five minutes away or five hours, you started running to your solitude and you didn’t stop. You didn’t stop when you heard curse words being tossed around, didn’t stop when you heard your name being shouted after your retreating figure and you certainly didn’t stop when you heard a pathetic sorry be tossed into the cool night air.

To say you were heartbroken was too simple. You were crushed; humiliated yet again. You felt betrayed, manipulated and what killed you even more inside was the fact that you started falling for the side of Xiumin that he only let you see. You couldn’t bear the thought of having to face him and his friends again after everything that occurred.

Over the weekend you managed to distract yourself enough not to think about anything related to that treacherous guy; you ignored his calls, texts and didn’t even go on the internet to see if he spammed your inbox. Monday was the day though that had your heart racing at the thought of bumping in to him. However, luck seemed to be on your side when you managed to go all day without seeing even the slightest glimpse of his body. By the end of the day though, Lady Luck seemed to have turned her back on you, despite your best efforts.

Before the day was over, your teacher requested the aid of a few students to help transfer books from different rooms. Deciding this was the best option in order to avoid Xiumin further, you didn’t hesitate to raise your hand and offer your time.

Once the bell rang you stayed behind with two other students and received your instructions: simply carry textbooks from your current classroom to the storage room on the next floor. Between the three of you, the time it took to finish everything was 35 minutes and by now everyone had cleared out of the school, eager to get home as soon as humanly possible.

Cheering inwardly at your success for another day, you quickly grabbed your bag from your locker and started making your way to the front doors of the school. Almost reaching the threshold to freedom, a deep voice coming from behind froze you in your tracks.

“_________, wait! I waited for you to be finished. We need to seriously talk.” You slowly turned around, not wanting to face the guy behind you. Seeing him standing there though, you weren’t sure if you were impressed by his persistence and determination to stay after school or utterly annoyed.

“There is nothing to talk about Xiumin. Everything to you was a joke and a lie, which I fell right into. We are over, if there even was anything to begin with.”

Xiumin sighed but was determined for you to listen to everything he had to say. “Ok, I admit at the beginning it was all just a bet. My friends wanted to see if I could get you to go out with me and then how long it would last. The idea was to pull you along for a ride before breaking it off. But the month we spent together – wow. That month was amazing. I realized that everything people say about you is not true at all. You are amazing and beautiful and smart and over the month I started having feelings for you. I started falling in love with you and by the end, everything was real.”

You didn’t want to believe anything that Xiumin said, but with tears starting to pool in your eyes, you knew his words were affecting you more than you would have liked. You wanted to stay strong though, you didn’t want to be pulled in by his warm eyes and kind words.

“I can’t believe you would do that to me! I thought you would have been different and would actually care about someone other than yourself. Obviously I was wrong. But you know something? Despite my disappointment in you, I’m also disappointed with myself. I can’t believe it took me a month to find out.”

With that you turned around and finished the length of the hall to the front door. The both of you felt broken but unlike you, Xiumin didn’t want to forget everything that had happened. He wanted to fix everything and start a relationship with you that were based on mutual feelings. He became determined to make you his once again.

By the time you got home, your motivation to do any homework dwindled down to nothing. You managed to change into comfy sweatpants and an old t-shirt, but that was about all your broken heart was letting you be capable of at the moment. You also managed to hold in the tears until now too, but the threat of a breakdown was starting to become imminent. That was until you heard knocks on the front door.

Making a reluctant decision to see who was disturbing your misery, you dragged yourself over to stop the persistent knocking. The person on the other side would have gotten a door slammed in their face, if it wasn’t for their foot getting in the way.

“Look, I’m so sorry for everything that happened and I take full responsibility. Over the month we spent together I really started seeing you for the girl outside of her novels and I honestly fell in love with you. The way this all began was not acceptable, but I am not going to make excuses for myself. All I want is to start over. So….Hi. My name is Xiumin. You’re ________ right? I was hoping that I could take you out for some coffee?”

With a small smile starting the invasion against your facial features, you couldn’t help but feel the warmth that you always felt when you were with Xiumin; but could your heart give him a second chance?

“Hi Xiumin. My name is indeed ________, and you know I would love to take you up on that coffee.” 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-

A/N

Whoo!! I'm back guys!! Sorry again that it's been so long, but hopefully this oneshot can make up for it! ^^

Thanks to eunjung99 for requesting and feel free to request again!! :D