❝chapter five;
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                                   DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE; HER NAME IS ALICE

Z-zzz..

A blur image of a certain someone reading a storybook flashes for a second before it went back to static..

Zzzz…

A certain boy with ears of a rabbit caught her attention.. She scrambled on her feet..

“Off with your head!”

Zzz.. everything was jumbled up..

“You’re late! You’re late!” He points to his pocket watch as his bunny ears twitched.

… everything fades to black…

“Hurry Alice! Hurry! I need to br-”

The school bus jerked to a stop and Jiyeon stirred awake, mindlessly wiping in case she drooled. After the incident at the playground, Jimin had stopped sitting beside her on the bus, stopped eating with her during lunch, and pretty much stopped talking to her. He had basically hid himself from her, as much as he was not seen with Joohyun and her friends as well. She missed him and his company, definitely, but she knew it would have been selfish for her to seek him out, knowing the other kids would again.

Waiting as usual for the rest of the kids to hop off the bus, Jiyeon scrambled towards the door, bowed to the bus driver and made way to assemble in the hall.

The kids still bothered her every now and then though the frequency had decreased evidently. She can deal with boys pulling her hair when they walked pass, girls ignoring her when she had wanted to join their conversation, sitting alone in the cafeteria. The desk joined to hers was left empty since nobody wanted to sit with her. It would have been nothing but trouble, both for her and the person who chose to sit with her. Jiyeon didn’t complain, she’s not unfamiliar with solitude.

The noisy class settled down as their homeroom teacher, Mr Kim Jongdae, entered the class and placed the books on his desk. The class monitor got everybody to stand up to greet him, and only sat back down when Mr Kim asked them to. Jiyeon’s eyes twinkled when she spotted the shadow of a small figure who was fidgeting outside the class door. And Mr Kim’s next words confirmed her assumption.

“Class, today we have a new student transferred to our school. Come in!”

The said boy popped his head in, before pushing his round specs that looked a little too big for his face up the bridge of his nose. Jiyeon saw him taking in a deep breath to calm himself down before marching in with his raised chest. Some of the classmates started to giggled when they saw that he had his top most button buttoned up and his shirt neatly tugged into his school shorts, his clean white socks covered far above his ankle. He was also carrying a lame, black leather backpack that did not impress the kids. The only words printed on a small gold metal plate was a “Louis Vuitton”, no superhero, no cartoon characters.

Standing beside the teacher, the older male placed a friendly hand on his shoulder and said with a smile, “Introduce yourself to the class.”

Clearing his throat, his eyes scanned the room before fixing his gaze with a certain someone. His gaze was sharp yet spoke no anger, the hint of sadness so mild it seems like it wasn’t there to begin with.

He points to his pocket watch as his bunny ears twitched. “You’re late, off with your head!”

Jiyeon’s eyes widened as his gaze pierced into hers, and strong sense of familiarity hitting her in the gut as she felt her breath starts to shorten.

He’s the rabbit.. He must be the rabbit.. He’s just the rabbit.. b-but.. but why.. why am I feeling like this..

“Hello everybody, my name is Taehyung. Kim Taehyung. Nice to meet you.” He had added in extra emphasis on his name, as if it was something really important to know.

The class giggled at how his bowl shaped hair shifted with his polite bow. Mr Kim patted his shoulder and addressed the class, “He’ll be your classmate from today onwards, please be nice to him alright! And hmm, let’s see..” The older male scanned the room before nodding towards the empty desk beside Jiyeon.

“You can take the empty desk beside Jiyeon, I’m sure she would be nice to you.”

Shoving him lightly towards her, Taehyung could hear mischievous murmurs and unpleasant remarks as he walked slowly towards his assigned seat. Side glances and smirks from elementary students didn’t seem less menacing than from that of adults. His thick brows furrowed in confusion when he hears mean things being said about Jiyeon.

Do they even know her, why are they being so mean? What had she done to them..? Had she done something wrong?

Ignoring them at best, he shifted his attention back onto the girl with that surprised look on her face and gave her a small polite smile. He climbed into his seat and placed his bag on the floor, turning back to her and whispered, “We are deskmates now, what’s your name?”

Blinking away the memories of her dream, she glanced around nervously to see her classmates smirking in their direction and she knew what’s going to happen soon. Gulping slowly while Mr Kim starts on his lesson, she dipped her head towards him and whispered back softly, “M-My name is J-Jiyeon.. b-but you cannot be my friend.. you must stay away from me..”

Eyes widen in surprise before the thick brows creased again, Taehyung pushed up his spectacles and stared straight at her, “why can’t I be your friend?”

Fiddling with her pencil, Jiyeon unknowingly turned around towards Jimin’s direction at the far corner of the room to see his head jerked towards the teacher almost abruptly, lips pressed together into a thin line. She was never a rude person, but she had always been a burden, as shown with Jimin's behavior. So she had decided that not this time; she won't be a burden to someone nice this time.

Turning away from him to focus her attention back onto the teacher with her lips pressed together, almost sadly, Jiyeon had chose silence.

All she wanted was peace; peace that was never bestowed unto her.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up as a small arm crept around her shoulder once their English teacher, Mr Eric Nam, left the room for their lunch break time. No sooner than later, the familiar group crowded around the two joined desk, the unnerving smile on their faces.

“Hey Jiyeon, introduce your new friend to us~” Seungwan, Joohyun’s best friend cooed while resting her cheeks on her palms that were propped up on Taehyung’s desk, staring at him sweetly.

Breath hitching in fear, Jiyeon diverted her gaze to the unknowing boy, who was grinning brightly at the group of kids. Clenching her fist on the side of her uniform, the girl bit down hard on her lips before shaking her head at them.

“H-He.. He’s not my friend..” it came out not more than a whisper, before she raised her glance to meet Joohyun’s in determination. “He’s not my friend!” she shouted, before untangling herself from Seulgi’s arm and dashing out of the room.

Scoffing, Joohyun glared at the girl that ran out of the door before signalling for her two sidekicks to chase after her. Turning her gaze back on the puzzled boy with her palm on her hips, she waved him a dismissive hand at him as the rest of the class slowly filtered out of the room for their lunch.

“New boy, since you’re not her friend, you should leave for lunch now~ there’s usually a long queue at the cafeteria, so you would want to be fast before the food runs out!”

Quirking a brow at her, Taehyung pursed his lips as he bent to pick up his wallet from his bag, eyes scanning around to realise that they were the only two left in class. There was no reason for him to stay anyway. Leaving his seat, he shuffled out of the room, wondering why didn’t she follow after him if the cafeteria queue was really as long as she had said it to be.

Just after he turned the corner ready to jog down the stairs, Taehyung heard hushed whimpering and struggling noises from behind him. Stopping at his track, he popped his head from behind the wall only to widen his eyes when he witnessed the two girls dragging his deskmate back into the classroom. He gasped when he heard something, or someone, being shoved towards the mass of tables and chairs. Alarmed, the boy scrambled back towards the classroom, looking in to see what’s going on.

Jiyeon was shoved onto the floor, and the three girls towering over her.

“Who said you can run away!” Seulgi scolded the girl with her arms to her hips. “You promised us Hello Kitty stickers last week! Where is it?”

Rubbing onto her scraped elbows, Jiyeon’s lips were already pouted as they trembled, both in pain and in fear.

“I.. I didn’t have the time t-”

“Oh! So Kim Jiyeon is a liar!” Seungwan laughed mockingly, “You’re the kind of girl that never keeps her word! We will tell the whole class you’re a liar!”

“N-No! I.. I will bring the stickers tomorro- ahh!” Wincing when her hair was being grabbed onto, she felt her head being slammed towards a chair. Taehyung gasped at the sight, urgently shifting his gaze around hoping someone would pass by to help her, though to no avail.

“Last week you bought the strawberry pocky you’ve promised so we didn’t bother you, but you didn’t keep your promise this time round! Didn’t your parents teach you not to lie? Liars are bad people! They need to be punished!” Joohyun proclaimed with her so called “justice”, raising her palm to slap her.

Just when the small palm was swinging down to meet Jiyeon’s face, which she had tried to protect with her arm, the boy stormed in, raging.

“Stop! What are you doing!!” Taehyung bellowed while throwing his arms around the poor girl all curled up on the floor.

"You guys are mean! I'm telling the teacher if you don't go away!" The boy warned angrily, his rounds eyes narrowed under his spectacle. How dare them! How dare they treat Jiyeon this way!

Teeth clenched tightly as her eyes burnt with fury, Joohyun pointed a warning finger at the new kid. "So you chose to be a busybody.. Guess Jiyeon didn't tell you what happens if you help her.. You better watch out!" And with their signature poke of tongue, all three of them stormed out of class.

Slowly untangling his arms around her, he gently pushed her hair away from her face, asking in a quiet voice. "Are you okay?" He winced at her bruised knees and palms, ghosting his fingers over them in thought of dusting them but afraid that it might hurt her.

"Y-you.. You shouldn't have helped me.." Was her hoarse whisper instead of an expected expression of gratitude, tears forming along her rim unknowingly. "If you help me the class will tease you.." Slowly wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, she continued her monologue. "You would be fine if you stay away from me.. Why did you help me.. Now.. Now I'm a burden again.. I've caused trouble again.. It's my fault again.."

Her tears falling down faster, her breath started to shorten. When he understood the consequences he'll leave her as well, when they start to bully him he'll know that he made the wrong choice. It hurts more to have a friend leave you than for you to not have a friend to begin with.

Look at Jimin.. He was a friendly, bubbly kid, until he met her.. He was nice and warm, until they started to tease them. Now.. he’s distanced, and cold, and quiet. Now, he’s not her friend anymore.

Her train of thoughts were interrupted by the unexpected, low, voice.

"You're silly."

Her sniffling came to an abrupt halt as she stared her glistening eyes at his straight face. He just called her silly, like how all the other kids did, but she felt like as if he meant it differently from them. She didn’t understand, but she felt like she did. His expression was hard to tell, all he did was slowly pull her up to her feet.

"Stop crying. Let's go for lunch."

Monotonously, yet it worked like some magic spell, the girl stopped crying and let the boy pull her towards the cafeteria where she had hardly visited due to the 3 girls. She was reluctant to go since the rest of the students always stare at her strangely when she sits alone, but his hand perfectly wrapped in hers had no intention to let go.

All of a sudden, her dream flashed passed her mind once more. Did it meant something? Like how Jungkook and Jimin appeared in her dreams, did Taehyung’s appearance meant something?

“Hurry Alice! Hurry!”

What was she late for? Why did she need to hurry?

Her tiny brows creased together, Jiyeon was preoccupied with wondering what did he mean in the dream, that she didn’t notice another small boy at the corner, peeking at the pair strutting towards the cafeteria.

He had been there, behind the wall, watching everything that had happened. From the beginning, to the end.

Lowering his head, his fist clenched against the wall, all he gave was a defeated sigh.

“If only I was brave enough..”

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✉(A/N).

27 | OCTOBER | 2015 } ALMOST 2 MONTHS NOW ; n ; I HOPE YOU GUYS HAD NOT ABANDONED ME YET~FILM SCHOOL HAS A REALLY ROUGH AND BUSY SCHEDULE HENCE THE UPDATING WOULD SLOW DOWN/: BUT YES! AN UPDATE MEANS THAT I'M DONE WITH THE NEXT CHAPTER! CHAPTER 6 IS ALL BAKED AND READY TO BE SERVED AS LONG AS CHAPTER 7 IS DONE~HAHAHA 

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, UPVOTE AND COMMENT! YOU WOULDN'T KNOW HOW MUCH YOUR LITTLE INPUT WOULD BRIGHTEN UP MY DAY~THANKS FOR READING REGARDLESS!

+ preview for chapter 6 would be posted on the foreword ^^
 

( h a r l e q u i n. )