“You want me to leave school now?” I don’t even know why I still felt surprised. Of course he wanted me to leave. It’s not like he was going to let me stay after finding out the truth.

He shook his head. “Not now. I will give you until the end of the semester, per request of your parents.” He then sat at his desk beginning to organize some of his papers.

“Besides, it would be a shame for someone with grades like yours to have to change schools immediately. That would definitely worsen your situation.”

I folded my hands in front of me. Just from hearing the tone in his voice I could hear the judgment. He was just like everyone else. I could never live down what happened. My brother’s death would continue to follow me.

I bowed my head. “Thank you for your consideration.”

With a simple wave he deterred my words as if it was pointless. “You’re lucky. I don’t plan on informing your future school about your past, but so long as I have record of it. I can’t allow you to stay here.”

He then took the papers he organized and placed it in one of his drawers. That was probably his record of me.

The Dean was a strict man I could tell. As well I could see him more as a business man. He probably didn’t give my next school my records for his own benefit. If I got into a good school, which I was on track to then because I went to his school for most of my studies his school would get the credit.

In the end he couldn’t lose face.

Sometimes it was very easy to forget that this man was a father. Jungkook’s father at that.

I fought the urge to shrink any further under his pointed stare. “Thank you for keeping this to yourself.” He nodded his head with a smile so fake it made me want to take my words back.

“I won’t waste this opportunity.” I then proceeded to leave before he could say anything else that could possibly set me off.

My feet hit the hallway floor hard, but progressively I felt my feet stomp harder and harder. Until I realized that I was running. In the end I didn’t go to do my cleaning duty. I couldn’t, it felt like right when I saw Jimin’s face then I would immediately burst into tears.

As my feet crashed down against the floor I rushed my way through the halls avoiding any areas I thought there would be a lot of people. One of the worst feelings was to have someone else see you cry. Especially in school.

No matter even though Jungkook probably was disgusted by the truth about me. By now he had probably told the guys everything about me too. Even then I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to leave everyone, especially Jungkook.

Step by step I got closer to my room, salvation. Free from anyone’s attention.

I bumped into someone. My body recoiled back and when I looked up I saw Jungkook. This was probably the last person I wanted to see. He was the worst person for me to bump into.

Instantly my eyes watered and then suddenly there were tears running down my face. No matter how I tried to stop it I couldn’t. They fell mercilessly. In an attempt to hide my face I looked down.

He was quick to notice something was wrong though. His hands sealed onto my shoulders. “Lia what’s wrong?”

It was like the words wouldn’t come out. In fact I didn’t want them to. He probably knew why I was crying. He was probably glad to see me go and have someone like me out of his life. That fact only made me cry more.

My lack of reply made him pull me into his arms. The familiar feeling of having his arms wrapped around me made me want to stay there. I wanted to stop time and reverse everything. I wanted to stop myself from drinking in the past. I wanted to get to know Jungkook like this from the very first moment I met him so then I could make even more memories with him. I wanted Kyung to still be alive.

His voice was low in my ear and the wind of his breath was soft against my hair as he buried his face there. “I miss you.”

I almost believed him he sounded so genuine, but in the end I knew he would always hold reservations towards me because of what I did.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I choked a bit on my words.

“Because I love you.” His answer was immediate, and it impaled me as if he had stabbed me in the back.

Even though I wanted to stay in his warm arms for as long as I could I knew this wasn’t true. I pushed him away. “Stop lying.”

This made his eyes double in size. “I’m not lying. I know that I lied to you about knowing your secret, but-”

I shook my head and backed away from him. No matter what I didn’t want to hear the words I was expecting him to say. I didn’t want to hear his voice say how he was disappointed in me or even worse hated me.

“Just stop.” I then my heel and ran the rest of the way back to my dorm. The only thing that was on my mind now though was the look of hurt on Jungkook’s face before I ran away.

The following week I began to get preparations together for my move. I went to the office to request my official transcript so I could send my grades to the school back home. I began to really make the arrangements for my change of schools. That was when it really felt real to me. This was actually happening.

The day after my encounter with Jungkook I continued to avoid the others. I changed seats with someone else so now I was sitting in the back of the classroom far from Jungkook and Minyoon.

I was sure that Jungkook probably told everyone about seeing me crying and that I was getting kicked out of school. I could imagine him telling them that, “it served me right,” or something like that. Who wouldn’t react that way?

Minyoon would try and catch my eyes during class along with Jungkook, but I continued to avoid them. I spent most of my lunches in the nurse’s office and every time I went Jin would just act like nothing was wrong, but he had to know what was going on.

It was Jin. He definitely knew.

The other guys would try to catch me at my cleaning duty. So I started leaving early so then they would miss me and I wouldn’t have to face their judgment either.

I was too much of a coward that I couldn’t face the disappointment my friends probably had in me.

It had already been a week since I was told I would have to leave after the semester ended. So I had around two more weeks by this point. Then it would all be over. I would never see these people again.

Every time I thought that though it only made me more upset.

It was the end of the week and I was walking to my cleaning duty. The one place that I could be free from judgment because Jimin knew nothing.

My phone buzzed and when I checked it was my mom. She told me to meet up with her and my dad that following weekend at the café just outside of school. They wanted to discuss more things about my move.

After giving a short response I was going to slide my phone back into my pocket, but then it buzzed again. I expected it was my mom, but when I saw the caller id it said “Master”.

I really wanted to change his caller id, but I guess there was no point by then.

We need to talk.

I quickly deleted the message so then I could just forget it and not let his message continue to bother me. After sliding my phone back into my pocket I found myself in front of the gym doors, but my entrance was blocked.

Jungkook stood in front of the gym. It seemed as though based off the look in his eyes that he had been watching me long enough to see me ignore his message.

There was a pang in my chest because I hated feeling like I hurt him somehow.

“Lia you can’t keep avoiding me.”

I tried to get past him, but failed. “Who said I’m avoiding you?” That was a lame response.

He scoffed. “It’s pretty obvious. You don’t even talk to Minyoon and the guys anymore. We never see you, and after seeing you in the hall the other day. We really need to talk.”

I shook my head. I just wanted to leave and keep this idea that Jungkoo