Six

"Did you guys notice that she talked a lot now?"

All of them shook their head to answer Chanyeol's question. They looked at Jessica. At this moment she was sitting quietly at her seat, reading her book. Not only in the morning, almost all the time whenever the teacher is not around, Jessica will only spend her time with books without talking to anyone.

"Chanyeol hyung, you asked it wrongly. Noona didn't talk a lot now, but she can to talk to Kris hyung naturally now." Sehun corrected his statement. He noticed that Jessica used to ignore whatever words that came out from Kris's mouth before. But now, she did listen and communicate well with Kris. Perhaps that is the outcome from the group discussion that they're having quite frequently.

"Sehun is right. Nowadays, they looked quite peaceful when talking to each other." Kai added in. At least Kris no longer the only one talking like before and the members also agreed on this one.

"Did you use any spell on her, Kris hyung?" Baekhyun playfully teasing him. Often when they were having group discussion, most of the time, only those two doing the talking. He on the other hand, focus more on finding the material and doing the research for them to compile. Only when things get out of hand between those two, that's when he became the intermediate.

"No, I think she started to fall for my charm." Kris smirked proudly.

The boys were all made noise to disagree with his self-proclaimed statement. If other girl, his statement can be considered legit, but they don't think it will ever be that for her. Jessica seemed like ice princess herself. You need certain degree to melt her down and they really think that it would be tough task for anyone.

Just when they're continuously teasing each other while waiting for the first bell to ring, a group of three girls asked Jessica to go out for a while. One of the girls is Han Joo Ri, the pretty girl that always caught the boys attention.

When they went out from the classroom, Kris quickly stood up. He has been watching since the very beginning and somehow he doesn't feel good about it. What does Joo Ri want from her that she needs to talk to her outside of the classroom?

"Why, Kris?" Xiumin asked him when he saw his worried expression.

Kris shook his head. "Nothing much. I need to go out for a while. If the teacher asks later, can you please cover it up for me?"

Xiumin nodded and Kris hurriedly went out to look after Jessica and the three girls.

"Where's Kris hyung going?" Chen asked Xiumin his whereabouts. Class is going to start in a few minutes.

Xiumin shrugged. Kris told him nothing, but then his expression is saying the otherwise. Perhaps there's really something he needs to do. They can just ask him about it later.

"Luhan hyung, do you know that Jessica noona used to live at Beijing for a year." Tao told Luhan about what he just heard from the girls' next class. The girls were probably Luhan's fangirls since they mentioned his name while gossiping about Jessica. They said the place that she stayed there were just nearby to Luhan's grandparents' house. As where they got the info, he also wondered.

Luhan's family was originally from Beijing, China. But when his father setup a business here, they have been permanently stayed here since Luhan was five. Once a year, he and his family will visit his grandparents at Beijing.

"Oh, is it? I never heard of it before. I'll ask her about it later." Luhan smiled looking at Tao. Sometimes it amazed him how Tao managed to get all sorts of information by his own. He always had his source and being the most curious one, he always gets to know a lot of things that happened around him.

"Nowadays, Tao seemed like he's taking interest in anything that related to Jessica. Why? Did you fall for her?" Suho teased his maknae. Among the three maknaes, Suho is closer to Tao. He always felt like he needs to look after Tao. So, eventually he always spent his time with him.

They all ooo-ed upon hearing that while Tao made a face as reply to Suho's teasing. "I like it if she ends up being with any of the hyungs. She's pretty and have you listened to her voice when she sings? No wonder she can topped the blind test easily."

"Our Tao really takes note and up to date when it comes to Jessica. Are you sure you didn't like her?" Chanyeol joined in. Teasing the maknaes is really the hyung's favorite.

Tao laughed. "It was quite hard for me to ignore it when the girls always gossiping about her."

"What they're usually talked about?" Baekhyun was curious after listening to Tao. He thought she will only be their school temporary entertainment. But despite her silence, other students still noticed her existence.

"They said she always stay silence because she wanted to gain attention from us."

"That's ridiculous."

"Does it even make any sense?"

When people are jealous, they really just made any story just to justify their jealousy. Jessica always tried her best to be invisible and at the beginning, she really didn't like it when the boys tried to have any unnecessary conversation with her. As much as possible she avoids any interaction with them. Is that what people really called as want to gain attention?

Tao looked at Luhan, Baekhyun and Chanyeol. "Luhan hyung, Baekhyun hyung and Chanyeol hyung's fans are the one that always gossiping and verbally attacked on her. Oh, not to forget, Kris hyung's fan. They are the worst."

Ever since Kris always spent his time with her due to their group assignment work, his fans always said that it's not fair that she gets to spend a lot of time with him. Tao even once saw with his own eyes how Jessica cleaned up the mess inside her locker. They even leave a note asking her to leave Kris alone. Luckily Jessica always carried her books around with her.

Their jaw dropped after listened to Tao. Things happened even when they haven't really associate themselves with Jessica.

"Did we make a wrong decision last time?" Lay was referring to the vote that they were having a few weeks ago. "But why Luhan hyung, Baekhyun and Chanyeol got to do with her that their fangirls acted such way?"

"Chanyeol hyung is friendly to everyone. Baekhyun hyung looked closer to her after they were group together. Luhan hyung, this might sounds ridiculous but there has been rumors going around saying that your family and her family had planned marriage arrangement for both of you." Tao scratched his back head.

"What?" They were dumbfounded, especially Luhan whose face has gradually turned darker.

"Who spread this crazy rumor around?" Suho couldn't content his anger. There are always rumors going around that have related with them, but this time things just getting out of control. He doesn't want any of his group members to get hurt later because of any of the rumors.

"Luhan is not even theirs even if the rumor is true. Why do they need to go to that extend?" Xiumin couldn't reason out why things turned out to be this way.

"And Luhan hyung is mine." Sehun's statement made the boys smiled and laughed.

"What do we do next?"

The question from Kyungsoo made the boys keep their silence and when the bell rang, they all went back to their seats and class.

~~~

"Where the hell did they bring her to?" Kris muttered to himself. He lost them halfway and now he went around looking after them. What are they trying to do? The class already started and yet they're outside of the class and why did Jessica even followed them?

While his adrenaline was getting high, he suddenly heard voices coming from the back of the school. Quietly he walked to behind the wall and secretly listened to their conversation.

"You have Luhan, and then you get closed to Baekhyun and Chanyeol. But now seemed like you're also going after Kris? Who do you think you are?" Joo Ri's voice was kind of loud and anyone can tell from her voice that she hated Jessica.

"You think that you're pretty and the boys treated you so nicely, then you can have all of them by yourself?" The other girl also raised her voice to her.

"I really hate it when you pretend to be quiet when behind our back you did all those nasty things." Her other friends insulted Jessica.

What was these all about? He thought it has been quite some times that their school is peaceful from all these stupid fan war. They have made it clear before that they didn't belong to any of the girls and they don't want to see any unnecessary fight or anything like that.

While the girls keep on insulting her, Kris saw how she maintained her stoic expression and she doesn't even flinched for a bit.

Kris started to get annoyed. The girls have really crossed the line while Jessica, he didn't even know where to begin with. Can't she even stand up for herself?

Just when he was about to interrupt, Jessica's voice made him stopped from moving.

"Don't you ever feel tired? You try hard to win someone's heart, but when you cannot get it you blame it on other people. I know it's easier to blame than to admit that you're not special enough, but you guys need to grow up. The world didn't revolve around you."

The girls and Kris were dumbfounded. This is like the first time they heard Jessica retorted back when someone said something about her. She never cared of other people opinions as long as those didn't affect her study and life.

"What are you trying to imply? You're not going to back off from our oppas?"

"What sins did they commit that I need to avoid them? Better, why should I listen to you guys of all people? I do what I want." Jessica stared coldly at them. She's done with their nonsense. She doesn't need anyone to tell her what she should do and she also didn't do anything that they claimed she did.

All the while, she tried to avoid having any contact and conversation with the twelve boys and yet people still spread ridiculous rumors around. It's not like she didn't hear any of it, but she just doesn't want to get involve. But things just get worse every time she keeps her silence.

When she left the three of them, Kris was waiting for her at his position. Jessica didn't seem surprise at all. She looked at him straight into his eyes. "Done eavesdropping?"

His jaw dropped. Did she see him or what? "All along you knew that I'm here?"

Jessica nodded. She saw him following them just now. They walked side by side on the ways to class. Jessica doesn't seem like she's affected at all from the incident just now.

"Are you okay?" Kris asked him. He looked concern after what just happened to her. Though he and the boys don't really do anything, but part of it was because of them. At first he wanted to show up in front of them, but on second thought, he thinks that perhaps Jessica wouldn't like it if he interferes just now.

"I'm fine."

"Are you mad at us?"

Jessica stopped from walking and she turned to look at him directly. "Give me a reason why I should be mad at you or your group member?"

"Somehow I feel like we are the one that put you through the situation like just now." His expression showed that he feels guilty for what had just happened.

"No, Kris. It's fine. I'm fine. I can handle this and it's not you or any of your group members' fault. Don't worry about it." Jessica smiled at him, to assure him that he doesn't need to worry about her. "Now, shall we go back to class? We're already late."