“Yah, Kwon Jaehwan, where do you think you’re going?” Jimin said with feigned innocence as grabbed onto the boy’s backpack and pulled him backwards.

“I said," he began through gritted teeth. "Where do you think you’re going?” He seethed, his eyes flickering with threat as he grabbed Jaehwan’s collar.

“I-I-I was just g-going to get l-lunch.”

“And when did I say you could do that, hm?”

Park Jimin was by a mile the merciless one of the seven; he wouldn’t back down, no matter how far the matter got or how serious. No one, including his friends, dared mess with him when he was angry.

“Y-You didn’t,” Jaehwan answered, he was defeated, and he knew it.

“If you’re trying to disobey me so early after Christmas break, we’re going to have to take a trip. Do you know where that trip is to, Jaehwan?” Jimin returned to his fabricated innocence as he slung an arm over the boy’s shoulder and began leading him away from the hallway.

“N-No, please. Not again, I’m begging you.”

“Beg all you want. You should’ve learnt by now, silly.” Was all Jimin said before his arm over the other boy’s shoulder turned into a headlock and he began dragging him into the boy’s bathroom.

Jungkook just simply watched his friend drag the innocent boy away. He didn't stop him, and he had no plan to stop him as he stood in the corridor behind his friends with his hands shoved in his pockets.

Taking a look around the corridor, his eyes spotted Youngmi stood with her arms wrapped around her books at the end of the hall, not moving and watching him expectantly.

He turned away and looked back, but her eyes still hadn’t left him.

She’s strange. Was all he thought, before he finally followed his friends into the bathroom.

~~

Another non-audible sound was heard from Youngmi when everyone returned back to class, and Jungkook sent another annoyed glare her way before asking, “What?”

“Why didn’t you stop him?”

“Who?”

“That boy, dragging the other boy into the bathroom, why didn’t you stop him?”

“Why should I?”

Silence.

“Well?”

He looked at her, but her attention was focused on her hands, fiddling her fingers together.

Whatever.

~~

This kind of thing went on for weeks. Youngmi would witness the wrongdoings that Jungkook and his friends did to various students, but she wouldn’t say a word about it until the lesson came around, when she would repeat the same question. “Why didn’t you stop him doing it?” To which Jungkook replied with the same thing. “Why should I?”

Jimin had noticed Youngmi in the hallway. He was starting to get suspicious, and had begun asking Jungkook impossible questions that he just couldn’t answer if he tried.

“Why is that girl always there?” He asked.

“I don’t know,” Jungkook replied.

“Is she some sort of freak?”

“I don’t know!”

“Well, you sit with her! Ask her! Or maybe we should start bothering her instead of Jaehwan? Hm?”

“No.”

“What did you say?”

“I said no.”

The words flew out of his mouth before he could comprehend what he was saying. Sure, the girl was weird and irritating with her constant repetitive questions, but, for some reason, he didn’t want to hurt her, or be the reason for her getting hurt.

Jimin raised an eyebrow. “Do you like her?”

“Of course not!”

“Then what’s the problem with bothering her. Just some simple teasing-”

“Jimin, stop it.”

“You’re speaking to me like that? I’m older than you.”

“Do I look like I give a damn?”

It was a glaring match between the boys, neither one of them backing down. That was, until Jimin spotted Jaehwan turning the corner of the corridor and he immediately called him. What could he say? Bothering Jaehwan was better than having a pointless fight with Jungkook.

Behind the bullied boy, Jungkook noticed Youngmi there, again, the same spot as usual, watching. Her eyes staring into his made his thoughts swirl around, until he was walking to their leader, not even thinking about what he was saying as the words just spilled from his mouth.

“Hyung, don’t you think Jaehwan’s had enough?”

“No. Let Jimin do what he wants, he knows when to stop.”

“And when will that be?” Jungkook said through gritted teeth. “In an hour? When he drowns in ing toilet water?” He had no idea where the anger was coming from. He turned towards Youngmi, who nodded slightly before she walked away, and the anger disappeared.

“What did you just say to me?” Namjoon said, annoyed.

“Nothing. It was… It was nothing. I’m sorry, hyung. I didn’t mean it,” Jungkook said breathlessly, as once again he watched as Jimin dragged the defenseless boy into the bathroom.

~~

Youngmi had a wide smile on her face to next day in class.

“You tried, you tried to stop him!”

“No, I didn’t. But seriously, what do you think you’re doing, being there all the time. You need to stop. Jimin’s going to come after you, I hope you realise that.”

She nodded. “I realise it, but I know that you’ll be there to stop him.”

Jungkook didn’t say a word. How could she know that? Surely she knew it was a no brainer that he'd choose his friends over her? Instead of speaking, he looked down at his feet under the desk and thought to himself, drifting off until he wasn’t even in the classroom anymore.

~~

That day at lunch, the seven were seated around their usual table near the end of the lunch line, waiting for their usual prey to get their food. Everyone was cautious when passing them, no one knew who’d they start picking on next.

A girl name Jung Taeya squeezed the tray in her hands so tightly her knuckles turned white, praying not to be tripped up or picked on, with no such luck.

Namjoon stuck his foot out just as the girl was about to walk past him, causing her to trip up and fall flat on her face into her food and hit her nose on the pot plate. A mix of blood and food were evident on her face as she stood and ran out of the cafeteria, the seven bullies laughing so hard that they couldn’t breathe.

That day, a total of five girls ran crying from the canteen because of those boys, and Jungkook began feeling a weight on his chest with every one of them. His eyes spotted Youngmi once again, stood at the entrance to the cafeteria as the weight became almost painful to his chest.

What was going on?

~~

“Was it really worth it?”

“Was it really worth what?”

“Laughing at her like that, tripping her up in the first place.”

“It wasn’t me that did any of it. You saw it with your own eyes.”

“I also saw with my own eyes that you did nothing to stop it. You laughed with the rest of them. That makes you just as bad.”

He ignored her statement with a question of his own. “Do you know my name yet?”

She shook her head.

“Well, do you want to know?”

“I don’t want to know your name.”

“Fine, then, don’t.”

He folded his arms and turned away from her, making sudden eye contact with Jimin and striking some sort of fear through Jungkook he never knew he had for his friend. Jimin had been watching the two of them, and Jungkook didn't have a good feeling about what was going to happen.