I let Taehyung lead me all the way to an empty classroom then I ripped my hand from his grasp.

‘What the hell was that!??’ I shouted.

‘I didn’t have a choice,’ he said, towering over me. ‘Or would you rather they had dragged us back to the amphitheatre and picked the penalty themselves. They can get pretty creative.’

I’d kissed a boy once over a game of spin the bottle but that didn’t really count. It had lasted less than a second and our lips had barely touched. So, I was still trying to process the fact that my first proper kiss had, not only happened in a room full of people, but that the boy who’d done it had only done so because he had been forced to do it.

It made me feel irrationally upset…and disappointed.

‘You can’t just go around kissing people! It’s not fair,’ I said, and to my horror I felt the sting of tears in my eyes.

‘I didn’t do it because I wanted to!’ retorted Taehyung, angrily.

‘Jerk!’ I shouted, and spun around to leave, feeling utterly humiliated.

He grabbed me and pulled me back.

‘You can’t go outside, not until the bell rings.’

I tried to pull away but he held me firmly.

‘Why not?’ I demanded.

‘Because if you “escape” from me, you’ll be considered fair game.’

 ‘I can go to the teachers,’ I said defiantly.

‘You could, but it wouldn’t make the least bit of a difference. The teachers have no power here. The Families pay them well.’

The rest of what had happened, and which I’d somehow managed to forget until now, came crashing back to me with the force of a freight train.

‘So it’s all true? You’re…are you…are you like the godfather or something?’ I whispered.

He’d obviously not been expecting that because he threw back his head and let out a loud laugh.

‘No, I’m not,’ he said, looking amused, ‘but there’s a lot of people in this school that think they are – starting with that pink haired shortstop.’ He muttered this last part.

I gave him a mutinous look but sat down on top of one of the tables. Taehyung sighed and went to lean against the window. I started feeling guilty. I didn’t know a lot about this school, and I was still very confused, but I thought he might have really saved my back there.

‘Taehyung,’ I said softly. He turned to look at me. ‘Thank you.’

He looked surprised for a second but then smiled. ‘Anytime, beautiful!’

I felt my face heat up and looked away, letting my hair fall forward.

‘I don’t suppose there’s any way I could escape the induction, is there?’ I asked, more to cover up my stupid reaction to his compliment then out of any hope of getting a positive answer.

‘Well, aside from changing schools, there is one thing,’ he said, slowly.

I looked up in astonishment. I felt a flicker of hope, maybe I could ride out the rest of my year in peace…but something in his face filled me with unease.

‘What is it?’ I asked, almost reluctantly.

‘You have to…find a mate,’ he answered after a second’s hesitation.

I squinted at him. ‘You mean, like a boyfriend.’

‘Sort of, but there are strict rules you have to follow or else it won’t count.’

‘Great!’ I muttered.

Even if I wanted a boyfriend (which I didn’t!) where was I supposed to find one. I shot Taehyung a surreptitious look but then quickly looked away, appalled at myself for even considering it. He’d done enough for me as it was (even if I didn’t always approve of his methods). I straightened my back and lifted my chin.

‘It’s fine! I don’t need a boyfriend,’ I proclaimed, standing up and putting my hands on my hips, ‘I’m more then capable of dealing with a ragtag group of teenage idiots by myself and I refuse to give in to their stupid games. They’re going to wish they never got me involved in this. I’m going to show them!’

Taehyung was staring at me in some amusement but there was also a trace of admiration in his eyes (or at least, that’s what I like to think I saw in his eyes). I dropped my stance and sat back down but I didn’t break our eye contact and I didn’t lower my chin.

He pushed away from the wall and came to stand in front of me. He planted his hands on the table on either side of me and leaned forward. My breath hitched in my throat but I didn’t move.

I swear I tried not to break eye contact (I really tried, okay!) but my traitorous eyes dropped down to his lips. Suddenly, all I could think about was how those lips had felt against mine and I had to grip the edge of the table so I wouldn’t do something really embarrassing.

He lifted a hand and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, but his hand didn’t immediately drop away, instead his fingers brushed along my jawline caressingly, his eyes heavy lidded and burning with the intensity of a thousand suns.

At this point, my nerves were racked – severely racked!

‘I’d offer but,’ he hesitated and I felt my heart sink with disappointment…

WAIT! Why the hell was my heart “sinking with disappointment”!? It had no business doing that!

‘I think it would only bring you more trouble,’ he said, sounding regretful.

‘It’s fine! Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine,’ I said, breezily. ‘I mean, what’s the worse they can do, right? Don’t answer that! Besides you’ve already been through quite a bit of trouble because of me.’

‘What trouble?’ he asked looking confused.

‘You know, jumping off roofs and having to…having to kiss me,’ I looked away as I said the last part.

There was silence. I peeked at him. He looked horrified.

‘What?’ I asked feeling alarmed.

‘First all, that whole roof thing was my fault. They were looking for me. And secondly,’ he shot me an incredulous look, ‘what do you mean I had to kiss you? You make it sound like I had to kiss the abominable snowman.’

‘I think you made it pretty clear that you didn’t want to kiss me, you just did it to get me out of that situation, right?’ I said trying not to sound like that affected me in any way but I could feel my cheeks flushing with humiliation.

‘Are you being serious, right now? Any one of the boys in this school would have given their right hand to be in my place,’ he said.

‘That seems a bit excessive,’ I said, smiling feebly.     

Taehyung gave me a long look. ‘You think I don’t want to kiss you?’

His voice sounded even deeper than usual sending shivers up my spine.

‘Look, it’s fine! Let’s just talk about something else,’ I said, ducking under his arm.

Taehyung gripped my arm and pulled me back. He cupped my cheek in his hand and slowly lowered his head to mine - giving me time to pull away.

Pull away, Lizzy, pull away! This boy is nothing but trouble!

Instead I closed my eyes - good job, Lizzy! (note the sarcasm)

His lips brushed mine slowly, as gentle as a whisper and again the taste of candy. I sighed and gripped the front of his shirt, pulling him closer. His lips were incredibly soft and I felt him pull at my bottom lip with his teeth. I threaded my hands through his silky hair trying to think of a reason why this wasn’t a good idea and coming up with nothing.

He cupped my face with both hands and deepened the kiss. I gasped when he gripped me under my thighs and lifted me up on to the table. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. My head fell back exposing my neck to his lips as they trailed a hot line down to my collarbone. Then our lips were meeting again in a hungry kiss. My body felt like it was about to spontaneously combust.

My brain was sending me frantic messages about appropriate school behaviour which I chose to ignore.

Suddenly, the door to the classroom swung open and someone burst in with all the delicacy of a herd of stampeding buffalo.

I tried to push away from Taehyung but he held me firmly as he turned to glare at the intruder. His expression turned to one of surprise and he let me go.

A girl with long red hair and brilliant green eyes stood with her back against the door.

‘Sorry to interrupt but do you mind if I hide in here? It’s just that I’ve got, what I can only describe as a pack of hyenas gunning for me,’ she said with a smile but there was a slightly frantic look in her eyes.

Taehyung pointed to the table I had been sitting on and the girl dove under it. We stood in front of the table so she was hidden behind our legs just as the door burst open again. A group of boys spilled in and froze in their tracks when they caught sight of us.

‘Out!’ said Taehyung with a cold look at them.

‘V! Sorry, man, didn’t know you were in here,’ said one of the guys already backing out the door.

The others followed after him in a rush, shutting the door behind them.

‘Was it just me,’ I started slowly, ‘or were those guys like really scared of you?’

‘It wasn’t just you,’ said the girl, popping up next to me.

I jumped. She was like a buzzing ball of energy. She sidled up to Taehyung and gave him an appraising look, ’You’re one of the big shots, huh!’

‘Er,’ said Taehyung.

‘Anyway, thanks for the help. I’m Olivia,’ she said giving me a smile.

‘Lizzy! Nice to meet you,’ I said with feeling.

The door opened again making me jump but it was only Jungkook and Jimin. The latter took one good look at Olivia tripped over the leg of a chair and face planted on the floor. Jungkook rolled his eyes and stepped over him.

Three days later, I was seriously reconsidering my decision to stick it out in this crazy school. Wendy had left the school immediately after that first day saying she was outraged by how the teachers just let their students run around like a bunch of savages (she made a pretty good point). Joy had found herself a boyfriend (I refused to use the word “mate”, blergh!) for whom she seemed to be – genuinely - head over heels for and which put her out of the Hunt.

As for me, I was currently in the midst of having a mental breakdown.

I stared from Olivia to the expensive (and now, irreparably broken) lamp she was holding to the unconscious body at our feet – incidentally, a member of the student council. I was starting to see a very unhealthy pattern here.

‘What else was I supposed to do!?’ asked Olivia with a shrug.

‘I don’t know but maybe we could have tried talking to him before you bashed his skull in with the student council’s lampshade,’ I whispered passive-aggressively at her.

  ‘Not to mention, inside the student council’s very office, bet they never saw that coming,’ said Olivia, smugly.

Oh, did I forget to mention, that we’re currently inside the student council’s private office? Olivia had had the fantastic idea that hiding in here would be a smart thing to do. She was wrong.

‘We’re going to be lynched,’ I intoned.

‘Don’t be silly, Lizzy! We out foxed the fox, which makes us very bloody foxy.’ She wiggled her eyebrows at me.

Usually, I would have laughed but right now I was too busy freaking out.

‘You need to stop watching Misfits, Olivia! This is not a joke. Not only have we broken and entered, but now we’ve also managed to damage private property… and possibly committed murder.’

She frowned and bent over the body for a few seconds.

‘We’re good! He’s breathing,’ she said, shooting me a thumbs up.

I shot her a look. ‘We’re definitely not good! Let’s just get the hell out of here before we get caught.’

‘Maybe we should call Taehyung for help,’ she began.

‘No,’ I said, firmly.

I’d been trying to avoid him since the classroom incident. I mean, not only had I let him kiss me after he’d made it crystal clear that he had no intentions of ever dating me, but I’d also reciprocated said kiss – very enthusiastically reciprocated it, to my everlasting shame. He probably thought I didn’t have any morals – not that I cared!

‘Lizzy, you okay?’ said Olivia looking concerned, ‘Your face looks funny.’

‘Let’s just go,’ I muttered, grabbing her hand and dragging her out of the office.

I’d just taken three steps out the door when I ran into a hard chest. I let out a very undignified shriek (that I would never admit to later) and jumped back.

‘We have to stop meeting like this!’ I said clutching my chest.

Taehyung shot me an amused look and Jimin, just behind him, looked sheepish. Taehyung’s eyes moved to Olivia behind me and he cocked his head to the side.

‘Is that,’ Jimin squinted then looked bewildered, ‘Jihoon’s art deco Sabino lamp shade?’

I twirled around to find Olivia still holding the lamp and almost groaned. She had it raised above her head like she’d been ready to start clobbering people. She lowered her arm and hid the offending item behind her back.

‘Maybe,’ she said, looking down shiftily.

‘It looks broken,’ commented Taehyung, looking sideways at me.

‘Yes, I’m aware, thank you!’ I snapped.

‘It’s quite expensive, probably a couple thousand,’ observed Taehyung.

I could feel a migraine coming on – and I didn’t get migraines!

‘Really? It didn’t look like much to me,’ said Olivia looking the lamp over with renewed interest.

‘Come on! I know what you can do with that,’ said Taehyung with a mischievous look.

Hope you guys enjoyed that! Don't forget to leave me comments and/or subscribe if you like the story. Thank you for reading!

Love,

Ange

GIFS!!!

Jimin looks so beautiful in this scene<3