Final

Seulgi never expected that she would find love through her punches—well, not directly, but—

“Details, details,” she said lazily, both hands raised in the air.

The poor girl in front of her—Kang Minkyung, or whatever—was too terrified to even lift a finger. Or breathe. Despite the newcomer, it seemed like she knew that it wasn’t any indicator that she would be saved.  

Baekhyun scoffed. “You choked her.”

“I didn’t.”

“She doesn’t look like she has enough oxygen.”

Seulgi shrugged. “Sometimes, people get too excited that they forgot how to breathe.” She pointed at Minkyung. “She does look like someone who gets easily overwhelmed.”

Baekhyun tousled his hair in exasperation, the strap of his bag hanging loosely on his shoulder. He should’ve been home by now instead of dealing with a second-rated bully whose guts weren’t evident enough to admit her own deed. Talking about idiocy.

His uniform was getting heavier, too—yes, heavier, because this school thought that thousands of badges and accessories would step up “the prefect game”.

He sighed as he pulled out his small notebook from his pocket, accompanied by a short pen. “Name.”

Seulgi clicked her tongue, her leg tapping on the floor. “You can read.”

“Your name.”

“There’s a damn nametag here.”

“Give me your name.”

“Kang Seulgi.” She rolled her eyes, but she put her attention back on Baekhyun. He was okay. He had this dark, black hair that resembled…charcoals? His uniform was over-the-top—like serious case of over-toppings. Looking at him in the uniform was like eating pizzas with the combination of strawberry cream and chilli sauce. Gross.

Baekhyun wrote the name messily on his notebook. He glanced at Seulgi the Intimidating One as he shoved the notebook into his pocket. He was about to leave when he heard her scoff.

“That’s it?”

Baekhyun turned around, brows furrowed. “Yeah, that’s it. Were you expecting polices to go after you?”

“Slapping someone won’t get me jailed, right?”

“You slapped her?”

Seulgi pretended to be horrified. “Oh no, I spilled my secret!”  

Baekhyun pulled out his notebook again and jolted something down. “One more strike, and you’re out.”

For the first time, he was glad that he was a prefect.

**

“So, you’re saying that you accidentally spilled your drink on top of her head?”

“Don’t make it sound impossible.” Seulgi crossed her arms. “s happen, y’know.”

Like how Baekhyun kept being the one who caught her red-handed. Or how he was getting so predictable that she wanted to vomit at how she could memorize his lines perfectly—it was like script-reading, except she won’t get any money from it.

“One more strike—“

“—and I’m out.”

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes. “You should be able to read the sign, by now.” He abruptly reached for his coffee when he saw Seulgi’s fingers reaching for it. He glared at her with as much resentment as he could as he wrapped his fingers around his straw. “Do you think that bullying is cool?”

Seulgi hummed before she said, “I don’t.”

“Then why do you keep doing it?”

“First of all, it’s not bullying when the punches come from both parties,” she said. She opened to say something, but she shut it before she did. Her shoulders slouched, her arms still crossed, but her eyes weren’t on Baekhyun anymore.

Suddenly, she felt like dumping the coffee on Baekhyun’s head. At least he would get a new hair colour.

**

The next time Baekhyun found her in the act, she was bleeding. Both inside, and outside.

“What happened?!”

It was raining. And she felt too tired to move. The raindrops hit her, and she winced as they slid across her skin, making the wounds felt more painful. But she was so tired. So tired.  

Baekhyun grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her up, but she remained on the damp ground, her limbs unmoving. There were tears in her eyes—or raindrops, but Baekhyun was sure that raindrops didn’t make her eyes glassy.

“Get up,” he whispered, and he was shocked by himself; he never expected himself to go easy on Seulgi. Not after he became the reason why Seulgi kept getting demerits. “You’ll get sick—and I will, too, if we stay outside. It’s r