SPRING; April

Thursday -- Morning

“It’s not fair!”

Taehyung continued to whine to Jiyoo as he flailed his arms around. His childlike behavior almost ended up with him hitting Jiyoo on accident, though he’d managed to stop before she’d gotten hurt.

“I told you guys that you didn’t need to come to school.” Jiyoo mumbles. Her eyes remained downcast as she avoided the curious stares of her classmates. “Didn’t you hate school too?”

“Doesn’t everybody?” Taehyung groans, continuing to pout until he realized something. “Hey, how did you know I didn’t like school?”

Jiyoo tenses up, but it’s not enough for Taehyung to notice. “I-I heard it from Namjoon.”

“Ah.” Taehyung sighs, “He’s right. School is pretty lame.”

--

Three days had passed since Jungkook’s father made the decision to put the rest of Bangtan in school with her and Jungkook. It was the longest three days of Jiyoo’s entire life. One reason, was because Jungkook practically ignored her the whole time.

The fact that he’d showed up at her house to get her, but didn’t want to talk to her was heartbreaking enough. It made Jiyoo feel like a burden, as if he were her bodyguard rather than her best friend.

He stuck around her like usual, but refused to talk to her at all. His silence made Jiyoo feel guilty, though she didn’t want to tell Jungkook’s father that she wanted Jungkook as her mate either.

Which leads to the second reason: The whole school found out that Jungkook was an Alpha after they went to school the next day.

Jiyoo’s pheromones were still being emitted pretty strongly and boys were being more upfront about talking to her. Jungkook might’ve been ignoring her, but that didn’t mean he liked it when boys tried to talk to her still. One boy was particularly unlucky during their shared PE period. He tried kicking the ball over to Jiyoo so that he could ‘nonchalantly’ go and get it from her, but he overshot his kick. The ball zipped through the air and hit Jiyoo right in the stomach; It was her weak spot due to her period still hanging around.

Jungkook was already upset about Jiyoo getting attention, so seeing her hurt practically pushed him through the breaking point.

He ended up giving that kid a black eye and sent ten other kids to the health room after they’d fainted from his Alpha pheromones.

After that, girls wouldn’t stop bothering Jiyoo about Jungkook, while boys wouldn’t leave Jungkook alone because they wanted a strong Alpha like him around. It was hell for the both of them, more so because they didn’t speak one word to one another at all during the few days.

--

“But why do I have to be a second year? I’m already old enough to be in the third year.” Taehyung groans.

Jiyoo chuckles, but doesn’t say anything else because they technically were in class right now. Jungkook’s father said he would enroll all of them in school, but he didn’t mention that Taehyung and Jimin were to be signed up as second years while Hoseok, Suga, Seokjin and Namjoon were signed up as third years. Taehyung was the only one that didn’t understand why he’d been held back, especially since he was the one that hated school the most.

“It makes sense though, doesn’t it?” Hoseok quipped, watching as Taehyung’s unhappy expression grew even more. “I mean, Seokjin is already two years older than the oldest kids on campus.”

“At least you’ll be able to spend more time with Jiyoo.” Namjoon pat Taehyung on the back as the latter just groaned again.

That was one of the only reasons why Taehyung was so obedient about the situation. His first class of the day was with Jiyoo and only Jiyoo.

Which is why he could use her lap as a pillow and nobody could say anything to him.

“Mr. Kim, is my lesson boring to you that you feel the need to take a nap during it?” The teacher asked, her voice rising as Taehyung’s head rose just barely above the table to squint in her direction.

“Yes.” Taehyung says as a matter of factly. “I’m surprised that nobody else has fallen asleep yet, right Jiyoo?”

Jiyoo’s eyes widen as she was suddenly dragged into the situation. She shook her head and made it clear that she did not agree to what Taehyung said. The teacher didn’t think the same way and sent both her and Taehyung out into the hallway for disrupting her lesson. Letting out a sigh, Jiyoo glares at Taehyung who was more relieved than guilty for getting them kicked out.

“You can’t just disrespect the teachers like that Taehyung.” Jiyoo grumbles, feeling irritated that she’d been sent outside when she didn’t do anything wrong.

“She deserved it.” Taehyung huffs.

They were instructed to raise their hands in the air for the rest of the class period, which was another ten minutes or so. Taehyung had no problem with it and leaned against the window to the classroom as he smiled cheekily about what he’d done. Jiyoo on the other hand only held one arm up in the air. The other arm was wrapped tightly around her stomach.

She didn’t know why her stomach was hurting so badly today. Jiyoo did everything she needed to do to prevent her stomach pains. Her period wasn’t as heavy and she was eating properly, but her stomach felt as though someone were stabbing it from the inside out.

“Do you want to ditch and go home?” Taehyung asks, his eyes worried as Jiyoo continued to clutch her sore stomach.

Giving him a mean look, Taehyung quickly stands up straight and avoids making eye contact with her. Jiyoo wasn’t in the mood for games anymore and hoped that her stomach ache would just pass.

“Did you take your medicine this morning?” Taehyung speaks up again, only to be shushed by the teacher who could hear his voice despite how he wasn’t in class anymore.

Jiyoo ignored him, putting both arms up in the air as she hung her head low, hoping that Taehyung would shut up soon.

Once the bell rang, Jiyoo was quick to head back into the class to grab her backpack before high tailing it to her next class. She had history next with Jungkook and hoped that the latter would at least talk a little today. To her dismay, Jungkook made no effort to speak to her. He didn’t even save her a seat either. Jiyoo’s spot next to him was occupied by some girl that was trying to get Jungkook’s attention.

Jiyoo ended up sitting in the farthest seat from him so she wouldn’t have to see their interaction.

That class passed awkwardly and soon it was time for gym class. Jiyoo made her way out without looking back to see if Jungkook was going to walk behind her like what he’s been doing recently. Every second Jiyoo spent away from him made her heart ache, but seeing him doing fine without her crushed her spirit completely.

After changing into her gym clothes, Jiyoo walks out into onto the field to find two familiar faces waiting for her.

“Jiyoo! Over here!” Hoseok yells, his voice booming in the air as he waved for Jiyoo to join him and Jimin in the grass.

Jiyoo scurries over to them while taking small glances at her surroundings. She saw Jungkook somewhere off to the side, but he was already being surrounded by more girls. Somewhere amidst the crowd was Joohyun and her friends. The sight made Jiyoo grimace and she was so distracted that she walked right into Jimin without realizing it.

Her head bumped into his chest as he steadied her out before she fell back. “Woah there. Be careful when you’re walking kiddo.”

Giving him a meek smile, they waited for the teacher to explain what they were doing for the day before they were released to do stretches. Although Jiyoo was supposed to be paying attention to the teacher, she couldn’t help but notice how close Hoseok and Jimin were. They joked around when the teacher wasn’t looking, pushing one another and holding in their laughter when the teacher turned to look at them. They definitely fit in as high schoolers despite having graduated already.

She’ll admit that she was a bit jealous to see that, remembering how she and Jungkook used to be that close before.

“Join into groups of two for stretches!”

Jiyoo unconsciously tensed up hearing her teacher say that. She already knew she wouldn’t have a partner since Jungkook wasn’t willing to talk to her. It almost didn’t occur to her that she could’ve asked Jimin or Hoseok to be her partner to save her from partnering with some random person. Jiyoo dismissed the idea though, purely because she didn’t want to inconvenience them.

She looked down at her feet and hoped to dear god that she wouldn’t be stuck with someone that didn’t like her. Jiyoo was in her own world at this point, but this didn’t go unnoticed by Jimin. The latter watched the whole thing: Jiyoo’s uncertainty when the partner stretching was announced and how dejected she looked after realizing (most likely) that she couldn’t partner with Jungkook.

Jimin tapped Hoseok on the shoulder and leaned to the side to whisper in his ear. Hoseok listened patiently and nodded his head, understanding Jimin’s plan.

When the teacher blew his whistle, Jiyoo was shocked to feel someone tap her shoulder so quickly. Her eyes slowly rose from looking at someone’s feet to looking at their face. She was surprised and the shock was apparent on her face.

“What? You didn’t want to partner with me?” Hoseok teases, already hooking an arm around her shoulder.

Jiyoo shakes her head and glances over to where Jimin was, only to find him a short distance away with Jungkook. “N-No, I just thought that you would pair with Jimin.”

While Jiyoo was flustered, Hoseok pushed out a wave of Alpha pheromones around them. It was more difficult than he though, especially since he didn’t want Jiyoo to get affected. The boys that had gathered around Jiyoo were sent away with chills running down their spines, taking one last fleeting look at Jiyoo as Hoseok glared at them to go away.

Meanwhile, Jiyoo managed to catch what happened. It was pretty obvious since the group of people around her and Hoseok had suddenly scattered. When she tried stepping back to get a better look at her surroundings, Hoseok pulled her closer into his chest.

Looking up, she was only met with Hoseok’s signature smile. “Don’t want you to get sick now. Just wait for a moment while the pheromones are dispersing.”

She nods her head, but uses her hands to keep a bit of distance between her and Hoseok. It wasn’t that she didn’t like him. Jiyoo just didn’t like being in close quarters with people like that.

“Jungkook, can I be your partner?”

“Jungkook! Let’s be partners!”

“No, he’s going to be my partner!”

Jungkook rolls his eyes for the nth time that day, shoving past the hoard of girls that were trying to claim him like some kind of animal. He’d been saved after Jimin had suddenly gone up to him and asked to be partners, which he accepted almost immediately. Jungkook was quick to realize that Jimin was in his and Jiyoo’s period for PE and immediately did his eyes glance around to see where Jiyoo was.

She was a lot closer than Jungkook expected and he also didn’t expect her to be in Hoseok arms. The sight made Jungkook cringe, but since it wasn’t some random boy, he scoffed and walked away to begin his stretches.

Their activity for the day today was going to be soccer, or football as they called it in the motherland. Since the PE teacher didn’t want to oversee two games at once, he made everyone join into one gigantic game instead.

He’d picked the teams rather unfairly, separating mostly Alphas and Betas on one team while placing mostly Betas and Omegas on the other. Jiyoo was stuck on a team with many kids that she didn’t know. Jungkook on the other hand was on a team with not only Jimin and Hoseok, but Joohyun, her friends, and a lot of other Alphas.

Jiyoo could see Joohyun’s menacing glare from across the field and she made a mental note to avoid her as much as possible. Joohyun had her eyes set for Jungkook the whole period, but seeing that Jiyoo was alone made her the perfect target.

She wanted Jungkook as her mate and hated Jiyoo for being so close to him. It was so simple that Jiyoo knew this, even without Joohyun telling her.

“Ready… Start!” The gym teacher blew his whistle and the ball was kicked in.

The first person to reach the ball wasn’t an Alpha, but an Beta that was on Jiyoo’s team. It was quite a sight to see, especially since the boy was quick on his feet with the ball. He ran with the ball past many of the other team’s players. When he was almost to the goal, he brought his foot back to kick when he’d suddenly dropped down onto his knees.

Jiyoo feels herself instinctively take a step back. The Alpha pheromones were prominent even where she was on the field, which was pretty far away from the other team’s goal. As the ball was stolen away from the Beta boy, Jiyoo saw Joohyun’s snide smile loom over the latter before she’d jogged off to follow the ball. The Beta boy was left alone after that, frozen on his knees as he slammed his fist into the floor.

“You should pay attention to the game love.”

Jiyoo feels something tap her nose and she turns to find Hoseok grinning from ear to ear in her direction. “But that boy…”

She didn’t know who he was, but she still felt bad for him.

Hoseok shrugs his shoulders and runs off to try and get the ball, leaving Jiyoo to only watch the so said boy from a distance. He still hadn’t gotten up off his feet yet and remained with his body slumped to the floor. Since Jiyoo wasn’t usually one to play sports, she ended up slowly making her way down the field to where the boy was, not wanting to get hit by the ball.

He hadn’t noticed her approaching until she was squatting down right next to him. Her sudden appearance made the boy let out an ear piercing scream that shocked her and some of the classmates that had heard the noise.

“Sorry, I-I didn’t mean to scare you.” Jiyoo winces. She’d fallen onto her after being screamed at, waiting for the boy to say something while he just stared at her in return.

“N-No, it’s my fault.” The boy stutters, embarrassed that he’d screamed so suddenly. He waits for Jiyoo to walk away, but is confused when she continues to just sit there with him. “Shouldn’t you be playing?”

“I’m kind of afraid.” Jiyoo admits, looking over at the game to see that the Alpha/Beta team had scored another goal.

The boy nods his head, though a bitter smile appears on his lips. “I could say the same. I hate Joohyun, you know?”

Jiyoo’s suspicions were correct after hearing the boy speak. “Yeah.. She’s a bit scary.” Jiyoo admitted.

The two were a bit of an eyesore sitting on a field full of kids playing soccer (or at least running around pretending like they were) and the gym teacher yelled for them to get their asses moving. Jiyoo stood up quickly, but glanced down to see the other boy struggling to get back into his feet. His hands were shaking and the only thing Jiyoo could think of was to help him up.

“Here,” She holds her hand out and motions for him to take it.

As she helps pull the latter up, she realizes that he wasn’t as light as she predicted. Jiyoo stumbles a bit, but luckily the boy had caught himself and was able to stand on his own. He was really tall compared to her. If she had to compare him to someone she knew, then he would probably be as tall as Namjoon.

“Thanks…” The boy lets out, “I’m Taemin, by the way. Kim Taemin, year one.”

“Jiyoo. Same year.” Was all she said in return.

The two jogged over to where the rest of the class was playing and watched as the sport began to turn ugly. Since the Alpha/Beta team was so strong, they had no problems keeping the ball on their goal side. Jiyoo saw more of her teammates on the floor withered down in pain and she felt her chest clench up.

Before she could move to see if they were okay, she feels a presence drop next to her, causing her to take a step away from whatever had appeared so suddenly.

The presence wasn’t someone appearing, but rather, someone collapsing to the floor.

“T-Taemin!” Jiyoo yelped, her own body starting to feel tingly as she watched as the boy started convulsing in pain.

Frantically looking around, she tried to look for someone to help her, but came up empty. None of the other Omegas dared to say a word and the Betas were too busy to notice what was happening. Jiyoo turned to her left to check up on Taemin when he saw Joohyun and her friends snickering off to the side.

Joohyun gave Jiyoo a small smile and jut her lower lip out to pity Taemin who had collapsed, though a wicked smirk appeared on her face before she’d broken out into a sadistic laugh. Jiyoo knew that it was Joohyun’s fault that Taemin had fallen not once, but twice. She knew that Joohyun had that much power and yet she still made the mistake of giving Joohyun a mean look.

It only lasted for a second, but Joohyun still saw her. She held a hand to her chest and feigned innocence and shock, before jogging back to the game. Jiyoo was then distracted by Taemin again who begged her to pull him out of bounds before something like that happened again. There were tears in his eyes and Jiyoo panicked, not knowing what to do.

“Hey Jiyoo! Why don’t you play with us a little?”

Hearing her name be called, Jiyoo looks up only to Joohyun kicking the soccer ball in her direction. She froze up and barely was able to see Joohyun’s cruel smile as the soccer ball whizzed closer and closer to hitting her.

Jiyoo wanted to move out of the way, but for a split second, it looked as though the ball would hit Taemin, who was still writhing in pain on the floor.

She’d never protected anyone else before and it was fairly obvious by the way that she blocked the ball. Instead of protecting her head, she let her hands outstretched to cover Taemin behind her. The ball flew through the air and slammed Jiyoo right in the stomach, causing her to double over and collapse on the floor.

It felt as though her insides were going to come out and all Jiyoo could do was hold her stomach as she silently cried about the pain that flared in her abdomen.

“What the -” Hoseok feels his blood boil after seeing such terrible treatment to Jiyoo. He wants to go up to Joohyun and return the favor tenfold, but is stopped by Jimin, who points a finger towards something.

Or someone.

Jungkook looked as though he was going to explode. His fingers dug into his palms as his pheromones made the people around him scatter. The only thing Jungkook was looking at now was Jiyoo, who was being consoled by Taemin.

Hoseok and Jimin couldn’t tell if Jungkook was more upset about what happened to Jiyoo or the fact that she was being helped by another guy that wasn’t him. Either way, Jungkook was pissed, but refusing to do anything still.

To make matters worse, Joohyun had decided that one shot wasn’t enough to sedate her sadistic desires. She motions for the ball to come her way and her teammates (besides Hoseok, Jimin and Jungkook) are more than willing to see another show be put on.

Joohyun holds the ball under her heel and watches as Taemin frantically tries to push Jiyoo up onto her feet. The sight of Jiyoo being surrounded by good looking guys pissed Joohyun off and she took her anger out on her problems: Which was Jiyoo.

Pulling her foot back, she lets the top of her foot sail into the ball and watches as it plummets right for Jiyoo yet again. Neither Jiyoo or Taemin were in good condition to move out of the way, but since Jiyoo hadn’t been put under Alpha pheromones, she recovered faster than Taemin had. Jiyoo pushed the latter behind her as she blocked the ball’s trajectory from hitting Taemin.

She closed her eyes and waited for the blow that never came.

“O-Oh my god!” Joohyun yelps, her hands covering after seeing what she’d done.

Jiyoo doesn’t feel pain. If anything, she feels a little warm. Opening her eyes, she finds someone standing in front of her. Their arms were holding her protectively and she was in their chest.

“Jimin-ah, I’m so sorry!” Joohyun immediately went over to Jimin and began touching his face to make sure he was okay, oblivious to the menacing glare he had on his face only he’d slapped her hands away.

Her fair skin on back of her palms turned red after being hit by Jimin. She gasped, not understanding what was going on before the latter pushed her backwards.

“Don’t call my name like we’re friends.” Jimin hisses.

He puts Jiyoo behind him and stands up straight, further making Joohyun look like a little child in front of him. Jimin emits his Alpha pheromones and watches as Joohyun scampers backward, eventually falling on her as tears start to drip from her eyes.

“And don’t you dare ever do that ever again.” Jimin growls, forcing Joohyun to nod her head as she runs back to her friends.

Jimin turns around and bends down so that he’s eye level with Jiyoo. Gently cupping her cheeks in his palms, he turns her head slightly from left to right to examine for any injuries.

“I’m fine Jimin.” Jiyoo croaks out, “My stomach just hurts a little.”

“Do you want to go to the health room?” Jimin asks fervently, not believing her words.

“No, I’m fine.” Jiyoo turns around and sees Taemin on the ground still, his eyes wide open as he stares at Jimin like he’s some sort of God. “Are you okay Taemin?”

Taemin nods and Jimin doesn’t hesitate to help him to his feet. “Jiyoo, I think Hoseok was calling you earlier.”

Jiyoo looks over at Hoseok and yelps after seeing him try to fight anyone that was troubling Jiyoo. She scurries over to calm him, leaving Taemin and Jimin alone.

“Thanks.” Jimin says suddenly, his eyes watching as Hoseok’s angry expression melts right after seeing Jiyoo. “For protecting her.”

“S-She protected me though…” Taemin stutters, not being able to look Jimin in the eye.

“You kept the ball from hitting her though, right?”

Taemin was surprised and slowly nods his head. He didn’t do much during the game after he’d been downed the first time, only redirecting the ball when it got too close to them. The majority of the reason was because he just didn’t want another incident like Joohyun’s Alpha pheromones to happen again, though he won’t lie and say that it was the only reason.

He feels something tap his arm, turning to look at what it was when he found Jimin’s outstretched hand. “Thanks, Taemin? Was it?”

Grabbing Jimin’s hand into a firm handshake, Taemin looks at the latter with stars in his eyes. “C-Can I call you hyung?”

Jimin laughs and hooks an arm around the latter’s neck, the task being a bit difficult since Taemin was around 180 cm. “Go for it kid.”

The rest of gym went pretty smoothly after that. They’d all got changed and went to the cafeteria for lunch. It was a little strange, since right after Jiyoo had finished getting her backpack and heading out of the locker rooms, she found Jungkook waiting at the door. He was still with Hoseok and Jimin, but he was still there nonetheless. After seeing Jiyoo come outside, he promptly spun around on his heel and walked to the cafeteria, not waiting for the rest of them.

Little did Jiyoo know that Jungkook was still upset after what happened in gym. He just didn’t have the courage to ask her if she was alright after he’d been so shameless as to let Joohyun hurt Jiyoo while he was just watching. And since he was guilty of letting her get hurt, Jungkook felt as though he had no right to be around her anymore.

He walks alone and tries his best to tune out the noise around him.

A/N: Kim Taemin? Not Lee Taemin? Oh yes, I'm talkin about Kim Taemin from Produce 101

(This was actually aired I love it)

GUYS CLICK THIS HYPERLINK TO SEE A VIDEO OF WHAT I MEAN BY KIM TAEMIN SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS

I'll be putting up a small guide on the characters because this is getting confusing with the ages and such lmao

And since we've reached 100 comments for Red Lines, it's giveaway time!! 

Congrats to BunBunny99! Please PM me since your profile is on private, therefore making it difficult for me to contact you ahaa

Also sorry to Rosy about not shipping your things sooner, I've been busy with work ;;;; I'll definetely ship everything by next week Wednesday at the LATEST. 

Hope you guys liked this chapter!