Today was Friday; the last day of school before summer break! Finally! The school was all abuzz; the energy almost tangible. Everywhere, kids were talking excitedly nonstop about their summer plans.

  I had no idea what I would do other than try to find a part time job. And of course hang out with my new besties. My own happy excitement over the concert, seeing Micah again, and the amazing moment we shared the night before were a scrambled mess of feels inside me.

  Liz passed me in the hall on the way to Geometry. She had a smile on her face. Wow, she’s actually pretty when she’s not scowling!

  “You seem in a good mood!” I commented, trying to make pleasant conversation. Since we were going in the same direction, I might as well make the most of it.

  “I am! Tomorrow I will be out of here and away from you losers!” She clapped her hands excitedly.

  Ok, that didn’t go as planned. I sighed, leaving her to gloat and headed to my next class.

  I hadn’t seen Micah yet today. Sadly, he had a end of season football game to practice for. But we would see each other in 7th period. We had an English Lit exam on Romeo and Juliet to finish.

  Anxious, excited, and a little...ok a lot  embarrassed to see his face again after what happened last night, I blushed harder at the memory.

  Today were the final exams. I prayed to God I would pass. When I got to Geometry class, the teacher was already handing out the test papers. I scurried to my seat. Sliding into my chair and setting my book bag down underneath my desk, I pulled out a pen just as the teacher passed, setting a copy down in front of me. 200 questions. Facepalm. Well, this should be a breeze. Thank God I studied over the week.

  “You have one hour. No copying, no talking, and when you are done, bring the tests up to my desk.” The teacher announced before sitting back down behind his desk.

  I stared down at the paper. For a minute, I froze; my brain went blank. Ok, pep talk… I studied this. It should be pretty simple, right? Suddenly, I could still hear Yugyeom in my head trying to recite in broken English the answers to the flashcards I had made. A giggle escaped me.

  The teacher and several students looked up at me with weird confused expressions. Oops. Sorry. Cringe.

  Thanks Yugyeom, you made my final exam easier and entertaining! I grinned, scribbling down the answers with enough time to spare.

  7th period, English Lit. Last class of the day. I smiled. Wiping my jittery hands on my jeans, I walked down the hall headed for my favorite class of the day. But why was I so nervous to see Micah again?

  With a giddy smile on my face, I rounded the corner, skidding to a complete halt. Micah was standing at the end of the hall just outside the classroom having a conversation with Liz.

  What was she doing here? This isn’t her class...

  She put a hand on her hip and flipped her blonde hair flirtily. Her eyes landed on me, and she smirked. Before I could even blink, she and Micah were in a lip lock.

  I felt the blood drain from my face. My heart hurt like it had been ripped out, stomped on, and then stabbed. Tears were threatening to fall. Before making an utter fool of myself in front of the whole school, I turned tail and ran out the door.

  I ran. Not looking back. The dam broke and the waterworks were spewing everywhere. A whirlwind of emotions stormed my head: anger, sadness, confusion, betrayal, depression.

  Arriving home an hour before I was supposed to, I unlocked the door and burst up the stairs into my bedroom with tears streaming down my face. The image of Micah and that evil manipulative… I didn’t want to think about. But it was playing on a constant loop in my head. My brain wouldn’t let me forget. I fell face first onto my bed and sobbed grossly into my pillow.

  About five minutes later, I felt a tentative hand on my shoulder. Looking up through blurry puffy eyes, I saw Jin, Taehyung, Jimin, BamBam, and Jinyoung standing beside my bed with worried expressions.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Why are you crying?”

  The thought of why made me start bawling all over again. “Micah…” I croaked out.

  “What did that jerk do?” Jimin punched his fists together and looked at the door, ready to kickbox somebody. “I knew he was good for nothing!”

  Jin nudged him to shut up, and turned back to me. “What happened?”

  I took a shaky breath, trying to calm myself so I could speak. “Micah and Liz were kissing.” I hung my head in my hands.

  Taehyung looked confused. “Who’s Liz?”

  Jimin rolled his eyes. “Don’t you ever listen when she’s telling us about her day? Liz is her mortal enemy!”

  Tae made an Oooo face.

  “I'm never ever gonna find my special someone!” I wailed.

  BamBam started screeching at the top of his lungs, “NEVER EVERRR!”
 

  We all glared. “Not helping, BamBam!”

  He looked sheepish.

  A despairing sigh escaped me. “I knew it was good to be true. I should never have gotten attached.”

  Jin sat down next to me on the bed. He put a hand on my shoulder and looked at me with pity. “Mianhae… I’m really sorry. I wish there was something we could do to help.”

  “Yea, we can punch his lights out!” BamBam shouted aggressively.

  Jinyoung looked tiredly at the younger one. “Violence is not the answer.”

  Taehyung was quiet for a moment and then he grinned happily, his box smile growing larger. “We can help!”

  We all looked up at him with curious interest.

  “We can take her shopping to help get her mind off things!”

  Jimin got excited and started dancing around the room, soon joined by Tae. A small smile appeared on my face at their cute antics.

  Jin smiled at me. “See, it’s working already.”

  “Well, you guys have fun. We have a fan sign in an hour.” Jinyoung said sadly as he stood up, ready to leave.

  “But….” BamBam whined, looking forlornly at his older hyung.

  “Nope.” Jinyoung shook his head. “You can’t trick me with those puppy eyes. JYP will kill us if we don’t show up for this event.”

  The younger let out an annoyed sigh. “I wanted to go shopping.” He pouted and marched through the wall out of sight.

  I tried to make myself as presentable as possible in the bathroom while Jin and the boys went to find the rest of their gang. Staring back at my puffy red eyes and mascara stained cheeks made me almost burst into tears again, but I tried my best to control myself. Washing my face with cold water helped...a little.

  Soon, all of BTS was romping through the shops with me dragging behind taking up the rear. First place Taehyung wanted to go of course was Gucci.

  The others rolled their eyes. “Jinjja! Don’t you have enough Gucci already?”

  “Absolutely not! One can never have too many Gucci.” He adjusted his sunglasses coolly and walked off.

  I tried to be a part of the group but my emotions just didn’t want me to have any fun. “He doesn’t like me for me. That’s what wrong. I need to change my image to be loved. I’m not good enough.”

  I was muttering to myself when Namjoon suddenly threw an arm around my shoulder. “Girl, you don’t need to change anything. You are beautiful just the way you are. You should be loved for who you are, and if he can’t accept that, then he ain’t good enough.”

  A smile spread across my face as he started singing the chorus of 21st Century Girl. “Don’t ever be scared, whatever people say, you’re okay! Alright! You are strong. You say yes or no, yes or no.” He pointed to me and grinned. “To the 20th century girl, live your life! Live your life, come on baby! To the 21st century girl, you don’t mind! You don’t mind that new lady!”

  Jimin joined in. “Tell them that you’re strong.Tell them you’re enough. Let you go, let you go, let you go. Let it go, oh!”

  Singing at the top of their lungs, the rest of the guys swept me up into a conga line as we made our way around the clothing displays. I couldn’t help but laugh as I joined the singing. “All my ladies, put your hands up! 21st century girl, hands up! All my ladies, put your hands up! Now scream!”
 

  By the time we stopped singing, we were all a little breathless and giggling uncontrollably. And the entire store was looking at us like we’d lost our minds.

  “Feel better now?” Hoseok asked hopefully with a pure smile.

  I nodded. “Thanks guys. You’re the best.”

  We spent the rest of the afternoon trying on outfits and being silly. They did a great job of making me forget my trouble, at least for a little while.

  At one point, Taehyung was practicing his acting faces in the full length mirror. He was trying his best not to smile, but kept bursting into giggles, especially when he noticed me, Jimin and Yoongi silently judging him.

  Later, I was standing in line with them, waiting to get some food at the local Chinese place, when suddenly I remembered my last exam. “Oh no! I forgot to take my last test! I will fail for sure!” I almost started crying again. Anxiety was welling up inside me again.

  Pulling out my phone, I huffed at the sight of 3 missed calls from Micah, ignoring them immediately. Instead, I quickly emailed my English Literature teacher to ask about a makeup test, praying all the while that he wasn’t going to fail me for not showing up. He was not known for being tolerant of students missing his class. I was getting more anxious with each passing moment. Waiting for a response was like watching a seed grow. I fidgeted uncomfortably, sweating about my future. A panic attack was trying to come on.

  “Relax! YOLO!” Taehyung gave me his cheerful signature box smile.

  Jungkook and Jimin were fooling around, trying to steal each other's food. Jin was sitting across from me, guarding his roast pork egg fu yung with his life from the maknaes. And Namjoon was for some odd reason was putting chopsticks in his nose. I eyed him with concern.

  Hoseok laughed. "And you thought he was the mature one."

  “I’m trying to make her laugh!” Namjoon defended, trying not to let the chopsticks fall. He looked like some sort of strange breed of walrus.

  “Dude, hajima! You're making my nose hurt!” My hand covered my eyes as I tried to ignore his weirdness. But I couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “Yes! It works!” He threw his arms over his head with excitement, forgetting for a moment about the eating utensils which promptly fell on the floor. He pouted.

  “I’ll get you some new ones.” Yoongi rolled his eyes. I could hear him mumbling as he walked away. “I’m surrounded by pabos.”

  My phone dinged with an incoming email. I held my breath as I read. Getting almost to the end before I realized I was turning blue, I inhaled sharply. “Thank God! Mr. Phillips says that I can do the makeup test online! I thought for sure he would fail me for skipping class! But apparently, I’m one of his favorite students….” I trailed off, suddenly in a happy state of euphoria as relief washed over me.

  “See. And you were worried.” Hoseok grinned.

  We were on our way back to the house. It was already getting dark. The maknaes were causing a ruckus, cracking jokes and giggling as we walked down the street. As my house came into view around the corner, I noticed the outline of a person sitting on the front steps. It was Micah...