Minji sees multiple girls on the other side of the dodgeball court aiming their dodgeballs at her. She always hated Gym class on dodgeball day. Every girl in her class took it as an opportunity to try and attack her. Minji never used to have this problem. She used to just be a quiet nerd back in middle school. No one bothered her, and she stayed to herself. She was basically invisible. That all changed when she moved to high school. It wasn’t like Minji had changed though; she was still the girl who preferred studying over social activities. Going to a new school may have been what changed things, she would now hear girls whispering about her and guys staring at her with creepy looks. Minji blames all evil glares and hate towards her on a group of 8 boys.

            In Minji’s class there was Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Kyungsoo. They always seemed to go out of their way to try to get her attention and . Though Kyungsoo was usually harmless and would even sometimes come to her rescue pushing the other 3 boys away from their desks when they would go too far. The rest of the boys would join them during lunch, where the boys from her class had taken it upon themselves to start sitting at her table without asking her. Sehun and Jongin were in the grade below them and Junmyeon and Minseok were a grade above. Their attention on her was what brought a lot of negative attention for the other girls in school towards her, especially the Queens of the school who saw the boys as their future husbands. What was Minji supposed to though, she had never asked for their attention. Jongdae was always the worst of them all. He was always invading Minji’s personal space. Today was no exception either.

            Minji had unfortunately been put on the same team as Jongdae and he seems to find it his job to continuously put his face incredibly close to hers whenever he gets close to her. Kyungsoo smacks him upside the head as he walks by, since he hasn’t seemed leave Minji’s side. At that moment though she knew she was screwed as she stares down 5 girls with evil smirks on their faces. There were more girls on the other team than her own and the 2 most popular girls in school were on the other team. Minji closes her eyes as she sees the 5 girls throw the balls directly at her at the same time, she waits for the impact. It never comes though, instead she feels two bodies press against hers, and a set of arms wraps around her waist. Baekhyun is able to stop one of the balls from even crossing over to Minji’s side of the court from his teams’ side and gives the girl who threw it a dirty look.

            “Are you okay, Minji?” Kyungsoo looks her up and down after he pulls back from her. She opens her eyes and nods her head, as Jongdae lets go of her waist and turns to his left grabbing one of the dodgeballs off the ground. He is incredibly angry because some of those balls that had hit him hurt pretty bad. So, he doesn’t hold back as he throws the dodgeball back at one of the girls. She tries to hide behind Chanyeol’s giant frame but the boy refuses to be her protector after what she and her friends just did to Minji. The ball hits her full strength in her shoulder. The girl he hits runs off the court crying.

            “What is wrong with you girls?!” Jongdae yells. “You could have seriously hurt her!” He looks at all the girls who are acting innocently.

            “It’s just a game Jongdae Oppa calm down.” One of the popular girls crosses her arms over her chest.

            “Do not call me oppa.” He warns with a threat to his voice. Minji doesn’t know what comes over her as she reaches out and she grabs Jongdae’s wrist. She shakes her head when he looks at her, as if she is telling him she isn’t worth starting a fight in class. Jongdae’s eyes soften when he sees the pout on Minji’s face. She probably isn’t doing it intentionally and he knows that, but he still finds it adorable. “Are you sure you are okay?” he turns his full attention back to her as he grabs her other arm gently.

            “I am fine Jongdae-ah.” Minji lets go of his wrist and takes a step back. Kyungsoo is next to her again still checking her to make sure none of the dodgeballs ended up hitting her. At that moment, the Gym teacher comes back into the room with the girl Jongdae had thrown the dodgeball at.

            “Mr. Kim what is this I am being told about you throwing a dodgeball at this girl with all your strength.” The Gym teacher makes his way over to the three of them with his arms crossed over his chest. “Just because she got you out doesn’t mean you should take your anger out on her. It is just a game.”

            “But that isn’t what happened, Sir.” Minji quietly tries to correct.

            “Are you getting smart with me, Ms. Choi?” the teacher gives her a surprised look. It was the first time she has ever spoken during his class, that he was aware of.

            “Um, no Sir. I am just saying that the story she told you is a lie.” Minji looks uncomfortable and this time Kyungsoo reaches out and grabs her hand gently squeezing it trying to stop her from talking. He can tell the more she talks the more annoyed their teacher is getting.

            “I don’t like that you back talking me, Ms. Choi. This young girl came to my office crying her eyes out and telling me she was hurt, by Mr. Kim here. Now are you trying to tell me her tears were a lie, too?” the teacher looks Minji over one more time.

            Most likely because she is a bratty drama queen. Minji thinks to herself and begins to open , but when Kyungsoo squeezes her hand again she keeps her thoughts to herself. She instead towards Kyungsoo with an annoyed look because of how stupid her teacher is. She bites her lip while she looks down at Kyungsoo’s hand holding hers. Why am I letting these boys touch me today? Why did I grab Jongdae’s wrist earlier? Minji can’t figure out what was up with her right now, back talking her teacher for a boy she hates and letting the boys who made all the girls in school hate her touch her all the sudden. It wasn’t like she was friends with them. Maybe she has just become too used to them being around her that it just doesn’t even faze her anymore.

            The teacher sees the attitude in her face and is not happy, “Well Ms. Choi with that attitude of yours, you have just landed yourself on cleaning duty after class today. Together with Mr. Kim.” Minji’s jaw drops and her eyes widen. She has never gotten in trouble with a teacher before. She turns to Jongdae with a truly angry glare before stomping away from him. Kyungsoo’s hand drops back to his side as he and Jongdae watch her walk away.

            As the rest of the students are leaving the Gym later after class to get changed Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol are standing behind Jongdae and Minji with frustrated faces, “This is totally not fair.” Chanyeol comments and Baekhyun nods his head in agreement, “I feel like they made it ten times messier just for you guys to clean up.” Chanyeol was probably right. There were dodgeballs were everywhere and Minji doesn’t even remember their school having that many. On top of that some of the girls convinced some guys, outside the group surrounding Minji, to get out the soccer and basketballs and play with them before class ended. They then left them out as well for Minji and Jongdae to clean up.

            “Of course, they did the girls in this school hate me, no thanks to you guys.” Minji states matter of factly as she walks away from the boys. All their faces saddened at her statement. They just want to be her friend. Even Kyungsoo wants to be her friend, though he thinks the rest of the boys are going about it the wrong way.

            “Go ahead and go back guys. We will see you back in the classroom.” Jongdae tells the boys as he walks over and joins Minji putting all the different sports balls back in the baskets and bags. They had all the balls gathered in about 20 minutes and they start to put them back in the sports equipment closet. Jongdae was already in the closest trying to organize it when Minji walks in with a cart of basketballs about 5 minutes after him. All the sudden the door closes behind Minji. “What was that noise?” Jongdae comes from the back of the closet where he was hanging up the dodgeball bags.

            “The door just closed by itself.” Minji turns to the door and tries to open it. She can’t get it open and starts to turn the handle and push against the door more frantically. Jongdae sees her fighting with the door and grabs her shoulders to move her to aside. “It’s not moving, we are stuck in here.” Minji starts to look around frantically. Jongdae tries to open the door but when he tries to turn the door handle it won’t budge.

            “The door didn’t close itself. Someone purposely just locked us in here.” Jongdae turns around to see Minji freaking out.

            “No, No No.” Minji shakes her head and starts to look around the room desperately for an exit. Jongdae doesn’t know why she is freaking out, but something in him knows he needs to help calm her down.

            “Minji breath.” He steps up in front of her and grabs her shoulders “What is wrong?”

            “I don’t like confined spaces.” Minji looks into his eyes terrified, “When I was younger my older brother locked me in a closet at a hot spring as a joke and I almost died of heat by the time he told my parents where I was.” Minji explains with tears in her eyes. Jongdae’s eye widened and he took a step closer to Minji. He slides his hands down her arms till he is holding her hands.

            “Calm down, Minji.” Jongdae’s voice is soft and calm. “You are safe. There is plenty of air in this closet. Also, I am here, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

            “You don’t know that there enough air in here for us. What if we suffocate before someone comes to find us? This is free period. It will be at least another hour before anyone notices we are missing.” Minji starts to go into full panic mode.

            “Minji, I know that if you keep breathing like that you will pass out. You need to calm down. Breath in and out slowly.” Jongdae instructs her. After a few minutes he realizes that even though she is trying to breath properly she just can’t seem get a deep breath. “Follow my lead.” Jongdae slowly breaths in and then out. Minji’s eyes move down to his chest and she tries to match the rise and fall of her chest to his. After a couple of minutes, she is finally breathing normal again and Jongdae gives her a big smile. “There you go. Better?”

            “Better. Thank you Jongdae-ah.” Minji looks back up into his eyes.

            “You can just call me Jongdae you know. You don’t have to be so formal with me.” He gives out a breathy laugh. When he unconsciously gives her hands another squeeze Minji realizes that she is allowing him to touch her again. Her face starts to heat up as she pulls her hands out of his.

            “I don’t think I would be comfortable with that.” She turns away and finds somewhere to sit.

            “Why not? What is so wrong with being informal with me? I am sure Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Chanyeol would like it if you were informal with them, too.” Jongdae walks over and sits across from where Minji finally sits.

            “You guys may like it, but I know the girls in school won’t like it.” Minji looks at him like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

            “What do they matter? We want to be your friends Minji. Is that so wrong?” Jongdae pouts a little. Minji finds it hard to not find his pouty face adorable. There is a reason he is one of the most popular boys in school. All 8 of the boys are handsome in their own ways and the girls fall head over heels for them. Minji never paid much attention before because she is usually busy focusing on her studies. Even when the boys would goof around for her attention and , she would always try to ignore them because she knew their attention would just cause problems that she didn’t want.

            “It matters because I don’t want to be bullied by the girls in school because I am too close to you boys. I come to school to learn not start drama.” Minji looks at her hands with a sadness in her eyes she doesn’t even realize is there. She had never really had friends since she was more focused on school and learning than her surrounds. I the boys hadn’t made it a point to pester her so much she probably wouldn’t even know they were in her class let alone notice all the dirty looks and whispering the girls did.

            “Why would you get bullied by being our friend?” Jongdae gives her a confused innocent look.

            “You’re joking right?” Minji gives him a sarcastic look. When Jongdae shakes his head Minji decides to fill him in. “You guys are the most popular boys in school. All the girls want to date you boys. And when you show any sort of attention to any girl who isn’t them it makes them angry. That’s probably why we are locked in here. One of the girls from class probably thought I was the only one in here and decided to try to play a trick on me because you and Kyungsoo chose to protect me earlier against their wrath.” Minji sighs and looks towards the door.

            “What…What if we promise to protect you and make sure no one bullies you?” Jongdae questions.

            “Why in the world is it so important to you to be friends with me?” Minji sighs in frustration looking at him like he is crazy. “There is nothing special about me. You could be friends, even boyfriend with any and every girl in school. Why are you boys so insistent on me?”

            Jongdae looks at Minji’s eyes not understanding how she doesn’t see what kind of person she is. “Don’t you even realize how beautiful you are? That’s not even the reason we give you so much attention though. You are the first girl who hasn’t bothered us about our looks or chased after Junmyeon hyung for his family’s money. I don’t even think you had noticed that Kyungsoo was your seat partner until we started paying attention to you.” Minji blinks cocking her head to the side confused. “That’s what I thought. Honestly, we didn’t even think anything of you at first. Yeah, we all noticed you were cute, but we just figured you would be like every other girl in school so just didn’t pay attention to you. We used to go over to your desk because we wanted to hang out with Kyungsoo during breaks and he is more of the come to me if you want my attention type.” Jongdae laughs a little about Kyungsoo’s personality.

            “The day we finally really noticed you more besides just being another girl in class was when you fell asleep after a hard English exam. You had fallen asleep sitting up and your head slowly fell onto Kyungsoo’s shoulder.” Minji remembers that day it was their first year of high school and she had stayed up all night the night before studying for the exam. When she woke up Chanyeol’s face had been way too close to hers and he was just smiling at her. “You didn’t seem to like the fact we were giving you attention when you woke up.”

“After that we realized you weren’t like the rest of the girls who fawned for our attention. Though honestly, I think Kyungsoo knew you were like the rest of the girls from class before then since he was your desk partner. It is probably why he didn’t shove you away when your head landed on his shoulder. But from that point on we all noticed how you would occasionally crack a smile when we joked and let out a quiet laugh when Kyungsoo would put us in line.” Jongdae moves over to sit next to her. He sees how tired Minji looks right now. Her panic attack probably having worn her out. “After that we purposely tried to get you to smile and laugh.”

            “Is that why you guys started getting louder and Chanyeol kept annoyingly calling my name daily?” Jongdae smiles gently at Minji but nods. “Did you guys tease me trying to make me laugh as well?”

            “Oh no