Tomorrow came. The day that the pictures would probably be spread throughout the general public. When she came to school, Riyoung expected the worst. She expected everybody to have at least a copy of those damned photos.

Riyoung felt like an invisible hand was sqeezing her windpipe, making her let out harsh and shallow breathes. A sign that she was definitely nervous. Riyoung didn't want to admit it, but she was scared. Honestly, she's handling so much already. If. .if these pictures leak out, she might've have to change schools again like a wuss.

But everything was surprisingly normal, but she was still on edge.

She HATED being a wuss. But, .what could she do? She shifted her eyes towards Teentop. Good thing they didn't notice her reaction. Riyoung felt a tap on the back of her chair. She immediately flinched. She completely forgot that Cap was behind her! maybe. .maybe he saw the photos.

Riyoung nervously turned around. She put on the straightest, most normal face she could muster at the moment. "What?" but her voice failed to hide her nervousness.

Cap raised his notebook. Riyoung looked at the words in neat handwriting.

'Hello.'

Riyoung furrowed her brows. What was the point in this? But she couldn't hide that she was slightly amused. Her nervousness slowly lifting. Apparently he hasn't seen the pictures

"Why?"

Cap looked at her with a slight smile and tilted his head as if the answer was obvious. He turned to another page, wrote something and again held up his notebook.

'Do I have to have a reason for writing/saying hello?'

Riyoung rolled her eyes. "Stop messing. I mean, why are you writing instead of talking?"

Cap's smile faltered and was replaced with a slightly jutting out bottom lip. a slight  pout, the hell? 

Cap wrote again. 

'It's because you won't talk to me.'

He looked at Riyoung straight on. Usually, Riyoung would either laugh or scoff at the corniness but . .

DAMNNIIT

It was so corny and cliched yet. .why in the world did Riyoung find Cap extremely endearing at the moment?

Nope. he is not endearing, Cap is probably tricking you. Cap. .Cap probably told everyone. She repeated inside her head.

"Stop being stupid." Riyoung curtly said, facing back to the front again. nervous that maybe other members of Teentop would catch on to their weird written conversation.

After a few minutes, she felt something like crumpled paper was being pushed in her hand from behind.

'It wasn't me'

She tried to scoff. As if she'd just believe anything he said. But for some reason, she felt great relief when she read the words. She flipped the paper and wrote something on the back.

'Yeah. Whatever'

She threw the paper behind her, she heard Cap shuffling and picking it up.

About a minute later she saw a small paper airplane glide atop her desk.

'I promise you, we didn't avoid you because of your past, nor did we tell anyone. Trust me. Trust us.'

Riyoung's eyes lingered on the last words. 

Trust.

She wanted to trust at least one person in this school. She realized that other than Teentop, she really had no other interactions with anyone in this school. Well, unless of you count fighting as an interaction. She wanted to tell them about the blackmail and just pour out her frustrations in front of them. She wanted someone who she could show her weak side to. Someone who she didn't have to freakin' pretend to. She wanted to trust them, but a of her bid her not to. 

The smart part.

She willed herself to look back. She saw Cap smile at her, not a smirk, not a sarcastic one, not a playful one, but a sincere smile. She blinked a few times to not get affected by it. But the way Cap's eyes gleamed, the way he looked at her, the way he just was.

It made her heart flutter, and she knew that it spelled danger.

"Why the hell would I trust you?" she mumbled coldly, making Cap's smile immediately falter. This time, she didn't act horribly, it was actually quite believable, which made her feel like an absolute jerk.

She felt the urge to turn back but then the bell rang. Riyoung gave out a sigh and left.

She went to her locker and opened it, then closed it immediately afterwards with a slam, making everybody look at her like a weirdo. 

Oh god oh god oh god.

She couldn't believe that the pictures were still there. What if. .what if someone glimpsed some of them when she carelessly opened her locker.

She closed her eyes as a familiar feeling took over her. Her palms got clammy and went dry.

She was. .scared.

But then, Riyoung took a time to pause. She realized that she must've looked soooo helpless right now, and vulnerable, and. .and bully-able. 

Whoever took these photos would probably feel pretty smug if they saw her like this. They succeeded in making her look like this paranoid mess in a matter of minutes.

And she just HATES it. She felt something inside her snap.

She mentally slapped herself and realized that she should just get a grip. She was better than this. When the hell did she get so soft? Getting to her was far greater of a challenge than this. She was Park Riyoung for pete's sake. She was supposed to be this cold, annoying smart- whom nobody would want to mess with. Well, that was her planned image when she decided to go to this school, and it still is. So why the heck should she back down?

Who cares if everyone sees? what's the worst they could do to her? throw eggs at her? ruin her desk? trip her in the hallways? heh. .as if she hasn't experienced worse.

Without even caring if anybody sees. She boldly opened her scandal-filled locker and took down all the photos in one sweep. She gathered all the photos in a pile in her locker. She grabbed the one on top and scribbled something on the back.

Ha. It's 'tomorrow' already, stupid . Why haven't you spread the pictures yet? ran out of ink? You know your putting too much effort bullying me. Is it because you have no life? You may call me a , but look who's talking? Aren't you the one practically stalking Teentop by following them around with a camera? Or are you following me? Aww. .I'm flattered, but I'm not into creeps.

She taped the picture on the back of her locker's door and closed it shut.

She wished that that picture was blown up and bigger so that she could write more insults.

Whoever this person was, Riyoung waged war.

RIyoung went back to class with a pretty satisfied feeling. She felt like a huge thorn was plucked out of her paw. 

BRING IT ON 34823*@920dhweiqbp!!

All types of profanities filled her head as she just felt a surge of power within her. She knew that the following days would probably be hell, but damn, it's worth it.

RIYOUNG POV

Yep, I was definitely right. It has been hell for me the following days. Slowly, more and more girls found ways to secretly bully me. By secret meaning when there are no witnesses around.

They put cockroaches in my shoes, well, rubber ones just to freak me out. Like seriously, how lame is that? But anyways, the degree of the pranks kept increasing. They splashed paint all over my uniform when I left it because of gym class. But of course, i had my revenge by cutting off holes in her uniform's chest area when she left it  innocently lying around in the locker room. Just to see if I can take her tiness to a new level.

They started tripping me almost everywhere, which I were soon able to dodge seamlessly. Honestly I felt like a ninja whenever they would try to attack me and I managed to deflect them. 

I was even locked in the bathroom for a few times, I just waited for them to have their little laugh at being able to 'lock me in' or whatever and waited for them to leave. After getting drenched by the water they threw at my cubicle, they left. Then, I managed to climb out of the cubicle, a skill I've mastered due to experience. 

Of course, I did them the same favor, I managed to lock them all up in the janitor's closet. I honestly didn't  pick the janitor's closet because it had leaks in the roof or that it was filled with unspeakable creatures crawling around, or that it was just plain smelly. 

I honestly didn't. .>:)

I almost felt bad at hearing their screeches of 'ew's and screams of terror whenever a rat would show it's presence. Almost.

Even though the days were tiring and I felt like everything around me was a ticking time bomb, I was pretty pleased with myself. The success rate of their pranks decreased to a bare minimum, while the success rate of mine's were on a new high. I managed to work out a system whenever some of their tricks would get to me. I hid spare clothes all over the school as well as first aid kits.

I was able to deduce three things in the past few days.

1. The bullying was indeed because of the pictures, I heard them talk about it when they were taunting me.

2. Only the girls were bullying me, like the guys were either not told about the pictures, or were scared off or something.

3. They bullied me in secret, when nobody was around, meaning I was safe when I was in the hallways and classrooms.

There was something weird though, the number of times that I get bullied are decreasing as days passed.

I've been going to the rooftop lately, to have brief moments of silence before I go back to the battlefield called school. Cap isn't going here anymore. For some reason that kind of makes me sad. 

I take a huge wiff of fresh air, ignoring the slightly scalding heat of the sun. If I could just stay like this for like three days without having to deal with those hags that would be great.

I hear a knock on the rooftop door. Oh yeah, I kind of accidentally locked it. But I didn't want my moment of silence to end just yet, so I ignored the insistent raps on the door. But then a thought came to me.

What if it's Cap?

I immediately head to open the door, before I stop myself. Wait, I'm avoiding him remember? But I really want to open the door. It's. .it's not like I want to talk to him, it's just that I think it's unfair to lock him out of his rest place. I mean, he did discover it first.

Yeah. .that's the reason.

I lean close to the door, hand poised to open it. 

"Cap?" I inquire.

There was shuffling on the other side and a small grunt, indicating that it was indeed him.

I opened the door, but when I did, I was immediately pulled by the hair and down tumbling on the stairs. I couldn't even yell at the suddenness of it all. I felt my ankle crack as I rolled down the stairs and into a crumpled heap at the bottom.

 I clutch my ankle.  Shoot. .it really hurts.

I hear giggles and scoffs at the top of the stairs. I remember them, the three of them were the girls I locked inside the janitor's closet. One of them was holding a bucket.

I close my eyes as a wave of water drench me through. I didn't even have the energy to scream at them, because most of my will-power is being used to keep myself from fainting due to the pain.

"Ha! not so tough now are you?!" One of them bellows.

Suddenly, the one holding the steel bucket launches the bucket towards me. 

Damn, I. .I can't move. I just decide to brace myself from the impact.

I close my eyes and wait. But I didn't feel anything. Maybe I passed out or something. I slowly open my eyes and see someone in front of me. I immediately stiffen when I realize that it was. .Cap.

I felt my heart almost jump when I saw him stagger a bit, the thrown bucket by his feet. He. .He's hit! Despite the pain in my ankle, I immediately haul myself up  and hop near him, blood was dripping down the side of his head and I had the strangest urge to cry. I wanted to punch and just beat the hell out of those s that did this to him. I cupped his face, his gaze was a bit hazy probably due to the impact, his left eye was jammed shut, shielding his eyes from the blood coming out of the gash on his temple.

The girls just stood frozen in a mixture of shock and fear.

I bit my lip. "You didn't have to." I whispered.

But he just smiled.

 Like he didn't have a friggin gash on his head! But that smile was all it took to take away my worries and my pulse and heartbeat sky-rocket. I pulled away from him when I felt heat rush to my face, making me shift my injured ankle. i winced and staggered, but he managed to support me, his hand in the small of my back.

He flashed me a look of concern and patted his shoulder, urging me to climb on his back.

Hell no! 

I shook my head. He jokingly rolled his eyes and practically shoved my hands on his shoulders. I gave out a sharp yell as he hoisted me up on his back. 

"Cap! just put me down. What am I? 2 years old? I can walk properly on my own thank you very much. And besides your freakin' bleeding, and I'm pretty sure I'm drenched in water. You know what I don't deserve to be forced to be. .blah blah blah blah." 

I mumbled on and on. You see, I have a tendency to ramble when I'm nervous. 

He completely ignored me, without saying a word, he bended down and calmy picked up the empty bucket.

He extended his hand.

"You probably dropped this." he good-naturedly said to the two frozen girls. "Be careful next time."

Cap's words were polite. But something was definitely hidden in his words, like a warning.

Cap carried me the whole time, garnering stares from passers-by. It must've looked quite strange, one of the most popular guys in campus with a bloodied head carrying a drenched nobody on his back. I could've just melted on his back because of all the death glares and looks of confusion on their faces, but the main reason is probably because I think I just injured my pride by letting him carry me like this, and also by the fact that he can probably feel my heart hammering in my chest through his back.

I expected him to head over to the infirmary but instead he went to the speech lab, made me sit on a chair and went towards the equipment closet.

Wait.. it's where I hid one of my first-aid kits.

How? why??

He held out the kit.

"How did you know?" I said in astonishment as I took off my wet shoe. I held out my hand to get the kit and dress my foot myself but he just swatted it away. Instead, he knelt to the floor and positioned himself near my foot. He held my foot and elevated it a bit, I couldn't help but flinch when he did so, not because of pain, but because of the fact that an actual dude, much more Cap is holding my foot in the first place.

"So I can speak to you now?" He looked at me and raised his eyebrows dramatically. "well, .it's a ecret." He grabbed a bit of gauze from the kit and slowly wrapped up my foot.

"Are you like stalking me?" I joked, trying to hide my slightly nervous 

"Why would I?" he tauntingly said as he tucked the gauze in place.

I can't believe that we're still casually arguing even he's bleeding and my ankle's probably broken.

"I don't know." I replied with a shrug and said jokingly. "Probably cuz you just can't stop thinking about me." 

I expected him to laugh and/or strike back a witty comeback but he just looked up, made a contemplating face and said.

"Yeah. .I think that's it."

I waited for the sarcasm but it didn't come, what came afterwards was me, stuttering out incoherent sounds in an effort to say anything back. But after a failed attempt, I found myself completely speechless, and flustered. Unfortunately, I think he noticed it too, judging by that small smile he had on.

Damn. damn. damn, damn damn. .what's happening Riyoung?

You're supposed to be ignoring him remember? and not reacting to every little thing that he says.

"You know,. .the reason that we were avoiding you's because. ." he started, still fixated on dressing up my foot properly and not looking up. My senses immediately sharpened up, it was something that I wanted to know so badly, yet I'm scared of the answer.

". .It's because we know. We know that you're getting a hard time because of us."

When I heard those words, I felt a huge prick in my stomach go away. Is. .is he serious? It was actually to protect me?

"But lately, we realized that that was just stupid. Instead of avoiding you we should've just stayed by your side to protect you. But whenever we did, you kind of avoided us as well. Well, I guess we deserved that. So yeah. .we just decided to help you in secret, we tried to stop the ones that were trying to pull tricks on you."

So. .that's why I've been managing to dodge the bullets lately. It was because of them?

"We told most of them off, but I guess. ." he looked at my broken ankle with a frustrated expression. "This proves that just quietly protecting you isn't enough anymore."

Again I was speechless. It was just too much to take in in just a few minutes. My worries for the past few weeks were probably for nothing. I cursed my stubborness for not listening to them.

"I'm sorry." he whispered as he finally looked up. He was smiling but there was clear guilt written over his face. ". .For making you go through all of this."

No. .I'm sorry for being such a stubborn .

"So please don't run away from us so we can protect you." he said gently.

I couldn't really bring myself to say anything at the moment.

We just bathed in silence for a while until he grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket and slowly reached out to my face, wiping out the water, making him lean closer to me, I heard my breath hitch and I mentally slapped myself for awkwardly stiffening at his touch. My gaze settled into a comfortable space into the floor, but I guess looking anywhere but his face was comfortable.

"Y-you really don't have to do that." 

I said it in a way that only meant for him to stop wiping my face, but I also meant that he should have no obligation to protect me.

"I know." he casually replied with a shrug. "It's just that I want to."

"Well I d-don't!" I retorted, turning my face away. "Anyways, it's you that needs treatment right now." I said, grabbing the handkerchief away from his hand. I wiped some of the blood away from his forehead, but I avoided the actual wound since it wasn't sterilized yet.

He smiled cheekily. "You really don't have to do that too."

Ohh. .I see what you did there.

"I know." I replied the same way that he did. "it's just that I want to."

He placed his hand gently on my wrist, I looked at him for a moment and then our eyes locked. His gaze was so different from his usual expressionless ones. It was like, his eyes were keeping me from pulling away. 

"And why is that?" he said in a low tone, his voice actually sending shivers down my back. 

Then it all just clicked.

Right then and there, i just felt something, something so weird and unfamiliar. It was like all of the loose ends tied themselves together, the feeling that all the pieces magically fell into place together. It was something that made everything make sense.

It's because I think I might like you too.

-----------------------------

Ok. .hit me now, This update took ages. It was due to three reasons. It's because of 3 things.

1. A bad case of writers block. .huhuhhuhu. i hate those.

2. Graduation!! wooo! i am officially a highschool graduate! i feel old, sad and happy at the same time. I managed to graduate salutatorian. .thank you luck! But a whole new level of hell awaits me: college. =/

3.And because of a new fic that i'm writing. It's called 'The Going Home club". It's centered around exo, and their weirdness. it's really different to what I'm ysed to writing. It's mostly comedy and kind of like a crackfic. I wrote it to relieve some stress because the requirements for graduation and college applications. So please check it out if you want a lighthearted and hopefully a funny story.

Ok. .so much for the shameless advertising, I thank you for like. .not unsubscribing to this story even if I'm a crappy author. and just reading it! it's already an honor for me. Thanks guys! 

And also. It's summeeerrr! so yeah, I guess I'll have more chances to update.

Have a good day/night everyone!!! =))