Chapter 15:

I wasn’t used to salty tears drenching my face, nor the sore lump in my throat. The itchiness of my face was foreign as was the sudden weakness that engulfed my knees which were currently locked.

Jongin knew too well.

“Hey, listen,” he finally said, his arm wrapped around my shoulder after he heaved me off of the ground. “You’re not used to this right now. I think you need a rest. Go home.”

“But I have to-“

“Do Kyungsoo, please report to the principal’s office.”

The woman’s voice monotonously droned through the speakers.

I felt a pang in my heart and my lip twitch in fear. I didn’t even realize I was involuntary shaking my head and trembling just as much as I was ten minutes ago when I had collapsed.

“It’s fine,” Jongin told me, forcing me to look at his face. “You’re fine.”

I wasn’t crying anymore but my eyes were glazed over, essence of tears and complete and utter disbelief and sadness remaining in the pools of them.

In one of my hands, Jongin laced his fingers, his slender digits closing in between mine and in my other hand he pressed the brim of a cap and I noticed he, again, was giving me his baseball cap, pushing into my palm.

“I said you’re fine,” he repeated, tugging my hand out the bathroom door.

I thought that I would be frightened to have to walk out but the moment people saw that I was with Jongin, they immediately kept their distance, staring of course but not daring to let their glares linger longer than a few seconds. Now, no one approached me, afraid to insult me with Jongin around.

I was less worried about the ideas that people were getting about me and more worried that the principal would call my parents. It was upsetting that they would ever think of me like this and believe the ridiculous lie they were told, but ultimately, I preferred to live with it as long as my parents never found out.

“Kyungsoo, alone please,” the lady at the desk informed us.

I glanced at poker-faced Jongin and then down at our connected hands and suddenly thought that separating us was about the worst thing that they could do.

“Is that a requirement?” I wondered, earning a snicker from Jongin, whose thumb not so involuntarily the side of mine.

The woman had a tight ponytail and a taut face with a dash of lip gloss and her expression showed no hint of being amused.

“Guess so,” Jongin breathed, checking on me as if to see if I was okay.

His hand slipped from mine; however, I still held his cap in my other hand. The lack of contact sent my skin aching for it back again but I didn’t complain.

“So,” a voice broke in. “Do Kyungsoo.”

And I found myself in the principal’s office for the third time that year.

He motioned for the leather chair in his office. I gradually took a seat in it, cautiously as if I could make a mistake.

“You okay?” He asked once I was settled.

I managed to laugh icily, running a hand through my hair.

“No offense, sir, but does it look like I’m okay?” I retorted coldly.

I recalled my appearance that I saw when I took a glance in the mirror before I broke down. Puffy red eyes, pale, sickly skin and unnaturally ruffled hair (for possibly no reason).

The principal chuckled.

“So what’s going on here, then?”

“I swear I didn’t do it!” I nearly shouted, then covered my mouth and spoke with a lower tone. “I swear.”

My depression was suddenly replaced with anger and heated feelings at whoever spread the ed up rumor. Someone who obviously either hated me or wanted an extreme amount of attention.

“I don’t think you did it at all,” the principal answered. “But sometimes I think they believe what they want to. Of course it sounds ridiculous that you would ever do what they said but because it was about someone with a reputation like yours, it creates more drama.”

I sighed heavily, rubbing my temples and shaking my head before making eye contact.

“I can’t even remember doing anything to anyone that would make them want to do this,” I mumbled in thought.

“Whoever it was, probably wanted attention,” the principal answered.

“I don’t even think he goes to this school,” I remarked without thinking.

“Wait, you know who it is?” The principal urged.

“No,” I mechanically responded, saving myself. “I think it would’ve surfaced by now though if that was the case.”

“Okay, so the question is, what do we do about this? We need to put out this wildfire.”

I sighed deeply again, noticing that I wasn’t shaking nearly as much as I was before.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “People are…they’re scary.”

“Yes, yes they are,” he agreed with me. “I think we need to make an announcement over the intercom regarding these issues. Under normal circumstances we’d call down all the individuals involved in this but now everyone knows.”

I nodded but didn’t speak the fact that it scared me just as much as him not doing anything.

“I’ll give you permission to leave today if you want to,” he added.

I continued to bob my head.

“Can Jongin leave also?” I found myself asking, immediately regretting it and inwardly scolding myself.

“Jongin?” The principal returned my request with a confused response and expression.

He proceeded to glance down at the Boston Red Sox cap that was resting in my slow, trembling fingers.

“What’s up with you two lately?” He asked. “I thought you hated each other.”

I shrugged, resisting the urge to either smile or frown. I was filled with mixed emotions.

“And isn’t that his hat that I gave him?” The principal further questioned.

I shrugged before responding.

“I suppose it is.”

We stared at each other for a few seconds and he was very amused. He knew. He definitely knew that I liked him.

I suddenly broke away from the stare.

I just thought that-

I don’t like him, right?

His smoldering stare appeared in my mind. His perfect body. The way he unquestioningly comforted me while nearly everyone else shunned me. How he saved me. How after every situation that seemed to crush me, he came and rescued me from my emotions in his own, unconventional way.

No. This wasn’t happening.

I thought about how he was more attractive to me than my middle school girlfriend.

Stop it, Kyungsoo.

I thought about how he offered to walk me home.

You’re going crazy.

I thought about how he was the closest I’d ever get to a Romeo.

That’s delusional.

How his insults made me feel better.

You damn masochist.

The way he made me smile.

“Sure,” the principal granted. “Jongin is also permitted to leave.”

Why’d I have to say that? I wasn’t aware I was going to have a love revelation within the next few seconds.

Dammit. I take it back. Jongin stays. He stays. I take it all back.

I was not going to be able to handle this.

“Let me just go make the announcement,” he said while getting up.

I cautiously followed him out the door, my heartbeat racing. I knew I was dense but now that I realized what was going on inside of my brain, subconsciously, I was going to have some problems.

Of course, ing Jongin was waiting for me, diligently. His unhappy expression suggested otherwise, but I knew he was there for my presence.

“Hey,” I found myself saying, trying to remain calm.

“Are you in trouble?” He immediately wondered.

“No,” I responded, watching the principal converse quickly with the woman from before. “And I don’t think he’s going to call my parents.”

“Thank ing god,” Jongin breathed.

I watched his expression become relaxed as he unknowingly fixed his hair out of habit before catching me awkwardly staring at him.

“Are you feeling better now?” He asked me.

I didn’t respond for a few seconds.

“Huh? O-Oh, yeah!”

Jongin looked at me as if he was about to ask what was up but he was cut off.

“Excuse the interruption. This is the principal. I would like to inform the student body that the rumors regarding Do Kyungsoo are entirely false and untrue. Please refrain from spreading anything else unnecessary. If everyone can do that then I will feel no need to hold a public assembly over this. Thank you.”

“Um,” I started. “The principal told me you could leave school with me.”

I paused.

“If you want to,” I quickly added.

This brought a small smirk to Jongin’s lips.

“So you asked?” He wondered, amused, however there was little question in his tone.

. He knows. I’m done. Just kill me now. I quit.

“I did,” I replied.

“Good,” he quickly answered. “Because I wasn’t about to let you go alone anyway.”

My stomach did flip flops, a feeling not quite so foreign to me when I was around him.

“You weren’t?” I nearly stammered.

“After what just happened?” Jongin responded as if it was the most normal thing for him to be with me everywhere I went (not that I minded).

His hand found mine again.

Done. I am done with this. My heart can’t quite handle it.

“I’m not sick,” I muttered. “And for the record, I don’t trust you in my kitchen.”

“Come on, hyung,” Jongin insisted.

“And since when do you call me that?” I cried from my sitting position on my bed. “Kim ing Jongin!”

And suddenly he was next to me.

“I’m being nice,” he informed me as he took a seat on my bed, close to my legs.

“Please don’t cook,” I said. “That’s my job.”

“Okay, wife,” Jongin joked.

I felt my body tense up and my thoughts freeze.

Disgustingly disturbing yet enjoyable images of me cooking for Jongin in a cliché husband and wife scene clouded my thoughts and my brain momentarily had a mental breakdown.

“What? What’s wrong?” Jongin immediately asked.

I definitely noticed he was being extra sweet today.

“Why are you being nice to me today?” I spoke my thoughts, my face falling.

“Because you need it.”

Jongin’s voice was quiet but full of more emotion than usual and he gazed into my eyes, absorbing me into his stare completely.

“I’m going to find whoever started this ing rumor,” Jongin declared.

“Please, don’t beat them up,” I requested as I halfheartedly punched him in the shoulder in a joking manner but looking at him with all seriousness.

“I won’t do anything you hate,” he responded.

My stomach felt like it was being kicked brutally by a professional soccer team. Screw the butterflies analogy. They could not accurately describe my emotions in my body.

“I’m fine. You don’t even need to do anything.”

Jongin’s eyes flickered away briefly in response to my answer. His hand travelled from his left side to his other until it reached my fist that was still resting close to his shoulder. His wrapped his fingers around mine and pulled my hand down along with his so they were resting in between us.

“I worry,” he remarked. “I hate to ing admit it. It pisses me off and I want to convince myself that I don’t like you one bit but that’d be a lie. I … I don’t know what I would do if anything bad happened to you. I don’t know…”

“Nothing bad will happen,” I assured him but my insides were defying me any more complex words.

“No, you don’t even know,” Jongin retorted, his voice rising. “This is only with you and it’s serious. I feel like…I feel like you’re too ing vulnerable and…”

He stopped, unable to continue as he paused for better words.

 “I swear I’m fine…” I said, trying not to let the images of what happened before consume my mind.

“No,” he argued. “You’re not!”

“Prove it!” I found myself shouting back at him.

We were now both standing, flushed faces in the middle of my room. I found my eyebrows furrowed together, staring at Jongin with dead eyes while he returned with an icy gaze. Both of our bodies stood shaking, unable to move for a few seconds of numb silence.

His fingers abruptly discovered the back of my neck and I felt myself being yanked. In response to his actions, I gripped onto his sleeve.

When suddenly, our lips sloppily collided together and it felt like there was an explosion inside my stomach and either fireworks or bombs in my head.

Between the two of us, shaky breaths were exchanged as our lips progressed in multiple directions in perfect sync.

My initial thought was to push him away. We were both guys. This could ruin our relationship. He was supposed to be my enemy.

Except I gave in, realizing, I wanted this badly.

There was no rushing though between us, it was slow and deadly and incredibly frightening all at the same time.

I discovered that I was slowly brought back onto the bed and pushed into the head board, Jongin’s hand still supporting my neck gently while his other hand rested on my waist. One of mine was tangled in his hair and the other was begging for support on his shoulder.

His tongue my bottom lip, probably by accident, but sent a new tremor of shivers up and down my spine and travelling throughout my al body. Soon it was a battle between tongues in betwixt both of our mouths and breathing was becoming less and less of a necessity.

The friction between his chest and mine, the position on the bed, and basically everything about my ruffled hair and his suggested something more and possibly less at the same time. However, he gradually pulled away from my lips.

He removed my shaking hands from his hair, holding onto them tightly.

It seemed as if he was going to leave so my hands broke from his and clamped onto his shoulder.

“No,” I pressed. “Jongin, you’re staying with me.”

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A/N: Ha…Ha..Ha…ugh. I don’t know where that really came from lolz. So...comment with your Kaisoo feels?? Did you all ing SEE the damn CHRISTMAS card they made together. God damn. I ship them so hard it hurts. Ugh. Everyone is probably questioning me right now. Yeah. I get that a lot. Comment please ;) Or just enjoy silently (but comments are welcomed WARMLY) :]