Woohyun slings his school bag over his shoulder, seemingly ready. His mother glances at him every so often, puckering her lips to the side as she tries figuring out what is going on. Her son has been acting, well, oddly, since he's woken up, and she has every intention to find out why.

"Woohyun, did you have a rough night?" His mother asks, trying to figure it out.

"More than a rough night mom," Woohyun replied in a tone that his mother can’t understand.

He unlocks the door out the house with his keys and sighs, feet shuffling wearily. School means class. And class means Ah-Ri. And her nerd friends. Bleh.

"You're walking like your life's about to end," his mother remarks playfully, her face offering a polite smile. 'No way am I letting my little baby boy go to school with a face like that,' she thinks as she makes in the frown on his face, coupled with bags under his eyes. 'He looks terrible.'

" Are you sure you're okay? If you're not you should stay home,” she says, worried as she feels his neck and forehead.

Woohyun shivers. As much as he loves the idea to stay tucked under the covers, he has to face the world on his own. And the world includes Ah-Ri. He swats her hand away with a forced grin. "Nah, it's cool. And besides, the school would go to a wreck without me," he jokes.

The skepticism doesn't completely leave his mother's face, but she still brightens up considerably so. At least her precious Woohyun doesn't look an old man anymore, his frown having dissipated. "Alright, whatever you say. Call me if anything happens, okay?"

"Okay mom!" Woohyun smiles as he shuffles out of his front door. His mother gives him one last smile as she closes the door.

Woohyun makes sure she can't see him. When he’s sure, he stops smiling and begins the beginning of a scowl.

He rubs his cheeks, massaging the stiffness from grinning out of them, and begins his way to school. He knows more than several shortcuts, and more often than not, his mom wakes him up early, claiming he would be late. Yet Woohyun always manages makes his easy way to school, and if he had chosen to, he could have arrived earlier than the time some people woke up.

This time, though, Woohyun balks and kicks at the dirt, listening to the grate of stone under his feet when he reaches the sidewalk. He loiters and sighs when his school is in sight.

He grumbles and practically pulls his legs one at a time, forcing them to the school's front yard. As easy as it would have normally been, Woohyun still has thoughts of her on his mind, and she complicates things way too much.

"Is it possible for a girl to be this complicated?" Woohyun asks himself as he kicks a stone and resists the urge to rub his foot. 'Sooner or later I’ll find out,' he thought.

Woohyun keeps his head high in spite of his awareness and embarrassment. He holds himself as though she never existed, and his seeming appearance makes others feel the same. Woohyun inwardly sighs in relief. The last thing he needs is for people to make fun of him because of her. Because then last night would come up and--

‘Wait, that never happened,' Woohyun forces himself to think.

He fights the urge to shake his head and argue with himself, and finds a place to sit down on a large, smooth rock.

Woohyun relaxes and allows himself to fade into the background. "Just this once," he tells himself, crossing his legs with a sigh. He looks around lazily, a group nosier than the rest catching his attention.

"Huh, wonder who they are," Woohyun muses. He sits up straight and squints at the boys until he can recognize them clearly...

". Chanhee."

Woohyun can hear the laughter of the boys from where he is. Maybe some time ago Woohyun would have joined them, but they aren’t friends, anymore that is. He slumps on the rock until he hears loud heels clicking on the parking lot pavement. He lifts up his head hoping to see one of the female teacher, but as luck would have it, it’s Ah-Ri. She begins to walk over to Chanhee and his group, carrying her backpack and some textbooks.

‘She’s trying too hard,’ he attempts to convince himself, but then his eyes rake up her body until he’s practically undressing her with his eyes. Or at least trying.

He can feel his heart clench in his chest and his stomach churn. He stares at her dumbly until he’s all too aware of the rising in his pelvis. His legs cross themselves immediately, but that only proved to agitate the friction.

Woohyun blinks and tears his eyes away before giving in and looking back again. Other than a slight flick of her eye, she doesn't seem to be giving him any attention.’ Maybe she’ll be so occupied with Chanhee, she won't bother me.’ He could only hope, because, yeah, that sounded wonderful. A miracle.

Then again, the idea of spending the rest of his high school life hiding a isn't exactly tempting to him.

He stands up awkwardly, covering the bulge in his pants, and opens his mouth.

"Ah-Ri," he called hesitantly.

Ah-Ri doesn't turn around like he had hoped. Instead, she walked on at the same, painfully slow pace toward Chanhee.

"Ah-Ri, I need to talk to you," Woohyun dares to say in a louder voice. Some of the boys in Chanhee's circle notice Ah-Ri, and behind her, Woohyun. One actually points.

"God..." Woohyun mutters under his breath.

"Is something wrong?" Ah-Ri asks the group as she turns around. "Oh, you.” She growls and folds her arms over chest. “What do you want now?”

"Ah-Ri, I need to talk to you.” Woohyun pleads. “Like, now?”

"Wait one second," she tells Chanhee with a charming smile, and as Woohyun watches, he can see the slightest twitch of Chanhee’s lips.

"Okay fine, make it quick though," she leads the way with Woohyun trailing behind. Ah-Ri leads them to a secluded area in the back of the school and, after making sure no one is around, turns to him angrily.

"Alright, what the hell do you want?" she demands, her voice filled with aggression.

Woohyun takes a deep breath and looks her squarely in the eye. 'I can do this, I can do this...'

Ah-Ri, meanwhile, gives him her nastiest glare as she places her hands on her hips. "Quickly. I don't want to waste my time on..." she practically snarls, "...you."

Although he winces, Woohyun decides not to back out. He can't just walk out now. "Ah-Ri, listen... I know that yesterday looked, er, 'bad', but--"

"Bad? BAD?! That's all you can say, bad?!" Ah-Ri takes a threatening step toward him as she snaps her teeth like an angry dog.

'Dear god, please don't kill me...' he prays silently. ‘No, I am the King of—‘

"You humiliated Naeun in front of everyone else! You broke up with her for no. Good. Reason." Every single word she says is biting at him, and he feels all the guilt crash onto him at once. "Why the hell would you do that? To be cool and edgy? Don't you understand that you ruined her life? You were supposed to love and care for her, you were her goddamned ex!"

She closes in on him until he’s against the wall, forcing himself to look her in the eye despite the guilt that rushes to his face. Her face is so close, the emotions of passion clear on her pretty face. But she’s not close because she wants to kiss him. She’s not passionate because of any carnal urges.

Anger, disgust, hate, they all flash past her face until all that’s left is some emotion that Woohyun can’t recognize. But it makes him see something, something deep about Ah-Ri that has him wondering…

All too soon, it’s gone, and she’s backing away, her features easing into their previous positions like the calm intervals of storms.

“You know what you did to her?” her voice is level as she stares into him, waiting for his answer. Hesitantly, Woohyun shakes his head. He opens his mouth to speak, wanting to defend himself even though he knows that all the heartbreaks he had caused would catch up to him.

But Ah-Ri sneers and continues. “Of course you don’t know, don’t you Woohyun! You’d never know it, you’d never know how painful it is to be betrayed like that! Stupid men like you are the reason why innocent girls like Naeun hate themselves, even though they’re perfect, even though they have a hundred friends all patting their backs and calling them amazing, even though they…even though…”

She trails away, her eyes bright. Woohyun turns away in shame as his face burns. As he turns back, he realizes something. Her eyes aren’t sparkling with some heated emotion.

Those are tears.

Ah-Ri notices his shock and shuts them tight. ‘Don’t cry,’ she screams silently. ‘Don’t cry, not in front of him…!’

"You know what?" Ah-Ri mutters, tight as she uses every bit of her strength to hold back the tears. Then, surprisingly, she shakes her head and turns to leave. "Forget it. Just apologize to her, okay? She deserves that much." Ah-Ri hides her face as she walks away, a tear slowly falling down her cheek.

"Wait, Ah-Ri," Woohyun grabs her wrist, pulling her body toward him so she's facing him.

Woohyun’s  left speechless. He’s seeing a new kind of Ah-Ri, and there's not a single sight of the cold, mean Ah-Ri.

He only sees a weak and defenseless girl.

Vulnerability gets to Ah-Ri. She can't handle it, and she starts sobbing silently, head hanging low. Woohyun doesn't know what to do. The only thing he can think of is to pull her into a hug, and that's exactly what he decides to do. At this point Ah-Ri doesn't give a damn as to who she’s crying to, she just needs to let it out and be the little girl she was years ago again.

How can this have happened? The tough, beautiful, new girl who hates him is now crying on his shoulder. He closes his eyes and sighs, not knowing how else to respond to the situation. He can feel her shallow breaths and whimpers, the tears wetting his shirt.

“Shh, it’s okay…” he whispers, trying to imitate the way his mother had comforted him when he got a paper cut, or bruised his knee. Those days are long gone, but soon, the memories of feeling safe and warm flood to his mind.

Ah-Ri grabs a fistful of his shirt and holds it tight, burying her reddened face into it. She sobs something muffled, and pulls away to face Woohyun, her cheeks wet and flushed, eyes puffy and red. “…H-He…he just…” twitches down and at that moment, it seems as though something has hurt her both physically and emotionally.

‘Or someone,’ Woohyun thinks in the back of his mind. Something clicks, but it’s quiet, and he doesn’t realize it. Seeing the usually guarded girl so pained makes him want to cry with her. He feels no arousal at having her so close; instead, the need to help her and Naeun, and all those other girls whose hearts he’d broken, settles in.

Ah-Ri’s eyes dart away as another wave of tears spill. Before they both know it, she’s clutching him and pouring out muted, chopped cries. The student, the King of the school, felt a tear gather at his eye. He blinks it away.

The entire time, Chanhee watches, something foreign curling inside of him.

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Author's Note: 

MOTHERERS I UPDATED FINALLY/ PRAISE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. IM SO SO SORRY, YOU CAN HIT ME. I'VE BEEN BUSY BC MY GRADES SLIPPED A LOAD OF TIMES, AND IVE BEEN BUSY TRYING TO RAISE THEM UP AND . OMG. IM SO SORRY AGAIN, ILL TRY TO UPDATE BY THURSDAY NEXT WEEK PROMISE~ ((((btw idek where this stories going but i think i have an idea >:D)