▲▼▲ J-MIN - STAND UP

Weeks had passed since Chuseok day, and days were nearing winter. Sehun had always put an effort to get Minyoung to talk to him, but he'd always fail. His friends were still suspicious of him as always. But only this time, Sehun kept disappearing after school, and was said that he was rarely seen at home. Late at night, Hyunchan would wait for Sehun until he had gotten home. He wanted to know where Minyoung was at, he wanted to tell his older sister that he had missed her, tell her about his days at school and at home, and just be with her like he was in the old times. Sehun found out that not even once has her parents nor older brother talk about her. It was as if, they never wanted Minyoung in their lives, as if they had planned to kick her out of the family.

The bell rang for lunch, and all the students, except for Sehun and Minyoung, ran out of the classroom and into the cafeteria. Sehun looked at Minyoung. "Do you have to work today?" Sehun asked. Minyoung shook her head as she stared out the window. Sehun followed her glance, but knowing her, she was never looking out the window. "Why do make it seem like you're looking out the window a lot during class? Do you do that on purpose?" Minyoung didn't respond, instead, she stood up and walked away. Sehun watched as she left, and suddenly stood up to go after her. "Where are you going?" he asked.
Minyoung paused and said, "'Sometimes you need a little room to care about others as well. Not just yourself forever. That would be selfish,' you say. But sometimes you can't just care about one person forever. You have to care about others." Sehun looked at her, raised a brow. "Stop worrying about me for once. Worry about yourself and others around you. I'm not the only person in this world who has the same problem," she said in her soft voice, and walked away.

Sehun stood awkwardly at the door as she walked away. His friends came walking down the same hallway and glanced at Sehun. *Stop caring about you, and start caring for others? How can I when everyone else has the perfect family, while we're-* His thoughts were interrupted when Baekhyun waved his hand in front of Sehun's face. "You okay dude?" he asked.
Sehun looked at his hyungs. "Uh, yeah... Are you guys going to the gym?" Kai nodded. "I'll come along," he said and managed to smile.

Minyoung sighed as she washed her hands in the sink. She heard laughter coming from the other side of the girls restroom doors. Minyoung cringed as she heard the laughter followed by voices. She loathed those nasal, high-pitched, squeaky voices. Her hands turned into fists in the hot water of the sink. She grabbed a paper towel and walked towards the trash bin. The voices began coming closer and closer towards the bathroom. The doors swung open as if someone pushed it with a strong force, making the door hit the wall with a loud bang. Minyoung turned her face in a different direction as she dried her hands with the paper towel, but she glanced at the clique who stopped what they were doing, and stood at the door, looking at Minyoung. "Hey look. It's the ice princess of homeroom 3A," the girl on the right, Sumin, said, crossing her arms.

Minyoung threw the paper towel into the trash bin. She avoided meeting eyes with the 3 girls as she tried to get past them. The girl on the left, Yura, suddenly pushed Minyoung into the wall.

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Sehun sighed as he sat on the bleachers of the gym while his friends were playing soccer. He clasped his hands together and rested his chin on them. 

"'Sometimes you need a little room to care about others as well. Not just yourself forever. That would be selfish,' you say. But sometimes you can't just care about one person forever. You have to care about others." Sehun looked at her, raised a brow. "Stop worrying about me for once. Worry about yourself and others around you. I'm not the only person in this world who has the same problem," she said in her soft voice, and walked away.

Sehun sighed again. *There's not many people in my life to care about... The important people in my life are gone. You and my grandmother are the only ones I care about now... I don't know how you got into that category, but I care about you most.* All of his friends stopped playing and looked at Sehun. "What do you think's going on with him?" Kai asked. "He finally wanted to come with us. But, he's not playing soccer with us..."
"He probably has a lot on his mind," Suho said. "His grandmother did get into the hospital a few weeks ago."
"True. But still. And it seems as if he's been avoiding us more. And every time I turn around to look at him, I think I see him talking to Minyoung," Baekhyun said.

There were hollers coming out from the hallways, as a number of students were running down the halls. The boys watched as the students passed by until a boy stopped at the doors and shouted, "Ice Princess of homeroom 3A is in a fight with the with the Song girls."
Sehun looked up. "Where?" Kai asked.
"Girls restroom. I heard Minyoung was slapped across the face," he said and ran with the others. 
Sehun stood up. *Minyoung? In a fight?* Immediately he took off and ran towards the girls restroom. The boys exchanged glances. "I never knew that Sehun was into fights," D.O said.
"He's not..." Suho said and ran after Sehun.

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Minyoung crashed onto the ground her face stung when Hyerin had slapped her across the face. The lead girl, Hyerin, bent down to Minyoung's eye level. "Hey, I heard you got kicked out of your own family," she said and let out a high laughing squeak. Minyoung cringed to her voice but fearless. Hyerin faked a sigh. "How sad. First, your family kicks you out. Then, you're at the bottom of the Top 10 students. Now, I bet you're living in a box," Hyerin said, smirking. Minyoung's fists tighten, and her nails dug into the skin of her palms. She slowly got back up on her feet and glowered at the three girls in front of her, who held their noses up with smirks on their faces, and arms crossed. Minyoung straighten her school blazer and tried to walk past the girls, but Hyerin would just push her back to the ground. "Where do you think you're going?"

The crowd began to thicken outside the restrooms. "Psh, Ice Princess is chicken," one of the boys said, and started making chicken sounds. Minyoung shot a glare at the crowd, and made them silent.
Hyerin stepped up to Minyoung again. "If she's chicken, then I'm sure she wouldn't be able to defend herself when she gets into a coffin."

Jaesun sighed as he stepped out of the library. Looking up he finds a crowd around the girls restroom. He walked up to one of his friends in the crowd, "What's going on?" he asked.
"Minyoung's in a fight with Hyerin," his friend said.
"Fight?" Jaesun looked up.
"Yeah. But don't worry, your girl is fine. It's just Minyoung that's getting hurt," his friend said laughing.

"Just slap her already!" said another kid.
Hyerin smirked and glanced at her friends. "Should I?" she asked her friends. Her friends nodded with a smirk. Hyerin looked at Minyoung and gave her a little shrug. "Seems like everyone wants to see me slap you." She raised her hand up high, her smirk did not leave her face. Right when she was about to slap Minyoung again, someone caught her wrist. Hyerin looked up, seeing Sehun, with a stern look on his face. She gasped and stepped back. "Sehun oppa-"
Sehun glared at her. "Ugh, I hate it when people call me oppa." Hyerin slightly frowned and stepped back a bit further. Sehun glanced at Minyoung and grabbed her arm, pulling her up.
"Oppa, why are you-"
"Hyerin."

Everyone turned to look at the enterance of the restroom and found Jaesun there. "Jaesun oppa~" Hyerin said.
Jaesun glanced at his sister in the corner of his eyes and back at Hyerin. "What's going on?" he asked.
"Nothing, oppa~" she said, smiling.
Jaesun nodded. "Okay..." he said and walked away.
"Wait, oppa!" Hyerin said, and ran after him.

Everyone eventually left, leaving Minyoung and Sehun behind. Sehun looked up, seeing his friends standing there watching him. His eyes shifted to Suho, and he sighed.

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Minyoung and Sehun stood on the school rooftop, looking at the city before them. For once, Sehun was silent, didn't say anything to Minyoung. But finally after minutes of not speaking he asked, "Why didn't you try to fight back or get away from Hyerin?"
Minyoung didn't answer. She didn't want to hear Hyerin's name either.

Hyerin was the angel of the entire school. She had an outgoing personality that everyone fell for. Very social as well. And talented. She was a girl who always won all pageants, dance contests and etc., she was even captain of the girls volleyball team. Everyone in the school loved her. She wasn't very much a bully. The only person she harassed, was Minyoung. No one knew why, but they just went along with the school's sweetheart. Minyoung, despised her with all her heart. Ever since Minyoung first met Hyerin, the two were best friends in primary school. Even friends with Sumin and Yura. Minyoung back then, was the one who wasn't cautious about her social life back then. She was always different than Hyerin. Even if they were still friends, out of the group, Hyerin would be the person everyone liked most. Junior high started, and Hyerin seemed to have changed a lot to Minyoung's eyes.

She started wearing too much make-up; her shirts would always be very low, able to show her chest; she'd wear shorts that were too high for her, showing off her long legs; she'd have different boyfriends every week, and would never stick to one; she started hanging around people who were bad influences, but not to the point where there are people who get high or drunk often. Her personality was changed the most. When Minyoung first met Hyerin on the first day of junior high, Hyerin ignored her, acted as if they weren't friends. She began talking about Minyoung behind her back; backstabbing her other friends by going out with their ex-boyfriends that they still loved. Then Hyerin suddenly fell in love with a boy from school. And Minyoung was backstabbed as well, breaking the "friendship" they had. When Hyerin had fallen in love, that was when Minyoung and Jaesun's relationship had shattered. Hyerin had fallen in love with Minyoung's own enemy, Minyoung's own brother. Up until high school, Hyerin used Jaesun as blackmail on Minyoung. She was part of the reason why Minyoung has been so stressed. She made everyone dislike Minyoung.

Sehun turned to Minyoung and suddenly asked, "Am I like the only one in this school that actually cares about you?" He let out a chuckle. "Everyone just... Just..." Sehun hesitated to find the right words.
"Hate me?" Minyoung said.

"Doesn't understand what you're going through," Sehun said. Minyoung turned her head a little and glanced at Sehun. "If they knew, they wouldn't treat you like crap..." Minyoung furrowed her brows and glanced back at the city. The cool late autumn's breeze blew through her hair. Sehun let out a sigh. "You know what you remind me of? Pandora's box. You don't hide anything evil, you just hide all of your miseries inside... You don't open up to people, and you keep everything inside. I, am like Pandora. I was too curious to know what your life is like, I'm trying everything get you to open up. The more I spend time with you, the more I know about you, even though you don't talk to me as much."

Minyoung sighed. "Why can't you stay away from me like everyone else? Why can't you just treat me like they do to me?"
Sehun looked at Minyoung, "Because, like I said, I was too curious. You caught my attention when everyone tried to harass you, and you were the number one thing everyone was talking about. It was like, you were a ghost of the school, and everyone was, almost scared of you. But, they mocked you a lot... I couldn't help but start wondering why you were like that... You and I were in the same class and same schools ever since primary school. We never spoke to each other but, I knew you. You always smiled, but behind those smiles, I felt as if you were hiding something. Like... Sadness or something. But now, you always have an emotionless face, and you're still hiding your real self." Sehun walked towards Minyoung and stood by close to her. "Once I care about one thing, I won't stop until it gets better. Just like my grandmother... I care about her because she's the last person in my life. She recently got into the hospital, she had so much stress with work, that she had fainted. Her condition is bad, and I haven't given up on caring about her..."

"That's what I meant when I said you can't just care about one person, not just one. You've been around me too much. And your grandmother needs you. You should care about family before others," Minyoung said.
"Besides the boys, I feel as if you're part of the family too," Sehun said.
Minyoung pressed her lips in a straight line. "Thank you for caring, but I don't need the pity. Like I said a long time ago, we're nothing by school partners. By the end of the year, we'll be nothing by strangers. You don't need to visit me at home, help me at school, or anything." Without another word, she walked away, leaving Sehun, making him watch as she walked away.

Weird update. orz Time to sleep~ I'm obsessed with Stand Up. LOL