Sojin's POV

 

When Dongsung left on the sunday morning, he hugged me tightly and told me to take care. The seriousness in his voice made me wonder if he knew anything, but I quickly shook the feeling off. Our parents followed him to the train station, leaving me home alone. Well, not completely alone since Ms. Kim was in the house, cleaning. But it didn't make any difference. The silence that filled the house was still the same, no matter if mom and dad was home or not. 

 

Coming to school monday morning wasn't as hard as it used to. Knowing that Minhyuk would be there made it all easier, but the words that they threw at me still hurt. Someone took the chance to push me into a locker, and I could feel a new bruise bloom up on the side of my hip. When I tried to get up, someone pushed me forward, causing my bag to fly out of my hands, and the books in it spread out over the floor. The laughter rang in my ears as I crawled to get my books. When I'd gathered all of them, and I got up, I met eyes with Ilhoon. The only reason I knew who he was, was because Minhyuk had talked about him. He stared at me with hesitation, and his mouth was open as if he was going to say something. But he didn't. Instead, he looked away and pretended that he hadn't seen me. I quickly got up from the floor and hurried off to my locker. 

 

Ilhoon's POV

 

I was a coward. She'd looked straight at me, and I'd just looked away. I could've helped her, been strong like Minhyuk. But I had chosen not to. I'd just couldn't. What if they would start picking on me? But it was no point in trying to convince myself that what I'd done wasn't cowardly. And mean.

 

Sojin's POV

 

He wasn't there. Minhyuk didn't show up, which ment that it was just for them to continue like they'd done before he'd come. For some reason, I felt like it was expected. He'd probably realized that I wasn't worth it, and that he didn't want to be around me anymore. So when the lunch break came, I hurried to my locker to get some time before they got me. But it was useless. When I closed my locker and turned around, Kyunwoo was towering over me, smiling down at me with revenge in his eyes. My heart stopped beating for five seconds, before it started working twice as fast as usual. He raised his fist, and I closed my eyes tightly, waiting for the punch. 

 

"Hey! Wait!" a voice suddenly yelled.

 

I opened my eyes, and found that Kyunwoo was staring at someone, his fist still raised. I turned my head, and to my surprise, I saw that it was Ilhoon. He looked terrified, like he was regretting his action, but he didn't move. Slowly, Kyunwoo lowered his fist, turning his body towards Ilhoon.

 

"What do you want?" he asked threateningly.

 

"Uhh... I-You-"

 

"Shouldn't you eat lunch?" another voice filled in, and Peniel came around the corner.

 

Kyunwoo seemed taken aback by their sudden appearance, and I was just as confused. What were they doing? Peniel and Kyunwoo stared each other down, and when Changsub and Sungjae came around the corner, Kyunwoo gave up. He looked back at me, giving me a degrading look, and elbowed me in the chest so I smashed into the locker, before he stormed off. The air disappeared temporarily out of my lungs, and my knees failed me. I sank down to the floor, and tried to catch my breath. 

 

"Are you okay?" I heard a worried voice ask me.

 

I looked up at Changsub, who crouched down infront of me. His eyes looked so... kind. I nodded, and got up from the floor, letting my hair cover my blushing face.

 

"Thank you", I mumbled, before I ran off.

 

It was a little bit too much for me to handle. They'd helped me. Without any reason.

 

Ilhoon's POV

 

I watched her disappear, and then I turned to my friends. Peniel met my gaze, and he raised his eyebrows.

 

"Where the hell did you come from?" I asked them.

 

"We saw you go in the wrong direction, so we followed you. And that's lucky for you, or else you would've gotten your kicked", Peniel answered. 

 

That, I couldn't deny. I didn't even know why I'd done that, I just felt like helping her. Like I was trying to make up for all the times I hadn't helped her.