We climbed out of the car and headed into the school.  I had tried mentally preparing myself for facing Chanyeol again, but it only seemed to be making my nervous state worse.  Scenarios continually ran through my head of how Chanyeol would react to seeing me; would he yell at me, slap me, or, even worse, ignore my existence like he had before we started dating? 

I wasn’t aware that I had been shaking until Jongin wrapped his arm around my waist and whispered comforting words in my ear.  My gratefulness for him was growing by the minute, and I was just happy that he was there. 

As we walked down the hallway I heard people mumbling things like - “ Wasn’t he dating Chanyeol?” “Yeah but he cheated on him” “ I heard Chanyeol caught him and Jongin ing behind the school...” - but I didn’t really care.  The only thing that kind of got to me was that Jongin’s reputation was going down hill too, just because of me, and for the millionth time I felt unworthy on his kindness.

History was my first class of the day and I was very happy, because it was one of the few I had with Jongin.  We sat next to each other, and I tried to take notes while he played with my hand under the table.  It was times like that where I started to doubt his motives, but when I heard the girls sitting back a row giggling at us I knew I was being paranoid. 

The class went by too fast and soon enough we had to separate.

“ What do you have next?” Jongin asked me.

“ Music, thankfully...” I replied, “ I don’t have any classes with him today so I’m thankful for that.” 

“ Good.” He smiled, kissing me on the forehead, “ Meet me in the Language portables at lunch okay?” 

“ See you there,” I smiled back, turning and walking off to the music wing.

The music teacher was away for the day, so I spent the entire music composition block in the Choir room playing piano.  It was something I had learned to do as a child, and although I no longer took lessons, I was quite good.  My talent could, of course, be credited to the fact that I had a phenomenal teacher, but I like to say that its because I enjoy playing so much. 

When the bell eventually rang, I casually walked out of my class and headed to my locker.  I was hoping that by taking my time I would avoid seeing Chanyeol in the halls, especially when I didn’t have Jongin to protect me.  Funny how I had grown to rely on him so quickly, despite having hated him originally. 

I opened up my locker and grabbed the lunch Mrs. Kim had made for me and checked my phone.  Well, I tried to check my phone, but realized that Jongin had taken it earlier to avoid me seeing any texts from Chanyeol, and to tell my parents I was staying with him of course. 

Closing up my locker, I started back the way I came but was stopped by a teacher telling my that the stairwell was closed temporarily because there was a broken window and glass everywhere.  With a shrug I headed for the next closest set of stairs, and that’s when I ran into him.

He was standing there, arm around the waist of a slightly smaller blonde haired boy, talking to Kris and Tao.  Just the simple glance over Tao’s shoulder to me made him freeze, and therefore everyone else in the group turned to see what was wrong. 

The tension between us was tangible, and it was obviously throwing the stranger for a loop.  I could see how much it hurt Chanyeol to be there just from his facial expression.  Unfortunately for me, he decided to be weird and approach me, other guy in tow.

“ Hi...” he started, looking pained and awkward, “ Umm... this is my boyfriend Jihoon,” He motioned to the blonde, “ Jihoon, this is my umm... ex-friend I guess you could say.  You’ll be seeing him around so yeah... enough with introductions, I’m hungry.” 

They both turned to leave and I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest.  I loved him still and I didn’t deserve to feel like this when I was doing it for him.  But none of that mattered now.  I had hurt him when he loved me so much, and now he had chosen to pretend we never happened and move on... It was so much worse than I had even imagined it could be.  The only that could have been worse is if he had blamed himself....

“ Babe what happened?” I felt Jongin’s strong arms wrap around my waist, holding me in place so I didn’t fall on the floor.

“ He.. he... he moved on.  He’s dating someone else now...” I could hear the tears in my voice, despite not feeling them on my cheeks. 

He sighed, pressing a kiss to my neck, “ He’s just pretending.  He loves you, I promise.” 

“ I see the stories are true.” Kris stated, approaching with Tao a step behind him.

Jongin protectively turned me to face his chest and patted my hair while starling at Kris. 

“ One week.” he said. 

“ I’m not changing the rules.  Two weeks.” Kris replied coldly.

“ C’mon Kris, they’re not gonna last much longer like this... A week and a half?” Jongin bargained. 

“ You ing signed it! It has to be two weeks, no matter what.  I’m sure they’ll survive.” Kris argued, boredom seeping into his voice. 

“ Why don’t I just break the rules then? Why should I care if you’re not going to be reasonable?” He questioned back, making Tao scoff.

“ Then neither of you will get her.” Tao mocked, “ and we couldn’t have that now could we?”

“ At this point I’m already considering... not like he wants her anymore anyway.... and I’m sure I’ll find someone else... or maybe I’ll just date her anyway and you can go yourselves right along with your stupid goddamn rules.” Jongin retorted, then dragged me away with him.

-

We finally made it to the language portables and I had just stopped sobbing.  The minute we entered the empty classroom a tall, not quite as tall as Jongin but still tall, boy ran up to me and started cleaning up my face.  

My eyeliner had run everywhere and my cheeks were soaked with tears.  The boy who was cleaning me was pretty, feline eyes fiercely warm with sparks of compassion in them.  His bow-shaped lips were slightly split in concentration, his eyebrows slightly furrowed and perfect skin haloed by his golden blonde hair.

He huffed slightly, and looked over his shoulder to call to another boy, “ Jjong, get me the makeup remover okay?” 

Turning back to me, he smiled sweetly, “ Hi! My names Kibum... I’m sorry if I’ve scared you but you looked terrible, no offense, and you’re really cute and don’t deserve it so I had to clean you up.” He finished with a cute nod of the head, which made me giggle a little. 

Soon enough the makeup remover arrived and the boy carrying it smiled at me and introduced himself as Jonghyun.  He also leaned up close to me, earning a scowl from Kibum, and whispered in my ear, “ He’s pretty isn’t he? Just watch out for the claws... and don’t let him coddle you too much.” 

I giggled even more than before and felt some of the pain from earlier fade. 

“ Yah! Jjong! I heard that you bastard!” Kibum yelled, hitting Jonghyun on the arm repeatedly.

“ You hit like a girl, Umma...” Jonghyun commented, earning more hits from the other.

I was laughing like mad at that point.

“ They really are just like a married couple aren’t they?” A boy not much taller than me commented, “ I’m Taemin, by the way! Here, let me finish this up for you.” 

As Taemin was fixing my makeup I met the other boys, Jinki and Minho, who were really nice as well. 

When we all finally settled into eating our lunch, Jongin spoke up, “ Boys, we need your help.”

HELLO SWEETIE! so I hope you all liked this chapter... yeah I wasn't being overly creative I know, but we... I'M SUPER FREAKING SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING SOONER I WAS TRYING TO DECIDED WHO TO USE AS THE BAKKIE REPLACEMENT!!! 

yeah it was a pretty major dilemma... thanks to my good Unni Siobhan for helping :)

Please COMMENT, subscribe and upvote.  

~ Jocelyn xx

PS: Commenting actually really helps me update sooner.  and the longer the comment the better! but even if its a simple "nice, update soon au-nim" it still really helps! I don't even care but please don't be a silent reader... its like teaching to a class that doesn't participate, its awkward and unrewarding... SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COMMENT!!!