“Bye Kai, see you soon,” I wave energetically at him before he jogs off to the library to meet Lauren.

“Say hi to her for me,” I shout a little and he blushes before waving back and completely running away from me. I laugh and march to my next class, with a bar of this sweet goodness Twix in my hands. I chew on the last bit, smiling and thinking of how I am essentially trouble-free for now.

Maybe I spoke to soon.

When I got in front of my class with Sehun, Mai was standing in front of it, tapping her little stiletto-clad foot with her arms over her chest and a winning smile.

I saw Sehun sitting in there innocently biting his pencil and not look at me. I need him to bail me out now. Mai is scaring me.

“So…” I crumple the Twix wrapper and stuck in the pocket at the back of my skirt.

Mai is still looking at me with that sneer on her face.

There’s a crowd of people around us, most of them trying to get in the class, but who would dare say something preposterous like that to the Queen Bee Mai?

They just stand there idly like idiots and stare at us. The others are just curious passer-bys.

I think they are the sensitive drama detectors.

“So, everyone…” Mai raises her voice so 95% of the audience in the hall freeze and turn to look at her. It amazes me how we have our own unjust social government system in the school.

“This is Kimmy. She’s our little… matchmaker,” she smiles seductively at the boys and whispers erupted everywhere. I clench my fist until my nails leave a mark on my skin. I give her a cold stare, expressionless.

By now, I see Sehun looking around and getting suspicious at the little number of people in the class. He still hasn’t seen me.

“Kimmy, why don’t you tell them how you work? And what you do?” she asks with her sickly sweet voice. But it angers me that people are falling for that.Why else would they pay attention to her?

“No. None of your business, witch,” I answer coldly.

There was a big gasp from the crowd. I don’t care, she has no right to do this to me.

“Okay, well guys, she thinks she knows the best. She partners people up so they can be a couple. I don’t know if she worked her voodoo magic on you but…” she gives everyone a paranoid look.

“I don’t do voodoo,” I retaliate.

“Okay… it’s so believable. But no one cares about your words. Look at the facts, you just mop around the school quietly and randomly make couples sprout here and there,” she adds, with an evil smirk.

Sehun is coming out of the class now. He has seen me. Thank goodness. But… do I want him to come out? He might find out…

“I guess it’s not weird. We all know you have issues. I mean, with your dad being a drunk mental and all…”

“Stop.”

I snapped. She remains in her bossy pose and tries to pull of an innocent face so people would fall for her. They start talking all around me. I catch whispers of “drunk…dad…crazy…emo”.

My heart starts to beat faster and I force myself to not think of anything else. Don’t back down. She needs to know she’s not my boss. But then people started jeering and calling names.

“Mental girl,” I heard.

How long does it take Sehun to get out of the bloody class?

Too long. My face grows hot and my body starts shaking.

“Who would want to be your friend, stupid weirdo?” I can see the hatred in their eyes as they gang up on me in the playground.

“But I want to play with you guys too. I didn’t do anything wrong,” I plead.

“We don’t want to get infected with ‘crazy drunk’ germs,” a boy with spiky hair shouts loudly with disgust in his face and everyone laughs at me

Their taunting laugh… is a torment.

A mental torture that still haunts me.

A tear rolls down my cheek and I run away from them.

I vowed to never go back to the haunted playground.

I have no respect for bullies like that.

I don’t know how they are affecting me this bad.

My mind snaps back to the present where it’s almost the same scene that took place years ago. Except these are grown-ups. And with a female leader as their mastermind.

I can’t allow myself to break down. I’m a grown-up too. I try to convince myself that I am mature and that I should just walk away right now and let these people just…

But I am paralyzed.

My legs don’t allow me to walk and my breath is caught in my chest. Between the talking and Mai giving me sympathetic look, I hear the door open and my eyes flicked to the side. Sehun’s mouth opens in surprise as he tries to take in the situation. But he recovers immediately and he walks to me and holds my arm as he leads me away from the circle of shame. I just follow him without a word, breathing heavily.

“Kimmy? Are you okay?” he looks at me with worried eyes and soft soothing voice.

“What happened?”

I don’t answer him. My brain is still blank. How…

“Kimmy, shh, it’s okay. Leave her alone. Mai is just one evil girl, okay. I would know,” he takes me in his arm and pulls me into his chest, rubbing my back to calm me down. I am still expressionless and my arms hang limply by my side. Sehun’s an intuitive guy. I think he knows I don’t mean to refuse his hug, but that I appreciate it.

A lot.

“Kimmy, it’s okay. Come on, I’ll walk you to your room. I’ll ask the teacher what’s our homework later. Just ignore those people. They’re stupid idiots not worth your attention,” he puts his arms around me and I love the warmth he’s giving me. But I can’t block those people out. They are still calling names and Mai… I can feel her stare to the back of my head.

To make things worse, I think it’s just not my day today.

“Kimmy! What’s going on here?” I hear a familiar deep voice behind me.

Sehun turns back and sighs in relief.

“Kris-hyung! I don’t know what happened but…” he gestures to the crowd of people whispering and some still giving me looks and talking, not bothering to keep their voices down.

“Here. Kimmy, let’s go to your room. Then you can tell me what happened,” Kris takes my wrist and pulls me gently. Sehun lets his arm go.

My shoulders feel cold and exposed now. I need Sehun back. I pull my hand free from Kris’ and he doesn’t ask why. His eyes widen and is questioning me silently.

Not now.

I blink and with face down, walk away from the scene. I hold the strap of my bag tighter and try to ignore everyone.

“Drunk..” I heard.

With thumping heart, I keep walking. When I glance back… I saw Baekhyun’s face.

He’s confused and lost. But he frowns and I can tell this time… that he expects me to tell him what happened. Most probably tonight.

I don’t bother myself with asking why Baekhyun didn’t come to my rescue. I don’t think he would leave me because of this. I trust him. I wish I had gone back to him and cried on his shoulder.

But I don’t.

I keep walking and don’t turn back anymore.