The bell rang before the boys could offer any of their ideas. They all groaned.

 

“How will we protect Minah?” Sehun asked quietly. “I don’t want any harm coming to her. She’s special to me.”

 

“Me too,” Tao replied, patting Sehun on the back. “We’ll think of something.”

 

“Until then.” Kai said. “We’d better get going to class.”

 

The boys all nodded grimly and dispersed.  

 

 

 

 

 

Fifth period. Minah sat in music class, unable to concentrate. There was a small buzz going throughout the class, and Minah knew that they were talking about her. Chanyeol looked at Minah worriedly.

 

“Hey,” he said.

 

“Hi, Chanyeol,” Minah replied.

 

“Is everything okay?” he asked, and she nodded.

 

“… Are you sure?” Chanyeol asked again. “I heard about the rumor..”

 

“Yeah. I’m fine. It’s nothing, really. Oh, and don’t believe that. It’s not true.”

 

“I know,” Chanyeol said affectionately.  “I know.”

 

The students behind her suddenly became insanely loud. Their hushed murmurs transformed into harsh whispers.

 

“She and Chanyeol oppa are talking again,” a girl scoffed. Minah couldn’t help but notice that one of the girl’s false eyelashes seemed to be coming loose. It looked as if it would fall off any second.

 

The boy sitting beside her looked over at Minah and snorted. “Doesn’t seem like they’re that close. I bet he was only acting nice so he could get her as his partner for the project.”

 

“Maybe she’s trying to sell her services to him,” another girl gasped. “Ohmygosh, that would totally explain why she keeps sticking to him like a piece of dirt!”

 

The girl sitting to her right gasped in horror. “Ohmygosh, you’re so right!”

 

“And yesterday she didn’t even stand up for herself! I bet she forced that girl to hit Myungsoo for her.”

 

“That Jung Minah is such a .”

 

The students behind continued to make wild assumptions and began making up new, absurd stories. Minah balled her hands into a fist, and clenched it so tightly that her knuckles began to turn white. Her nails sank deep into her flesh, and she could almost feel a trickle of blood leaking from it.

 

This time was different. Before, when the students had spread rumors about her, they weren’t that bad. It was simply that she was EXO’s friend, or that she was a trying to take advantage of the boys, or that she and Luhan were childhood friends. Something along the lines of that.

 

This was way over the line, though. They were accusing her of performing dirty acts for strangers that had money. They were claiming that she was having with others. They had dared to accuse her of selling her body and ordering around friends. Minah’s lips tightened into a thin line, like she had just eaten a lemon.

 

 

Chanyeol stood up abruptly, glaring at the gossiping girls. He was furious. Here he was, sitting and chatting with Minah casually, while those students were talking crap about them as if they were deaf. Chanyeol had had enough. It was one thing to accidentally make incorrect assumptions, but another to straight-up accuse someone of a wrongdoing. And he would not allow them to talk about Minah.

 

The girls quieted upon his presence.

 

“Please sit down,” Minah begged softly, tugging at his sleeve. “Just let them talk. It’ll be over soon. It’s just words. Words can’t hurt you.”

 

“Yes they can,” Chanyeol growled stubbornly. “If words can’t hurt you, then why did they cause your hand to start bleeding? Why do they make you feel uncomfortable and angry? Words are powerful, Minah. I won’t stand for this.”

 

“Please,” she repeated. “It’ll just cause trouble for you.”

 

He looked down at her in surprise. She was asking him to sit not for her own sake, but for his?

 

“Please,” she said again. Her eyes were wide with concern, though her cheeks burned with shame. The truth was, Minah wanted no more than to hit all of those students right there, but she knew that she couldn’t. If she did, it would only bring even more trouble, and she couldn’t afford any more of that.

 

Ms. Ji-Eun turned around, oblivious to what had been going on. “Chanyeol?” she asked. “Why are you standing? What’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing,” he said through clenched teeth. “Sorry, Ms. Ji-Eun.” He reluctantly sat back down, but not before sending a death glare to those rude students in the back. They immediately shut up and gasped in fright when they saw his piercing glower. Though Chanyeol was known throughout the school as Happy Virus – he was always laughing – he looked absolutely scary at this moment. Park Chanyeol was definitely not someone to be messed with.

 

The rest of class passed smoothly, without any further rude comments.

 

Myungsoo’s face remained smirky and calm throughout sixth period. No doubt he was planning something, but he probably didn’t have the necessities to carry it out yet. Something like that, Minah thought. Or he would’ve done something by now already.

 

 

------

 

 

After school, Chanyeol texted Minah. However, the black-haired girl didn’t feel the buzzing of her phone, as she was walking towards the dorming office. She was on her way to request a dorm change.

 

 

 

But after speaking with the office lady for a few minutes, it became known to Minah that there were no more rooms available. Damn, thought Minah.

 

She asked the lady, “What about those that are living by themselves? Would it be possible if I joined one of those girls?”

 

“Sorry, dear,” the elderly woman replied. “Those girls are required to live by themselves. They’d cause too much trouble otherwise. They have anger issues, see. It would be unwise to place you with one of those kids.”

 

Minah sighed. “Thank you anyway…” she said sadly.

 

“Have you considered finding an apartment?” the dorm lady asked. “You’re a senior now, yes? That means you can live off campus by yourself now. I’m assuming you’re having problems with your roommate, right?”

 

“Yeah,” Minah replied miserably. “I suppose.. Yeah, I can find an apartment. It will take some time to find an apartment, though… I’d better start searching. Thank you,” Minah bowed and left.

 

She returned back to her dorm, where she was greeted by Hayoung. Minah spent a few minutes conversing, and then retreated to her room. It was time to do some apartment hunting. But until then, she’d have to think of somewhere to stay temporarily.

 

Minah retrieved her laptop from her desk and flipped the top open. To her surprise, the computer was already on. Her eyes narrowed. Was it possible that Hayoung had been using it? It was possible that Hayoung had been snooping around, thinking that Minah wouldn’t return so soon.. and then quickly returned the laptop when she heard Minah entering…

 

Sure enough, Minah discovered that Hayoung hadn’t even bothered to close her tabs. Her recent history was displayed on the computer screen, smack dab on the first tab. So Hayoung can be careless after all, thought Minah. She sighed rather angrily and closed her History tab. Well, there was nothing she could do about that now. And it wasn’t like she had anything to hide, anyway. Hayoung probably discovered nothing by searching through her computer, except for maybe the kinds of songs that she liked.

 

Minah spent a few minutes surfing the internet, then set the laptop aside to take her homework out. She dug through her bookbag and took out her binders. She also took out her cellphone. Minah saw that she had several messages from Chanyeol.

 

“Are you free today?” The text read.  

 

“I’m so sorry!” Minah replied. “I didn’t see this until now! I was trying to get a new dorm.  None available, though :( ”

 

It was a few minutes before Chanyeol replied. When he did, the message said:

 

“What are you going to do now then? Where are you going to live?”

 

“I don’t know.”  Minah tapped at the buttons on her screen.  “But the dorm lady told me that I can live in an apartment now, since I’m not a freshman or sophomore anymore. I’m looking online right now. I never knew there was a rule like that! If I had known earlier, I would’ve already had an apartment by now.”

 

“Woah, I had no idea either. The guys and I will help you look for one!”

 

Minah smiled and replied. “Thanks, I appreciate it a lot! ”

 

“No problem! :D “ Chanyeol replied.

 

 

Minah read over the messages again, and then she pressed a tiny button on the side – Delete message. This way, Hayoung would never know, if she ever managed to get a hold of her phone again.

 

Minah set aside the phone and continued to remove papers from her bag. She positioned herself in a comfortable manner, and began to work on her homework. Only ten minutes had passed before she completely gave up.

 

“Meh. I’ll just do some apartment hunting for now. I still have plenty of time to do homework,” she told herself.

 

 

An hour later, Minah had found three apartments that all seemed pretty good. They were all located near the school, and weren’t very expensive either. In fact, they were cheaper than the cost of living at the dorms!

 

Minah wrote the apartment addresses and phone numbers down and carefully folded the paper up. She stuffed it into her binder. Perhaps she’d visit all three apartments when she had time, and then pick her favorite one.

 

Suddenly, her phone began to buzz. The black-haired girl stretched her arm over the laptop to pick it up. It was a call from Chanyeol.

 

“Hello?” Minah said, putting the phone to her ear.

 

“Hi Minah,” a husky voice replied. It wasn’t Chanyeol, it was Kris.

 

“K-Kris?” Minah stuttered. She lowered her voice so that Hayoung wouldn’t here. “What’s up?”

 

“We found the perfect apartment!” he announced. He sounded quite proud of himself. “It’s----- HEY! STOP IT! I’M TALKING TO HER!”  his voice raised a few pitches, turning into a loud, obnoxious screech. 

 

Minah could hear the sounds of boys arguing over the phone, and suddenly a new voice was talking to her.

 

“Hi Minah!” Baekhyun panted. “I just stole the phone from Kris! Don’t ask me how, I don’t know either!!! Don’t have much time befo-----“

 

“Minah!” Xiumin screamed. There were more arguing noises, and Xiumin’s voice became clearer. “We found you the perfect apartment! It’s really nice! It’s---- Hey! Give me the phone!” Xiumin whined suddenly.

 

“No!” Tao shouted. “Come get it if you want it so bad! I want to talk to Minah noona! Hey! Kris! Stop!”

 

Kris had the phone again. “Minah,” he shouted. “Do you want to come and check it out? We can c---“

 

“GIVE ME MY CELLPHONE!” Chanyeol’s voice boomed. “YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO BREAK IT! THIS PHONE IS PRECIOUS TO ME, OKAY!? STOP FIGHTING FOR IT!”

 

The sound of boys arguing became louder and louder, until Chanyeol’s scolding words began to drown out. She couldn’t understand what any of them were saying at all anymore.

 

“Guys!” Minah cried, forgetting to be quiet so that Hayoung wouldn’t hear. “Just put me on speaker! Stop fighting for the phone!”

 

She heard a stunned silence, and then a beep.

 

“You’re on speaker now..” a voice announced sheepishly.

 

“Thanks, Lay,” Minah responded. “So what’s going on?”

 

“We found an apartment for you!” Kris and Baekhyun chorused. She could almost imagine the silly grins on their faces as they announced it to her.

 

“It’s really nice!”  D.O’s rang through the phone.

 

“And it’s really cheap compared to all the other good-looking apartments we went through!”Chen exclaimed.

 

“And it’s located close to the school,” Luhan added.

 

“And we can visit you after school,” Kai said, his voice smug. “We can visit you anytime we want.”

 

“Do you wanna come check it out with us?” Kris asked. “If you want to, that is.” There was silence on the line, as the boys waited for Minah’s answer.

 

“Sure,” Minah smiled into the phone. “I’d love to come check it out. What’s it called anyway?”

 

“It’s just called Lee Hotels, but don’t let the name fool you.”

 

“Oh!” Minah exclaimed. “I have that on my list! I wrote down 3 apartments that I wanted to visit, and Lee Hotels is on there!”

 

“O-oh really..? So you already knew about it..?” Sehun asked dejectedly.

 

“Well, I just knew that it was a pretty good deal. I didn’t know any details, though. We should go visit it together tomorrow!”

 

“You said it!” Suho said excitedly. “We’ll go visit it together tomorrow.”  

 

 

 

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Sorries... this was kinda. boring. LOL. >_< I had been planning to add a super long chapter ( like 30 pages on word) but I didn't finish it yet, and its been six days since my previous update.... so I just put the first part of it. Please bear with a boring chapter for now! Finals are next week and I don't have time to write :( Very very sorry!