Hope and Faith

If Tao barely left Jiyoon’s side before, it was even worse after he confessed.

In the few classes he didn’t share with her, he often skipped the last few minutes of class just to wait for Jiyoon’s class to be done so he could be there to greet her and walk her to her next class.

At lunch, he always sat right next to her, their bodies barely an inch apart. During their classes together, Tao and Jiyoon would always sit together in the way back and work with each other on any projects that were assigned. And after school, he would always offer to walk her home, despite the fact that they never went home right away. Instead, they spent a lot of time doing something together – shopping, eating, playing, or just hanging around and talking, they never went home as soon as the bell rang.

Soojung accompanied them sometimes, but others, she went home immediately to try to finish all her homework so she could hang out with Jiyoon when the latter got home. She always thanked Tao for watching Jiyoon, though.

Tao refused to be absent anymore, even if he was sick.

He wouldn’t risk Jiyoon like that. He didn’t want to leave her alone, practically feed her to the wolves, also known as Xero and his friends.

Even with Tao near her, Xero still didn’t give up on his goal of making her life absolutely miserable. Whenever Tao went to the bathroom, he would always come back to find Xero and at least one of his other friends teasing Jiyoon. And when Jiyoon went to the bathroom, she’d always take so long that Tao went to find her, only to find Xero physically harassing her.

Usually, one glare from Tao would send them scampering in the other direction.

“Are you okay?” he’d ask immediately afterwards, checking to make sure she wasn’t hurt in any possible way.

With tearstained cheeks, she’d look up at him and manage a nearly pathetic smile. “Yeah, I’m okay,” she’d reply.

Tao would give a relieved smile and hug her lightly, assuring her that he was still there, that he wouldn’t be leaving her any time soon.

He wouldn’t leave her.

Loser.

.

.

Jiyoon swallowed heavily and slowly closed her locker, hoping Tao, who was looking at his phone, probably texting Kris about something or other, didn’t see the words carved into the interior of her locker door.

She felt her eyes beginning to water, but tried as hard as she could to push back the tears that threatened to gush from her eyes.

No matter how often it happened, no matter how used to it she should be, it still hurt to know that people thought of her that way.

Even though…

… it really wasn’t people.

Not plural, at least.

It was really just Xero who thought of her like that. Xero and the people he hung out with. He influenced all of them because he hated her for some reason that she didn’t quite understand. And whenever she asked him, he’d always say that he only hated her because she was everything he said she was.

A hand stopped her from closing her locker. Tao leaned in to see the words. A frown settled on is face once he recognized the words.

“Xero…” he spat. “You .”

Before Jiyoon could say anything, Tao slammed the locker door closed, making her jump, and stalked off. His face showed only anger as he stormed towards the cafeteria, not looking back, even as Jiyoon called for him to slow down.

The only thing he wanted was to end Xero and his stupid taunts.

Hansol sat at a lunch table, right next to Byungjoo, who was nervously looking at Xero. Noting this, Hansol frowned slightly, also looking at the white-haired boy.

He was smirking, as if proud of something he’d done. “So, which one did you do? I let everybody do one word they wanted,” he spoke, looking at the uncomfortable Byungjoo.

“I… I didn’t,” replied the quieter boy. “That wasn’t right, Xero. None of this is right. You need to stop picking on Jiyoon.” At this, Hansol started to pay closer attention to the conversation, his eyes narrowing as he looked between the two seniors. “She’s actually really nice, and she doesn’t deserve what we do to her.”

Xero scoffed. “You’re such a , Byungjoo. It’s not like we’re trying to murder her or something,” he snapped in retaliation. His words were so sharp that Byungjoo flinched.

Hansol let out a soft growl. He thought Xero was more mature than that, above torturing Jiyoon. It’d never gotten that far when he was still in school…

… had it?

But he wondered if Xero would stop if he knew what his words really did to Jiyoon. He wondered if it’d stop him if he knew that she tried to overdose just to escape him, escape the reality that she hated so badly.

He was about to say something, but was cut off when he saw Xero’s face getting slammed into the table. Behind him was Tao, glaring down with a dark expression.

“What the ?!” Xero cried.

Tao just glared. He said nothing, simply pushe