Mom’s discovery of my hair over the weekend went better than I thought. When I stomped down the stairs the next morning, freshly cut hair sticking up in all directions, she freaked.

“Mom, it’s just hair and it’ll grow back,” Jaeeun had mumbled over her bowl of cereal. When Mom turned her back, she turned to me and silently laughed.

Grabbing a granola bar from the cabinet, I nodded in agreement. “It’s always good to try new things,” I stated.

Mom placed her hands on her hips. “You better not show up with blue hair tomorrow or I’ll beat your tail,” she threatened, swinging her dish cloth at me. And to no surprise, she was still disgruntled Monday morning before I left for school.

Smoothing my hair down as I entered the bus that morning, I had a revelation. Catching sight of some young guy running into the bus with his shirt untucked and hair in a mess, I remembered the time I had seen Sehun doing just that. Running late, disheveled, and all the fuss. In fact, I remembered it happening twice. And then I remembered he now had my scarf.

It could’ve been from the lack of sleep lately or me just being a female, but I was suddenly angry. How had I been so stupid as to believe helping him was okay? I should have absolutely known it would all blow up in my face, resulting in my depression while Oh Sehun pranced off into the sunset, Taeyeon on one arm and Luhan on the other. I didn’t even care that my grandma had actually told me to give it to him: I was utterly sickened that I had been ignorant enough to do so. By the time I reached school, I was ready to bash my face into the gate and finish myself off right there.

“Aye, chubby got her hair fixed,” some imbecile laughed as I walked through the hall.

Inhaling slowly, I reminded myself of what Jaeeun had told me the night before. I ignored them and kept walking, though I kept my head low out of sheer anxiety. On the way to school, I had been under the impression that crying my eyes out over the weekend (more than once) would release all the stress I felt. And it had. But walking into school again felt like an electrical socket and my fingers were tingling again with nervousness.

I flinched and barely managed to silence my yelp when someone’s arm slung around my shoulder. On instinct, I flailed and tried to shake them off, expecting Luhan or someone like him.

“Calm down,” Taehyung hissed, dragging me with him. Looking forward, he sneered at some freshman. “What’re you looking at, punk?”

With wide eyes, I watched the boys run off before Taehyung continued pulled me along with him. When we finally reached our lockers, he released me and went to his own.

I remained in my place, breath caught in my throat, staring at the whole posse standing around.

“If you stare much longer, your eyes are going to fall out,” Baekhyun clucked, giving me a small grin.

Tao rounded on him. “Piss off, bacon bits,” he snapped, slamming his locker and causing me to flinch. “You’re not funny.”

Puckering his lips, Baekhyun pulled his head back and revealed several other chins. “You’re not funny,” he mimicked, waving his hands around.

“Eunhui, get your books,” Taehyung said quietly, tapping my arm before returning to his own things.

I turned to my locker as Tao slapped Baekhyun over the head with a book, screaming about how I was probably only staring because he was so ugly. Baekhyun continued to mimic him as Jongin rolled his eyes. Turning around, I jumped back several paces.

“Get your books, Eunhui,” Luhan said, staring down at me. Suddenly, the hall became quiet.

I looked around me, feeling trapped. Behind Luhan (who acted like a bodyguard) was Sehun, getting his own books out. Beside him, Taehyung turned around and glared.

“No one asked you, Luhan,” he snapped.

Spinning around on Taehyung, Luhan gave me the opportunity to rush forward to grab my books while he was distracted.

“You little basketball junkie. Was I talking to you?” Luhan asked, stepping around Sehun. From somewhere behind me, Tao piped up with a loud “hey!” before slapping at Baekhyun, who proceeded to let out a high pitched “hey!” of the same sort.

For a moment, I questioned what exactly had gone on over the weekend with all of these boys. But I had no time to analyze the situation. I grabbed my books and shut my locker, quietly. Out of pure habit, I glanced sideways and my skin tingled when I looked Sehun straight in the eye. With all the chaos going on around the hall, he didn’t seem phased as he stared down at me. However, I spun around, uncomfortable and flustered, and ran for my class and life.

Come lunch time, I had calmed down a bit. Though a few students continued to pick at my hair, I stayed out of their way and blocked them out. And because of running into several cheerleaders going to the third floor to broadcast some sports news, I ended up in the girls’ locker room. Although I knew at least one person knew I hid there, I couldn’t think of another place to go and only plonked down on a bench and stayed there. Sitting there quietly for almost an hour, my stomach rumbled at me in hungry complaints. But I felt too sick to my stomach to eat, even though I had brought a granola bar with me. Only, that proved to be a mistake later in my last classes.

“Choi Eunhui, do you have a problem?” my teacher asked.

Scrunching down low in my seat and folding my arms over my stomach, I shook my head with a sheepish look. “No, sir.”

The class snickered but, thankfully, my teacher cont