OC- Shayreen

Shayreen was never one to notice things.

Maybe it was her poor eyesight (with glasses graded over 200) or her lack of care for the world (not that she doesn’t want World Peace). Shayreen had a hard time focusing on details and preferred to look at the bigger picture.

It was a cloudless afternoon when Shayreen was assigned to help out for community service at her school. She didn’t really mind the work, which mostly involved re-painting benches, picking up litters, and watering the town’s park and gardens. If it could get her away from her house filled with hormonal boys, she would gladly accept the offer with open arms. Shayreen was the only girl in her house. She was the youngest with four older brothers and a father who was almost always out on business trips. She had no mother but her father has a girlfriend, Lauraine; who in her opinion was all right. They’ve been dating since she was 10 and she kept on wondering how come her father wouldn’t just ask her to marry him. She often joked that she would get away if he doesn’t do it sooner. But apparently they’ve remained strong after all these years.

Shayreen was about to finishing painting one of the benches and had just put up the “Wet Paint” sign when her friend, Kyla, bounded towards her grinning excitedly. “Shay!” she said as she gripped her forearm, shaking it and forcing her to turn around. “Don’t look now, but cute guys alert!”

Shayreen ignored her friend and gazed at her handiwork, proud at her efforts in painting the bench. She had drawn in little pink flowers, which made it look really cute.

“Shay! You’re not listening!” Kyla whined.

“You said ‘don’t look now’.” She shrugged making Kyla roll her eyes. Then all of a sudden her eyes widened, “They’re coming over!” she pulled on Shayreen’s hand and they bolted for the tree a few feet away which they used as a hiding spot.

“Wait—“ Shayreen said as she was dragged away, “What are you doing?”

They hid behind the tree and Kyla was peeping like she’s on a secret mission or something. “Kyla—“

She put a finger to her lips and whispered, “Come on look at them! They are so cute!”

Shayreen stared at her friend as if she were crazy and sighed heavily as she took a peek herself.

Three boys were walking towards their direction and Shayreen admitted that they were cute. Not overly good-looking in her opinion but they were better looking than the guys she sees here. Tourists, she thought. One had black hair with tiny eyes and was smiling brightly; the other had red hair wearing a black snapback and then one was quite tall and lanky with dark blonde hair.

Shayreen easily got bored looking at them and was about to leave when another figure came bouncing towards the other three boys. Shayreen was never one to notice things but there was something about the boy that was hard to miss. He was tall with flaming orange hair (yes, orange!). Unlike the other boys who wore simple jeans and a shirt, this boy wore skirt shorts (a skort?) and a sando underneath a rumpled polo. It was a sloppy ensemble, something that would have made Shayreen look away in disgust, but somehow he was able to carry it well. Even his orange hair suited him! However, her admiration dispersed when he saw the boy’s hand, hovering inches from her bench.

“Hey!” she yelled without hesitation before he even had the chance to touch it. Kyla covered her eyes at what her friend was about to do. The boy looked up, his hand still hovering over the bench, frozen in place. “What do you think you’re doing?” she scolded when she was in front of him. “Can’t you see the sign?”

The boy glanced at the ‘wet paint’ sign and then switched his gaze back to her. “I—I did” he stuttered.

“Then why were you going to touch it?”

“I didn’t touch it!” he protested, his hand still hovering over the bench. Shayreen saw this and wondered what the hell was wrong with him. She grabbed his hand and moved it away from the bench, putting it back on his side. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking about the wet pain sign and wanted to make sure if it really was wet.”

“What?!”

“I said I was thinking about the wet paint sign—“

“I heard you the first time!” she snapped and the boy flinched. “I meant why would you check if the paint was wet when the sign clearly said WET PAINT?!”

“Hey what’s going on here?” the three boys approached and the tall and lanky one had a concerned look on his face. When he saw Shayreen looking somewhere in between confused and pissed; then saw Taehyung standing there dumbfounded, he sighed. “Whatever he did, I’m sorry—“

“But I didn’t do anything!” the boy protested.

The lanky boy ignored him and reached out his hand towards Shayreen. “Hello, I’m J Hope.”

What kind of name is J Hope?, she thought. “Shayreen.”

“Nice to meet you, Shayreen-sshi. These are Jimin and Jungkook.” They gave her a small bow and then J Hope frowned as he examined the situation. “I’m sorry with whatever happened here.”

“What exactly did our Taehyunggie do this time?” the black haired boy asked, snickering.

“He touched my bench.”

“Your what?” the boy with the red hair asked in confusion.

Shayreen pointed at the bench beside them. “I just painted it and he touched it.”

“I did not!” the boy exclaimed. “Look! I’ve got no paint on my hands.” He raised his palm for everyone to see. They were clean. The three boys looked over at her, questioning. “W-well he almost did! If I wasn’t there to stop him, he would’ve ruined it!”

“Okay, so we’re just gonna go. Sorry—“ J Hope started as he pulled on the boy’s arm.

“What’s with you and benches?” the boy retaliated.

“Taehyung!” J-hope called as he tugged at his arm but the boy, Taehyung, shrugged him off.

“What’s with you and common sense?” she spat back.

“Are you saying I don’t have common sense?” he gazed at her challengingly and Shayreen couldn’t help noticing how his beautiful his eyes looked, especially with the eyeliner which accentuated the intensity of his gaze.

“I’m just saying why bother having it if you’re not going to use it?” the red-haired boy snickered at her response and Shayreen felt pride. It was a pretty good comeback.

Taehyung seemed to be unfazed by the fact that she had called him an idiot and said, “Bench-lover.”

Shayreen scrunched her eyebrows, “Excuse me?”

“I think we had enough.” J Hope said, getting in between the two of them and trying to break of the fighting.

“But, hyung! It’s just starting to get really good.” Jimin whined. Jungkook nodded as well.

“Sorry again, Shayreen-sshi.” He bowed and they all turned away from her.

“Stupid.” Shayreen muttered and to her surprise Taehyung stopped in his tracks and turned around.

“What?”

She suddenly felt a pang of guilt when she saw the hurt expression on his face. It looked genuinely hurt to the point that his eyes seemed to water. “I—“

Taehyung turned from her and walked briskly away from the group. J Hope called after him but he wouldn’t listen and kept walking.

“We better go after him.” Jimin said.

“Yeah, before he touches any more wet benches.” Jungkook added, chuckling.

Shayreen watched as the boys left, standing motionlessly as her guilt ate her up. She felt really mean for calling Taehyung stupid. Well what he did—almost did—was stupid but she didn’t know he would take the insult seriously. She felt someone coming up behind her, “Hey, you okay?” Kyla asked as she put a hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah.” She replied, though she was feeling horrible deep inside.

~~~~

Shayreen continued to do her work throughout the afternoon, which was already hard enough with the added guilt she felt for the boy, Taehyung. She couldn’t get him off her mind: his orange hair, the way his lips pouted when she accused him of touching the bench, the way he gazed at her challengingly; She started to wonder what it would be like if stared at her in a different way… Shayreen shook her head at the thought. What the hell am I thinking? She couldn’t understand how on earth she could have remembered so much about him.

It was half past six and the skies were just turning to a dark shade of blue. She stopped by pastry shop to buy herself a big chocolate chip cookie, her favorite. A reward for all the work she had done today. After that, she headed outside and continued to walk home. 

She passed by the park and saw it almost empty with children being fetched by their parents at the playground and heading home. She was about to turn when a familiar orange head caught her eye. Sitting by the swings, there was a boy who was staring off at the distance. He was wearing the same outfit, except he had changed into slippers. Shayreen’s guilt throbbed at her chest and she groaned as she approached him; her conscience practically scolding her to go off and apologize.

Once she was in front of him she said, “Hey. Don’t know if you remember me but—“ she sighed. “Of course you remember. I was the one who called you stupid. I just wanted to say I’m sorry and,” she reached into her bag and offered the cookie she had bought for herself to him. “Consider it a peace offering.”

Taehyung remained unmoving, staring blankly into space. At first Shayreen thought that he was still upset at her and was purposely ignoring her. But when she waved a hand over his face, she realized that he was zoning out.

“Taehyung?” she asked again. “Hey—“ he touched his shoulder and all of a sudden he screamed out, “I’M INNOCENT!!!” 

Shayreen was so shocked that she stepped back and tripped, causing her to fall on her . Taehyung heard the thump and snapped out of his zoning moment. When his