__Chapter Five__

        ((“ Truth Hurts”))

    Jenny walked into the bathroom with Taeyeon holding onto her stomach; crying her heart out on the cold tiled floor. Taeyeon was a mess and her hands were trembling while trying to reach out to hold Jenny’s hands.

    “ W-What’s wrong?”

    Taeyeon sniffed and sobbed more just thinking about the pregnancy test results. It wasn’t true. No matter how much she wanted it to be untrue, the results, there was nothing she could do about it.

    “ I..the…. Jenny… I can’t believe it.”

    Jenny took the pregnancy test out of Taeyeon’s hands and looked at it. She looked at Taeyeon with a worried and confused expression. “ You’re-”

    “ I know….. I know that this is what I wanted but it doesn’t feel right. I should be pregnant, but why am I not? It doesn’t make sense.” She wiped her tears and sniffed some more. “ I really thought I was pregnant and now that I think about it, it would only be reasonable if I was pregnant with his child. But I’m not…..The truth really hurts.”

***

The whole walk, was quiet. It wasn’t a weird feeling, but a settling one.  Baekhyun came to an sudden stop and walked somewhere near the playground; under a tree where shade spread widely. Not knowing how far they had come and how long they have been walking for, Taeyeon crooked her eyebrows and followed obediently.

    “ Remember this place?” his smile curved perfectly towards her. Taeyeon let out a low sigh and nodded silently. “ It was the first time I met you.”

    Taeyeon was taken back by those words. It was the first time I met you. He still remembered. She turned her head to face the boy who was picking at his fingers. While looking there, she saw that he still had the ring on his left hand. That’s right, she shouldn’t jump to conclusions so fast. After all, he was still with Jung Ah. She cleared and shifted her seat a little closer to Baekhyun.

When she opened , wanting to say something, he lifted his head to look at her. No words came out because right at that moment, she was examining his face. His skin was very smooth, like a baby’s. He gave a small smile and decided to ask her something he had been meaning to ask all day.

“ You’re still seeing the doctor and taking care of your health right?”

    She nodded and fumbled around with her fingers. He always made her feel this way. The way his words smoothly flowed out of his mouth and how he made her flustered by his caring words. That’s what she liked about him. Even if he was mean, he was still warm to others. He was still the little boy she knew back then who fought her but in the end, bought her ice cream.

    Baekhyun took a deep breath and his smile suddenly faded. With caution, her started talking again. “ I feel like we’ve grew apart. You know, since middle school. It was like you just disappeared from my life and I had new friends to deal with.”

And you found Jung ah Taeyeon thought to herself. Guess it was hard to admit that he hadn’t really noticed her after all considering he just said it was like she never existed anymore. And much to her disappointment, whenever she waited for him at this same place, he never came back looking for her. He had forgotten her…...He’d forgotten their friendship because it was true, she would never be good enough for anything. In a deep thought, Taeyeon stood up from the bench trying to not curl her palms into fists even though they were already like that.

“ I-I gotta go now. Bye.” She said and started to walk away very fast like she was in a hurry to get somewhere. She just couldn’t stand the hurt feeling in her heart, and couldn’t stand the irresistibly heartwarming Baekhyun. He kept making her feel this way and guilt always rose inside her telling her she shouldn't be feeling this way. He would never feel the same.

Baekhyun stood up and started to follow. “ Where are you going. I’m not done talking-”

Taeyeon turned around and had her head low; bangs covering over her eyes. “ I forgot I had something to do. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And with that she disappeared around the corner. He stared at the area where she had just left with an unsatisfied look. She was upset. He knew because she was always the first to leave when she was upset.

It had always been like that.

***

8:02 AM

Taeyeon closed her locker and was about to make her way to class when a body suddenly clashed in front of her. Looking up, she saw a stern look on Baekhyun’s face. Looking to the side she sighed, “ What?”

“ Why are you talking like this again? You clearly didn’t talk in this rude tone yesterday.”

“ Just get out of my way. I’m going to be late.” She responded trying to push herself past him but he kept blocking her.

“ I told you. I wasn’t finished talking to you. Why are you always running away? I’m not done with you yet.”

“ Well I clearly don’t have anything else to converse with you so if I may, I need to get to class.”

    To her luck, Jung Ah just had to come. Great. This was perfect timing. Seriously. Jung Ah clung onto Baekhyun and gave Taeyeon a mean look. “ Stop flirting with my boyfriend.” Taeyeon responded with a scoff and smirked. “ It’s your fault for not teaching your boyfriend to not be around me. And just a reminder, we’ll be having our baby soon so make sure you prepare yourself for that and come congratulate us on that day.”

    “ Taeyeon. Stop.” Baekhyun stared with a blank face. Taeyeon couldn’t help but feel anger inside of her. Jung Ah bothered her first yet Baekhyun blamed her. Taeyeon moved swiftly past the two without looking back even though she could feel the disappointment in his words. Baekhyun was a very weird person. Bipolar.

***

    After doing homework, Taeyeon decided to wander the dark streets alone. Jenny had plans for tonight and after all, all students were out because it was Friday. Having nothing to do, she was walking by herself with so many thoughts on her mind. Life was being so harsh on her. Sometimes she wished loneliness would kill her off to a better place one day. Her phone then rang.

    “ Hello?”

    “ Hey It’s me.”

    “ Why the heck are you calling me Sehun?” She rolled her eyes.

    “ I thought YOU were the one who wanted my help if you don’t remember. I literally had to beg mom and dad  to come to Korea. My plane takes off in an hour and I think I will be there within a day or so.”

    “ Okay.” Taeyeon sighed. “ Just call me whenever you arrive and  I’ll be there”

    “ Wahhh noona is actually picking me up. Guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

    Taeyeon gave a small laugh and said her goodbye too before hanging up. When she turned the corner she spotted Baekhyun with a bunch of other guys she had never seen before. She was surprised he wasn’t with his girlfriend tonight. Not wanting to be caught, Taeyeon pulled her hood over her head and tried to speed walk past them. Unfortunately, that did not work and someone was running after her. Oh lord…. Taeyeon started to run and the voice behind her called out for her to stop while trying to catch his breath. If it was anything Taeyeon did not want, it was seeing Baekhyun after the incident at school. Because her luck was so bad, Taeyeon tripped and fell scraping her hands on the street as pain shot through her arms. He had finally caught up to her seeing what had happened.

    “ Yah… why did you run away from me? Look at you now. You hurt yourself.” Baekhyun bent down looking at her hands that were bleeding as his breath was still unsteady from running. Also trying to catch her breath, Taeyeon bit her lip from the pain. He reached out to grab her hands but she quickly put them behind her back not looking at him.

    “ Let me see.”

    “ I’m fine. Go back to your friends.”

    “ Stop being stubborn and-” he grabbed her arms in order to get her hands from behind her back. “- let me see your hands.” They were badly injured and he sighed. “ Come with me.” He pulled her up by her arms and dragged her to the nearest bench making her sit there. “ Don’t you dare move. I’ll be back.” He ran off into the distance right after as Taeyeon looked at his retreating back. In about 20 minutes or so, she saw Baekhyun running with a bag in his hands as he settled himself next to the girl. He quickly took stuff out and started to clean her injuries. Taeyeon stared at him. She saw how concentrated he was and how gentle he was being.

    “ Finished.” He smiled and looked at her big eyes. Her expression has child-like and somewhat cute at that moment. They stared at each other for a moment until she got up and cleared . “ I’ll get going now.”

    “ I’ll walk with you.”

    “ No I can go by myself. I’m pretty sure your friends are waiting for you right now.”

    “ I already told them to go without me.”

    “ It’s fine Baekhyun I-”

    He got up and stood very close to her. “ Why are you always rejecting me as if I’m an object? I know you hate me but I’m trying my best these days. I really am.”

    Closing her eyes she let out a shaky breath.  “ I don’t need your pity Baekhyun and I don’t need you to act like you care about me. Everything is just bothersome.”

    “ And what makes you think that I’m acting?” He took a step closer. “ Stop saying these nonsense things and stop trying to act strong. I know you Taeyeon. You always get your feelings hurt.”

    She was angry again. “ And why do you think I’m also acting? What if  I’ve always been like this. You don't know.”

    “ I know you very well Taeyeon. Stop trying to make me seem wrong.”

    “ Well you are wrong.” She clenched her teeth.

    Baekhyun ran a hand through his hair in frustration. They were fighting again. Like earlier and it was just making things worse. “ You know what? You can do whatever you want. I don’t care anymore. I was just trying to- nevermind.” He turned around and walked fastly the opposite direction. And now he was the upset one because at that moment, he was the first to leave.

    Walking into the open street, he couldn’t help but think about Taeyeon. Did she leave yet? Did she safely get home? Was he overreacting? His mind was occupying him until he found himself back to where they fought. And there, Taeyeon was sitting there with her head down and her hands fiddling with each other. He slowly made his way towards her and stood at a good distance in front of her. He reached down and grabbed her little fingers, not wanting to hurt her hand. Taeyeon looked up with a tear stained face as he looked at her straight in the eyes. He hurt her once again and for some reason he really wanted to hug her and tell her he was sorry for earlier and he wasn’t a help at all.

    “ Can you keep holding my hand like this for a little bit more?” She sniffed. She didn’t want him to let go her fingers. It wasn’t even really holding hands but his little touch sparked electricity through her whole entire body and for once she followed what her heart said. She wasn’t doing anything bad, it was just because she felt as if this was enough to comfort her. Baekhyun pulled her off the bench and wrapped his arms around her making her face buried into his chest.

Right or wrong, Baekhyun was as well confused with his actions.

He pressed her closer to his body and inhaled while doing so. He worried so much for her sake.

“ I don’t like you but seeing you makes me want to be near you all the time and I can’t stand you being hurt like this.”

Author’s note:

Hello to all my readers. It’s been awhile since I last updated my last chapter and I want to give my apologies to you all. If you haven’t done so, please read my note from the previous chapter. I hope this chapter was okay and don’t forget to comment, subscribe, and upvote. I don’t know when I’ll be back but see you all until next time. Chapter 5 is officially complete:) Thanks for all your patience.