K i m  J i n h e e

After getting my wound treated by our school nurse, I made my way towards my classroom as homeroom would start in five minutes. I let my uniform sleeve down so that it would cover the bandage and also to avoid being questioned by my best friends. Because by now I knew their personalities too well, and I knew they would definitely make a big fuss about it.

Moreover, I didn't know how to explain to them about what had just happened this morning. Now that I think about it, it was quite... dramatic. I remembered that I saw a broken flower pot at the place I was originally standing. So, my brain came down to one conclusion—that guy had saved my dear life.

I bit my lips, feeling bad for being rude to him and even called him a pervert (secretly), yet he had saved my life. I think I'd need to thank him for that, but... who's he again?

Hearing the clicking heels through the quiet hall, everyone quickly scurried to their seats, knowing very well that it belonged to our beautiful and classy homeroom teacher—Miss Chae.

"Good morning, everyone." She greeted the class with a wide smile.

The class president was about to do the greetings but Miss Chae just waved him off. "Let's ignore that. I'll just take your attendance before we move on to our lessons."

"As usual, only two students missed out. Okay, open your textbook at page..."

We were all waiting for Miss Chae to tell us what page that we were going to start with, but the waiting game had become so long that the class fell into an awkward silence.

So we looked up and witnessed Miss Chae's flabbergasted expression. Wondering what was going on, everyone followed her gaze. And there, we saw two boys breezed into the classroom.

"Student K-kim Taehyung and Park Jimin," Miss Chae stuttered, couldn't seem to believe what she was seeing.

It took me a whole second to notice the presence of the two guys, until I caught a familiar face of the guy at the front. Oh my. It was the same guy who had saved me this morning.

There was a short moment of silence again before Miss Chae asked, "Are you going to join us today?"

Taehyung tugged a small smile and nodded while taking the furthest seat at the back, near the back door. Jimin slid into the seat next to him.

"Omo! It's Taehyung and Jimin!" I heard some girls squealed in excitement while covering their mouths in disbelief.

"It must be my lucky day!" The other girl exclaimed. Then, they started to whisper and kept looking at Taehyung and Jimin, trying to get their attentions but the boys never bothered, especially Kim Taehyung with his solemn face.

I let my chin rested on my propped up arm. Now was the perfect timing to study him as I was not able to do that this morning because he was too close, to the extent that I was able to hear his breathing.

I felt the heat flood my neck and I could sense myself blushing. When I thought about it again, the way we encountered each other were somehow awkward, implausible and again... awkward.

When everyone had their faces on their book, I adjusted my view and took the chance to observe that guy, and of course, I made it unapparent so that Miss Chae wouldn't notice my negligence on her lesson.

I took a careful glance and I noticed that his soft brown hair looked quite messy, like he had just run a marathon. My eyes moved a little down to his sharp jaw line to which every girl would die for, then to his visible contoured collarbone because he let the first two buttons off. But despite all that, I was more engrossed into his eyes.

His eyes were the darkest shade of dark brown, no light. Nothing but cold darkness lined by long black eyelashes, different from what I saw this morning when he had come to my rescue. At that moment, I recognized how his eyes were looking at me, at least I can tell from his eyes that he was worried.

So, his name is Kim Taehyung... The voice at the back of my mind said while my eyes still heeded at his whole existence.

But it was as if he heard me calling his name, suddenly he glanced to my direction. With that, our eyes met again. His dark brown eyes went wide for a fraction of seconds as he saw me, then he held my gaze. And yeah, I kind of forgot how to breathe.

Miss Chae dismissed the class and everyone started to gather around Taehyung and Jimin, yet they managed to keep a good distance away from them, as if they were reminded of the ugly truth. Our class was never this loud. Even students from the other classes started to crowd the front and back door.

I shoved all the books inside my bag. I had never liked loud and crowded places. I hoped all the students could settle down and get the fact that Taehyung and Jimin were also humankind, like us.

I sighed in relief as the class died down in silence, probably Taehyung and Jimin had left the class. I was going to the cafeteria when my step suddenly halted, my eyes widened when I realized that Taehyung was making his way towards me.

"Is your elbow alright?" Taehyung whispered against my ear, not wanting the other students to hear our secret conversation.

I couldn't think properly when he started to speak to me because hearing his gentle yet deep voice kinda made my heart stop for a second there. And because of his sudden proximity, I was beginning to have a hard time breathing.

"Y-yeah. It will heal, don't worry..." I managed to say despite all the struggles. Wait Jinhee, what are you saying? Why would he worry about you?

"Glad to hear that. See you around." He threw me one last look before walking out of the class. I swore I saw his rose-pink lips quirked up into a smirk before his face turned back into his stern face.

● ● ●

"Jinhee, what was that all about?" Suzy crossed her arms as she looked at me seriously.

"Nothing much." I ate all my side dishes with much appetite. The meals in cafeteria had always tasted so good, so I never left them unfinished. At the same time, I wished Suzy could just stop asking me questions as I was afraid that I would get choked while eating.

"Are you dating Kim Taehyung?" She shot another question and I really get choked. She quickly grabbed a cup of water and gave it to me. I gulped all the water down and patted my chest a few times.

"Yah Bae Suzy, I don't even know his name until a moment ago," I disputed while giving her a glare. She just smiled innocently back at me.

"I know... But Jinhee, like what I've told you before, stay away from them. Kim Taehyung is one of the Bangtan Boys. And believe me, they will only hurt you," Suzy warned as she started playing her foods with the fork.

"Is it about them being a murderer again?" I asked, curious while feeling irritated about the rumors. Because after what had happened in the Garden, I didn't think that Taehyung had the tendency to become a murderer. Though, I wasn't so sure about the other boys.

"That's one thing. Everyone admires the Bangtan boys but we never dare to get near them because of the ugly truth," Suzy explained in a controlled whisper voice.

"How do you guys know about the rumor anyway?" I asked her, wanting to learn about the 'ugly truth' so badly.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure, but that's what everyone had been talking about since two years ago. And surprisingly, the rumor still circulating until now," Suzy explained, sounded so confident about the rumor.

"So... which one of them?"

Suzy stared at me, maybe didn't quite understand my inquiry.

"I mean, there are seven boys which people called as Bangtan boys. Among those seven, who's the murderer? It can't be all of them right?" I repeated.

Suzy nodded, now fully understood my question. "Well... The one who's always with his serious handsome face..."

Were there any other members who always had a serious look? I wasn't sure about the other members, but somehow I had a feeling that she was talking about Kim Taehyung...

Let's just hope it wasn't him.

"Kim Taehyung."