𝓚𝓲𝓶 𝓙𝓲𝓷𝓱𝓮𝓮

ɪ ᴋɴᴏᴄᴋᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʟᴀss ᴅᴏᴏʀ ᴛᴡɪᴄᴇ and everyone's attention fell on me immediately. They started whispering some nonsense that I could not understand, and the only names that I could catch between their words were 'Jimin', 'Bangtan Boys' and 'her'.

"Can I see Cho Sara?" I scanned the 12th grade second class. It was just beside my class. I waited by the front door, wondering what kind of girl Cho Sara was.

A minute later, a short hair girl walked towards me. "I'm Sara. You want... to see me?" She asked, clenching onto a pink binder while pushing up her thin maroon glasses.

I was slightly surprised to see her. She was just too cute. Her short hair looked so smooth and it was curled at the end, her skin was fair and healthy. Her black eyes shone with much sincerity. That was what actually made her look attractive.

"Do you mind if we can have a little chat?" I asked carefully. I didn't know why, I tried my best to be friendly with her.

"Yeah, sure." She smiled and nodded a little.

We walked to our school garden and set ourselves comfortable.

"Sara, I'm here to talk about Park Jimin. I think you're fully aware of what's happening right now because of the status you have posted." I started off awkwardly. I observed her expression, whether it was okay to continue the topic or not. She looked quite calm.

"I know... I've caused a commotion about it. I don't mean to hurt him in any way and I'm not trying to say bad things about him. Even if I want to, there's nothing bad to say about him. He's basically a pure angel." I saw Sara smiling, and it was one of those smiles where a girl was blindly in love with a guy. She was just that pure.

"I'm in love with him ever since 9th grade and the feelings got stronger by days. I just wanted to tell him that I'll keep loving him, even if he had those cute fats on his cheeks. Jinhee, I don't have any bad intention at all, but the other students made it worse that I feel guilty now. It was all started from me after all." I heard she let out a sigh, it was almost inaudible.

"He must be hating on me now." She muttered softly and she looked kind of worried. At some point, she looked like she was about to cry. I squeezed her hand that she turned to look at me, quite surprised.

"He wouldn't, Sara. You know, it's hard for him to even hate someone." I assured her with a smile.

She stared at me for a while, then slowly she smiled back. "Right. I should really apologize to him now. But Jinhee, can you accompany me? Actually... I've never talked to him before. I don't have the courage to." She stood up and clasped her hands nervously.

"Don't worry, I'll help you with that. Do you perhaps know where he is? I tried to find him but he's nowhere to be found." We were both walking to some direction, where I just followed Sara because she seemed to know where to find Jimin.

"Yup. The school grounds." She flashed me a proud smile. Right. She had a crush on him for a long time. It wouldn't be a surprise if she knew where he usually went to when he was upset.

We reached there and to my surprise, Jimin was really there. And when there was Jimin, there must be Taehyung too. Both of them turned to look at us when they heard our footsteps on the dried leaves. For a brief moment, Taehyung and I stared at each other before I looked away, letting out a small sigh.

"Jiminie, are you okay?" I walked over to him and eyed him with worried look. He simply nodded while Taehyung remained silent. They looked like they just had a serious conversation.

"Jiminie, this is Cho Sara. She has something to tell you." I introduced Sara to the confused Jimin. Sara just had her gaze on the grass, probably embarrassed. Jimin glanced at her for a moment, then he nodded at me.

Both of them walked over to a shade under the big trees. I saw Sara fidgeting with her fingers nervously. From time to time, she would look up but it only held for a second, then she looked back down while Jimin looked uncomfortable with his hand rubbing the back of his neck. From far away, I could even sense their awkwardness.

But talking about awkwardness, my situation here didn't make any difference. I turned to look at Taehyung who was still sitting on the bench, perfectly caught him looking at me. This time, he was the one who turned away, pretending to play with the end of his bangs.

I didn't know what to do. I was just going to wait for Sara and Jimin, so I sat on the bench too, keeping a good big gap between me and Taehyung. He didn't seem like he wanted to talk, but I was wondering what did Jimin tell him after all the rumor stuff.

Okay, you're just going to ask him that. Here we go...

"Tae–" I was cut off when he suddenly stood up and left the school grounds. I stared at his back while he walked away until his shadow was completely gone. I was left speechless at what he just did. I clenched my both fists on my lap, trying to suppress the pain in my heart.

So, he really meant it, he took back his confession. It wasn't just a dream.

𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓴 𝓙𝓲𝓶𝓲𝓷

"It was me. I was the one who started the rumor." Sara said. I stopped rubbing my neck and looked at her with widened eyes.

"W-what?" I asked, shoving my hands into my pocket, trying to remain calm.

"I was the one who posted your old picture in my SNS, Jimin-ssi." She mumbled. She looked so nervous that I feel bad. Do I look intimidating to her? (* -ssi – addressing someone formally)

"I haven't read the status yet. What did it say?" I was too lazy to check from where the rumors started from. I didn't really care about those stuff really... But as soon as I asked her, she became more anxious. She looked like she was in a troubled state.

"I-I s-say t-that... Um, I–"

"Hey, calm down. It's okay." She started to stutter a lot that I got worried. Suddenly, she looked up at me. I could finally see her eyes and it was... pretty. Her expression showed some determination.

"I like you, Park Jimin-ssi." I was surprised to hear that from her. My eyes were widened to its full extent as I stared back at her.

"Me?" I stupidly asked.

"Yes. It was only you, all along." She broke our eye contact and looked at the grass again. A moment of silence passed by as I tried to process her confession.

"Since when?" I asked.

"Since 9th grade."

Again, I was shocked. That was a long time ago. I wondered what did she like about the Jimin in 9th grade. I was still the fat Jimin back then. I have so many things to ask her.

"Thank you, Sara-ssi." I smiled at her and she slightly peered over her eyelashes to see my expression. I let out a wide smile and she slowly smiled back.

"May I know why, Sara-ssi? 9th grade... I think I don't have the looks, I'm not smart and I'm fat. I'm sure there's nothing–"

"It's your passion in everything you do." She cut me off as she wore a confident look. "You're charming just by being you. I know that you faced a lot of hardships since grade 9 and yet you still can smile and laugh. You're strong, Jimin-ssi. And just by looking at you, it gives me the strength."

Every word from her surprised me. Her words really touched my heart. A part of me was embarrassed at her compliments.

"Sara-ssi, I think you compliment me too much but... thank you. It made me really happy." I could see her cheeks turned crimson the next second. I knew it took someone a lot of courage to say that and I think she was amazing. Because I used to be in her position...

"I'm sorry about the rumors, Jimin-ssi. I shouldn't have confessed and posted your old picture. To be honest, it was my favorite picture... I don't know that it would make people talk bad about you. I'm very sorry, Jimin-ssi." She bowed down and she looked like she was about to burst into tears so I stopped her. I held her shoulders and she looked up at me, slightly taken aback.

"I don't mind, Sara-ssi." I assured her, hoping she would stop feeling bad. It wasn't her fault anyway, it was the sick- minded society of our world.

"Do you hate me, Jimin-ssi?" She asked suddenly with her teary eyes.

"No! Of course not." I answered almost immediately. This Cho Sara girl was so full of surprises that my heart kept beating fast. She looked like she was relieved as she held her chest and let out a warm smile.

"It's just that... These rumors literally remind me of... my deceased little brother." I muttered slowly. She looked at me in appalled.

"You mean... Park Jihyun?"

That name. It sparked a little part of my heart and triggered the weak side of me. I nodded slowly and let out a smile.

"He must've faced the same thing as I am now. It's just that the difference is... he didn't have anyone to rely on except me and I was stupid enough to not realize about it so soon." Sara looked at me with concern in her eyes. I don't think I could hold it in anymore. Whenever I think about Jihyun, I felt so weak inside and out.

"Sara-ssi, you don't have to worry about this, okay? Don't feel bad. I think we should get back to class. Thank you, Sara-ssi." I flashed her a smile before I walked away at a quick pace.

As soon as I left, a tear trailed down my cheeks. I stopped at a hidden corner and squatted down. Before I knew, I started to sob hard. The memories of my dead little brother started to flood my mind. Lately, I had been thinking about him a lot. Even when we went to the trip, the smell of the sea reminded me of him. We would always spend most of our time on the beach in our hometown at Busan, doing silly dance and teasing each other fats. We were both fat. People would always call us 'Pig Brothers', but we didn't really mind.

"Jihyun ah, hyung miss you so much." I whispered between my hiccups as I covered my face.

He was in 8th grade the last time I saw him. I would always give advice to him, I would always get worried about him because he really had a low self-esteem. He got insecure easily. He always got depressed whenever he was alone so most of the time, I would never leave him wandering alone in his negative thoughts.

I thought it was only that, I thought that he would slowly learn to love himself, but I never knew that he was one of the victims of the bullies in his school. I had come to realize that day by day, Jihyun would have scars and bruises all over his face and body. Jihyun said that he was clumsy and always got hurt in the school. I was worried about him but the other part of me seemed to believe in his words. I believed that he wouldn't lie to me. At night, I would help to treat all his scars and bruises.

The incident with the chubby kid this morning prompted the first thought of him. That little kid reminded me of Jihyun. I have helped him but he said it would only make the bully worse. Was that what Jihyun had always felt? He thought it would make the situation worst that was why he didn't tell me?

Jihyun-ah, it have been three years since you had been gone. But I still needed to know the reason why you didn't tell me about the truth and...

Why did you leave me?

𝓚𝓲𝓶 𝓙𝓲𝓷𝓱𝓮𝓮

It had been a week since the rumors of Jimin started and yet, it hadn't died down. People kept talking as if they were never tired of it. Cho Sara had made another status, saying she was sorry and she had deleted the status about Jimin before Jimin could even read it. She said that she didn't want Jimin to read all the rude comments about him. Well, there were also people saying bad things about Cho Sara but fortunately, she was the cool type and she didn't keep unnecessary things in her mind.

As usual, I was walking with Jimin to the music room before the class started. I wasn't really in a good mood because of all the rumors still made me angry. The second thing was, of course... It was about Taehyung. Somehow, he really pissed me off to the point that whenever I think of him, I would ended up saying 'whatever'.

"Make a way guys, piggie is coming." A guy said, obviously mocking Jimin, and immediately I felt something inside of me snapped. I turned to glare at the guy and planning to give him a high kick, but before I could do that, I saw the guy was pulled up by his collar, hanging on the air.

"I dare you to say that again." Taehyung's voice dripping with irritation. His gaze turned into a murderous one, glaring at the guy with much intensity.

"I-I'm sorry." The guy panicked and he was trying to pull back his collar because Taehyung was literally choking him.

"Hey Taehyung, just let him be." Jimin slightly pushed Taehyung so that he would let go of the guy. Still feeling aggravated, Taehyung roughly let that guy go and rolled his eyes. The guy quickly made an escape with some people laughing at his pathetic side.

I let out a satisfied smile before it disappeared as soon as I saw Taehyung looking at me. I rolled my eyes at him and walked away.

✿ ✿ ✿

It was only me and Jimin inside the music room. The others haven't arrived yet. Taehyung was following behind us and suddenly he disappeared somewhere. I looked at Jimin who was sitting on the windowsill looking so deep in thought.

I have noticed lately Jimin was not being himself. He was not the cheerful Jimin anymore. He didn't laugh that often and he always preferred to be alone now. Everyone was worried about him.

I walked over and sat beside him. "Don't mind about them, Jiminie. You're amazing in your own way, you know that yourself. You're a gorgeous man. You're handsome, you're cute, and here, look at these pink cheeks blushing." I pinched Jimin's cheeks playfully that made a smile crept on his lips.

There you go, his authentic eye-smile. Instead of pushing my hand away, he held onto them for a while as he looked at me in a meaningful way.

"Jinhee-ah, thank you." He said. His voice sounded gentle, like he was very thankful.

"I just need my old Jimin back." I shrugged up my shoulders casually and smiled cheerfully at him.

"I need to tell you something." Jimin hesitated for a moment, but his eyes stared at me in a way that I couldn't comprehend.

"What is it?" I asked, curious. Was he going to tell me the actual reason that made him sad for all this time?

"I like you."

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

𝓣𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓮𝓻

"Can't you see? We're making out. And you're kind of in the way, Jinhee."