After that event, I tried my best to ignore the stares. I subconsciously huddled into myself during Graphics Design because I knew several students kept glancing at me. It was worse when I had to exit the classroom to use the restroom since I noticed several students strolling around in the halls. It was awkward because I did my best to keep my head down and not make any eye contact.

It wasn't until lunch that I was pulled out of my comfort zone. Literally.

❀♡❀

As usual, I was trying my best to escape the crowd and exit the main entrance so I could meet up with the girls, however in the midst of the crowds my backpack was tugged back.

At that, I let out a surprised gasp as I was roughly pulled backwards by the armstraps of my bag. I turned and was surprised to see Lisa holding onto the handle. She let go once I fully turned and behind her was Jennie, Rosé, and... Jisoo looking down at the floor.

Lisa had her lips set in a grim line while Jennie was a little a ways behind her with her arms crossed and her lips pointed down. Rosé had an arm wrapped around Jisoo's frame as she gave me a disappointed look.

"We finally caught you y/n. What the hell is all this about?" Lisa's aura let out waves of confidence and dominance and I quivered at her authoritative demeanor.

"What do you mean?"

"Why the hell would Jisoo be begging on her knees for your forgiveness over a stupid misunderstanding of a video?"

"What? How am I supposed to know?"

"How cruel could you be to make her cry over a video she didn't fully understand correctly, force her to publicly humiliate herself, and still have the audacity to feign innocence."

At this point, the crowd had already formed a blockade around the center lobby. The amount of people listening was huge and many phones were already pointed our way.

"Don't look at them. Look at me. Answer my question."

"First off, she knew that audio was purposely edited to make me look bad because she edited it herself. Second off, I didn't force her to do anything. I haven't even spoken to her! Third is that I am not 'feigning' innocence! Look at my second point for evidence!"

"Y/n. After all our years of friendship, what happened to you! Jisoo would never do that! Is it because you're jealous or something! How selfish can you be, just because I'm not hanging out with you anymore! We were still friends before, but now after all this, we definitely aren't anymore."

"Jennie, this has nothing to do with you. To think that you would pick her side over mine. I swear I didn't tell her to do anything! You would throw away our friendship over such a trivial matter, which, might I add, has an obvious answer!"

I paused for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing, "You know what. You've never been a real friend to me. Sure we've had our moments, but thinking back on every time we've hung out, it was only toleration keeping us together. Not a true bond or connection. We were never friends, Jennie."

I noticed hurt flash in her eyes before they steeled.

"You're right. I guess we never were. But that doesn't justify the horrible way you've treated Jisoo. She's tried really hard to become your friend and tells me you are always distant with her. This is why you never had friends. This is why we were never friends y/n. It's because you can't get your head out of the clouds and have the decency to connect with someone. How cruel."

I winced at her words. I knew it. I always knew, but there was always the budding chance that she actually valued our friendship, even though I had difficulty connecting with people. I thought she would try to fight for our friendship, even though she was always normally the one to always start the conversation before. But that was because I tried really hard to pursue my education.

I thought this year, for sure, I would be able to connect with her more. But then we went our separate ways and met other people.

"I see... Putting friendship aside, I really had no part in Jisoo's act earlier. Did I, Jisoo?"

I stare straight at Jisoo with patient eyes. We both knew the answer, yet what matters is what she says.

The huge lobby was quiet as all eyes stared at Jisoo as she slowly lifted her head. She hadn't moved her eyes from the ground at all, until she finally looked into mine. I was scared as I noticed they had a malicious glint in them.

"Jisoo, you don't have to say anything if you don't want to." Rosé gently rubbed Jisoo's back, but I tensed as I noticed Jisoo's lip twitch into a smirk.

"N-no. The truth is... yes, she forced me to-"

"It's a shame to know that you have no shame in you." Jin's voice cut as clean as a knife through the tense air.

Several footsteps followed and all came from behind me. I shut my eyes tightly as I already knew who it was. My bad, who they were.

I opened my eyes once the footsteps stopped behind me. I don't know how far they were, but I know they still stayed a respectable distance away.

My focus went straight to Jisoo's paled face. Gone was the mischievous expression, In was the look of dread.

"Ah, I apologize for interrupting you. Do finish your statement."

All three girls looked at Jisoo in concern as she was frozen solid.

"What? Cat got your tongue?"

"Hey. Leave her alone-"

"Bup bup bup." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jungkook make a motion as if his hands were closing her mouth.

"Jin hyung is talking, be polite. And I would listen closely if I were you."

Lisa gave a flabbergasted expression as she looked at the men behind me.

"Thank you. At least you can listen to warnings unlike your... friend here. Now, as I've learned, you are blaming y/n for forcing Jisoo to apologize?"

None of the girls responded and after a pregnant pause, Jin hummed.

"If someone has to force an apology, that's not a meaningful apology at all. Now is it, Jisoo?"

He continued after another beat, "You also claim that Jisoo misunderstood the audio? Have you not asked Jisoo if she misunderstood the audio herself... Or if she understood what she did wrong perfectly?"

Jin's calm voice scared me. I'm just glad I can't see him, because I'm sure I would be as scared as Jisoo was. Heck, I even saw Lisa begin to duck her head as he continued.

"Tell us Jisoo, what exactly did you do wrong since it clearly is not obvious. You were very vague in that video, and that is upsetting. Not looking good for what I will reveal next if you don't answer quickly and properly."

It didn't take Jisoo two seconds before words began to pour out of her mouth.

"I purposefully edited the audio to make Yoongi and y/n look bad. The events during that time were not what I implied. I knew that, but I edited the audio to make y/n specifically look bad."

The three girls looked shocked at Jisoo's admittance.

"Now, why would you do that?"

Jisoo flashed Jin frightened eyes and anybody could read her expression basically shouting 'please don't make me say it.'

I don't know what Jin did next, but she instantly blurted out, "I was jealous of y/n! I wanted her away from the Bangtan Boys so I lied to get her away!"

She was breathing rapidly as many students instantly began murmuring amongst themselves. Rosé's hands dropped from around Jisoo.

"Lies lead to your demise~" Jimin's melodic voice rang through the air as Jisoo's began to cry again.

"Great. And that's why you apologized so expressively, right? No one forced you to?"

Jisoo frantically shook her head in her hands.

"N-no! I m-meant to apologize so g-greatly. I'm s-so s-s-sorry y/n!" She sobbed harder.

"Great. Do you need any more clarifications?" Namjoon's voice sounded clipped and annoyed.

All three girls shook their heads as they apprehensively looked at Jisoo.

"Perfect. Take this as a warning, girls. I think you need to rethink your friendship. Jisoo, I would say great try but it was pretty bad. I don't know what you think you can do to help yourself, but trust me when I say you shouldn't waste your breath on it. Keep trying, make it worse and see what happens in the end."

Jisoo dropped down on her knees and cried into the sleeves of her hoodie. This was horrible. I would honestly never wish this much embarrassment on anyone. She was really suffering here.

I debated on saying anything, but was cut off when I heard, "And y/n, come with us please."

My eyes widened as they directly called me out to follow them. I turn over my shoulder to see them in all their glory. They had stern gazes before, but as soon as I turned their gazes softened.

"I-"

"Please, y/n. Just for a small talk. Please." I shivered, but I just wanted to be away from the public eye. Every entrance was blocked except for the main one behind them. Slowly nodding, they gave small smiles and turned to lead the way out. The crowd instantly gave more room as they walked out with me tentatively following behind.

I didn't dare to look back at Jisoo as all I could hear were her sobs and the rumble from the storm of gossip that was bound to erupt as soon as I stepped out.

The moment I took a breath of air, I felt dizzy. It was like all the adrenaline from that scene washed away and I was left with no energy.

"Are you okay?" I look up to see all of them farther up in front of me.

I just nodded and waved them off as I stood straight and took a couple steps forward.

They continued walking across the expanse of the courtyard and led me to a clump of shrubbery and trees off the side of the building. It wasn't too secluded as the people from the parking lot could clearly see us lounging here, but it was covered by plants and such.

Along the walk, I just texted the girls saying that they should leave without me because I didn't know how long this would take nor did I want to hold them back from lunch.

I stood near the tall oak tree as they stood around me. I crossed my arms, feeling weary of them.

They didn't say anything, but continued to stare at me. I felt uncomfortable the longer they watched my movement and felt a betraying blush arrive on my cheeks.

"What?" I snapped.

"We're sorry." Namjoon was the one to answer first.

I gave them a droll stare as they all seemed to try to form words.

"Okay."

"Ah does this mean you fo-"

"Nope." I cut off Taehyung's hopeful sentence.

"You're sorry? Yeah, I know, it's pretty obvious. But do I forgive you? What have you done to show me that you actually plan to change? That whole ordeal with Jisoo was insanely wrong. You guys made her apologize huh? That was horrible! If I was in her place- I just can't. Public humiliation did not do justice to show change. There are so many different ways you could have handled Jisoo. I'm sorry, but no. That was not good at all."

The boys deflated at my statement.

"You guys have to have known that what you did was not the right way to go about this situation! You basically threatened her. I don't know with what, but that is not good!"

I felt like I was scolding children. They literally didn't look like they felt remorse or guilt. They just looked like they were told to go to timeout.

"Look. Perhaps that wasn't the best way to handle it. But you really weren't at fault for that audio. She purposefully edited that audio to make you look bad. She doesn't get to just be let off the hook. People like that need to be taught lessons rather than escape without a scratch."

"But-"

"We understand what we did was bad. But it was also for you. We have never meddled with any school or social affairs before, but for you we took action. Yes, we didn't do it the right way, but our intention was to bring you justice."

"You don't need to worry about my justice! I'm fine! I could handle the backlash and it was already dying down! How you guys handled the situation is not the way to say 'sorry' to me."

"Okay... could we make it up to you the right way then?" Jungkook timidly tried. 

"What is the right way huh? How are you going to make this right?"

They better know this is a trick question.

"I know that's not a simple answer, but we promise you our gestures and attitudes will be better." Hoseok answered for the rest.

It was a short answer, but looking at all of their sincere faces made my heart skip a beat.

"Why. Why must you try so hard to keep this friendship? I'm nobody special."

They all paused for a moment. I made eye contact with Yoongi and it was as though his eyes burned into my soul.

"You know why. You are special to us. We may not have ever had this much of a connection with others, but you aren't 'others'. Time will tell when we all fully understand why fate seems to want us together, but for now, we aren't going to let you go that easily."

The others seemed a bit puzzled at Yoongi's speech but nodded along nonetheless. I bit the inside of my cheek as I looked at their faces.

I sighed after a second and exhaled dramatically.

"Well, I'm not saying you're guaranteed a chance, but give me space if you're gonna try."

❀♡❀

A/N: Yesterday was Valentine's and I celebrated it as lonely as Namjoon's hand every time he goes in for a handshake with anyone. 

Tis fine tho, I was prepared with Netflix, junk food, warm blankets, and BTS. We good homies 💜

Question Time! I don't think I've actually asked this, but what's your favorite color? 

I like blue :)

『💙 Not my edit, but I like it ⏩⏸️⏪』