Date: ‪October 15th‬
Time: ‪7:55am‬
Location: University, biology lab
Mood: Anxiety anxiety anxiety anxiety anxiety anxie-
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University. It was terrifying. People: beyond that.

School days had always been tough. The crowded rooms, the social circles, group projects and worst of all: gym. The educational portion had been the easy part. Learning and reading and taking notes didn't require that she speak or interact in any way, other than listening to the teacher. Learning was fun. Studying required full concentration, pulling all her attention in one direction and thus keeping her from having to interact with the real world.

And the real world was too large and the pressure to fit in too great. To everyone else it seemed easy. To her, one pair of eyes felt like a dozen, and a dozen felt like the entire universe.

At this point in her life, becoming invisible in a crowded room was second nature, the ability she'd come to acquire almost mystical in a way. How one could go unnoticed and remain hidden in a semi-crowded room was impressive. It was probably due to her size that she was able to achieve it so easily.

Biology was the first class of the day. She could never seem to arrive to any lesson early enough to get that seat in the back corner where she was least likely to be noticed. Not that it mattered for this class. The professor for this class decided that she hated all her students and had assigned seating.

That was how she'd come to sit in-between two very intimidating, and polar opposite people. On the right was Kim Namjoon. He was nice enough, never saying a bad word to her. Really, he barely gave her a second glance. The intimidation factor was because he was so tall. Everyone was over her head, but anyone that she had to crane her neck to get a good look at was deemed untrustworthy. That, and there was something different about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Although, after last week when she'd caught him smiling wistfully at a picture on his phone of a girl covered in four cats and a dog, she'd determined he was considerably less scary than before.

On the left was a girl one year her senior (as everyone else in the class was) named Kim Hyun-ah. A dyed blonde who usually opted for bright red lipstick, big hoop earrings, leather jackets, and combat boots. It was a vast difference from Y/n's over-sized sweaters and ankle length skirts. Like Namjoon, Hyuna had never uttered a mean thing her way, but her whole look was enough to give her the wrong impression. Not only that, Hyuna was simply too pretty. Sitting anywhere in her vicinity made the smaller, bashful woman feel like an ugly troll.

Obviously, the only real problem here was that she too easily intimidated, a coward, and her self confidence was on the ground, drug behind her and trampled on day by day. These truly were the best years of her life!

Now go back and read that in a sarcastic tone.

"Yo kid, what's yer name?" She would have liked to have said the reason she flinched when Hyuna spoke to her was because she hadn't expected her voice to carry a rough edge to it. That wasn't true. She flinched because that's what a cornered animal does when it's frightened. And with Hyuna's general look and fashion choices, the fact that her voice held the same edge was of no surprise to anyone.

"Y-y/n." The occasional stutter was yet another part of her personality that she wished didn't exist. Sometimes when she was at her lowest, Y/n wished that she didn't exist.

The pink bubble she'd blown with her gum was popped and sucked back into her teeth as Hyuna's eyes scrutinized her cowering figure. 'Please look away', she silently pleaded with the classmate to continue to ignore her. Her eyes looked everywhere else, fingers inching in-between one another.

"Really?" the older girl asked, voiced laced with doubt and some degree of surprise. "You look like a Velma."

As she ducked her head, the curtain of hair came down just in time to cover the tiny, uplifting corner of her mouth. Her older brother used to tease her much the same way. It was meant to annoy her but honestly she took it as a compliment. Velma was the smartest and most valuable member of the Scooby Gang in her opinion.

"Anyway, Velma," another bubble popped and Y/n noticed with some anxiety Namjoon cast an irritated look in the older girl's direction. "You just gonna sit there and let em' talk like that?"

Let who talk like what? If anyone had been talking, it had gone right over her head. She made a point to avoid everyone in every possible way, eavesdropping part and parcel.

Confusion aside, panic was on the brink of setting in, threatening to rise up and choke her. A near stranger wasn't only speaking to her, but trying to engage her in conversation. After the tiny man had stared at and stalked her all weekend, somehow it was slightly easier this time. Not meaning that she was coming out of her shell, per say, but that maybe Hyuna's gaze was not nearly as overwhelming as his had been.

"I-it's ok." Fingers ached as she clenched them tight, then tighter still. Ignoring the pain, she settled for staring down at her lap. Idly she wondered where the professor was and why she was late today, but that thought was cut short when Hyuna sighed.

"It ain't ok, and they'll keep on unless you tell em' to stuff it." For the third time she blew a bubble and popped it, quite loudly.

With an irritated jerk of his head, Namjoon sent a heavy glower her way, to which Hyuna noticed but ignored him, with an air of 'I don't give a fuck'. Inwardly Y/n wondered if that was her life motto and somewhat admired that sort of attitude. Even if the blonde woman was a bit on the scary side.

"Hey."

Namjoon's voice directed Y/n's way made her squirm in her seat. Why were these people suddenly speaking to her, and all at once? Not having the courage to acknowledge this bit of attention, she held back a whimper and shrunk down in her chair to appear smaller. Maybe they would forget she was there? Both girls failed to notice the twitching of his nose when a familiar scent caught his attention.

"Do you know Park Jimin?"

The stalker's name immediately brought her eyes to meet Namjoon's, just for a split second.

Without thinking, she blurted out: "He's my stalker."

Something passed over his face that she couldn't decipher. Was he confused? Sad?

Strangely the answer appeared to be amused, if how his lips twitched and the way he slapped a hand over his mouth while looking in the other direction was anything to go by.

Great, now when she found the courage to voice her words she was laughed at. A rush of sadness hit her hard and she struggled to force it back. It should've been easier than it was, what with all the holding back and swallowing her feelings she'd been doing for years now.

"You have a stalker, Velma?!?" Hyuna's voice was nothing short of outraged and Y/n couldn't fathom why. This was literally the first time they'd ever exchanged words. "My god." Hyuna's eyes trailed over Y/n's form, the big sister in her wanting to shield and protect this innocent little sushi while the fellow woman in her wanted to yell at her to toughen up.

They hadn't spoken but she had never failed to notice Y/n. This was the only student's voice she'd never heard. The only person that was never seen interacting with anyone. It reminded her so much of her little sister when she was younger.

At Y/n's affirming nod she grew more worried.

"He's not-" Namjoon had turned back, wanting to defend his friend, but faltered when he realized that Y/n's assumption probably wasn't too far off base. His own mate had even said that he was her sasaeng fan.

The statement was entirely true.

"He's an odd one," he tried a different angle. "But he's not a bad guy. If you tell him it bothers you, then he'll stop."

"You want her to approach her stalker?" Hyuna interjected. Y/n, though she remained silent, shared the incredulous reaction. Of course what Hyuna didn't know was that approaching him could be achieved quite easily seeing as how the man lived with her and knew where she worked. "Why don't you tell yer friend to fuck off?"

"Why don't you mind your own business?" Namjoon snaps.

"Why don't you make more friends that aren't creepy assholes?"

Y/n slid farther and farther down into her seat as they continued to argue. Face burning in embarrassment and attempting to ignore the looks other students were passing their way, she readied a lengthy catalogue of scientific facts in her head to go over in silence. However, as Hyuna and Namjoon's voices rose and the insults grew in intensity, a whispered conversation between two boys at the table behind slipped into her ear, unbidden.

"See? She just sits there, I'm telling you, she's mute."

"She wouldn't be while I was fucking her sideways."

They both snickered and Y/n visibly drooped lower. Was this what Hyuna had been talking about? This was worse than the usual, 'she's a freak', 'she's a loser', she's weird'. This was degrading and made her feel lower than low. Despite Hyuna's and Namjoon's arguing, the only thing she could hear now was the two boys behind as they went into detail on how they would make her, quote: 'cream and scream'.

One second she was sitting there, more depressed than ever and ready to cry, the next, Hyuna's chair was flying backwards as she stood to her feet, screaming. "SHUT-" she slammed a fist onto the surface of the table behind, "-THE FUCK-" another hit, "-UP!" One last hit to the table had everyone in the room, Y/n included, staring.

The two boys at the table, both equally flabbergasted and with no small amount of fear, had evidently lost the ability to speak. Too bad that couldn't have happened ten seconds ago.

If anyone thought Hyuna was finished, they were sourly mistaken. At the moment, Y/n was so caught up in the scene that she found herself able to look all three of them in the face, though that realization wouldn't catch on for some time.

"You!" Hyuna pointed at a boy with crooked teeth and a uni-brow. "Damn...there's no insult I could give you that nature hasn't done for me already. And You!" she turned her attention to the other guy and Y/n couldn't help but to notice that he was afraid. "Mister sideways, huh? Says the guy wearing crocs. Says the ugly fuck whose probably never gotten laid in his life. Says the bowlegged moron who never brushes his teeth cause he's too fucking stupid to know which side of the toothbrush to use." her voice then lifted in volume as she gestured angrily from her table to theirs. "I can smell your sewer breath from here!! FUCK!"

Everyone stared in stunned silence as she picked her chair back up, plopped down into it, turned and casually started up a new conversation.

"Anyway. So Velma, what's your sign? I'm a Gemini."

Somehow, Y/n didn't doubt that.

—
Edited 6/23/22