NARRATOR POV
Changbin shrugged in frustration. "Why not just let me borrow you for one second?" He whispered to Minho. Minho looked back at him. "What is it that you want?" He whispered back.
"Do you think Hyunjin likes Annie?" Someone next to him heard his whisper. "Why do you want to know?" Macy asked as they all looked back, they looked back and saw Annie laying her head on the desk, asleep, while Hyunjin was looking at her.
Macy released a quick smile and looked back ahead. "I think so." She giggled.
"Ah," Changbin shrugged back. "I guess I didn't try hard enough."
"Wait, do you have a crush on Hyunjin?" Minho's eyes widened.
"Idiot. No." Changbin pushed Minho's shoulder.
"Ah Ah," Minho made a quick nod. "Wait-" He realized. All Changbin do was make a sigh and looked down. He played with a pen in his hands as the teacher walked in. Everyone's eyes focused on her. She shuffled her papers on her desk.
"Okay, you all should prepare for pre-exam, you all want to graduate the grade right? Let's focus on building the equations." She turned towards the chalkboard.
Changbin wanted to focus but his mind was running back and forth. He kept looking back and saw Annie rubbing her eyes as she woke up.
"I bet she's trying to avoid getting caught by the teacher."Â He smiled over his thought. But, still, something felt sinking in his chest.
He could barely focus on the class with that running through him. As the bell rang and the teacher dismissed. He quickly ruffled his hair.
"Hey, what is up with you? You barely seemed focused on class?" Felix looked back.
"It's nothing." Changbin shrugged as he took another look back. He saw Annie talking and smiling at Hyunjin. They were packing their bags.
"You do like her don't you?" Macy nudged his shoulder.
"Aye-" He made a big sigh. As Annie and Hyunjin passed by him, he avoided looking at them.
"He used to follow her everywhere but now she's following him." Minho leaned back.
"Yeah, they seem to have a special connection, though," Macy added, but by that Changbin slid back his seat and walked off without a word. "Is he jealous?"
"Obviously."
Changbin walked with his hands in his pockets, wondering where Annie was. "Why do I want to keep looking for her?" He got angry at himself and tried to turn around, but something stopped him. He slowly turned back around to see Annie waving to Hyunjin as she went into a different class. Hyunjin turned to walk back and saw Changbin standing watching them.
"Ah," Changbin quickly avoided eye contact with him as he approached.
"Is something wrong?" Hyunjin asked.
"Nothing." Changbin looked up but noticed something about Hyunjin, he was different from when he had seen him before. "You-" He was going to say something but, something stopped him. "How about we walk to class?"
Hyunjin made a quick nod. There was this burning feeling within Changbin's chest.
"Everything okay?" Hyunjin quickly looked up.
"Yeah." Changbin coughed with a quick smile. "He's so nice, but I feel so irritated." He felt guilty somehow.
After classes they all stood up, Changbin quickly ran over to Hyunjin. "Hey, uh, the principal wanted to see you, they told me earlier to tell you." he shrugged.
"Oh, me?" Hyunjin seemed confused. "Not sure why, but okay. Thanks." he quickly packed up his back and left the classroom.
"Hyunjin was called, since when?" Minho looked back.
"Earlier," Changbin muttered as he scratched his head. He quickly paced out of the classroom, through the halls with passing people. He went to the class Annie had gotten out of. He leaned on the wall beside the classroom, waiting for the door to open. "It should be out by now." He quickly checked his phone and tapped his foot.
Suddenly the door opened and students started to walk out, gathered together. Changbin looked around to see if he could spot Annie. He saw the high, long ponytail sticking out from in the crowd. As they all scattered he saw Annie, but she looked like she was looking for someone. "Ah, he isn't here yet." He heard her mutter. Changbin slowly came up behind her.
She turned around with a smile on her face. "Oh, Changbin, what're you doing here?"
"Ah, Hyunjin got called to the principals' office, so I thought I would come to walk you home."
"Oh, It wasn't like I was waiting for him or anything..we just usually go home at the same time." Annie made a small nod. They started to walk out together as they heard the chatter of the students around them. Changbin kept looking over at her.
"So uh, do you have some time to play some games? We were going to set that up but never got around to it."
"Ah, right. I do want to, but I have been losing track of time lately." Annie made a nervous laugh and looked back down.
"Ah, because of your job right?"
"Yeah." She nodded quickly. Changbin could tell she was hiding something from him but he couldn't pinpoint it. "I have to hurry home because I have work today. I have a late-night shift."
"Ah, make sure to be safe. Do you want me to come to pick you up later?" Changbin suggested.
"Nah, it's okay. I will just take the bus, it isn't that far from my house." Annie has a calm smile on her face as she skipped ahead. He had also taken notice of how Annie has changed since he has known her. "They both used to be so quiet, and low, but now.." He thought with his head down. Annie quickly looked back. "Are you okay?" Her eyes widened. "Yeah." He quickly paced ahead. There was a feeling he had within him, he didn't know where it came from or where it started but, he wanted to keep feeling it. A smile grew on his face.
Back at school, Felix, Macy, and Minho were outside on campus. Throwing their backpacks over their shoulders. "Why did you just do it all of a sudden though?" Felix scratched his nose. "I don't know, I guess I'd rather be around people I love rather than being alone..like I can still do what I love being here." Macy nodded at them. "Ah.." Felix scratched his head. "Are you going to game this weekend?"
"Ah, I didn't know there was a game."
"Yeah, I thought I told you about it. It's a game every year." Minho glared.
"Yeah, I didn't really pay attention before, But I guess I could go now." Macy shrugged.
"Yeah, we should really get so beef for the game-" Felix was saying but someone came up behind their shoulders.
"Hey, have you seen Changbin? The principal never wanted to see me." Hyunjin rolled his head around. "Ah, told you he was lying." Felix light nudged Minho's shoulder.
"I am not sure, he rushed out earlier." Minho shrugged and they started walking together.
"Ah..wonder why he did that." Hyunjin started to get an odd feeling, then he remembered how he saw Changbin watching Him and Annie earlier. Then Hyunjin popped a question. "Have you seen Annie?"
"Nah, I think she left right away, I didn't see her after class." They all nodded. Hyunjin shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down with a shy smile. A worry was growing in him.
"Why? Are you afraid she's with Changbin?" Minho looked back at Hyunjin and noticed how worried he was. He didn't say anything because he didn't want to admit it, he didn't want to admit how his heart really felt. "What did she say to me earlier..?"
ANNIE POV
Changbin lead me to the front door of my house. "When do you have to go to work?" He asked me. I quickly looked at my phone.
"I have to leave in twenty minutes," I said right before opening the door. "Ah.."
I could tell Changbin wanted to say something. "I guess we could quickly play a game before I go, though, so why not come in?" I offered. I saw his face light up with a quick nod. I lead Changbin in and noticed Jisung wasn't home. "I wonder where he is.." I muttered.
Changbin gulped. "Maybe he just went out quickly?"
"Yeah, he just usually doesn't go anywhere," I said as I walked into my room. "You can wait here when I get ready in the bathroom, I will be back quickly." I left him to quickly head into the bathroom. I felt a weird feeling. "Why is it so weird being around him so suddenly? For some reason, I have an odd feeling.." I muttered to myself as I looked in the mirror. I quickly got ready to leave for work, and slowly opened the door. I saw Changbin just looking around at the walls of my room.
"So you really like anime and stuff, huh?"
"Yeah." I shrugged.
"Ah, your drawings are really good." He complimented. "Thanks." I sighed and walked over to the t.v to turn on the game.
"Is something bothering you?" Changbin slowly sat on the bed.
"No, it's okay. I just never really had you over before." I looked back at him quickly, to see him making a nervous smile. It looked like something was bothering him. "Let's play a quick game before I go." I handed him another controller. We started to play Mortal Wombat three fighting games against each other. We both smashed on the controllers. "I didn't know you were into these types of games."
"Ah, you know me. Why do you think I joined the game club?" I made a small laugh.
"Ah, too bad we haven't gathered there in a while." He grunted as I was beating him up. "For not having not played in a while I am pretty good." I boasted as I beat him. We both put down the controllers. "Aye..thanks for playing with me." Changbin shrugged back with a loud sigh. "Yeah." I made a quick nod as I grabbed my bag. "I should get going now," I mentioned to him. He followed me out. "I can go on my own now." I made a quick wave as I walked onto the bus outside. Changbin smiled as he watched the bus pull away. Changbin went to walk down the street and saw someone standing right in front of him.
He met eyes with Hyunjin, who had a strong glare in his eye. Changbin's smile quickly went away as that fire was stirred up in his heart. Hyunjin took big, stern steps towards him. He was taller than him, Hyunjin quickly grabbed a hold of Changbin's collar. Changbin had never seen Hyunjin that angry, that upset, that scared look on his face before.
He quickly pushed him back. "Why did you lie to me, to get close to her?" He gulped.
"Yeah, I admit, I feel guilty, but what else can I do to get close to her when you keep following after her?" Changbin glared back. Hyunjin shrugged back while clicking his tongue.
"I am just warning you, you can't force her to do anything. To feel anything. I have learned that myself. She is that kind of person. Once she has made up her mind, she is not changing it." Hyunjin turned around to walk away. By his words, Changbin started to think. "He's right, but that doesn't mean I can give up on her, right?"
I arrived at work and hopped off the bus. I had my bag in my hands. I carried through the building and up the elevator. "I am excited about the new game design we are planning." I felt excitement build up inside me. "To be able to work on a game like the ones I love to play.." I thought to myself, with my excited heart beating. I hurried over to the office and noticed Seungmin drawing and typing on his computer. "I have a question." I slowly sat at my desk. "What is it?"
"Well...Hyunjin told me everything.. and well, I wanted to ask if that was why you didn't want me being friends with him?" I looked over at him. I saw his eyes widen. "He..told you?" Seungmin looked nervous. "I mean..I left it out of the story..so I thought he was going to keep it from you. I guess not." I heard a sigh in his voice. "I don't want to put him in danger but the thing is.."I started to mutter but the manager came in so I decided to be quiet and get back to work.
"I know Seungmin wants the best but..why can't Hyunjin make his own decisions?" I started to draw and come up with illustrations. "We have a meeting today to start our designs for the topic, submit your designs in and the leader will decide the final ones that will be made and promoted." The manager said to us. I tried to stay focus on what I was doing. I wanted one of my designs to be chosen, but I couldn't help but worried about Hyunjin and his intentions. "Am I putting him in danger just by simply liking him?"
I shrugged back after hours of work. I noticed the sky was dark outside. "It went by so fast I didn't even realize I was drawing for that long." I yawned and I saw Seungmin stand upright beside me. "I get off, but I have extra of these if you're hungry." He quickly threw me a bag of snacks. "Thanks, I will leave soon." I made a bow as I saw a lot of the workers leave, the building was almost empty. "I am just going to finish this last layer." I went back to finish the drawing. I couldn't keep my excitement down. I felt the time quickly going by. I heard someone peak in the door. "Your shift has been up for a while, I am closing up." I heard them say. I quickly snapped out of my zone and quickly turned off my tablet and grabbed my bag. "I will go out." I made a quick bow. The whole room and the hallway was dark. There were barely any lights on. I felt a creepy, unsettling feeling deep within me. I went down the elevator alone and walked out on the street, where there were barely any people passing by. "Geez, how fast did time pass?" I looked at my phone and saw I had a text from Hyunjin.
"Did you get home safe?"
"Ah, he texted me and I never replied," I whined to myself. I started to reply but then I started to get the unsettling feeling once again. I looked up around me. I started to hear weird breathing and clicking noises so I slowly started to walk down the street.
I turned off my phone so I could focus on quickly pacing forward. Shoving my hands in pockets. I suddenly heard footsteps behind me, I quickly looked back to see someone following me. But, I didn't want to make it obvious that I knew about it. So, I quickly followed ahead. I heard my phone start buzzing so I immediately picked it up because I felt the fear rushing inside of me. "H-Hello?" I felt my voice start to tremble.
"Where are you?" I heard Hyunjin's voice.
"You got off a while ago, didn't you? Did you see my text? I am right by your house..and Jisung said you weren't home."
I took deep breaths as the person behind me started to get closer and closer to me. "There is a person following me," I whispered into the phone and I noticed the person's pace getting faster, so I had to move faster. I started to run but they quickly grabbed me from behind. I felt my heart start jerking, and deep pain in my chest. They held tightly onto me, it felt like they were suffocating me. "STOP!" I yelled while kicking my feet but I was too week for him to let me go. I couldn't see his face clearly. I kicked harder and harder and he was trying to drag me to his car. But I kicked back hard enough for him to release a little bit of pressure. My instinct was to cry of fear, but I quickly swung my elbow back and I felt that I hit him. He dropped me onto the ground, onto the rough pavement. I felt my knees and hands scrape. I quickly looked up at him, holding tightly onto his eye. "Aish, why can't you just stay still, you fool." I heard the person growl. They were wearing all black. They quickly blinked to get the focus back, but he was still struggling. I tried to pull myself away but he reached to grab me again. "Stay away! you creep!" I pushed my hands forward and closed my eyes tightly, I didn't know what to do. I wanted to fight back, but my knees felt too weak. My heart was too scared to act at the moment. I felt someone grab onto my hands and I tried to shake them. I quickly opened my eyes to see him glaring at me, I was scared. He was close to me. But, I saw someone from afar running towards me. I noticed the long blonde, I felt myself start to tear up.
Hyunjin was running at full speed, seeing where I was at. He quickly pulled the guy's shoulder back to come face to face with him. The stare Hyunjin had on his face, I have never seen him that way before. He quickly grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up. "What do you think you're doing?" The raspiness came out in his voice. He quickly looked down at me and noticed the look I had on my face, and how my knees are banged up. "Go off." He threw the guy to the ground and almost kicked him. "Ah, what do you think? I am not weak." The person immediately got up and shrugged his arms back. "Go before I hurt you. I don't want to show that side in front of her." Hyunjin's took a big breath. But, the guy swung his arm at him, knocking him in the face. I gasped, but Hyunjin quickly turned his head back and threw a punch right back at him. "I don't like fighting." He clicked his tongue and quickly ran up to me."Are you okay?" I saw his beating eyes, looking all around. "It's fine, I just got scrapped." I tried to stand up but my knees were weak. I started to tremble.
"Let me carry you." Hyunjin picked me up. I suddenly felt my heart start to rush as his face was close to mine. But, I saw the person behind him try to swing again. But, someone else pushed him out of the way before that could happen. "No wonder why I couldn't shake the worry feeling." I saw Changbin come out of nowhere. "Where did you come from?" The guy yelled. "Buzz off." Changbin made a stare. The guy shrugged off and ran off. Hyunjin turned around, with me in his arms.
Changbin saw something else and had a quiver in his eyes. "You're welcome." He said out of breath while placing his hands on his waist.
"Are-" I tried to say.
"What?" They both said while looking at me. "Aren't you going to call the police on that guy for sexual harassment?" I opened up my eyes slightly as I felt my knees tingle.
"Oh." Changbin's eyes widened. He quickly ran after the guy to twist his arms behind his back and lock his hands in them. "AHH." The guy tried to fight back, but Changbin didn't hold back. He started to make the phone call.
"Let's get you somewhere to heal you up," Hyunjin muttered with a blank look on his face. I looked up to him, with my head leaning on his shoulder. I was never that close to him before. I felt my heart beating through my chest. He started carrying me over to the bench near the bus stop.
"Try not to look at me." He muttered.
"w-why?" I stuttered. He looked straight into my eyes, out nosed about to touch. "Because I can feel it too." He looked away, then placed me down on the bench. I felt my knees tingle. He looked at my knees and saw that they were bleeding.
"It's okay, it's not that bad." I laughed nervously, but for some reason, it hurt more than I had anticipated. He kneeled down, taking off his scarf and coat.
"What are you doing?"
"I have to stop the bleeding until I can get you home." The softness of his voice, and the calmness of his face. I didn't want him to help me, but I didn't stop him. He slowly wrapped his scarf around my knee.
"Hey..You're going to stain it-" I tried to stop him but he did it anyway.
"It's okay, I have many scarves." He wrapped the other knee and swung his coat over my shoulders. "Let's go." A bus pulled up, and he helped me on the bus and sat right next to me. I then saw Changbin run in the last minute and sat in front of us, swinging his head back. "Are you okay?" He said out of breath and noticed that my knees were wrapped up.
"Yeah, sorry I stayed too late at work..I lost track of time." I looked down and played with my fingers.
"It's okay, don't blame yourself for that." Changbin made a quick smile. I smiled back.
"Yeah, I never thought something like that would happen to me and I thought it was only it movies so I didn't expect it when I should've been more careful." I felt slightly guilty.
"Don't it's not your fault, it was the guys' fault." Hyunjin lightly took my hand. I then felt a big bang on my chest. Changbin glared over, noticing the look on both our faces. I quickly flustered and shoved my head down. "Thanks.. I will be sure to not walk alone next time." I muttered shyly. The bus took us all to my street. "Let's go in." They both carried me out of the bus and to the front of my house.
"No wait, don't take me to my house," I repeated quickly.
"Why is that?" Changbin coughed.
"Well, if my brother finds out I was in he wouldn't let me go back to work..." I muttered.
They pulled me around. "Let's go to my house then and get you patched up." Hyunjin shrugged. "I will be okay, I am not that bad I promise." As I said that I felt my knee almost give out. "It's fine." they lifted me back up.
"It's worse because of the state you're in..I just make minor injuries worse." I felt a sigh in Hyunjin's voice. "What do you mean?" Changbin looked over as they carried me into his house. He slowly put me on his couch.
"I will go get the bandages." Hyunjin jumped up and paced to the bathroom.
"You are okay, though right? I bet it was scary for you so I want to check up on you." Changbin leaned down.
"Yeah." I made a light smile at him. "Thank you for being here for me, and for helping me."
"Yeah, It's no problem." Changbin had a softness to his voice, then he made a light cough. Hyunjin came back into the room with bandages and kneeled down at my knees. "You should get her some water." Hyunjin glared over at Changbin.
"Right." He nodded while walking into the other room.
"I can do it, it's fine. I don't want to be weak." I tried to take the bandages.
"It's okay, you're not weak. I can do it for you though. You need to rest." Hyunjin was so focused. He slowly unwrapped my knees and got out the medicine and bandages.
"You didn't fall that hard did you?"
"No." I felt the stinging in my hand, but I kept it closed.
"Just try to be careful, since this ability makes an injury worse. I apologize for that."
"You don't have to apologize," I said sternly at him. "It was my fault for not being careful."
As he placed the medicine on my cuts, I felt it sting. I closed my eyes in reaction.
"It's okay." He slowly blew on the cuts and wrapped them.
"I will bear anything for you," I slowly let out. He quickly looked up at me. I Heard Changbin starting to walk in.
"I, No matter what the pain is I have to bear. I want to bear it for you, with you." I muttered, then I realized what I said, and quickly looked down. I took a deep breath.
Changbin quickly came in and gave me the glass. I noticed his hands were shaking and he had a tense face. "Thank you," I muttered.
That moment Changbin had realized something deeper, that moment I had realized there was more I could know about Hyunjin, even about myself.
There was more that could happen that I could realize. My days were getting shorter, but, I knew by looking at Hyunjin's face that I was willing to bear anything for him.