Toward the Walk of Shame

4 {Suzy}

One day at a time. Until it all blew over and things got back to normal again. I repeated the same thought over and over in my head until I almost started to believe it.

When the last bell rang for the day, I jumped out of my seat with joy. Now all I had to do was go home and crawl into my bed, and this nightmare day would be over.

Just as I left my AP Language class, some girls jostled my shoulder, making my fall back into the doorway. My books and binder smacked to the ground and flew open. Various articles for the next week's newspaper edition sprinkled the floor. I cursed under my breath and knelt to pick them up, wincing as my shoulder throbbed. I turned to stare at her, but she had already faded into the hallway crowd.

"Seriously?" I muttered, stretching to reach my scattered books. My fingers had just closed around my binder when Taecyeon Ok, the unspoken leader of the pack of jerks from lunch, smacked my butt. 

I jumped to my feet, but he just smirked and gave his buddies a high five. I narrowed my eyes at him.

The reason people had never gossiped about me before was because I never gave them the reason to. I never did anything wrong. Unlike Soyeon, who never cared what people said or thought of her. Secretly, I envied that. I couldn't be like that. I preened with pride when people complimented me, and my stomach turned when I got a dirty look. Appa said what people thought of my affected the outcome. Granted, he was talking about court cases and the jury, but it's all basically the same. No matter what people said, appearances did matter.

But I was sick of it. Sehun was wrong. Things didn't get better. My name was even on the bathroom stall's doors with White-out, paired with the words WHORE + SLUT. I had waited until the bathroom was empty before attacking the door and breaking three nails in the process. And I was sick of everything. But most of all, I was sick of doing nothing. Screw appearances.

"Hey, idiot!" Without thinking, I snatched my binder off the ground and threw it at Taecyeon. It hit his shoulder with a loud, satisfying smack. Score! I fist-pumped the air in celebration just as he turned around with a scowl.

Shit. Maybe I should have thought this through. I backed up a step when he walked toward me, and - whoosh! - suddenly Soyeon flew like my knight in a crop pink top and high-waisted jeans and shoved him aside with her shoulder. He stumbled backward against the lockers.

She groaned and rubbed her right shoulder. "Ow, that hurt!"

I grabbed her. "Soyeon-ah! Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She turned to Taecyeon. "But I swear you'll get a lot more  than that if you bother either of us again." She waved her hand for him to come forward. "Try me."

His nostrils flared, and he lurched toward us.

With a yelp, I grabbed Soyeon's shoulders to pull her back and out of his way when a tall back blocked my view of Taecyeon. A very familiar back came out of nowhere.

When did Minho get her? I looked up at him and poked the center of his back to make sure I wasn't imagining things. He turned to look at me, and his frown deepened. His hand lightly touched my arm. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "I'm fine."

Soyeon cleared her throat. "I'm fine, too. Thanks for asking."

"I know you are. Nothing could bother you." Minho gave her a quick smile and turned away. "You know, Ok, picking on two girls kind of makes you look like a wimp."

Cursing under his breath, Taecyeon took another step toward us just as Mr. Kim stepped out of his classroom. "What's going on here?"

The hall had been crowded during our fight, but everyone faded backward and practically evaporated as soon as a teacher showed up. Our group remained quiet. Even if we didn't say anything, the evidence was pretty obvious. My books were still scattered on the floor. My binder was even at Sehun's feet, and Soyeon was still rubbing her shoulder.