𝐡𝐞'𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐲 | 𝐤𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐨

43

Attention.

When he first laid his eyes on her, he immediately knew one thing. She was trouble. Judging from the way she shyly walked inside the classroom, he knew that she was completely unaware of the attention given to her by her classmates who were either swayed by her beauty or envious of her beauty. Either way, she was simply oblivious of the eyes watching her every move. Of course, she was unaware. She had her head hung low, hoping that no one notices her. Unluckily, her attempt of going unnoticed went in vain. Lee Mirae caught everyone's attention. She caught Kanemoto Yoshinori's attention.

From that moment, Yoshinori has set his eyes on the girl. He would look at her in class, not in the open though. He would sneak a few glances at the girl, taking in how she would chuckle brightly at whatever the girl she called her friend had whispered to her. Mina. Yoshinori has always thought of the girl as someone whom he wouldn't want to be associated with. She seemed so suspicious to him. She just gave off an unsettling aura that made Yoshinori unconsciously dislike her. From the way he would catch her looking at him then get flustered when he caught her gaze. From the random boxes of milk that he would secretly leave on his desk, not knowing that the same boy who sits on the chair knew. From the way she would spark up some conversations with him which by the way didn't in any way pique his interest. He had arrived at the conclusion that he hated her. Hell, he even wanted to kill her.

But he wouldn't do that. He wouldn't do that because she's Mirae's friend. He didn't want to blow off Mina's head because losing a friend would make her sad. All the more because Mina was her lone friend.

Confusion.

He didn't understand why she didn't have a few more friends. She's exactly the type of person whom people would want to befriend. Watching how she would interact with Mina, Yoshinori figured that she was the type of person who would intently listen to someone's stories even if it would go on for days. She was the type of person who would randomly bring out the corniest joke just to put a smile on someone's face. She's the type of person who cares. So why is Lee Mirae stuck with Mina when she could have a lot more people in her bubble? Yoshinori couldn't think of any reasons why.

Not until he overheard her and Mina talking on one of the empty rooms while he was on his way to the room only accessible to them. He found out the exact reason why. Mirae is a person who couldn't put her trust on someone. Well, at least not immediately. He realized that the reason why she's only keeping other people within arm-length is because she's afraid. Afraid that she would trust someone so fast only to be betrayed after. He realized that between Mirae, Mina included, a wall so high and mighty has been built and the only way to walk past that wall is to break it.

Break.

That was what seemingly happened that faithful night. Kanemoto Yoshinori has broken the wall Lee Mirae has put up. It may have been the worst way to break her walls but still, he ended up destroying them. Honestly, the boy never wanted Mirae to see him as someone who kills. He would've wanted Mirae to just know him as the snobbish and cold boy that wouldn't bat an eye to anyone except his friends. But this is what fate led them to. The horror in Mirae's eyes when she saw Yoshinori with a gun on his hand and a dead man lying on his own pool of blood brought a tight feeling to Yoshinori's chest. But he masked it. He masked it so well that Mirae feared him as well. He saw through her. He saw how her eyes judged him. He saw how she gulped and took a slight step back. And he would be lying if he said that it didn't hurt him. It hurt him in ways that a person could only imagine. And he wasn't someone who gets his feelings hurt. He wasn't supposed to get hurt, at least not emotionally. But there he was, concealing the burning feeling on his chest. He knew that everything changed after this faithful encounter. He wouldn't have been surprised if she ran for life. But she surprised him when she agreed to Doyoung's offer of driving her home. That's when he realized something. Lee Mirae somehow trusted him. And it was all that mattered to him. He vowed that night that he would do everything to protect her in his own little ways. He didn't exactly know the reason why he wanted to protect her though. He just wanted to.