Colder Than Winter [BTS | Drama | Romance]

6. Shadows

The bus slowed to the stop. A loud hiss escaped the vehicle before the doors folded open. Hoseok and I stepped off saying our thanks to the bus driver. The two of us set off toward my family's apartment which was two blocks away. We turned into one of the streets and began passing building after building. We were in the middle of a game of this or that.

"Your turn." He said.

"Hmm. Okay..." I thought for a few seconds. "Fight a python as you are or fight a cockroach as yourself but the size of an ant."

"An ant?" Hoseok seemed to be weighing the two options in his head. "Do I get to be as strong as an ant too?"

I shook my head, "I said as yourself."

"You never how the physics would work if we shrunk though. Maybe we would be as strong as ants." He debated. I gave a look of impatience. Hoseok laughed, "okay, okay. Mmm...I'd take on cockroach."

"But you'd be so much more smaller than it."

"Wait but you didn't say what kind of ant I'd be the size of. Which allows me to choose which species. And I choose whatever species are this big," he held his thumb and index fingers 4cm away from each other. I laughed. Of course he'd come up with that. "Besides, cockroaches aren't venomous."

"Pythons aren't venomous either." I giggled at the fact he didn't know. "I don't think people would have them as pets if they were."

Hoseok thought to himself for a second before nodding in understanding. He then flinched when a boy with a similar school uniform turn the corner in front of us. His eyes whipped toward the person before he relaxed again. I was reminded of the reason he must've escorted me home. After what happened today with Taehyung, he probably thought Namjoon had it out for me. It was sweet that he wanted to make sure I wasn't alone. Even though he wasn't the bravest person out there.

"Are you okay?" I asked concerned.

"Mm? Oh, I'm fine. They just surprised me." Hoseok continued scanning the way before us and behind.

"It's fine!" I assured. "I doubt I'm that important enough for those jerks to follow home."

It's true. I didn't believe they'd go through the trouble. But I was starting to entertain the possibility that today's incident wouldn't be the last. Yoongi's warning made more sense after what happened in the bathroom. Maybe it would be wise to be more wary of possible dangers at school. I sighed, hoping this thing with those bullies won't last long. I was eager for them to forget me.

What bothered me was why Yoongi would bother warning me in the first place. What did he care? He continued to make no sense. Barely offered a word to anyone for as long as I could remember. Hung around with the darkest souls on campus. Made fools of countless students including me. Then he suddenly has a mind to warn me about his friends?

I recalled Taehyung and his effort to seem friendly and convincing. Then it made sense. They were both part of the plan. But they failed because both were interrupted by someone. With Yoongi it was Hoseok. With Taehyung it was that teacher. I almost jumped and patted myself on the back for figuring it out. It all made sense! The good news about this pattern was that maybe after they've all said and done their piece, I could finally be free of them. The bad news was, there were two more encounters I knew were coming. I needed to be prepared.