Revertigo | jjk

Prologue

Shaky hands. Unsteady breathing. May felt like the walls were closing in. The stupid school toilet stall was shrinking, she could feel it. She felt suffocated as the oxygen in her lungs became less and less.

She could hear the laughter from outside of the restroom; obnoxious and condescending. She wished she could disappear in that moment or just make it the world pause, just for a minute. Praying, begging for anyone or anything to come help her and get her out of this place.

Her ragged breathing became more loud as the pounding in her chest became stronger. 'I'll be fine. I'll be fine. They'll go away. Someone is coming to help me. God please help me.' She silently prayed as she felt herself getting lightheaded.

As hopeless as she felt, she managed to calm herself down and steadied her breathing. Although her body felt weak, she pulled herself up to get out of the hell of a middle school. That was her plan. Just for a minute, she was gonna pretend to be stronger. Just for a minute, she was gonna act like she was not ashamed of what went down. Just for a minute, she was gonna be brave.

Without sparring a single more second, she walked out of the restroom only to find a much more empty hallway that she had expected. The crowd that had gathered earlier were no longer there. She scanned around the almost vacant hallway for her bagpack and rushed to it.

"May."

Immediately her eyes went to the owner of the voice. She knew all too well who it was in a heartbeat even without looking. A pair of almond eyes stared at her with an unreadable expression; it was the boy who she adored oh so much. Too much that it was unfornate for her because all the other girls happened to have a crush on him too. When their eyes meet, she felt the panic that she had managed to push down start to build again so she grabbed bagpack and ran out of there.

"Jeon Jungkook." She mindlessly whispered as she hurried out of there.

When May felt that she was far enough from the school, she stopped running and tried to catch her breath. 'I made it.' She cheered as she started to walk more calmly towards her house. It took another ten minutes to reach her destination so naturally, thoughts of the earlier event came flooding back. 'It's not that big of a deal, right? It doesn't really matter, right? It'll die down tomorrow, right? Yeah, everyone's gonna forget about it. After all, it is the last day of school.'

She can't find the right word for it. Maybe it was innocence, maybe it was naivety or just pure stupidity. 13-year-old May had no idea what was waiting for her in high school. It was a small town after all, where your mistakes can haunt you for life.