save me | jungkook

04,

     Tired and dull.

     Areum had stayed up for hours at night, crying and sobbing silently in her bed. Luckily, no one overheard her and the night went by without any interruptions. Her heart felt such excruciating pain as she remembered her mother's sayings, word by word.

It played in her mind nonstop.

The words were like a playlist. Song after song, word after word. She felt her heart constricting after each and every breath, wishing she would stop crying. But she couldn't. Her hands shook and she gripped onto her blanket, to steady the shakiness. She took deep breaths and repeated the words, "calm down."

     Her body still heaved up and down, but it had lessened after a couple of minutes.

     She looked at the clock in her room and saw the time. 2:21 AM. Areum gaped at the time and immediately started preparing to go to sleep. She closed the nightlight she had on and laid under her blanket. Areum sighed in thought as she shifted her body to the right. She closed her eyes, slowly growing tired.

Maybe the next few days will be better, she thought.

     And within a few minutes, she drifted to sleep peacefully.

-

     Areum sighed, shoving her unnecessary books into her locker quickly and picked out the stuff she needed. After gathering them, she slammed her locker door shut. But of course, there was Jungkook leaning against the lockers, a couple feet away, while looking at her with a continuous bright smile. It was as if nothing from yesterday had happened at all.

"Hey, Areum," he stood up straight. She was quick to ignore him and started jogging to her class. He headed towards her with a fast pace, easily catching up with her.

"Hello?" Jungkook called out.

Areum ignored him and continued walking. He sighed and decided to do things his way. He stepped in front of her with a long stride and in less than a second, she bumps into him. Her forehead brushes against his lips for a slight second and that made Jungkook turn pink. He cleared his voice by coughing and asked, "why are you trying to avoid me?"

Areum's eyes widened. "I-I'm not," she stuttered anxiously. She walked around him and headed down the hallway.

     "Areum?" He called out. "Yeah?" She answered, turning around. "Class is this way," Jungkook chuckled at her small mistake. "R-right," she murmured to herself as her cheeks turned bright red from embarrassment. She turned around and shuffled across the hallway quickly, walking into her classroom quietly without disturbing others.

But her attempts on doing just that didn't work.

The girls in the classroom had seen Jungkook coming in right after Areum had. This had raised their suspicions, causing them to mumble to each other about the situation. Most of her female classmates stared at her occasionally with envy and hate. Areum sat down in her seat with a rush and took out her books, opening them to the right page according to what was instructed on the blackboard. One of the female classmates got up from their seats and headed towards Areum.

     She lowered herself to eye level with Areum and leaned in closer, her lips close to Areum's ear.

     "She won't like to hear about this," her venomous voice traced through her words and it caused shivers to go down through Areum's whole body. The girl cackled lightly before standing back up and sitting down in her seat. Areum's hands were shaking, half in fear and half in anger. A tear dropped onto the table and she wiped it away.