THE TRANSFER STUDENT

Her Special Request

"Me?" Seokjin jumped to his feet, almost as startled as Byulyi was.

Jisoo nodded. "Come on, let's go."

Seokjin turned around, shooting Byulyi a confused look, before looking back at Jisoo. "Like... right now?"

"When else?"

"Um, because I'm actually kind of bu-"

"Come, let's go." Jisoo hesitated. "Byulyi, what about you come along too?"

Byulyi raised her eyebrows, but stood up anyway. "What's her deal?" Byulyi whispered to Seokjin.

Seokjin shrugged, and laughed it off. "I guess she wasn't actually that close to any of the geeks so, let's just help her out this time. She was a great group leader afterall, wasn't she?"

Byulyi hesitated, then nodded.

~

It had all happened so quickly no one even had the time to react.

Byulyi, Seokjin and Jisoo were on the way back from helping Ms Ahn carry the projects to her staff room, about to climb down the stairs, when Jisoo let out an "ah!" She had lost her footing, startling Byulyi and Seokjin.

However, Seokjin acted fast. Before Jisoo fell forward, Seokjin grabbed onto Jisoo by the arm and yanked her backwards, and the both of them tumbled onto the floor, Jisoo on top of Seokjin.

"Ouch..." The two of them mumbled.

"Are you alright?" Seokjin asked, helping Jisoo to get up from the floor.

Jisoo frowned, but nodded. "I'm alright."

But Seokjin examined her arms carefully, and spotted a small gash on her shin. "You're totally not alright! Look- you're bleeding!"

Jisoo looked down and gasped. He was right. "How about you? Did you get hurt?" Jisoo pulled Seokjin's arm closer and examined it, finding an even larder gash on his arm - afterall, he was the one who had fallen directly on the ground, not her. "Ya! You're bleeding even worse!"

Seokjin looked down at his wound and let out a small chuckle. "Just a small gash, it's nothing for a guy like me."

But Jisoo frowned, feeling bad for having brought this upon Seokjin. "You got injured while trying to save me afterall..."

"No... don't say that." Seokjin smiled, patting Jisoo's head as Byulyi watched on stiffly. "It was my choice and I'm just glad we're both safe, haha."

"Thank you, Seokjin." Jisoo frowned. "Let's get us to the nurse's office now."

Byulyi who had been standing watch all this time, feeling like an awkward third wheel, finally spoke as the two of them rose to their feet. "You guys need my help?"

"It's fine, Byulyi." Seokjin said with a smile. "You go back to class first. We'll come back shortly."

Byulyi nodded and watched on as the two of them walked away, supporting each other.

Why did she feel so uncomfortable watching the two of them?

It wasn't as if her and Seokjin were dating or anything, but she had spent so much time with him that it was practically as if they were dating. At least, to her. She had long developed a crush on... her best friend.

But it wasn't because of his looks. Seokjin already had many admirers since the day Byulyi got to know him simply because he was drop-dead gorgeous, but that wasn't what made him attractive to her. In the first place, Byulyi, who had hated attention all her life, was determined not to hang out with Seokjin because of how good-looking he was.