requested: yes
scenario: rose is a nerd at school and gets picked on by classmates, Sehun a cold guy who helps her!
pairing: sehun x rosé
genre: touching, sad, sympathy and romance
au: classmates and gf&bf
word count: 4,087 words
status: unedited
a/n: quite a lot of swearing and i hope you enjoy it!
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i have a nickname in school. actually, i have many. i have nerd, dumbass, blind, ugly, glasses girl and so much more. that's just the tip of the iceberg.
everyone bullies me. when i say everyone, you best believe i mean everyone. my whole class and grade hates me even though i've done nothing but be nice to them. i've answered their questions, done their homework, literally single-handedly did all the pair and group projects. what more can i give them?
though, there is a group of boys who don't seem to hate me. those boys are called exo.
exo consisted of 12 members but 3 left due to personal reasons, and moved back to china. one is currently in china but refuses to leave the group, as he loves them like a family. the rest are all korean.
the remaining 8 consists of kim minseok, kim junmyeon, byun baekhyun, kim jongdae, park chanyeol, do kyungsoo, kim jongin and oh sehun. they're the hotshots and every single girl is in love with them. minseok, junmyeon, baekhyun, jongdae and chanyeol are in university, which leaves kyungsoo, jongin and sehun in school. they often come over to see the three boys before going to their own classes. i could never get a glimpse of their faces due to the fact that i'm always being bullied and would rather not show my bruised face. but then again, it's not like they'd care anyways.
they always come too late to see the bullies in action.
going to school everyday was torture. i hated it. those girls (and guys) love to kick, punch, tease, insult and slap me. the worst things they've ever done is physically assaulting me in front of a teacher, in front of the entire class. they kicked, teased and slapped me and the teacher did nothing about it. she just continued teaching. like what the fuck?
i fucking hate this school. it's a complete shit show. they can't even handle a bullying case, even if it's right in front of their faces. honestly, if i ever bullied anyone, i'd get expelled.
i have no friends whatsoever here. all my friends moved away. jisoo is in university in shanghai, china. jennie moved to auckland, new zealand for studies. lisa moved back to bangkok, thailand due to family reasons. so that leaves me in seoul, alone. i've always been a bully target since the start, but having friends like jisoo, jennie and lisa made them leave me alone. unfortunately for me, once they left, all the bullies came back.
the only class i really enjoy is music. i am academically talented but i enjoy music. i play the guitar and piano and i love to sing, but i never dared to due to obvious reasons. with their excessive bullying, i've gained social anxiety. it's part of the reason why i don't have any friends.
well, it's a new year. new classes, new teachers, new bullying methods. at least i have music class on my timetable. that's the only class that appeals to me. i don't know who will be in there, but i don't want to know. i'd rather be alone.
music was first period on a monday, a day which i dreaded. i've managed to escape those bullies for the time being, and now i'm hiding at the very back of the class with my school uniform and an oversized black sweater. our teacher is one of the two music teachers, and both know me. i was honestly excited, but seeing the people fill in made my mood dull. unexpectedly, an extremely attractive guy sat next to me.
he was tall, around 6ft and had long limbs. he wore glasses and had combed back hair, and smelled of rosewood. he wore his uniform neatly, shirt tucked in. his notebook, pencil case and water bottle lay on the table neatly as he scrolled through his phone. i couldn't help but admire his face, his pretty lips and fierce eyebrows. his eyes were coloured a glamorous shade of hazel, accentuating his already perfect features.
deciding that i've ogled at him at him long enough, i turned away and looked in front. my notebook lay in front of me, and so did my pens and phone. i impatiently tapped my right cheek, waiting for class to start. people were still filling in, sitting in one of the many vacant seats. some looked at my direction and grinned evilly, making me gulp in fear. fucking kill me already.
fortunately, the bell rang and class had officially started. ms nam greeted us and asked us to get to know the person next to us, as they'll be our partners for the entire year. i didn't think that he'd actually turn to me, seeing as the girl next to him was way prettier than me.
"hello," he monotonously said. "i'm oh sehun."
no wonder he looked so perfect.
"hi," i shyly replied. "i'm park chaeyoung."
"i hope it'll be a good year," a small smile emerged from his face. "do you have any musical talents? i like to rap."
"i play the piano and guitar, and i like to sing." i softly smiled.
"i want to see you play some time," he cheekily grinned.
"i'm too shy to," i covered my face with my hands. "i'm socially anxious and i have no self-esteem at all."
"seriously?" his face morphed into a confused look.
"yes, seriously." i embarrassingly nodded. he furrowed his eyebrows and quietly nodded, mumbling to himself something. at that moment, ms nam called for our attention.
"okay class, you have an assignment." i heard everyone groan in distaste, but sehun didn't make a sound. "work with your partner to compose your own song. you have 3 months for this, and you may start now."
"i can do all the work if you want me to," i instantly said, eyes on the table. i didn't dare look at him.
"why would i do that?" i meekly looked up to meet his eyes. "we both have to work on this together."
feeling a small smile reach my lips, i nodded eagerly.
"we can go get a room right now," i offered. "i can ask ms nam."
he nodded and got his stuff and i walked towards ms nam.
"ms, may sehun and i use one of the empty music rooms for the project?" i asked quietly.
"sure," she fondly smiled at me. i whispered a thank you and walked past everyone to my seat at the back, nodding at sehun to signify that she said yes. we moved to he first room we saw, and i sat on the piano bench as he sat on a stool.
"can you play anything for me?" he suddenly asked. "on the piano, i mean."
i slowly nodded and turned around, setting my fingers on the piano. you're gonna have to face your fears eventually, i thought. i started playing flight of the bumblebee, my fingers flying across the keys. once i finished, i turned around.
"was that okay?"
"perfect," he crack a small smile.
"i think we can start on something now," i shyly mumbled.
"okay," he nodded, opening his notebook and taking a black pen out of his pencil case, he labelled the top 'music assignment 1'. "what were you thinking of doing?"
"i was thinking of doing an upbeat song, but not too upbeat. like enough to get you feeling hype, but not to the point it gets annoying."
"i agree," he jotted down the notes in neat lines, his words written clearly. we continued talking like that until the bell rang, signifying that class was over. we packed up an took our things, leaving the room. i could feel the glares of all the girls burning into me, making me look down at the floor and let my hair cover my face.
"see you on thursday, chaeyoung." the sound of sehun's voice made me look up to see him waving at me, an angelic smile on his face. whispering a small, short 'bye', i waved back.
those girls waited for me in the corridor, ready to harass me to no end. did i have a choice? no.
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i'm ugly. i know. they don't need to keep rubbing it in my face. i'll never be as pretty, skinny, athletic, popular and perfect as them. my life is far from that. and i know.
but i never wanted to be like them. it's not like i could anyway. no one cares about me. all my friends have left. my family is falling apart by the seams and i don't know what to do anymore. my sister isn't coming home, my mom is crying every night, my dad is constantly ignoring everyone, and i don't know what to do. i'm so useless.
maybe they're right. maybe i am worthless.
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for some reason, chaeyoung has been on my mind lately. she seems to be scared of a lot of things. i've always heard of an extremely terrible bullying case involving a girl, but i never thought much about it. no one in our group did, actually. we thought that those were only rumours.
that is, until it was presented in front of me on a silver platter. is chaeyoung the girl that's been bullied this whole time? maybe i'll come earlier to school to see if anything happens. the rest of them will probably only come at their normal times, but now this bullying case is intriguing to me.
setting my alarm clock for 6am, i lay on my bed for sleep to engulf me.
now that i think about it, chaeyoung is exceptionally pretty.
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i'm not used to waking up this early. usually, i wake up at 6:45. but since i want to see what happens in the early mornings of the school, i have to wake up early. all for the sake of curiosity.
i went down the stairs already clad in my uniform, eating a toast and drinking coffee. after that, i set out for school. by the time i left, it was already 6:20. the earliest people come by 6:20-6:30, so i'll be one of the earliest. hopefully i'm there before those girls.
lucky for me, i arrived before anything could happen. some people made their way into the dark school, turning on the lights. it seems like the people who come early are mostly those who like studying. though, i don't see chaeyoung. maybe i'm too early, but at least i'll be there when it happens.
my locker wasn't very far off from the girls bathroom, so i could probably hear if anything were to happen. taking out my books, i listened closely for anything. nothing sparked by curiosity, so i left to go place my things in my first class of the day which was math. as soon as i stepped out of the classroom though, i heard a few girls shuffling and insults being thrown.
practically sprinting towards the noise, i found them in the corridor. at least 5 girls were beating up another girl. those that are beating her up laughed at her pain and misery, while the one on the ground could only accept their punches and insults thrown at her. my heart broke at the way she was being treated, so helpless. a crowd of some students formed, many watching but none doing anything. though, that girl on the ground seems familiar.
brown hair is waves, a petite body, round glasses... is that chaeyoung?
i pushed myself to the front to get a better view.
it is her!
"yah, what the fuck is going on?" i glared at the girls as their punches halted. "so the rumours really are true."
"o-oppa," the first girl stuttered.
"don't call me that." i said coldly, bending down to pick chaeyoung up.
"why're you helping that good-for-nothing girl?" a second girl asked.
"am i not allowed to?" i put her in my arms bridal style, making sure her skirt didn't peek up. "why are you bullying her?"
"we, uh..." no one could answer.
"so there is no reason for you to bully her. then why are you doing it? what has she ever done to you to make you all hate her so much? as far as i'm aware, she's a sweet, innocent girl who's self-esteem has reached rock bottom all thanks to you all." i spoke with pure venom in my voice. "and everyone who is watching, do you enjoy watching an innocent girl get beaten up over nothing? because it sure as hell seems like you do, since you're not doing anything to stop it. what kind of sick people are in this school, or more specifically, this fucking grade?"
no one could move nor speak as i lectured them.
"who else is in on this?" i demanded.
"everyone in the grade except for you and kai..." someone whispered. everyone in the fucking grade except for kai and i?
"pass this message on from me to everyone who dared to lay their filthy hands on her. if i see, or hear, any of you near her ever again trying to harass her in any way, shape or form, it will be hell for you all. one person's actions will make you wish that you were dead. all it takes is one person doing the wrong thing and all of you will be gone." i walked away, head and heart full of rage. i took her to the nurse's office where she said to let her rest there for the day, as she sustained many injuries and might even have a few bruised, or worst case, broken ribs. i texted the guys that if they wanted to find me, i'd be in the nurse's office. they thought i was injured, but as you can tell, i'm not.
they came in one by one in a civilised manner which indeed shocked me. they let out sighs of relief, realising that i'm fine. but their eyes immediately went to chaeyoung's unconscious figure which was laying peacefully on the bed. i stood up and went out to talk to them, not wanting to cause any problems for the nurse.
"who's she?" baekhyun asked.
"that's chaeyoung, and she's the girl that's been bullied. yup, she's the girl that the rumours spoke about." i sighed sadly.
"that's terrible," suho-hyung frowned. "who was beating her up?"
"a few girls from our grade, but apparently everyone in the grade is on it except for kai and i."
"are they fucking crazy?" kai looked bewildered. "what has she done?"
"that's what i asked but no one could answer," i shrugged. "so i guess they beat her up for fun."
"i can't even fathom how so many are so sick," xiumin-hyung shivered.
"hey, maybe you should let her hang out with us. we'll keep her safe." chanyeol said, earning everyone's approval. i nodded.
"i'll ask her when she wakes up."
"how badly injured is she?" chen asked.
"she has a few bruises on her face and either a few bruised ribs or broken ribs, the nurse isn't sure. she called some medics over to help, and they're on their way."
"i can't imagine the pain she's going through," kyungsoo said, a slight pained expression on his face.
"none of us can," chanyeol solemnly said.
"let's get to our classes, we can check on her later." suho pat me on the back and we headed to our respective classes, ignoring the girls that called our names. none of them deserve our attention.
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i woke up in a white room that reminded me of the nurses office. but wasn't i on the ground when i fell unconscious? whatever i was laying on was comfy too.
"where am i?" i sat up but immediately lay back down, clutching my torso in pain.
"you're in the nurse's office, sweetheart." a voice i recognised as the nurse's replied. "oh sehun brought you here."
i furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. why would he...?
"okay. can i leave now?"
"you have sustained a few injuries, and we'd rather you stay unless there is someone who can bring you home."
"wait, what injuries do i have?"
"you have 3 bruised ribs and a few small bruises on your face." she gave me a mirror to see the bruises on my face. i wasn't all that surprised, these aren't my first.
"i guess i'm stuck here until sehun comes, huh?" i sighed.
"yeah, basically." she nodded.
"what time is it?"
"1:29, lunch just ended." groaning, i put my hands over my face.
"what am i to do in those 2 hours?" i whined.
"i can get you a book from the library if you want, or you can nap and i'll wake you up when school ends if you've not already waken."
"i think a book would be nice," i huffed. "the library has a book called 'eleanor & park'. it's reserved under my name so you can just ask the librarians at the counter for it. i was gonna borrow it at lunch anyways. thank you!"
"alright," she stood up and smiled kindly at me, making her way out. covering my face with my hands, i groaned again. is my life becoming messier? yes.
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i lost track of the time once i got the book. it was interesting — seeing young love. a love i know i'll never have.
the ending got me in tears, that's for sure. the ending wasn't like they ended up back together per say — it was more of a bittersweet ending. eleanor found her happiness and so did park, even if it meant being away from each other. i truly applaud rainbow rowell's writing, because it definitely got me anticipating for the next.
closing the book shut, i made a mental reminder to myself to return it once i got back. i gently placed it into my bag and zipped it back up, looking at the clock. school was minutes from being over and i couldn't wait to go home. for some reason, the only thing i could think about was him and his perfect face, perfect body and his seemingly perfect life. i say seemingly perfect because i don't know what really goes on in his life so i can only assume, but obviously i can't say he does have a perfect life.
maybe if you saw me in the streets you'd think i have a good life but as you can tell, it's far from that. my life is hell, and i can't do anything about it. no one around me cares and those who do left. my parents are too busy to notice and my sister is too far away. i don't see any of my cousins, uncles, aunts and my grandparents because they're too far away. in korea, it's just me and my parents. alone.
apparently i was too into my daydream to notice that sehun was in front of me. he snapped his fingers in front of my face which made me jump on the bed.
"huh?" i looked up, confused.
"let's go, chaeyoung." he murmured, taking my bag for me. i slowly got off the bed, following him. i cowered under the stares, feeling the hate through their glares.
"where're we going?" i walked next to him.
"we're going to see my friends." he took my wrist and gently held onto it, not gripping it harshly. i nodded and followed, not daring to ask anymore questions.
we soon arrived at the school garden. the flowers bloomed prettily, and i stared at them with a twinkle in my eyes. the roses of various colours, the dandelions and the most eye catching of them all, the cherry blossoms.
"chaeyoung-ah, meet my friends." he tugged at my wrist and i tore my eyes away from the various flowers that bloomed. i saw seven other men looking at me curiously, and i shyly waved.
"hi..." i whispered. "i'm park chaeyoung."
"i'm suho, but feel free to call me junmyeon." suho, or should i say junmyeon, smiled dashingly at me.
"chen at your service!" chen grinned, bowing.
"hi! i'm baekhyun!" a puppy like boy bowed and smiled.
"chanyeol." the tallest of them all with probably the deepest voice smiled, his dimples on display.
"xiumin, but you can call me minseok." a shorter and younger looking male bowed.
"you probably know me as kai, but because you're sehun's friend, you can call me jongin." i knew jongin since we talked once or twice, but those were the only times where i said something to him.
"d.o, though i'd prefer if you called me kyungsoo." a smaller man with heart shaped lips gave me a small smile.
"we hear you're extremely talented in the music department?" junmyeon raised an eyebrow, the same smile still present on his lips.
"i'm not that talented," i smiled a little. "i just play the piano and guitar, and sing a little too."
"that's pretty talented to me," baekhyun piped up. a small, quiet giggle slipped past my lips and the boys chuckled. from the corner of my eyes, i could see sehun's happy smile. he should smile more often, it suits him.
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i find it amazing how time flies so fast. one minute chaeyoung was the biggest victim of bullying and now she's one of my best friends. it's safe to say, i like her. a lot.
and as you can tell, it's not as a friend. maybe i love her, i don't know. i just know that she means a lot to me. my heart speeds up whenever i'm around her, and my palms get sweaty when she looks at me. i'm not someone who shows their feelings easily, so that's why i have a resting bitch face for the most part. but when i'm with her, my smiles and grins come more easily.
i've asked the boys multiple times whether i should ask her out. unsurprisingly, they always said yes. they even went as far to say that they'd help me plan the date if i ever asked (which is pretty nice of them, if i'm being honest). i guess that day came, because i was getting ready to ask chaeyoung out. i had a bouquet of flowers, filled with various colours of roses and cherry blossoms.
was i going to ask her out in front of everyone? yes. just so they know that i'm off the market and they'd stop throwing themselves at me, and also because the girl i like is far prettier and just all around better than them.
i know i looked weird. one of the most popular guys in school walking down the hallways with a bouquet of roses and cherry blossoms in his hand isn't something you see everyday but since this is for chaeyoung i'd honestly do anything for her. yeah, i'm head over heels for her.
her back was turned and that was perfect. she couldn't see me. i took a deep breath and slowly walked towards her, drowning out the whispers and murmurs of all the students. tapping her on the shoulder, i watched as she turned around in slow motion.
"sehun?" she blinked. "what's going on?"
"jesus christ this is harder than i expected," i nervously chuckled. "you see chaeyoung, i like you. not as a friend, but as a significant other. you... you're unique. you've entranced me since the first time i met and saw you, and i couldn't help but want to know you. so i'm asking you, park chaeyoung, out for a date."
"r-really?" she gawked. "yes! oh my god, yes!"
i handed her to flowers to which she took gracefully, breathing in the scents. her eyes looked at me, twinkling. when i looked at them, i could see the world in her eyes. i could stare at them for days on end, the natural sparkle of her brown eyes made me fall harder. i opened my arms and hugged her tightly, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"i'm so lucky to have met you." she whispered into my chest as the boys cooed at our cuteness.
"then i'm the luckiest man in this world because of you." i smiled widely.
oh yeah, and remember the music project we had awhile ago? we passed that easily with an a* and it was performed in front of the entire school.