Walking towards my English literature class had me feeling like a Disney princess. The sun was shining just for me and birds were chirping, helping me to put on my dress in the morning. I was on cloud nine, not being able to shake off the silly smile my lips were stretched in.
"Someone's chipper today." Celine winks at me as I approach her at the entrance of the university cafeteria. "I take it you're all healed after your visit... to the hospital the other day."
"You're one to talk." I grin back at her, lightly shoulder bumping her. "You still haven't explained to me what the hell was Jimin doing at our apartment then."
Celine purses her lips, the color pink slowly starts appearing on her cheek.
"We're hanging out. It's not official yet." She exhales heavily.
"Yet?" I raise my eyebrows in shock. "Celine, a year ago you were swearing on your life you'd never give Jimin a chance. I'm not the judge-y type but that boy is the biggest and smoothest womanizer I've ever met."
"He's not like that with me." She protests, rolling her eyes. "Moreover, most of those are just rumors. He just has that reputation."
I try to suppress a wide smile, but fail. I've never ever seen Celine head over heels for a boy, usually, it was the other way around. And if she was having a good time with Jimin, I wasn't going to be the one to mess that up, no matter what my opinion of him was.
As it turned out, people could always surprise you. My opinion of Taehyung went down the drain the moment I began to get to know him better.
My heart skipped a beat just thinking about him.
As if she's read my mind, Celine instantly opens her mouth.
"Okay, now spill. You and Taehyung-"
"Shhht!" I shush her abruptly, my attention drawn to the slim long-legged girl approaching us. Yuri was our friend and I and Celine loved her, but she was a bit of a tattletale, having a sweet spot for gossip.
"Did you guys see Jaebum today?" She whisper-yelled at us while putting her books on the table, unintentionally confirming my thoughts. Her eyes were widened and her breathing irregular, it looked like what she was about to tell us was juicy.
Celine and I glanced at each other with knowing eyes. We hadn't told anyone about the incident of Jaebum drugging me and trying to take advantage of me, even though the jerk deserved everyone to know what kind of sick bastard he was.
"No. Why, what happened?" Celine whisper-yelled back at Yuri as the three of us leaned closer towards each other in order to hear better.
"The whole half of his face is purple and swollen," Yuri announced with a smug look on her face, proud of herself for spilling the tea. "Rumor has it someone's beat the shit out of him! Perhaps that's why he was absent these past few days."
I gulp loudly and start fidgeting with my pen nervously.
"Do you- do you have any idea who it might have been?" My voice comes out hoarse and I clear my throat.
"No." Yuri chuckled quietly. "But you can bet your pink panties I'll find out."
"Probably he got involved in a club fight." Celine tapped with her fingers on the table nonchalantly. "Stupid boys do that. Nothing new."
"Tsk." Yuri clicked her tongue pensively. "I have a feeling that this is something else. I bet it's gonna be good. You know I have eyes and ears everywhere so we'll find out soon enough."
The brunette gave us a sly smirk before looking at her phone.
"Damn it." She cussed, annoyed. "Looks like I won't have time for more chat. I'm running late for my Intro to... something class." She sighed. "See you girls later. Mwah!"
Blowing us a kiss, she picked up her pace towards the exit of the cafeteria, bumping into several people on the way there. We waved back at her stiffly.
"Well," Celine let out her breath loudly as though she was holding it back the whole time. "This was an interesting conversation. I hope she doesn't get to the bottom of this."
I nodded slowly. If the whole faculty found out it was Taehyung who beat up Jaebum in order to protect me, everyone would hate Taehyung because opposed to his true character, Jaebum was a popular and well-liked person among people. He was smooth, charming and handsome. Almost everyone liked him.
On the other hand, I was fairly certain that because of that, they'd think that it was me that somehow asked for him to molest me, or that I was "begging for it", or "gave him the wrong idea", and somehow he'd turn out to be the victim in the end and me and Taehyung the ones at fault. I shivered at the thought of that.
Deep in my thoughts, I forgot that I had another class in just five minutes.
"Gotta go." I almost jumped in my seat, making Celine flinch at my sudden movement. "I'll be late. Talk to you later."
She waved goodbye as I turned around and started hurriedly walking towards the corridor. The reality had abruptly pulled me out of my daydreaming state. Floating happily in the bliss of my mind, I had completely forgotten other threats that were hanging over my head.
Like Jaebum.
I started lightly jogging through the halls that were now almost empty. Everyone was in class already, making the clacking of my boots the only sound in the hollow space.
Someone's large and cold palm on my wrist made me freeze in my spot, chasing away all the air in my lungs. I was completely stupefied, not being able to move an inch.
"In a hurry, are we?" The deep baritone sent cold chills throughout my spine, making me turn around slowly, my body as stiff as ever.
His face looked even worse than I had pictured it. The edema had taken over half of his usually perfect and handsome face, giving him a frightening and intimidating look.
"Jaebum." I mumbled under my breath, trying to keep my cool. "Let go of me, I have somewhere to be."
My attempt at pulling my hand away from his grip was met with a miserable fail. Instead, he pulled me roughly behind a corner, so that we weren't standing in the middle of the hall anymore.
I inhaled deeply, preparing myself to scream as loud as I can this time if he tries something again.
"You're not going anywhere until I say you do." Jaebum snarled, his grip on my wrist now painfully tight.
"You're hurting me," I whined, twisting my arm trying to yank it off.
"Look at me. Look at my face." Jaebum barked, his eyes burning with pure rage. "This is your doing. It's your fault."
"It's not my fault you tried to rape me, you psycho!" I snapped, raising my voice. "You're lucky you didn't end up locked up that night."
He pushed me even harder towards the wall, displeased with my reply.
"Shut your little mouth or else you won't be able to open it for a long time." He growled, the intact half of his face twisted into an ugly grimace.
"Are you threatening me?" I gathered all the strength I had in me to sound calm.
"Take it however you want. If I was you I'd be careful walking home these days. God knows what happens to pretty little girls in dark alleys." He licked his lower lip, staring at me under his pitch black bangs, the fire in his eyes giving him off a psycho look.
"You're sick. You disgust me." I hissed back at him, even though I was completely terrified internally. "This is the last time you're getting this near to me."
"Oh, are you sure?" Jaebum raised an eyebrow, mimicking an innocent expression. "I don't think your boyfriends would always be there to rescue you." He smirked.
"Tell me again, how many of them did you have? I just can't keep count anymore."
His words pierced through my heart and I could feel a knot of blind anger starting to build up in my chest.
"Shut your mouth, Jaebum." I spat, but my rage suddenly seemed to amuse him, his lips stretching into a wide sardonic smile.
"Did you run out of boy toys to play with now that you're starting to mess with their best friends? Does your boyfriend know you're screwing his best friend?"
"Go to hell!" I cursed loudly, gathering all my muscle strength to get out of Jaebum's strong grasp, tossing and turning in his arms. The first few seconds he resisted, when all of a sudden he let me go, staring at something behind the corner.
"Is something the matter?" I saw a black lustrous hair appear on my right and suddenly I had the urge to throw myself in Yoongi's arms. I had never been so happy to see his grumpy face.
He had a puzzled look, obviously having heard the muffled voices but not enough to know what was going on.
Yoongi took a good look at my pitiful form, my hair probably messy and disheveled, my face all red. Then he lightly frowned, crossing his arms in front of his chest disapprovingly. Shortly, an intimidating and dangerous look started dancing on his handsome face.
"What is going on?" His voice was authoritative.
Jaebum cleared his throat loudly, visibly taken aback. He put on his most innocent and angelic expression, the menacing voice of his voice had shifted completely.
"Miss Y/N here was just telling me how she wasn't feeling alright and asked me for directions to the nurse's office." He explained very politely, trying not to give away his true face. "I kindly offered to accompany her there myself."
"That's okay, Mr. Lim." Yoongi deadpanned. "Miss Y/N is my friend so I'll take her." He took a step towards me, making it clear that he's not walking away from this situation.
Jaebum hesitated for a bit then his mouth broke into a warm, but feigned smile.
"Thank you very much, Mr. Min. I'm running late for a lecture with the freshmen anyways. After taking Y/N to the nurse's office you head straight to class, okay?"
Yoongi nodded, then mumbled something inaudible that I grasped only some words of, two of them were "little shit".
Jaebum walked away hastily as if a wild animal was about to chase him and bite his ass any minute now.
I glanced towards Yoongi, mentally going back and forth between the idea of spilling everything or lying my ass off. I opened my mouth but he quickly cut me off by raising his finger in front of my face.
"Not my business." He said wryly, adjusting the zipper on his hoodie. I sighed with relief.
"Thank you." Was all I could say to him under my breath. We stood there for several seconds in awkward silence, I could hear my heart pumping in my ears.
"I've gotta go. I'm late for my class." Yoongi muttered darkly, his brown orbs piercing right through me. "Talk to you later."
"Yeah, me too-" Before I could finish my sentence he spun on his heel and all I could see was his black hoodie disappearing behind the corner.
I exhaled heavily as I leaned back towards the cold wall, letting my arms fall loose on my sides.
Thank God for Min Yoongi.