Donghyuck was walking down the school hallway. There was still time before school started, and he'd opted for just going to his class and getting some sleep instead of waiting around outside or somewhere else.
As he neared the room, he suddenly heard two ushered voices from one of the senior classrooms.
"We have to do something about it! What if something serious happened?"
"I don't know Chenle... this isn't really our business."
Recognizing their voices, Donghyuck got closer but remained out of sight.
"But it was literally a razor blade!" Donghyuck's brows furrowed as he listened in to Chenle's panicked voice. "What if Haeun's hurting herself? We can't not do anything about it!"
"For now, keep quiet. I'm mostly concerned because it happened right after she left Jisung's house..." Mark retorted, clearly hesitant. Donghyuck's eyes now widened.
Haeun? Jisung? Razor blade?
"I'm positive it's not like- "
"What are you two talking about?!"
Chenle and Mark nearly jumped out of their skin as Donghyuck emerged through the door, his voice exceeding its usual volume. Although shocked, Mark quickly recovered.
"Can you be any louder?"
"You better tell me what the fuck's going on. What's wrong with Haeun?" Donghyuck hissed, his voice still too loud for Mark's liking.
The elder sighed, sharing a glance with Chenle. He then asked Donghyuck to sit down, to which the latter obliged. The two then began explaining the whole story.
"Holy shit..."
Haeun was walking down the hallway alongside Lisa, heading towards the cafeteria. She seemed incredibly happy, cheerfully laughing at whatever her friend had said.
Suddenly, her walk was interrupted as someone stepped in front of them.
"Hey, Haeun, would you mind having a word with me?"
Haeun looked up to surprisingly find Mark standing there. Lisa turned to look at her with an expression reading 'You know this guy?', but Haeun was too surprised by the boy's face to care. He seemed worried, almost hysterical despite the calm way he delivered his words.
"Yeah... sure." She retorted, sending Lisa off to the cafeteria alone, and following the boy out the back doors and towards some unvisited school grounds. There, she spotted Donghyuck and Chenle staring at her intently.
"Uh, care to explain? You're not beating me up or anything, right?" Haeun asked playfully; however, Mark didn't seem amused.
He turned to look at the two boys and quietly asked them to leave. And although reluctant, they followed along with his request, backing off somewhere out of earshot.
"Listen, we need to talk about something."
Now, Haeun was really getting worried about his attitude.
Slowly, Mark reached into his pocket and took out an object. Haeun had to fight down her surprise as she instantly realized what it was, and her eyes shifted between it and Mark's face.
"What is that?" She tried playing it off but quickly realized that the boy knew much more than she'd hoped.
"We found this in front of your house last night. After Yuri threw it away."
Haeun felt her heart drop as she stared him in the eyes. Her hands began trembling with nerves; however, she maintained her composure.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She once again tried to deflect the conversation, but Mark just simply looked down at her with sadness and pity in his eyes.
"Why?" He asked simply.
A silence ensued, and Haeun simply stared up at him in shock.
Suddenly, Donghyuck appeared around the corner once again.
"Just ask her if it's because of Jisung, god damn it!" He yelled out but was quickly grabbed by someone and dragged away.
Haeun turned back towards Mark bewildered. "What? Nothing happened!"
He raised a brow, clearly not believing her. Deciding to try to clear her and Jisung's names, she showed her wrists to him. "See? I didn't do anything!"
"Then why was Yuri banging on your door as if you were on the verge of death?" He asked calmly as if this were a question that he asked everyone on a regular basis.
Haeun bit down on her bottom lip. Her whole body was now trembling, attempting to resist the wave of emotions that crashed into her.
She felt shocked, embarrassed, and angry.
But most importantly, she felt sad.
She couldn't bear the fact that someone now knew. Someone that she wasn't even that close with. Someone in front of whom she'd always been happy and cheerful, only for them to discover that she was a person who hurt themselves.
Her breaths became uneven as she held back the tears.
The silence seemed to draw out for centuries before Haeun finally felt something again. It was a pair of arms wrapping around her tightly. She bit down on her lip harder, desperately trying to hold in the tears. But it was really to no avail, as they began flowing anyways. All the pent-up emotions were slowly emerging as the embrace lasted.
She didn't want this. She wanted him to leave her alone, to forget this ever happened. For him to go hug someone who was more deserving of it. She didn't want to be a bother.
But Mark didn't leave. Instead, she began stroking her hair, gently and carefully.
She couldn't help but sniff, now using all of her will to not let out a sob.
"You don't have to tell me anything." He whispered quietly, "But if you ever need me, or any of us, we're always here to listen. Just... don't do anything bad to yourself. There's always a better way."
Only silence responded, but Mark knew that Haeun understood.
"Okay, so for this formula, you need to use a and b like this so you can get..." Haeun's voice was distant and distorted as he stared at her from where he sat. The sun cascading above the horizon cast a yellow-orange hue on her face, her eyes taking up the color of honey rather than the usual dark brown. Her long hair ran smoothly along her shoulders and arms, framing her face in the ideal shape.
Jisung thought he was going crazy.
"Hey, Earth to Jisung? Why ask me to study with you for you to just ignore me?" Haeun exclaimed loudly, causing Jisung to blink in realization before looking around.
By now, the classroom had emptied, and it was just the two of them.
The boy rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?"
"Almost 7." Haeun retorted casually, leaning back in her chair. "So, let's finish this worksheet before the school closes."
It was clear that she had no idea that studying was but an excuse for Jisung to see her. As she once again began trying to explain, his thoughts unwillingly traveled back to what he'd witnessed hours prior.
He'd seen them. Haeun and Mark- he'd seen them hugging.
Jisung felt as if an infinite strip of sandpaper was being dragged across his heart.
He couldn't think rationally- his thoughts were clouded by seeping jealousy. Of course, Mark knew of Jisung's feelings for Haeun, in fact, he frequently teases him about them. So how could he just... do something like this.
It took the boy a long time to compose himself, all the lunch period actually. After school, he'd asked Haeun to stay behind with him to 'study', but his true goal was to find out what was going on between them.
But Haeun didn't act out of the ordinary whatsoever. As if nothing had happened.
This forced Jisung to finally think more deeply- Mark would never betray him, not in a million years. Haeun had also proved her royalty to him; therefore, he didn't expect betrayal from her either.
A sense of relief washed over him, like an ice-cold bucket of water extinguishing the flames of anger within.
Yet his thoughts were once again interrupted by a loud snap. As he grounded himself in his body, Jisung quickly spotted the hand outstretched right in front of his face.
"That's it, I'm not teaching you anymore." Haeun deadpanned, and a smile appeared on Jisung's lips.
"I'm sorry, I was just spacing out. Don't go~" he asked teasingly, as he usually did.
The girl scoffed before getting up and began to pack up her things.
"We have to go anyways, the school's closing in 15 minutes." She proclaimed, and Jisung was forced to look at the clock on his phone. "And I think you owe me a drink," she added, trying to hide the smile slowly growing on her lips.
"Yes ma'am!" Jisung exclaimed whilst saluting, finally forcing Haeun to burst out laughing.
Once they'd finished packing up, the two made their way out of the classroom and into the hallway. As they closed in on the school entrance, Jisung suddenly spotted someone he didn't wish to see from the corner of his vision.
Choi Jongho.
Although not aware of the situation whatsoever, Jisung suspected one thing- Jongho and Haeun were previously in a relationship.
Everything pointed to it- the girls at the cinema, Haeun's discomfort around him, and how she refuses to talk about it. Whatever happened between them gave Jisung yet another reason to keep her away from him.
Looking back at the girl, she didn't seem to have noticed Jongho yet, thus Jisung hastily grabbed her by the hand.
"You're so slow." He whined, pulling her along. Although confused, she followed his lead with a smile.
Glancing back, Jisung met Jongho's glare head-on. Yet he quickly looked away, smirking to himself at his success.
Hi, I'm back with a thank you note :)
Thank you for reading this far into the story, you're a beautiful human being who appreciates my work ❤❤