"Just you wait, Hanna, I'll work hard to make you fall in love with me. I still owe you a confession. I'll confess my love to you when the time comes, and you're going to say yes to me."
-
"Do you believe in parallel universe?
Perhaps... we're a...
Going to school on the next day, Hanna was mentally prepared for her family situation to be exposed, but was surprised when nothing happened. She spent her time peacefully at school till it was lunch break, with no one talking about her.
Hanna was napping at her desk after lunch, but was woken up by Sunhee:
"There's a girl looking for you." Sunhee tapped Hanna on the shoulder, and then pointed in the direction of the classroom door.
"What? Who?" Hanna rubbed her weary eyes and turned to look in the direction Sunhee pointed, and realized that it was Minji standing by the door frame.
Heaving a sigh, Hanna stood up and walked to the door, "It's you again."
"My name is Seo Minji." Minji introduced, fiddling with her fingers nervously.
"Okay, and what do you want?" Hanna looked Minji up and down, but unlike the day before, Minji didn't seem to be provocative.
"I want to apologize for my misbehaviour. I'm sorry for what happened yesterday. I was blinded by jealousy, and I shouldn't have said those offensive things to you. I promise I won't do it again, and I won't tell anyone about your family situation." Minji apologized, and Hanna was shocked— how could her attitude change so much in one day? However, Minji didn't say much, and only asked Hanna if she was willing to forgive herself.
"This isn't something unforgivable after all," Hanna sighed, "So I'll forgive and forget, as long as you promise not to pick on me again."
"I promise I won't do it again, so thank you for forgiving me." Minji bowed, and secretly stole a glance at Taehyung in the classroom before she turned to leave.
"Hey, who was that girl just now? I've never seen you talk to her. What did she say to you?" Sunhee nudged Hanna and asked curiously after Hanna returned to her seat.
"Nothing, she was just a strange girl in another class." Hanna shrugged, unable to understand Minji's behaviour.
-
After school, Hanna walked to the bus stop with Taehyung as usual.
"Minji, the girl from yesterday, came to see me during lunch break today. She apologized to me, and said she would never do it again." Hanna told Taehyung on the way to the bus stop.
"Did she? I'm glad that she apologized." Taehyung flashed Hanna a smile.
"But I wonder why her attitude changed so quickly." Hanna continued to say in confusion, "She was literally threatening me and trying to hit me yesterday, but today she bowed to me and apologized. Didn't she change a bit too quickly?"
Taehyung's heart jumped upon hearing Hanna's words, but still tried to make himself sound calm, "Dunno, I guess she suddenly figured things out and realized her own mistake."
"Yeah, I guess this is the only possible explanation." Hanna shrugged, then noticed that the bus was pulling in.
"Oh no, I have to go now! See you on Monday!" Hanna shouted before running to the bus stop.
"See you." Taehyung stood in the same spot, waving at Hanna's bus, and heaved a sigh of relief:
Phew, I'm glad she didn't find out, Taehyung thought to himself.
-
Just the day before, Taehyung made an excuse to stay after school, and told Hanna to go home by herself without waiting for him to walk to the bus stop together.
Although Hanna did nothing wrong about her family situation, it would still cause her troubles if the news spread, not to mention that she was threatened all because of Taehyung himself. With that in mind, Taehyung decided to settle the matter privately so Hanna would not be harmed again because of him, protecting Hanna just as he promised.
Standing in the corridor, Taehyung blocked the way of Minji who was about to go home, "Go and apologize to Choi Hanna tomorrow, please."
"What if I say no?" Minji frowned stubbornly, "What can you do about it?"
"Of course, there's not much I can do about it; after all, school bullying, like what you did yesterday, is what I hate the most." Taehyung stared at Minji, "I know you threatened Choi Hanna because you were jealous that the two of us were close, but bullying my friend does not make the relationship between you and me closer; instead, it only pushes me away from you.
"If you don't apologize, then your image in my heart will always be that of a school bully's; however, if you apologize to Hanna and she's willing to accept your apology, then I can at least treat you no differently than the other schoolmates. Whether or not our relationship can be fixed depends entirely on your choice, so think about what you want carefully."
Before Minji could reply, Taehyung turned to leave without looking back.
"I'll protect the girl I love," Taehyung muttered to himself, "No one can hurt her from now on."
-
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A/N:
Thank you for waiting!! I hope you've enjoyed reading this chapter ^^
Taehyung finally confirmed his feeling for Hanna was love in this chapter. I'm sorry if you found the past few chapters a bit sad, but I can assure you that the next chapters are going to be sweet, so I think you can look forward to them~!!
