Sticks and Stones

02: Accident

"Um, excuse me? Could you show me where room 308 is?"
A soft voice drifts into your ears, somehow making its way through the steady murmur of the crowded hallway.  It's kind and gentle, a ways down the lockers from where you're standing with a handful of textbooks.
You glance up and go pale at the sight in front of you.
There's a new girl.
An exchange student, it looks like. She's delicate and petit, beautiful in the face with long flowing hair and large eyes. Her smile is pretty and innocent.
And she's asking for directions and help.
From Mina and Jungkook.
"No," you whisper to yourself. "Find someone else."
But the girl can't pick up your brainwaves as you try to telepathically communicate with her. Instead, she stands there in front of Mina with a gentle smile, unaware of the danger she's in.
Mina's sizing her up.
And Jungkook's checking her out.
Mina notices her boyfriend's attention, grinding her teeth together so hard that you can see it. Her gaze over the new girl changes from neutrally suspicious to raging fury and jealousy.
"Are you speaking to me?" Mina asks icily.
The new girl blinks. "Um...yes?"
No. Don't.
Mina scoffs in disbelief, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she places a possessive hand on Jungkook's chest. "Well, don't. Get lost, loser."
The new girl's eyes widen to huge saucers, confusion and hurt tumbling around in the depths of them. "What?"
"I said. Get. Lost." Mina uses her perfectly manicured fingernails to shove a little at the girl's shoulder.
Jungkook laughs.
"I-I don't understand. Did I-" The girl's speech is cut off by Mina landing a second, much harder shove against her shoulder.
You know how that feels.
You don't want anyone else to have to go through that.
So, against the fear sending full echoes through your chest, you quickly approach the chalk group of people who are now being surrounded by a crowd of students that are eager for a cat fight
"I thought I told you to get lost. Why are you still here?" Mina's squared off to the other girl now, standing in front of her smirking boyfriend with all of his bullies behind him.
The new girl is completely at a loss for words, bewildered at the situation. You can see her eyeing the growing crowd with suspicious wariness.
You finally reach the group of people, slipping your way to the front.
Jungkook frowns when he sees you at the mouth of the crowd with determination in your eyes. "What are you doing, miss slut?"
Without answering him, you get in between the new girl and Mina, standing up tall.
"Leave her alone," you say.
It's actually pretty scary to stand here in front of the eight people who've been making your life miserable for the last month, but what they're doing is wrong.
If you can't make them stop abusing you, the least you can do is stop them from doing it to anyone else.
"Ooh, what's this? The whore grew a backbone when no one was looking." Everyone laughs at Mina's words, excitement a visible cloud hovering over the now-huge crowd.
"Just stop it," you whisper to her before turning around to check on the girl.
She's quite a bit shorter than you, only reaching your shoulder. Her eyes are wide, close to dropping tears, and her lips are trembling.
"Thank you," she mumbles.
You put an arm around her shoulders and start to get her out of the crowd, but they form an impenetrable wall of teenage cruelty that won't let you pass.
So you turn her around and start to walk by Mina.
Thankfully, it seems like she's going to let you pass without siccing her dog on you. He's leaned against the lockers, watching everything with his famously arrogant smirk.
"You're just going to run now? I though you got brave, Choi Y/N?" Mina mocks you as you pass her. "Coward."
You ignore her words and focus on getting the exchange student out of the mess she's gotten herself into.
And you're almost successful.
Except, as you're passing the hateful girl, she sticks out one of her tall heels and trips you.
And you didn't see it coming.
When your foot catches on her heel, you feel your balance go haywire and you scramble to get it back, hands behind ripped away from the exchange student. Then Mina pushes you from behind, which sends you reeling forward.
You reach out desperately for something, anything to keep you upright. You stumble headlong into somebody and feel their hands grab your hips, but it doesn't help.
So focused are you on trying to not fall that you don't see who it is you've run into.
You accidentally slam both you and the person who's trying to help you into the wall. Your hands go to their solid chest and your forehead slams against theirs, making you close your eyes in pain as you finally settle, lips pressed to something soft.
When you open your eyes, you almost pass out from shock.
Jeon Jungkook stares back at you, eyes probably equalling the massive size of yours, with his surprising soft lips pressed to yours.
A gasp echoes through the hallway, followed by a hushed silence.
You just kissed Jungkook.
Crap.
The boy who's pinned to the lockers beneath you makes no move to free himself or remove your lips from his.
In fact, his mouth moves a little beneath yours, slightly closing around your lower lip, and his dark eyes go heavy lidded.
Heck no.
Surely you're just imagining those things.
He hates you. Jeon Jungkook would never, ever actually...kiss you back.
Before you can further meditate on this, a set of sharp, feminine finger nails dig into your back and tear you away from him.
Mina slaps you immediately, grabbing your shoulders and forcing you against the lockers. Her hand grabs your hair and pulls, forcing tears of pain to leak from your eyes.
There are shocked murmurs in the crowd.
Choi Y/N's trying to take Mina's boyfriend again!
That little whore!
Wasn't Sehun enough for her?
Poor Mina!
"You slut," Mina hisses. "I thought I warned you last time!"
She slams your head against the lockers and shoves you to the ground with surprising strength. It's almost an identical replay of what happened at the end of last year as she begins to kick you. Again and again and again.
You can hear all of Jungkook's friends laughing through the pain and your backpack suddenly appears in front of your face, held by a slender, masculine hand.
Jungkook grins at you. "Hi there! I was wondering, you got anything good in here?" He rips your bag open and starts digging through the contents.
You try to reach for it, but another kick from Mina makes your arm withdraw and curl up around your stomach in a sad attempt at protection.
Jungkook pulls something out of your bag, prompting his friends into more laughter.
Your computer.
Heart dropping to your toes, you shake your head desperately.
Please no. You saved for two years to afford that.
As you watch, Jungkook carelessly throws the precious laptop over his shoulder.
A loud, screeching crash booms through the hallway at the exact moment that Mina's heel connects with your torso and you feel something pop.
You think it might be your rib.
"Come on, Kookie. Let's leave this whore alone," Mina says, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's waist. Jungkook shrugs, dumps the rest of the contents of your bag all over the floor, and stands.
"Sure, babe," he tells her.
Then they walk away without another glance, the crowd dispersing at their exit.
After a while, the hallway is completely empty except for you and one other person.
"Let me help you," the new girl says gently.
She's the first person to help pick you up from the ground.
The first person to gather your scattered things.
The first person to comfort you silently as you shed tears over the broken pieces of the laptop you worked so hard to afford.
She's the first shoulder you've leaned on in months.
"My name is Hana," she says. "I'd like to be friends."

Dedicated to jinkooktaegi because Bailee doesn't know how to work Wattpad, but she made an account anyways ❤️