Mean to Me | Im Youngmin

Mean - 4

One of Ji-hye's most favorite things in the world is taking early morning walks to school. The problem, however, is she always sleeps late at night. She almost always gets only four hours of sleep during school days, but she doesn't care and continues with her routine of waking up at 5:30AM so she can be at school by 6:30AM. She's almost always the first to arrive in her class, except during days that she misses her alarm for sleeping in, and those are the rare days when she's late.

Today, like most days, she is the first one to arrive in her class. She turns on the lights and air conditioner, goes to her seat and carefully places her bag on the table so that she can use it as a pillow. She tries to get some sleep before first period as she always does.

She was having a peaceful nap for a good few minutes when she hears two sets of footsteps entering the room. She doesn't raise her head to see who just arrived because just by the sound of their voices, she already knows.

Kim Donghyun... And his best friend, Im Youngmin.

She tries to go back to sleep, but the two boys are talking (and it doesn't help that one is seated in front of Ji-hye and the other is seated beside her). Thus, she can't seem to concentrate on getting those zzz's back.

As if he sensed her dilemma, Donghyun speaks. "Lower down your voice, Youngmin. She seems to be asleep," referring to her. Youngmin just shrugs in response before continuing, "Anyway, as I was saying..."

Ji-hye doesn't catch the next words, however, as she slowly falls into a deep slumber again.

"Why is she always sleeping in class though?"

"I don't know... Maybe she always sleeps late at night?"

Ji-hye is again woken up by conversations, this time, hushed ones but she can definitely hear.

She doesn't budge from her sleeping position, but judging from how much noisier the classroom has gotten as compared to earlier, she thinks that most of her classmates are already here by now and that it's almost time for homeroom.

"Guys, I heard she's doing some illegal stuff... You know."

"OMG! Like what kind of illegal stuff?" Ji-hye recognizes the voice as Kami's.

"Do I really have to say it out loud?" says Hyeri. "I heard from someone that she always gets home late."

"Yeah, someone from the other class saw her two nights ago. She went out of this sketchy place at like, 11PM?" Soyeon adds.

Two nights ago? 11PM? A sketchy place?

Ji-hye thinks hard and she realizes that two nights ago, she was at the shelter and she left at around that time.

Are they perhaps talking about her?

"It is true, then!" Hyeri exclaims before the other two girls hush her down. "You might wake her up..." Kami whispers.

Confirmed. They really are talking about her.

Hyeri, in a much lower voice, but still audible to Ji-hye, then adds, "She definitely looks like the type to do that. The moment I first saw her, I knew she had this slutty vibe."

Ji-hye is shocked by what she heard, but she doesn't dare raise her head.

Someone then slams his or her hand on the desk. The three girls then let out screams. Even Ji-hye almost jerks her head in surprise. "Ladies, don't you think it's wrong to spread rumors at this early hour of the day?"

Donghyun.

Of course, angel Kim Donghyun.

At that moment, she felt like hugging him for somehow defending her.

Until she hears another voice.

"Stop defending someone you don't even know that well, Donghyun. We never really know."

Ji-hye is taken aback, but she's no longer surprised. Who else can it be?

The girls chuckle in response, thinking that Youngmin is on their side.

She doesn't know where she got the courage, but before anyone else could even speak again, she raises her head and looks at all five of them, at the girls first, then at Donghyun, before facing Youngmin.

Her cheeks are burning and her eyes feel hot, but she doesn't let these stop her. "You know very well that what they said about me is not true. You know where I was two nights ago. You know why I got home late that night," she says, trying to make her voice as stable and calm as possible. "So why tell someone to stop defending me because you never really know? When in fact, you, yourself, know too well?"

Knees all wobbly, she doesn't even know why she decides to stand up without breaking eye contact with the red-haired boy in front of her.

"Really, Im Youngmin." She stops for a moment, afraid that she might actually cry this time.

"Why are you so mean to me?" she asks in a croaky voice before turning her back and leaving the room.

As soon as she's out, her tears fall down uncontrollably.

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Another quick update because I was inspired!

I know we can all agree that Youngmin in this ff is a jerk, but do know that there's always a reason for everything. ;)