The next few weeks were hell to Serin. The slap girl didn't leave her alone after that. She bothered her wherever and whenever she can. Serin cannot exactly lash out because the girl is older than her, and she doesn't want to stoop down the other's level. But she's definitely on the edge of bursting out of her frustration.
"I don't think it's my fault Seongwoo talks to me? I mean who is she even? Just thank her luck she's older than me or else... Who am I kidding. Even if she's younger or same age, I would still try to keep it in." she mumbled to herself, and sighed for the nth time this day.
She just came out of the library after a meeting with her groupmates for a group reporting, and just as she was walking silently, Seongwoo approached her .
"Hey, I'm really sorry for Chaeyoung. I swear I don't know why she's doing this." he said. Serin ignored him however, and walked a little bit faster that Seongwoo's having a hard time catching up.
Oh so her name's Chaeyoung. Pretty name for a trashy attitude.
"Look, I don't care who she is. Can you just leave me alone? She's bothering me because you keep talking to me. Just take care of your crazy girlfriend or whatever." She replied. She's really done with them.
Well, Chaeyoung makes extra effort to trip her when walking, to mess her desk. To kidnap her indoor shoes, and to just give her a hard time, in general. At this point, Serin actually wanted to abuse her authority but she doesn't want to make a big deal out of this. Chaeyoung's a senior who's graduating, after all.
And earlier, actually, Chaeyoung just splashed water at her while they were both in the restroom. Thank the heavens, Serin has spare uniform to change into.
She has no clue how Chaeyoung manages to find where she is, and plan what'll she do next. They just find themselves seeing each other and the other would bother her.
Does she even study for entrance exams? Why does she have so many free time? What's so special about Seongwoo that she's actually bullying someone for him?
Serin has a lot of questions lately but the most important one is,
How can I stop the two from bothering me?
"Seri--" he insisted but got cut off.
"Didn't she tell you to stop bothering her? Are you deaf or stupid?" Youngmin interrupted and stepped in between them. Talk about nice timing.
They exchanged a few insults, and Serin didn't know what to do in that situation, but just found herself sitting on a chair in between the two guys intensely staring at each other, while a teacher is reprimanding them for their unreasonable actions inside school premises. They didn't really went all out, just uh.. a few punches and cursing. Or maybe, she thought, to find ways to lessen their punishment.
Fortunately, they're just given arounds 2 days of cleaning the gym as punishment since their fight isn't really that serious. Serin was just given a task to watch over the two in case they fight while cleaning. She was spared with the punishment, since she tried stopping them, anyway.
After the teacher let them out, they went back to their own classrooms, but Serin stopped Youngmin who's halfway on opening the door.
Youngmin is in such a bad mood that he just stood there, facing the door instead of Serin.
"Don't you want to have some band-aids?" she said softly. Her voice was full of guilt because she blamed herself. She knew Youngmin just wanted to help her out, but he got hurt instead.
"Later." he just answered shortly, and went inside his room.
He sighed as he closed the door. He's frustrated that he keeps on seeing that Seongwoo guy around Serin, and now, he has to be in the gym with him just for cleaning. There's also the fact that Serin didn't even tell him over the past days that she's stuck in a very uncomfortable situation. It's over acting to be mad over that, but he just can't feel kind of disappointed. Why is Serin so considerate of others that she doesn't even try to confide to him, thinking she'll just waste his time when he's willing to spend time with her.
As promised, Serin immediately sought after Youngmin in his classroom to help him apply some band-aids, leaving her things behind in her room.
She noticed how Youngmin flinched after she applied ointment on his face, and frowned at him.
"I told you not to use your fists. I didn't even tell you to get in between. I can handle, Youngmin. Just mind your own. I don't think I really need help. You're just wasting your energy." she scoffed, struggling to unpeel the band-aid out of its wrapper.
Youngmin snatched the band-aid, and peeled it before handing it back to her. He just stayed silent. She placed the band-aid, and she was finally done.
"It's done. Let's go?" she asked. Youngmin checked his phone for the time, and suddenly stood up, his bag hanging on one shoulder. He ruffled her hair, but immediately fixed the messed strands before speaking up.
"Make sure to tell me if he bothers you, again. Even that girl. You're too kind that they don't take you seriously. Don't keep it to yourself. You won't even report, anything." he said, mocking her personality. "Can you go home first? I have a club meeting to attend to. It might take awhile, sorry." Youngmin smiled slightly at her, before going off to his meeting.
She obeyed Youngmin, and went back to her classroom to get her bag. She felt the need to check the contents, and figured out why she had to check it. Chaeyoung came, again. She's really too fast at these kind of things. How does she even manage to have the time to do so?
She took some of her notes, and even left crumpled papers and wrappers in her bag like it was some trash can you can throw your trash into. She just emptied the trash, to the nearest legit trash can, and went to the shoe lockers to change her shoes, but then, as she opened her locker, she sighed, again. How many was that for that day?
Her rubber shoes went missing, once again, and she didn't really bother finding it, anymore. Instead, she just decided to go home with her indoor shoes.
And there goes my 4th pair of rubber shoes. Just how many more pairs am I going to buy and lose? She thought.
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