THE TRANSFER STUDENT

Testing His Limits

"Ya! Look there, look there!"

"Isn't that Jungkook?"

"Oh my gosh- wait, that bitch is sitting next to him."

"Shh- They can hear you- Keep it down-"

"Who cares, she probably knows what she's doing..."

Jieun had been studying pretty productively the whole time, managing to complete an exam paper and mark a mock paper within an hour. But it was getting late, and more people had ended school.

A group of girls had just entered the library and taken a seat nearby, immediately spotting Jungkook and her studying together. She didn't even need to turn her head to figure out they were pointing at and talking about her at this point. They were talking so loudly it was as if they wanted her to hear it all.

Jungkook seemed even more bothered by them than she was. He looked back at them a couple of times, only to welcome more attention. There was once he took a deep breath and opened his mouth about to speak, but Jieun grabbed his hand quickly and shook her head.

But Jungkook's patience was soon reaching his limit.

"Ya... Do you think she's trying to go after Jungkook?"

"With her personality? Ew."

"No way, Jungkook deserves better. You don't think she thinks she deserves him, do you?"

"Um, ew. Can you imagine if they really end up together? I'd be so disgusted I swear-"

Jungkook had reached his limit. He slammed the table and stood up, glaring at the four girls, his face flushed red.

Jieun looked up, completely startled, tugging on his hand, begging him to sit down and not cause a scene.

The girls were evidently startled as well, as they quickly packed up their things and scurried off.

Jungkook sat down again.

"What were you doing?" Jieun frowned. "You really didn't have to, especially not for someone like me-"

"Someone like you?" Jungkook took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "What does 'someone like you' mean?"

Jieun pursed her lips. Someone as unworthy as me...

"Those girls were being ridiculous," Jungkook snorted. "To comment on someone and judge someone's character as if they knew you so well..."

You don't know me that well, either.

Jungkook sighed. "I'm sorry."

Jieun smiled. Seeing him this worked up over her, even though she knew she didn't deserve it, made her feel so grateful. "Don't say sorry. Take this," Jieun handed Jungkook's side of his earpiece back to him.

"No," Jungkook pushed her hand away. "You wear both sides. I was the one who insisted on coming here when this was evidently what you were afraid of. You wear it, I'll handle the bad guys."

Jieun pursed her lips, then smiled. She put on Jungkook's earpieces once more, and got back to studying.

Jungkook, on the other hand, was still upset about what those girls said. He had always been pretty cool-headed about such things, he always managed to ignore hate comments and nasty rumours people spread about him... But why wasn't he able to do the same thing when bad stuff was said about Jieun?

He turned to glance at Jieun.

She had his earpieces on once again, attempting a new mock paper carefully, question by question. Why did she have to deal with all this hate? What did she do to deserve this? Why did she have to put up with not being able to go anywhere in school for fear of people hurling nasty comments at her?

The more Jungkook thought about it, the madder he got. At that moment, he felt like gathering all her haters in one place and taping their mouths up all at once. But he couldn't, and that really frustrated him.

Jungkook looked at Jieun once again. Maybe he should have listened to her, to not enter the library and be seen together. He thought his act of encouraging her would help her overcome her anxiety, but it seemed to have made things worst.

Jungkook began packing his things slowly.

If only he hadn't forced her to come in, she wouldn't have had to come into the library and heard all those nasty words being hurled at her for no rhyme or reason. It turned out the opposite of what Jieun said - instead of her bringing inconvenience to him, it was him who had inconvenienced her instead.

Jungkook swallowed hard.

He reached over and closed Jieun's book, keeping her stationery, much to her astonishment. With one swipe of his hand, he gathered her belongings together with his own, pulling a shocked Jieun up to her feet by her wrist.

"Let's go, Jieun. Let's get out of here."