Love Heptagon | BTS Romance

Chapter 10: Books

 "I just know that I don't think it's good for you to be too close to that guy." He had finished, a little more seriously.

"Don't worry, I won't." I had confirmed in a sly tone to get the look of irritation off of his face, and put my head on his shoulder.

"You mustn't." He had insisted, not lifting his lip. "Come on, or we'll be late for geometry class." He had said, wanting to maintain his pose, but he was already putting his arms affectionately around my waist again. And a few moments later we had been surrounded by a full hall of students of the school.

(...)

But after a while I had seen that it wasn't going to be so easy to keep the promise I had made to my best friend. Because little by little, after so many not so usual encounters – that had gone from bumping into him when I had been going to class, to seeing him as I came out of the ladies' room – we had started to have some kind of strangely friendly relationship where I no longer feared for my own physical integrity when I got close to him.

With each passing day, Taehyung had been showing a unique side of himself, which was impossible to imagine of a person with a reputation like his, which had kept surprising me more and more.

Gradually he had become more willing to and interested in continuing a conversation after being greeted, asking what class I had had at that time or if I had been late to it. At first I wondered if he had been trying to repay some kind of debt with me by being strangely nice when he saw me, but over time, I had started to ignore this simple possibility, because, what would he have gained from it, after all?

Maybe, just, maybe ... He had just wanted to have a friend. Someone who was smiling and friendly around him, and he could forget all the disgusted and fearful looks that judged and scolded him. Looks that I had only recently noticed, and the more I got closer to him, the more of those looks were directed at me as well.

(...)

The only people that had been happy with Taehyung's changes and my approach to him were the teachers. After all, never in all the previous months of that year had he remained as present at school as in the last couple of weeks. And I swear I could still hear Professor Gong Yoo* laughing with excitement when he had seen that Taehyung had personally come to his office, asking him to make me his partner in a literary assignment which must have made Professor Yoo very proud.

And when a teacher is proud of a student, he doesn't leave them alone anymore.

'Cause if this student did something good once, in the hopeful minds of the teachers, that student could do much more; from being responsible for the classroom cleaning schedule, to being the library's official book stacker.

Do you think they called Taehyung to do all that stuff? Of course not! They wouldn't have wanted to risk the good will of the boy who had decided to start doing his duties correctly for the first time in a year, of course not. So, it was obvious that all of these chores had been thrown at me.

At that moment, there I had been dragging myself down the hall with a huge pile of books in my arms, feeling like a real workhorse. I had barely been able to see the corridor in front of me because the pile had practically been covering my whole body, and what had been my fear when hitting what had seemed to be a column in front of me, and with the impact caused, I had consequently dropped all the books in my hands.

"Ah, damn it! Look where you are!" I had complained as I had bent down to start stacking the books because the only people who could have been walking around the halls at that moment could be the idiots who spent their time skipping class, and with those types of guys, I had had no intention to be nice.

When I had looked up, because it was strange to not see anyone moving away, as all those rude boys usually do, I had seen them instead start to bend down next to me, apparently helping me to collect the materials.

"My bad." I had opened my eyes slightly when I'd heard Taehyung's voice, and when I was finally able to focus on his face and his body that covered the light that hindered my vision.

"Taehyung..." I could have said that my shame had been due to my sudden rudeness in front of the troubled boy that I had promised to help with his work in literature and that I should have been an example for him and the other nonsense that the teachers told me. But the truth had been, I had just been too embarrassed to see that pretty face so close to mine. "W-What are you doing here?" I had hurried to move away, putting a decent distance between us even though I had no longer been able to hide my embarrassed expression.

"I was going to the library." Even with the considerable amount of time that I had spent with him, Taehyung had remained as brief with his speech as always, not exceeding eight to ten words per sentence. I had looked at him confused, as if having asked for a better explanation. "Biology research," he had concluded, as if he had already said too much.

"Since it's like this," I had started, picking up the books more slowly, taking advantage of the fact that he had really been helping me, " you don't have to worry about me, you can go to your class." Even if I had wanted him to continue to help me, and even taken all this burden off me, if one of the teachers had seen me stopping him from studying, no, no, no, I hadn't wanted to take that risk.

"I made you take them down." He had already been getting up with almost all the books in his arms, but to me, it had looked like he was doing a shampoo advertisement with the way he had been shaking his hair like that. "I'll carry them for you," he offered, waiting patiently for me to get up with a mere four books in hand, and he had followed me silently down the hall.