Love Heptagon | BTS Romance

Chapter 11: Rumors

"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 take 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.

(...)

It was break time, and Jimin and Yongsun* had already pulled me out of the classroom, so that we wouldn't lose our seats in the school's crowded cafeteria.

"Let's go!" Yongsun had been screaming in my ear, hurrying me, realizing that I hadn't the slightest desire to quicken my pace, even with her and Jimin clutching my arms.

"Ah! There's an empty table over there!" Jimin had spoken shrilly, almost glued to my ear as if he was punishing me for not helping them, and in seconds, we had all sat at the table he had indicated.

We were almost finished with our food and I had just been sipping my juice while laughing at the stupid jokes Yongsun insisted on telling Jimin – I think just to have the pleasure of watching him choke on his food – when I had felt that the canteen had suddenly fallen silent.

My friends had stopped laughing as soon as they'd turned their attention to the entrance of the place, and as soon as I had followed their gaze, I had understood, in part, all of their apprehension. Taehyung had just arrived.

I had held back the urge to smile at him and call him to join us, but instead, I had just lowered my eyes and felt my friends' arms wrap around my back in a protective gesture.

"Don't be like this, sweetheart." Yongsun, the sweeter of the two, had tried to comfort me by resting her head on my already slumped shoulders while still stroking my back.

"You know this is best for the both of you, right?" Jimin had continued as he started playing with my hair.Even though I wanted to defend Taehyung, I knew that Jimin was right and that his words should be followed. "Yes, I know," I agreed, my voice being muffled between my arms on the table. "This is best for the both of us." I had tried to reaffirm so that I could also believe it myself.

In reality, I hadn't really understood why everyone had had that kind of reaction. It had been months since I had spoken with Taehyung for the first time, and soon after that, he had tried to give himself a chance and had started to fulfill his responsibilities as a normal student.

Obviously, he hadn't become an exemplary student, it hadn't been the case, but the boy who had barely showed up to school, had started to actually bring a backpack with books to study, instead of just brass knuckles on his fist.

This having been in itself odd enough, we hadn't seen rumors of him getting into fights since then either– well, at least not at school – he wasn't being a perfect student, but it had been a good start.

Even our relationship, after a few months, had become very close – we had talked whenever we had had the opportunity in between classes and sometimes I had met him at the library to help him with some school work– because, as soon as he had lost his supposed embarrassment, Taehyung had started to show himself to be a somehow talkative boy, and whenever he had seen something new, he had insisted on explaining everything he had managed to learn to me.

After that, I had practically become his private tutor, and I couldn't deny that my initial pride in seeing him evolve in that way, had started to transform into a humble brotherly affection, after which, I hadn't been able to deny my considering him a friend.

Everyone at school had seemed to be content with this. A weird girl who had decided to control the little delinquent who had brought so much trouble throughout the school – or rather, the poor, unescorted boy who had ended up being the one to be blamed for the whole mess that the spoiled kids got into – it had seemed great to everyone, without mess, without work and better, the reputation of a welcoming and pleasant school that the principal had wanted so much.

However, they hadn't been satisfied with that, not when they had seen that after the Taehyung's behavior had turned good, there would no longer be a scapegoat to take the blame for them, and so what had they done? They had continued to harass him nonetheless.

Now he hadn't been alone anymore, I had been close to him, but that hadn't stopped them from marring his reputation, and soon that connection that had once been so popular at school, had become the target of rumors so absurd that not even my friends had been able to defend me.

Gossip had arisen, saying that: I became a delinquent, that the cause of a few incidents had been my responsibility; there had even been rumors that Taehyung had probably threatened me and that I was being used by him – and I literally hadn't wanted to imagine how people were implying that.

My parents obviously hadn't liked those rumors and just when it had reached them – which in a small town like ours where gossip spread very quickly – they had made me promise not to meet so often with a boy who had had such a bad reputation.

However, being far from Taehyung hadn't prevented that from happening.

A/N:  what could THAT means?