Savage || Lee Haechan

Chapter 10 | "someone your own size"

Minji shared a mischievous glance with the boys before they quickly grabbed their bags and made their way outside.

She quickly pushed her way to the front of the crowd, using her small frame to slip between the other students as the other boys slowly followed. She eventually broke through the front and smirked as she noticed a fight going on.

But the smirk quickly fell from her face when her eyes fell on the boy in the center, lip busted and face bruised. She watched as the bully continuously punched Chenle, cheered on by his friends as the younger boy did all he could to protect his face from the much larger upperclassmen.

"Hey, asshole." She called without thinking, surprising herself at how suddenly angry she felt.

The bully turned and looked her up and down with a cocky smirk.

"You talking to me?"

She let out a scoff.

"No I'm talking to the planter over there, yes I'm talking to you, dipshit."

He just rolled his eyes, stepping off of Chenle and walking over, glaring down at her with a smirk.

"What makes you think you can talk to me like that?"

"What makes you think I can't?"

She heard the crowd fall into a hush as they listened to her talk back to him. Just then Haechan and Renjun pushed their way to the front of the crowd, eyes widening as the took in the bloodied Chenle in the center before noticing Minji's confrontation on the side.

"Sweetheart, I think you should just step back and let the men deal with this."

She let out a chuckle, breaking into an overly sarcastic fake laugh, clutching her stomach for dramatic effect.

"Oh that's so funny, you think you're a real man." She watched as the bully frowned, the cocky smirk wiped off of his face. "All I see in front of me is a big, immature, baby who's so insecure about his own fragile masculinity that he has to pick on some underclassman to make himself feel better. Pathetic is all that is. Pick on someone your own size."

She could see the anger basically radiating off of him as he stepped even closer to her, trying to intimidate her with his size but she didn't even flinch, just stared up at him and batted her eye lashes.

"Ouch, hit a sore spot, did I?"

"You bitch." He growled out. "Pick on someone my own size? That's a lot of big talk for someone who won't back it up."

"Who said I wouldn't back it up?" She smirked out.

"No." He said quickly, taking a step back as she took a step closer. "I won't hit a girl."

"Why? Scared of getting your ass whooped?"

That seemed to be the final straw as he raised his hand, swinging towards her head but she quickly stepped out of the way.

"Missed me."

He lunged again.

"Missed again."

He swung out with both arms.

"Ugh this is getting boring."

She quickly grabbed his arm twisting it sideways and pushing his shoulder down, immobilizing him while his face was level with hers.

"Listen here buddy," she growled lowly. "One of two things is going to happen right now: either I'm about to kick your ass so badly that you won't be able to walk straight for the next three months or you walk away, stop being such a pathetic piece of shit douchebag, and learn some basic human respect."

She released his arm and shoved him away, crossing her arms over her chest as he stumbled to face her.

"You're choice. I'm fine with either one."

He stared at her for a moment, his eyes burning defiantly before he broke her gaze, turning around with a 'whatever' and pushed his way out of the circle.

Haechan and the boys just stood frozen as the crowd disappeared around them. He watched as she walked up over to Chenle, who was now sitting up, and quickly pulled something out of her bag.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked, gently dabbing the blood off of his cuts with a cloth and wiping the dirt from his face.

"Yeah, thanks for the help." He said sheepishly, wincing slightly from her touch.

"Sorry, I'll try to be gentle." She said with a small smile. "How did that even start anyway?"

"I was uh working on a tech project and he came to have me do his um... his comp sci homework and I said no since I was busy." Chenle said quietly. "Then he dragged me out here and, well, you know the rest."

Minji nodded as she put away the cloth, pulling out some bandaids and antibiotic cream.

"If you weren't busy, would you have said yes?"

Chenle looked down, refusing to meet her eyes as she dabbed the cream onto his wounds.

"It's okay. Don't feel bad." She said, tilting his chin up so she could get the cuts on his neck. "Jaehyun told me you struggle with bullies sometimes because of your different schedule."

She let out a sigh as she finished putting the bandaids on his cuts and closed up her bags, offering him a hand and pulling him to his feet.

"Why don't you sit with me and my friends during your breaks. We have the same free periods as you and there's always extra seats at our table." She said with a small smile.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" He asked softly, curiosity sparkling in his eyes. "Between this morning and now, what changed from when you hated us?"

"Well," she huffed. "Were in the same gang now and, even though I'm not particularly happy about it, we have to start somewhere. Like it or not, you guys are part of my family, and I'll always protect my family."

He smiled at her, a new look of respect and happiness in his gaze as she let out a deep sigh.

"Ugh, this is way too much 'being the nice girl' in one day for me. This still doesn't mean I like all of you. Let's go." She grabbed his arm and began to drag him after her.

As she walked past Haechan, his hand shot out, grabbing her shoulder and stopping her.

"What are you doing?" He asked lowly, the pair staring at each other with increasing tension.

"What you couldn't do."

With a huff she shook him off, brushing past him and bringing Chenle over to where Sungchan and Jeno were waiting.

"Chenle, remind me to introduce you to Jisung. I don't think you've met yet but he's our hacker and I think the two of you would be fast friends. He's actually..."

Haechan turned and watched as they walked into the building, their voices fading away.

"She's a firecracker, that one." Renjun said, slapping Haechan's back. "But we're lucky she was on our side today. Chenle could've gotten real screwed up otherwise."

Haechan didn't respond. He just silently shook his head and went back into the school with Renjun in tow.