ENTHRALL° s.th

006

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SCHOOL GROUNDS
LUNCH
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✧──────✦ one week later

"bye jaehwa! i'm gonna catch up with aera!" mina told her as she walked ahead. jaehwa nodded and shooed her off with a small smile. at least she found people to hang out with.

"wait, your lunch!" jaehwa called out while unzipping her bag. but mina was already through the gates, so she would just take it to her class at lunch. she zipped her backpack and continued to class.

jaehwa could never get over the long school days. she often left early to practice and claimed it was for sickness or an appointment. so she sat through the classes and actually paid attention. well, she tried to.

the tapping noises from the sleeping boy sitting next to her kept her from focusing. jaehwa didn't mind it though, it wasn't like she was going to understand the concepts anyways. she could just scribble in random bubbles that seemed right and get the test back with an 80%.

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the bell had just rang for lunch, so she grabbed the box lunch from her bag and made her way down the stairs to the lower level of the school. stairs still weren't her strong suit, especially after the kick from last week. once she finally made her way down she looked for her class.

she opened the door and scanned the room for mina.

"who are you here for?" a boy she guessed was the class president asked.

"park mina, i have her lunch." jaehwa noticed that aera wasn't there either. "did they go to the cafeteria?"

a girl with glasses spoke up. "they're at the back of the school." she seemed a little scared, but jaehwa just nodded and made her way outside.

before she had even turned the corner, she heard a smacking noise. the corner came sooner as she quickened her pace.

on the floor kneeled mina and aera. standing above them was a lanky boy and a few girls.

"didn't your parents ever teach you not to hit a girl?" jaehwa asked while she leaned against the wall. mina and aera looked up at her like she was their savior, which in this case, she probably was.

the boy looked over to her while he took a puff of his cigarette. "who are you?

"park jaehwa. you?"

"none of your business." the group of girls giggled behind him. it wasn't funny, not even in the slightest. jaehwa had never seen an actual school bully until now. they had stayed away from her previously since everyone knew she was a good fighter, but no one knew here.

jaehwa pushed off of the wall and grabbed the back of the two kneeling girl's collars and helped them stand up.

"we weren't done with them." a girl spoke. "unless you wanna take their place."

"not really." jaehwa said, honestly. she started to walk away with the two younger girls in front of her. that was until she felt a tug on her hair. it pulled her back a little bit and she closed one of her eyes in slight pain.

the boy tried to push her to the ground, but she barely moved an inch.

"try harder, spaghetti arms aren't gonna do it." jaehwa looked over at them seriously. she tossed mina's lunch over to her and turned around to face him. he raised his arm and slapped her a little bit, just barely enough for her cheek to turn red.

he'd apparently thought he had knocked her into submission, and began to walk away. mina and aera watched as jaehwa continued to look at the ground.

"you're dead," mina chuckled. aera seemed confident too, so jaehwa assumed that mina told her about her history.

taehoon walked out of the class after hearing a little bit of yelling from the window. its not like he was interested in fights if it didn't involve him, but then he heard the girl from the alley's voice. he'd be lying if he said she wasn't weird, but here he was walking at a slightly faster pace to see what was happening.

the exit door closed behind him and the talking got louder, but not enough for him to hear what was happening. a group of girls and a guy came out from around the corner and taehoon thought that she'd just gotten beat.

all he saw was a foot come in contact with the guy's back. from there it was in slow motion as he tumbled forward into a bag of trash. the girl came out from around the corner with two behind her. she rolled up the sleeves of her shirt as a girl pounced at her. she got into a basic stance, raised her knee to hip level, and kicked forwards. he leaned against the wall and watched her next move.

the second girl walked forward to her while spitting her gum out. alley girl looked like she had a little bit of trouble, so she hitched up her skirt a little and brought her knee up, pivoted to the left, then kicked.

he winced as the heel of her foot came in contact with the girl's jaw. his eyes connected with the brace on her knee.

by the time she finished the last girl off, they all either laid on the floor or were running inside of the building.

'ouch. ouch. ouch.' jaehwa chanted in her head as she tried to walk over to mina.

"sit down!" mina yelled at her. she slowly sat in the ground as mina put a rolled up jacket under her knee for elevation. out of the pocket, jaehwa grabbed a tablet for the pain and popped it in her mouth to chew on.

she cracked her knuckles and took the knee brace off as mina put a cold water bottle on top of the scar. jaehwa heard a shuffle and looked around the corner.

all she saw was the retreating back taehoon.

a few minutes later, the bell rang and the two girls helped her back up to her class.

"thank you!" aera chanted nearly in tears.

"don't cry, it's okay!" jaehwa said, surprised.

"but you're hurt because of us!"

"it's not your fault."

they stopped in front of her class and aera bowed deeply to her and walked away with mina. jaehwa slid open the back door and walked inside.

"where have you been jaehwa?" her teacher screeched. of course it had to be the problematic teacher again, just her luck.

"around." jaehwa sat and took out her notebook and textbook.

"detention later, and squat outside as punishment."

she knew she couldn't just leave campus like last time, so she stood back up trying to ignore the stares from the 25 pairs of eyes. the door creaked loudly as she opened it and closed it behind her.

there was a desk right outside and jaehwa's eyes sparkled at the sight of it. she plopped down on it and made sure that the teacher couldn't see her sitting through the window. at least the pain medicine was starting to take effect and the swelling went down a little bit.

"sung taehoon, where do you think you're going?"

the door swung open to a slumped jaehwa who hopped off the desk and began to squat, putting most pressure on her good leg. jaehwa was getting irritated since taehoon kept looking at her and her leg was starting to shake from stress.

"what?" she finally snapped and stood up. jaehwa wasn't short, but she still stood a few inches shorter than the boy in front of her. he looked down at her knee for a few seconds and shook his head to turn the other way. weirdo.