WISH I HADN'T MET YOU

Chapter 6

6 years back

" What you starin at you Chinese" you saw them ask the kid who doesn't seem to leave his eyes from you and the kids all over you.

This was something that happened to you on a daily basis. You were bullied at school. For what they ask? You couldn't even start counting the number of societal standards you didn't fit in to.

And that was the first day you met him. Kim Taehyung.

He was the new transfer kid at school and the kids who bullied you got a perfect victim. And from that day, Taehyung had to join the club. 

And no, it was not like in the movies, he wasn't there to heroically save the girl from the bullies. That day he was just a kid staring in wonder about what he saw and someone who had no idea that he'd be bullied for that in his newfound surroundings.

From that day onwards, Taehyung was bullied along with you. They were even worse to him. You saw him cry every single day making your heart ache for him for the first time. You were almost used to them, so crying was something you never felt like whenever their pathetic souls needed a let out. That's all what bullies were to you. Pathetic.

And Kai was one among them. He was also a new admission but somehow the gang took him and made him stay on their side for which he did everything he had to. Hurting you was never a part of it though.

Slowly Taehyung  started giving you  pursed lip smiles which later turned into full fledged boxy smiles. And you loved each one of it. You both never really talked much but the feeling of empathy, understanding always lingered in the air when together. The first conversation you ever had with him was you asking him whether it hurts him.

You were too dumb to see the pain he hid in those tightly closed eyes while he said it doesn't.

Growing up, every time you travelled back through your memory lane, you knew how much he had gone through.

One day when the kids were tired of Taehyung and jumped on you for their entertainment, you witnessed the kid who was too afraid to even look them in their eyes stand up for you. You saw him with his trembling hands clutched tightly on the hem of his shirt look at them with determined eyes, filled with tears, and unlike other days with rage burning in them with a tinge of helplessness. He cared. Even though he was going through the same.

And one day when Tessa the popular girl at school helped you get out of their bullying routine, you were too afraid to look back. However desperately you wanted to, you were just a kid who was too afraid and traumatised to go back or even think about it.

And few months after when you met him to help and apologise to him, you were met with a completely different person.  All he wanted was you to never approach him, remind him of anything of what you went through and destroy the new reputation he was trying to build.

And so you never did. For him, things faded gradually making you insignificant in his eyes, but for you, every emotion you felt for him grew stronger especially when you went through all those little things you had done and shared.

Maybe, it was time to accept the fact that time can change people or that you deserve this for being selfish.