My Seven Stepbrothers

Chapter ten

I ran as fast as I could, darting my head towards every corner to find at least on of my friends. My anxiety was still high and I needed it to come down. If it didn't I could randomly have an attack at school, or worse at home. I rounded the corner and ran straight into a strong built body. I quickly looked up and saw Sungjae running his forehead. When he saw me, his eyes widened.

"Jia?" He asked shocked. "What are you doing here? Where your puppy guard?" He looked around to see if Jungkook was nearby.

"No time for that! Where's Sunhee?!" My hands were still shaking profusely ad I tried to wipe the sweat from them.

Sungjae noticed and immediately knew what had happened. "She's in the classroom."

As soon as he said that, I bolted down to the classroom. Everything around me was fading away, which was not a good sign. When I entered the classroom, one look to Sunhee was all it took. She jumped into action, grabbing my anxiety kit and flipping it open. She grabbed the stress doll and the lavender scent bottle and rushed over to me. She handed me the stress doll which I almost broke as soon as I got it and poured the lavender scent on her wrist. She raised it up to my nose and I felt calm as soon as the smell hit my nose.

"This is why we didn't want you to come with them." She muttered softly to me.

"It's good practice though." I tired to smile at her. "I need to get over my fear one of these days."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you should get thrown into it. That's not how you overcome fears. You don't see us throwing Ari into a sea of spiders."

"Spider?! Where?!" Ari panicked jumping into Minjun's arms.

"This used to be cute, but now it's just annoying." Minjun struggled to carry her.

I laughed lightly already feeling better. My friends had become very used to my sudden panic attacks. They knew exactly how to deal with them. The only times they showed they're worry was when I went into what we called a stage five panic attack. Those were rare but when they happened it was completely terrifying for them.

"I swear I can feel them on me!" Ari cried holding onto Minjun tighter.

I gave Sunhee the stress doll back, already feeling calmer. I took in deep breaths and walked to the back of the classroom. I already knew Jungkook was going to drag me to the back if I say with my friends so why not skip the embarrassment of having him carry me to the back or yell at us.

I watched as Minjun dropped Ari on the ground and just walked away. Ari quickly stood up and dead legged him. I watched as the two started having a playful argument, the others just watching with pure joy. I put my head in my hand and watched the two start pretending to slap each other.

"Are you okay?" Jungkook's voice asked from behind me, causing me to jump.

"Ah oppa! Geez, you really need to stop doing that! You're going to make me have a heart attack!" I put a hand over my heart.

He chuckled lightly and sat down. He then looked intently into my eyes. "You ran away pretty fast. Are you okay?"

Images flashed through my mind and I quickly shook my head, clearing my mind. I gave him a bright smile. "Yeah, I'm fine oppa! I just didn't like the way those girls glared at me. I promise, there's nothing else to it." 

He looked at me once more and nodded, turning around as class started. I sighed in relief. The lies kept building and weighed down on my shoulders. I couldn't even begin to image how many more I was going to need to tell.

Time skip:

"So what's the plan for you sneaking out?" Mina asked, sitting down as we ate lunch.