Can't You See Me? ➳ Taegyu ✔

20. The Rumor

"Being a minor and hitting an adult means you only get a suspension?" Yeonjun asked. "Wow..."

"We'll if he wasn't so powerful, he could get in trouble for pushing Taehyun," Kai said, looking at his suspension form. "My parents would kill me if I didn't tell them the horror stories of Beomgyu and that group."

Taehyun looked at him for a moment and then sighed. "Can I come over today? I don't wanna deal with him."

Kai nodded. "Of course you can. Soobin, Taehyun's coming to my house with me."

Soobin nodded and followed them out to leave.

***

"I can't believe that asshole punched you," Mia said, holding an ice pack against Beomgyu's bruised cheek. "The audacity."

Beomgyu nodded, watching as their friends flooded into his house. "I pushed Taehyun first though. He was just sticking up for his friend."

"But still..." they came over and started doing their makeup and Mia was talking again. "He shouldn't have done that. And his friend shouldn't have said what he said. He's lucky I'm not getting him expelled."

A small chuckle escaped Beomgyu's mouth and he shut his eyes when makeup brushes were brushing over them. "Where are we going tonight?" He asked.

"Nowhere... but we do need to have our monthly rumor for December." She said it so nonchalantly and Beomgyu laughed a little bit.

"Do you need help coming up with one?" Mia nodded and he thought for a moment. "What about... whoever this person is fucked half the basketball team?"

She gasped and smiled excitedly. "Good good! I'll get to designing the Twitter thread tonight. Reward yourself for such a brilliant idea." She kissed his cheek before standing up to leave along with everyone else and Beomgyu stared at the door.

That was weird.

She was never that excited about starting a rumor about somebody.

*A week later*

Date: December 1st

"It's not that funny!" Kai exclaimed as Yeonjun and Soobin laughed at him.

Taehyun didn't know what about. He was too busy taking his earbuds out and noticing that everybody in the parking lot was staring at him and whispering.

"Woah. What happened?" Soobin asked, slamming the car door and leading the other three to do the same.

"Yeah, why is everybody staring at you?" Kai asked. Some of them looked shocked, some were giggling, and some looked disgusted by him.

"Mind your business!" Yeonjun yelled, pulling Taehyun inside the school so they would get out of the open.

He had gotten new glasses. They were red, which he didn't really like, but they were the only pair he could get on such short notice. That part made all his friends sad, and ever since Kai explained to the others what happened with Beomgyu, they've been a lot more protective over Taehyun.

People inside were staring at him too and Yeonjun stayed with him while he was at his locker. "It's probably something stupid. Just ignore them."

Taehyun nodded, gasping when he felt someone hug him from behind. "Yah, Taehyun-ah. Come to the locker rooms after school again." He turned around to see someone with a basketball jersey on walking away laughing, and the entire hallway burst into laughter.

"What the fuck?" Yeonjun asked, taking his phone out. "Let me see what's going on." Upon opening Twitter, he gasped when the first things he saw were about Taehyun... fucking the basketball team? What the fuck?

Taehyun has only ever had sex with one person. ONCE. There's no way he would do something like that.

"Hyung?" He asked softly. "Did you find anything?"

Yeonjun looked at him and sadly nodded. "It's not good Taehyun."

Once Taehyun found out why everyone was staring at him, he ran to the bathroom to cry. He realized that the fact that the basketball team was even going along with it in the first place meant that everyone believed it even more.

While looking though, he found the original Twitter thread that unsurprisingly came from Mia. But Beomgyu's account was tagged in the credits for the release of this "scandal" or whatever it was.

***

"You wrote it about Taehyun?" Beomgyu asked, staring at his phone in shock.

"Yeah. Do you have a problem with that or something?"

Beomgyu shook his head and turned his phone off. "No..." he looked down the hall and frowned when he saw Taehyun being shoved by somebody.

He finally felt bad.