True Beauty: An Alternate Universe

Chapter Seven

Suho:

I continued to stare at the disgusting men until they looked away, scoffing while they turned back to their beers. I pressed Soojin against my side and looked down at her. She was frightened and her breathing was heavy. I used my free hand to rub her shoulder and she looked up and smiled at me, calming down. I smiled back brightly and patted her head. I pushed her plate of food towards her and handed her the chopsticks, eating while still holding onto to her tight. The men would look back a couple of times towards our table, most likely checking to see if I had let my guard down, but I would play it up just for their sake. I fed Soojin a couple of times and smiled happily, making sure to keep her distracted, looking up slightly to glare at the men until they looked away once again. Although, I did notice that Sooah and Taehoon would glance at Soojin and I then each other and giggle. I shrugged it off though, those two were always looking out for the latest school couple.

Soojin:

After we finished our meal, everyone sat around, sipping on soda and chatting. I told the group I was just going to head for the bathroom and Jookyung said she would join me. I got up and handed Suho his blazer back, then walked with Jookyung to the bathroom. I was washing my hands when Jookyung came out of her stall and washed her hands as well, then took out a compact foundation from her bag and started touching up her makeup. I smiled at her, "You're already so pretty you wouldn't even need makeup," I said, turning off the tap. She turned to me and laughed, "Right back at you! I mean, who in here is known as the School Goddess," we both laughed. "Don't listen to what those people say it's all just silly talk." "No, seriously, you are gorgeous, you deserve that title," Jookyung replied, applying lip tint. We walked back to the table and I sat next to Suho again.

He placed the blazer over my legs again and fixed the strand of loose hair that was on my face. We all talked until it was getting dark out and we all agreed that it was time to go home. We all split off, Taehoon walked Sooah home, Seojun offered to give Jookyung a ride home on his motorcycle to which she agreed to, Hyunkyu crossed the street and Suho and I made our way back to his house. I was still holding his blazer and looking up at him admiringly while we walked closely down the path. "What?" he said jokingly, noticing my gaze. "Thank you for today, you've been great," I replied, grateful for the dark as blush started creeping up my face. "I'm your best friend after all, it's the least I can do." At that moment the bell of the restaurant rang and the men from before came out laughing loudly, beer bottles in hand and their steps were wobbly.

Suho and I turned to look at them as they stopped midway and stared at us. "Oh look what we have here, the couple," the man who caused the bus accident said. His friends laughed along with him, "How old are you young lady?" he asked me, taking a few uncoordinated steps forward. "That would be none of your business," I replied firmly. He scoffed and turned back to his friends, "Oh really now? Well it doesn't matter, age is just a number, as long as they are pretty right fellas?" he spread his arms proudly while his friends joined him by his side. He looked at Suho with the same disgust that Suho had imprinted on his face, he smirked at this and turned back to me. "A pretty girl like you can do so much better than a pathetic high school boy," he said, hiccupping in between, "Just come with me and I promise to treat you well," at this moment he took a hold of my arm, attempting to drag me away.

Suho reacted quickly and spun around, kicking the man in the jaw. He let go immediately and gingerly touched the place of impact, trying to play it cool. He and his friends charged. Suho grabbed me and threw me behind him and started punching and kicking the men. I couldn't let him do this alone so I dropped my bag and Suho's blazer on the ground and leaped in to help him, all of our martial arts training coming into play. Once I did a spinning heel kick on the last man standing. I picked up my bag and the blazer then took a hold of Suho's hand, both of us running away before the men could get up. Once we made it around the corner near the comic shop, we slowed down and hunched over in exhaustion. We looked at each other for a brief moment and started laughing. "Oh that felt absolutely thrilling," I said in between giggles as we started walking again. "It must have, you were pretty impressive," he said, gasping for air. "You sometimes forget we trained together," I said, and the both of us continued to casually walk back home.