Just Pretend

I Need You

(Y/N POV)
"Sara told you to stay away from him. It's your fault now for not honoring that"

"Sara can tell Beomgyu how she feels! I don't see why me avoiding him is going to help. You need to deal with that on your own" I defend.

Sara scoffs, "how am I supposed to talk to him when you're always lurking?"

Remembering the fact that, as far as they know, I am his girlfriend, I continue, "YOU'RE the one that needs to stay away from MY man"

"He won't be your man for long" Sara begins rolling up her sleeves.

"Woah, woah," I panic, "you aren't-like, actually going to fight me, are you?"

They just continue walking towards me. I step back, but they speed up. Before I know it, I'm running away at full speed. Who knew that they really weren't kidding when they confronted me before. "Stay away from Beomgyu! He's mine!" I remember them saying. Oh well.

I can hear their footsteps pounding against the pavement behind me, catching up. I run way past the school, shoving past people walking by with "sorry!"s. That is until I slam face-first into something.

I breath in the scent of the soft fabric, relieved that my marathon is over. Then, I realize that I ran into a person. Whoever it is seems awfully familiar.

"Are you okay?" He asks nervously.

I look up into his eyes. Those same warm eyes that I fell in love with. Beomgyu couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

He wraps his arms around me, slowing down the thump thump thump of my heart. Time seems to slow, the people passing around me fading into a bokeh blur. I can only see him, and his dark, sparkling eyes passing over my face. Like he's making sure I'm okay. Is he? His gaze is wide, eyebrows knitted. He seems panicked, and he's also out of breath. Did he run here?

Then, his eyes shift to the two girls chasing me.

"Are they... following you?" He asks.

I nod quickly, "We gotta go"

He grabs my hand. As we're running, he looks back at me and gives me a smile. We go past buildings and houses, into side streets and alleyways. Until they're long out of sight. I'm not sure where we are now, in some neighborhood I don't recognize. Finally, we slow down to a walk.

"Beomgyu, where are we?" I laugh.

He exhales, "well, I know it seems like the middle of nowhere, but I swear this leads to my street"

"Your street?"

"Well we still have to finish our project, don't we?" He joshed, "you didn't show up to our study session today"

"Yeah, 'cause some girls were harassing me about you! Don't blame this on me" I ranted.

"Okay, okay" he laughed, "wait, about me?"

"Yeah, those two girls. Minji from our English class, and her friend's name was... Sara? I think"

He faltered, "wait, why were they chasing you, anyways?"

"Well, I was just trying to walk home after school-"

"Walk home? What about our study session?"

I pursed my lips, "I forgot"

He groaned, "Okay, continue"

"So, I was walking home, and they stopped me and tore me away from the sidewalk into this weird alley. Then, they began telling me off for talking to you today because I was 'ruining Sara's chance', and I was like, 'what does that have to do with me?'" I told, "So, after that they began threatening me. So I began running. And I just so happened to run into you!"

He seems to take it much more seriously than I try to, "they threatened you?"

"Well, they just started telling me how 'he won't be my man for long' and stuff. Then they were rolling up their sleeves, and, I don't know! Why would they act like that? Weirdos..."

All of a sudden, he's pulling me closer. As I wrap my arms around the thick material of his sweater, I find myself tearing up in his embrace. The unwanted interaction did hurt me, I guess I've spent a long time trying to pretend nothing ever did. But... he sees me. Better than I even do.

"Please tell me when anything like this happens," he breathed, "I don't want anything happening to you"

I cry, burying my face into his sweater. He just keeps holding on.

"I'm worried, beomgyu. If they do that just from me talking to you, how far are they willing to go?"

He separates from me, holding me by the shoulders, "then you call me"

He looks at me, and if I didn't know better, if I didn't have years of experience telling myself that he would never love me, I would say that he did. In his eyes, he looks like he loves me.

He swore, "I'll always protect you. You're one of the most important people to me right now, I...

I need you, Y/N. I need you to stay safe"