Her Bully | BBANGSAZ

T H I R T Y T H R E E

M I N J I
—

"Are you ignoring me again?"

I sigh and continue to rewrite my History homework as Hanni approaches me on the bleacher stands outside of school.

She's holding a bunch of papers, which I assume are needed for our English project that the hot Spanish male substitute teacher assigned us.

"Oh? Not going to answer that question, huh?" she mutters, sitting down beside me as she groans and dumps the wads of paper on the step behind us. I flip to the next page.

"We have so much to do on this English project—plus, you have to tutor me soon before that Zoology test."

She continues talking, not allowing an ounce of silence to surround us. I roll my eyes and push my stuff further away from her, following along.

Hanni scowls as she scoots closer to me again.

"What did I do to piss you off?" she asks, eyebrows furrowing as she tightens her high ponytail before looking through our English paper requirements.

Not wanting to stay close to her today, I stubbornly pack up all my stuff and swing my bag over my shoulder, catching Hanni's full attention as she waggles the paper in front of my eyes.

"Uhm, hello? English project?"

Steadying myself on one of the chairs, I turn to Hanni and give her a slight glare.

"Thought you didn't like working with a freak?"

I shoot back, not bothering to wait for her reply as I jump down a couple of chairs—until my feet touch the grass.

"What?" Hanni gasps from above just as I fix my shoes and start to walk again.

"Are you seriously pissed off because of that?" she asks back like it was so absurd of me to feel that way—her voice coming closer as she follows behind me.

I decide not to reply to her, but she's pushing my buttons so hard.

"Look, I have word problems, Minji." Hanni rambles as I feel her getting close to me as we slowly approach the school doors.

"It's like my mouth's a train wreck—a born sailor; it just won't stop cussing."

Rolling my eyes at her childishness, I smirk upon coming face to face with the school doors, knowing full well that as soon as I open these doors, Hanni's going to back off of me—because, and I quote, "I can't talk to you in school; it's social suicide."

So, as soon as I push the school doors open, I rotate my head a little bit to the back in order to stick my tongue out at Hanni as we are suddenly surrounded by tons of high school students.

Her voice loses itself as she stares at the crowd with an open mouth, obviously frustrated with the fact that she can't explain herself to me as to why she called me a freak. I laugh at her situation, waving her off when I see Haerin and a new friend of ours, Lee Hyunseo.

"Hey guys." I greet them, smiling widely at Hyunseo, who's a transfer student from a school near us because her parents found better work here.

She came about two weeks ago, and a week after that we started to be friends.

Haerin waves, and Hyunseo grins at me. "Hey Minji, finished your homework?" she asks, closing her locker as we start to walk down the rowdy hallways of the school, all three of us frowning when we come across one of the students tripping over a cardboard sign, making him fall flat on his face against the wall.

Nodding, I lick my lips.

"Yeah, Hanni came over to talk about the English project, but what I didn't tell her is that I'm almost done with it." I rant with a few hand gestures, watching as Haerin scoffs and Hyunseo just giggles along.

"Why don't you just work with her? She obviously wants to work on it with you." Hyunseo mumbles as we stop by the cafeteria doors.

I frown and shake my head.

"Working with Hanni Pham might as well be me signing myself over to the devil." I grumble as we line up in the food line.

Haerin fake gasps and covers her mouth.

"Whoa, can this be real? Has Kim Minji finally stopped being in love with Hanni Pham?" she jokes, nudging me on the shoulder as I blush hard.

"Shut up." I mumble, tucking a loose strand of hair shyly as they both giggle at me like fools.

"I still couldn't believe it when Haerin told me you were hooked on the head cheerleader." Hyunseo adds, clucking her tongue.

Haerin slaps her on the shoulder and waggles her eyebrows.

"Believe it, Hyunseo—this best friend of mine has the weirdest fetishes."

"It's not a fetish." I mumble, smiling at the lunch lady as she hands over my tray.

"Besides, can we not talk about Hanni?" I ask, shifting my body in an uncomfortable manner as I let out a long, deep sigh.

Haerin gives me a concerned look and backs away.

"Okay." She says, nodding her head.

"Why not tell us where you and Ahyeon are going tomorrow night then?"

Hyunseo squeals and shrugs her shoulders up. "That's a great gossip. Is it fancy? Dinner? Tell us."

I smile at their ridiculousness as we take a seat, peeling off the plastic from our sandwiches as Hyunseo practically sits on the edge of her chair for the details of my date tomorrow.

"Just a simple dinner, nothing too fancy." I tell her, licking my lips in hunger at the food before me.

Hyunseo rolls her eyes and sips on her fruit drink.

"Unfortunately for you both, but in my school, 'simple dinners' are usually the biggest gossip."

Haerin chuckles and scrunches her face up.

"Well, you're in a new school, Hyunseo. Get used to it." She replies, grinning from ear to ear.

Looking at both of them, I absentmindedly scan the cafeteria for any signs of something interesting to see when my eyes land on Hanni and Ryujin, talking animatedly to one another with the biggest smiles on their faces.

I feel my own smile drop as I watch Ryujin lean forward and wipe a drop of ketchup from the corner of Hanni's lips and lick it off of her fingers.

Hanni's glaring at her, and Ryujin just gives her a wink.

Sometimes I'd like to think I'm jealous of their relationship. It's almost like it's okay for Hanni to act that way towards Ryujin but to any other girl, it's the most horrid thing ever.

Take me for example: she can't even speak to me without freaking out about anyone catching us together.

But thank the heavens the rumors about Hanni's breakup with Yunjin went around again, though it's also one of the talks of the town weeks ago—like they were ever really together to begin with. Still, it's refreshing to hear she's not tied with another girl.

Then my eyes shift to Ahyeon, who's beside Hanni, and it seems like she feels me staring at her because as soon as my eyes land on Ahyeon, she turns to me and blushes, smiling softly with a cute wave as I giggle and wave back shortly.

She mouths the words "Hi," and I can't help but roll my eyes playfully, smile at her, and mouth it back to her.

She's been laying off, which is good if she wants to start dating me because I actually want to start liking someone else besides Hanni.

It's hard, but I'm getting there too—like how Hanni's getting there for being a better and nicer person.

Tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, I mistakenly catch Hanni's piercing gaze as she stares deeply into my eyes, holding a stare that I've never seen before. I gulp and turn away, doing everything I can to get away from her hypnotic orbs.