Can You Help Me?

What? Who?

Wrong.

"I mean look at her! She doesn't exactly have much going for her..." Their words kept swirling through your mind throughout class. You just couldn't seem to focus your mind on anything else. You tried doodling, thinking about your plans for the weekend, hell even paying attention to the monotonous words spewing from your professor's mouth, but despite your efforts to immerse yourself in something else your mind just kept wandering back to their harsh tones of disbelief and disgust.

Usually this sort of thing wouldn't really get to you. you never really saw much of a problem with your appearance. I mean, sure you weren't primped to perfection every day but its not like you weren't presentable for god's sake. But lately you've been questioning if maybe you should put a little more effort in. Sometimes you worried about what Taehyung would think of your appearance. You knew he didn't care about how you dressed or if you were wearing makeup or not because the two of you were just friends and in that case it shouldn't matter to you what he thought of your appearance. You had been friends for more than four years now, he's seen you at your best and at your worst so what did it matter? Besides, he was always complimenting you saying how adorable you were when you were mad or really excited about something and how he loved your laugh because it made him giggle "because it's such a cute and cheerful sound" and how he admired how "you somehow manage to keep it together even when you're afraid or in a rough situation."

You shaded the upper right hand corner of your paper with soft, absentminded strokes of your pencil as your mind now wandered to what he'd said earlier...

"You know i think you're adorable..." you felt butterflies in your stomach as Taehyung's voice echoed in your head, a feeling you were quite familiar with since you'd been feeling it for the past month or so every time he said something sweet to you or smiled at you with genuine happiness. You weren't sure why you suddenly felt this way after being friends with him for such a long time. His compliments never made you feel flustered before; you didn't think you actually had feelings for Tae. He wasn't the first thing you thought of when you woke up in the morning or the last thing you thought of at night like in those love stories. And there were times when he got on your last nerve. Sometimes his bubbly and upbeat personality simply felt annoying when you were mad about something and didn't feel like accommodating his positivity. You never lashed out on him though because you hated conflict plus you never wanted your shitty mood to drag him down. Usually you would just stay quiet and he would give you some space once he picked up on your silence and distance, knowing you just needed some time to calm down and think. Anyway, you figured maybe the reason you were feeling this way was because you had never been in a relationship before and Tae was the only guy that actually gave you any attention. It was just a little crush that would wear out soon enough.

"... Just... In your own way" your eyebrows furrowed remembering Tae's full statement. "You know i think you're adorable... Just... In your own way." What did he mean by that? Did Taehyung think you weren't pretty? "... Just... In your own way." Was that his way of saying you weren't quite good enough?

"... Just... In your own way."
"I mean look at her!"
"Is that his girlfriend?"
"... any of us could easily steal him from her."
"She doesn't exactly have much going for her..."

Snap! You were hurled out of your thoughts to see the led of your pencil had broken against the desk under the increasing pressure of your hand.

Taehyung glanced over at you from beside you with a raised eyebrow, silently asking "you okay?" You gave him a weak smile and shrugged it off and he nodded slowly, turning his attention back to the front of the classroom but still eyeing you slightly.