ultraviolet

twenty three

CHANGE OF HEART

~

I FRANTICALLY SLIPPED HOSEOK'S phone into the small pocket of my skirt as I enter the classroom, and as expected, everyone was fucking rowdy: chit-chatting with their friends, making out with their temporary significant other, or chucking scrunched up wads of paper at those they despise across the room. I was so disgusted at how these students acted, I could feel my breakfast slowly begin to yuck up from my stomach. Swallowing hard, I make my way towards the other side of the room where the chairs and desks sat along the far side wall with the window that stretched from the back wall to the front of the classroom. I squeezed myself through the aisle in attempt to reach my desk in the back corner, zeroing in my attention towards the tile floor to avoid eye contact with the surrounding students—especially Taehyung, who I was obligated to sit beside.

"(First Name)-ah!" Taehyung called out. Raising my face, I welcome his warm, wide-teethed grin, replying with a discreet, slight wave of my hand just below my shoulder, my elbow pressed against my side.

In a moment's notice, the tardy bell dispersed throughout the school, filling the air with its thin—but piercing—soundwaves from above. Gasping under my breath, I hurry over to my chair in the back corner, flinging my bag off of my shoulders and hanging it on the plastered hook along the side of my desk. Just as I sat myself down, a violent buzz emitted from Hoseok's phone within my pocket. I gander down at my skirt, about to dig my hand into my pocket to sneak a quick glance at the message, though as I hear the class begin to quiet themselves down, I gaze up with only my eyes, watching the teacher prepare himself at the front of the room through the curtain of fallen tresses before my peripherals. As he continues to rummage through his brown, leather courier bag, I slowly raise my face and run my fingers through my hair in attempt to act as natural as possible.

"Alright class," he began, sighing, "take out your notes from yesterday, we will continue where we left off."

I sigh of relief, though I expected it in a way being as though I'm placed at the very back of the classroom. Ugh, it bothers that I can't read the message. However, I feel so guilty knowing all of this between Hoseok and Jungkook. Then again, I'm involved in what they were saying. But, I don't want to get hurt.

"Who the hell is Ahn Jieun?" I unconsciously mutter under my voice as I reach over to the side to dig into my bag.

"What did you say, (First Name)?" Taehyung interrupted, whispering roughly as he stooped to my level.

I tensed up in my seat, staring down at the floor. My hands were frozen, and as I begin to hear the class's ruckus begin to die down, I hurriedly thaw my extremities and fish out my notebook and pencil bag, throwing them atop my desk. Sitting up straight in my seat, I confidently reign ignorant to Taehyung's corncern as I flip through the pages of my notes, though the droplets of sweat discharging from my fingertips and moistening the paper tell otherwise. With a slight adjust of my head and out the corner of my eye, Taehyung stared down at his spiral with a pair of pouty lips, slouching back in his chair with one hand in his pocket and the other twirling his mechanical pencil inbetween his index and middle finger.

Curiosity's got ourselves in a dangerous game, huh?

~

"(FIRST NAME)! HOLD UP!" Taehyung called out.

I stopped in my track before I had left the classroom, whipping myself around to face Taehyung who was dragging his feet as he slightly jogged toward me. "Shall we walk to class together?" he grinned, his wide teethed smile overwhelming my system. What's this all of a sudden? I thought. Taehyung hadn't passed a note or spoke to me throughout the whole class period. He didn't even look my way. Why the hell is he so bright and happy now? However, since his expressions are just too irresistible not to respond to, I couldn't help but return one back, though a feeble one filled with sympathy and melancholy. I nodded my head, and with that, the two of us exited the classroom.