park jinwoo ; ethereal [ ✔ ]

chapter 8 ; the incident and healing

Jinjin and I ended up spending most of our Saturday watching T.V. in his house before he drove me home. Then I spent Sunday doing nothing except avoiding Bin. I felt bad, and I did respond to one text (he asked me if I was okay and where I was but all I told him was that I was fine and not to worry because I with another friend), but I otherwise ignored all his texts to me.

But I can't avoid him now since it's Monday. Meaning school and half of my classes being with him. I hurry into the school and manage to make it to my first period without running into anyone I know. However, when I did look around in the halls, people were kind of staring at me. I can't tell if they were whispering about me or whatever, but I'm definitely a little more self-conscious now.

When I take a breath to ready myself to meet with Bin for the day, Minhyuk is rushing into the classroom. He must've run from somewhere far because he's panting a little and resting on the doorway partly.

"Why are you so out of breath?" I gaze at him as I ask the question and then I look at the teacher at her desk, also staring at the tired boy. I bow to her in awkward apologies before I give Minhyuk a little push just outside the room. "What do you want?"

"You haven't heard what happened, have you?" he's finally starting to catch his breath and he's standing up straight now. I stare at him with the most confused expression ever. "God... This is gonna be shit for you."

My stare hardens and I put a hand on my hip, "Are you going to tell me or not?" He's usually mean-looking and rude to me but he's actually looking at me with sympathy— like he feels sorry for me. I let my hand fall to my side again and I furrow my brows with some anxious feelings.

Minhyuk's gaze flits away and he rubs a hand on his face while his other hand goes on his hip. "Jesus... I'm so sorry Emily. This is my and Eunwoo's fault." Then he's grabbing my wrist (not as roughly as last time) and he's pulling me away. I allow it only because I'm so curious as to what's so wrong.

"Where are you taking me?" It's the first question to leave my mouth since he'd started walking, keeping me behind him.

He remains silent so I fall silent as well. He only stops when we get to the main lobby of the school and where (probably) half of the school population is currently gathered. They weren't here before. I begin to panic. They all stared at me and were smirking, snickering, and whispering to each other. Some of them even pointed. Minhyuk scowls and shoves me behind him for real this time, turning for a moment to look me in the eyes. "Whatever you do— don't let go of my hand. This is a one-time thing too, so don't go getting any ideas," he lets go of my wrist so he can grab my hand as he speaks. Still an ass even during a serious situation.

Then he's pushing through the crowd, making a semi-path for us to get out of the building. I glance back with a frown. What exactly happened to where everyone is talking about me? Minhyuk continues to lead me out and we stop by Eunwoo's car. "What are we doing here?"

"You won't survive school today, let's just say that," he replies but isn't looking at me, sighing as he crosses his arms and leans against the car with his eyes narrowed at the school. "I'll explain once Eunwoo gets here."

And so I stand in silence awkwardly with Minhyuk. There's no hostility in the air, which is a surprise. Just calm silence.

Finally, Eunwoo shows up and he's breathing kind of hard. He's also holding onto my schoolbag. He takes one look at me before shoving the bag into Minhyuk's chest and clinging to me. His hug is pretty awkward and very unexpected, but even so, I hug him back. "Are you okay Emily?" he questions me, pulling back from the hug to put his hands on my shoulders. I give him a frown of confusion.