Stigma #3 » k.th ✓

nineteen

continuation . . .

"Good morning," The very next day, Jimin started acting differently. More perky than usual around me. He only usually shows me that side of him when we’re alone, I guess things are better for him now. Confident enough to show everyone we were dating. He offered me a flower and I ended up stashing it inside my locker since we had classes.

"Thanks," was all I could say for that time. I wasn’t a morning person. "We should really get to class now. Come on!" I decided to make the first move to make things less awkward for me, then we pulled up our seats in his Dad’s class, Mr. Jung. A literature teacher.

"How come I never see you two walk home together?"

He hesitated, lowering his head in the process. "I don’t like my dad too much." I distinctly remembered how he never mentioned anything fun he did with his Dad. But they weren’t a broken family, either. "He left me and my Mom once. Then he came back. I didn’t like it one bit."

"I'm sure he had his reasons. Did he ever tell you why?" I grew concern while the man we were talking about was lecturing right in front of the room. I could feel his gaze on Jimin, as if watching him to see if he was paying attention.

"I didn’t care to listen."

"Jung Jimin?" Both of us raised our heads to look at the teacher, who was now tapping his foot on the ground and his arms folded across his chest, trying to quiet us down. "Please do pay attention in class. This is very important; simply attending physically won’t suffice, alright?" Mr. Jung smiled at the very end of his short advice then continued to his lesson for the day.

"I mean, it was kind of our fault.." We were walking in the halls together. And I felt his hand trying to hold my free hand. I moved away a bit to avoid it, but he still took it in his. We breathed out at the same time. It actually felt nice. Maybe he just needed some comfort. The smile didn’t change the fact he was embarrassed from our classmates, and by his known Dad at that. "You okay?" I asked as he stopped by my locker.

"Yeah, let’s just get ourselves some fresh air, what do you say?"

I nodded, placing my stuff inside my locker. It can wait. Then he held my hand again and we went back to our old spot, or so we thought was only ours. We were taken aback only to see Park Mingyo making out with Soon Hee; I don’t really know her, except that she’s the leader of the cheerleading squad which somehow makes her popular. I could see Mingyo’s hands under her blouse. We were in danger. If they stop and see us, we could be screwed over. So I tugged on Jimin’s hands to avoid that situation, but he, maybe he was enraged at the fact someone was disrespecting our place, rushed over only to be seen by the two.

"Ah, Jimin-ah?" Mingyo chuckles, wrapped his arm quite roughly around her waist, fondling something behind her. Of course I knew what it was. Too obvious. She was trying not to squeal. "What’s a guy like you doing at this part of the school? Wanted to have some fun now, huh?" And he dug through her hair, kissing her neck right in front of us. Then he sees me standing behind Jimin and a smirk all of a sudden crawled to his lips. Jimin pulled me behind him to protect me. "Now, I see what’s going on."

"What do you want?" Jimin was fast enough to talk and be done with him at the moment, knowing Mingyo could possibly beat both of us up to keep this a secret between the four of us.