Stranger

.SEVEN.

Silver Valley School of Arts
________

Jennie sat quietly at her usual table in the cafeteria. For the past few days, she often found herself zoning out of conversations and thinking of Seojun and what happened last weekend.

"Unnie? Hello, you there?" Rosé asked and Jennie slowly looked around at her friends.

"Okay, you've been like this for the entire week now. Please tell us what's wrong, we're worried about you," Jisoo said and put an arm around Jennie.

"But if you won't wish to share, what can we do to make you feel better?" Lisa added.

Jennie took a deep breath, "... I... I really don't think I should talk about it."

"She's been like this since last weekend... you said Seojun took you out for dinner, right? Did he take advantage of you because I'll beat him myself-"

"No, Jisoo unnie. It's not Seojun's fault," Jennie said and calmed Jisoo down.

"He hasn't been around for a week as well... was he in another fight?" Lisa asked.

"Was he expelled?" Rosé asked.

"Stop asking questions, it's none of our business anyway," Jennie suddenly snapped and crossed her arms. The three girls shared skeptical looks with one another.

"Unnie... Do you think Seojun... likes you," Rosé said and her and Lisa laughed.

"Yah, don't joke about that," Jennie replied.

"So you like him too then?" Jisoo said and everyone began to tease Jennie.

"This isn't making me feel better," Jennie said.

"Oh, oh! Seojun," Lisa joked and pointed to the table Doyun was at.

Jennie looked over and moved around to see if Lisa was telling the truth.

"Aha, so you do like him?" Lisa said then Jennie got up to run over. "Wait, where are you going? Seojun's... here?"

Jennie ran and stopped a few feet short from Seojun who sat on the bench with his head hung low after coincidentally walking into the cafeteria. Doyun was silently gesturing for her to leave but she ignored him.

"Seojun," Jennie said and Seojun didn't move.

His head wasn't in bandages but he wore a cap on his head. It wasn't the BlueJays cap that Jennie still had in a bag in her locker, it was a plain black Adidas hat.

"Are you okay?" Jennie said and set a hand on Seojun's shoulder.

He brushed her hand off. "Go away. Leave me alone," he muttered and kept his head down.

"Jennie, you should really go," Doyun said and gave her a look of desperation that begged her to leave.

"Seojun..." Jennie said sat down next to him.

Seojun turned her head towards her and said, "Please, just go."

Jennie wrapped her arms around his shoulders and Doyun panicked because Seojun usually reacted badly whenever Chaewon tried to do anything like that. But this time, Seojun stayed still and Jennie helped him rest the side of his head against her.

"What the hell is happening...?" Doyun mumbled to himself and to Jennie's friends who came over.

"What the hell is going on?" Chaewon shouted and the entire cafeteria was taking notice. "Seojun!"