You walk through the halls after school, making your way to your car slowly. You take time to finally enjoy the silence and emptiness. It's bittersweet for you to roam these halls. You feel that you really could have grown to love this school and truly appreciate it. That is, had you actually had a normal life, rather than one riddled with slander and misery. Sighing to yourself, you look down at the ground and begin stepping on only certain shades of brown tile. 

Suddenly, being caught off-guard, a strong force managed to send you plummeting to the ground. You fall hard onto the marble underneath you, letting out a hiss of air as you make contact. You try to pick yourself back up to see who had thrown you in the first place.

You laugh sadly and halt as you realize it's Ji Hyun, as always. Her long legs barely covered with her shorts, her s popping out of her shirt, and her bleach-blonde hair curled into ringlets. You wonder how she manages to pull off that outfit when you get in trouble if you get caught wearing mismatched socks.

"How have you been, Eun?" She made a vague attempt at sarcasm which, to you, just came off as stupidity.

"I've been better." You let out your words in a restrained growl. You wished she would just disappear, at least for a couple lifetimes.

She smacks her lips, "Being cavalier as always. Why were you talking to that boy today? What was his name? Chanyeol?"

You sigh, of course she's fighting you over a boy, "I ran into him this morning and he was friendly, so I was friendly back. Why?"

She glares at you for a long while, intimidating you in a way, "He's mine, you dumb !"

You flinch back slightly, momentarily thrown off by the harshness of her tone. She was really beginning to irritate you, and you felt a sudden urge to finally put her in her place. But, instead, you turn away in one swift movement. You had decided you didn't care anymore. "Whatever. You can't just treat him like property, but whatever. Do as you will, just, please leave me the alone already."

She stomped in place behind you, "You're nothing Eun! You're just the daughter of a-!" You put your headphones on before you could hear anything else.

Luckily, you had just turned a corner so that she couldn't see the tears welling up in your eyes.

The start of your car's engine hadn't ever brought you as much joy as it did that day.

----

The next day, you and Chanyeol only conversed very slightly during your two classes together. You put very little effort into your chats with him and stayed pretty distant. But, despite this, he kept talking to you. You couldn't quite figure out what he wanted, but a part of you was sort of glad that he wasn't giving up on you so easily.

At lunch, you sat at your same table. On it was freshly written insults. All directed at you. All in pink sharpie. You pinched the bridge of your nose in respone, cursing under your own breath. You covered up the graffiti with your tray of food and ignored it to the best of your abilities. "Jesus, they're aren't even clever anymore..."

After spacing out for quite a while, you looked up and noticed Chanyeol being swarmed by the same girls as before. Only this time, he looked worn out and what you assumed was annoyance. For a quick moment, you accidently make eye-contant and you instantly turn your head hoping he didn't really see you.

But, he had.

Chanyeol practically skips to your table, pretty much throwing off the other girls, even going to the toruble of dimissing them to their own respective tables.

You find yourself embarrassed for the first time in a while as he plops down on the bench, sitting just across from you. Smiling, he says, "Hi! Why are you by yourself over here?"

His head tilts slightly and you just shrug, "I just like to eat alone, is all..." You avoid looking into his eyes as you say so, while in your peripheral, you can see him frown a little. He knew quite well that you were lying.

"Um, listen, you can tell me if-" He tries to get you to tell him the real reason, but as you begin to furrow your eyebrows, he stops.

"I have nothing to tell you. I just like to eat alone." Then, in order to avoid any additional contact, you pick up your food and walk off.

He grabs your wrist, but you free yourself quickly, throwing him a glare. He reels his hand back and you walf off, to try to find a new spot to eat for the day.

Inside, you feel disappointed with yourself. He was only trying to be friendly. You feel guilty for leaving him like you did, with a sharp tounge and fierce glances, especially because you realize he's starting to really grow on you.

But, Ji Hyun's warning comes to mind. "He's mine"

It replays in your head over and over again. 

You sigh and rub your shoulder and feel the pain of it's newly forming battle scar.