Aera grabbed her bag and yanked her hand out of Heeseung's, running out of the classroom. 

She wasn't sure how she felt. Upset, by that terrible girl who'd ruined her day. Annoyed that Heeseung came to her rescue, when she'd wanted to handle it herself. And yet happy that he had come. She felt tears of frustration and confusion building up in her eyes, but she clenched her fists and took a deep breath, forcing them to subside. 

Someone came to her side, taking her bag off of her shoulder and swinging it onto their own. 

She opened her mouth, ready to yell at Heeseung, but the words stopped when she saw who it was. 

Sunghoon. 

"Mind if I walk with you?" 

She tried to kill her smile. "I don't mind if you walk with me, but I'd like my bag back," she said sternly, holding out her hand. 

"I'm trying to be a gentleman." 

She laughed. "You suddenly being so nice is suspicious," she said, grabbing onto her bag and trying to get it back. But he wouldn't let go. She laughed, pulling harder. "Give it back, please," she complained, smacking his arm.  

"Give it back to her." 

Aera looked up, her eyes meeting Heeseung's. She immediately felt her face flush, and that annoyed her. 

"It's... it's alright," she said, suddenly stumbling over her words. "We were just joking around." 

"Why are you upset?" Sunghoon said coolly, raising his eyebrows at Heeseung. 

"Give it back to her," Heeseung repeated. 

"What?" Sunghoon said, smirking. He tilted his head at Heeseung. "You actually like this one? Or will you date her just to drop her next week? Like this," he said, opening her book bag and demonstrating by dropping all of its contents onto the floor. 

"Hey!" Aera yelled, looking at him in horror. "Why would you do that?" 

Sunghoon shrugged, tossing her bag on the floor with everything else. "Why not?" he said, walking away. 

Aera desperately wanted to chase after him and give him the beating of his life, but she couldn't. All of her stuff was on the floor because of that jerk. 

Heeseung crouched down beside her, helping her pick her things up. 

"Are you okay?" he said gently, taking hold of her hand. His eyes were gentle. "About earlier and... now." 

She wanted to tell him to go away. To stop playing with her feelings. But looking into his eyes, he seemed sincere, and she sighed. 

"I'm okay," she said gently, pushing his hand away. "Thank you." 

***

A/N

At the end of each chapter of my The Boyz reactions book, I've taken to doing song recommendations. I'd like to do that here today, if that's alright. 

The song I'm recommending is Memories, by Wooseok and Eunsang. It's beautiful. It makes me cry and laugh at the same time. It hurts but... like I said, it's beautiful. If you choose to listen to it, I hope you'll like it too. 

https://youtu.be/6lsSjwW4Dr0