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12
Baby Steps

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JISOO

"Don't touch her."

Taehyung's growl is accompanied with a fierce gaze, his whole demeanor a juxtaposition from the cheerful and lighthearted Taehyung I'm used to.

"Bro, let me get my payback, this is none of your business. And you've never been rejected so you have no idea how I feel."

I can only stand there uselessly as I watch the two guys send eye daggers at each other. Why is Taehyung sticking up for me?

My insides are screaming at me to do something--anything, but I can't move.

"You know what, let's go." I don't even have time to do anything, for Taehyung leads me away from the group of kids, breaking me out of my paralyzation.

Somehow, his hand effortlessly finds mine as he pulls me through the halls.

I stagger behind a bit before finding a comfortable walking pace. It's silent, since he's bringing me to a quieter area of school. It's only after a long moment that one of us speaks up.

"Does it hurt a lot?" he asks, voice strained as if he wants to say something but he can't.

"I'm fine."

"Bullshit," he chuckles, and to my surprise, he seems... annoyed? "I'm bringing you to the infirmary."

"What? I said I'm fine. I don't need that!" I shrug out of his grasp.

"Jisoo," he sighs, "I'm doing my very best to remain calm right now but it's hard to when you're literally bleeding through your shirt and keep saying that you're fine!"

Now that he mentions it, the part of my arm that was pressed up against the corner of the locker does hurt a lot. Upon a quick inspection, blood is seeping through the fabric of my shirt.

"No protesting." He grabs my hand again, much more urgently this time.

His hands are really soft.

When we make it to the infirmary, I'm ushered to a chair, and he immediately finds his way through various cabinets of medical supplies.

"Why are you being nice to me?" I finally let the question out as he grabs a box of band aids.

He turns to me, not hesitating to answer.

"Because you're my friend."

I'm speechless. He senses this, and for the first time today I see him smile. He carries a handful of supplies and crouches down to my knee. The box is hastily opened, and he pulls out some various supplies.

"Friends help each other out, worry about each other, and care about each other," he explains, using cotton to disinfect the slightly bloody bruise from earlier today.

I thought he hated me.

An overwhelming amount of relief rushes through my veins. It's silent for a few seconds as he tenderly dabs the disinfectant one last time; it tickles my skin.

"And I care about you, Jisoo. A lot."

Taehyung looks up at me so sincerely that I'm caught off guard. I've never seen this side of him before.

After disinfecting, he barely presses a sticker bandaid on the scrape, being sure to not irritate the bruise surrounding it.

What do I say? How do I respond? Did he really just call me his friend?

So many thoughts are going through my head I barely comprehend what he says next.

"Take off your clothes."

He looks dead serious.

"What the fuck?" I breathe out.

My question is a combination of repulsion at his request, and an overall feeling confusion from this whole conversation.

It takes him two whole seconds to realize what he had said.

"I didn't mean it like that!"

Taehyung stands up and faces away from me in embarrassment. Usually I'd laugh, but I can't bring myself to because I'm still in amazement. I'm his friend.

He sighs, "What I meant was, I need you to take off your jacket so I can see the wound."

"Ah, that makes sense."

Although I try to keep my voice calm, I'm a bit hesitant to show him the wound. I don't know how bad it is. It hurts to move my right arm so I wince a bit.

Taehyung is instantly at my side, his own hands going to the collar of the jacket, it being halfway down my arms. He grimaces when he sees the wound, but doesn't say anything.

We both haven't realized how close he's gotten to me and as a result, we're nearly face to face when he looks up.

Wow.

His eyes. They seem... familiar. I've seen them before, but not on Taehyung. I can't put a face to it, but they are captivating me as I scan his features.

I didn't notice it before, but he has really nice skin. There's a tiny little mole on the tip of his nose too. His adams' apple bobs as he gulps, and I feel him let out a warm exhale that tickles my cheeks since we're only a few inches away from each other.

We're so close.

"We have a bleeding student!"

Just like that, Taehyung and I repel from each other like magnets with the same poles. Taehyung even coughs a few times as if he's trying to break the previous tension.

The school nurse rushes over to my side and examines the injury, "Oh god, if this cut were any deeper I'd have to call the ambulance! What happened?"

"There was a group of people who were--"

"I fell," I interrupt Taehyung, who sends me a flabbergasted look.

"You fell?" I nod in response. She sighs, "I'm going to get some proper first aid material, not... whatever this gentleman brought here."

I look at the assortment of cartoon-themed band aids on the seat next to mine and chuckle. He really thought a Hello-Kitty bandaid would cover my gushing cut.

The school nurse heads to a supply closet door, "I'll be right back."

With that, Taehyung and I are left in an awkward silence.

"Why didn't you let me tell her those kids were bullying you?" He's frustrated again.

"Uh... I don't know?" I offer with a shrug because I truly don't.

He rubs his temples, "Jisoo, you have to stop letting other people do as they please, especially if it's at the cost of your health."

Taehyung gently places his hands on my shoulders, and I can only stare in shock.

"I know you say you don't care about what other people think or whatever, but don't let them get what they want. They want a sense of superiority."

I take in his words for a moment.

Is he referring to those kids or Joy?

Wait...

That's it!

Joy wants to feel superior to me! If I stand up to those bullies, then I can weaken her. That's how I do it! The next time someone looks down on me, I just have to clap back.

"Hello? Earth to Jisoo--"

"I'm back!" The school nurse announces, hurrying to my side with a box of medical supplies. "Young man, I appreciate your concern, but it's about time you head back now."

We all look at the clock and class is about to start.

"Alright I will," he breathes dramatically, standing up to leave, "Thank you, ma'am." He bows politely to the nurse.

"No need to thank me. This is my job."

"Take care of Jisoo, please." Is the last thing he says before leaving.

TAEHYUNG

I tap my foot for the entirety of class.

If anyone's noticed my anxiousness, they haven't said anything. Class is usually a nap time for me because I've learned all of this stuff before; I've been practically forced to go to cram school since elementary.

But today, I'm wide awake.

Our last class is almost over and Jisoo still isn't back. The wound was hella deep, after all. I'm not only nervous about that, however.

When our faces were almost touching, I could've sworn that she was looking at me with something else in her eyes. She was examining me, inspecting me, almost as if she were trying to find something.

To add on to all of that, I still have to figure out what to do with Joy.

Everytime I'm around her, I get that nasty feeling again. Yoongi never went over in detail how to deal with tainted people who have non-physical desire to harm others.

"Just make them sad or something. Anyways, that's probably not going to happen so I wouldn't worry about it too much."

Really helpful, Yoongi.

It took me every cell in my body to not march directly up to Joy and tell her what an ass she's being, but I know she isn't herself. She's not only tainted, but Sungjae talked about her going through a really bad experience a few weeks ago. I have no idea what it is, so I shouldn't judge her.

I made the mistake of judging people too quickly with Jisoo already.

As if on cue, Jisoo meekly opens the door and walks inside. The teacher acknowledges her briefly, and continues on with wrapping up the lesson.

I mouth to Jisoo, "Are you okay?"

She shakes her head yes before sitting down and trying to act unbothered. It's funny how I've learned to read her over this past month.

It would've gone unnoticed before, but now I can catch her constant glances all around the room. I see the way she bites her lips every now and then. She's nervous for some reason.

"Alright, class dismissed!"

As soon as Mrs. Lee leaves the room, students get up and gather around in their respective social groups.

One social group being a select number of girls who have it out for Jisoo. I didn't think that they'd want to mess with her further after I intervened, but I'm wrong.

"Jisoo, I hope you enjoyed your time with Taehyung. I don't know what you did to wrap him around your fingertips, but once we're done, no one will want to be with you."

The brown-haired girl and her little minions circle around Jisoo's desk, one of them purposely shoving Jisoo's injured shoulder.

Okay, that's it.

She did nothing to deserve this, and I'm hanging out with her on my own will. Can't people get that in their head?

I'm about to march over there, wanting to wipe the devilish grin off of the girls' faces, but instead, Jisoo shoots up to her feet.

Jisoo steps up to the brown-haired girl, and despite being shorter, Jisoo's intimidating gaze instills fear in the girl.

"When you're done with what? I'd like you to elaborate. What will you do?" Jisoo challenges.

The girl gulps, her friends coming to her side, "We'll let you know how it feels to be the one getting bullied. You'll know how Joy felt."

The words are weaker than before.

"Oh really?" Jisoo scoffs, "And how do you know how Joy feels? Did Joy ask you to bully me or are you doing this on your own account to make yourself feel better about yourself?"

All eyes are on the girls in the middle of the class. Even Jimin, who I gave a hellish scolding to this morning, stares in shock at the scene instead of being glued to his phone like usual.

"Y-you don't know me! Don't assume why I do things!"

"Yeah! We're the victims, not you!"

As the girls protest, Jisoo grabs her backpack and carefully puts it on before glaring at them.

"You're the victims, huh? Then why am I the one getting mean notes in my locker? Why am I the one with a bleeding gash on my arm? Why am I the one—"

"Because you did it to Joy first!"

Jisoo huffs in frustration and takes a firm step forward, the girls taking two steps back.

"I know that you won't believe me no matter what I say, but I swear on my brother, that I. Never. Bullied. Joy."

I'm beyond shocked at her change in demeanor. Only hours ago, Jisoo let them do whatever they want. I'm ecstatic to see that she's sticking up for herself, but also extremely confused about how suddenly it happened.

"And this bull crap about—" She makes air quotes with her hands, "—letting me know how it feels or whatever, is utterly ridiculous."

Jisoo starts to head out of the classroom, and the girls are rendered speechless, along with everyone else in class. Jisoo makes it to the door, but turns around one last time.

"If anything, doesn't that make you worse? You're stooping down to an even lower level by doing that."

"I, y-you--"

"Again, believe whatever you want. But I'm not going to let you walk all over me anymore."

With that, Jisoo slides the door open, coming face to face with a bewildered Joy—whose expression is a mixture of fear, shock, and hurt.

The girls look rightfully embarrassed, and the class starts whispering about the scene that just unfolded.

A feeling of relief floods me.

The last time I cried actually wasn't long ago; it was when I had another nightmare about the shooting a few nights ago. Yet, I'm still surprised when I feel tears prickling at my eyes.

She did it.

She stood up for herself.

Honestly, I'm not even sure if she did it because she recognized her self worth, or if she just got annoyed. Pride bubbles up in my chest nonetheless.

It's baby steps, but it's something.

Author's Note:

This chapter was almost 5000 words but I decided to split it so that's why this chapter is so short compared to the others lmao. Anyways, I'm so excited to share my little yoongles and jin drabble(by little, I mean little. 600-700 words)!

As always, thank you so so so much for reading! You are loved!

<3 lalalalala7fire