home, jaemin

it was weird, taking a seat next to the one person at the table that didn't seem to care or have any emotion except pure annoyance towards her.

but she didn't really care anymore.

truth be told, she didn't really hate jaemin. he was merely just a critic for everything she did but he never made it seem like he meant it in a way to hurt her feelings, purposely.

his girlfriend, on the other hand, was quite a different story.

"jiyoung, how come you've arrived late?" renjun asked, drawing all the attention to a tired jiyoung.

"guess i'm just not feeling too well," she admitted in mumbled words, crossing her arms onto the table and laying her head down.

she thought that coming to school wouldn't be too bad but in reality, she had never felt worse than right now.

it felt like her body was purely crumbs and the simplest little breeze that comes their way could knock her over in mere seconds.

her friends all gave each other worried glances. they had noticed the shift in her attitude and how she was no longer in her normal outerwear.

"should we ask what's wrong?" nayeon whispered to jeno ever so quietly, not wanting to upset jiyoung.

the older male straightened his posture, staring intensely at jiyoung before shaking his head in a disapproval manner.

"no. from what i can tell she seems very weak right now. i'm not too sure. jaemin?"

the two earth bending friends had a gift for things like this. something inside of them making it easy for both of them to easily tell if someone were ill- mentally, physically, or spiritually.

the blond boy looked up at his best friend with bored eyes but shook his head.

she should be left alone.

and so they did so. instead of their usual upbeat lunch, jiyoung stayed quiet with her head down. until twenty minutes passed and there were a few boys walking up to the table.

they seemed nervous, each of them fidgeting with one another as they presumably picked someone to ask a question.

the group of eight watched with weird eyes, unsure of where the interaction was going up until they saw one of the boys tap on jiyoung's shoulder.

she was reluctant at first but lifted her head. her eyes naturally squinted at the suddenly brightened lighting and burning sensation from her contacts.

"yes?" she asked softly, ruffling her hair a bit in the process to keep it from looking weird.

the boy who tapped her shoulder shuffled forward, carefully sticking out his phone as his friends huddled behind him.

"u-uhm. sorry, my, um, friends and i were wondering if we could have your number or something?" he asked quickly and with multiple stutters.

jiyoung nodded, too tired to actually talk. somehow she had felt even more drained than before coming to school yet she hadn't even done anything.

the boys thanked her after she put in her phone number and ran off to wherever it was they came from.

the table had kept silent as the encounter took place, everyone either going crazy in silence or absolutely flabbergasted that anyone would come up to the clearly tired girl without any remorse.

jiyoung turned back to the position she laid in before, unbothered with what had just taken place even though her head was killing her.

"that was...interesting," renjun remarked, earning a smack against his bicep from nayeon. "what?" he complained in a defensive tone, not seeing anything wrong with his sentence.

"shut up, she doesn't feel good and you'll make her feel uncomfortable idiot." nayeon said quietly through gritted teeth.

although they'd only known each other for a short time it would be simple to see nayeon was very protective over the younger girl- seeing her as a little sister.

renjun nodded, not up for a debate and knowing she was right.

jeno tightened his arm around nayeon's tense shoulders- emitting a comforting aroma and ultimately making a very concerned nayeon calm down a bit more.

in truth, seeing jiyoung like this was definitely nerve-racking on her part and she was sure to make a mental note of asking what was wrong later on. for now, she would just let the girl be.

to her side, jiyoung was unknowing to the fact that the blond boy was scowling at the table of underclass-men that had just come up to her.

he couldn't find it in himself to tell if he just felt somewhat bad that they came over to her at the state she's in, or if it's because of that same foreign feeling in his chest that showed up when he met jiyoung. or rather, glanced at her presence.

i'm watching the grinch right now guys 😎