𝐈 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 » 𝐍𝐢-𝐤𝐢 | 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝟏

xxii

Walking through the hallways, I could feel everyone's eyes on me. They look at me head to toe followed by whispers. I kept my head down low trying to ignore what's going on around me.

It wasn't that different when I arrived in our room, it was the exact same scenario. They would stare me down and whisper with their friends, some would even smirk at me.

"Luna, you're here" Soohee whispers. She was carefully looking around which confused me a little bit.

I put down my bag, sitting down next to her. "Hey" I whisper back "what's going on?"

She looks around once more then looks at me. "You don't know?"

"If I already knew I wouldn't be asking you"

She stands up and motioned for me to follow her, so I did. We went to the garden, there was no one there. Soohee checked before sitting next to me.

"Everyone was giving me weird stares earlier" I say "what is happening, exactly?"

I don't know why but I feel nervous as to what she's about to say. I could feel my heart beating fast.

She holds my hands and sighs. "Luna" she starts.

I kept silent, my heart was about to burst out of my chest. I could feel my hands were starting to get cold.

"There are rumours going around the school"

"What rumours?" I asked. I want to know what it is but at the same time I don't.

"I don't know who started it and how but it got around pretty fast"

"Just get to the point"

"Word around said that you slept with some of the seniors, Yoojun, Jb, Cris and some other names were dragged around"

"I did what?" I shout.

I don't even know any of the names she mentioned. Who the heck are those people?

"There's no proof but people believed it" She says.

I slowly massaged my temple. How did this even happen?

"I think you should tell your mom about this" she says which caused me to look at her.

"She's just gonna tell me that it's my fault" I sigh.

"I'll help you explain, if she doesn't listen or do anything then let's tell it to our teacher"

I would rather wait for this rumour to die down but then again it would be hard for me. I might die first before this rumour does.

"Okay, fine, whatever"

**

I felt uncomfortable the whole day. Students would look at me and I could tell that they were disgusted. How could they possibly believe that rumour with no proof?

At the field, I sat down under a tree, far away from others. I sat behind it and made sure no one could see me, not even Soohee. I'm pretty sure she's looking for me but that doesn't matter.

Everyday it's getting harder. I want to drop out of school but they would just think I'm running away from all the rumours, they probably think it's true as well.

"What are you doing here?"

I stood up out of shock. "You scared me!" I say, putting a hand on my chest.

I turned to see who it was, how did he find me here?

"Oh, I'm sorry" he laughs awkwardly as he scratches his neck.

I sat back down putting my head down low. I waited for him to leave but he did the opposite of what I wanted, he sat right across me.

"So what are you doing here?" he asks again.

"Hiding, isn't that obvious?" I chuckle.

"Why?"

"You probably know why, I'm the talk of the school"

"Oh, that weird rumour"

I leaned my head back on the tree behind me. I tried looking at him but for some reason I found it hard, my eyes were wandering everywhere trying not to make it land on his.

"What, you don't believe it?"

"Nope" he says, popping the 'p'. "I'm sure you wouldn't do something like that" he mumbles but it was clear enough for me to understand.

"Seo Yena" I say, tho I wasn't looking at him I could tell he was looking at me. "Why haven't I seen her around you lately?"

"Oh uhmmm" he says trying to find the right words to say.

"You broke up huh?"

"What? No no!" He says frantically waving his hands around, by the tone of his voice I could tell that he was shocked. "We're not even dating"

"So she lied, should've known" I sigh.

The awkwardness slowly creeped in. I wanted to run away from him but I had nowhere to run to. If I run back to our room, I would meet the glares and whispers of others. I guess it's better if I just stay.

I can't believe it. Ni-ki, the person I wanted to avoid the most was sitting right in front of me.

"Are you okay?" he suddenly asks.

"Yeah" I lie.

Sure, I'm okay. I received death threats, rumours about me are spreading, the person I'm trying to move on from is sitting right in from me and is having a conversation with me, totally fine.

"You know, if you need someone to talk to, I'm just around" he says softly. "I will always be here for you"

I looked at him and through his eyes I could tell that he was saying the truth. I opened and closed my mouth, I didn't know what to say. This was not the Ni-ki I was used to.

I heard running from behind me, the students were returning to their classes.

"O-oh look the bell rang, see you later I guess" I say then instantly walked away, leaving Ni-ki behind.

Saved by the bell.