| mara's point of view

"Your hands are sweating." He leaned down slightly to whisper in my ear as we enter the school building hand in hand.

"I know." I whispered back nervously, seeing the looks on the faces of baffled students when we passed by their lockers. "They're looking at me. It's making me nervous."

"Ignore them." Taehyung spoke against my ear, his hand holding onto my waist, making me more uncomfortable. "They can only look at you 'cause they can't touch what's mine."

Taehyung led me through the crowd of students in the hallway. They were all talking about us; how I became his new accessory. I was a nobody in school before this happened. I like to think of myself as a wallflower. I'm comfortable in being one because I never liked being the focus of attention but I figured that by playing this game, I was putting myself out there.

We moved only a year ago and I haven't established any meaningful relationships since then. Everyone had their own circle of friends when I transferred schools here so I was the lone girl in class. I didn't give it much thought since I was used to it by now. We have often moved from town to town because of my mother's work. She was the head of the psychiatric unit in the previous hospital she worked in, everything was good for us but something happened. Something had to happen and it brought a huge change in my life. My dad filed a divorce and we had to leave the house. My mom asked to be re-assigned and after a number of custody hearings, my mom won me over. She brought me with her and we ended up here.

"I'm going in now." I told him as I let go of his hands. I wiped my sweaty hands on my skirt, "Sorry about my hands."

"That's okay." Taehyung replied. He tucked my hair behind my ear, his hand slipping past my neck down to my shirt's collar. He undid the first button of my blouse.

"What the hell are you doing?" I slapped his hand away and clutched onto my collar, hiding the skin that he revealed.

"You need to show something for us to be convincing. They'll never believe I'm dating a good girl." Taehyung flashed me a smirk before his hand returned to my collar, undoing the second button. Taehyung breathed in my neck, "Try being a bad girl for once."

"Stop messing around." I pushed him away and he laughed, catching me off guard when he stole a kiss on my cheek.

"See you at lunch, babe." He bit his lip and sent me a wink before he left.

I sighed, calming myself down as I walk to my seat. The whole class was talking behind my back but they pretended to be ignorants when they chose to keep their gossips into silent mode.

"Were you just holding hands with Kim Taehyung?" One of my classmates poked my back to ask me the most idiotic question ever. "So like are you together now?"

"Yeah." I nodded my head.

"Well that escalated quickly." She said, smiling at me, "No offense but I'm really curious.. How did you do it?"

I stared at her for a second, "Do what?"

"You know, get Taehyung to be your boyfriend." She whispered closely.

I told her to come closer. When she was close enough, I cupped her ear and told her my secret, "I was forced." I joked and she miraculously believed it.

She had a weirded out look on her face when she pulled away, "Are arranged marriage still a thing in this generation?"

I almost laughed but I controlled myself and returned my attention to the front of the classroom when the teacher waltzed in. Behind her was Bethany. I didn't know we have the same class.

"That's Taehyung's ex girlfriend." The girl beside me said.

"I know." I told her without taking my eyes off Bethany. She looked exactly like what Taehyung was trying to turn me into.

I smiled, seeing that she also had two of her buttons open on her uniform. She wore her skirt extra short and her hair extra high up in a pony tail.

"She's really pretty."

"I know." I told her again. Bethany and I met eyes. I could tell that she already knew.

"Take your seat, Bethany." The teacher said as she prepared for class.

Bethany passed by my desk, gazing down at me. She smelled of cinnamon and all the sweet things I hated. I was expecting of her to do something but she didn't. I guess she was better at manners than most girls at this school.

*

"So you already met my ex girlfriend?"

I turned to my left and saw Taehyung standing beside me while I return my books to my locker. "Yeah. What a great way to start the week."

"And? What do you think?" Taehyung asked. "She's pretty, isn't she?"

"Yeah and she also cheated on you." I rolled my eyes at him. I didn't like Bethany and I know she didn't like me either simply because I was now dating Taehyung. That's like trying to pick a fight in bitch language.

"Pretty girls are not the type to stay." Taehyung became serious all of a sudden, "That's why I want to make her regret cheating on me. I want her to tell me that she should have stayed with me."

"Why are you so stuck up with her?" I asked him, throwing him a side look, "Do you really love her?"

"No." He made a face, "I just don't like people going around saying that a girl dumped me."

"Oh. So it's an ego thing, huh." I clicked my tongue and Taehyung began to stare at me. "What?"

"I'm just thinking.." He said, his eyes never leaving my face. "About when we should start kissing."

"Never in a million years." I deadpanned. Taehyung laughed loudly, making everyone in the hallway focus their attention on us. I glared at him but it had no effect on him whatsoever, instead, he did the most unusual thing.

"I'm joking." He said as he patted my head softly, "but you know, you'll have to kiss me eventually."

"Don't worry. I'll try to avoid doing that with you as much as possible." I smiled back at him when he frowned.

"Fine." He deadpanned. "But just know that you're missing out on a huge opportunity here."

"Yeah. Kissing is probably like the milestone of every girl in this school." I said as I lead the way out of the building.

Taehyung smiled, catching up with me easily, "Don't you want to be one of the lucky girls? I might even consider dating you for real."

I laughed and raised my hand up to his face, "Please."

"What? You don't find me attractive?" Taehyung continued to bug me. "Seriously. You've been saying no to everything I say. I know I'm not ugly."

I tied my hair in a pony tail before turning to him, "You're attractive, I know, but I already have someone I like so you don't have the same effect on me."

"Yoongi?" Taehyung and I continued to walk, "What do you like about him? He doesn't do anything."

"There's something that I really like about him. You won't understand even if I tell you." Without noticing it, I was smiling to myself because I was reminded of how I came to know Yoongi.

"What is it? Try me." Taehyung was utterly confused when I refused to tell him what my reason was so he continued to pester me until I saw Bethany and her new boyfriend headed in our direction.

Taehyung wasn't aware of it, not until I took his hand and intertwined my fingers with his. Even without him telling me, I knew what I should do so I put on a plastic smile and laughed spontaneously that Taehyung was utterly lost for a moment.

"Bethany." I muttered between my teeth, "At nine o'clock." He was going to turn around but I stopped him, holding his face in both of my hands, "Don't look."

"Is she looking at us?" He whispered back.

"Yes." I replied, "Hold still. They're going to pass by us."

Taehyung suddenly leaned down on me, our faces so close together that I thought he was going to kiss me but he didn't. Instead, he wrapped his arms around my waist sweetly and hugged me just in time. When he pulled away, Bethany and her boyfriend had already passed by. She glanced back at us for a fleeting moment as if she was already regretting ever dumping Taehyung for that boyfriend of hers.

"You thought I was going to kiss you." Taehyung latched his arm over my shoulder and smiled.

"No." I said but my heart was still racing inside my chest from the way Taehyung held me a minute ago.

"Liar." He cupped my face in both of his hands, "Your face is so red."

"I-It's because you hugged me all of a sudden. I was surprised.." I said, feeling embarrassed for stammering, "That was my first experience of having a guy hug me and to think that it was because we were making your ex girlfriend jealous made me feel pathetic."

He laughed at my sentiment, "Well, we could always make it real.. You just have to say the word."