I Want To Be Near You

"Cha Ji Ah, are you going to reject my heart too?" Ji Ah felt him turn to her. "What is this?" He said. "We know that your hair are pretty and all, but you don't need to flaunt them like this."

She knew he was referring to her hiding behind her hair, but she only turned her head away more. "Go away."

The next events happened in just a few moments.

Young Do tried to deliberately brush her hair out of her face, and his fingers grazed against her cheek. Ji Ah flinched away at once, pushing his hand away, but Kim Tan had already lunged at Young Do across the table, and seized Young Do's collar in his hand to yank him to his feet. Ji Ah also sprang up with a gasp.

"Don't touch her." Kim Tan growled in Young Do's face. The cafeteria had gone deathly silent and Ji Ah knew everyone had their eyes on them.

However, Young Do looked like he just won lottery.

He howled in ecstasy.

"What is this?!" He grinned at Kim Tan. "I only touched her hair and you flipped out. Why?"

Kim Tan stiffened in response.

''I would like to see your reaction if I touched more than that." Young Do smirked in a devilish way, raising his eyebrows smugly. He went on to give Ji Ah a sly look, and she almost shrunk back. Her hands began to quiver faintly.

Kim Tan jerked at Young Do's collar, snapping his attention back to himself. "You have stepped on the line."

"I plan to go further too." Young Do was evidently provoking him.

Ji Ah felt tears burn behind her eyes. She didn't want them to fight. As a person growing up in a violent enviroment, Ji Ah detested violence.

She grabbed Kim Tan's hand balled around Young Do's collar. "Let it go. He's provoking you intentionally." She said with a faint trembling in her voice.

Kim Tan didn't look at her; he was glaring at Young Do.

Young Do on the other hand, looked amused. "She is smart. No wonder I am into her."

Ji Ah almost cringed. She walked out to Kim Tan's side, and tugged at his arm because he looked like he was about to punch the amusment off Young Do's face. Kim Tan and Young Do stared each other down for a few seconds before Kim Tan let go of Young Do's collar roughly. He grasped Ji Ah wrist and stormed out of the Cafeteria.

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Kim Tan paced back and forth in front of the lockers, looking ready to murder someone --preferably Choi Young Do.

"Avoid him." He suddenly turned to her. "As best as you can."

Ji Ah nodded with wide eyes, clasping her shaking hands together, but Kim Tan noticed.

He averted his eyes. "He is picking on you because of me. Try to stay closer to me so that I can protect you."

Ji Ah gazed up at him with watery eyes. "Don't." She said.

Kim Tan looked back to her.

"Don't protect me. I know it hurts you to see me... and it hurts me to see you too." Her voice dwindled, as she looked down. "Let's see each other less."

Ji Ah sniffed once, before brushing past Kim Tan, without seeing his shaking eyes.

Her last three sentences were exactly what Cha Ji Ah had once said to him.

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Ji Ah thought that was it for today. But Rachel cornered her outside the school doors, under school grounds.

"Your first day here and you already have Kim Tan and Choi Young Do at each other's throat." She sneered at Ji Ah.

Ji Ah frowned at her. "They were at each other's throat even before I stepped into the picture."

"I am warning you for the first and last time." Rachel slightly raised her eyebrows under the bush of hair on her forehead. "Leave this school. I don't want to see you around Kim Tan."

Ji Ah pursed her lips. "Do you think Kim Tan and I can't see each other outside of the school, if we want to?"

Rachel expressions morphed into a haughty disbelief.

"But don't worry." Ji Ah said. "I want to avoid Kim Tan just as much as you want me to. Be it in school or outside it."

She hurried past Rachel towards the school gate.

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Mr Seo briefly called at night to inquire about her first day at school.

"It was good." She lied.

"Very well." He replied from the other side. "Are you taking your medicines regularly?"

"Yes." Ji Ah said, getting up from counter and placing her dirty plate in the sink.

There was a small pause then he asked. "And did you meet Kim Tan?"

Ji Ah halted while taking her coat off the hook on the door. "Yes, at the school."

She had decided earlier to not mention her actual first meering with Kim Tan.

"At the school?" He repeated.

"Yes," Ji Ah said, feeling a tinge of nervousness.

"Alright," He said. "Bye then. I have to go."

"Bye."

Ji Ah wriggled into the coat and pulled on her gloves before leaving her apartment for a short walk outside.

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Kim Tan: easily avoided.

Choi Young Do: avoided with difficultly.

Rachel: easily avoided.

People asking her the same questions as Choi Young Do: avoided with difficulty.

Ji Ah closed her notebook, sitting in a corner of library, away from everyone. The day had been uneventful so far, and Ji Ah hoped for it to stay that way till she was home safely.

She picked up her stuff, and left the library to head to her locker.

As she fumbled for a textbook in her locker, Ji Ah felt her cell phone vibrate. The Bike Creep glowed on the screen. Ji Ah sighed, and turned around, while contemplating picking it, just to find Young Do standing right in front of her.

She gasped, and drew back against the locker, nearly dropping her phone in shock. "What are you doing?!"

Young Do leaned forward, and placed his hand on the locker beside her. "Why aren't you picking up?" His lips were curved upward, but his eyes were menacing.

Ji Ah blinked several times at him with wide eyes, and dug herself more into the lockers, hiding away her phone's screen immediately.

"Why are you calling when we are at the same place?" She decided to turn offensive instead of defensive.

Young Do eyed her phone once before smiling flirtatiously at her.

"Why? Would you rather see me in person?" He said huskily.

Ji Ah scoffed. "Please move."

Without warning, Young Do snatched her phone out of her hand.

"Ya!" Ji Ah cried, lunging for her phone, but he raised his hand high, and Ji Ah only managed to grasp air.

"The bike creep?" He arched a brow at her.

Ji Ah pouted in irritation.

"Damn, I didn't even do anything creepy. Do you know how many creepy things other guys do?" He furrowed his expressive brows in fake offense.

"I don't want to know. Please, give me my phone back." She reached for her phone again, but he moved it out of her reach.

"Let me change my name." He began typing in her phone. Ji Ah was about to argue, but realised he wouldn't leave her alone if she didn't let him do it.

He finished and held out her phone back to her. She almost snatched it from his hand, like that day, and thrust it into her pocket.

Ji Ah moved back to her locker, and pulled out her textbook before shutting it close. She ignored Young Do, as she stalked in a direction with her textbook clutched to her chest, but Young Do wasn't going to ignore her. He joined her, matching her footsteps with his.

"Where to?" He tilted his head, speaking in a fake sweet voice.

"To hell." Ji Ah replied with frostiness. She had not forgotten the things he had said yesterday, but she had pushed back the fear for the time being. If she didn't want Kim Tan to protect her, then she needed to do it herself.

Young Do gave a deep amused chuckle. "You wouldn't suit there. That's a place for people like me."

"At least you acknowledge that." Ji Ah said drily, staring straight ahead.

Young Do grinned in amusement beside her.

"I was wondering if you didn't have a tongue, now I know you do." He mocked.

Ji Ah shoot him an annoyed look before pushing open the classroom door, and stepping in.

To her disappointment, Young Do sat on the desk next to her. She was glad there was a significant distance between desks.

More students filled in, along with a teacher, and the class began.

Out of her peripheral view, Ji Ah could see Young Do glancing at her every now and then, though she didn't glance back at him.

When the class ended, she shoot out of her seat, and battled her way through the students to reach library. She flopped down in a chair, and gazed about her suspiciously. He hadn't followed her.

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Ji Ah woke up panting and threw off her blanket. She still felt suffocated, so she shakily pulled off her shirt and her pajamas. She had left the light on, and she could see 4:36 am on the clock at her study table. She placed her feet down on the floor, and gazed down at her terribly shaking hands and battered fingernails. She was trembling all over.

Her landlady shouted something from upstairs, but Ji Ah couldn't make out what, as she reached over to her side table and picked up the medicine bottle that her psychiatrist had prescribed for her. Therapy had not helped so far and the psychiatrist had only diagnosed her with mutiple disorders.

She edged closer to her side table, and poured herself a glass of water. Ji Ah gulped down a tablet to calm her nerves, and placed a hand on her thundering heart afterwards.

There were new additions to her nightmares. Some people she could recognize, some she couldn't. But one thing was constant.

His dead open eyes.

They were never going to leave her alone.

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Ji Ah was walking nonchalantly to her locker with her hands tucked in her pockets when she saw the crowd gathered around a commotion. It sounded as though someone was being slammed against a locker repeatedly. Despite what happened to her on the first day, Ji Ah didn't learn her lesson. It was more out of worry than curiosity, though, that she went forward, and saw Young Do and the glasses guy, whose name she had learned was Moon Joon Young.

A bad tempered looking Young Do was slamming Joon Young into the locker repeatedly. Ji Ah felt her anxiety rise as the sound of Joon Young being harshly slammed into the lockers, echoed in the hallway.

Young Do hovered over Joon Young in a frightening menace. "Did you think I wouldn't find out if you reported anonymously?" He said darkly. "I have been so nice to you, then why are you being so hard?"

Ji Ah looked at the end of the hallway, hoping to see some teacher or staff, but there were none.

Young Do straightened up and waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, Joon Young-ah," Young Do drawled in a derisive manner. "Forget everything else. Just how many times do I have to remind you that your father may pick his calls, but my father's secretary picks my father's calls." Young Do seemed like he was scolding a child.

Ji Ah scowled vaguely to herself. What was so boastful about the wealth his father had? What was Young Do's doing in it, anyway?

Joon Young seemed to be thinking along the same lines for he was glowering fiercely at Young Do from under his huge glasses. His breathing was ragged, and his nostrils were flared, as though he were holding back his anger with great difficulty.

"Why do you make it hard for yourself?" Young Do mocked, as he tossed Joon Young's head sideways roughly with two fingers. Ji Ah grimaced. "See, now I have to --" He did it again. "-- do this to you with everyone watching."

Joon Young's glare, and his breathing intensified while Ji Ah felt horribly apprehensive.

"What? Do you want to say something?" Young do scoffed. "Look down." He smacked Joon Young downwards on head, tossing his face down, however Joon Young looked up again. Young Do continued to slap his head and order him to look down.

However, Joon Young had been on the edge, and he exploded with anger that must had been bottling up for a very long time.

Gasps sounded around the hallway, as Joon Young gave a war cry and pushed Young Do away abruptly before stricking him sharply across the face with his school bag.

A dealthy silence fell over the hallway after this.

Young Do slowly turned his face, and touched the bloody cut on his cheekbone in a kind of daze.

He gave a dark chuckle upon seeing blood on his fingers.

"You hit me?" He said in a conceited disbelief, then widened his eyes menacingly at Joon Young. "Do you want to die?!"

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Currently, I have only one follower of this story: i.bite.you.519.

And I want to thank them. Thank you i.bite.you.519 for following and reading.

:)

~Fawns