by the sidelines • haechan

twenty seven

My face fell immediately upon her words, with the immediate thought that they were doing something so despicable. But I couldn't base my assumptions on just a few words.

Haknyeon nudged her hard on the shoulder as she winced in pain, before he took over. "Don't listen to her, she's just being brainless as always."

This triggered a stronger reaction from the girl, who retorted back, "Don't try to throw me under the bus, you were in it too."

He scowled at her in annoyance. "I've never said that, you're just making this more confusing for her." He glanced at me warily, shooting another glare at the girl as if forcing her to shut her mouth. He was right, that conversation was making me more sceptical than ever, but that girl cut me off before I got to intervene.

"Am not! What's so wrong about betting on a match?"

It took all of us a second to process what was just said as the girl covered her mouth immediately and shifted her eyes to me. Haknyeon, too, whipped his head around, his eyes about to bulge out of its sockets as he fought to explain. But I beat him to it.

"You guys were... betting in my match?" I questioned, my voice rising with uncertainty against the noisy background. As much as I wished that wasn't true, or that I heard them wrongly, both of their reactions practically gave it away.

"It was a joke, Yoojin," Haknyeon pleaded, reaching his hand out as I stepped back instinctively. I don't know why I did, but somehow his decision to tell the truth burned my insides, even though he could've denied it.

"A joke that you were part of, I thought you knew better." And with that, I marched out of the gym, keeping my eyes on the ground until I reached a familiar stairwell and collapsed onto the steps. There was a strong explosion of emotions in me, a mixture of denial, confusion, anger and betrayal.

A joke? Sure, it may have been a light topic that had been thrown around carelessly, but what bothered me the most was that they played around the outcome of my match. No word can describe how damaging to one's pride that can be.

Not only that, Haknyeon, of all people, should know not to mess with someone's dignity. That was where the betrayal fell in. I don't know if it was purposefully or accidentally, but just the fact that he was involved in it made my blood boil. Why would he agree to such a thing?

Then again, that girl may have put words into his mouth and he just admitted it out of panic, which was the small amount of regret left in me when I stormed out. Ugh, this is why I said everyone here was sketchy.

I leapt to my feet in frustration, clenching my fists as I paced around the empty stairwell, annoyed that I had nowhere to vent all these feelings. With my top about to blow off any second, I stomped on the nearest wall with my foot, so hard that the impact sent me flying back. A small amount of satisfaction rose in my veins.

I kicked the wall again, this time with my bare instep, letting the throbbing pain in my foot overthrow the anger in my whole body. Loving the relief it brought, I swung my leg harder, faster, impacting the wall with greater force each time until a reddish swell formed on it. Right now, the pain was the least of my concern.

My frustration was slowly dissipating with each kick, a sudden rush of excitement taking over as I admired the huge bruise on my instep. It seemed to be working incredibly well that I didn't hear the footsteps approaching from behind and suddenly, my foot impacted the soft cushion of a giant, red target.

I whipped around in shock, coming face to face with someone I least expected to be here.

"You want another injury?" Donghyuck asked monotonously as I retracted my leg from its position, suddenly embarrassed from the earlier episode. I didn't answer immediately, which gave him the chance to adjust the target until it sat on his hip. I looked at him in wonder.