Chapter Text
Since the incident with Jeni and Minhyuk in front of her apartment, Seokhoon has become very protective of Rona. He was afraid that Jeni and Minhyuk's threat was not just a threat. Almost every day Seokhoon convinces Rona to live with him in the penthouse, his mother strongly approves of the idea. However Rona stubbornly rejected Seokhoon's offer. With a heavy heart, Seokhoon accepted Rona's decision with his wants considered by her: he can accompany Rona any time in her apartment. Rona did not realize that the word 'anytime' means every time, even Seokhoon sometimes desperate enough to stay overnight before being kicked out by Rona.
While at school, Seokhoon never left Rona alone even though the situation now turned around where Jeni and Minhyuk were bullied and other students saw Rona as a 'goddess' that should be worshipped. They realized that dealing with Shim Suryeon's son and someone who 'rose from the dead' was suicide. They saw that someone who could and was brave enough to fight against his father was not someone who could be challenged. Seokhoon and Rona are now being labelled as The Power Couple of Cheong A.
Seokhoon saw his girlfriend who was taking off her helmet. It's been a month and a half since they came back to school, and Seokhoon was grateful that despite everything that happened, Rona was still the Rona that he knew. While other students now see Rona as someone who was respected and feared, Rona was indifferent to her popularity. She only replied politely when someone greeted her, but if other students who had bullied her greeted her and talked to her, Rona ignored them.
"Don't you have any extra piano lessons later?" Rona asked while giving the helmet to Seokhoon.
"Yes, but I'll pass it." After tyding the helmet on his motorcycle, Seokhoon grabbed Rona's hand and the two of them walked together towards the class.
"Why?"
"I have to take you home"
Rona stopped her steps, "Joo Seokhoon!"
"Hm?" Seokhoon pretended not to see the annoyance shown on his girlfriend's face.
"Stop being overprotective!" Rona started to raise her voice
"Rona.."
"I can go home with Seokkyung. Why do you have to make things more complicated?"
"What's complicated?" Even though Rona started raising her voice to show her anger, Seokhoon still replied to her with his soft voice.
"Ah never mind! I'll just go home by bus." Rona irritatedly walked quickly ahead of Seokhoon.
"How can that be? I can easily stop you." One of the advantages of Seokhoon's long legs is that he could catch up with Rona with only two steps.
"I'll run to the bus stop before you know it." Rona didn't look at him and was still walking fast, looking annoyed because when she walked fast, her handsome boyfriend walked very relaxly.
"Rona, even if you run I can catch you before you get to the bus stop in seconds" Seokhoon teased her.
"I'm serious, Seokhoon!" Rona stopped again and looked intently at Seokhoon.
"..."
"Don't miss that extra lesson, I can go home with Seokkyung."
Seeing the sincerity radiating from his girlfriend's eyes, Seokhoon sighed "Okay, but remember.. you really have to go home with Seokkyung. I will tell Seokkyung not to stop anywhere."
"Hmm" Rona nodded with a smile. Then they continued walking towards the class hand in hand.
***
"YOU ARE REALLY A WELL-SUITED COUPLE!"
"WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IF TWO OF YOU ENDED ON THIS LEVEL?"
"HAHAHAHA"
The sound of laughter and mocked came from a group of students in the class. Seokhoon almost walked in angrily, thinking that what was being talked about was him and Rona. But the sight they saw was (once again) Jeni and Minhyuk who were getting bullied.
"Geezz, really? How come you guys haven't changed at all?" Seokhoon turned his head towards his small girlfriend walking towards the crowd of students and stopped (once again) the bullying from Minhyuk and especially Jeni.
“Bae Rona, don't you want to see what Jeni and Minhyuk are doing with your table? They secretly put this under your table.” Ahn Eunhoo showed a small doll with its head half off.
Seokhoon was surprised to see it and grabbed the doll from Eunhoo's hand.
"Which one of you did this? ANSWER NOW!" Seokhoon shouted in front of Jeni and Minhyuk.
"Seokhoon, stop it!" Rona tried to restrain the boy she loves before he does something she doesn't like.
"I told you, it's not me. It's up to you to believe it or not" Jeni looked at Rona with annoyance and without fear.
"Yes! It's not us, you think you can accuse us without evidence?" Minhyuk replied innocently.
"I believe Jeni didn't do it, but you..Minhyuk.." Seokkyung who had been watching the commotion from her desk walked towards Minhyuk and cornered him ".. I can't believe it's not you."
"What if it's you? You pretended to find it but it was you who put it down and accused us?" Jeni looked at Seokkyung.
"What?" Seokkyung turned her attention from Minhyuk to Jeni.
"You heard what I said." Jeni rolled her eyes.
"YAH! Yoo Jeni! I defended you but you chose to protect this useless boy and accused me? Wow!" Seokkyung said disbelief.
"Well, what's wrong with me accusing you? After all, you once hated Rona. It's hard to believe for you to suddenly side with Rona, especially now that your brother pays more attention to Rona than you." Jeni countered her cynically.
Smack!! Jeni was being slapped by Cho Bomi before Seokkyung could do anything.
"And look at you! You who previously sided with Rona now hate her because of your mother's mistake. You are even sadder!" Cho Bomi roasted her which was followed by nods of approval from the other students.
Rona, who saw Jeni being slapped immediately rushed towards Jeni.
"Are you all right, Jeni?" Rona checked Jeni's face but Jeni pushed her against the table.
"Don't touch me! I'd rather be slapped than touched by you".
Seokhoon ran towards Rona in order to help her stand. Jeni was again cornered and got attacks with more harsh words.
"Wow! You're a really pathetic and ungrateful human being." Seokkyung returned to her seat.
"Stop! Stop! Just leave Jeni alone, I'm begging you." Rona's low voice stopped their voices attacking and bullying Jeni.
"Rona!" Seokhoon looked at her in surprise.
Rona walked towards Jeni, she said "I know you hate me, hate me as you like. But for your information, I still think you are my friend." Rona then sat on her seat leaving Jeni speechless.
The class then fell silent before Minhyuk closed it with a mock "You're such a saint, are you?" to Rona and walked over to his seat which was now in the corner. Seokhoon looked at him annoyed. If not because of Rona and he's an old Seokhoon, Minhyuk already got beaten by him.
***
The school bell, a sign that school is over, already rang a while ago and Rona promised to Seokhoon to meet him in the piano room before going home. While tidying up the music paper, Seokhoon had called her several times but was not getting picked up. Then Seokkyung entered the room.
"Eh? Rona hasn't come yet? I thought she was here." Seokkyung looked around, searching for a person.
"What do you mean?" Seokhoon's fear started to arise.
"She was already left right after we got out of the toilet, she left her phone. I was already in the car and waiting for her but you kept calling her, so I came here." Seokkyung showed Rona's phone.
"How long?"
"Around ten minutes maybe, I ..." Seokkyung didn't have time to continue her words because Seokhoon grabbed Rona's phone and ran towards the door which was suddenly being opened.
"Ah sorry!" Rona was surprised to see her boyfriend behind the door.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??" Seokhoon asked her in a loud voice, angry.
"Seokhoon-ah" Rona looked at him scared.
"I ask, where have you been?" Seokhoon, who saw his girlfriend getting scared because of him, then slightly lowered his voice.
"I stopped by Ms. Lee's room, she asked about the homework assigned to me."
"How could you carelessly leave your phone? You don't know how worried I am? There are still many people who hate you and expect you to be harmed. I'm amazed, you can still be that relaxed while here I am worrying about you." Seokhoon vented his frustration by ruffling his hair.
"Oppa! Stop it!" Seokkyung tried to intervene before they got into a bigger fight.
"You too!! Why didn't you make sure Rona was in this room? Why did you have to wait ten minutes to go here? You should have to make sure she's here right away!" Seokhoon turned his anger towards his younger sister.
"What do you think I am? Don't try to put your fears on me!" Seokkyung replied irritably.
"Forget it, I didn't expect you to do these things. Until now you may not have realized that I was like this because of your mistake. Maybe what Jeni said was right, you secretly still hope Rona gets hurt." Seokhoon glared at his sister.
"OPPA!!"
Smack!! The sound of skin being slapped makes the room become quiet.
"SHUT IT JOO SEOKHOON!" Rona shouted to him after she slapped Seokhoon which surprised both Seokhoon and Seokkyung.
"I'm tired of your overprotective behavior. Apologize to Seokkyung now!"
"Rona.."
"I said now !!"
When Seokhoon was still silent.
"I'm so disappointed in you!" Rona looked at Seokhoon, frustrated.
When she watched Seokhoon still fall silent, Rona looked at Seokkyung and said "I'm waiting for you in the car, don't go before your stupid brother apologizes to you." Rona took her phone and walked towards the door.
"And don't worry, I'll ask Seo ahjussi to tell you when I get into the car." With that Rona left the room.
***