Taehyung Kim...

Kim...Taehyung...

His face was implanted in my head and I just wanted to scream.

What was he thinking?

There were rumors. Rumors of the heir to the all powerful V Group who ruled the empire we lived in. So many rumors were true and so many weren't that I had no idea what was real and what wasn't.

I sighed as I stared at Mia's picture. I never was for using the school website or the app. It was all gossip and so I never deemed it necessary.

I had been wrong.

Fuc...k...Mia had been lying to me all this time but I wasn't mad at her. I was mad at the perpetrator.

His name...Taehyung Kim. He was the reason why I was avoiding Mia.

Now I was avoiding Mia because of the noticeable bruises but that wasn't he only reason why. It was because it would keep Mia safe from the bullying. That was why I was avoiding her, for her—and for me.

I couldn't see it anymore. This was me helping Mia. I couldn't stay still anymore, not to Mia getting physically hurt and having to go through that shit.

The day before the bullying began for me, he called me. Taehyung—f-ing—Kim had called me personally with a proposition I could not refuse.

➰➰➰

"Hello?" I answered hesitantly at the unknown number. It never hurt to be cautious.

"Mark...I believe we have something to talk about?" I rolled my eyes at his formal tone which still held contempt for me. It was him.

"What do you want Taehyung?" I sighed, "we don't have anything to talk about do we?"

The last thing I had wanted was to talk to the person responsible for harming my girlfriend. I wanted to hang up but something had stopped me. Even now I don't exactly know why...

"We do." Taehyung's voice was deep and now playful. I didn't get his sudden change of tone. "Mia...we need to talk about Mia."

"Don't say her name!" I spat at him; annoyed at the fact that he would say Mia's name so possessively. "You bastard. Beating a girl up? You're lower than dirt."

"On the contrary, Mark, I never touched her. I never touched Mia myself. Other than that one time at the club." He paused to chuckle. I don't know what he was reminiscing about but it annoyed the hell out of me. He heard my tongue click. "Now, now. Don't be impatient. But you're right, I have no desire to talk to you, either."

"Then what is it?" I gripped my cellphone that was in my hand tivbter, letting the dead cold technology soothe my anger.

"I plan on...well have some strings pulled. Mia's getting too marbled and I don't like that. I had not known that." I doubted that what Taehyung had said was sincere. He was liar. "I don't like others touching anything that belongs to me."

"Belongs?" I scoffed. "You must be kidding me?" I stood up from the chair I had been sitting in. I was pissed, fuming in fact. "Taehyung, Mia is my girlfriend. She does not belong to you or will ever belong to you. She's not a thing. I won't have you belittle her nor hurt her."

"Oh?" He laughs. "I find that hard to believe, Mark. You've done nothing while Mia was getting hurt from those girls."

"That's..."

"Were you going to say you didn't know?" He interrupted me. "Bullshit. There's no way you did not know."

"Look. You may have not done anything with your own hands but you are the cause of the difficulties that Mia is having to have to deal with. Do not try to turn this over to someone else."

"Fine. Stay away from her. Why? If you want Mia to stay bully-less, you will do what I say. As a sign of goodwill I had Mia's locker cleaned spotless. I mean it Mark, stay away from Mia."

I frowned as I tried to understand the male. He wasn't making any sense.

"As for who Mia belongs to...she became mine the moment she decided to invite me to her game." Taehyung talked as if I was a nuisance.

➰➰➰

I wasn't able to spar back with the jerk because he hung up after that.

I sighed as I thought about the phone call again. As days went by, I realized that the more I avoided her, Mia became safer.

I hated it but I kept my distance from her to make sure that she was safe.

But...I was angry.

I was still angry.

Angry at how Taehyung had spoken about Mia. I disliked how his words were possessive and, his tone and diction softened at Mia.

The thing I hated most was the way he looked st Mia. He looked at her as if she was a slave that he could bully, buy, sell and throw away because she was a thing—not alive, not breathing and beautiful.

Even then.

Even now.

I never fathomed that things would turn out like how it did...