Attacked

The reputation of the institution was dirt on everyone's lips , a place polite society would raise a disapproving eyebrow at in hushed tones before hastily dashing past its iron gates. This high school was the lowest of the low in the educational pecking order - the place where test scores went to get lost forever & hope - that tender, naive little thing - seemed to be a distant memory.

In the bleak courtyard, students stood swinging metal pipes in the air like cruel clubs, triumphantly milling about amidst the wreckage of bodies strewn across the cracked concrete - some getting up to swipe at the air, others just lying there & trying to catch their breath. A blonde girl with a recent scrap blooming purple across her pale cheek just strolled through it all like it was nothing but roadkill, casually stepping over still forms that had given up the fight. The place was a hotbed of delinquents, kids who spent every waking moment going toe-to-toe with each other, their knuckles always scabbed and their uniforms always looking like they'd been put through a wringer.

But, of course, delinquents weren't the only kind of person you'd find in this bottom-of-the-barrel school.

Beneath the brutal reality of it all, though, there were occasional glimpses of a world a thousand miles away. A portable game console with a cute charm dangling from its side looked like it belonged in a toy box - all pink and sparkly in the harsh fluorescent lighting. A beautifully crafted figurine sat delicately on a desk, lovingly repainted with intricate details. A glossy magazine with riotous anime characters plastered all over its cover, the colours jarringly bright in a world of drab, grey surroundings. Who were these people...?

They were the Otakus.

Y/n huddled with his like-minded friends in the corner of the classroom, beaming from ear to ear as they pored over anime magazines and handheld games in a tiny little sanctuary of peace they'd managed to carve out for themselves. The violence raging outside their little bubble might have been taking place on a different planet. Since they more or less ignored their homework and devoted their entire lives to their hobbies, they just about had to go to this dump. Their grades had sealed their fate, landing them right in the middle of this hard-bitten, rough-as-nails crew of bottom-of-the-school gangsters and small-time thugs.

Y/n adjusted his glasses, pushing them up the bridge of his nose with one finger, a gentle and utterly harmless smile spreading across his face as he flipped through the pages of his book. The paper made soft rustling sounds that he found comforting. I myself am one of those otakus, he thought contentedly, savoring the familiar weight of the manga in his hands.

He had a theory of how his survival in this concrete jungle would go to plan. We otakus spend our days stuck in a corner of the class room, Y/n told himself with that quiet confidence that comes from having a strong feeling about things, believing that keeping a low profile was the key to not getting noticed. He'd just stick his head down, keep his mouth shut and let the delinquents walk right over him, hopefully ignore him completely like they normally did. At least that's what I thought I would be doing, to be honest...

But things had got a bit out of hand.

He wasn't invisible, far from it. He was actually trapped.

Y/n found himself squashed onto the floor in the corner of the room, his body all bunched up like a piece of poorly folded origami, knees curled up tight to his chest and him shaking like a leaf. He was clinging to his manga like it was a lifesaver, the thin pages somehow meant to protect him from the chaos that was erupting all around him. The scary blonde delinquent was right there with him, sitting on the floor as if they'd been friends for years. Her body was leaning into his side, sending warm waves through him that made his skin tingle with awareness. The close proximity of her hand to his leg made him feel a shiver run down his spine, even though she wasn't actually touching him.

Y/n's face was burning red, the heat spreading from his cheeks right down to the tips of his ears. His heart was pounding away against his ribs like it was desperate to get out , each beat loud enough to be deafening. He was too scared to look away from the delinquent, but also way too flustered to try and meet her eye.

What. Is. This. situation...? Y/n screamed the question in his head, cold sweat pouring down his face like a tap had been turned on and his glasses were misting up with the sheer panic that was taking over.

To make any sense of this mess, you had to go back in time. Y/n's mind swam with a sense of bewilderment as he tried to recall the events that had led up to this nightmare.

All of this had started a few days prior, now that I think about it...

That day, I was holding this BL book, Y/n recalled, the memory flashing into his brain like a branding iron. The very thought made him want to burrow into the floor. It was an accident, pure bad luck, caused by my sister's mix up at home. It had been stuck between the pages of my perfectly innocent anime mag... - one of her things had somehow got lumped in with my stuff.

The BL manga had been hiding amongst the pages of a book meant to be completely safe, a trap that he'd stepped right into without even realising. He'd pulled it out in class without giving it a second thought, his eyes going wide with shock the instant he worked out what he was holding. The cover picture of two gorgeous guys in a pretty suggestive pose was seared into his brain.

Just as he'd finally registered the mistake and was in the process of shoving the book back into his bag with sweaty palms, a voice from behind him froze my blood in my veins.

"That's Mems x Augy, right?"

Y/n slowly turned, his entire body seizing up with a dread that felt like it was going to suffocate him . his heart just about burst out of his chest, the hammering in his ribcage was so intense it was practically agony. The girl who'd just met his gaze with that low, knowing tone was , one of the delinquents that topped the school's unofficial, and very real hierarchy, Lee Jiwoo.

She towered over Y/n like a monolith, an imposing, intimidating presence that both commanded respect and made your skin crawl. A shaft of grimy sunlight streaming in through the sticky window caught her hair, and for a moment, she almost looked like some kind of otherworldly being, like one of those angelic characters from a fantasy anime. The fresh scrapes on her knuckles told a very different story, however, a grim reminder that Lee Jiwoo had probably been in a fight recently and probably came out on top.

Is she one of those Fujoshi?! Y/n thought in a panic, his brain going a million miles an hour as he frantically tried to read her in. There was this particular type of girl:  a Fujoshi who was always going on and on about their favourite BL pairings, decorating them with all sorts of notation and symbols for the sake of it. Like "ΔΔ×□□" - and obsessing over whether the big guy was the attacker or the defender in the relationship. I think I'm starting to get it.

But the realisation brought no comfort at all; it just sent his imagination into overdrive, conjuring up terrible images of her true nature: a violent force of nature who'd probably give him a good thumping if he said the wrong thing. That monster they say she is.

Still, the universe had a wicked sense of humour, his imagination ran wild but she just didn't hit him. No fist flying towards his face, no hard slap across the cheek. Instead, she just spoke up again, her tone almost... almost casual, like she was talking to an old friend?

"I've gotten really interested lately," Jiwoo said, her eyes flickering up to the book he'd still got clutched in his trembling hands.

Y/n was left staring at her, his mouth hanging open in shock. His brain had basically short-circuited on the spot.

After the incident, I was labeled as a 'Mems x Augy companion’

The next day, she stumbles across him in the hallway. He was trying to sneak past, his back leaning against the wall, but she stopped him dead in his tracks with her voice.

"Did you wait for me again today?" she asks, suddenly materialising beside him - a bit like a ghost.

Y/n jumped, nearly dropping his bag in the process. "Ah, yes", he stammers. The lie just comes tumbling out because he was too scared to tell the truth; actually, he'd been trying his best to avoid her all day.

"Yeah, right!" she chuckles, a playful smile threatening to emerge - though Y/n is far too spooked to notice she's not even a little bit angry.

And that's when things really start to get weird.

Y/n was scratching his head, sitting on the floor of the classroom, with the school's notorious troublemaker leaning on his shoulder. The delinquent's weight is nowhere near as heavy as you'd think, and her hair smelt vaguely like citrus, a fact that starts to get stuck in his brain whenever he notices it.

"U-um Jiwoo-ssi, you should check out this manga?" Y/n tries to get a word in edgewise, fumbling with the volume in his hands. His voice comes out a lot higher than normal, the pages shaking slightly as he holds the book.

"I've already finished it," she replies, barely glancing at the cover. She moves closer instead, peering over his shoulder at the manga he's reading, her eyes moving swiftly over the panels. "So the attacker vs defender thing is set in stone from the start?"

Her breath tickles his ear, and Y/n feels like he's on the verge of spontaneously catching on fire.

"Yeah, I - I don't know either..." Y/n offers, sweat starting to trickle down his temples. His glasses keep slipping down his nose. 

"Really? Okay".

And then , out of nowhere Jiwoo reaches out with a delicate finger and gently takes hold of his chin, lifting his face up to meet hers. The manga slips from his unresisting fingers and falls to the floor, forgotten.

"Eh?" Y/n squeaks, his voice breaking on him in a ridiculously embarrassing way.

She's looking at him with a really intense gaze, her eyes fixed on his with an unnerving level of focus. They're a warm brown close up, flecked with gold. "You've been on my mind ever since I first saw you," she confesses, her voice dropping down to a really low, intimate-sounding tone.

Y/n's breath catches in his throat - and then he just can't breathe. Time seems to slow right down.

"You're going to be responsible then?" she asks, a possessive glint flickering in her eye like a flame. 

"My Little Bunny".

"My Little Bunny!?" Y/n cries out, his face blazing with heat and his eyes wide as dinner plates behind his glasses.

"U-u-ummm," Y/n stuttered, a cold sweat pouring down his face like a floodgate had opened, leaving him drenched in an icy clamminess as he stared down at the page clutched in his shaking hands. The paper crinkled ominously as he squeezed it for dear life. He'd been railroaded into taking on the role of the 'Attacker' in this utterly bizarre roleplay scenario, & now he had to go through the motions of reciting lines to the terrifying delinquent girl sitting all but defenseless on the floor in front of him.

She looked up at him with an expectant gaze, her usual fierce expression replaced by something almost... tender. It was oddly unnerving.

He forced the words out, his voice trembling so badly he could hardly make out his own words. "I saw you hanging out with another boy, so I got jealous".

What the heck am I even doing here !! Y/n screamed silently to himself, his soul shrinking with every single syllable that came out of his mouth. But he was stuck with this madness now. He'd committed to it, no matter how awful it felt. He read the next line, desperately trying to sound even remotely serious but coming up woefully short. "I tried to pull away from you but I couldn't resist you".

He glanced down to where Jiwoo was sitting, her eyes fixed on him like he was the only thing in the world that mattered, and her gaze made his skin crawl with the intensity of it. He sucked in a shaky breath, fumbling to find the last bit of courage he had left, and read out the line that was supposed to seal the deal. "Please be mine...".