The next day, Bella opened her locker to find a crudely drawn note taped inside. It read:
"Stay away from Yunho. Or else."
Her stomach twisted. She stuffed the note into her bag and looked around, no one in sight.
By lunchtime, Emily was fuming.
"Who even does that?" she asked, scanning the cafeteria for potential suspects.
Bella shrugged, uneasy. "Guess I just made an enemy."
Emily reached over and grabbed Bella's hand. "Well, enemy or not, you've got me and Yunho's got your back."
Bella smiled, squeezing Emily's hand back, but her mind was already racing.
Jealousy was real. And it wasn't going to go away quietly.
Bella stood in front of her locker, staring at the note in her hand. The paper crinkled slightly in her grip, the words still glaring up at her:
"Stay away from Yunho. Or else."
The handwriting was messy, like someone had scrawled it quickly, with more anger than thought. It was probably meant to rattle her. Shake her. Make her doubt what she had.
But all it did was make her tired.
She didn't flinch.
She didn't cry.
Instead, she calmly folded the note in half, then again, then one more time, until it was a stiff, silent square. She tucked it behind an old math notebook in the back of her backpack, zipped it shut and let it go.
She wasn't going to show it to Yunho.
Not because he wouldn't care, he would. She could picture it now: the fire in his eyes, the way his jaw would lock, the silent promise to protect her no matter what. He might even go to a teacher. Or worse, he'd confront Hana and her little army of whispering girls.
But that wasn't what Bella wanted.
This wasn't his battle.
It was hers.
She closed her locker gently and stood for a moment in the hallway. The fluorescent lights above hummed quietly. Students passed behind her, absorbed in their own worlds, their conversations echoing in snatches she didn't bother to follow.
Her reflection in the locker's metal was warped but familiar. A little girl might have cried. A smaller version of herself might have ripped the note up or run to Emily and collapsed into nervous laughter.
But Bella was done being small.
Let them glare. Let them whisper. Let them throw shade and notes and fake smiles like confetti.
Bella hadn't tricked Yunho into anything. She hadn't played games or plotted. She wasn't some schemer who swooped in to "steal" him away. She had shown up. She had listened. She had chosen him, just as he chose her.
And no one got to rewrite that.
She walked slowly through the hall and sure enough, a few girls from Hana's group were leaning near the stairwell, pretending not to watch her. One of them nudged the other. A third said something under her breath.
Bella met their eyes. Just for a second. She didn't glare. She didn't smile.
She just looked.
Calm. Steady. Unbothered.
And then she walked right past them.
She felt every pair of eyes trail her, trying to find a crack, waiting for some reaction.
She gave them nothing.
By the time she reached her next class, her pulse had evened out again. She slid into her seat next to Emily like it was just another Thursday.
"Hey," Emily said, nudging her with her elbow. "Everything okay?"
Bella nodded. "Yeah. Just a weird morning."
"You sure?" Emily tilted her head, eyes narrowing slightly. "You look... suspiciously zen."
Bella smiled. "Maybe I am."
Emily didn't press. That's what Bella liked about her, she knew when to fight beside her and when to let her handle it alone.
Later, when the final bell rang and Bella made her way outside, Yunho was waiting by the gate like he always was. He gave her a grin and then reached for her hand without a word.
As they started walking, he leaned in slightly. "You okay?"
She nodded again, squeezing his hand gently. "Yeah. Just a long day."
He didn't push.
They walked in step, quiet and close. Yunho said something about how brutal practice had been. Bella nodded and laughed in the right places, but mostly she just let herself exist in the space between them.
Every few blocks, he'd tug her gently closer, steal a kiss at a quiet corner or a crosswalk, as if to remind her that this, not the whispers, not the threats, was real.
She let him kiss her.
But this time, something inside her surged forward, too many hallway stares, too many quiet mutters behind her back and Hana's voice still echoing in her head: "You're just a placeholder."
Without thinking and before Yunho could react, Bella reached up, curled her fingers in the front of his hoodie and pulled him down into a kiss.
It wasn't gentle.
It wasn't shy.
She kissed him like she was claiming something, staking her ground, daring the world to question it. It wasn't about being bold for the sake of it. It was about needing to feel the truth of it. That he was hers. That this was real. That it wasn't some borrowed moment destined to be ripped away.
For a heartbeat, Yunho stilled, surprised by the sudden heat of it.
Then he kissed her back, slower and steadier, as if to say yes. I'm right here. You don't have to fight me for this.
When they pulled apart, she looked away for a second, cheeks flushed, heart pounding in her throat.
Yunho looked stunned, but in the best way.
"Well, okay," he breathed, his grin crooked, his cheeks slightly flushed. "Didn't see that one coming."
"Good," Bella said, raising an eyebrow. "You're not the only one allowed to take the lead, you know."
He laughed and the sound was so easy, so light, it lifted something heavy from her chest.
"Well," he said, smirking, "you've got serious kiss-stealing potential. But just so you know, I am trained to hold my breath for extended periods. Years of swim practice."
Bella gave him a look, half-exasperated, half-amused. "Seriously? Are you bragging about your lung capacity right now?"
"I'm just saying," Yunho said with a shrug, trying not to grin too hard, "if you're going to ambush me like that, at least give me a challenge."
She rolled her eyes but couldn't hide the small smile tugging at her lips.
A few more steps, a few more quiet jokes and then Yunho stopped walking again, gently tugging her off to the side beneath a tree where the light spilled through the leaves in patches.
"Come here," he said softly. Bella stepped forward without hesitation and his arms wrapped around her like she belonged.