Rumor Has It | pjm - Chapter 1
💬 Pairing: Jimin x OC (Reader)
💬 Genre/Tags: enemies(?) to lovers, fake-dating au; angst, fluff, smut
💬 Chapter warnings: contains slut shaming, oc gets slapped in the face, bullying (this will NOT be a falling in love with my bully fic!), angst
💬 Word count: 4.3k
💬 Recap:
Rumor has it, Park Jimin is single again after his latest girlfriend cheated on him with his best friend.
Rumor has it, he's willing to get back at them.
Rumor has it, you're the perfect means to an end.
A/N: Sorry it took so long, I hope you enjoy! Only the first chapter will be in past tense btw
Index - Next Chapter
Chapter 1: How it all began.
You would never have thought of yourself as someone who has a particular reputation.
In High School, you used to be the one who went down in the crowd. You had your small group of friends, a couple of boyfriends (if you can even call them that), and a few acquaintances in some of your classes you never talked to outside of school.
By and large, just the kind of High School experience most people go through.
In that regard, it was all the more surprising to you when you suddenly came to be the center of everyone's attention during your first year of college.
If you now were to talk to someone from back then, they would never have expected that it would be you who would end up in such a situation.
That it would be you, who’d one day be the probably most talked about person in college - and not in a good way.
Oh no. Not in a good way, for sure.
And you have absolutely no idea how it could have come to this in the first place.
But you know how it started.
It started with a guy.
Of course, it did. Every misfortune in a girl's life almost always starts with her meeting a guy, doesn't it?
But every story has its origin, so let's start at the very beginning of the story and how your current situation came about.
Because it has started much earlier.
Before everyone knew your name, before everyone dragged it through the mud, used it whenever and for whatever it pleased them.
Before you were laughed at, yelled at, frowned upon, and especially insulted by people you don't even know.
Before you lost all of your friends and gained almost a whole army of enemies instead.
Even before Park Jimin made an appearance at your apartment door one evening and specifically asked you for a favor. A favor that would remain in your memory for a long time and would mark the beginning of something completely new.
Something you, for sure, had never expected.
Oh, what have you gotten yourself into?
Compared to most other colleges, the one you're attending is relatively small, which is probably also one of the reasons why rumors spread so quickly here.
It can be both a disadvantage and an advantage, considering how many people find out in a short time about something that was supposed to be kept secret.
On the other hand, it also means that the gossip factory calms down again faster because the next scandal is already in circulation.
You do not want to offend anyone, and of course, not every guy automatically has to be a prick. There are some good guys out there, and you know they exist, but you also know how extremely rare they are. And unfortunately for you, most of the ones you have had the pleasure of dating so far, fit that pattern perfectly.
It started with a guy.
And for you, the one who started it all was a guy named Kim Jeongin.
You started dating Jeongin precisely one month into your first year of college.
He was cute, he was sweet, he was polite and extremely good-looking. And he was interested in you too, which more or less made him a dream come true at that time.
Many young girls tend to be naive and fall easily for pretty eyes and a hairstyle that looks like the guy just woke up and didn’t care, and you were no exception.
However, the rude awakening came just a couple of weeks later when you two went out to a party together with your friends, and he kept behaving like an asshole out of nowhere.
Between getting inappropriately drunk and throwing jokes your way that came across as more than just a little insulting at times, he also somehow started accusing you of hitting on his friends – or any other male person in that building, for that matter.
Come to think of it now, it's actually kind of funny, considering he was the one who ended up making out with someone that wasn’t you at the end of the night.
Needless to say, you broke things off right then and there because you might not have been the hottest chick on campus, nor were you the most popular, but you did know your self-worth, and everyone deserves better than that anyway.
But here’s the thing. Jeongin did not see it that way. He didn't appear to take you seriously when you told him you guys were over. You had a slight idea about that when he only started laughing in your angry face that night, saying you were overreacting and seeing things that weren't there, but you were a hundred percent certain when he was standing in front of your door the following morning as if nothing ever happened.
It took a ridiculous amount of time and effort to get rid of him that morning - to get rid of him for good. But eventually, he went on his way with some very colorful insults that left his mouth only to be thrown your way.
You couldn't help but be relieved to have gotten rid of him. After seeing his true colors, it was more than obvious you really dodged a bullet there.
However, unfortunately, this was not the end of your story with Jeongin. No, that would've been way too easy.
Instead, the following day, he told all his friends that he had dumped you because you were “a dirty, cheating slut“ who cheated on him with not just one but two random guys.
It was ridiculous, very childish, and immature, but they still believed him, making jokes about how he should have seen it coming and stuff like that.
Them believing his lies wasn’t even that far-fetched, seeing how all of them had brains that stopped growing right after they were born, and did it come to you as a surprise? Hell, no.
You could sense their stupidity from miles away as soon as you met them for the first time, and that should have been a red flag already. You usually get to know someone best through their friends; to see what type of people they surround themselves with. But for some reason unknown to you, you just thought he would be different.
Long story short, his friends told their friends and other people, and soon enough, most people in your year had heard about it. This was, of course, foreseeable, given how he had quite the reputation as earlier mentioned.
What you did not expect, however, was that even people outside his rather big group of friends believed it.
You still have no idea why so many people even cared about you in the first place. After all, you were close to a nobody. Just a college freshman, having no idea about anything yet and simply wanting to go through the whole college dating experience.
Now, look where this has gotten you.
You didn't find out about all the hassle until just before your first class, when one of your friends came up to you and angrily explained that she never thought you would cheat, leaving you completely perplexed because you didn't even know what was going on in the first place.
You remember feeling both hurt and angry at her for actually believing something as stupid as this, while she should have been on your side and been a good friend.
Yes, you had not known her for long, but it was the least you expected from your friend.
Of course, seeing how you honestly were a nobody, it was forgotten within a couple of weeks when someone else took your place as the number one topic on campus. And this was college, after all. No one really cared that much.
However, it was the first time that your reputation, even if completely unjustly, suffered a blow, and your name was put in a negative light through the mouths of others. And it did stay in some people's minds even after everyone found something else to gossip about.
You just simply went on with your own life and tried to stay away from anyone who wanted to bring you down.
After you got over your anger at Jeongin, you even went on dates again because you didn't want to let a loser like him take away your chance to find someone who really wanted to be with you.
A few months later, you were about to meet with a couple other students in the library for a group project when you suddenly noticed how a group of girls not far from you seemed to be talking and giggling about something.
You had noticed how their glances met you from time to time, but you only really realized that you were the actual subject of their conversation when they walked past you and whispered some very unpleasant things in your direction, making sure you’d hear them.
“Is there something you wanted to say to my face?”
You had no interest in keeping your mouth shut anymore. Whenever you heard someone bad-mouthing you, you made sure they got to hear your opinion on it as well.
Most of the time this was all it took for them to keep their mouths shut and make them walk away right after, but this time they didn’t.
This group of girls obviously wanted to achieve more with their whispering than just annoy you.
“No, sorry. My friends and I were just talking about how much of a slut you are,” one of the girls immediately spat at you without even looking at you. Instead, she stubbornly stared at her nails and picked some dirt from under them, acting as if she hadn’t just insulted you like that.
“Excuse me?” You were taken aback, not gonna lie. You didn’t expect something like that from her just out of the blue.
As you let your eyes roam over the small group to see if you knew any of them, you quickly realized that you didn't recognize a single one of these girls, which confused you more than anything.
“Why would you say that?”
“Why would I say that?” She scoffed, finally giving you the honor to fully look at you.
“If you truly don't know, then you should really work on your morals, hun. Just a hint, keep your hands off of guys who are taken, and maybe then the people will stop talking shit behind your back.”
“I’m sorry, I really don’t know what you’re talking about, hun. I don't do that kind of thing. Ever,” you spat back, happy your group partners had yet to arrive.
“Sure you don’t,” she scoffed again, clearly getting even more irritated with you as the conversation got on. “My boyfriend told me everything that went down on Saturday, don't even try to talk your way out of it.”
“Your… what? I really have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t even know you, nor do I know your boyfriend. Maybe you’re confusing me with someone else?” You tried to be nice, but her judgmental, nasty attitude made it really hard for you.
“I sure as hell am not. As I said, he told me everything.”
“Well, then he didn’t tell you the truth because I’m sure I do not know him,” you argued while trying to keep your voice down. The last thing you needed was somebody else overhearing this conversation and starting yet another wave of rumors about you.
She just took her phone out of her pocket and held it in front of you, opening the lock screen that showed a picture of her and a guy.
You were surprised to see that you actually did know him. However, you remembered the encounter with him very differently.
“Okay, well, I see what’s going on here now,“ you sighed, massaging your temples when you felt a slight headache coming up from the frustration. “Look, I swear whatever he told you isn’t the truth. I was not hitting on him or something like that. If anything, he’s the one who came up to me and started being inappropriate.”
What went down with her boyfriend and how he behaved was much worse than that actually. But you wanted to spare her the details, especially in front of her friends. Everything you wanted was for her to realize that the guy she was dating was a total prick who deserved to be dumped as soon as possible.
You don’t know what you expected, but she didn’t believe you. She only rolled her eyes, threw another insult your way, and told you to stay away from her boyfriend before walking away.
Encounters of this or similar kind started to be more or less on the regular after that.
At a certain point, you couldn’t even talk to any guy anymore without their girlfriends giving you judgmental looks or anyone starting rumors about that.
And one day, it got to the point where, according to hearsay from the hallways, you even started taking money in exchange for sexual activities. Ridiculous.
Not to shame sex work as a whole, of course, but you never took place in those actions ever.
The rumor mill was bubbling, and somehow so many people joined in that it never really calmed down at all.
And so it came about that you were shunned by most people - as far as it could be arranged. No one really wanted to have anything to do with you anymore, afraid their relationship might break down, or their own reputation might suffer. And you started to seclude yourself as well.
It went on like that for quite a while. You lived your life, and so did everybody else. It was lonely, but it was definitely bearable. At least you got by.
That was until you got yet another blow. And the hardest and deadliest blow was given to you by someone you would never have expected it from.
If you thought it could not have been worse for you, you were mistaken because shit only started to escalate really badly when Kim Taehyung was caught cheating on his girlfriend at a frat party at the end of the spring semester in junior year.
He and his girlfriend Nayeon were something like the power couple of your college... even if it sounds so immensely stupid, one could guess it's a joke. But no, everybody loved Taehyung and Nayeon both as a couple and individually.
So him cheating on her was something everyone was candidly talking about.
Apparently, some person had taken a picture of him in a very heated make-out session with a girl who was definitely not his girlfriend. And it spread around campus like wildfire.
Of course, everyone was dying to know who the mystery girl in this photo was, and the revelation allegedly came only a couple of hours later when his girlfriend confronted him about it, to which he then claimed that it was you.
Jung Nayeon, just like Kim Taehyung, was held in high esteem in your college, thanks to not only her incredible beauty but also her warm-hearted and equally beautiful character. So it was no surprise at all that Taehyung's confession added an entirely new dimension to your already bad reputation.
If it had at least been the truth…
However, the truth was that, in your entire life, you have never even exchanged a single word with him, let alone had any kind of physical contact.
So why would he make something like that up and hurt you with it when you had nothing to do with the whole thing in the first place?
Well, you had been thinking about this question for a long time, but the answer is actually quite simple: he didn't want to hurt the girl he was actually involved with behind his girlfriend's back. And the easiest way to do that was to find a scapegoat that would have to take all the blame instead of her.
And no one would fit the role better than you.
Turned out that he made an exceptionally smart decision there.
No one has even entertained the thought of questioning his statement. No one. Not one single person.
And just like that, your reputation had suffered another serious blow, and you went from being “the campus mattress” to the most hated person on campus without even knowing what was going on.
You learned about the latest rumors about you only a few hours later. You had just come out of class and were on your way home when you suddenly noticed the dirty glances of all the people in the hallway, no doubt directed at you.
In fact, it, unfortunately, wasn't that uncommon for you to get dirty looks, and you hadn't even thought much about it, but just figured it was probably a new rumor going around. And in a way, you were right.
However, you didn't expect that this rumor would have a much wider reach and that many more students would be interested in it than in the ones before.
That realization came rather quickly after you walked outside the building and were instantly met with a hard slap across your face.
Gasping in shock, you stared at your attacker with tears already starting to form in your eyes from the pain that was spreading out on your face.
“Nayeon?” Gaping at the girl standing there in front of you, looking at you with so much hatred in her eyes, you blinked a couple of times to try and get rid of the tears that had started to form.
“How could you do that to me, you disgusting piece of shit?!” She yelled right in your face, tears pricking at her eyes while she pointed her finger in your face, almost poking your eye out in the process.
Still not knowing what was going on, you just looked around with a frown, trying to see if there was anything that would give you at least an indication of what was happening. But there was nothing.
“You’re so embarrassing. It is sad, really,” she spat.
“And to think that I always used to defend you in front of everybody else,” she scoffed, making a disgusted face at you. “Looks like what they're saying is true after all. You really are a slut. And you’re pathetic. Stay away and leave your dirty, STD-infected hands off my boyfriend.”
“What?” You breathed, blinking up at Taehyung, standing a couple of feet behind her. He immediately looked away as soon as your eyes met his, and that was when you finally connected the dots.
He used you as an excuse.
Feeling your lips wobble already from being overwhelmed and completely humiliated, you turned away without another word, trying to escape the scene as soon as you could.
Usually, you’re anything but a crybaby, but this really had to be the worst situation you’ve ever been in.
Getting slapped across the face yelled at, and savagely insulted by someone you used to admire, someone you thought wasn’t like the rest of them, was bad enough. But having all of this happen in front of hundreds of people you knew won’t have your back was utterly embarrassing and an overall horrible feeling.
As you tried to push your way through Nayeon’s friends, you could clearly hear them calling you names, but you didn't pay them any attention. The only goal you had right then was to leave everyone’s eyes as fast as you could.
Don’t ever mess with the biggest sweetheart on campus, who’s loved and admired by everybody. Especially if you're already at the bottom of the food chain anyway.
You didn’t go to any classes for the whole week after that incident.
The shame and embarrassment of this encounter with Nayeon prevented you from even leaving your small apartment at all. You didn't even dare to go grocery shopping, which, in retrospect, was kind of stupid, considering that it wasn’t the whole town that was out to get you - even if it felt like it.
Still, you stayed away from people for as long as you could.
No one would have expected that it would be Park Jimin himself, of all people, who would get you out of the line of fire and reveal the truth to everyone a few weeks later.
You only picked it up through hasty whispers in the hallways, but he was supposedly the one who figured out that the girl in the photo had not been you.
And the reason for all the commotion wasn't that your name could now be cleared - oh no. All of a sudden, no one was even the slightest bit interested in you.
No, the real reason for the uproar was the exposure of the person that was actually behind it all.
And it was probably pure irony of fate when Jimin made public that the actual person in the photo was none other than his own girlfriend.
Her name was Lee Yeji.
You didn't actually know that much about her, to be honest. She was mostly known for being Park Jimin's girlfriend and part of Nayeon's friend group. But you did remember her standing next to Nayeon when she confronted you that day.
Oh, how the tables have turned now.
Something deep inside you, something sordid and disgusting, felt the need to feel something like satisfaction.
After all, Nayeon humiliated you in front of all her friends and a sizable crowd. Would it really be wrong to see it as some sort of fulfillment that the real culprit was actually one of her closest friends?
You didn't really know what to make of it, but one thing was for sure: the news didn't bring you any joy. Not even the fact that you were off the hook made you happy because as already mentioned, nobody cared about you anyway. But as fate would have it, you still cared about Nayeon even after everything that happened between the two of you. And you couldn't imagine what she was going through.
One thing was for sure, it must have been awful. And no matter how badly she humiliated you, you didn't think she deserved that kind of pain because no one does.
Her friend and her boyfriend? You wouldn’t wish that on your worst enemy.
Taehyung is trash, and honestly you think she should be happy to have gotten rid of him. A girl like her can do so much better than a cheater like him. You just hoped she'd realize that as well. But you remember her and Yeji being somewhat close. Especially since Nayeon and Jimin are also very close friends and apparently knew each other longer than the rest of them have at that point.
And that brings us to the actual person of interest: Park Jimin.
What is there to know about Park Jimin?
Well, everybody knows about him, that much is sure.
As far as you know, his family is pretty well off, considering his parents run some kind of business you have no idea about, but if you can believe the whispers in the halls (and that's not certain, considering all the rumors being spread about you), then his family is probably one of the most influential in the city.
You never cared much about him. He always seemed just like the typical rich kid, whose only personality trait is… well, being rich. Only sharing a couple of classes, you didn’t get to know him enough to really form a fair opinion on him, though.
You just know things concerning his personality from Nayeon, and she has always insisted that his reputation does not live up to him, that he can be a cocky ass at times but is a totally different guy in private.
You never told her that, but you always thought that she was a bit biased in that regard. After all, they both come from the same circles and have known each other since childhood. But you also know how wrong you can be about a person and that you never really know someone just by hearing what people say about them.
The only thing you can give him credit for is that, as far as you know, he has always stayed out of any rumors concerning you. Well, you cannot know that for sure, but at least he never attacked you personally.
He has never insulted you or even given you the same judgmental looks you usually get from most other students. And it's sad to say that because it should go without saying, especially in college, but you're still very grateful to him for that. It at least means that he cannot be a complete douchebag, after all.
Nevertheless, you must have looked very surprised when, about a month after the infamous incident, none other than Park Jimin himself knocked on your door.
With a small bouquet of tulips in his hand (which, by the way, looked very similar to the ones blooming in your neighbors' garden) and a big grin on his face, he stood in front of you and stared you down, probably judging the pair of dirty sweatpants and the old, much too big t-shirt you had on.
It took you a moment to even realize that it was really him. That's how preposterous the whole situation was.
And at that time, you didn't even know that all this would be just the beginning of a story you couldn't have imagined better in your dreams.
tagged: @ggukkieland | @ttaeby
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