Use Me Like A Drug

You Didn't Ask. He Didn't Need You To.

  The loud chatter filled the room, as it typically did. It rose above the morning air and made the atmosphere more lively.

  You looked at your math book as you listened to the conversations around you. You'd been there long enough that you'd finally begun to pick up on all the cliques in the school. The people you should be around and the people you should avoid.

  Word never spread. No one talked. No one cared about anyone but themselves. Rather, you heard the way everyone spoke and observed their actions. You much prefer the company of your five new friends as opposed to that of Kim Yeongcheol.

  Yeongcheol was someone who made you want to roll your eyes. If you were going to compare him to the 'sharp tool in the shed' metaphor, he would've been a sphere. He also had this privileged mindset, one that made you detest his presence. He demanded things of his parents and he caused trouble in class. The school was definitely no private school, but at least some people had decency. This did not go for Yeongcheol. He had the audacity to yell at teachers and disobey them. You may not have been the best student, but you respected your teachers which should be expected from a student.

  He had this air about him. One that commanded you bow down, yet not in a way that made you want to bow down. It was an aura of pure intimidation rather than awe. It was something that made you step out of the way in the hallway in fear of angering him, not because he would ruin your reputation, but because he would ruin your life. People may have spread rumours about your merry little group of six being in the mafia, but if there was anyone in the school who would actually kill a man, it was Yeongcheol. He was cocky and liked to believe he was hardcore.

  You can't see into others minds. That's not a skill you have. All you knew was that you didn't want to be around him. And your plan was working well too, until your teacher paired you up for a group project in chemistry. You'd previously planned to stay off his radar but that obviously wasn't happening.

  You never met his eyes and you never said a word pertaining to anything other than the experiment. He attempted to make some chauvinistic comment, which you ignored, and when you didn't laugh at his joke, he had you figured out. He was a person with eyes too, after all. He could hear as well. He'd heard about you and he knew that you were too 'good' to hang around him and by the light of recognition in his eyes, he saw the slight roll of your eyes and he could tell he got on your nerves. And he liked that.

  You thought maybe if you stopped acknowledging him it would quell his rapidly inflating ego, but it didn't. He only laughed his stupid laugh and made his stupid comments, watching as you titrated the solution by yourself, intentionally placing his hand over yours and turning the stopcock so that all of the acidic solution spilled into your basic solution and ruined your titration. The feeling when you got when he touched your hand was like thousands of insects, crawling all over your hand. You wanted to gag and sanitize your hand. The fear and anxiety caught in your throat as you met his eyes. You didn't dare stand up to him. Instead, you started another titration. Your teacher said that you would have to stay and redo the lab during lunch. Whilst you were punished, he simply walked out of the classroom. No teacher stopped him.

  "Taehyun," you whined, throwing yourself against the window.

  "Hmm?" He asked from the front.

  "You're the muscle of this so-called mafia group, right?" You asked him, shifting to rest your head on the window, tired of dealing with Yeongcheol.

  "That's what they all say," he nodded.

  "Can you beat someone up for me?" You asked, only half joking.

  "I can, but it'll cost you," he told you, turning to face you so you could see the mischievous glint in his eyes.

  "Perfect. I'm setting out a hit. Kill the titration ruiner," you told him, closing your eyes, throwing your arm in a random direction as if to send him after a criminal.