Happy Without Me | WooJun

03. J U S T M Y L U C K

"I want to say that I miss you so bad"

~

The next morning Yeonjun woke up, eyes aching from tiredness after another restless night. He dragged himself out of bed and got ready for school before walking downstairs. He was surprised to see that his mother was already awake.

"You didn't talk much after you came home yesterday," she started off. "How was school?"

"Its the same as all the others," Yeonjun muttered, looking for his shoes.

"Can you at least try to stay in this one for the rest of the year?" She asked exasperated. "It's not easy changing schools every couple of months!"

"What do you want me to do? The school hates me, that's not my fault."

"The school doesn't hate you honey," she said tiredly.

"Tell that to the 20 or so that kicked me out," he scoffed.

"Look, just try to behave yourself. You're in your last year of high school... make the most of it," his mother said with a strained smile. She was tired of Yeonjun's behaviour and he knew it.

Before he started in this school, she told Yeonjun the same thing. That he's wasted the best years of his life, make the most of this one, but how could he? How could he make the best of it when the one and only thing he cherished deserted him, living a great life without him? It hurt Yeonjun more than one could imagine and those wounds reopened the second he set foot into that new school, the second he saw him.

But then he looked into his mother's eyes and guilt overtook him because he has been making her life difficult. She was constantly called into school and constantly had to find a new place for him. She was always worried about him. Yeonjun let his hurt affect people around him and that's not what he wanted to do.

He finished tying his laces and stood up, looking at his mother. "I'll try... I promise."

And Yeonjun really meant it. He was going to work hard and finally make her proud.

-

"I don't understand!" Yeonjun whined, pushing away the book in front of him.

"Can you stop giving up every 2 minutes?" Taehyun huffed.

It was lunchtime and Taehyun was having a hard time trying to teach Yeonjun the basics of their class.

"I'm guessing it's not going well," Beomgyu said as soon as he arrived, he placed two drinks on the table then sat down next to Yeonjun. He took a sip of his drink then spoke. "Just focus, Taehyun's a good teacher. He helped me pass every exam so far."

Yeonjun groaned, pulling the book in front of him again. He was already regretting the promise he made to his mother this morning. Yeonjun hadn't ever truly focused on his studies, so this was proving to be a challenge.

He sat up and just then, Wooyoung walked past with his friends. The two made eye contact again, but Yeonjun quickly tore his eyes away and stared hard at the words in his book.

"Taehyun go over it again," Yeonjun said, not taking his eyes off the book. He feared that if he looked up, Wooyoung would be still standing there staring at him. As Taehyun was explaining, Yeonjun peeked out from over the book and noticed that Wooyoung was nowhere in sight. He exhaled, then looked at his friend. "You can stop now, I wasn't even paying attention."

"What is wrong with you?" Taehyun exclaimed, rolling up his papers and smacking Yeonjun on the head. "You're making me waste my breath."

"Leave it, just try again later," Beomgyu said, pushing the drink closer to Taehyun. "Lunch is almost over anyways."

Eventually it was time for the one class that Yeonjun shared with Wooyoung and he was absolutely dreading it. He felt uncomfortable in the class, but what's worse is that Beomgyu never shut up, so Yeonjun knew that being in class wouldn't stop him.

"Today we're going to do some group work on organic chemistry, find an example of it in real life and create a project. You probably won't finish it today, after this class, you have two weeks to complete the project," their teacher said once the class had settled.

'That's great!' Yeonjun thought. With his luck, the teacher would put him in a group with Wooyoung and that's the last thing he needed.

"You get to choose your groups this time," She said. "Groups of four."

'Perfect!' he thought. 'At least now he wouldn't be put in the same group as-"

"Wooyoung!" he heard Beomgyu say from next to him. Yeonjun looked at Beomgyu in surprise, and the younger just looked at him. "What? Wooyoung's a friend and the best in this class, we're sure to pass if he works with us."

Yeonjun couldn't even say anything because Beomgyu stood up and walked straight over to Wooyoung's desk. While he was standing there talking to him, Yeonjun looked around cluelessly, wondering if he could somehow slip into a different group. However, this was hard because he hadn't managed to make any friendships with anyone yet.

"Yeonjun what are you doing?" Beomgyu said. "Come over here!"

"Just my luck," Yeonjun muttered. He sighed heavily and dragged himself over to stand next to Beomgyu. He looked at Wooyoung, but then quickly looked away.

"This is my friend, Yeonjun," Beomgyu said, introducing them. "This is San and this is Wooyoung."

'Yeah I know' Yeonjun thought, but instead he smiled and said, "Nice to meet you." He aimed it to San seeing as he already knew Wooyoung, but also because he didn't really know how to act in front of him.

Whilst Beomgyu chatted away with the two boys, Yeonjun stayed quiet. He hoped that this class would be over soon because the amount of awkwardness he was feeling was way more than he needed right now. Surprisingly, Beomgyu seemed to notice.

"What's wrong?" Beomgyu asked.

"Nothing," Yeonjun replied, giving him a forced smile.

"Look,  I know you said you don't do friends, but these two are super chill." He whispered to Yeonjun. "You'll get on well with them, plus we just need to do the project-"

"Don't act like you know me," Yeonjun muttered, before standing up.

He asked the teacher if he could use the bathroom, then left the classroom. He let out the breath he had been holding, then slowly walked to the bathroom making sure to take his time. Yeonjun knew he shouldn't have spoke like that to Beomgyu; he was only trying be nice. Yeonjun knew that it was just the situation that was suffocating him.

Whilst he stood in the bathroom, trying to recollect himself, someone walked in. Yeonjun looked up to see Wooyoung standing near the door. They stood in silence, staring at each other for a bit before Wooyoung broke the silence.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"In the bathroom...?" Yeonjun asked, a little confused as there was a limited number of things he could do here.

"No, in this school!" Wooyoung exclaimed. "What are you trying to do? What do you get by following me here?"

"You think I followed you here? Do you think I have nothing better to do with my time but to search for you?" Yeonjun scoffed.

"Look, I don't know why you're here, but let me tell you one thing. Don't act like we know each other."

"That's what I've been trying-"

"We don't know each other and we never did. Don't think that you can come here and ruin my reputation again. This time, I won't let you."

"I didn't even ruin it last time. You believed what you wanted to believe without listening to me," Yeonjun said, starting to feel angry with how mean Wooyoung was being.

"I listened, it's not my fault you had shit excuses," Wooyoung said. "I have better friends now."

"Oh that's great!" Yeonjun said sarcastically.

"Just stick to the plan Yeonjun. We don't know each other."

Before Yeonjun could say anything else, Wooyoung left the bathroom and Yeonjun just stared at the closed door in disbelief.