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chaewon's nose contorted in disgust as she retrieved her books from the lockers, "eww, what is that smell?"
myeong arrived at school late, but it wasn't because she overslept or anything; rather, she was trying to avoid haechan, who was guarding her door like a dog very early in the morning. when the door swung open, haechan frowned upon seeing her roommate, seola, instead, and gave a sheepish smile."uh-oh, is myeong still sleeping?" seola didn't bother to respond, only giving the boy a judging look–clearly displeased by his actions. she began walking out the door to go to school.
looking at his sexy leather wrist watch, haechan mouthed a small 'shoot', seeing that he is running late for class. he eventually realized that his girlfriend would not leave the dorm any time soon if he doesn't leave first and that would only make the both of them late.
"mrs. soo, i-", haechan was out of breath and gasping for air, having to run all the way to school in the span of 5 long minutes.
"lee haechan, what time is it hmm?", mrs. soo asked, looking at him through the lens of her metal-thin eyeglasses, how scary.
"i'm afraid you have to do cleaning to compensate for being TWENTY-TWO minutes late" "mind you, classes start at 7a.m. sharp, you're in class z, don't make me think otherwise.", she scolded the sweating boy. "you may now be seated.. there should not be a second time, understand?"
"yes ma'am", haechan internally groaned at himself for not being aware of the time.
the whole class was engulfed in silence, only the sound of dusty chalk painfully scratching the blackboard was heard. it was chalk dust that kissed the outlines of her hand ever so gracefully. mrs. soo was writing the equations all at once. she stopped writing and turned her heel to the front door, noticing myeong's arrival, grand.
"oh, you too miss min huh?" "what was the reason", she inquired, tapping the glass of her analog watch with her dusty index.
"you join this young lad right here to help clean the principal's office later, that would serve as your warning", she finished her words with a snap, "alright, back to the equations", she added, not wanting to waste any more of her precious time.
mathematics came to pass and chaewon kept complaining about the way her books stink, "i swear, did any of you put fart spray on the lockers!? my branded dinosaur hoodie is ruined ugh! i don't even think having it dry cleaned would remove the foul smell– plus the pages of my calculus booklet smells like rotten corpse may i add."
"chill chaewon, it can't be that bad", seungsik shrugged.
"how'd you know the smell of rotten corpse tho?", jaemin wondered.
"I USED TO KILL RATS BEFORE AND I'M SO GONNA KILL THE PERSON BEHIND THIS", she blustered, her tiny fist was up in the air.
myeong overheard the fume shroom, short-haired seo chaewon; who was fuming because her favorite hoodie, which her boyfriend, junseo, had bought her on their 11th month anniversary had caught the alleged 'fart spray' essence. ewww.
"isn't mine located near hers?", she thought to herself.
"could it be.. the lunchbox?", she contemplated whether to check on it now that it was still recess or to wait until after school to get it. she reasoned, "but i already finished all the food, and spoiled food doesn't smell as bad as she described".
she glanced at her phone's lockscreen (her wallpaper is a picture of sloppily stacked black cubes; it was one of the images from the basic lockscreens samsung had to offer) and noticed that she still had 10 minutes to go. she sighed, "whatever," and then rose to leave for the locker area. following the acrid smell, it became clear that it wasn't the smell of a lunchbox that had been sitting out for a day. weirdly enough, the smell was coming straight from her locker, which she had forgotten to lock yesterday. she paused when she smelled the "rotten corpse," as chaewon put it, but instead of seeing a bloody corpse, she saw her belongings covered in slimy. rotten. eggs. with her other hand, she squeezed her nose painfully hard, almost passing out from the stench. her eyes became watery.
she let out a small whimper as she saw and smelled the filth hina and her friends had dumped in her locker. the lunchbox had been buried in bird poop. the photo of her and her halmeoni that she had taped to the back was shredded into pieces and doused in egg whites. "n-not halmeoni," she mumbled, fists clenched. there were several notes warning her to avoid haechan. freak, whore, mute–where the words that scattered the walls of her locker. she was in pain. she sat on the cold floor, her knees were up against her chest.
some students from class z peered out the windows, and others, such as chaewon, went to the area to confirm her suspicions. when she saw the look in myeong's eyes, her anger immediately resided. "hey? is everything alright? are you hurt anywhere?" she gave her back a consoling hold. she stood up and faced her classmates. she yelled, "yah! who among you idiots did this?"
chaewon was taken aback by hina's snickers, but she refrained from confronting her and turned to face the cctv.
haechan, who was out with renjun, saw myeong by the lockers and went to hug her, not minding the smell. "hey, mong look at me, i'm here now. you're safe in my arms", he whispered, slightly cradling the poor girl in his arms. he suddenly felt a piece of eggshell poke him. so that's why it smelled awfully familiar. there were rotten eggs cracked into the locker as well.
"come stand, baby."
"hina," he started.
"hina, hina come out."
"hina, don't make me repeat my words again and again", haechan warned in his intimidatingly low voice. it was unusual to hear the haechan speak octaves lower which startled hina but she also found his voice hot, 'what a baddie', she thought. she would have flirted with him if not for the situation.
before she could think of wanton thoughts, she was pulled to the office by him.
