my escape • study group x reader

chapter five • episode 2

Se-hyeon wasn't at school yet when I arrived which was unusual. He was usually the first person there and I was usually one of the last. I pulled out my phone to send him a text but as soon as I clicked on his contact, he plopped down in his desk. Ga-min was right behind him, sitting down as well. I looked back and forth between them and leaned forward.

"Did you two just walk in together?" I asked, Se-hyeon hummed in response. "You're really joining his study group?"

Se-hyeon hummed again.  "You should too," he turned to look at me but I shook my head.

"I can't stay after school for clubs, I wouldn't live to see my eighteenth birthday if I did."

"We can get Ms. Lee to call your parents and tell them she's requiring you to stay. Do you think they'd agree to that?" He looked at me with an expression that almost looked hopeful. "It would keep you out of your house most of the day."

"I'm not sure if they'd believe it...it's not like I get bad grades, I mean." I shrugged.

Se-hyeon sighed. "We can try."

I looked at him for a second, deciding what to say in response. After a while I nodded. "If you can get my parents to agree, then I'll join."

Se-hyeon's entire face lit up and he nodded. "We have our first meeting after school today, I'll ask Ms. Lee about it and then call you with what she says."

I nodded and couldn't help but smile. "Okay."

Se-hyeon turned back around to face the front as Ms. Lee entered the classroom. She met my eyes and smiled as if she already knew I'd be joining that damned study group in the near future.

***

I sat at home later that day, waiting on Se-hyeon's call impatiently. I hadn't the single interest in joining the study group yesterday and now I couldn't wait to get feedback on our plan to get me to join. Whether it was the fact that I could stay at school longer or the fact that i'd spend extra time with Se-hyeon, I didn't know, but something was causing me to be excited about the near future. I had been sitting at my desk working on some of my assigned english work when the call came through and I picked it up so fast that I was shocked the call didn't glitch.

"I just talked to Ms. Lee," Se-hyeon began. "She said that she'd attempt to get your parents to agree but I'll need you to send me their numbers to avoid going to the Vice Principal. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, I can do that. When is she going to call?" I waited for him to ask that same question to Ms. Lee and receive the answer.

"She'll call after the meeting if that's okay."

"Mm, that's okay. They'll both be home." I was smiling wide. "What if they say no?"

"Ms. Lee can set up an in person meeting with them to try and influence it, but your parents are really only strict about your curfew, right?" Se-hyeon asked.

I nodded even tho he couldn't hear me. "And boys, so tell Ms. Lee to avoid saying anything about the study group involving boys. Especially you they hate you."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, I don't know. Just make sure that's—" my bedroom door suddenly swung open and I quickly hung up the phone and dropped it face down on my desk. My father stepped inside and looked around as if expecting to find someone.

"Who were you talking to just now?" He asked, his eyes searching the room dangerously. If someone was in here and he caught them, I'd fear for their life.

"No one," I mumbled. My phone began to ring on my desk and I grabbed it quickly to silence the call. "I was just working on my english work, my teacher says that if we translate into Korean out loud then it's easier to remember."

He grunted. "Do it quieter, the whole house can hear you."

I nodded and he stepped out, slamming the door behind him. I sighed in relief and dropped my head onto my desk just as my phone started to vibrate again. I answered this call, "I almost died."

"What?" Se-hyeon asked. "Are you okay?"

I nodded and sighed, running my hands through my hair. "Ms. Lee should call my parents soon before they start drinking."

"Okay, call me if something happens or if they get upset."

"I will, thanks Se-hyeon." I sighed again and he hummed in response before hanging up the phone. I laid my head down on my desk and sighed, fighting the panic that was still lingering in my chest. I texted my parents numbers to Se-hyeon and within minutes I heard my father's ringtone sound in the living room.

I held my breath and waited for the rage that never came. I waited for the abuse that never came. I was almost sore from tensing by the time my father actually entered my room to confront me about the phone call he'd just received.

"Your teacher just called, you're expected to stay late at school for the next few weeks."

"Oh, yeah, I was going to ask you about that—"

My father cut me off. "If I find out you're doing anything at that school or away from it that your mother and I have forbidden, you can say goodbye to that school. Understand?"

I nodded without a word and my father stepped back, slamming the door behind him. A smile grew on my face immediately and I picked up my phone to send Se-hyeon a text:

HE SAID YES!!!!!

Se-hyeon responded almost immediately:

WHOOOPPP!!

I grinned and wrapped my arms around myself in pure joy. If anyone had told me a year ago that I'd be this excited about joining a stupid study group I would have laughed in your face. It was an odd thing to be excited about sure, but now it was my thing.

***

The next day Ga-min forced us to hang up information flyers and sign up sheets around the school. Ms. Lee had told them that they needed to have a total of five members by the end of the week in order to be seen as an acceptable club. The number seemed easy to attain but this was Yuseong Tech and most of the students didn't even know how to read.

To make the flyer process go by faster, we should've split up and hit the different floors individually but Se-hyeon and I were stuck to Ga-min side out of pure fear of the how our classmates would react to seeing people actually studying in these halls.

"That's so not straight," Se-hyeon mumbled as I taped a poster to the wall in front of us.

"Nothing in this school is straight," I responded, adding another piece of tape. Se-hyeon shrugged in agreement just as Ga-min called our names and waved us forward. We stepped up to meet him and peak around the corner to see exactly what he was seeing. There was a crowd surrounding one of the posters we'd put up moments ago full of chatter.

"We'll get six members easily," Ga-min said with a smile. I disagreed with that statement entirely but I decided not to burst his bubble this early in the morning.

"You think so?" Se-hyeon asked, and Ga-min nodded.

"What if more than ten students apply?" Ga-min crossed his arms over his chest and looked up in thought. "Should it be first come first served? Or whoever has the highest grades gets to stay."

"By that rule you'd be kicked out," I mumbled, glancing at Se-hyeon who snickered.

"First come first served it is then," Ga-min nodded to himself as Se-hyeon and I continued through the school halls, stopping quarterly to hang up a new flyer. We eventually set up a system where I would hang up the flyers and Se-hyeon would hold the tape so we were done in not time. I wondered how long it would take for those flyers to end up ripped to shreds and used to wrap up blunts.