Crush Chronicles

Chapter 1

The hallway smelled like cheap floor cleaner and disappointment.

It was always like this on Tuesday afternoons, right after the lunch bell rang and the third years poured out of the east wing classrooms like a slow-moving flood of designer backpacks and attitudes. Kim Seokjin walked at the front of that flood the way a general walks at the front of an army- casual and unhurried with the absolute certainty that everyone in his path would move.

And everyone did.

That was the thing about Kim Seokjin. He didn't need to raise his voice. He didn't need to throw punches or slam others into lockers or do any of the theatrical things that typical bullies resorted to. That was cheap thing for a guy like him to do. He just existed in a way that made the air around him feel heavier. A tilt of his head, a lazy half-smile, the way his dark eyes would drag slowly across someone's face like he was judging the placement of moles on their face. And that was enough. That was always enough.

Today, he had his blazer slung over one shoulder and his tie loosened at the collar, shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His uniform was always just slightly disheveled in a way that managed to look intentional, because he hated everything that was supervised by the campus rulebook. Two of his friends were beside him- Park Sooyoung on the left, scrolling through her phone with one manicured nail, and Lee Minhyuk on the right, mid-sentence about something that had happened in his biology class that Seokjin clearly was not listening to.

"-and then Mr. Kang literally dropped the frog on the floor, like just plopped it right there, and Jisoo screamed so loud I thought the window-"

"Minhyuk." Seokjin's voice was quiet, almost gentle, but Minhyuk shut up immediately.

They turned the corner toward the second-floor hallway that connected the main building to the science block. It was a narrow corridor, usually empty during lunch because most students preferred the courtyard or the cafeteria.

Seokjin stopped walking.

Up ahead, crouching down on one knee, was a first-year boy. He was small, couldn't have been more than fifteen with a round face and wide eyes. His school bag was on the floor, its contents scattered across the tiles. A notebook was open, pages bent. A pencil case had rolled under the vending machine.

Seokjin looked at the kid and smirked. The kid looked at Seokjin and stood up. And whatever the boy saw in Seokjin's face made his lower lip start to tremble violently.

"P-please," the boy whispered, pressing himself flatter against the wall. "I already lost my lunch money, I don't have-"

"I didn't even do anything, yet" Seokjin smirked. He sounded almost amused. He crouched down, just slightly, bringing his face level with the boy's. The boy flinched so hard his head cracked against the wall behind him. "Did I?"

"You- you're-" The boy couldn't finish. He was shaking. Literally, full-body shaking, the way a small animal shakes when it knows it's cornered.

Seokjin rolled his eyes. He reached out, and the boy squeezed his eyes shut. But Seokjin just picked up the scattered notebook from the floor, examined the cover- Kim Sungho, Class 1-B-and then let it fall open on its bent pages.

"Your notes are messy," Seokjin said, straightening up. He tossed the notebook carelessly onto the pile of the boy's things. "Clean this up. You're making the hallway look bad."

He stepped over the scattered pencils and kept walking, Minhyuk and Sooyoung falling into step behind him without a word. Sooyoung glanced back at the kid once, then at Seokjin, then back at her phone. Minhyuk shoved his hands in his pockets and whistled lowly.