Dark to Baby: A Changjin Story

Chapter 1

"Changbin?"

"What?" His head rolled to the left as his eyes closed from exhaustion and exasperation. When they opened again, the teacher was standing by his desk looking rather impatient.

"Did you hear anything Hyunjun just read?"

Changbin rubbed his eyes with the fingers of his left hand before giving a bored expression back to the teacher.

"Hyunjin was reading Hamlet's soliloquy that literally repeats itself in ten different ways. I would know because I rapped it for last year's talent show." He now had a smug expression on his face while Hyunjin couldn't stop his jaw from dropping.

He rapped to Shakespeare? Hyunjin couldn't rap at all let alone do a nerdy thing like that.

"Regardless of if you know it backwards and forwards, there's always more to learn, so I expect you to stay awake in class." Changbin scoffed.

"Well maybe I wouldn't fall asleep if I wasn't up until 1 am doing all the reading you assigned us last night." The teacher bristled up at his reply.

"If you learned to manage your time properly, that wouldn't be a problem." She said in an eerily calm voice. "I bet most of the class got to bed at a normal time despite those ten pages about Shakespeare."

"No, I bet they just didn't read them." Changbin retorted. The rest of the class gave him horrified stares like they were begging him to stop arguing right now.

"Really now?" A few groans came from the class. "Okay, show of hands, who read those ten pages last night?"

A lone girl in the front row raised her hand slowly only to put it down quickly once she realized no one else was going to join her. Hyunjin could tell from her glasses that she was the resident class nerd, so he wasn't surprised.

Changbin almost snorted at the class' response, but settled for an amused smile so he wouldn't get in more trouble. He caught the new student smiling back at him, so he immediately changed his expression to a glare. Hyunjin's eyes grew wide and he broke eye contact as fast as possible and faced forward.

Jisung noticed Changbin's glare and put an arm around Hyunjin like he needed protecting.

"It's okay, he's like that with everybody. He hates me because I'm loud."

Are you sure that's the only reason? Hyunjin thought, but instead he said, "but I just got here?" There was clear confusion in his voice.

"Your handsomeness probably throws off his dark vibe or something." Jisung reassured and waved a dismissive hand to show it wasn't a big deal. "Don't think too much about it."

"Okay..."

But Hyunjin did think about it. He thought about it a lot while the class continued reading.

He may be the shy type, but Hyunjin felt really intrigued by this guy that rejected him right away.

Hyunjin had gotten so many compliments about his looks over the course of his life that he knew his smile was a weapon. Only a few people, including his father, could resist his charms.

Not that he had to really use them a lot, but they came in handy. Especially on days like this where his awkwardness would normally make him a loner from day one. However, one look around the room, and he could tell he would already have ten girls asking to be his guide when class ended.

That's why Chanbin confused him. Was he not friendly enough?

Maybe not for the guy with the 'I don't care' attitude and almost entirely black outfit outside of the white shirt the school required you to wear.

But maybe this guy was actually nice and just didn't show it easily.

Hyunjin was hoping that was it, because someone didn't remember names the first time and do their homework at 1 am just to be a jerk to everybody. At least that's not normally how it worked.

Hyunjin glanced back at Changbin one last time to see him sleeping again. His perfect hair swept to the side as he rested his head on his hands.

Hyunjin contemplated how weirdly soft he looked at the moment before deciding that he should probably look away for fear that he might seem creepy.

He realized that he should ask the teacher if Changbin could give him a tour of the school. He was pretty sure that Changbin would give him a much better and realistic tour compared to some overly optimistic girl.

His thoughts were cut off by a piercing bell that rang right in his ear, followed by a spontaneous hug from Jisung who was so excited to get out of class. Hyunjin almost fell over from the force.

After a second, Jisung pulled back and grabbed Hyunjin's hands.

"Let's go! What's your next class?"

As he was speaking, Hyunjin felt an arm wrap itself around his shoulders. He looked over to see only the top of Changbin's head. He was surprised, Changbin didn't seem that short when he was sitting down, but now it was obvious that he was several inches shorter than Hyunjin.

Jisung noticed Changbin and immediately let go of Hyunjin's hands.

"Hey, Squirrel. You should get off the tree if it's nuts aren't for you to eat." Changbin said in a low, gravely tone before leading Hyunjin out of the classroom.

"Just shout to the world that I'm gay, why don't ya!" Jisung yelled after them.

"I didn't, but nice of you to come out!" Changbin yelled back as Hyunjin tried to suppress his giggles.

Once they got in the hallway, Changbin's arm left Hyunjin's shoulder. Hyunjin turned to thank him and try to get a tour, but Changbin was already walking away.

He sighed.

Another day maybe.