between us | hyunin

xviii | polaris

"what? no, hyunjin and jeongin can't share a dorm!"

both hyunjin and jeongin wished everyone would shut up. there had been an instant uproar when the teachers had announced the dorm arrangements. 

"why can't we chose our own?" another boy whined, not so much to "help" hyunjin. hyunjin knew that he wasn't particularly fond of the dorm mate he'd been put with. 

"because that's the way it is. be glad we didn't mix the genders," the teacher snapped back. 

hyunjin sighed. well, at least the day wouldn't be spent in awkward silence with jeongin; the younger had choral practice majority of the time, while hyunjin had dance squad with felix and minho. he doubted they'd talk in their dorm anyway. 

hyunjin was just worried about what the black bully would do if they found out that jeongin and hyunjin had been sharing a dorm at music camp. whoever it was might already know, if they were a music student. 

hyunjin felt himself slipping inside. kyuri and her girlfriend were his priorities. it would be extremely hard to prove to some bully that he and jeongin weren't friendly inside a dorm.

okay, he was worrying too much. he probably had anxiety. 

hyunjin found a letter inside his pocket sometime later that day. whoever had put it there, they sure had good pick-pocketing skills. he hadn't even felt the letter being slipped inside his pocket. 

he wasn't going to praise their skills, however, not when he had a feeling he knew where it came from. 

dear hyunjin the letter began, and he snorted. since when was he a dear to anyone?

dear hyunjin, 
i believe you and jeongin are to share a room with each other. you must not do so, else your sister's girlfriend gets hurt in front of your sister.
do not disappoint.
kind regards.

hyunjin snorted again as he read the last words. kind regards? since when was this bully kind? they didn't understand the meaning of any nice words. maybe he should leave them a dictionary that included only positive words. 

or a cup of positivi-tea. 

the bully's vocabulary could be fixed later. right now, he needed to figure out a way to get out of the dorm. 

that was easier done than said, for once. immediately after they'd been dismissed a whole group of people, both girls and boys, had crowded around hyunjin and insisted he dorm with them. one of them had been park myunghee. the boy's girlfriend seemed okay and he was fine with giving him another opportunity to give him a second impression, so he accepted the guy's request. 

he'd still prefer to room with jeongin. god knows what the younger would think when he realised that hyunjin had abandoned him. he was really an awful frie- no, he oculdn't even cal himself a friend anymore. he was an awful person. no ordinary person would abandon a dorm just because they were afraid of the consequences. 

hyunjin didn't dislike his situation. he hated it. 

and he also hated himself. 

hyunjin hurriedly followed myunghee and his roommate towards their designated room. they had half an hour to unpack and then practice - for him, dance. 

"it's awful what jeongin did to you," myunghee said while they walked in awkward silence down the narrow halls, occassionally scraping their luggage on the walls. 

hyunjin sighed. the boy was only trying to be friendly. "yeah," he said shortly, turning to the other in the dorm. 

"who're you? we haven't met." he said.