If All Else Fails

o n e

Mark learns within 0.5 seconds that Heejin is a small girl who can channel all her barely existent body weight into the heel of her foot as it furiously stomps down on his white Nike's, effectively melting his taunts into defeated squeals of pain and frantic half-assed apologies. 

"Jheeze, you haven't changed since ninth grade, have you?" he forces a chuckle, dropping his trey on the table before smoothing a thumb over the tip of his shoe. 

"To be fair, you should have known how seriously she takes her 'husbandos' by now," Heejin chortles in amusement.

"Well, she better learn how to live without them soon," he shrugs.

"Why would I do that?" Heejin quirks an eyebrow. 

"Council prez is banning manga starting next week."

"What?!" The sheer volume of Heejin's shriek seems to pierce through Mark's ears and perhaps his entire existence. A good majority of the cafeteria turns in their direction though she pays no heed as her face pales and palms go clammy. "Who said that? When? Why? How? Why would he do that to me?!" 

"He says they're a distraction and in his words, many of them are inappropriate for school," he explains, "he probably caught some dudes out back reading some hentai shit or somethin' I dunno." 

"You say that so innocently like you're not one of those dudes," Hyunjin comments.

"Moi?" he scoffs, taking a sip of his apple juice, "I am of the utmost cleanliest of gentlemen. How dare thou accuse me of such impure past time activities." 

Hyunjin rolls her eyes, knowing full well Mark may as well have been just as devastated if it weren't for the fact that this enforced rule isn't much different from any other in this school. In other words, he will do whatever he wants and charmingly smile his way out of the possible consequences.

On the other hand-

"That isn't right!" Heejin huffs with the stomp of her foot against the floor like a flustered child, "manga is an art! He can't just do that, he can't-" a hitch in her breath, a tint of pink creeping on her cheeks, "why?!" 

"Why are you yelling at me? Go yell at mister Choi San," Mark mutters.

"I... I will, then!" Fumbling with the slightly tangled strap of her bag, almost slinging it over her shoulder backwards, she clumsily trips over her own feet but catches herself before shuffling her way out the door. 

The second she disappears out of sight, Mark shifts his gaze to Hyunjin with an absentminded smile. "She still doesn't know how to approach authority, does she?"

"Nope," she sighs, "you know she looked more stressed when you told her that than when Mrs. Yang announced that the calculus test is tomorrow."

By the looks of it, anyone entering the council room would think that someone is out to assassinate the president (though if it's someone like her, all these precautionary measures aren't necessary. She has the upper body strength of a chocolate eclair.) Security cameras attached to every corner, a metal detector encasing the door frame, and a luminous KEEP OUT sign secured to the meeting room entrance. Very high maintenance for top secret discussions of 'how much ketchup is too much ketchup to put in the dispensers in the cafeteria?'. 

Heejin knows she shouldn't be intimidated. Nothing really differentiates them from her besides them being total try-hards, not understanding the emotional stability manga provides for her- errr- many well-meaning students in this goddamned school.