black holes.

jupiter

it feels like a movie.

yugyeom remembers the day bambam had accidentally blurted out that little secret of his. that whisper of i am fascinated by you on that spring night in the middle of the street, the memory deeply engrained in his mind.

and he also remembers feeling like the world was changing in that one second after those words were uttered, how life in that moment felt like it was beginning in a new chapter.

now. well, now life feels like it's ending.

yugyeom avoids jungkook like the plague, anytime he turns a corner of the school hallway and catches sight of the boy he'll turn around and take the long way to class.

he hasn't seen bambam since that day he was dropped off (he wonders a lot about him, where he's off to, if he also wonders about yugyeom, is he even coming to school?).

luckily for him, school is always filled with never ending gossip so the student's attention drifts away from the jungkook and yugyeom incident pretty quickly.

he's grateful for that. especially since jackson had asked him about it offhandedly during lunch but was distracted when jinyoung came bouncing excitedly about his new role in a short play.

yugyeom has been skipping his astronomy class for three days and is busted on thursday when the teacher catches him off guard on his way to his screenwriting class. she's got a stern frown on her face and she grabs yugyeom by the collar to drag him into the assistant principal's office.

his heart rockets off in his chest, more so when the principal tells yugyeom he's going to give his older brother a call for his sudden behavior.

it seems all of his teachers have ganged up on him and snitched him out. he's forced into attending saturday detention for the rest of the month, yugyeom pouts and curses them both in his mind.

so on Friday, yugyeom enters school with a scowl on his usual blank face. although most of the student body has moved on from his very public gay moment at a party, there are still nosy and annoying people he has to share planet earth with.

which means that when yugyeom enters his astronomy class first thing in the morning instead of walking to his safe haven, every pair of eyes that have fitted their way into class immediately turn to gaze on him.

this includes jungkook. they share a tense, brief glance before jungkook pulls his hoodie over his head and turns away.

he's not sitting at the round table that was usually reserved for him, jackson and jungkook. instead he sits with the boy's that send sneers behind yugyeom's back, it hurts to see jungkook hang out with them but he can't blame the boy for needed to put space between them.

some people whisper as he makes his way down the aisles of chairs and tables and plops down on the table, he refuses to look up already knowing they're staring from jungkook to yugyeom.

luckily jackson comes skipping in. he looks surprised to see yugyeom there, yugyeom had made a quick lie about finishing up a project for his university entrance – it wasn't a complete lie, but he wasn't ready to tell his best friends he'd been making out with jungkook of all people.

the bell rings to indicate the start of classes and for once the teacher comes in on time, she seeks for yugyeom and gives him a nod when she finds him in his usual seat. yugyeom flicks her off in his mind.

"i thought you were busy with that project," jackson settles himself comfortably in his chair.

yugyeom on the other hand is as tense as a piano cord, for jackson had spoken the words in a disdainful way. as if he knew something.

yugyeom shrugs, "i'm pretty much done with it. i'll show it to you and jinyoung when i'm done with it."

that seems to do the trick since jackson brightens up. "ms. lee here has been such an ass about your whereabouts." he whispers as class begins, "she seems so obsessed with your attendance. it's fucking creepy."

yugyeom snorts, "yeah, the damn lady caught me on my way to screenwriting and sent me to the office. jaebum left a note on the counter saying we 'need to have a talk.'" jackson snickers as he takes out a notebook and pretends to write down notes, yugyeom follows his lead. "and now i got saturday detention for the next month."

jackson wrinkles his nose in pity, pats yugyeom's curls softly. jackson opens his mouth to say something but quickly shakes his head and changes the subject.

"i don't write much notes," he starts, "but since I'm such a great friend" – cue for yugyeom's eye roll – "i took some down for you."

he hands yugyeom his notebook and sure enough, yugyeom is surprised to see the notes from the classes he's missed.

he feels guilty all of a sudden, jackson and jinyoung have been by his side since they were children and keeping this secret and lying constantly to them was making him feel like a shitty friend. yugyeom felt like crying, but he held back the tears and breathed deeply through his nose, counting to ten.

"also," jackson begins, "don't look now, but jungkook hasn't stopped staring at you since class started."

yugyeom startles and almost looks over his shoulder, but jackson is quicker and reaches a hand to clutch his elbow in warning.

"did anything happen between you?" jackson asks, though to yugyeom it sounds more like jackson already knows the answer. regardless he opens his mouth to say no, but is interrupted by a shout.

"yugyeom!" both of them jump as the teacher yells. "i have had enough with your poor behavior. if you will be acting disrespectful to your classmates and i then leave the classroom."

she points at the door and all thirty students turn to look at yugyeom, some with wide eyes and others with condescending glares.

if this had been any other day, or if yugyeom hadn't been feeling so lost and annoyed with the way everyone was treating him and if jungkook would stop being a grouchy ass, then yugyeom would have simply apologized and submitted himself for the teacher to send him subtle scowls throughout the class.

but he was annoyed. the day had just started and yugyeom wanted to grab a skateboard – his skateboard and leave the school. whatever, he was sick and tired of letting people walk all over him.

it was unfair, perhaps if the teachers cared about him as a person and not a number in data then they'd have tried to get to understand his sudden change in mood. but they hadn't done that, and what yugyeom was about to do was surely to get him into further trouble, but there was a fire burning wildly beneath his skin.

"okay." then he stood up, got his backpack and notebook and took six long steps to the door, twisted the knob opened and walked out of his astronomy class.

he could feel everyone staring at him with wonder and astonishment, completely baffled and surprised that the boy who barely spoke, who kept to himself, the boy they faintly recognized as a fellow classmate had just gotten up and walked out of class.

when yugyeom stepped out of the door, he froze when he saw bambam sitting against the wall with minghao and hansol.

all three of them stopped talking as soon as they caught his form. bambam had a surprised look on his face and minghao was smirking, it made yugyeom feel uncomfortable.

he hadn't seen bambam in a week, so finding him leaning on the wall, with his legs stretched out and skipping class right in front of said class gave yugyeom a burst of courage.

"hey," yugyeom said, then he turned around and walked to the nearest exist. he was skipping school today.