classroom solitude | taejin

one.

—
JIN

The sounds of screeches were audibly heard coming from the broken mic on stage, its wires poking out from the bottom of the cylinder shaped stand. Great, another random assembly?

And about what this time, eating healthy? I honestly don't give a shit. My fork picked at my food, my cheeks were stuffed with vegetables. My silverware speared though my lettuce, twisting and turning, playing with my so called salad. It was more like a random mix of leaves to me.

My thoughts got blown away by some kind of loud shrill. My head turned around to face the opposite direction, as I eyed down my Principal standing next to a orderly line of teachers. Mr. Hwang coughed on to his elbows, before holding the mic stand in his hand.

"Good afternoon, students of Seoul High. Is everyone enjoying their lunches?" He put his hand next to his ear, acting as if us, High Schoolers, would respond to his elementary-like question.

"No responses? Okay.." His voice came to an awkward halt, as he adjusted his striped tie. "As you may know, this School has an applauded reputation for having the most organized, and leader-like students on our student council."

A couple of fake laughs came out from his mouth, as he smiled proudly at us. His hands fumbling with the stack of index cards in his palms.

The mic screeched at the inactivity, as my principal accidentally scrambled with his speech cards, misplacing them. There was an awkwardly silence, before heels clacking against the stage could be heard. Mrs. Kim looked at him in terror, as she bent down and helped him pick up his papers. "Um."

He murmered angrily, looking at the piles and piles of mixed up index cards on the stage. "You know what, lets just skip to the good part!" Mr. Hwang uncouthly said. He carelessly tossed the stack of index cards behind him.

Students laughed at the chotic, topsy-turvy, assembly. I let out a couple of dry laughs, as I watched the staff stand there on stage. "Without further ado, I'm hear to announce.. Our yearly student council ballot!"

An up-roar of applause exploded from the endless line of lunch tables. "Every year, you have the chance to either vote, or become a candidate! Running for class president is hard, so please think to yourself if you're fit for the position.

That means no breaking the rules, and no bad grades either. If your grades are below average, you do not have the right to join the ballot. Any questions?" He looked in to the crowd, waiting for voices to speak up. "Uh, yes. Where do we sign up?" Said a jock, as he tossed his football around, from his left hand to his right.

Don't tell me that Hoseok's going to sign up. That would be a nightmare. Jocks are such dickheads and dumbasses, they probably don't even know what the presidential system's about.

"It's a pretty simple process. All you need is to sign a flyer. During this assembly, we've put up three sign up sheets all around the School. It takes two trials to become an official candidate." Wait what did he say? It's- Whatever.. Really.

I turned back around, my spoon picking up a shit-ton of walnuts and then stuffing them in to my mouth. Murmers from students errupted from behind me, as Mr. Hwang went on to talk about how things should go. I'm not interested in being apart of the student council team- so why should I pay attention?

"Greetings and salutations!" A jokingly voice said from behind me. "Oh hey Yoongi!" I dropped my fork on to my lunch tray, "Whats up?". He played with the edges of his napkins, ripping them slightly in anxiousness. "Well it's just that- I wanna try and sign up."

"Woah.. Stop right there, Yoongs. You sure about this? I mean, you hate public speaking and you're going to be up against a bunch of dicks!" I joked. I guess I shouldn't have said that, because maybe this time, he was serious.

"I'm not kidding.. I think I could really shape up this School, you know? Don't you hate eating that yucky salad? Think about this, when I become class president, I can restore this disgusting menu." He shyly smiled at me.

It's not my place or time to discourage him- Since it's rare to see him participate and try-out for such activities like this. Activities that included long speeches, and publicly speaking in front of a whole lotta' students. "I feel like it could help me sprout to be less- I don't know- Nervous?" His mouth was molded in to an unsure, yet, reassuring smile.

Our long talk actually took up half of the time we were supposed to be listening to our principal. The bell rang aggresively, as Yoongi and I stood up from our lunch table. "It's just that- I don't like how my hand-writing looks.. Can you- Please write my name down on that flyer for me?" He looked directly at me with pleading eyes, as he tossed his cardboard tray in to the trash can.

If he thinks his own calligraphy is bad, then why does he have the courage to want to be a candidate? "Yoongi. Maybe you should rethink this. If you don't have the courage to write your own name down because you think it looks like shit," My voice halted, as I made quotation marks with my fingers, "Then maybe you shouldn't sign up." I shrugged, and chucked my plastic salad bowl into the trash.

"But I really want to.. Please can you just help a guy out?" His foot steps came in to sync with mines, as us two students walked out of the cafeteria. "Fine." I muttered under my breath. I don't even think my hand-writing is the best, so why out of all the people in this School did he have to choose me?

Oh wait, that's right. He chose me cause I'm his only friend. As soon as the principal dismissed all of us, we rushed out. It was like a scavenger hunt- But for only one out of three sheets of paper.

The whole pack of cheerleaders and jocks were all huddled up in the left side of the halls, so I decided to lead Yoongi to the right- Because I know he absolutely HATES crowded places.

I spotted a brown-haired male scribbling a few words on to a sheet in an empty hallway. "That must be it! C'mon Yoongi, lets see if all of the spots aren't filled out yet." I trudged my way to the quiet corridor. The random boy there wore a varsity jacket, with the words '17 KIM' on the back, boldly printed. I'm guessing he's a jock. Great.

"Do you have a pen I could use?" I whispered, as I nudged at Yoongi's side. "Yeah, here-" His words got cut short when the brown-haired boy from earlier said, "Are you signing up too? That's gonna be awesome. I'd like to be running against someone hot like you." He smirked at me.

The audacity! People who wore a varsity jacket during School hours were always up-front. It's a personality trait- For jocks. Uh, no. I'm not participating, haha." I answered quite awkwardly. He clicked his tongue and looked at me from head to toe. "The name's Taehyung." He shook Yoongi's hand.

"Lets see how life's gonna treat you at the election in a few weeks." Taehyung said to my friend. "It's such a shame that someone as pretty as you isn't a candidate."

Taehyung looked at me, and winked. It's such a disgrace to the student council team that the names of stupid flirty jocks are all over the sign up sheets. The so called 'Taehyung' guy walked away, with one backpack strap slung over his shoulder.

Wait, did he practically try to say I was cute? Come on. Back to the point, I jotted down Yoongi's name, as fast as I could. "Thank you so much!" Yoongi said, as if I had done him some big typa' favor. I mean- All I really did was write his name down for him.

"Jin, I'm worried. Especially about that Taehyung guy. He has the confidence- literally everything that I don't have.." His voice trailed off into silent mutters, as he scratched the back of his neck. "Come on, we have two weeks to help you with your stage fright." I patted his back, trying to reassure him that his self-confidence levels will rise in no time.

But in the mean time, how will we ever beat someone like that brown-haired boy?

Whatever.

"We can start off by brainstorming! Wanna come over to my house tomorrow?" I suggested enthusiastically. He nodded, his lips curving in to a thin smile.