Stop | HyunIn

6

Jeongin stood quietly in the corridor, and watched as two students practically dragged some boy into a classroom. They must've thought no one would see since it was their lunch break, but Jeongin doesn't go to the cafeteria to eat lunch with friends.

While watching, he felt some sort of pain seeing how helpless the boy looked. He knows what it felt like. He walked a few steps closer to the door to listen in.

"Get up." Said a voice from within the classroom. A really familiar voice... Jeongin felt his stomach turn as he realised that it was the voice of an old friend. He crept to the window and looked in to see, just as he had guessed, Hyunjin, holding the boy's face.

That wasn't Hyunjin. It couldn't be. How could this bully be the same boy who had helped Jeongin when he was in the same situation in high school? Where was the boy who stood up to the bullies and even took a few punches for Jeongin? Then it hit him. It was also the same boy who had left Jeongin crying on the floor because Jeongin was gay.

"What a pretty face.. it would be a shame to ruin it. Oh well," Jeongin heard Hyunjin's voice again. It sounded so different. It sounded cruel. It sounded scary. It didn't sound like Hyunjin.

He saw Hyunjin grab a milk carton from the boy's bag and approach him as his two friends held him down. Hyunjin had a sinister look in his eyes. On impulse Jeongin ran in and grabbed Hyunjin's wrist before the contents of the carton ended up on the poor victims head.

Hyunjin turned his head and, as he saw Jeongin's face, Jeongin saw a flash of the old Hyunjin from high school.

"Stop it." He said, trying to sound as tough as possible.

"Let go Jeongin." Hyunjin said. His voice was soft, like the old Hyunjin, who would comfort Jeongin when he was upset.

Jeongin kept his cool and threw the milk carton out of Hyunjin's hand and onto the floor. It slowly began puddling on the floor beside Hyunjin's feet. Jeongin marched over to Hyunjin's two friends and jerked the boy out of their hold and stormed off, pulling the boy, who had been watching the whole thing in awe.

He pulled the boy until they were far from that classroom, in an empty corridor. It was dark as not many of the lights were working and one was flickering slightly, but Jeongin, not really paying any attention to it, fell against the wall and let out the breath he had been holding in.

He grabbed fistfuls of his hair, muttering in frustration. His on earth did he find the courage to do that? His heart was beating so hard and fast that it felt as if it were going to pop out of his chest at any moment.

"Thanks."

Jeongin was snapped out of his train of thought by that poor boy, who he had honestly forgotten about at that moment. Even then, the boy was smiling gratefully at him and Jeongin smiled weakly in return.

"No problem."

"Can I somehow repay you?" He asked, cautiously.

"Huh? I- I don't think..." Jeongin didn't even know how to say no to him.

"Please?" The boy stepped slightly closer to Jeongin. "At least let me buy you lunch."

Jeongin sighed deeply and agreed. He really didn't want to get himself involved with anyone, but seeing how the boy's face lit up after he agreed made him decide to go along with it. Also, he had basically asked for this by butting in.

"What's your name?" Jeongin asked, attempting to start a conversation as the boy lead him to the cafeteria.

"Kim Seungmin." He said, smiling. "What about you?"

"Yang Jeongin."

That was about all of their conversation until they reached the cafeteria.

They arrived at the cafeteria and Jeongin couldn't help but want to run for it. It was so loud, full of people and chatter, contrasting the hallways Jeongin likes to roam whilst everyone sits in there. He walked through the multiple tables and could feel all the eyes following him. College wasn't any different from high school. Jeongin liked to keep to himself and no one wanted to talk to him anyways. But now here he was, in the middle of almost every student in the whole damn school, walking with someone who was probably the "easy target". The bullied kid. Seungmin lead him to a table, which was already occupied by three two others, but Jeongin assumed they were his friends.

"Come on." Seungmin gestured for Jeongin to sit beside him, which he did, awkwardly trying to avoid the confused looks from Seungmin's friends. "Guys, this is Jeongin; he saved me from Hyunjin." Seungmin's friends just looked even more confused than before.

Seungmin began introducing his thourouly confused friends.

"This is Felix." He said, pointing to the one on the left. Felix had very cute features. He had a round face and big lips. He had big eyes that became small when he smiled and freckles scattered over his face. He looked quite intimidating until he smiled.

"And this is Jisung." Jeongin's eyes looked to the right and saw Seungmin's other friend. He slightly resembled a squirrel of some sort. He was really cute and welcoming as he smiled, kindly. He seemed more of the open, friendly guy. Unlike Felix, who seemed more timid.

"What do you mean he saved you?" Asked Felix. His voice was unbelievably low, contrasting his cute face.

Seungmin began explaining the story, while Jeongin sat there smiling nervously as the details were greatly exaggerated. Every now and then the two friends would look at Jeongin in awe with a sound of exclamation, such as an "oooooh" or a "woooow".

Finally when the Seungmin finished, Jeongin felt a hand on his back and turned to see Jisung grinning madly.

"You're quite something, aren't you?" He said, patting Jeongin on the back. Jeongin chuckled, quite awkwardly.

"Don't be afraid," Jeongin turned his head again when he heard the low voice. "We don't bite."

"Yeah," added Seungmin. "I'm really grateful, Jeongin."

For the remainder of their lunch break, Jeongin stayed silent. He only answered questions when asked and tried his best to relax. He felt like he shouldn't be there. Like he was intruding. He never felt like that when he was with Hyunjin...

Thank you to everyone who is reading this story so far. I just wanted to point out that I am totally not bothered to grammar check my chapters, so I apologise for any spelling errors and whatnot. 😊