the stall slammed quickly behind jooheon as he stared in disbelief at the papers in his hands.
what the hell were these?
did he have a stalker?
jooheon scanned his eyes over the photos and he sadly realized that this wasn't meant to be creepy.
scum.
dirty.
disgusting.
gross.
poor and unworthy.
jooheon's throat tightened.
who had the right?
who had the fucking nerve?
he bit back the emotion crawling up his throat.
he had to walk out into that hallway.
he had to show whoever did this that he was ice cold.
nothing hurt lee jooheon.
nothing hurt lee jooheon.
he gulped and unlocked the stall and stared at himself in the mirror.
pressing his fist to the reflective surface jooheon clenched his jaw.
"they will never know jooheon, it's okay."
he closed his eyes re-imagining his mother cleaning the cut that had scarred his cheek in middle school.
he remembered balling like a new-born baby, he hadn't wanted his siblings to know he was bullied, even if they were too young to understand, he wanted them to know he would always protect them.
and he would.
-
"oh my god," changkyun doubled over, "did you see his fucking face!?"
hyungwon was crying from laughter, "i know right."
"look, look! here he comes!"
the boys looked over at jooheon who had an stony expression on his face.
"oh my god he's about to open his locker!"
"changkyun shut up!"
the smaller boy scowled but couldn't stop grinning.
"what the fuck!"
the pair attempted to hold in their laughs watching as dirt tumbled onto the floor.
changkyun stared curiously as jooheon tried to salvage random pieces of paper from the soil.
"what the fuck is he doing?"
"i don't know shouldn't he be saving his textbooks or something?" hyungwon giggled.
"i hope he knows that i'm not to be messed with now."
changkyun grinned at hyungwon and both boys burst into laughter.
jooheon looked up and over at them.
"shit! kyunnie! we've been caught!"
changkyun lifted his head high giving jooheon the nastiest smirk he possibly could before gripping hyungwon's arm and running off.
-
he fucking smirked.
"i knew it was that fucking asswipe," jooheon grumbled watching the queen bee and his sidekick run off.
his attention returned to the damp papers in between his fingers.
he sighed shutting his eyes momentarily.
"jooheon!"
"sehun thank god, would you help-"
"help you? i don't go near peasants, sorry."
a giggle was heard from behind sehun.
"so cold sehun, so cold," he watched carefully as hoseok grinned.
jooheon stared at the two as if he didn't even know them.
"what a fucking loser," sighed yixing as he looked down upon him before wrapping his arms around sehun and hoseok.
he knew they were assholes.
he knew it.
he knew it before he had started hanging out with them.
but that didn't stop a deep sorrow carving itself into his heart.
-
"miss, do you think these papers need to be delivered to the office i mean-"
"mr. lim, please just take them, i'm sure hyungwon will be fine without you."
changkyun sighed giving in as he took the papers reluctantly from the teacher's hand pouting as he looked back at his tall friend who only gave him a short wave.
he groaned before heading down the hall.
the small boy paused outside of the office for a moment, hearing a familiar voice.
"mom we don't have that much to just give!"
"i know i know i know, it's for school, blah blah blah, but seriously, we can't do this. mom! we can hardly pay rent! i can just enroll at another school, let me handle it."
"i say we because we are a we! we're a team mom, we always have been. gunho has never given us anything but grief, he is not part of our team."
"mom, think of the twins. we can't just pull dahyun out of ballet and tell her that someone damaged my shit and we have to use her funds to pay for it!"
"i know, i'm sorry, i didn't mean to curse, mom?"
"i'm sorry."
"no, don't say that, it's my fault."
"let me handle this okay."
"mom?"
"mom, please, stop."
"i'll see you at home."
changkyun quickly twisted around the corner as the phone was placed down.
he watched as jooheon exited the office violently wiping his cheeks.
guilt pooled into changkyun's gut.
he always was a sucker for tears.
but this was jooheon.
he hated himself for feeling bad but no normal human being wouldn't feel bad.
he knew what he had to do.
"miss secretary?"
"lim changkyun! what a nice face to see, what can i do for you?"
"these are from my teacher and..."
"and?"
changkyun sighed glancing around to make sure no one was looking before pulling a large amount of won out of his pocket.
"this is for lee jooheon's school supplies. keep what's left over for yourself, just make sure everything is paid back for me, alright?"
"wow," the secretary stared wide-eyed at the money, "you two must be really close."
changkyun stared blankly at the elderly woman, "sure."
"i'll make sure this gets to where it's supposed to be."
"miss secretary?"
"yes."
"make sure no one, especially him, knows it was me, or you'll pay."
the lady raised her eyebrows watching changkyun stomp out of the office.
the small boy ran his hands through his hair sighing dramatically.
"why did i do that?"
"because you are fucking weak, what the hell kyunnie?"
"hyungwon?! why the hell-"
"bitch you have some explaining to do."
changkyun sighed and pressed his lips together giving hyungwon an annoyed look.
"i didn't do it for jooheon, i did it for his little siblings, at least they deserve to grow up better than that asshole did."
the tall boy stared at him skeptically.
"i literally fucking trashed his shit yesterday, do you think i want to do nice things for him?"
"fine, whatever."
"why the hell were you out of class anyways?"
hyungwon smiled, "hoseok messaged me saying he felt sick and he wanted me to come care for him so i told the teacher i had a family emergency."
"so i'm going to be left all alone?"
"kyunnie, don't cry, you always have soo you know."
"you were the one who wanted to have lunch with him today, won't you stay?"
"sweetie," hyungwon grinned patting his arm, "duty calls."
"fuck you!" changkyun called down the hallway as he watched his friend sway his hips sassily.
-
jooheon glared across the cafeteria at changkyun and kyungsoo.
his face was twisted into a grumpy expression.
he had lost his best friend to a bitchy twat that had nothing to offer but money.
jooheon knew kyungsoo would have helped him in a time like this. he would have patted his shoulder and offered him money, but now, he was too caught up in the latest trends to even give a shit about his old friend.
he groaned resting his head on the table, why did life torture him like this?
-
"what did you even say to him?" changkyun giggled biting down on a piece of celery.
"i don't really remember but i called him a disrespectful brat at some point and told him to fuck off," kyungsoo sighed.
"at first glance you look like such a sweetheart, i find this extremely entertaining."
kyungsoo smiled, "a lot of people expect me to act like a softie, which i do majority of the time, but i put up with too much of his shit, i was just done."
changkyun grinned shaking his head before glancing across the room watching jooheon hide his face by pressing it down onto his table.
the small boy looked away raising his head suppressing the guilt rising up from the pit of his stomach.
he would not feel bad for lee jooheon.
not even today.
not ever.
( a/n: I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES!!! i've been extremely busy as of late and things are still a lil crazy but i promise next week i'll be back to updates every day or every other day ((((: )