[TWO]
"Don't smile at me, lie to me, because I can't get closer to you. There's no name you can call me."
≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺
JAEHYUN sluggishly dragged his feet to the art room, feeling every ounce of his soul already being sucked out just by being in the vicinity of the door to the class. All he could think about was how much he didn't want to be there.
He reached his hand out for the door handle, but almost tripped and fell through the glass door behind him when someone else opened it up instead from the other side. A girl with a short black bob and a RBF (resting bitch face) flashed him the nastiest glare he'd seen in a long time, speaking curtly with venom, "Watch where you're going, dumbass."
Jaehyun cringed, but before he could utter out a sorry, she was already halfway down the hallway. He shuddered, expression growing hopeless; yeah, this class was going to suck. You know what? Today as a whole was going to be miserable, Jaehyun was convinced of it.
He slipped through the entrance and to his suprise, it was rather busy in here compared to yesterday morning. Seriously, where did all these kids come from? They were everywhere, lively and smiling, chatting away about random topics that probably had nothing much to do with the class at all. Their words were a buzz in Jaehyun's ears as his eyes frantically fluttered around the room for Doyoung; not because he was friends with the guy, hell, like that was ever going to happen. He was just the only person Jaehyun was familiar with, and sadly, he didn't seem to be here.
Jaehyun randomly chose a secluded seat at a table that held only two other people, their heads only lifting to catch a glimpse of him before looking away in disinterest. He could've sat by himself at a different table instead of awkwardly joining strangers, but he didn't want to exactly show that he was completely alone in this class, either. That would just be even worse.
He was occupying himself with a loose thread on his hoodie before he heard Doyoung's voice. His heart gave a slight jump, and his eyes drifted up to the door of the art class to see the raven haired talking with another. That other was a boy, slightly hidden behind Doyoung's tall frame, with a notebook held tightly to his chest and a simple black pen in his other hand.
From what Jaehyun could see, he had really dark brown hair and extremely large brown eyes, as well as an oversized gray sweatshirt that engulfed his petite frame. Other than that, Jaehyun hadn't taken much notes on the boy's appearance, rather than his small bickering with Doyoung that was attracting the attention of the surrounding students.
Doyoung turned around, eyes meeting Jaehyun's before he looked back at the unnamed boy. He seemed to be trying to coax the other into doing something, and he was totally refusing by the way he shook his head quickly, as if whatever Doyoung was telling him was absolutely abhorrent. Doyoung sighed deeply before turning his heel and making his way over to Jaehyun.
Jaehyun's pupils trained on the unnamed one for a little longer although, watching as the small boy swiftly sat down at the last open and unoccupied table. Jaehyun wasn't aware of his obvious staring until the unfamilar, dark doe eyes of the boy's met his. Jaehyun's heart thumped heavily in his chest, and he gazed away from the stranger. His ears must've, he thought, gone completely red from humiliation.
Doyoung sat besides Jaehyun, a evident frown drawn on his face. He rested his elbow on the wooden table and his cheek in his hand, murmuring incoherent words underneath his breath. Jaehyun decided it was best not to ask. Doyoung must've noticed the confusion washed upon Jaehyun's features though, and said, "Sorry about that."
Jaehyun chewed on his chapped lip, eyebrows raising in a questioning manner. "About what?" he asked, voice faltering near the end.
Doyoung shot the other boy from across the room a glare, who was bluntly ignoring the male, and turned to flip a few pages of his sketchbook. "For—uh," he drew out the 'uh' as he quickly skimmed through the pages of the sketchbook, flashes of drawings contorting into gray and black blurs until his thumb stopped on a page. "For the hermit," he finally responded, gazing at the drawing of a reflective vase of flowers on the page in distaste.
Jaehyun didn't dare to even take a glimpse at the supposed 'hermit' again, tapping his pencil on the table with light flicks of his wrist. "Why? What happened?" The nickname was somehow so random and ridiculous that he had to force himself to hold in his laughter; good thing he was a great actor.
Doyoung's demeanor switched to being suddenly frustrated than being a tad annoyed. "He never wants to associate himself with anyone. As if he doesn't want friends at all or something. I don't get what his deal is, like I really don't understand him at all. I tried being friends with him, but now we only talk online and most of our conversations are arguments, because he's that temperamental," Doyoung complained, but after seeing the amusement on Jaehyun's face, he bit his tongue to hold in whatever else he had to say.
Jaehyun rested his chin on his hand, asking lightly, "Who is he?"
Doyoung took a long glance at the said boy from across the room, stare not growing shy at all even when he gazed right back at him before growing bored and scribbling into his notepad. Doyoung side-eyed Jaehyun for a moment, and the latter could basically see the gears of Doyoung's mind churning in his obsidian irises.
Jaehyun's playful smile faltered immediately. A little grin turned up on the corners of Doyoung's lips, proving Jaehyun's theory of whatever the clever boy was thinking wasn't going to be something Jaehyun would necessarily like.
"Why don't you go ask him?" Doyoung inquired, leaning back in his stool.
Jaehyun rolled his eyes, chiming sarcastically, "Haha, so funny." Doyoung's gaze narrowed, probably at Jaehyun's negligence.
"I'm being serious. Look, you both are fr—acquaintances of mine, and you both need people to talk to. Stop being such a douche and maybe think about it for a minute," Doyoung hissed, crossing his arms across his long torso.
Jaehyun averted his pupils back to the 'hermit'. He watched as a small, content smile danced on his lips as he drew in the notepad in front of him, clearly lost in his own mind to notice the latter's staring. Jaehyun 'thought about it for a moment', chewing on the dry skin on his lips before sighing. "Let me give you the benefit of the doubt. Let's say I do go talk to him. He'll probably just find me weird as hell, because he obviously wants nothing to do with me anyway. You act like I couldn't see that he was refusing to even sit down at the same table as me," Jaehyun pointed out, a frown masking his face. "Plus, I'm not interested," he added, looking to his hands.
Doyoung pursed his lips before throwing his hands up in the air, suddenly singing, "Lonely!" He points to Jaehyun, "You're so lonely! You have nobody to call your own." Jaehyun's ears turns a firetruck red as he hides his face in the sleeves of his sweatshirt.
"Shut up!" he seethes between his teeth, eyes merely peeking above the fabric of his hoodie at all the people now staring at them. "I'm going to beat you one day, Kim Doyoung. You bet you're going to be on your knees begging for mercy."
Doyoung offered a gummy smile. "Sure, keep telling yourself that."
-
Jaehyun chewed on his nails out of pure apathy, because he had to be in the most tedious class of them all — History. He wasn't one to pay attention to the teacher much, because he was rather gifted at the subject anyway. All he had to do was make a few flash cards and maybe write out a one page study guide and he was set for at least a B. So that just made the class even more boring.
His lips drew into a thin line once feeling someone kick his chair from behind. His short temper was instantly set aflame, so he backed his chair up against the desk behind him hard so it was set off balance and turned around, mouth becoming dry once meeting Johnny's smirking face. "You're not taking no one's shit today, are you?" Johnny mused, eyes twinkling.
Jaehyun held in a grunt and scooted his chair back to his own desk grudgingly. "I suppose so," he answered, quickly looking to the distracted teacher before completely shifting his attention to the boy behind him.
Johnny messed with the crumpled edges of his textbook, asking, "what put you in such a sour mood then?"
Jaehyun's eyebrows knitted together, and he puffed out his cheeks like a grumpy child. He didn't really know what made him so irritable to be honest. It was just one of those 'off days'; well, if you could call every day of a week an off day. "The art club," he reckoned. It was the easiest class to place the blame on.
A laugh escaped Johnny, but he quickly caught his mistake and covered his mouth with his hands. Jaehyun glanced at Mrs. Park who was thankfully still blindly teaching the class. Once silently coming to the conclusion that the coast was clear, Johnny continued on. "Man that sucks. I'm really sorry about that, Jae. Anyway—" Johnny leaned his body across the desk, grinning and whispering, "are you getting anything she's saying? 'Cause I sure the hell am not."
Jaehyun squinted his eyes, as to portray the question, 'what the hell are you getting at now?' He sighed and said, "Well, yeah. It's not that hard." His gaze turned skeptical. "What do you want?"
Johnny leaned back into his chair properly. "I really hate this class. Do you mind maybe doing homework with me at the coffee shop by the school? I could really use some help," Johnny admitted, brushing his bangs out of his left eye.
A kind smile arose on Jaehyun's lips, dimples sinking into his cheeks. "Alright. What time?"
Johnny grew more lax after Jaehyun's answer, and spoke, "five o'clock today." He grinned back. "Thanks, Jae."
5:05 PM.
Jaehyun glanced down at his phone, whine catching in his throat once reading the time. He was already late, and he hadn't even made it to the street the coffee house was on. Hopefully Johnny wouldn't care that much if he was a few minutes ahead.
He gripped the black leather steering wheel of the car, taking a sharp turn to the left as he was driving quickly. He gazed out the windows, the cold sky mocking him as it rained small flurries of snow. It sucked, because it wasn't even pretty outside as it was snowing. There was only gray sludge on the sidewalk and roads, and the snow falling from the sky was too little to bring about any shimmering white coated yards like Jaehyun remembered when he was young.
He finally made it to the coffee shop and instantly parked into the closest spot to the entrance. Jaehyun hopped out of his car after grabbing his textbook, and once he'd adjusted his coat, he made his way to the shop, listening to the faint crunch of his boots through the nasty sludge.
But when he got there, his heart dropped to his stomach.
Yuta and Lucas stood at the entrance, and they both gazed at Jaehyun the closer he came to them. Jaehyun was able to make out the smirk on Yuta's lips through the white snowflakes with each and every step he took, yet he made sure to keep his face barren of any reaction — even if he was sort of uneasy on the inside.
Something wasn't right.
Once Jaehyun was two meters away, Yuta called out, "hey, it's my favorite nerd! You here to help with homework?" His bright, white teeth contrasted with the gloomy weather so greatly that it made Jaehyun's stomach flip.
Jaehyun stuffed his clammy hands in his pockets, a fake smile painting his face. "Uh, yeah. I'm meeting with Johnny," he responded meekly, a waft of cold air biting at his exposed skin.
Yuta nodded, grabbing a vaporizer pen out of his pocket and taking a hit of it. Jaehyun watched as the smoke clouded up in front of them and eventually disintegrated with the wind. "Care that we join?" Yuta finally asked after a long pause.
"No! No that's — that's fine," Jaehyun reassured, blatantly flustered. Yuta grinned and pocketed the vape pen, then both him and Lucas followed Jaehyun into the glass doors.
The strong smell of coffee swiftly hit Jaehyun's senses, as well as the warmth of the indoors. Jaehyun sighed contently, eyes scanning the area for a large boy with a dorky smile. He quickly found Johnny — he was hard to miss, really. The latter was sat at a large round table in the corner, history textbooks already lied out and cups of hot coffee already served.
Jaehyun noted the boy sat next to Johnny, recognizing him as the new Thai kid; the one Johnny joined theatre with. For some reason he already disliked the boy, who he hadn't even met until now, mind you. Jaehyun sauntered over to the table with Yuta and Lucas quick on his toes.
"Hey," he spoke, words arising more cold than he'd intended. "I'm sorry I'm late. Traffic in this weather is shit," Jaehyun apologized, smiling lightly as he slipped into a chair besides Johnny and across from the Thai kid. Johnny's eyebrows raised once noticing Yuta and Lucas, who also took a seat.
"That's fine. I had Ten to keep me company," Johnny answered, ushering over to the petite boy next to him. Ten smiled charmingly, the gesture embracing his already handsome face. He had large brown eyes, silky dark brown hair that rested on top of his eyebrows, and a small button like nose that was the clear intender that he wasn't of Korean background. He wasn't short of perfect; it made Jaehyun's chest boil.
"Ten, this is Jaehyun," Johnny introduced Jaehyun, and he gave an awkward wave to the boy. Johnny then turned to Lucas and Yuta. "That's Lucas. You can tell, because his body is as obnoxious as his personality." Lucas laughed, the signature hyena noise bouncing off the walls and causing people to stare. "And that's Yuta," he pointed to the boy, who beamed at Ten.
"Nice to meet you, Jaehyun," Ten chimed sweetly, grinning ear to ear. He didn't even take a single glance at Yuta or Lucas, who lingered to hear Ten's response to their introductions.
Jaehyun nodded, embarrassed somehow as he answered, "you too."
Ten tapped his fingers on the shiny wood of the table. "Let's study then?"
Johnny's jaw dropped; the boy completely and blatantly ignored Yuta and Lucas. Jaehyun glanced to them, and Yuta looked pissed as hell. Lucas didn't really seem to care. "Oh. Okay," Johnny spoke with an uncomfortable smile.
What was supposed to be 'studying' or 'doing homework' turned into Jaehyun letting everyone else copy down his notes and homework, starring Yuta and Ten's glaring matches in the background, as if it was a game of 'who would look away first?' Other than that, Ten seemed pretty cool, despite his differences with Yuta. He was nice to everyone else, which made Jaehyun question what the boy had so against the basketball player.
"I don't know how to thank you. Maybe I'll get you a coffee tomorrow morning in return," Johnny offered, and Jaehyun shrugged, biting on the straw of his watered down iced coffee. He glanced over at the others, smirking in amusement at Yuta's clear disliking towards Ten.
The boy didn't even try to hide it — the scowl and the hardened glare sat on his face every time he looked at Ten, who acted unbothered. Although it was pretty entertaining to watch the two occasionally bicker, Jaehyun couldn't help but feel bad for Ten. No doubt Yuta was going to turn the whole basketball and soccer team against him if he cares to — which won't be pretty.
"It's fine, but appreciated if you do," Jaehyun answered, a small smile outlined by dimples on his face. He afterwards took the pile of empty plastic cups and dumped them in the nearby trash can. He came back to Ten and Yuta arguing again, a frown now accompanying his dimples instead.
"Okay, really? Well maybe you shouldn't've be been such an ass and just acknowledged everyone," Yuta retorted, his eyebrows crinkled together.
Ten rolled his eyes. "Sorry, I don't want to have anything to do with you and your little 'Mean Girls clique.' You're a jackass Yuta, and don't act like you're all nice now after what you did last week," the Thai male snapped back, his words laced with venom. Yuta parted his lips to respond, but Ten didn't let another word leave his mouth before going on. "And don't act like you're here to hangout either. It's obvious you're only here to use Jaehyun for a good grade."
Jaehyun swallowed harshly as Yuta and Johnny turned to him. The words somehow eased their way into Jaehyun's chest and cut his heart, bringing a desolate sensation of heartache. Yuta quickly looked away, muttering, "bullshit." A few seconds of silence passed before he repeated his words, but much louder, causing Jaehyun to jump slightly. "Bullshit! Jae is my friend and now you're trying to turn him against me like the little piece of shit you are. Go back to Bangkok and make everyone happy instead of fucking miserable. That's all you fucking do Ten, is make everyone feel miserable. Fuck you," Yuta hissed and stood up from his chair, causing a loud squeak to resonate from the wooden floorboards. He turned to Jaehyun, who's ears were burning red. "You aren't believing him right?" Yuta asked swiftly, a wide, mocking and ridicule smile on his face.
Jaehyun shook his head, stuttering, "n-no I—"
Yuta turned back to Johnny and Ten who were still seated, Johnny at a loss for words and Ten with his arms crossed tightly across his chest. "Talk to me again Johnny when you stop being friends with the asshole. Looks like Jaehyun already knows who's the bullshitter," Yuta hissed before leaving with Lucas at his tail, lightly patting Jaehyun's shoulder.
Jaehyun stood there in shock, before clearing his throat and looking to the two other boys left. "Guys I—"
"Don't want to hear it," Ten cut him off, and Jaehyun averted his gaze passively to the floor. "You can be friends with Yuta if you want. It's not like I care. Just know that if so, I honestly want nothing to do with you."
Jaehyun's eyes widened. "But Johnny is friends with him too," he argued, eyebrows furrowing. This was so unfair that his and Yuta's deal now all the sudden had to do with him. Ten didn't answer, his focus now turned to his phone. Dread hung low and heavy in the air as Jaehyun turned to Johnny. "Johnny," he uttered, as to catch the other's attention.
The taller just gazed blankly at him, mumbling, "just go home Jaehyun. I'll—I'll talk to you later."
Jaehyun backed away, feeling as if there was a thousand pounds of weights sitting on his shoulders. "Yeah," he said quietly before quickly throwing the hood of his coat up and exiting the coffee shop without another word.
-
Jaehyun stared out his foggy and icy bedroom window, watching as snow floated gracefully and gently from the sky before accumulating in the grass of his lawn. He bit the insides of his cheeks, glancing back down to the open pages of his sketch pad, his mind as clouded up as the sky outside his warm home. He ran his fingers through the wet brown strands of his hair in stress, not knowing what to draw for the 'sketch of the week.' It was something for the art club, and was part of his grade.
Jaehyun dreaded doing it, but knew he had to finish it eventually — the problem was every time he sat down to do it he ended up daydreaming for an hour instead. It was even
worse when the topic was, 'draw something that makes you happy,' when Jaehyun was feeling anything but.
He remembered Mr. Moon's words when introducing the topic too — "I don't want to see any drawings of video games or cell phones. Draw something that makes you authentically happy, and will keep you happy for a life time. Like, something that makes your heart warm."
This wouldn't be an issue if the rules weren't so strict. If Mr. Moon hadn't said anything, you bet that Jaehyun would've drawn Genji from Overwatch. He couldn't draw his mom or dad either, because it would be even more hell drawing someone's portrait. He didn't have any pets since his mother is scared of dogs and his stepfather is allergic to cats, so an animal is pretty much eliminated. The topic was pretty mainstream too, so originality was out of the question.
Jaehyun bit on the end of his eraser, already frustrated even though he'd only been sitting here for a few minutes. He grew quickly annoyed and rolled his chair over to his phone, opening up Instagram and entering the DMs of DoyoungKim1.
8:14 PM
Hey
I need help
Jaehyun didn't need to wait long before Doyoung answered.
DoyoungKim1
8:16 PM
Ok what's up
8:16 PM
this stupid sketch of the week thing. I don't know what to draw and it's driving me crazy
DoyoungKim1
8:17 PM
it's not that hard. Think about what makes you excited
Jaehyun's eyes rolled to the back to his head, but he did what Doyoung told him to do. He doesn't really get excited. He thought about his family first, but they weren't very exciting. Yeah, they made him happy, but how would he represent that in a drawing? The more and more Jaehyun thought about it the more it made his head hurt.
8:20 PM
I got nothing
DoyoungKim1
8:21 PM
well that's depressing
8:21 PM
No! I mean I can't think right now
DoyoungKim1
8:22 PM
Ok... what are you lacking right now, and it'd make you happy to have it?
8:24 PM
what
DoyoungKim1
8:24 PM
Friendship
8:25 PM
Shut the fuck up
DoyoungKim1
8:25 PM
Is that not a good topic? Don't friends make you happy?
8:26 PM
it was the way you brought it up that bothered me
DoyoungKim1
8:27 PM
Well I gave you an idea. Think about it