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   The class scattered to their individual destinations, leaving the classroom echoing with chatting and the sounds of zippers and papers sliding into binders. Other than the five students destined to be doing something much different than the regular curriculum, the room was silent in a matter of minutes, and there was an empty, somewhat scary aura. Jonghyun didn’t know about the other students, but Kibum was obviously bursting through his own skin with anticipation. He was putting his few things in his bag and then standing up and stretching, finally grabbing Jonghyun by the hand and dragging him towards the front of the lecture hall.

“Jjong, do you know any of these people?” Kibum asked somewhat quietly, while they walked towards the front to the teacher and the other selected students. Jonghyun took a breath, a bit lost and tired, but nonetheless excited deep down.

“Yeah, one of them. I don’t know if you saw him today but he works with me and he walked out at the same time as you came in at the cafe today. His name’s Minho.”

“Oh the soccer player right? He’s popular. Also very hot.” Kibum said bluntly, looking straight ahead and shameless as ever.

“Yeah that’s him… All smiles and muscles…” the brunette looked at the ground in some kind of frustration before being stopped in his tracks by Kibum, who grabbed both his arms and looked at him in the face just before the front of the room.

“Jonghyun. Don’t leave me for him, after all we’ve been through,” he bit back a smile, “He may have nice arm muscles but the kids, our careers…” Kibum crinkled his nose then burst out cackling, leaving the brunette even more lost and now a little bit flustered out of confusion. After the both of them being choked by silence, Kibum sighed and went on, still a small smile on his face as he dragged a half-living Jonghyun to the front of the room.

    The pretty one, Taemin, was sitting on a desk, dangling his legs and seemingly observing and waiting for something to happen. He looked at Jonghyun and then to Kibum, examining every single detail and taking in every aspect of them. Jonghyun decided that this was most likely the reason for Taemin’s high assessment score, his automatic response to analyze everything. He was only around five foot six, and had a lovable and cute face, making him dangerous. Cute faces can get whatever they want whenever they want, Jonghyun thought, squinting his eyes a bit. Next to Taemin, two desks away, sitting on the chair instead of on the desk was Minho, Jonghyun’s coworker and constant subject of staring. He was bent over onto the desk, which was actually amusing to the brunette because of the size of the desk being quite a bit smaller than Minho’s body. Jonghyun wondered if he ever got stuck in such a tiny desk, and held back a cheeky grin.
    Finally, over by the teacher’s desk was Jinki, sitting on a stray chair with no emotion on his face whatsoever. He hadn’t spoken to anyone yet, but it was easy to see he was thinking about something. Perhaps many things, and perhaps thinking of what he was going to say, but either way something about him seriously made Jonghyun shiver. He wasn’t very big, only a little taller than Jonghyun himself, but a bit thicker with chubbier cheeks. He didn’t look intimidating at all, which was the odd part. He was androgynous, but not in a gender sense, in a sense that his face could portray differing things, it could be comforting and it could be terrifying and the blurred line between those things was gigantic and very blurred. He sat patiently on the chair in his huge sweatshirt until the teacher handed him a maroon folder with the words “Case One” at the top. The teacher then grabbed her things and stood up.

“I think you know how to read, so there’s not much else here that I need to do. Read over the file, it has your case and information on what to do and where to start. I recommend you get to know each other, because being on anyone’s bad side will take a huge toll on how successful you are. I’ll check in with you in about two weeks.”

Just like that, she was walking out of the doors and leaving five confused college kids to themselves with a murder case in their hands and a lack of familiarity with one another. There was a brief silence as she walked out the doors and the five looked around at one another, then a soft voice speaking up over this silence, breaking it comfortably.

“I think we need to introduce ourselves,” Jinki spoke in a calm, unfaltering voice, “My name’s Jinki, I’m twenty three, and I’m a tech major, minoring in voice performance and I work as an IT intern–” He paused and smiled a surprisingly cheery and lighthearted smile, “sorry, this really sounds like how I used to introduce myself at AA meetings…” Jonghyun decided he liked Lee Jinki, and that he was much less creepy than he had expected. Before Jonghyun could comment on the fact that he was also a voice major, someone else started talking over his thoughts.

“I’m Minho, I’m twenty one, but turning twenty two soon, I’m on the soccer team, and I’m majoring in movie acting. I work with Jonghyun over there at the coffee shop on fifth street.” He finished, smiling his signature cure-all-illnesses smile. Jonghyun was surprised to hear that his major wasn’t something to do with sports or fitness at all–his internal stereotyping wasn’t doing him so well, and he cursed himself for doing it. Jonghyun decided to go next and offer up what he could about himself.

“My name is Jonghyun and I’m twenty two. I’m a vocal major and I work with Minho. Honestly I’m really surprised that I’m even in this class let alone in this sub-group, and it’s an honor to be here… I’m still very confused so please bear with me.” Jonghyun heard Minho mumble a “same,” from a few feet away and with that he ended his introduction. Taemin, still kicking his feet began to talk, his hair still swishing a bit with his leg movements.

“I’m Taemin, I just turned twenty one, I’m a dance major, and I’m very glad to be here,” he smiled with a carefree toss of his continuously-swishing hair, “I work in the lobby of the Equity hotel, kinda near the coffee shop they were talking about.” He finished talking, and everyone finished looking at him and listening to him, and there was another silence.

“Kibum, you’re the last one up,” Jonghyun nudged him with his elbow, looking at his face and noting the strangely scared look in his eyes. He really didn’t seem like the type to not like talking about himself, but people are people and people always do the unexpected.

“Yeah, okay, my name’s Kibum, I’m twenty two… I’m majoring in theatre and design. This class was going to be good for my resume so that’s why I took it, even though it has nothing to do with my majors. I’m glad I made it into this group because that’s even better on a resume, and I feel like this will be a good experience.” Kibum finished, then tried to avoid the eyes that were still on him. Just before Jonghyun could tell him he did good, and that he shouldn’t be worried about talking another voice sounded to cut his thoughts once more.

“Where do you work? We might need that information for meeting up or driving to cases and such,” Jinki questioned, obviously a little bit suspicious as to why Kibum would leave that out when everyone else had mentioned their workplace. Jonghyun wanted to be supportive, but the eldest did have a good point.

“It’s not… Exactly an established place so I don’t think it’ll really be needed,” Kibum mumbled shifting in his seat wanting to change the subject, but not knowing what to change it to.

“Kibum, it’s okay we just need to know for future reference,” Jonghyun added as calmly and patiently as possible. Phrasing those kinds of things so softly were hard, and Jonghyun envied Jinki’s naturally calm tone.

“I don’t really,” Kibum continued before Taemin butted in.

“Are you unemployed?”

“No but I–”

“Do you deal drugs? If no, no judgement, and a good cover-up being in a law class,” Minho cut him off again, and Kibum began to get more visibly distressed. Not only was he uncomfortable, but he didn’t seem to like Minho all that much, despite not talking to him very much. Jinki offered a small smile, looking at him from across the front-of-the-room-space.

“Kibum, I was an alcoholic from age seventeen to twenty two, anything you say won’t be judged harshly because we–” Jinki sent a glare to the rest of the group sitting around the front of the room, giving everyone chills, “need to have a sense of familiarity in order to go on with this program. Alright?” Jinki finished with another crescent eyed, light-bringing smile. Finally, Kibum sighed and looked at the desk in front of him, still avoiding eye contact, but at least speaking.

“I’m a part time, independent hooker. Ya’ happy? Now can we change the topic and stop staring at me?” Kibum seethed, and Jonghyun noticed his fist clenching and unclenching. Out of complete instinct and no thought at all, the brunette put his hand over Kibum’s under the desk in an attempt to calm him down at least a little.

“So like… A gay hooker without a pimp?” Minho added, as a genuine question, only after saying it realizing that he shouldn’t have.

“Yes, straight boy, that’s right. Not everyone has a rich family and a natural gift for competition and athletics,” Kibum spoke through his teeth, glaring wide-eyed at Minho, “Now if you have any more questions, shove them back down your throat, or I will personally take them and shove them up your . Is that clear?”

“Kibum calm down it’s okay, no one’s saying anything negative,” Jonghyun said quietly, holding onto his hand. To Jonghyun’s surprise he did stop talking and start breathing deeper to even himself out.

“Sorry,” Kibum rested his head on his free hand, his elbow on the desk in front of him, “that’s just like… A defense mechanism.” He spoke in a near murmur, looking over to Jonghyun, and then back to Jinki.

“No need to be sorry, I actually found that quite amusing. Stick it to the straight boy.” Taemin added with a coy smile, still kicking his legs as if this was a form of entertainment. Kibum, to Jonghyun’s surprise yet again smiled at this comment and commented back with a simple, “I like you, Taemin.”

“Alright, so Taemin, Minho and Jonghyun, and I all have solid meeting places already, but due to Jonghyun and Minho conveniently working at the same place, that will be our meeting place for now.” Jinki stated, intending to continue until Jonghyun spoke up.

“We actually work the same shift too, it ends at five.”

“That’s great. That’ll probably come to use later but… Most likely we’re going to have to start earlier than that for most interviews and court cases and…” Jinki trailed off, beginning to read inside of the case folder.
    Kibum was more quiet and less rambunctious than he usually was, and this caught Jonghyun’s eye immediately. Minho and Taemin talked amongst themselves and Jinki read over the case file, leaving Jonghyun to ask if he was really okay. Jonghyun stumbled over the words that he could have said in his head before finally “What’s up?” was the only thing that came out of his mouth. His hand was still over Kibum’s, and at this point he barely noticed anymore.

“Nothing, I’m just,” Kibum paused, grabbing in the dark for a response, before sighing and answering truthfully, “I’ve slept like five total hours in the past two days, my hips ing hurt because people are damn inconsiderate and do not respect the merchandise, and I have three outfits to finish before next week. I’m a little bit out of it, and that’s part of the reason I got so pissed off. Like, can you imagine that?” Kibum stopped for emphasis, and Jonghyun held out a hand as if telling him to slow down or stop talking, “No, no, no, seriously. At least two sessions of vigorous, very very tiring a night, then like MAYBE you have a few hours to sleep until you need to wake up and go to school and stay awake to pass your classes, then you go home and maybe eat a meal, and have to work on outfits and recite lines until around midnight then the cycle starts again.” Jonghyun looked at him with wide eyes, and continued to get him to talk a little quieter, “Of course that cycle is altered depending on how much money I need at the time for costumes or textbooks or a check up at the doctor’s or basic food or heating or electric or rent or clothes or some more god damn condoms, I don’t even ing know I’m just so damn TIRED Jonghyun–”

    Kibum looked at Jonghyun and Jonghyun looked at Kibum and everyone looked at Kibum. The blonde looked around slowly, noticing that everyone was tuned into his conversation at this point and that he really should have listened to Jonghyun’s queues.

“Respect.” Taemin mumbled.

“What are you looking at you vultures, go back to what you were doing.” Kibum said, then laid face down on the table, vowing to himself to from now on pay attention to Jonghyun, and maybe shut up for the rest of his life. Everyone did go back to what they were doing, and Kibum continued to lay face-down on the desk. There was some background chatter between the others, but other than that the room was quiet and empty. It was cold and everyone seemed to be bundled up to try to fight that. Kibum’s blonde hair was sprawled out over his arms, which were crossed on the desk. Jonghyun had a feeling he was still awake, despite how tired he said he was, and how still he was sitting. It was a sort of insomniac’s sixth sense, knowing when someone was truly asleep or just wanting to sleep. He didn’t blame Kibum at all; he really just wanted Kibum to sleep and to not care about money or his family for a while. Even though they were still pretty new to one another, the elder still wanted him to be okay at the very least. To be stable, more accurately.
    He never really thought it as a singular thought until now, but Kibum really was beautiful. He had thought this in other ways of course, in admiring aspects of him, and complimenting little things like his coordination and his gift for noticing the aesthetics of things. Maybe that was the reason he got so far in this class, his eye for detail. People would argue that the arts have nothing to do with things involving judges and lawyers, but all Jonghyun had to do was look around to the people sitting with him to prove that wrong. Kibum was just the same, he was an artist, and he knew how to pick through the smallest pieces of things in order to come up with something fantastic. It wasn’t just the way Kibum could smile over everything that was happening in his life, or how physically attractive the blonde was that made Jonghyun want to fall over and hide under a table in fear of saying the wrong thing to him– it was the independence and sheer willpower he had to do things and get by. When Kibum had asked him to imagine what it was like to live his life he really couldn’t imagine living like he did for more than a few days. Maybe even just one day. It was amazing, and it was just Kibum’s norm. Jonghyun felt a little childish thinking this deeply into it, so he talked simply to make up for it.

“Hey, Kibum, you wanna come back to my place after this, order takeout and hang out or something? Tomorrow’s saturday anyways, you could sleep over if you want. You really...really seem like you need to relax.”

Kibum lifted his head as if it was the heaviest thing in the world, then asked, “Do you have any vodka, if so I’m in,” before setting his head back down and letting out a long breath.

“I don’t think drinking will help you much, but I do, yeah.” Jonghyun laughed a little, then patted Kibum’s back.

Jinki looked up and around at the other students, Minho still chatting about something with Taemin, Kibum possibly passed out on a desk, and Jonghyun confused as ever. He closed the file and closed his eyes.

“We’ll go over the case tomorrow. I know she said today, but she’s barely even our teacher anymore so it doesn’t really matter. I’m more like your teacher now… So, the fifth street cafe at five, okay?”

The four nodded and gave various “okay’s” and “yes’s.”

“Come on Kibum, let’s go,” Jonghyun poked at Kibum until he made a tired moan, started to stretch, and then moved, “do you like Disney? I only have Disney, so I hope you’re okay with that.”






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a/n

HELLO ITS ME and i am very tired 
look at that i wrote another 3000 words of whatever THIS IS and idk how great it is btu here we are 
so we're onto a case now! like a legit case! what the hecjk is gonna happen???? i sure dont know! 
yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh anyways the other characters will develop more i swear but for now i just kinda introduced them and blah
thanks 4 reading this and feel free to cOMMENT WHATEVER YOU WANT PLEASE COMMENT and subscribe and all that
thank you so much! 

-ki