Your POV

“You know why I wasn’t paying attention to you, old hag?” Taemin muttered under his breath while poking at his foolscap pad with every syllable he hissed. I stared wide-eyed at the boy sitting opposite me. Lee Taemin, the cute, supposedly guileless maknae that every one adored, could be vicious at times. But he was still cute all the same. At least, cute enough to make my heart skip a few beats and perform world-class back flips.

“Because your voice,” Taemin said almost inaudibly, “makes me want to retch, you rotten old woman!” Taemin concluded his sentence with a loud ‘thud’. Looking down at his foolscap pad, I noticed that it bore the marks of being punctured repeatedly, and that had an uncanny resemblance to old Mrs. Kim’s pock-marked face. Teehee! 

After the fiasco at the cafeteria, Taemin and I continued with our reflections in silence at the nearby study area. It was awkward talking to him after hearing all the mean things Suji said earlier on. I looked up at Taemin from time to time to check on his progress, and saw him scrawling rather illegibly on the paper while his eyes were trained on his mobile phone sitting comfortably in the middle of the common space we shared. He seemed to be expecting a very important call. When the call in context came, Taemin’s face lit up immediately and he turned around to pick it up.

“Yes baby I’m having a really hard time now! And you aren’t here with me to make me feel better! How should I punish you the next time I see you, hmm?”

Was it just me, or did I hear Taemin say ‘baby’ just now? Baby? No way, SM wouldn’t have approved of it! Or perhaps he was talking to a really close friend…?

“I missed you, that’s why! Every night before I sleep I see your smiling face in my head, and every time I’m convinced that you’re right there beside me, I snap back into reality and feel the immense disappointment crashing downwards on me.” Taemin’s voice shook as he spoke into the phone. I felt a lump form in my throat as Taemin continued with his conversation with ‘baby’.  Well, that didn’t sound like a conversation you’d have with a friend, did it?  I evaded Taemin’s gaze and looked intently at my reflection. I wasn’t sure if I’d written a thousand words to appease evil Kim, but whatever, my essay sure looked its part. I gathered my belongings and moved away from the table, towards the teachers’ lounge to submit my reflection.

My insides thrashed with anger as I recalled everything that had happened in the short span of two hours..

“You don’t have to sit with her,” Suji’s voice ricocheted off the walls of my head. She had not forgotten to place extra emphasis on the word ‘her’. Now I must look really bad in her eyes for her to verbally fire at me like that.

“You’re not here to make me feel better!” Taemin’s light voice joined in the mental war in my mind. Why did you need to feel better, Lee Taemin? Did sitting with a weird foreigner like me make you feel that bad? I balled my fists at the last thought and stopped mid-stride. My legs began to lose feeling again, as they had during the 45 minute lunch break when I saw Mdm. Lee approaching me. However, this time I held onto the banister for support seeing as there was not J