Chapter 6

Taemin sits his way through Calculus, but sadly, he was separated from Key and had to sit next to Mr. I Stare A Lot.  

"H-hey..... can you stop staring at me?" The brown eyed male drops his stare and blushes and mutters a small "sorry.." Taemin notices that when the latter drops his head to hide his embaressment, that he had his hair in a small ponytail. Cute. Taemin smiles and small smile and says shyly, "its okay.." The long hair latter looks up and stutters, "I-it's just that, its amazing how you got here. You did something that is totally impossible.  You should be proud.” Taemin smiles, shocked at what the latter said. “Thank you.” The soccer player smiles but it then vanishes as he looks closer at Taemin. His hands reach for his face and his fingers gently graze over Taemin’s lips, sending him a slight shiver. “You should get that looked at. It doesn’t look so good.” Taemin nods and before he could ask what his name is the bell rings. The tall brunette then gets up and grabs his things quickly and leaves. Taemin stares at him until he got out the door, debating whether or not to catch up with him. But suddenly he is grabbed, making Taemin jump in surprise but thankful it’s his friend Key.

“Hey, you ready for lunch?” Taemin smiles and nods and follows to Key back over to the dorm area and over to the eatery part of it. “So, just letting you know, we only have one more class after this and then we’re free for the rest of the day. But you’re going to have to find you way back the dorms without me because we have different classes and I have to retake a test.” Taemin nods, a little nervous about getting lost, but since it would be after class, he would have a lot more time to find his way back.

They make their way in line and Taemin looks at the prices and his eyes almost pop out of his head. The cheapest item on there was around $20 and that was for a sandwich. “What’s wrong with this school?!,” Taemin thinks to himself. Key notices Taemin’s exasperation and grabs an extra bowl of pasta. “I’ll pay.” Taemin looks at Key and shakes his head and says, “You don’t have too. I hate charity.” Key sticks his tongue out playfully and walks up to the register and pays. “Well, you can’t hate me Taeminnie because I’m your umma. Now eat.”

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Key makes his way over to his art class, with his sketch book in his hands. He walks inside the classroom and makes his way over to his seat and groans as he sees Jonghyun sitting in his seat. “Pabo, get off my seat.” Jonghyun pouts cutely and scoots halfway off the stool and pats the other half. “You can share the seat with me sweetheart.” Key rolls his eyes and sets his sketchbook down and sits on the seat with Jonghyun. “Idiot, I can barely sit!” “You can sit on my lap”, Jonghyun offers. Key then shoves Jonghyun off his seat and says curtly, “No thank you.” Jonghyun smiles as Key continues to ignore him and hovers over Key, whose looking at the art project they’re going to be turning in today. “You know, maybe you won’t think I’m a pabo if you actually talked to be Bummie.” Key continues to ignore him and before Jonghyun could say anything, the teacher yells at him to get in his seat. Jonghyun sighs and walks his way across the room, know that he’ll be completely bored until the end of class. He smiles his mischevious smile, knowing the plan he devised with his buddies will soon take action.

Taemin sighs as he walks out of his last class of the day. Maybe taking on so many honors class wasn’t the best idea. He now has an English essay, Calculus worksheet and a Physics project all due at the end of the week and he still has another set of classes coming up the following day. So now here he is, holding his books and papers, wandering the hallways trying to find the dorm. He can see the building in the distance so hopefully this means he’s close. Taemin continues walking and then suddenly stops as he sees someone he was really hoping not to meet again. There in front of him is the half blonde that caused him trouble in the morning. “Hey there! You lost? Maybe I can show you the way again.” Taemin shakes his head and backs away from the man that was approaching him. He turns around, hoping to escape but notices that some of the half blonde’s friends were on his other side. Taemin whimpers as he realizes that he’s cornered and that he has nowhere else to go. “Don’t worry kid! We’ll help you!”, they jeer. Taemin notices that one of the guys has a bag filled with, what Taemin could make out as egg cartons. The guy pulls out a carton and opens it and everyone takes out an egg. And before Taemin could say anything, they were being thrown at him. The slimy feel of them and the rough impact of the egg themselves makes Taemin crawl into a field position and cover his face with his arms. The rain of the eggs being thrown at him doesn’t stop and with the laughter and the continuous jeering of the bullies make Taemin’s eyes blur with tears. He sits there, covering his face for another 10 minutes until they ran out of eggs. But it didn’t stop there. They throw the cartons themselves as well. “Scholarship student. Please! Scholarship student my ass! You probably cheated!” And with that they run off, leaving Taemin shaking in a corner of the hallway, all alone, Or was he?

Taemin hears footsteps and he tenses, in fear of another bullying session but when the person reaches him, the hands at grab his shoulders are gentle, not rough. Taemin looks up to see the boy that sits next to him in Calculus, in track suit and all. An angel, helping him when he needed it. The expression on the soccer player’s face is purely of concern as his stares bores into Taemin’s. “Are you okay?” Taemin snaps himself out of his trance and nods slowly. The boy nods and then, with surprising strength, helps Taemin up. He then helps him walk down the hallway and says, “C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up.”

“You should avoid Jonghyun. He’ll cause a lot of trouble for you.” The soccer player then takes another paper towel and tries to wipe of some egg yolk off of Taemin’s cheek. Taemin just sits on the sink, trying to pull out some egg shell from his blonde hair. The tall brunette had taken him to the closest bathroom and is now trying to help him clean up, mainly concerned to see if the egg throwing has left any bruises or marks on him. But the thing that’s worrying Taemin the most is his uniform. Taemin, whose parents barely have any money for him, were able to pinching enough money form heir account to buy him one uniform. Taemin has to wash it every day and now, he’s fretting if the egg will even come off. “Hey, sorry kid, but your uniform is a lost cause,” the soccer player says when Taemin confined his feeling with him. Taemin throws his head back onto the mirror behind him and groans. “This is my only one! And now look! I’m such a mess! I can’t go into public like this!” The soccer player bites his bottom lip as he watches the blonde mope over his uniform. He then walks over to his backpack, which he dumped over by the door, and opens it up. He pulls out a new uniform, neatly folding and plops it onto Taemin’s lap. “Here, you can have it. I’ll just buy a new set later.” Taemin looks down at the uniform and up at the soccer player wide eyed. The soccer player just smiles and says, “Well? Get dressed!” Taemin nods and takes the clothes and walks into one of the stalls and gets dressed quickly, not wanting the soccer player to leave without him. The clothes were a little big, but it’s better then nothing. Taemin exits the stall, happy to find the latter still there waiting for him. He grins at Taemin and says playfully, “Hey! It’s a perfect fit!” Taemin blushes and thanks him gratefully as he grabs his bag and stuffs his old dirty uniform in it. They depart from the bathroom together and the soccer player decides to help Taemin make his way back to the dorm. They chat about their classes and the soccer player warns him about certain teachers and what you can and can’t get away with. They finally reach Taemin’s dorm room and the soccer player then says goodbye to him, saying he has to go to his own room to get ready for a game today. They wave goodbye and Taemin was about to go into his room, but then turns around to see the soccer player getting the room across from him. “Wait! I never caught your name!” The soccer player then turns to him and smiles but says nothing. he then closes the door, revealing the nameplates plastered onto it.

Kim Jonghyun- Senior

Choi Minho- Junior

Choi Minho. Taemin stares at golden words a little longer and then closes the door. He sighs and walks into the room to see Key, biting his nails and sitting on the edge of his bed. He immediately looks up as Taemin walks into the room and gasps at the sight of Taemin. “W-why do you have eggshells all over you? Are you okay? What happened?!” Taemin sighs and retells his story with Jonghyun and his friends egging him and how nice Minho was to him and how he tried to help him clean up and how he offered his clothes to him. Key growls in anger at the story. “Jonghyun…..” Key then puts on a pair of sneakers and before he leaves the room, he turns back to Taemin. “Hey, go shower and clean yourself up. I’ll be right back. I’m going to go deal with that ass.” And with that, Key shuts the door loudly behind him, leaving Taemin very confused and very worried.